Interventions to Regulate Confusion during Learning

Confusion provides opportunities to learn at deeper levels. However, learners must put forth the necessary effort to resolve their confusion to convert this opportunity into actual learning gains. Learning occurs when learners engage in cognitive activities beneficial to learning (e.g., reflection, deliberation, problem solving) during the process of confusion resolution. Unfortunately, learners are not always able to resolve their confusion on their own. The inability to resolve confusion can be due to a lack of knowledge, motivation, or skills. The present dissertation explored methods to aid confusion resolution and ultimately promote learning through a multi-pronged approach. First, a survey revealed that learners prefer more information and feedback when confused and that they preferred different interventions for confusion compared to boredom and frustration. Second, expert human tutors were found to most frequently handle learner confusion by providing direct instruction and responded differently to learner confusion compared to anxiety, frustration, and happiness. Finally, two experiments were conducted to test the effectiveness of pedagogical and motivational confusion regulation interventions. Both types of interventions were investigated within a learning environment that experimentally induced confusion via the presentation of contradictory information by two animated agents (tutor and peer student agents). Results showed across both studies that learner effort during the confusion regulation task impacted confusion resolution and that learning occurred when the intervention provided the opportunity for learners to stop, think, and deliberate about the concept being discussed. Implications for building more effective affect-sensitive learning environments are discussed

Sovereign debt crisis and the use of the community method in the making of EU responses (2010-2011) : the six-pack case on economic governance reform

Doutoramento em Estudos de DesenvolvimentoIn early 2010, the weak design of the Economic and Monetary Union and the tools for economic governance provided by the Treaty of Lisbon proved to be inadequate for preventing or resolving the European sovereign debt crisis. Up to December2011, the EU response comprised legislative files aiming to reform economic governance and the establishment of financial supervision and stabilization mechanisms. Drawing on new institutionalism theories, namely rational choice and historical institutionalism, this research’s main objective is to investigate the use of the Community method in the responses to the EUcrisis. Some of the responses, found within the EU framework, suchasthe ‘SixaPack’adopted in 2011 to streng then the Union´s economic governance, saw the Commission´s role as formal agenda setter- the key feature of the Community method-being challenged by the set up of a Task Force presided by the President of the European Council Van Rompuy. Other responses, found through intergovernmental agreements, are perceived to ascribe a much more central role to supranational institutions like the European Commission and the European Court of Justice, strengthening this way the Community method. The focus on a qualitative case study of economic governance reform highlights the role of the European Parliament in the ‘SixaPack’ legislative process and builds on a novel conceptualization of the Principal-Agent model. Theanalysis covers not only the ‘SixaPack’ agenda setting phase, but also the formal and informal policy-making stage, where most of the decisions were found in the so called ‘trialogues’.No início de 2010, tanto a fragilidade do desenho da União Económica e Monetária como os instrumentos de governação económica previstos no Tratado de Lisboa, mostraram não ser aptos em prevenir ou resolver a crise Europeia da dívida soberana. Até Dezembro 2011, a resposta Europeia compreendeu um conjunto de dossiers legislativos com vista a reformar a governação económica e o estabelecimento de mecanismos de supervisão financeira e de estabilização.Tendoporbaseasteoriasdo novo institucionalismo, nomeadamente o institucionalismo da escolha racional e o institucionalismo histórico, o principal objectivo desta investigação é analisar o método Comunitário nas respostas à crise da União Europeia. Em algumas dessas respostas, dentro do enquadramento legal Europeu, tal como o ‘SixaPack’ adotado em 2011 para fortalecer a governação económica, a Comissão Europeia viu o seu poder formal de iniciar legislação a principal característica do método Comunitário a ser confrontado com a constituição de um grupo de trabalho presidido pelo Presidente do Conselho Europeu Van Rompuy. Outras respostas, no âmbito de acordos intergovernamentais, terão atribuído um papel central às instituições Europeias como a Comissão e o Tribunal Europeu de Justiça, o que se traduziu num fortalecimento do método Comunitário. A escolha de um caso de estudo qualitativo sobre a reforma da governação económica, pretende sublinhar o papel desempenhado pelo Parlamento Europeu no processo legislativo do ‘SixaPack’. Para o efeito, foi desenvolvida uma nova conceptualização teórica do modelo do Principal-Agente. A análise cobre não somente a fase da iniciação legislativa do ‘SixaPack’, mas também Os processos formais e informais de tomada de decisão, nos chamados ‘trílogos’

The Implementation of Cooperative Problem-Solving Rubric Towards Turkish Fourth Grade Students

This study aimed to develop an analytical rubric for teachers to observe and evaluate students’ performance in showcasing the cooperative problem-solving process. Thus, a rubric was prepared. Angles to evaluate the student performance were included and a quad rank scale was used in the rubric. Dimensions used in the rubric were based on the PISA 2015 cooperative problem-solving dimensions. The weighted kappa coefficient was calculated for reliability. The validity of the rubric was provided by taking into the opinions of experts. The dimensions used were; common understanding, communication, respect, solving problems together, discussion, and finding common solutions. The weighted kappa coefficient of the rubric was 660 on common understanding; 644 on communication; 835 on respect; 829 on solving problems together; 825 on discussion, and 822 on finding common solutions. Additionally, the rubric was validated by controlling the content, structure, and validity criteria. The results showed that the cooperative problem-solving rubric was reliable and valid to evaluate cooperative problem-solving skills. The rubric presented a comprehensive assessment and scoring for cooperative problem-solving skills

