Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in STEM Domains: Towards a Meta-synthesis

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) research has become pervasive in STEM education over the last several decades. The research presented here is part of an ongoing project to construct a meta-synthesis of CSCL findings in STEM domains. After a systematic search of the literature and article coding, cluster analysis results provided a frame for sampling from this literature in order to examine effects of CSCL. This preliminary meta-synthesis addresses the three key pillars of CSCL: the nature of collaboration, the technologies that are employed, and the pedagogical designs. CSCL tools and pedagogies typically improve collaborative learning processes along with achieving other learning and motivational goals

Determining the Degree to Which Ideational Behavior Predicts Occupational Identity Achievement in Emerging Adult College Students Preceding Entry into the Fourth Industrial Revolution Workforce

As emerging adults transition into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) workforce, it is essential to understand the factors that predict successful occupational identity achievement, as automation will impact human occupational identity crises. This descriptive cross-sectional study implemented a correlation design to determine the degree to which ideational behavior predicts occupational identity achievement preceding entry into the 4IR workforce. Using a sample of 166 emerging adult college students from a Mid-Atlantic, diverse, four-year university, data were collected using Runco’s Ideational Behavior Scale (RIBS) and Melgosa’s Occupational Identity Achievement subscale (OIA). Results showed that ideational behavior significantly predicted occupational identity achievement (p \u3c .016), as it was uncovered that emerging adults’ degree of ideational behavior explains 3.5% of the variance of their occupational identity achievement (R2 \u3c .035), as higher levels of ideational behavior are related to higher levels of occupational identity achievement. The results also concluded that emerging adults’ demographics showed no significance after a multiple linear regression analysis (p \u3c .246), but total ideational behavior scores remained significant (p \u3c .015). These findings suggest that ideational behavior is a strong predictor of emerging adults’ occupational identity achievement proceeding entry into the 4IR workforc

Leveraging Current Instructional Practices to Achieve Disciplinary Literacy in a Fifth Grade Science Classroom

Historically, reforms designed to transform teaching from rote, teacher-centered instruction to progressive student-centered instruction have had varied levels of success. Plentiful research juxtaposes teachers’ enacted instruction with the instructional ideals of reform efforts to determine the extent to which teachers’ instruction aligns with reform-based science education standards. Discrepancies and continuities are frequently explained by the mediating effects of the instructional context. While this information is valuable and establishes the strong interdependent relationship between context and instruction, little research attends to the capacity of specific contexts to support reform-based instruction. In this dissertation, I explore the liminal space between science reform adoption and reform implementation in a rural, fifth grade classroom. I immersed myself in a veteran teacher’s classroom context for two units of study, the solar system and “The Scientific Method.” Using Creswell’s (2013) interative, inductive approach along with tools from content and discourse analysis, I analyzed interview recordings and transcipts; classroom observation recordings, field notes, and digital photographs; and classroom artifacts to examine how contextual resources and constraints shape the teacher’s instructional practices and the extent to which her existing practices align with reform-based ideals and practices. Findings indicate that the teacher’s accessible resources (e.g., her own education, school provisions) and professional expectations (e.g., previous standards, school policies) position science as a set of disciplines comprised of a discrete facts that are learned through low-level cognitive tasks of recalling and understanding content and procedural knowledge. Nonetheless, in accordance with the National Academies’ call for context-specific instructional support, this study identifies existing pedagogical practices that can be leveraged to achieve instruction that more closely approximates reform-based instructional practices and considers the potential for developing teachers’ instructional practices through zones of feasible innovation (Rogan, 2007). I detail the process for identifying zones of feasible innovation for the participating teacher’s instruction as a model for designing individual learning trajectories with examples from the instructional context analyzed in this dissertation. Findings and conclusions from this study highlight the need for teacher conceptual change through reflective practices and dialogic interactions. Moreover, this study also suggests school leaders will need to ensure that school structures allow teachers adequate planning and instructional time for science as well as access to technology and spaces appropriate for science activities. Finally, this study establishes a need for equitable access to professional learning opportunities and more research exploring avenues for supporting teachers in their individual, diverse contexts (e.g., open-access, virtual educative curriculum materials), particularly those with limited resources in isolated locations.PHDEducational StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163119/1/jopaquet_1.pd

Language Learners as Agentive Meaning-Makers: Exploring Learners\u27 Investment and Meaning-Making

