WHAT IS IT THAT YOU KNOW WHEN YOU KNOW ? COMPREHENSION GOALS AND COMPREHENSION MISMATCHES IN COLLEGE STUDENTS (STUDY BEHAVIORS, METACOMPREHENSION, TEST TAKING)

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the comprehension mismatch experience as it related to students\u27 comprehension goals and testing experiences. In Study 1, subjects reported their reading-related comprehension goals while studying a 3500-word text. A questionnaire was administered assessing comprehension of and interest in the text, frequency of mismatches and general studying behavior. Results of Study 1 indicated that eighty-seven percent of the students surveyed reported moderate to frequent mismatches. Subjects varying in mismatch frequency did not differ significantly with regard to any of the performance measures. The comprehension level quiz items were rated as most appropriate and the application-analysis items as least appropriate using the criteria established by Bloom et al. (1956). In Study 2, subjects completed a quiz containing either factual or applied questions after reading a text and reporting their comprehension goals. The results from Study 2 indicated that comprehension goals were not significantly related to overall quiz performance. Stepwise multiple regression analyses yielded different sets of predictor variables for each quiz type. Subjects\u27 ratings of their mismatch episodes were not significantly related to text comprehension, reading proficiency or quiz performance. It was observed, however, that low and moderate mismatch subjects were more accurate in estimating their test readiness than high mismatch subjects. Post-quiz evaluations indicated that subjects receiving the applied quiz reported significantly higher mismatch ratings of the testing experience than subjects receiving the factual quiz. The present findings point to the importance of reader interest, reading proficiency, reader expectations and the type of comprehension measure administered, in examining questions related to reading and testing. Continued investigation of the comprehension mismatch phenomenon appears warranted given the high proportion of students reporting such experiences. Future research on comprehension mismatches might be best directed toward developing profiles of subjects differing in mismatch experiences with particular attention paid to learning styles, testing situations related to mismatching, and previous educational experience

Modeling educational quizzes as board games

In last decades, online computer games are used for e-learning purposes with significant success which determines steadily increasing interest in game development. Board games are special group of computer games where figures are manipulated on a surface according predefined rules. The paper presents a new, formalized model of traditional quizzes, puzzles and quests as multimedia board games created for facilitating the construction process of games of such types. By several examples authors show the model is quite general in order to support not only quiz, puzzle and quest presentation but also any instructional set of teaching activities presented as a race game. An adaptive game control strategy is proposed where dices are used for random selection of complexity of next questions. The model is going to be used as a basic paradigm for construction of a software platform for multimedia game development for adaptive education

Professionalism in medicine. What is it and how can it be taught?

This study examines the conceptual framework and teaching of medical professionalism from the perspectives of the literature on the subject, clinicians engaged in clinical teaching regarding professionalism, and medical students. I begin with a brief history and overview of the concepts of professionalism in medicine. I follow that with a Best Evidence in Medical Education (BEME) systematic review of the literature to identify the best evidence for how professionalism should be defined and taught. This review found that there is as yet no overarching conceptual context that is universally agreed upon. The development of ways to teach and assess professionalism has been encumbered, and failed to progress, in large part because of this amorphous nature of the various definitions promoted. The review also found no unifying accepted theory or set of accepted practice criteria for teaching professionalism. Evident themes in the literature are that role modelling and personal reflections, ideally guided by faculty, are the important elements in current teaching programs, and are widely believed to be the most effective techniques for developing professionalism. While it is generally agreed that professionalism should be part of the whole of a medical curriculum, the specifics of sequence, depth, detail, and the nature of how to integrate professionalism with other curriculum elements remain matters of evolving theory. No teaching methodology has been demonstrated in the literature to be effective or accepted for use across a wide range of medical schools. I next developed and carried out qualitative studies to discover what conceptual understanding (mental models) of professionalism medical students and clinical educators held, how these two groups view current professionalism training as a component of medical education, and how they think it should be taught. I found that medical students achieve professionalism through the influence of their exposure to seasoned professionals and through informal peer reflection. The doctors in my study group achieved professionalism not through any formal training they received, but as a result of the actions and attitudes they witnessed during their training, which created a path to reflective practice that they have sustained. I conclude by proposing a conceptual model for instilling professionalism through medical education. This model captures the formative influences on professionalism and provides a framework for understanding professional performance. The teaching of professionalism should be integrated into all years of the medical curriculum, and across all disciplines included in the curriculum. Some attributes of professionalism, such as ethics and communication skills, can be introduced in early years. Mentoring and exposure to positive role models hold the most promise as effective teaching methods. Guided reflection turns transient incidents and experiences into true learning moments, solidifying and honing professionalism. Ultimately professionalism should be viewed as an ethos. I hope that my findings will improve our ability to instil professionalism in our students

