Nitesh Kumar Jha

Advanced Technology and Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India // nitesh.jha1092@gmail.com

Plaban Kumar Bhowmik

G.S    Sanyal School of Telecommunications, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India // plaban@gmail.com

Kaushal Kumar Bhagat

Advanced Technology and Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India // kkntnu@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT: 

The aim of this study is to provide a current synthesis of Online Inquiry-Based Learning (OIBL) systems that use argumentation as a pedagogy. Data were collected from three databases: Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC. The present review synthesized the findings of 73 studies from 2010 to June 2023. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to examine the inquiry-based systems regarding design features that support argumentation and learning outcomes. Four design features were identified: engaging students in unique and meaningful topics, providing visualization and scaffolding tools, collaborative inquiry in groups, and sharing and critiquing arguments. Most studies provided scaffolding and visualization support, while a few allowed students to engage in unique and meaningful topics. Most studies measured higher-level cognitive outcomes in contrast to lower-level outcomes. Future studies need to design systems for a more diverse population of students with improved collaboration support. In addition, this review identified a need to focus more on interdisciplinary topics rather than natural science.   

Keywords: 

Argumentation, Inquiry-based learning, Online argumentation, Online inquiry, Online inquiry-based learning system 

Victor Law

University of New Mexico, USA // vlaw@unm.edu

Manuel J. Jimenez

University of New Mexico, USA // mjimenez.abq@gmail.com

Liza Kittinger

University of New Mexico, USA // lizakittinger@gmail.com

Barbara Lopez

University of New Mexico, USA // barbislop@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: 

The popularity of digital badges has been accelerated in recent years. Advocates of digital badges suggest their use may improve students’ motivation and achievement, but existing empirical studies have failed to show consistent results. Furthermore, to date, no meta-analysis has been conducted on the topic of digital badges. Given this gap, the purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the effect of digital badges on student motivation and learning achievement. Our results suggest that digital badges have a significant impact on learning achievement, but the effect on motivation is inconclusive. In addition, moderator analyses were conducted to test the extent to which badge visibility, grade level, content area, and length of intervention influence the effects on motivation and learning achievement. The study provides an early summary of empirical digital badge research -- an area still in its infancy. The results of this meta-analysis provide a foundation for the future of digital badge design and development research. Furthermore, our results can inform the practice of the implementation of digital badges in that digital badges can have stronger effects in the higher education context, with STEM subjects, and for a medium duration of one to nine weeks.

Keywords: 

Digital badge, Motivation, Achievement, Meta-analysis

Hui Shan Lo

Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan // sunnylo519@gmail.com

Yung Ji Sher

Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan // siaa@ntnu.edu.tw

Jon Chao Hong

Institute for Research Excellence in Learning Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan // hongjc@ntnu.edu.tw

Hsu Kai Chang

Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan // 61017010E@ntnu.edu.tw

Ting Fang Wu

Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan // tfwu@ntnu.edu.tw

ABSTRACT: 

Virtual Reality (VR) holds promise in vocational education and benefits individuals with disabilities. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a blended learning approach using VR and traditional instruction in teaching car detailing skills to students with intellectual disabilities (ID). This study utilized a group comparison research design, employing a pre- and posttest approach. The participants consisted of 21 students with ID. The blended learning group received the regular school-based course (4 hours/week) and additional VR sessions, while the traditional learning group only received the regular school-based course. Both the blended learning group and the traditional learning group completed assessments before and after the intervention. The results indicated that the blended learning group students demonstrated significant improvement from the pretest to the posttest, while the traditional learning group students did not. In conclusion, the findings suggest that blended learning was more effective in terms of enhancing understanding of the car washing sequence than the traditional learning.

