What is the Better Social Media for Mathematics Learning? A Case Study at A Rural School in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The penetration of social media in the community has been very high. Nowadays, almost all students at the school are using smartphones for their daily activities. This study is a descriptive quantitative exploratory research to find out how the students' response when learning using social media is implemented as a mobile learning system. Data were taken from four different schools in the rural area of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Mathematics learning using a different social media (WeChat, Line@, Socrative, and Edmodo) was applied to student of grade 7 of each school. Data collection used USE questionnaire which measured whether the implemented learning model using social media could be well received by students and appropriate learning expectations. USE questionnaire has 4 measured factors i.e. usefulness, ease to use, ease of learning, and satisfaction. From the data, it shows that all factors were high. The highest one was satisfaction (3.15) then, usefulness (3.11), ease to learn (3.00), and ease to use (2.94) respectively. On average, the social media got the highest student’s response as a learning system was Socrative (3.18), then Edmodo (3.15), Line@ (3.00) and WeChat (2.89). Further analysis using statistical technique showed that students have good perception to Socrative and Edmodo. This finding implies that the social media especially Socrative and Edmodo are valuable to be used in the leaning using flexible learning strategy

Quality of Online Learning Participation in a Context of Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions to adopt online tools in order to conduct emergency remote teaching and make efficient use of virtual learning contexts. However, although these contexts may serve to improve teaching processes, a number of issues must be taken into consideration in order to ensure quality student learning. We analyze a computer programming module taught during the first year of a Computer Science degree course at a Chilean university. The module is taught online using a Learning Management System (LMS). We discuss the type of participation required in order to achieve the construction of more complex knowledge in virtual contexts, including the need for students to formulate and post longer messages. We also emphasize the need for these messages to be simple and precise. Furthermore, we observe a relationship between the final grades obtained by students and the levels of information and quality of the messages that they post. Our results reveal that students with a positive perception of their own learning are not necessarily those who contribute to the highest level. Finally, we discuss the need for particular attention to be paid to the guidelines that define activities, as these have a considerable influence on the generation of dialogue that is conducive to the construction of new knowledge

Interaction Geography & the Learning Sciences

The three papers in this dissertation contribute to research that seeks to characterize the complex and multi-dimensional relation between the physical environment and human learning. The first paper outlines a new approach to describe, represent, and interpret people’s interaction as they move within and across physical environments. I call this approach interaction geography. It encompasses Mondrian Transcription, a method to map people’s movement and conversation over space and time, and the Interaction Geography Slicer (IGS), a dynamic visualization tool that supports new forms of interaction and multi-modal analysis. The second paper extends this work to provide a conceptual framework to expand interaction geography in studies of learning. I show how interaction geography offers resources to integrate four historically separate research perspectives in order to study how people’s interaction, movement, and responses to, and actions on, the physical environment lead people to learn. The third paper adapts and uses the IGS to visualize and discuss data about New York City’s Stop-And-Frisk Program. I show how the IGS provides new ways to view, interact with, and query large-scale data sets of stop-and-frisk and crime data over space and through time to support analyses of and public discussion about a controversial social and political issue

Incorporating Scripts with Cooperative Learning to Promote Critical Thinking Skills in Secondary Science

A drastic growth of scientific and technological advancements in the 21st century have allowed for new jobs with innovative processes that require individuals who possess the ability to think deductively, reason through problems, and obtain information that can support the potential solutions to these problems. Many of the technological advancements have reduced the necessity to only memorize rote facts; rather, much of this information can be found through a quick internet search. What is needed, therefore, is education which requires students to think deeper than before – to examine new information through a more critical lens. The purpose of this research study is to investigate how the introduction of collaborative scripts into the cooperative learning of students in a secondary science classroom impacts critical thinking skills. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control-group design was implemented. The sample was drawn from eight sections of ninth grade science at a secondary public school in a northeastern state. Students engaged in project-based learning with cooperation with peers on an inquiry-based science lesson with phenomena. The experimental group was presented with scripts to begin asking thoughtful questions of peers about the phenomena being studied. The control group was instructed to engage in peer discourse as they normally would. The CCT-X was administered to all participants as a pretest and posttest. The data was analyzed via ANCOVA testing. Although a greater improvement in scores can be seen in the group that was exposed to the cooperative scripts, the results were not statistically significant. Future recommendations were identified, such as recruiting a larger sample size, implementing a longer duration for the intervention of collaborative scripts, and considering a new instrument for measuring critical thinking skills

Redesigning a pedagogical model for scaffolding dialogical, digital and deep learning in vocational teacher education

