Exploration of online discussion forum on reading EST texts for ESL learners

Purpose: This study explored ESL learners’ utilization of Online Discussion Forums (ODFs) in Interactive Reading for Academic Disciplines (iREAD) to assist reading of online scientific texts within an English for Specific Purposes course at a public university

The Influence of Group Size in the Asynchronous Online Discussions on the Development of Critical Thinking Skills, and on Improving Students’ Performance in Online Discussion Forum

Asynchronous Online Discussions (AOD) are considered as one of the most ma-jor tools in learning management systems which are used in universities. The ex-ploitation of AODs forums offer students the possibility to teach and learn any-time and anywhere. They also provide students with the time needed to process learning, share ideas and points of view on e-course topics. The group size in the AODs is a substantial variable that affects the interaction and the participation of students. The purpose of our research lays in understanding the influence of the group size participating in the AODs on the development of critical thinking skills in information technology for students of the Faculty of Education, and im-proving students’ performance in online discussion forums. In this research, 103 university students from the bachelor's degree have participated in the study. The participating students are studying the Computer Application in Education Course, and the Education Technology Course on the Blackboard e-learning Management System, during a 15-week semester. The findings of the research have revealed very significant conclusions; and the researcher has come up with various recommendations and suggestions for future studies and further research

The Influence of Group Size in the Asynchronous Online Discussions on the Development of Critical Thinking Skills, and on Improving Students’ Performance in Online Discussion Forum

Asynchronous Online Discussions (AOD) are considered as one of the most ma-jor tools in learning management systems which are used in universities. The ex-ploitation of AODs forums offer students the possibility to teach and learn any-time and anywhere. They also provide students with the time needed to process learning, share ideas and points of view on e-course topics. The group size in the AODs is a substantial variable that affects the interaction and the participation of students. The purpose of our research lays in understanding the influence of the group size participating in the AODs on the development of critical thinking skills in information technology for students of the Faculty of Education, and im-proving students’ performance in online discussion forums. In this research, 103 university students from the bachelor's degree have participated in the study. The participating students are studying the Computer Application in Education Course, and the Education Technology Course on the Blackboard e-learning Management System, during a 15-week semester. The findings of the research have revealed very significant conclusions; and the researcher has come up with various recommendations and suggestions for future studies and further research

Motivación intrínseca y pensamiento crítico en estudiantes de Ciencias de la Salud de una universidad pública de Barranca -2022

La finalidad de este trabajo de investigación fue determinar la relación entre motivación intrínseca y pensamiento crítico en estudiantes de ciencias de la salud en una universidad pública de Barranca-2022. En cuanto a la elaboración del proceso metodológico el estudio es de enfoque cuantitativo, tipo básica de nivel correlacional con un diseño no experimental y con la participación de 161 estudiantes. En la recolección de datos se utilizó la técnica de la encuesta teniendo como instrumento dos cuestionarios adaptados por la investigadora, empleando la escala de Likert, teniendo cinco alternativas de respuestas, la validez estuvo a cargo de tres expertos, para la confiablidad se aplicó el estadístico por el Apha de Cronbach, teniendo un coeficiente de 0,835 y 0.950 respectivamente; en cuanto al resultado en la primera variable denotó un 68.9 % de nivel bajo , mientras en la segunda variable para el pensamiento crítico denotó 59.0% de nivel alto ; considerándose en el análisis inferencial se evidencio (Rho=0,546) , representando moderada relación frente al grado de significación estadística p=(0.00) y se concluye que hay correlación existente y significativa entre las variables de motivación intrínseca y el pensamiento crítico

Programa “Descubriendo mis habilidades” en el pensamiento crítico en los estudiantes de 5 años de la institución educativa inicial

