دراسة أثر بعض المتغيرات على أداء طلبة الصف الحادي عشر في مدارس دولة الكويت في الاختبارات الإلكترونية. Studying the effect of some variables on the performance of eleventh grade students in schools The State of Kuwait in electronic exams.

هدفت الدراسة التي طبقت على (521) طالبا وطالبة من طلبة الصف الحادي عشر في مدارس التعليم العام بدولة الكويت إلى اختبار أثر بعض المتغيرات الجنس، التخصص، امتلاك جهاز حاسوب خاص، طبيعة المادة العلمية، والقدرة على المراجعة وتغيير الإجابات على الأداء في الاختبارات الإلكترونية. وقد جمعت البيانات عن طريق ثلاثة اختبارات تحصيلية: اللغة العربية، واللغة الإنجليزية، الإحصاء. وباستخدام مجموعة من الأساليب الإحصائية المناسبة لتحليل البيانات، أشارت النتائج إلى وجود فروق في الأداء في الاختبارات الإلكترونية تعزي لمتغيري طبيعة المادة العلمية، والقدرة على المراجعة وتغيير الإجابات. وقد خلصت الدراسة بمجموعة من التوصيات متعلقة بالاهتمام بحوسبة الاختبارات وتعميمها وتدريب المعلمين ومعدي الاختبارات عليها، وإجراء المزيد من الدراسات في هذا المجال. The study, which was applied to (521) male and female students of the eleventh grade in general education schools in the State of Kuwait, aimed to test the effect of some variables: gender, specialization, owning a special computer, the nature of the scientific material, and the ability to review and change answers on performance in electronic tests. The data were collected through three achievement tests: Arabic, English, and Statistics. Using a set of appropriate statistical methods to analyze the data, the results indicated that there are differences in performance in the electronic tests due to the variables of the nature of the scientific material, the ability to review and change the answers. The study concluded with a set of recommendations related to the interest in computerizing and generalizing tests, training teachers and test preparers, and conducting more studies in this field

Students With Either Specific Learning Disabilities Or With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Perceptions Of Self As Learner in Online Courses at Florida Virtual School and in the Traditional Learning Environment

The goal of this research study was to investigate the perception of self as learner for students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) or with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Students who had completed at least one mathematics or science course at Florida Virtual School, an online learning environment, were surveyed concerning their perception of self as learner in the online learning environment and in the traditional learning environment in 6 basic areas: feelings of success; level of comfort; relationship with teachers; and access to, communication with and feedback from teachers; and advantages and disadvantages of each learning environment. Results of parent interviews and anecdotal evidences were also included as data informing the results of this study. The results of this study showed that 1) a greater number of students reported feeling successful in the online environment. 2) the majority of students in all groups reported feeling comfortable in the online learning environment, 98% as compared to 65% in traditional environment. Student comfort in both environments was most frequently related to some element of the environment with a high percentage of mention of disruption caused by peers. 3) Students reported having positive relationships with their online teachers to a higher degree than with their traditional teachers. 4) Students generally felt that access to, communication with, and feedback from instructors, in the online environment had the greatest impact on them and the impact was positive. 5) The most frequently mentioned advantage of the online environment were, flexibility of time, pace and place of learning. Students liked being in control of the time, place, and pace of their learning in the online environment. Students perceived issues with socialization as the greatest disadvantage of the online environment. For the traditional environment, students indicated that the presence of their peers for social interaction and academic interaction was the greatest advantage. The disadvantages in the traditional environment disadvantage in the traditional environment were issues with time, place, and pace of learning, class size, and disruptions caused by other students. 6) Overall, the majority of students indicated that they felt the online learning environment provided them, as a learner, with the greatest number of advantages

Boosting Science Learning - What Will it Take? (Conference Proceedings)

Research Conference 2006 examined recent research and practice directions in the area of science education both locally and internationally. The conference addressed what it will take to boost science teaching and learning. The proceedings from the conference can be downloaded from thsis page. The slides accompanying the papers presented by various guest speakers are presented as Related Documents (below