Keywords: 

Blended learning, Individuals with intellectual disabilities, Car detailing skills

Rwitajit Majumdar

Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies, Kyoto University, Japan // Research and Education Institute for Semiconductors and Informatics, Kumamoto University, Japan // majumdar@kumamoto-u.ac.jp

Huiyong Li

Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies, Kyoto University, Japan // li.huiyong.2t@kyoto-u.ac.jp 

Yuanyuan Yang

Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan // 44.yangoo@gmail.com

Hiroaki Ogata

Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies, Kyoto University, Japan // ogata.hiroaki.3e@kyoto-u.ac.jp 

ABSTRACT: 

Self-direction skill (SDS) is an essential 21st-century skill that can help learners be independent and organized in their quest for knowledge acquisition. While some studies considered learners from higher education levels as the target audience, providing opportunities to start the SDS practice by K12 learners is still rare. Further, practicing such skills requires a concrete context and scaffolding during the skill acquisition. This article introduces the Goal Oriented Active Learner (GOAL) system that facilitates SDS acquisition in learners utilizing daily activities as context. The GOAL architecture integrates learning logs from online environments and physical activity logs from wearable trackers to provide a data-rich environment for the learners to acquire and practice their SDS. The GOAL users follow DAPER, a five-phase process model, to utilize the affordances in the system while practicing SDS. We implemented the GOAL system at a K12 public institution in Japan in 2019. Learners used the online environments for extensive reading and smartwatches for tracking walking and sleeping activities. This study analyzes detailed interaction patterns in GOAL while learners planned and monitored their self-directed actions. The results illustrate the strategies for DAPER behaviors that emerge in different activity contexts. We discuss the potentials and challenges of this technology ecosystem that connects learners’ learning logs and physical activity logs, specifically in the K12 context in Japan and, more generally, from the learning analytics research perspective to provide a context to practice SDS.

Keywords: 

Learning and Evidence Analytics Framework (LEAF), Evidence-based education, Learning analytics, K-12 education, eBook, Smartwatch

I-Cheng Lin

Department of Finance, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan // icliniclin@cc.ncue.edu.tw

Shu-Hsuan Chang

Department of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua County, Taiwan // shc@cc.ncue.edu.tw

Pin-Chien Liu

Department of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua County, Taiwan // d0731009@gm.ncue.edu.tw

Po-Jen Kuo

Department of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua County, Taiwan // pc7938@icloud.com

Kuo Chia Chung

Department of Mathematics, National Kaohsiung Normal University of Education, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan // abc0919303857@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: 

Creativity has been proven to be a core competitiveness in the twenty-first century. Although many experimental studies have confirmed that game learning can improve creativity, some studies have contrary results. Currently, there are very few, and primarily incomplete, meta-analyses integrating experimental studies of educational gaming’s impact on creativity. The current meta-analysis included 29 articles from 2002 to 2022, containing 116 effect sizes and 4,159 student subjects. The results showed that the overall mean weighted effect size was 0.84, indicating that game learning significantly positively affected students’ creativity compared with non-game learning. In addition, the mean effect size was moderated by digital content, teaching strategies, educational stages, publication sources, and class size but not by patterns, disciplines, and experiment duration. Accordingly, this study provides new insights and suggestions on improving creativity via game learning design and implementation as a reference for researchers, teachers, game designers, and developers in the field of creativity.

Keywords: 

Game learning, Gamification, Game-based learning, Digital game-based learning, Creativity, Meta-analysis

Yun Wen1

National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore // yun.wen@nie.edu.sg 

Yanjie Song

Education University of Hong Kong, China // ysong@eduhk.hk

Guat Poh Aw

National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore // guatpoh.aw@nie.edu.sg

Hock Huan Goh

National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore // hockhuan.goh@nie.edu.sg

Yingjiang Zheng

Academic of Singapore Teachers, Singapore // zheng_yingjiang@schools.gov.sg

Yanyan Wang

Ministry of Education, Singapore // wang_yanyan@moe.gov.sg

ABSTRACT: 

Existing studies have evidenced that mobile-assisted vocabulary learning, which allows students to create artefacts and engage in productive skills, can help them in vocabulary learning. However, there remains little research and validated approaches for designing seamless vocabulary learning experiences for young learners. In this paper, a seamless vocabulary learning system was specifically designed for young learners. The study involved three classes of primary 2 students to investigate the learning effectiveness of seamless vocabulary learning, with a focus on analyzing student-generated artefacts. The results validated the effectiveness of seamless vocabulary learning for young learners, emphasizing the importance of strengthening the connection between home-based learning and classroom-based learning. The study also indicated the pivotal role of providing students with opportunities to improve their artefacts constantly across different learning contexts.