La presente investigación titulada Programa “Descubriendo mis habilidades” en el pensamiento crítico en los estudiantes de 5 años de la institución educativa inicial, tuvo como objetivo determinar la influencia del programa “Descubriendo mis habilidades” en el pensamiento crítico en los estudiantes. El punto de partida de esta investigación fue la observación en la práctica educativa. Después de varios meses de dedicación a la práctica educativa logró identificar diversas deficiencias, nos propusimos estudiar la influencia del pensamiento crítico en los niños, ello nos llevó a la pregunta problémica, ¿En qué medida influye el programa “Descubriendo mis habilidades” en el pensamiento crítico? El estudio fue de tipo aplicada, el nivel es explicativo, el diseño fue experimental y de clase cuasi experimental. El experimento con pre y post prueba. La población era de 75 estudiantes, se evaluó a 50 estudiantes: 30 del grupo experimental y 30 de control. El muestreo fue no probabilístico, intencionado. El método empleado fue hipotético deductivo, enfoque cuantitativo, utilizando la prueba estadística la U de Mann Whitney. A partir de entonces se realizó aplicación un instrumento usando lista de cotejo que consiste de 36 ítems, con una escala dicotómica. En primer lugar, el alfa de Cronbach se tuvo 0.901 por lo tanto el instrumento tiene alta confiabilidad, asimismo según el análisis exploratorio se tuvo aplicó Kuder Richardson KR-20 siendo 0.915. Finalmente, se obtuvo la validez con juicio de expertos. Los resultados en la presente investigación, de la contrastación de la hipótesis general se hicieron mediante la prueba no paramétrica U de Mann Whitney, donde se evidencia un índice de significancia bilateral de 0,000 que es menor al nivel de 0,05 previsto para este análisis. Se encontró que la aplicación del Programa “Descubriendo mis habilidades” en el pensamiento crítico en los estudiantes

An Autoethnographic Study of Online Class Size and Instructor Participation in Discussions

This research provided a detailed description of the researcher’s experience as an online instructor who faced increasing demands while trying to maintain instructional effectiveness. This account provided online program directors who sought to balance instructor satisfaction, accreditation standards, and financial pressures with insight into the impact of class size choices on instructor behavior in the online classroom. A qualitative autoethnographic method was used to understand the nature of the connection between class size and instructor use of instructional posts and to identify factors that influence the way instructors participate in online discussions. The autoethnographic genre of qualitative research allowed the researcher to create a compelling narrative that can inform the experiences of readers. Although the demands faced by instructors at different institutions will vary, the introspection required by the autoethnographic approach creates an understanding of the phenomenon that is credible and valid. The sample for this study was the researcher’s experience as an instructor at one university. A review of artifacts such as email, discussion posts, workplace calendar, a personal journal, and professional development logs and personal experience was used to generate a researcher journal. The researcher journal was used as a mechanism for identifying pertinent themes

Preparing Students to Think in the 21\u3csup\u3est\u3c/sup\u3e Century: The Impact Of Asynchronous Online Discussions on Critical Thinking Skills in A High School English Class

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate how the implementation of asynchronous online discussions into the classroom impacts the critical thinking skills of secondary language arts students. Although critical thinking has shown to be an important 21st century skill (Paul & Elder, 2002), many students are leaving high school lacking the thinking skills necessary to succeed in a modern society (Arum & Roksa, 2011; Conley, 2015). Standardized testing results within the population of this study indicated similar critical thinking deficits as the rest of the nation. This study focused on two central research questions: (1) To what extent will the integration of asynchronous online discussions into the English curriculum impact the critical thinking skills of language arts students? (2) How do language arts students perceive the use of asynchronous online discussions to impact their critical thinking skills? In this convergent parallel mixed methods study, students enrolled in my English 1 Honors course (n = 46) engaged in asynchronous discussion which was centered on a structured weekly debate. Debate groups received increasingly complex prompts each week and participated in required periods of reading, reflecting, writing, and responding. The Cornell Critical Thinking Test was used as a pre- and post-test to measure the impact of the intervention on student critical thinking skills. In addition, student discussion posts were analyzed at the beginning, middle, and end of the intervention with the Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric to examine how critical thinking skills evolved throughout the course of the study. Students completed a Likert style questionnaire, and a subset of students participated in focus group interviews about their perceptions of how asynchronous discussion impacted their ability to critically think. Transcripts of the focus group interviews were coded looking for patterns and similar ideas in order to generate general themes about the data. Results from all four measures indicated that asynchronous discussions positively impacted student critical thinking skills. Likewise, students had positive perceptions of asynchronous discussions and its impact on their critical thinking ability. Implications on developing secondary school students’ critical thinking are discussed