The motivation for this research is the subordinated position of writing in Japanese language education. As many studies indicate, writing in Japanese language education is often perceived as a space for teachers to monitor learners’ acquisition of grammar structures and kanji (Hirose, 2015; Kumagai & Fukai, 2009; Ramzan & Thomson, 2013). Such discourse of writing conceives Japanese writers, especially elementary writers, as individuals who have little agency in making meaning. The purpose of my dissertation study is to explore alternative discourses of writing that position elementary Japanese language learners as agentive meaning-makers. For this inquiry, first, I explore literatures that inform this dissertation study. This literature review explores systemic functional linguistics, or SFL, which explicitly situates one’s meaning-making in a social context. This review also explores critical instantiations of SFL, which emerged across disciplines. Then, I design a conceptual framework that is essential for my inquiry. I revisit (critical) SFL theories of text and context, and weave them together with post-structuralist theories of identity to investigate collegiate Japanese language learners’ identity and their meaning-making. Based on this conceptual framing, I propose a new pedagogy. This pedagogy resides in literacy practices which enhance learners’ awareness of linguistic choice in a social context (Rose & Martin, 2012), while it also actively incorporates literacy practices in which individuals can invest their time and effort in negotiation with their future affiliation (Norton Peirce, 1995; Norton 2013). I utilized this pedagogy to teach a personal narrative genre in a US college level elementary Japanese course. By drawing on Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (1989; 1992; 2003), I conducted textual analysis on each participant’s personal narrative texts and interpreted the linguistic cues in reference to their negotiations with identities and writing tasks. Overall, the four case studies of Mary, Andrea, Jean, and Lapis showcase a complex picture of investment and meaning-making. Their meaning-making is, on the one hand, to achieve the intended goal and purpose of writing, but on the other hand, is to organize and reorganize who they are and how they relate to the social world (Norton, 2013, p. 4). This suggests L2 learners’ meaning-making is enabled and/or constrained in certain ways, and equally important, contingent on learners’ agency, investment, and identity

Designing Our Tribe with Online Learning in an Elementary Classroom

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the design of an online learning environment within a learning management system (LMS) could enhance learning experiences for fourth grade students and their teacher in a traditional face-to-face classroom over a five-week period. Online learning activities were developed in coordination with the researcher, the teacher, and the students utilizing a design-based research methodology in order to promote student interaction and collaboration within an online learning environment. Given the dearth of research in online or blended learning in elementary grades, this study was a qualitative exploratory investigation based on the principals of design-based research. The rationale of this study was to attempt to understand on a fundamental level how strategically designed online learning activities within an LMS could facilitate student interaction and collaboration, and the study was guided by three major research questions: What features and characteristics of an online learning environment within an LMS encourage collaboration in a fourth grade classroom? How does interaction among students with each other, their teacher, and the content occur and develop within an online learning environment? How does participating in an online learning environment enhance learning for the fourth grade students involved in this study? Data collection was on-going throughout this study and included observations of activities in the face-to-face classroom, as well as online open-ended surveys of students, focus group interviews with students, e-mail correspondence, discussions and planning sessions with the classroom teacher, and a review of online documents and artifacts. The researcher considered this data while designing modifications to the online learning environment throughout the course of the study. Trustworthiness and transferability were supported by triangulation of sources of data, multiple session interviews, member checking, and thorough descriptions. Multiple themes emerged from the data of this exploratory study and were embedded within apparently conflicting issues. The following concerns were related to the features and characteristics of an online learning environment within an LMS that encouraged collaboration: (1) the blending of online and face-to-face learning activities; (2) individual responsibility and collaborative work; and (3) asynchronous and synchronous participation. Interaction occurred and developed through the following strategies: (1) teacher-directed activities and student choices; (2) academic standards and personal interests; (3) the shifting roles of the teacher and students; and (4) informal and formal topics of discussion. Finally, benefits of online learning were noted for the participants involved in this study related to interpersonal and intrapersonal changes they experienced through their online collaboration and interaction. The findings from the data were disseminated to discuss specific recommendations for practicing educators for the design of online learning environments for elementary students. These recommendations are as follows: (1) teach netiquette at the onset of the implementation; (2) incorporate time for social discourse and conversation; (3) encourage opportunities for student collaboration; (4) provide the students with choices; (5) encourage asynchronous participation; (6) have teachers model the learning; (7) practice the technical skills; (8) utilize student experts; (9) develop understanding through discussion forums; and (10) explore personal interests

