Vol 12 no 1 june 2015 by ijlter.org

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching And Educational Research

Vol.12 No.1

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is an open-access journal which has been established for the disChief Editor Dr. Antonio Silva Sprock, Universidad Central de semination of state-of-the-art knowledge in the Venezuela, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of field of education, learning and teaching. IJLTER welcomes research articles from academics, edEditorial Board ucators, teachers, trainers and other practitionProf. Cecilia Junio Sabio ers on all aspects of education to publish high Prof. Judith Serah K. Achoka quality peer-reviewed papers. Papers for publiProf. Mojeed Kolawole Akinsola Dr Jonathan Glazzard cation in the International Journal of Learning, Dr Marius Costel Esi Teaching and Educational Research are selected Dr Katarzyna Peoples through precise peer-review to ensure quality, Dr Christopher David Thompson originality, appropriateness, significance and Dr Arif Sikander readability. Authors are solicited to contribute Dr Jelena Zascerinska to this journal by submitting articles that illusDr Gabor Kiss trate research results, projects, original surveys Dr Trish Julie Rooney Dr Esteban Vázquez-Cano and case studies that describe significant adDr Barry Chametzky vances in the fields of education, training, eDr Giorgio Poletti learning, etc. Authors are invited to submit paDr Chi Man Tsui pers to this journal through the ONLINE submisDr Alexander Franco sion system. Submissions must be original and Dr Habil Beata Stachowiak should not have been published previously or Dr Afsaneh Sharif be under consideration for publication while Dr Ronel Callaghan Dr Haim Shaked being evaluated by IJLTER. Dr Edith Uzoma Umeh Dr Amel Thafer Alshehry Dr Gail Dianna Caruth Dr Menelaos Emmanouel Sarris Dr Anabelie Villa Valdez Dr Özcan Özyurt Assistant Professor Dr Selma Kara Associate Professor Dr Habila Elisha Zuya

VOLUME 12

NUMBER 1

June 2015

Table of Contents Coping with Teasing and Name-Calling Scale for Children ............................................................................................. 1 Ümit Sahranç Assessment for Learning: How Plagiarism can be used as an Efficient Learning Tool ............................................... 17 Lucía Morales and Amparo Soler-Domínguez The use of Technology to Support the Innovative Teaching of Mathematics to Students with SEBD: A Debate Related to the use of Technology in the Classroom to Promote Inclusion .................................................................... 35 Jonathan Camenzuli An Effective Approach for Teaching Database ................................................................................................................ 53 K. S. Sastry, Musti Circuit Analysis Tools: Integrating Smartphone and Tablet Applications and Simulation Software into Circuit Analysis Instruction and Laboratories ............................................................................................................................... 64 John Ulrich, Charles Feldhaus, Elaine Cooney and David Nickolich Efficacy of Cognitive Instruction in Teaching Deictic Motion Verbs in EFL Classrooms .......................................... 84 Hu, Ying-hsueh Teaching in Interactive Pedagogical Perspective at Primary Schools in Northern Mountainous Provinces of Vietnam ............................................................................................................................................................................... 105 Associate Prof. Dr. Duc-Hoa Pho Discussion Forums in MOOCs .......................................................................................................................................... 119 Afsaneh Sharif and Barry Magrill An Empirical Research on the Use of Mobile Phones to Support Students’ Mathematics Learning ...................... 133 Nguyen Danh Nam and Trinh Thi Phuong Thao

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 1-16, June 2015

Coping with Teasing and Name-Calling Scale for Children Ümit Sahranç Sakarya University Turkey

Abstract The aim of this study was to develop a Coping with Teasing and Name-Calling Scale for Children (C-TANCS-C). A sample of 317 students (156 girls, 161 boys) completed C-TANCS-C. Principal components factor analysis and direct oblique rotation were used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to confirm the obtained factors. The results of EFA revealed that C-TANCS-C had three factors (aggression, ignoring, and convincing) with 12 items. 12 Items explained 62.94 % of the total variance. The results of CFA demonstrated that the 12 items loaded on three factors and the model had an acceptable fit (x²= 120.15, df= 51, RMSEA=.069, NNFI=.94, CFI=.97, IFI=.97, and SRMR=.061). The internal consistency coefficients were .82 for the overall scale, .81 for aggression, and .78 for convincing factor. The corrected item-total correlations ranged from .26 to .62. In terms of convergent validity, CTANCS-C scores were found to be positively and significantly correlated with Rosenberg self-esteem scale (r= .19, = 31.63, sd= 5.23, α= .01), and hope scale scores (r= .30, = 28.78, sd= 5.57, α= .01). The study also revealed that coping levels of students C-TANCS-C scores changed according to gender and grade, were girls’ coping levels were higher than boys, coping levels of students were highest at 4th grade, lowest at 7th grade. Overall findings demonstrated that this scale is a valid and reliable. Key words: Coping with teasing; name-calling; bullying; confirmatory factor analysis.