New Cyber Charter Teachers’ Perceptions of their Induction Program in Preparing them for Online Instruction: A Mixed Methods Study

Those who teach online are often concerned with preservice or in‐service teacher development, specifically the lack of specialized opportunities focusing on online instructional practices. Online educators have acknowledged that this focus is limited and that the induction years of beginning teachers are an important component of teacher development. This mixed-method sequential explanatory study focused on the induction years of cyber charter teachers. It examined their perceptions of their induction program with the intention of adding to the literature in this under-examined area (Creswell, 2013). Twenty new online teachers shared the perceptions of the induction program through Likert scale items on a questionnaire. The researcher utilized a series of ANOVAs for each of the dependent variables of interest, which were scored on the survey\u27s different subscales. The qualitative phase involved a semi-structured focus group interview and journal entries designed to understand teachers\u27 perceptions of their induction program (Creswell, 2013). The results suggested that the induction program\u27s practical focus effectively prepares and builds confidence in new cyber charter teachers. Additionally, respondents indicated that same subject peers and mentor support as well as access to sandbox courses or practice courses contributed to their effective asynchronous lesson development preparation and synchronous lesson delivery

The effects of question prompt-based scaffolding and social presence enhancement on students' argumentation and ill-structured problem solving

Asynchronous online discussions have the potential to facilitate meaningful learning activities, such as ill-structured problem-solving, due to their asynchronicity and connectivity. However, the literature identifies two significant challenges in effectively supporting students' ill-structured problem-solving in these environments - argumentation and social interactions. Although argumentation is critical for ill-structured problem-solving, students tend to avoid engaging in critical argumentation activities, such as generating rebuttals and counterarguments, to construct meaning in discussion forums. Similarly, social interactions are essential to ill-structured problem-solving, but students tend to display low levels of engagement in asynchronous online discussions. This study aimed to explore how these two critical components of problem-solving can be supported in asynchronous online discussions using question prompt-based argumentation scaffolds in combination with social presence enhancement strategies. The primary focus was to compare the differential effects of question prompts alone and the combination of question prompts with social presence enhancement prompts on students' argumentation behaviors, problem-solving processes during discussions, and post-test problem-solving performance. This study randomly assigned 44 students to three conditions (control, question prompt-based, and question prompt with social presence enhancement) to analyze their argumentation behaviors, problem-solving processes, and problem-solving performance in asynchronous online discussions. The findings reveal that: (1) lower level interactive argumentation behaviors dominate over higher level interactive ones; (2) students focus more on identifying problem representations and generating solutions than on justifying and evaluating them; (3) there is no significant difference in argumentation behaviors and problem-solving processes in asynchronous online discussions across the conditions. However, students who received both the question prompt scaffolds and the social presence enhancement strategies consistently showed more evidence of engaging in argumentation, especially higher level interactive argumentation, and in problem-solving processes; and (4) there is a significant difference in post-test problem-solving performance across conditions, where students in the condition that received both the question prompt scaffolds and the social presence enhancement strategies performed significantly better than students in the control condition. The study's findings underscore the importance of supporting students' social presence to engage them in interactive argumentation and problem-solving processes, thereby enhancing their problem-solving performance. This study contributes to the understanding of argumentation scaffolding and social interactions in asynchronous online discussion environments and provides design recommendations for instructional designers and instructors seeking to support students' argumentation and social presence in these environments.Includes bibliographical references