Dialogic activity : a study of learning dialogues and entanglements in a vocational tertiary setting : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Education at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

New Zealand’s economic growth continues to place major pressure on the trades sector. To meet future demand for qualified builders, plumbers, electricians, and engineers, trades education has become available at no cost to students for two years. To attract student interest further, tertiary institutions now offer courses in a range of delivery options. Blended learning (BL) is one of these delivery modes and involves a combination of traditional face-to-face and digitally mediated approaches. This research explored students’ dialogic activity in a BL environment, within a trades educational institution. The dialogues that emerged during trades training courses were examined in relation to a complex assemblage of elements, which included interactions between students and teachers, and the digital and materials artefacts in the BL environments. The research used an interdisciplinary lens, employing theories of socio-materialism and dialogism, to unpack forms of dialogic activity that emerged within the BL environment. That same lens was used to reveal the part that material and digital artefacts played in the emergent dialogic activity. Conducted as a multiple case study, the research involved observations of instructors and student participants from three Level 3 pre-apprentice trade programmes, which provided a wide range of data over the course of one semester. Datasets from Automotive Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, as the three cases involved, were analysed to explore the contextual meaning of the learning dialogues and activities in action. The findings revealed that learning dialogues occur in multiple contexts and environments. Artefacts and their properties, BL designs, open and flexible learning spaces, environmental conditions, health and safety considerations, embodiment, multiplicity, mediation, and class culture, all have a significant influence on dialogic activity. The findings offer important insights about the link between course design and learning and identify dialogic activity as an interdisciplinary phenomenon that warrants further investigation

An empirical analysis of the determinants of mobile instant messaging appropriation in university learning

Published ArticleResearch on technology adoption often profiles device usability (such as perceived usefulness) and user dispositions (such as perceived ease of use) as the prime determinants of effective technology adoption. Since any process of technology adoption cannot be conceived out of its situated contexts, this paper argues that any pre-occupation with technology acceptance from the perspective of device usability and user dispositions potentially negates enabling contexts that make successful adoption a reality. Contributing to contemporary debates on technology adoption, this study presents flexible mobile learning contexts comprising cost (device cost and communication cost), device capabilities (portability, collaborative capabilities), and learner traits (learner control) as antecedents that enable the sustainable uptake of emerging technologies. To explore the acceptance and capacity of mobile instant messaging systems to improve student performance, the study draws on these antecedents, develops a factor model and empirically tests it on tertiary students at a South African University of Technology. The study involved 223 national diploma and bachelor’s degree students and employed partial least squares for statistical analysis. Overall, the proposed model displayed a good fit with the data and rendered satisfactory explanatory power for students’ acceptance of mobile learning. Findings suggest that device portability, communication cost, collaborative capabilities of device and learner control are the main drivers of flexible learning in mobile environments. Flexible learning context facilitated by learner control was found to have a positive influence on attitude towards mobile learning and exhibited the highest path coefficient of the overall model. The study implication is that educators need to create varied learning opportunities that leverage learner control of learning in mobile learning systems to enhance flexible mobile learning. The study also confirmed the statistical significance of the original Technology Acceptance Model constructs

Review of research and evaluation on improving adult literacy and numeracy skills

The purposes of this literature review are threefold. First, this review summarises findings of the research from the last decade in six fields identified by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as critical to its forward planning: (1) the economic, personal and social returns to learning; (2) the quality and effectiveness of provision; (3) the number of learning hours needed for skills gain; (4) learner persistence; (5) the retention and loss of skills over time; (6) the literacy and numeracy skills that are needed. Second, this review assesses this evidence base in terms of its quality and robustness, identifying gaps and recommending ways in which the evidence base can be extended and improved. Thirdly, this review attempts to interpret the evidence base to suggest, where possible, how returns to ALN learning for individuals, employers and wider society might be increased through effective and cost-effective interventions

Designing online learning for scientific writing: Collaborations, creations and transformations