Introduction Teasing and name-calling are common occurrences among elementary and secondary school children in Turkey. It is also a problem in many countries such as United States, Japan, Australia, Ireland, Canada, Great Britain, Malta, and Finland (Aho, 1998; Borg, 1999; Bosacki, Harwood and Sumaway, 2012; Dennis, 1999; Slater and Tiggemann, 2011). Elementary and secondary school teachers complain about teasing and name-calling behaviors of their students to school counselors.

Characteristics and definition of teasing An ordinary tease contains a negative expression about the target person but is shaped as play or humor (Alberts and Kellar-Guenther, 1996). Some authors suggested that there are many types of teasing. As afore mentioned, namecalling as a tease, is the "act of teasing or referring to a peer with a label that may create unpleasant or hurtful feelings" (Dennis, 1999); or occurs when one child refers to another with an unkind label (Embry and Luzzo, 1996). Name-calling has been categorized as mild, moderate, and severe. Mild name-calling includes mocking and taunting. Moderate verbal abuse includes teasing about clothing, possessions, or appearance. At the severe level, verbal threats of violence or threats to inflict bodily harm (Horner, Asher, Fireman, 2015; Dennis, 1999) can be easily named as bullying. Because bullying covers threats and the intention of physical harm (Borg, 1999; Olweus, 1993). However, not all kinds of teasing is harmful. According to Ross (1996) playful teasing can be amusing and constructive. Teasing itself and being teased can support children to gain social skills that they will need in their later life. Playful teasing serves as a developmental function. For instance, teasing may contribute to the development of gendered relational identity, identity display, and social control (Pichler, 2006). Yet some children seem not to have necessary social skills that are required to be developed for further adolescence and adulthood interactions, even for a constructive or playful teasing manner and more importantly, social skills to cope with non-playful teasing. Though developmental in function Ross (1996) explained that teasing; sometimes playful teasing can be non-playful. Teasing is a permeative, potentially troubled communication behavior (Alberts and Kellar-Guenther, 1996). In such cases, teasing is somehow a kind of problematic communicative interaction between people that has negative consequences including problems related to abandonment by peers, course attendance, academic achievement, self-esteem, anxiety, loneliness (Embry and Luzzo, 1996). Recent research revealed that body dissatisfactions (Konstanski and Gullone, 2007; Slater and Tiggemann, 2011) and eating problems (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2002) are also related to teasing. According to Mills and Carwile (2009), teasing varies from indirect and direct forms of aggression including mocking, hurtful teasing, assigning hurtful nicknames and other forms of name calling to humor and some kind of psycho-socially challenging play. In other words, the nature of teasing may include both negative and positive sides. This paradoxical characteristic of teasing makes an explanation of the concept of teasing difficult in terms of operational definition and clarity. This article treats the terms of teasing and name calling as variations of bullying consistent with the definitions of Dennis (1999), Embry and Luzzo (1996), and Olweus (1993). Even though it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the concepts of bullying, teasing and name-calling, it should be remembered bullying behavior involves overt hostile intention and overt intimidation; but teasing does not (Mills and Carwile, 2009). In this respect, a clear operational definition of teasing and name-calling is required. After adding some elements on previous ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