Keywords: 

Seamless learning, Vocabulary learning, Chinese as second language learning, Primary school

Mindfulness mitigates the adverse effects of problematic smartphone use on academic self-efficacy: A structural equation modelling analysis

Sandy C. Li

Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China // sandyli@hkbu.edu.hk

Jackie W. W. Chan

Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China // chanwunw@hkbu.edu.hk

Andrew K. F. Lui

Queensland University of Technology, Australia // ak.lui@qut.edu.au

Ming Lui

University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom // ming.lui@roehampton.ac.uk

Raymond W. P. Wong

Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China // wongwp@vtc.edu.hk

ABSTRACT: 

While prior research has shown higher mindfulness is associated with lower problematic smartphone use (PSU), the contexts of these studies were not related to education or student performance. As such, whether and how mindfulness can reduce the adverse effects of PSU on academic self-efficacy remains unknown. This study proposed a model for testing whether and how mindfulness exerts its effects on PSU and academic self-efficacy through different pathways in which self-esteem, academic motivation, and smartphone time serve as mediators. To this end, a questionnaire survey, comprising Smartphone Addiction Scale (Short Version), Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Short Academic Motivation Scale, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, and Educational Self-efficacy Scale, was administered to a sample of 821 university students from Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. The findings of this study show that mindfulness reduces the adverse effects of PSU on academic self-efficacy. Four different mediation pathways were identified, showing how the effects of mindfulness on PSU and academic self-efficacy are mediated through self-esteem, academic amotivation, and smartphone time. Specifically, mindfulness has a direct negative effect on PSU and a direct positive effect on academic self-efficacy. Mindfulness also exerts indirect effects on PSU mediated serially by self-esteem, academic amotivation, and smartphone time.

Keywords: 

Smartphone time, Self-esteem, Academic intrinsic motivation, Academic amotivation, Academic self-efficacy

Xiaohong Liu

School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China // xiaohongliu1211@gmail.com 

Jon-Chao Hong 

School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China // tcdahong@gmail.com

Li Zhao

School of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China // li.zhao@njnu.edu.cn

ABSTRACT: 

Self-directed learning (SDL) is a basic individual ability in modern society. It is of great value to explore SDL and its relationship to learners’ online learning effectiveness. This study explored the relationships among online learners’ personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion), SDL (SDL-approach and SDL-attitude), and perceived online learning ineffectiveness (POLI). A total of 668 high school students who had received online learning completed the survey. Results revealed that neuroticism negatively predicted SDL-approach and SDL-attitude, whereas extraversion was positively correlated with SDL-approach and SDL-attitude, and SDL-approach and SDL-attitude were negatively correlated with POLI. In addition, the correlation between personality traits and POLI was significantly mediated by the two types of SDL. The findings provide educators with empirical evidence and insights about improving students’ SDL and understanding the importance of personality traits in online learning.

Keywords: 

High school students, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Self-directed learning, Online learning effectiveness

Min Zhang

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // zhangm122@nenu.edu.cn

Qiang Jiang 

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // jiangqiang@nenu.edu.cn

Weiyan Xiong

Department of International Education, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong // xiong.weiyan@hotmail.com 

Qi Li

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // liq410@nenu.edu.cn

Wei Zhao

School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, China // zhaow577@nenu.edu.cn

ABSTRACT: 

Self-directed learning with mobile technology (SDLMT) is critical to students’ learning success. However, only minimal research has been conducted on the manner by which significant aspects (e.g., self-efficacy, student engagement) are related to SDLMT. This study analyzed the answers of 485 Chinese students (seventh to ninth grades) who were surveyed, and evaluated the relationships among self-efficacy (Internet self-efficacy and online communication self-efficacy), student engagement (behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social engagement), and SDLMT. Structural equation model revealed that SDLMT was positively predicted by self-efficacy, and SDLMT was positively impacted by student engagement. Moreover, the mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS plugin in SPSS and determined that after controlling for gender and grade, the relationship between self-efficacy and SDLMT was partially mediated by student engagement. Findings established the value of self-efficacy for SDLMT, and further emphasized the vital mediating role of student engagement. Hence, developing K–12 students’ SDLMT entails enhancing self-efficacy and student engagement.