This thesis is a multilayered approach to understanding the complex processes involved in designing, developing, implementing and evaluating online learning environments for academic writing in discipline contexts. The study is broadly situated in the field of educational design research (EDR). It brings together theories of pedagogical design, including those of multimodality and educational linguistics, with the practical implementation and evaluation of designs in context. From an applied perspective, the research addresses the problem of providing support for students to improve their academic writing, in particular the writing of the laboratory report genre, a key genre in science and engineering disciplines. For teachers and others involved in the design of online teaching and learning, the aim is to provide design principles to support the process of creating effective resources to teach academic writing online. These principles cover all stages of the process from design to evaluation. The thesis comprises three main stages which focus on the processes involved in the development of an online program for supporting students writing a report in Physiology, the Flexible Electronic Report-writing Tool (FLERT). The first focuses on the collaborations of the design team in creating the online learning resources within a ‘communities of practice’ framework. I use discourse analysis, based on the theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), to identify knowledge and relationship building among participants. The second draws on both multimodal social semiotics and SFL to examine how network and screen designs created for laboratory report writing programs in science and engineering have evolved over time. The third uses a multi- and mixed methods approach, together with SFL, to examine two cycles of implementation and evaluation of FLERT to assess how students have transformed their learning through their interactions with the program. The relationships among the outcomes from these three stages provides insights into: • the practice of design for learning; • the meaning making characteristics of the products of design for teaching and learning purposes; • the interactions of student users with the designed products and the influence of design features on student learning; • design principles, both general principles for online learning program design and those, at a more local level, for teaching academic writing online

An empirical analysis of the determinants of mobile instant messaging appropriation in university learning

Published ArticleResearch on technology adoption often profiles device usability (such as perceived usefulness) and user dispositions (such as perceived ease of use) as the prime determinants of effective technology adoption. Since any process of technology adoption cannot be conceived out of its situated contexts, this paper argues that any pre-occupation with technology acceptance from the perspective of device usability and user dispositions potentially negates enabling contexts that make successful adoption a reality. Contributing to contemporary debates on technology adoption, this study presents flexible mobile learning contexts comprising cost (device cost and communication cost), device capabilities (portability, collaborative capabilities), and learner traits (learner control) as antecedents that enable the sustainable uptake of emerging technologies. To explore the acceptance and capacity of mobile instant messaging systems to improve student performance, the study draws on these antecedents, develops a factor model and empirically tests it on tertiary students at a South African University of Technology. The study involved 223 national diploma and bachelor’s degree students and employed partial least squares for statistical analysis. Overall, the proposed model displayed a good fit with the data and rendered satisfactory explanatory power for students’ acceptance of mobile learning. Findings suggest that device portability, communication cost, collaborative capabilities of device and learner control are the main drivers of flexible learning in mobile environments. Flexible learning context facilitated by learner control was found to have a positive influence on attitude towards mobile learning and exhibited the highest path coefficient of the overall model. The study implication is that educators need to create varied learning opportunities that leverage learner control of learning in mobile learning systems to enhance flexible mobile learning. The study also confirmed the statistical significance of the original Technology Acceptance Model constructs

Full Issue: Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 7, Issue 2, Fall 2023

The full-length Fall 2023 issue (Volume 7, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here. The Fall 2023 issue presents research and guidance on topics related to educational adaptation. The first article by C. Farrell describes an adaptation of the interteaching method to the hybrid delivery method. The second article by C. C. Loose and R. Jagielo-Manion describes a study of modules on personalized learning to preservice teachers and its impact on their comfort level and preparation to implement personalized learning in their classrooms. The third article by B. Bean presents a case study in which students in an introductory data science course are asked to complete a reproducible final project, with proposed adaptations for non-data-science courses. The fourth article by K. Klein et al. reports the results of a study evaluating the effectiveness of traditional and active lecture methods in higher education using a multiple group convergent parallel mixed method design. The final article by S. L. Brosi et al., provides a book review of Rural Education in America, What Works for Our Students, Teachers, and Communities, by G. Marietta and S. Marietta

Multiple intelligences and network affordances: can videos enhance students' perceptions of their learning experience, learning outcomes and subject engagement?

