The Effect of Varied Gender Groupings on Argumentation Skills among Middle School Students in Different Cultures

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the effect of varied gender groupings on argumentation skills among middle school students in Taiwan and the United States in a project-based learning environment that incorporated a graph-oriented computer-assisted application (GOCAA). A total of 43 students comprised the treatment condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in same-gender groupings. Of these 43 students, 20 were located in the U.S. and 23 were located in Taiwan. A total of 40 students comprised the control condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in mixed-gender groupings. Of these 40 students, 19 were in the U.S. and 21 were in Taiwan. In each country, verbal collaborative argumentation was recorded and the students’ post essays were collected. Among females in Taiwan, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that statistically a significant gender-grouping effect was evident on the total argumentation skills outcome, while MANOVA indicated no significant gender-grouping effect on the combined set of skill outcomes. Among females in the U.S., MANOVA indicated statistically significant gender-grouping effect on the combined set of argumentation skills outcomes Specifically, U.S. female students in mixed-gender groupings (the control condition) significantly outperformed female students in single-gender groupings (the treatment condition) in the counterargument and rebuttal skills. No significant group differences were observed among males. A qualitative analysis was conducted to examine how the graph-oriented computer-assisted application supported students’ development of argumentation skills in different gender groupings in both countries. In each country, all teams in both conditions demonstrated a similar pattern of collaborative argumentation with the exception of three female teams in the U.S. Female teams, male teams, (the treatment condition) and mixed-gender teams (the control condition) demonstrated metacognition regulation skills in different degrees and with different scaffolding

Systemic intervention for computer-supported collaborative learning

This paper presents a systemic intervention approach as a means to overcome the methodological challenges involved in research into computer-supported collaborative learning applied to the promotion of mathematical problem-solving (CSCL-MPS) skills in schools. These challenges include how to develop an integrated analysis of several aspects of the learning process; and how to reflect on learning purposes, the context of application and participants' identities. The focus of systemic intervention is on processes for thinking through whose views and what issues and values should be considered pertinent in an analysis. Systemic intervention also advocates mixing methods from different traditions to address the purposes of multiple stakeholders. Consequently, a design for CSCL-MPS research is presented that includes several methods. This methodological design is used to analyse and reflect upon both a CSCL-MPS project with Colombian schools, and the identities of the participants in that project

Plagiarism Reducing Aspects in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Model

Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a practical answer to futuristic e-Europe educational vision. Unsuccessfully organized collaborative work within teams of students, which ignores individual achievement and individual/ group responsibility balance, can lead to lack of motivation for personal involvement and promote plagiarism. The aim of this research is to theoretically analyze the plagiarism reducing aspects with computer supported collaborative learning.Applied study method - analyses of scientific sources. The main results are connected with the research of possibilities to solve the problem of plagiarism in education with modern cooperation methods

