Effects of online repetition practice on promoting mora awareness: Focusing on vowel length

Japanese learners often have a difficult time in acquiring both accurate perception and production of Japanese special moras. Since errors on Japanese special moras can change the meaning of words, it is important to promote mora awareness in an early stage of the learners\u27 language learning process. However, pronunciation practice including that on special moras is often dismissed in the classroom due to time constraints and other reasons. That is why an online system, available outside the class time, could be beneficial in promoting students\u27 awareness of special moras. This study investigates the effectiveness of online listen-and-repeat practice to promote learners\u27 awareness of special moras, focusing on long vowel production. The effectiveness of online practice is compared to when the practice is done in a classroom setting. In this research, 20 words containing long vowels and five fillers were selected. The subjects were 27 first-year Japanese students and were randomly divided in three groups; 1) Online Audio-Only group, 2) Online Audio-Visual group, and 3) In-Class Choral Repetition group. All three groups received a pretest, listen-and-repeat practice, a posttest, and a delayed posttest.^ While the two training groups were given listen-and-repeat online practice with and without visual cues, the In-Class group received a classroom-style presentation and practice of the same set of words. The visual cue in this research modeled a karaoke system, where each mora in the word appears at the same time as that mora is being pronounced, and this system was designed so that learners will notice that the length of a long vowel is the same as any other mora.^ Results indicated significant improvement on vowel duration accuracy for both groups that received listen-and-repeat practice in an online self-study environment, while participants who practiced in a classroom setting did not. However, although the descriptive statistics showed the greatest improvement for those who received the Audio-Visual treatment, statistical analysis did not show significant difference in the participants\u27 improvement among the treatment types. Therefore, future studies are needed to further investigate the effectiveness of different input modalities that could be used with listen-and-repeat practice

Leveling Up by Gamifying Freshman Engineering Clinic

This Work-In-Progress paper describes the development of a gamification platform for the Freshman Engineering Clinic II course at a North Eastern university and its proposed assessment strategy. Freshman Engineering Clinic II is a course designed to teach engineering students about multidisciplinary project design, with special focus on developing skills associated with teamwork, software application, and ethics. An important part of learning is receiving feedback as part of the learning cycle and studies have shown that increased feedback can be helpful in supporting student reflection and developing the intrinsic motivation necessary for mastering a task. One method of encouraging students to master material is by providing students with immediate feedback through gamification platforms. The gamification platform being employed in this implementation uses interactive learning techniques to provide students with clear cut goals as well as immediate feedback as an indicator of the student’s performance. Gamification transforms the traditional homework layout into an entirely new entity. Students can work to earn badges by completing assignments that interest them within the platform. Students also have the power to learn at their own pace and mechanics such as experience points, badges, leaderboards, and achievements can be used as motivating factors to encourage student completion of activities. In addition, the system acts as a scaffold for the students starting with activities that are easier and become progressively more challenging as their knowledge increases, while allowing them to repeat tasks as necessary to encourage mastery of course material. The effectiveness of this platform will be assessed by a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. Student activity completion, accrual of badges and achievements, and the process through which students select the activities to pursue will all be monitored. Students will also complete the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI) to measure their perception of the classroom environment with the addition of the gamification platform. Qualitative feedback from students will be collected through open ended survey questions to gain a better appreciation for how the gamification platform impacted their course experience

Precipitation Protocols

The purpose of this activity is to determine the amount of moisture input to the local environment by measuring rain and snowfall and to measure the pH of precipitation. To do so students use a rain gauge and a snowboard to measure the daily amount of precipitation. Special pH measuring techniques for precipitation are used to determine the pH of rain and melted snow. Intended outcomes are that students will understand that precipitation is measured in depth and this depth is assumed to apply to a large area, that precipitation has a pH that can vary, and that snow is an input of water to the surface just like rain and each snowfall is equivalent to some amount of rainfall. Supporting background materials for both student and teacher are included. Educational levels: Primary elementary, Intermediate elementary, Middle school, High school

“Stickiness”: Gauging students’ attention to online learning activities

Purpose: Online content developers use the term “stickiness” to refer to the ability of their online service or game to attract and hold the attention of users and create a compelling and magnetic reason for them to return repeatedly (examples include virtual pets and social media). In business circles, the same term connotes the level of consumer loyalty to a particular brand. This paper aims to extend the concept of “stickiness” not only to describe repeat return and commitment to the learning “product”, but also as a measure of the extent to which students are engaged in online learning opportunities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper explores the efficacy of several approaches to the monitoring and measuring of online learning environments, and proposes a framework for assessing the extent to which these environments are compelling, engaging and “sticky”. Findings: In particular, the exploration so far has highlighted the difference between how lecturers have monitored the engagement of students in a face-to-face setting versus the online teaching environment. Practical implications: In the higher education environment where increasingly students are being asked to access learning in the online space, it is vital for teachers to be in a position to monitor and guide students in their engagement with online materials. Originality/value: The mere presence of learning materials online is not sufficient evidence of engagement. This paper offers options for testing specific attention to online materials allowing greater assurance around engagement with relevant and effective online learning activities

Behavior Management Strategies for the Elementary School Setting

Behavior management is a facet of teaching that can be one of the largest causes of frustrations for educators, particularly novice teachers. It has even pushed many teachers to leave the profession. One of the root causes of the struggle is that teachers are not prepared with a repertoire of techniques to help them create the most effective learning environment. This study was conducted to determine effective behavior techniques for elementary teachers and future implications for supporting teachers with behavior management. The study involved ten elementary school teachers. Each teacher was given a survey that gauged their opinion on various behavior strategies and asked them to list their current effective strategies and how to best assist new teachers with behavior management. The surveys were anonymous. This paper will discuss the benefits of a variety of behavior strategies, such as creating a structured, predictable classroom, developing trusting relationships, reinforcing behavior expectations, correcting errors effectively, creating student engagement, and praising positive behavior. Upon completion of the study, it is determined that the best teachers of behavior management use many strategies to keep students engaged and motivated and to create a positive classroom environment where students want to be. This study indicates that behavior management is a critical factor in the success of a classroom and the overall happiness of teachers. Thus, the future of education lies in the importance of teacher education programs, as these programs should be restructured to include behavior management as a key component of teacher training

Employing culturally responsive pedagogy to foster literacy learning in schools

 In recent years it has become increasingly obvious that, to enable students in schools from an increasingly diverse range of cultural backgrounds to acquire literacy to a standard that will support them to achieve academically, it is important to adopt pedagogy that is responsive to, and respectful of, them as culturally situated. What largely has been omitted from the literature, however, is discussion of a relevant model of learning to underpin this approach. For this reason this paper adopts a socio-cultural lens (Vygotsky, 1978) through which to view such pedagogy and refers to a number of seminal texts to justify of its relevance. Use of this lens is seen as having a particular rationale. It forces a focus on the agency of the teacher as a mediator of learning who needs to acknowledge the learner’s cultural situatedness (Kozulin, 2003) if school literacy learning for all students is to be as successful as it might be. It also focuses attention on the predominant value systems and social practices that characterize the school settings in which students’ literacy learning is acquired. The paper discusses implications for policy and practice at whole-school, classroom and individual student levels of culturally-responsive pedagogy that is based on a socio-cultural model of learning. In doing so it draws on illustrations from the work of a number of researchers, including that of the author