In conjunction with the arrival of emerging technologies, many universities are encouraging their educators to rethink and reframe their teaching approaches and delivery methods. Integrating different types of media to enhance delivery of subject materials to higher education students is growing in national and international importance. As a response to the technology-enhanced approach, a more student-centered experience that actively engages students is promoted. This mixed-methods research focuses on students' and lecturers' perceptions of the value of online videos in relation to student's learning experiences and engagement with respect to the effect of multiple intelligences. This helps to clarify whether there is a relationship between students' multiple intelligences scores and their age, gender, learning experience and motivation. This study also reports on interviews conducted with both lecturers and students. It seeks to answer how and why students use online videos, and how this might influence engagement in their subjects. It provides a clear voice on their views concerning the benefits, and challenges of online video use, along with any positive or negative suggestions regarding their experience of the technology. It also reports whether employing various types of videos within a subject could increase and support learning needs and intelligences of students. Furthermore, lecturers' perceptions of different modes and purposes for online videos and their views, understanding, and challenges of the learning and teaching environment in a flipped classroom approach are investigated. Analysing the quantitative data, a number of important insights were obtained. For example, it was revealed that students are higher on Intrapersonal intelligence and lower in Existential intelligence. Bodily-Kinesthetic and Musical-Rhythmic intelligences were other highly developed intelligences of students. Based on the lecturers' responses, there seems to be distinctive similarities and differences between two disciplines in the extent of video integration and types of videos that they use. The most visible similarity between these participants is in terms of incorporating different kinds of short YouTube videos. As for Tech-literacy, unlike participants from Behavioural Sciences who relied on videos from YouTube and other online resources, all Educational Science participants could create their own videos by using Camtasia, and not having a reliance on the available online sources. Moreover, there seems to be certain tech-literacy differences between baby boomers and Generation Xers. Considering lecturers' perception on the flipped classroom approach, the study revealed some challenges in their teaching. According to the data gathered from interviews, it seems that the challenges are around the use of Camtasia, rigidity (clunky platforms), technology access and funding, technology mastery, upskilling in latest technological change and innovation, the structure and the pedagogy and the types of activities that they implement. The findings also revealed many advantages in successfully implementing the flipped model. For instance, the participants claimed that offering subjects in this approach provides students the opportunity to view lectures at home; thus freeing class time for demonstrating problem solving and deeper discussion-based face-to-face learning and understanding of the material. Students' interview findings revealed that the videos were perceived to be beneficial for students' engagement and motivation. The results also revealed that interest plays a major role for students who are keen to watch the topics that intrigue them. Based on their responses, it seems that they were dissatisfied with monotonous video lectures that failed to make their learning interesting. It seems that students are no longer interested in too much reading, and prefer easier and less demanding modes of learning, i.e. watching videos which denote a change in their desired mode of internalizing knowledge to an easier one. Desire for brevity, conciseness, and to the point videos with no additional materials were also found more attractive and engaging for them. They enjoy the flexibility to be able to watch videos with no time and place restrictions. Variety is perceived to be important to Net-Geners in particular, and music and visual aids seem to be their preference and a significant motivational stimulus. Animation and simulation make their learning easier. They like cognition forming and cognition sharing as a team work strategy and have the higher stimulus of interactive communication. Lastly, it seems that videos could be used as new modalities for changing the life for people with various learning disabilities. Based on students' responses, it seems that they were mostly satisfied with the video integration as they reported positive experiences from the videos uploaded and shared by lecturers. The results revealed the interactivity of videos and students' preference toward games and pleasure and interest sparked by video integration. The results indicated that visually attentive students would be more intrigued and motivated if the lecturer had incorporated a visual modality. Video integration has made them free from the burden of note taking and paying attention to the lecture at the same time. Videos have provided them the opportunity and flexibility to refer back to what is being said by the lecturer with no time and place restriction and with the benefit of documentation once it is downloaded. The findings also revealed that videos cannot stand entirely by themselves and need supplementary material or tutoring on the part of the teacher. The students addressed the necessity of their lecturers' need for familiarity with the latest Apps, as well as the lecturers' need to overcome a lack of technology literacy, in particular, in the psychology discipline. In conclusion, this study found that, with regard to online video materials, students also reported that videos could address their various intelligence types and abilities. Because students have different combinations of abilities and intelligences, they are attracted to various video activities based on different reasons, such as note taking, auditory and music, visuals, playing games, interactive discussions and questions, entertainment, and practical examples of real life experiences. Therefore, the existing video materials are sufficient to supplement the lesson curriculum and to address their intelligences

Using podcasts to mediate reflective learning : a case of a postgraduate programme at a higher education institution

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-117).Although reflective learning in higher education is increasing, not much research has been conducted on using reflective learning for discursive knowledge production among students whose first language is not English. Discursive knowledge production is the meaning making process initiated when one encounters new information. This implies that students whose first language is not English are less likely to be active discussants and are disadvantaged participants in discursive knowledge production activities. The research question this study sought to answer is: how are podcasts used to mediate reflection among postgraduate students at an institution of higher education? The researcher used Hatton and Smith’s framework to explore and identify the types of reflection that podcast use mediates