Keywords: 

Self-efficacy, Student engagement, Self-directed learning, Mobile technology, Self-directed learning with mobile technology

Lianjiang Jiang

Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, HKSAR China // jljiang@hku.hk

Hayley Kam

Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, HKSAR China // kamhaynamhayley@gmail.com

Daniel Ferguson

Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, HKSAR China // danielf@connect.hku.hk

ABSTRACT: 

The importance of self-directed language learning is well documented. Yet whether and how teachers in K-12 contexts can facilitate self-directed language learning, particularly during the pandemic, remains underexplored. Informed by a sociocultural conceptualization of self-directed language learning as socially mediated action, this study presents a tale of two primary English teachers’ use of digital multimodal composing (DMC) to facilitate self-directed language learning among their young learners. Multiple sources of data were gathered, including in-depth interviews, observation, reflection, and multimodal videos. The analysis shows that using DMC in K-12 language pedagogies affords a new avenue for the two teachers to engage their students with self-directed language learning. The findings reveal that with DMC, the teachers facilitated their young learners with both artifactual literacies and participatory contributions to an online English community. With the artifactual and participatory patterns of literacy learning during DMC, the study argues that self-directed language learning for contemporary young learners is becoming multimodal, digital, embodied, artifactual, connected, collaborative, and distributed within and across multiple spaces. The study refutes a deficit perspective toward K-12 learners and advocates recognizing and building on their linguistic and cultural repertories for the emergent process of self-directed language learning with technologies. Implications on how K-12 teachers should go beyond technological know-how to pedagogical know-how are also discussed. 

Keywords: 

Self-directed language learning, Digital multimodal composing, Primary English teachers, Artifactual, Participatory

Carmen Durham

University of Northern Iowa, USA // carmen.durham@uni.edu

Loren Jones

University of Maryland, USA // ldjones@umd.edu

ABSTRACT: 

Technology continually changes day-to-day interactions, and emergent bilingual learners often multitask, using several digital tools, at times simultaneously, to communicate and learn. Students may text, post on social media, and listen to music as they complete their work. Studies have examined the affordances of technology for language learning, both inside and outside of traditional classroom settings. However, as we seek to better understand how teachers can incorporate students’ experiences and interests in academic settings, more research is needed on the nuanced ways that students leverage multiple digital tools as they multitask, or quickly alternate between technologies. This ethnographic study focuses on two high school classes of English to speakers of other languages in the United States. Through the lens of sociocultural theory, we examine how emergent bilingual students multitask with digital tools and how teachers facilitate technology use. Findings reveal that although teachers actively and explicitly approved specific assignments and digital tools that would lead to accomplishing daily language and content objectives, students also purposefully selected other digital tools that would help them co-construct knowledge with peers, and they often switched between various websites across multiple devices to examine content that was closely related to their interests and lived experiences. Evidence from previous studies supports that multitasking can be harmful to learning, but this study found that multitasking can also mediate learning, especially self-directed learning, which has important implications for how teachers implement digital tools in the classroom.

Keywords:

Multitasking, Sociocultural theory, Self-directed learning, English to speakers of other languages, Emergent bilingual learners

Yin Yang

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Competency Education Centre, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong //  yangyinnicole@gmail.com

Yuyang Cai

School of Languages, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, China // sailor_cai@hotmail.com

Yanjie Song

Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong // ysong@eduhk.hk

ABSTRACT: 

The effect of technology on primary students’ self-regulated vocabulary learning (SRVL) over time and its dynamic relationship with vocabulary outcomes have been scarcely studied. This quasi-experimental study reports a longitudinal inquiry into the effect of a mobile-assisted self-regulation scheme on primary students’ SRVL and the relationship between the changes in the perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcome. The study lasted seven months. Participants were 174 Grade 4 students (89 girls) from four classes at a primary school in Mainland China. Two classes were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Students in both groups used the app named Vocab+, the former with and the latter without a mobile-assisted self-regulation scheme. Data collection included questionnaires on students’ perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary tests. Latent Growth Modelling (LGM) was used to analyse data. The results showed that perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes increased over time. The findings further revealed that students in the experimental group exhibited a steeper increasing trend in perceived SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes. Besides, the association between the growth rates of students’ perception of SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes was stronger with the experimental group than with the control group. Our results provided theoretical implications for understanding the relationship between SRVL skills and vocabulary learning outcomes from a developmental perspective.  

Keywords: 

Self-regulated learning (SRL), Mobile-assisted self-regulation scheme, Self-regulated vocabulary learning (SRVL), Latent growth modelling