The main goal of the study was to identify the type of pedagogical model that scaffolds the construction of dialogical collaborative knowledge in digital environments toward deep learning in vocational teacher education. Another goal was to identify the type of framework that supports the evaluation of deep learning. The research redesigned the Dialogical Authentic Netlearning Activity (DIANA) pedagogical model. The specific aims of the research were to identify the challenges and opportunities associated with adopting the DIANA model for blended and mobile learning and to understand how student teachers reflect on and evaluate the construction of authentic and dialogical collaborative knowledge. Additionally, this study explores how digital personal learning environments are scaffolded and determines authentic and dialogical collaborative knowledge constructions used with the DIANA model. Multiple research questions were set to meet these aims, and the case study used qualitative research methods to answer these questions. The study population included international, vocational teachers (n = 14) and Finnish vocational student teachers (n = 76) who participated between 2013 and 2016. Data were collected through online questionnaires, in-depth interviews, self-reflective accounts and open blog entries (synthesis, artefacts). Data were analysed using qualitative content, deductive and abductive analyses. In the third sub-study, the design-based implementation research approach was used to provide a re-design process for implementing scaffolding. The principle result of this study is a redesigned Dialogical, Digital and Deep learning (DDD) pedagogical model informed by educational theories and based on both the previously developed DIANA model and studies about the construction of authentic and dialogical collaborative knowledge. This information was used to develop specific design principles that scaffold dialogical, digital and deep learning. The study provides a redesigned, pragmatic evaluation framework for deep-learning activities that supports the design, construction and evaluation of dialogical collaborative knowledge. The study results have several implications for learning design, research and practice in vocational teacher education. The study indicated that deep learning activities in authentic and dialogical collaborative knowledge construction offer a promising approach to developing learning processes for vocational teacher education, especially in the digital learning context. Vocational student teachers ought to gain positive experiences in dialogical collaborative knowledge construction, which requires deep learning in digital environments. In addition, dialogical competences ought to be integrated more deeply into the processes of teacher education to ensure acquisition of deeply oriented skills and knowledge rather than disconnected add-on elements, and such competences should be principle among teachers.Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia millainen pedagoginen malli ohjaa yhteisölliseen dialogiseen tiedonrakentamiseen syväoppimisen suunnassa digitaalisissa ympäristöissä ammatillisen opettajankoulutuksen konktekstissa sekä lisäksi tarkentaa syväoppimisen arviointia tukevaa viitekehystä. Tutkimus kehitti eteenpäin DIANA (Dialogical Authentic Netlearning Activity) pedagogista mallia. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin myös sitä, minkälaisia haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia DIANA-mallin mukaisessa monimuotoisessa ja mobiilioppimisessa on. Tutkimus syvensi sitä, miten opettajaopiskelijat reflektoivat sekä arvioivat omaa autenttista ja dialogista yhteisöllistä tiedonrakentamista. Tutkimus selvitti myös, miten ohjata henkilökohtaisten oppimisympäristöjen käyttöä DIANA-mallin mukaisessa autenttisessa ja dialogisessa yhteisöllisessä tiedonrakentamisessa. Tutkimuksessa määriteltiin useita tutkimuskysymyksiä, joilla pyrittiin vastaamaan tutkimuksen tavoitteisiin ja kysymyksiin laadullista tapaustutkimusta hyödyntämällä. Tutkimukseen osallistui kansainvälisiä, ammatillisia opettajia (n = 14) ja suomalaisia ammatillisia opettajaopiskelijoita (n = 76), jotka osallistuivat ammatilliseen opettajankoulutukseen vuosien 2013 ja 2016 aikana. Aineiston hankintamenetelminä olivat verkkokyselyt, syvähaastattelut, itsereflektiot ja avoimet verkkoblogit (synteesit, artefaktit). Case-tutkimuksen aineisto analysoitiin laadullisin menetelmin, teorialähtöisen ja abduktiivisen sisällönanalyysin avulla. Kolmannessa osatutkimuksessa käytettiin DBIR-menetelmää (Design-Based Implementation Research) ohjauksen uudelleen kehittämisen tukena. Tutkimuksen keskeisena tuloksena syntyi uudistettu pedagoginen malli DDD (Dialogical, Digital and Deep learning), joka perustuu oppimisen teorioihin, aiemmin kehitettyyn DIANA-malliin sekä aiempiin tutkimuksiin autenttisesta ja dialogisesta tiedonrakentamisesta. Edellä mainittuja hyödynnettiin myös DDD pedagogisen mallin mukaisten suunnitteluperiaatteiden luomisessa, jotka tukevat dialogista, digitaalista ja syväoppimista. Tutkimuksessa esitetään praktinen syväoppimisen arvioinnin viitekehys, joka tukee dialogisen yhteisöllisen tiedonrakentamisen suunnittelua ja arviointia. Tutkimus osoitti, että syväoppimista tukeva autenttinen ja dialoginen yhteisöllinen tiedonrakentaminen tarjoaa käytännönlähteisen lähestymisen, kun ammatillista opettajankoulutusta kehitetään digitaalisen oppimisen kontekstissa. Myös dialogiosaaminen pitäisi integroida syvemmin ammatillisen opettajankoulutuksen prosesseihin. Näin varmistetaan opettajien osaamiseen kuuluvien syvätasoisten dialogitaitojen oppiminen, eikä pelkästään irrallisten tekniikoiden opiskelua