Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Whaddya call that again? Materials for teaching connected speech

In order to examine the phenomena of connected speech and the place technology has in its instruction, I must first examine the developments in speaking and listening instructor that have contributed to this area of research, instruction, and learning. The literature review, then, will present (a) an overview of current speaking instruction trends, (b) an overview of current listening instruction trends, (c) an explanation of connected speech and its features, (d) an overview of technology and computer-assisted language learning (CALL), and (e) an overview of technological interventions in connected speech instruction. Through my findings, I hope to explore the following research questions: 1. How do instructors and learners feel about pronunciation, listening, and connected speech instruction? 2. How do instructors and learners feel about using technology to mediate the above instruction? 3. What do instructors and learners think of a number of activities developed in light of RQs 1 and 2? 4. How does the research literature reflect the topics of pronunciation, pronunciation with suprasegmentals, and suprasegmentals with technology? 5. How can a series of pedagogical materials support the technology-mediated instruction of connected speech

Celebrating diversity: the significance of cultural differences on reading comprehension processes of the young adult EFL learner in a matriculation preparation programme in Israel

Reading comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL) is a key to success in academic studies in Israel. As Israel is a cultural melting pot, adult students come from widely diverse educational backgrounds, often determined by their cultural environment. They arrive at the university or college classroom with vastly different approaches to learning and reading, in general, and to reading in EFL, in particular. The challenge for the EFL teacher is to help students draw from their cultural toolkits while exposing them to new tools so that they can reach their full learning potential. The rationale of the current inquiry is that in order to tailor a programme that takes into account students' needs, a better understanding of the impact of cultural background on their learning process is essential. This inquiry was guided by three main research questions: How do differing cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds impact upon adult students’ approach to and process of learning reading comprehension in English? How do these backgrounds impact upon progress and achievement in reading comprehension in English? And which teaching approach or approaches can best address the range of needs of a culturally diverse student group? To address these questions, an action research study was conducted using a case study approach. Thirty-nine young adult students who participated in a year-long matriculation preparation programme in a teachers' college in Israel were examined. The programme was based on providing students with both bottom-up and top-down reading skills, with particular emphasis on reading strategies. The learning process that students underwent generated qualitative and quantitative data through class observations, interviews, and student records. The data indicated that student background played a significant role in how learning, reading, and EFL were approached. Family background, whether more 'traditional' or less 'traditional', reflected students' cultural background, echoed by a school system sharing a similar mindset and approach to EFL pedagogy. As a result, students' background impacted upon their classroom behaviour and social engagement. Cultural distinctions were apparent at entry level, but were not determining factors in student progress and achievement over the course of the year. Students with greater intercultural competence adopted different learning approaches and reading strategies from those with which they had been educated in their cultural environment and appropriated them as their own. These students also made the most significant progress in their EFL reading comprehension, regardless of background. For students to share their diverse learning approaches and adopt new ones from one another, as well as the new strategies offered by the programme, the establishment of a 'third space', or classroom culture, was crucial. Providing such a space allowed students to exchange learning methods, examine their own, and finally adopt those that were most effective for them. Enhanced reading comprehension at the end of the programme resulted from a process of several cycles of integration and engagement. Those students who reported feeling more integrated within mainstream Israeli society, in general, were also those who more easily integrated within the classroom culture. These students were also more socially engaged in class and showed greater engagement with texts in English. Consequently they made greater progress and reached higher achievements. When teaching EFL reading comprehension to a multicultural class of students, it is argued that a classroom culture should celebrate their diversity and allow them to voice their distinct learning approaches. At the same time, their voices should be harmonized through a unified learning approach, based on the application of reading strategies and engagement with a text

Long-Term Effects of Teacher Training and Other Intervening Factors on Teaching Styles of Foreign-Language Instructors