Evaluation of game templates to support programming activities in schools

Game creation challenges in schools potentially provide engaging, goal-oriented, and interactive experiences in classes; thereby supporting the transfer of knowledge for learning in a fun and pedagogic manner. A key element of the ongoing European project No One Left Behind (NOLB) is to integrate a game-making teaching framework (GMTF) into the educational app Pocket Code. Pocket Code allows learners to create programs in a visual Lego®-style way to facilitate learning how to code at secondary high schools. The concept of the NOLB GMTF is based on principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model. Its focus lies on three pillars of learning: the what, how, and why. Thereby, the NOLB GMTF is a common set of concepts, practices, pedagogy, and methods. This framework provides a coherent approach to learning and teaching by integrating leisure oriented gaming methods into multi-discipline curricula. One output of this framework is the integration of game-based methods via game templates that refer to didactical scenarios that include a refined set of genres, assets, rules, challenges, and strategies. These templates allows: 1) teachers to start with a well-structured program, and 2) pupils to add content and adjust the code to integrate their own ideas. During the project game genres such as adventure, action, and quiz, as well as rewards or victory point mechanisms, have been embedded into different subjects, e.g., science, mathematics, and arts. The insights gained during the class hours were used to generate 13 game templates, which are integrated in Create@School (a new version of the Pocket Code app which targets schools). To test the efficiency of these templates, user experience (UX) tests were conducted during classes to compare games created by pupils who used templates and those who started to create a game from scratch. Preliminary results showed that these templates allow learners to focus on subject-relevant problem solving activities rather than on understanding the functionality of the app. This directly leads to more time to express their creativity in different levels and more time for extra tasks

Enhancing Deeper Learning Using Empathy and Creativity In Role-Playing Serious Games

Although educational technology has been widely used in education and remarkably supported instruction and assessment in face-to-face instruction, remote teaching and e-learning, teaching approaches have little deviated from the conventional approaches. Since the last decade, there is a shift in education to redesign teaching strategies. Education set priorities in promoting and supporting deeper learning to empower learners in thinking critically and creatively and gain skills and expertise in transferring their knowledge and applying it in other contexts to solve new problems. Concurrently, there is a remarkable interest by educators in harnessing the power of digital games and transferring it in education by designing Serious games. Serious Games are digital games designed to support learning, training, skill acquisition, and social and behavioural change. Serious Games integrate game design elements and gamification elements such as story, characters, score, visual objects, and rewards to create a positive mood while learning, increasing excitement, interest, motivation and engagement. Bridging the necessity for guiding learners in reaching deeper learning with Serious Games, this research thesis proposes the DeLEC pedagogical framework. DeLEC provides a pedagogic model which includes an iterative learning process of instruction, assessment and feedback integrating the elements of empathy and creativity. Aiming to investigate whether the proposed DeLEC framework is valid and indeed supports learners in reaching deeper learning, a Serious Game is designed to apply the phases of the DeLEC framework. The Serious Game is called Stronger and has the form of role-playing designed with a story and characters on a fictitious scenario around domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Stronger was tested with participants in a comparative study with an e-learning course on the same learning material. The results emerged from the data analysis demonstrated higher results in learning and deeper learning compared to the e-learning course leading to conclusions that confirm that the proposed DeLEC framework indeed assists learners in reaching Deeper Learning with Serious Games

Using App Inventor to Explore Low-Achieving Students\u27 Understanding of Fractions

A student\u27s understanding of fraction magnitude impacts his/her understanding of algebra (e.g., Booth & Newton, 2012; Siegler et al., 2012), which then influences his/her likelihood of graduating high school (Orihuela, 2006) or succeeding in higher education (Adelman & United States., 2006; Trusty & Niles, 2004). Literature suggests that students gain this understanding when they create and work with various representations of fractions (e.g., Ainsworth, Bibby, & Wood, 2002; Panaoura et al., 2009; Siegler, Fazio, Bailey, & Zhou, 2013), which can occur when students engage in constructivist activities such as developing games (Kafai, 1996, Apr). This study examines an intervention where low-achieving eighth-grade students develop games about fraction magnitude using App Inventor, a novice programming environment, to determine what representations students create in their games, how their understanding of fraction magnitude develops when making their games, and what challenges they experience other than challenges concerning fractions. It uses a holistic case study with embedded units to understand the major themes for each research question while considering the influences of individual backgrounds and the various kinds of games each developed. Kolb\u27s (1984) experiential learning theory, which states that ideas are formed by experiences and which occurs when one programs or codes a computer (Robins, Rountree, & Rountree, 2003), grounds the data analysis. The findings of this study indicate that students primarily use numeric representations and area models to represent fraction magnitude, which are also the most common representations found in textbooks (Zhang, 2012). They developed their understanding by working with area models, talking about area models, or by developing code to compare two fractions. The way they constructed and critiqued these representations map to the experiential learning cycle, showing that they engaged in concrete experiences with fractions, reflected on the experience, conceptualized their new learning, and experimented with that learning to develop their understanding of fraction magnitude. The challenges they experienced ranged from coding difficulties, such as decomposing their designs into components to code, to non-coding challenges, such as collaborating. Limitations of this study are discussed and implications for practice and future research are delineated