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

Eye on Collaborative Creativity : Insights From Multiple-Person Mobile Gaze Tracking in the Context of Collaborative Design

Early Career WorkshopNon peer reviewe

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe

An Education 4.0 Pedagogical Approach for Introducing Smart Manufacturing to 5th grade students

Esta investigação é desenvolvida no âmbito do projeto Europeu "ShapiNG" (Shaping the next Generation of Manufacturing Professionals), cujo objetivo principal é atrair estudantes para atividades no campo da indústria. Proporcionar aos estudantes experiências de aprendizagem que os ajudem a compreender as competências necessárias para ser bem sucedido no local de trabalho é uma proposta desafiante no mundo de hoje em rápida mudança e dominado pela tecnologia. O objetivo deste estudo é identificar as tecnologias e abordagens-chave que, combinadas, podem constituir uma arquitetura pedagógica adequada para criar consciência e motivação entre os jovens estudantes, a fim de os inspirar a escolher uma carreira em Engenharia. Com base na teoria de aprendizagem de David Ausubel, foi realizado um estudo de caso para avaliar a eficácia da arquitetura concebida. A população da metodologia de pesquisa consistiu em 60 alunos do 5º ano de escolaridade que frequentavam a aula de "STEM" na "Escola Global". Os tópicos abordados foram modelação e impressão 3D. Após uma revisão minuciosa da literatura e um profundo trabalho de campo envolvendo observação direta e participante, questionários e entrevistas foram feitas com o objetivo de recolher dados relativos a (a) conhecimentos obtidos sobre os tópicos abordados, (b) benefícios de trabalhar colaborativamente e individualmente, (c) eficácia do material instrucional, e (d) motivação para seguir uma carreira em Engenharia. Por fim, através do trabalho realizado conseguimos obter os seguintes resultados principais: não há diferenças significativas no conhecimento adquirido entre o trabalho individual e colaborativo para as atividades propostas; os benefícios do trabalho colaborativo estão associados à possibilidade de negociar conceitos e aprimorar as competências de liderança e organização, enquanto os benefícios do trabalho individual estão relacionados com a possibilidade de auto-superação e de ser criativo; a motivação influenciou a qualidade percebida do material instrucional, sendo que os estudantes motivados classificaram melhor o material instrucional do que os não motivados; os estudantes do sexo masculino estão mais motivados a seguir uma carreira na Engenharia do que os do sexo feminino. Em última análise, os principais resultados deste estudo proporcionam um ponto de partida conceptual e prático para o desenvolvimento de abordagens eficazes em futuros trabalhos de investigação e para atividades que pretendam motivar jovens estudantes para seguir uma carreira na Engenharia.This research is developed within the scope of the European project "ShapiNG" (Shaping the next Generation of Manufacturing Professionals), whose main goal is to attract young students for activities in the field of manufacturing. Providing students with learning experiences that help them to understand the skills they need to succeed in the workplace is a difficult proposition in today's quickly changing world pervaded by technology. The purpose of this study is to identify key technologies and approaches that combined may constitute a suitable pedagogical architecture to create awareness and motivation among young students as to inspire them to pursue a career in Engineering. Drawing on David Ausubel's theory of learning, a case study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the conceived architecture. The research methodology population consisted of 60 students from the 5th grade attending the "STEM" class at "Escola Global". The covered topics were 3D modeling and 3D printing. After a thorough literature review and an in-depth fieldwork involving both direct and participant observation, questionnaires and interviews were done in order to collect data regarding the (a) knowledge obtained on the covered topics, (b) benefits of working collaboratively and individually, (c) effectiveness of the instructional material, and (d) motivation to pursue a career in Engineering. Ultimately, through our research we were able to obtain the following main results: there are no significant differences on the acquired knowledge between individual and collaborative work for the proposed activities; benefits of collaborative work are related to the possibility of negotiating concepts and enhancing leadership and organizational skills, whilst benefits of individual work are related to the possibility of self-overcoming and being creative; motivation influenced the perceived quality of instructional material with motivated students rating better the instructional material than the unmotivated ones; male students are more motivated to pursue a career in Engineering than female. Ultimately, the main results of this study provide a conceptual and practical gateway to bring in effective approaches to future research and activities focused on motivating young students to pursue a career in Engineering