Wikis in higher education

For many years universities communicated generic graduate attributes (e.g. global citizenship) their students have acquired after studying. Graduate attributes are skills and competencies that are relevant for both employability and other aspects of life (Barrie, 2004). Over the past years and due to the Bologna Process, the focus on competencies has also found its way into universities' curricula. As a consequence, curricula were adapted in order to convey students both in-depth knowledge of a particular area as well as generic competences (Bologna Working Group on Qualifications Framework, 2005, Appendix 8). For example, students with a Master's degree should be able to “communicate their conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously” (p. 196). This shift has been supported by the demand of the labour market for students that have achieved social and personal competencies, in addition to in-depth knowledge (Heidenreich, 2011). On course level, this placed emphasis on collaborative learning, which had led to “greater autonomy for the learner, but also to greater emphasis on active learning, with creation, communication and participation” (Downes, 2005). The shift to collaborative learning has been supported by existing learning theories and models (Brown et al., 1989; Lave and Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978), which could explain the educational advantages. For example, collaborative learning has proved to promote critical thinking and communications skills (Johnson and Johnson, 1994; Laal and Ghodsi, 2012). As Haythornthwaite (2006) advocates: “collaborative learning holds the promise of active construction of knowledge, enhanced problem articulation, and benefits exploring and sharing information and knowledge gained from peer-to-peer communication” (p. 10). The term collaboration defies clear definition (Dillenbourg, 1999). In this article, cooperation is seen as the division of labour in tasks, which allows group members to work independently, whereas collaboration needs continuous synchronisation and coordination of labour (Dillenbourg et al., 1996; Haythornthwaite, 2006). Therefore, cooperation allows students to subdivide task assignments, work relatively independent, and to piece the results together to one final product. In contrast, collaboration is seen as a synchronous and coordinated effort of all students to accomplish their task assignment resulting in a final product where “no single hand is visible” (Haythornthwaite, 2006, p. 12). Due to the debate about digital natives (Prensky, 2001) and “students' heavy use of technology” in private life (Luo, 2010, p. 32), teachers have started to explore possible applications of modern technology in teaching and learning. Especially wikis have become popular and gained reasonable attention in higher education. Wikis have been used to support collaborative learning (e.g. Cress and Kimmerle, 2008), collaborative writing (e.g. Naismith et al., 2011), and student engagement (e.g. Neumann and Hood, 2009). A wiki is a “freely expandable collection of interlinked Web ‘pages’, a hypertext system for storing and modifying information - a database, where each page is easily editable by any user” (Leuf and Cunningham, 2001, p. 14; italics in original). Thereby, wikis enable the collaborative construction of knowledge (Alexander, 2006). With the intention to take advantage of the benefits connected with collaborative learning, this doctoral thesis focuses on the facilitation of collaboration in wikis to leverage collaborative learning. The doctoral thesis was founded on a constructivist understanding of reality. The research is associated with three different research areas: adoption of IT, computer-supported collaborative learning, and learning analytics. After reviewing existing literature, three focal points were identified that correspond to the research gaps in these research areas: factors influencing students' use of wikis, assessment of collaborative learning, and monitoring of collaboration. The aims of this doctoral thesis were (1) to investigate students' intentions to adopt and barriers to use wikis in higher education, (2) to develop and evaluate a method for assessing computer-supported collaborative learning, and (3) to map educational objectives onto learning-related data in order to establish indicators for collaboration. Based on the research aims, four studies were carried out. Each study raised unique research questions that has been addressed by different methods. Thereby, this doctoral thesis presents findings covering the complete process of the use of wikis to support collaboration and thus provides a holistic view on the use of wikis in higher education.:Introduction Theoretical foundation Research areas and focal points Research aims and questions Methods Findings Conclusions References Essay 1: Factors influencing wiki collaboration in higher education Essay 2: Students' intentions to use wikis in higher education Essay 3: Facilitating collaboration in wikis Essay 4: Using fsQCA to identify indicators for wiki collaboratio

The Omitted Variable: Could DuoTest Enable a New Way to Assess Team Performance in Team-Based Learning?

This article is part of an ongoing project to develop a method for team-based learning named Testudo. We present an assessment technique called DuoTest, which allows students to do their final exam twice in a row: the first time, participants do their exam individually (Exa01); the second time, they solve the same exam in groups (Exa02). By comparing individual and group exams, the system induces the positive (or negative) effect of each team over the individual performances. Empirical results collected from 70 students show that individual exams are a reliable, although weak, predictor of the group scores (p\u3c0.10, Adj R2= 0.02). Instead, by measuring the fixed effect of each team, we obtain a better predictor of Exa02 (Adj R2= 0.71). Although additional testing is required, our guidelines address a current gap in the literature for techniques that rigorously assess the individual and team dimensions, and that are easy to implement

Collaborative Learning in Software Development Teams

Recently Web 2.0 has emerged as a framework to study collaborative learning. Assessing learning in team projects is onemechanism used to improve teaching methodologies and tool support. Web 2.0 technologies enable automated assessmentcapabilities, leading to both rapid and incremental feedback. Such feedback can catch problems in time for pedagogicadjustment, to better guide students toward reaching learning objectives. Our courseware, SEREBRO, couples a social,tagging enabled, idea network with a range of modular toolkits, such as wikis, feeds and project management tools into aWeb 2.0 environment for collaborating teams. In this paper, we first refine a set of published learning indicators intocommunication patterns that are facilitated in SEREBRO. We apply these indicators to student software development teamdiscussions regarding their collaborative activities. We show how the refined patterns, captured by SEREBRO\u27s Web 2.0modules, are catalysts to the learning process involved in software development