Computer-based assessments of high school mathematics in Myanmar

Computer-based assessment (CBA) is a versatile educational tool in the twenty-first century. It offers many new opportunities for innovation in educational assessment through rich new assessment tasks and improves the learning progress of students. Educators have begun to benefit from CBA as it reduces the timing in reporting scores and increases assessment efficiency that enables immediate feedback. However, assessments in Myanmar high schools are mainly in paper-and-pencil test (PPT). Due to the large class and a limited number of teachers, this regular assessment causes them more workload in administering tests and providing scores and feedback. As a result, teachers spend most of their time assessing, scoring, and providing feedback. These activities negatively affect allocated hours of teaching and learning, which, in turn, are ineffective on the learning progress of students. The aims are: (1) to examine high schools in Myanmar whether computer-based assessment, this is, linear-online test (LOT) and computer-adaptive test (CAT) is more effective test mode than PPT as a formative assessment for the learning progress of students; (2) to identify contextual scales that influence students learning progress due to computer-based assessments and regular paper-and-pencil test. Of intervention design with explanatory mix-method, this study applied counter-balanced quasi-experimental research to compare effects of computer-based and paper-based assessments in terms of the achievement improvement of students. This study conducted surveys among students and teachers, followed by semi-structured interviews from five high schools in Yangon Region, Myanmar. Students from these high schools took the computer-based test and paper-based format as formative assessments. For constructing an online formative assessment test, both the Concerto platform and online Monkey Survey were applied, and through the Rasch Dichotomous model, items are assembled in the item-banks of the computer-based assessment. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to examine the effect of the test modes. The results of the computer-based test mode showed that students who received their specific scores and feedback immediately improved their mathematics achievement significantly higher than those who received the delayed score and feedback from the paper-based test mode. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the structural relationship between measured variables. This model shows that positive attitude of students towards either computer-based or paper-based is the ultimate mechanism for more remarkable achievement. Although the two test delivery media may affect different groups of participant students in different ways, this concerns equity issues. For example, findings showed that educational background of parents, students’ gender, and attitude towards paper-based assessment or computer-based assessment could influence or affect the achievement of students. In addition, the specific practices of teachers towards formative assessment influence the attitude of students. The attitude of teachers concerning computers and technology affects the attitude of students towards innovative assessment formats. As shown by hierarchical linear modelling, the cross-level interaction effect from the teacher-level on the slope of the attitude of students towards paper-based assessment and their achievement improvement is specific practices of formative assessment. In addition, this study showed that the attitude of students to information and communications technology (ICT) and the attitude of teachers to formative assessment and ICT directly affect the achievement improvement of students. This thesis reveals significant gaps in understanding concerning formative assessment in Myanmar and contributes to the theoretical, practical, and methodological implications in mathematics assessment and learning. In addition, the findings provide (albeit for Myanmar educational systems) a practical resource for assessment developers and a useful framework for the discussion of innovative assessment formats and use in computer-based settings.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Education, 202

Evaluation of educational computer programmes as a change agent in science classrooms.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.This evaluation started with preliminary research into the situations and problems in science classrooms and computer laboratories. The preliminary research identified teacher-centred lessons, learner and teacher conceptualisations, large numbers of learners per classroom, assessment, and a lack of interest in biology as some of the major problems in South African classrooms. The current research (because it is continuing) uses two Educational Computer Programmes (ECPs); a Computer-Aided Assessment (CAA) programme which is designed to alleviate problems in assessment, and Zadarh (a constructivist adventure game) designed to solve problems in biology classrooms, to further investigate some of the identified problems and find out the learners' and teachers' views on the utility of these two ECPs. The use of these two ECPs had not previously been investigated appropriately, especially in disadvantaged communities where teachers had little knowledge of the use and of evaluating ECPs. Therefore, a major concern for this study is that previous ECP evaluations excluded teachers and were not comprehensive enough especially for deploying ECPs in disadvantaged communities. A review of the methods that had hitherto been used, indicated that quantitative, mostly, behavioural and cognitive, pre-test post-test methods were prominently used, despite the shift in instructional design to constructional design, which embrace qualitative aspects of learning. Also, instructional design has evolved from behavioural models to include constructivist microworlds, which were unfairly evaluated by excluding qualitative benefits. Thus, this study seeks a more comprehensive evaluation strategy, in which teachers play the role of co-evaluators and which captures the qualitative and quantitative changes that software programs impart upon teachers' classroom practices, with sensitivity to the multiple disciplines in a program, as well as to the value systems of teachers. Comprehensive evaluation processes were facilitated during which 26 teachers in 23 schools in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Mpumalanga Provinces embarked upon the evaluation of the two ECPs. Evaluations were based upon a developmental, constructivist and interpretative approaches, by which teachers took ownership of these evaluations. Comprehensive evaluations revealed benefits from CAA and Zadarh, as well as benefits from direct teacher participations in the evaluations. CAA (Question Mark in this case) instantly provided diagnostic data. However, it was evident that the quality of diagnosis and remediation depended upon the quality of the test items, and the learning as well as the teaching strategies. Factors that could militate against the use and full utilisation of CAA in the schools where the study was done included the cost of software for CAA, teachers' capacity to set diagnostic test items particularly in a multiple-choice format, teachers' ability to interpret data produced by CAA, and teachers' skills in remedying their classroom problems as well as learners' problems. This study found that by playing Zadarh learners were able to construct knowledge through discovery and were attracted to the enjoyable aspects of this educational tool. Learners remembered most of those moments in the game during which they were both stuck and trying to solve problems on their way through Zadarh. Therefore, Zadarh can provide useful learning experiences with fun, and can improve motivation towards learning. Debilitating factors against the use of Zadarh and CAA include school curricula, which do not accommodate innovations, inflexible timetables, and classroom approaches that are teacher-centred. It was clear that the success of using computers in education would depend upon the ability of teachers to evaluate the ECPs, and to integrate ECPs into school curricula. drive these interactions played an important role in the successful integration of ECPs into classroom. One way of achieving such success is to include teachers as evaluators and co-designers of ECPs. Evaluations of ECPs therefore should: i) allow the teachers and learners, through social dialog, to identify how software could solve problems; ii) establish the compatibility of the software with the school curriculum; iii) ascertain the capacity of school computers to execute the software; and iv) provide support to the teachers in the use the software. Evaluations should benefit teachers and learners. The study concluded that a post-modern, developmental, and constructivist evaluation process might be one of the ways of enhancing training teachers in the use of the ECPs, in the concepts that the software deal with, and in evaluation. In that way, a socially contracted evaluation is comprehensive and can serve as a change agent through which teachers reflect and act upon improving their classroom practices