This study investigated the long-term effects of a learner-centered-oriented-teacher training on teaching styles of foreign-language instructors at a multilanguage institute to assess the relationship between the training and the teaching practice. A mixed-method design was employed, and the data were collected from 165 participants who took the Principles of Adult Learning Style (Conti, 1978, 2004) and who provided their written reflections on the training, in addition to follow-up interviews with 12 language instructors. Results of one-sample t tests showed statistically significant differences between the teaching styles of language instructors at the institute and the general population of adult educators indicating that the overall teaching approach of foreign-language instructors falls on the teacher-centered side of the scale. On the subscales, the instructors also reported more teacher-centered approach on learner-centered activities, personalizing instruction, climate building, and flexibility for personal development, but they showed more learner-centered practice on relating to experience, assessing student needs, and participation in the learning process. Kendall\u27s Tau-b rank correlations revealed that the teaching style is associated with some demographic variables, and ordinal-logistic-regression suggested that teaching style could be predicted from the time when the instructor took the training, satisfaction with the training, education, gender, age group, and the language category. Analysis of instructors’ reflections and the interviews supported the instructors’ self-reporting about their teaching practices, and thematic analysis resulted in several factors that are accounted for the teacher-centered practice such as the preassigned curriculum, lack of preparation time, lack of inschool support, lack of motivation to use the learner-centered approach, lack of conviction in classroom applicability of the training, resistance to change, influence of native culture and teacher-centered schooling, explanation of language form, and the achievement-oriented teaching. The instructors acknowledged that the teacher training helped them with language-teaching methods, experiential setting for construction of knowledge, and formulation of teaching vision. The study concluded that there is a need to strengthen the association between the learner-centered-oriented-teacher training and the instructors’ classroom practices, and recommendations are made to address the intervening factors that tip the teaching practice toward teacher-centered approach. Also, possible areas of future research are suggested to corroborate the findings from this study

Journal of Education Innovation and Communication, December 2019, The value of pedagogical knowledge: an international perspective

The publications of the Communication Institute of Greece, such as the “Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM)”, are open access without any costs for the authors or the readers. JEICOM is a Fully Peer-Reviewed, Open Access journal, publishing articles from all areas of education, innovation and communication, independent of the events organized by the Communication Institute of Greece. JEICOM’s scope is to provide a free and open platform to academics, researchers, professionals, and postgraduate students to communicate and share knowledge in the form of high quality empirical and theoretical research that is of high interest not only for academic readers but also for practitioners and professionals. JEICOM welcomes theoretical, conceptual and empirical original research papers, case studies, book reviews that demonstrate the innovative and dynamic spirit for the education and communication sciences, from researchers, scholars, educators, policy-makers, and practitioners in education, communication, and related fields. Articles that show scholarly depth, breadth or richness of different aspects of social pedagogy are particularly welcome. The numerous papers presented every year during the conferences organized by the Communication Institute of Greece, enables us to have access to a plethora of papers. Following a rigorous peer- review process, only a selection of these papers submitted is published biannually. In addition, to the papers presented in the Institute’s conference, we do encourage independent submissions of papers too. Nevertheless, before you submit, please make sure to respect the guidelines and templates provided. The current issue of the “Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM)”, is our Second Issue for 2019 (December 2019). We consider that education and fruitful exchange can improve our lives with the view to nurture intercultural communication. Academics can contribute significantly to the quality of the educational experience and help educate, communicate, exchange, meet new cultures, create and collaborate! We wish you an excellent reading and for the year to come soon, 2020, Health, Love, Knowledge, Education, Prosperity, Communication and Exchange

Self- Efficacy and Participation in Choosing the Teaching Profession as Predictors of Academic Motivation among Arab Student\u27s Girls

The purpose of this study is to examine the link between learning motivation among teaching trainees and self- efficacy and the rate of participation in choosing the profession of teaching. The main assumptions: There will be a clear positive link between the rate of self-efficacy of students and academic motivation, with its various elements. There will be a clear positive link between the rate of participation in choosing the profession (teaching) and academic motivation. The sample included 181 female students. The sample was random relative to students of each academic year and specialization. The findings of the study corroborated most of the assumptions, and we found clear links between motivation and its variety of elements and participation in the process of choosing the academic institution

On the Precarious Path of Reverse Neuro-Engineering

In this perspective we provide an example for the limits of reverse engineering in neuroscience. We demonstrate that application of reverse engineering to the study of the design principle of a functional neuro-system with a known mechanism, may result in a perfectly valid but wrong induction of the system's design principle. If in the very simple setup we bring here (static environment, primitive task and practically unlimited access to every piece of relevant information), it is difficult to induce a design principle, what are our chances of exposing biological design principles when more realistic conditions are examined? Implications to the way we do Biology are discussed