The Nature of Problem Solving

Solving non-routine problems is a key competence in a world full of changes, uncertainty and surprise where we strive to achieve so many ambitious goals. But the world is also full of solutions because of the extraordinary competences of humans who search for and find them. We must explore the world around us in a thoughtful way, acquire knowledge about unknown situations efficiently, and apply new and existing knowledge creatively. The Nature of Problem Solving presents the background and the main ideas behind the development of the PISA 2012 assessment of problem solving, as well as results from research collaborations that originated within the group of experts who guided the development of this assessment. It illustrates the past, present and future of problem-solving research and how this research is helping educators prepare students to navigate an increasingly uncertain, volatile and ambiguous world

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Authentic Assessment: Evaluating the Saudi EFL Tertiary Examination System

As early as 1983, Rossi propounded that one of the issues of particular interest and development within the foreign and second language teaching profession is that of proficiency testing or the evaluation of a learner's level of linguistic and communicative competence. This still holds true. On the contrary our pilot study using the Question Paper Evaluating Checklists (included in this paper) indicates that all is not right with the designing of EFL question papers in Saudi Arabia though EFL assessment patterns in the KSA have undergone much change from the time that English was first introduced into the curriculum as a compulsory foreign language. It is the demand of time that evaluation patterns be evaluated on the touchstone of latest research and their relationship with classroom practices be established. This will help the learner-teacher combine to plug the loopholes in language training. In other words, we have to realise as educators that good assessment forms the basis of a wealth of learner information that has direct and indirect ramifications on curriculum and pedagogy. Hence the need to study this aspect of EFL in the light of modern literatures in order come up with constructive recommendations

Evaluating a Translingual Administration of the Early Grades Math Assessment (EGMA) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Translanguaging is a view around languages that normalizes diglossia without separation: the linguistic resources of the bilinguals are considered one integrated system. Translanguaging is also a language practice of bilinguals, who select features from their entire linguistic repertoire to make sense of the world around them. Translanguaging is widely used by students and teachers in the bilingual classroom, as it allows students to build upon their entire set of resources, enhance learning outcomes, perform identities, and develop their languages even further. However, translanguaging is rarely used in assessments of bilinguals. Assessments of bilinguals, especially large-scale tests, are typically monolingual in focus and not appropriate for a large portion of the population, who cannot perform as one or two monolinguals. While psychometricians and test developers have spent large amount of resources in developing and testing linguistic accommodations, their efforts are not entirely solving the problems faced by bilinguals. Translanguaging is a framework that may overcome the limitations of linguistic accommodations. However, there is few research on how to properly implement translanguaging in assessments, particularly, in content assessments. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of implementing a translingual administration of the EGMA assessment in the region of Mbandaka, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Using a mixed-methods design, I looked at the effect of translanguaging on scores and the alignment of the framework with the classroom practices enounced by teachers. The results of this study show that the translingual version of the EGMA had a positive effect on the scores of girls who identified as bilinguals, and improved the reliability estimates of all the tasks. The results also show that the translingual EGMA is more appropriate for the context of Mbandaka, yet there are characteristics that prevent us from considering the test fully appropriate for the region. Further research must shed light on the particular aspects of the translingual administration that explained the improvements observed in this study. Future studies should also clarify potential routes to a better and more effective implementation of translanguaging in content assessments

Characterizing Interactive Communications in Computer-Supported Collaborative Problem-Solving Tasks: A Conditional Transition Profile Approach

Communication in a collaborative problem-solving activity plays a pivotal role in the success of the collaboration in both academia and the workplace. Computer-supported collaboration makes it possible to collect large-scale communication data to investigate the process at a finer granularity. In this paper, we introduce a conditional transition profile (CTP) to characterize aspects of each team member's communication. Based on the data from a large-scale empirical study, we found that participants in the same team tend to show similar CTP compared to participants from different teams. We also found that team members who showed more “negotiation” after the partner “shared” information tended to show more improvement after the collaboration while those who continued sharing ideas while their partners were negotiating tended to improve less

Positive Versus Negative Agents: The Effects of Emotions on Learning

The current study investigates the impact of affect, mood contagion, and linguistic alignment on learning during tutorial conversations between a human student and two artificial pedagogical agents. The study uses an Intelligent Tutoring System known as OperationARIES! to engage students in tutorial conversations with animated agents. In this investigation, 48 college students (N = 48) conversed with pedagogical agents as they displayed 3 different moods (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral) along with a control condition in a within-subjects design. Results indicate that the mood of the agent did not significantly impact student learning even though mood contagion did occur between the artificial agent and the human student. Learning was influenced by the student\u27s self-reported arousal level and the alignment scores that reflected a shared mental representation between the human student and the artificial agents. The results suggest that arousal and linguistic alignment during the tutorial conversations may play a role in learning