DBCollab: Automated feedback for face-to-face group database design

© 2017 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education. All rights reserved. Developing effective teamwork and collaboration skills is regarded as a key graduate attribute for employability. As a result, higher education institutions are striving to help students foster these skills through authentic learning scenarios. Although face-to-face (f2f) group tasks are common in most classrooms, it is challenging to collect evidence about the group processes. As a result, to date, it is difficult to assess group tasks in ways other than through teachers' direct observations and students' self-reports, or by measuring the quality of their final product. However, there are other critical aspects of group-work that students need to receive feedback on, for example, interaction dynamics or the collaboration processes. This paper explores the potential of using interactive surfaces and sensors to track key indicators of group-work, to provide automated feedback about epistemic and social aspects. We conducted a pilot study in an authentic classroom, in the context of database design. The contributions of this paper are: 1) the operationalisation of the DBCollab tool as a means for supporting group database design and collecting multimodal traces of the activity using interactive surfaces and sensors; and 2) empirical evidence that points at the potential of presenting these traces to group members in order to provoke immediate and post-hoc productive reflection about their activity

Requirements model of collaborative mobile learning (CML)

Mobile technology is one of innovative tools used to facilitate learning. However, the existing studies related to mobile learning (M-learning) have not deeply combined relevant learning approaches for giving a new way that benefits the learning sphere. Accordingly, many researchers believe that there is a need to incorporate pedagogical and instructive models into M-learning technology, especially for supports of team-learning. At the same time, many investigations prove that designers faced challenges in designing systems that involve collaboration with various stationaries. Therefore, researchers suggest for an initiative on more investigations for modern learning in modeling of Mlearning domain. The model should provide rich amount of information through Mlearning for collaborative learning (CL). This comes from understanding, collecting and modeling usable design, holds functionalities and non-functionalities issues to be the corner stone of the intended model. Consequently, this research studies the possibility of modeling an instructional model for Android mobile application combining the CL and M-learning concepts calls Collaborative M-learning (CML) model. Thus, determining the essential requirements by exploring the most important issues in the existing models and related works in the literatures, as well as interviewing learners are the priorities of this study. Content analysis method was used to analyze the gathered data in determining the requirements needed. The model and the prototype have been reviewed and verified by four experts. Also, 43 respondents in the field of Information Technology (IT) have tested the prototype and provided feedback on their acceptance, through Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaire under the usability evaluation. Results show that their acceptance upon the model is high, validating the functionality of the CML. Such findings recommend that the model is able to improve productivity, showing the technique to utilize mobile technology in CL. This study serves as a guidance for designers and developers in M-learning

The omitted variable: could DuoTest enable a new way to assess the link between individual and team performance in team-based learning?

Imagine a class of students being allowed to do their final exam twice in a row: the first time, participants do their exam individually and with closed books (Exa01); the second time, they solve the same exam in groups and with open books (Exa02). If you think that all students will get a better grade in the second exam, you would be surprised by the results. This article is part of an ongoing project to develop a method for team-based learning named Testudo. We present an assessment technique called DuoTest, which uses a mixed model to (a) analyze data from individual and group exams and (b) determine the positive (or negative) effect of each team over the individual performances. Empirical results collected from 70 students show that individual exams are a weak predictor of the group scores, whereas fixed effects associated to each team are a better predictor of Exa02

A Bibliometric Analysis Performance Assessment of Science Education on Science Process Skills

This study aims to determine a comprehensive performance assessment of science education using peer assessment and self-assessment to measure scientific process skills. The method of writing article through a literature review that was published from 2010 to 2022, descriptive qualitative and bibliometric analysis was used by the Perish 8 and VOS Viewer software, from 1000 articles sourced from journals, books, conferences, proceedings, and other literature that have been screened on Google Scholar and Scopus databases by the Publish and Perish 8 software. Found 340 articles sourced from journals and only 127 articles indexed by  Scopus, consisting of  64 articles on Q1, 47 articles on Q2, 12 Articles on Q3 and four articles on Q4 to be used as references for further analysis as a literature review to write this articles. The results of the bibliometric study qualitatively found that a comprehensive assessment of performance on science process skills can be assessed through peer assessment and self-assessment. Further analysis with the VOS Viewer application found a relationship between peer assessment and self-assessment of student science process skills