definition of teasing and name-calling made by the Sahranç (2014) the definition becomes “Teasing is any kind of teaser's (or teasers’) recurrent verbal behavior(s) by which the person being teased is referred as an undesired label, an unkind manner, only because of one or more of attributed real or unreal characteristic(s) of person being teased, resulted in distress on targeted (teased) person via a form of explicit or implicit humor even though it is not humor”. The definition has five components beyond person being teased. They are: (1) recurrent verbal behavior of perpetrator(s) or teaser(s), (2) negative manner, (3) attributed characteristics of targeted person (the person being teased), (4) stressful emotional consequences on the behalf of targeted person, and (5) humor-persona. Name-calling is a kind of teasing by which the person(s) being called as an undesired label. Name-calling is covered by this definition, and physical injury or bullying behaviors are extracted. Results of teasing and name calling Understanding the reason for why some children are affected negatively by teasing even though some are not is difficult to categorize. At first glance, it is easily observed that some of children do not seem to be negatively affected; some are heavily disturbed and feel injured even though the very same teasing behavior or manner they both face with teasing and name-calling. Students who are the targets of offensive teasing and name-calling usually face painful social, emotional, and academic consequences (Nansel, Overpeck, Pilla, June Ruan, Simons-Morton, & Scheidt, 2001). These consequences may include chronic absenteeism, diminished academic performance, deflated self-esteem, increased anxiety, loneliness, and abandonment by peers. Victims also experience embarrassment, rejection, and apprehension. (Embry and Luzzo, 1996; Bucchianeri, Eisenberg, Wall, Piran, & Neumark-Sztainer, 2014; Juvonen, Graham, & Schuster, 2003). Current study In the literature of bullying, teasing and name-calling, there are some scales related to teasing such as Physical Appearance Related Teasing Scale (Thompson, Fabian, Moulton, Dunn, Altabe, 1991) and its revision. But this scale is not aimed to determine coping levels of pupils. In this regard, it can be said that there is not any scale related to coping with teasing and name-calling. Appropriate coping behaviors of teased pupil sometimes prevent further teasing attacks. Thus, it is important to find out coping with teasing and name-calling levels and ways of students who are being teased. Such an instrument also helps school counselors to prepare convenient psycho-education programs to gain students functional and socially acceptable coping behaviors. For this reason, in this research, a coping with teasing and name calling scale was aimed to develop depending on the findings of Scambler et al. (1998). The study of Scambler et al. (1998) revealed that the most effective way was the humorous response, ignoring is the second effective way, least effective response was the hostility.

Participants In the process of C-TANCS-C’s development, four groups of students were the participants. (1) Thirty five (19 girls, 16 boys) 4th and 5th grade studentscomprise the teasing and name-calling types of pupils. The age range was 9-10 (X̅= 9,49, sd = 0,51). (2) A different group of 28 pupils (15 girls, 13 boys) from 4th grade, included to detect vague items. The age range was 9-10 (X̅= 9.39; SD = 0.5). (3) A sample of 317 students (134 girls, 166 boys, 17 unknown) were included in the study as participants to administer selected items to 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students, the age range was 9-13 (X̅=12.13; SD = 1,73). (4) For the concurrent validity, a different group of 289 students from 4th, 7th, and 8th grade were the participants from primary and secondary schools in Kocaeli in Turkey. Instruments Instruments used for concurrent validity in the study were Rosenberg SelfEsteem Scale (RSES), and Children’s Hope Scale (CHS). Information about these scales were given below. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale RSES was developed by Rosenberg (1965) and adopted to Turkish by Çuhadaroğlu (1985). It is a uni-dimensional scale with 10 items. It is utilized a four-point likert-type scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The RSES composed of five positively scored (1, 2, 4, 6, 7) and five negatively scored items (3, 5, 8, 9, 10). The Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficients of the RSES was .81 (Özmen, 2006). In the current study, the Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficients of the scale was calculated as .79 (n=294). All correlations were significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Children’s Hope Scale (CHS) CHS was developed by Snyder and his colleagues (1997), and adopted to Turkish by Atik & Kemer (2009). It has two-factor structure (pathways & agency) with six items. It consists of a six-point likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficient of the CHS was .74 and test-retest reliability score was .57 within onemonth interval (Atik & Kemer, 2009). In current study, the Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficients of the scale was calculated as .83 (n=298). All correlations were significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Procedure Preparatory stage In this study, in order to develop C-TANCS-C an item pool was needed. For item pool, a group of 4th and 5th grade students (N=35, 19 girls, 16 boys) were interviewed by the researcher. They were asked about teasing subjects, styles, and how they react when they were being teased, and the answers were noted. The interview revealed that there was an other way for coping with teasing and name- calling, that was convincing the teaser. Some students told the researcher that “I directly go to teaser and convince him verbally not to tease”. Scambler et al. (1998) categorized the coping behaviour with teasing as responding with humor, © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

with hostility, or by ignoring. Thus, convincing factor also planned to add the instrument. Item generation stage First step With regard Scambler’s et al. (1998) findings and children’s answers, items were generated. For the number of the items, or a scale construction study, Şeker & Gençdoğan (2006) suggested that an item pool should have three times more items than the intended scale. Thus, 37 items were generated for C-TANCS-C. Thereafter, an expert group was established for assessed the content validity of the instrument. Second step The group consisted of 5 teachers and 3. Three out of five teachers graduated from Turkish education departments, and 2 teachers graduated from primary education departments of various universities. All three academicians were from Psychological Counseling and Guidance program at Sakarya University, and teachers were from primary and secondary state schools. The expert group appraised the generated items according to Turkish grammar, and comprehension level of primary school children. The teachers were invited to the Sakarya University in order to discuss the rough form of C-TANCS-C. In accordance to the suggestions and comments of the experts, some contextual and linguistic corrections were made. Third step A 5-point Likert type scale ranging from 1 (It is totally wrong for me) to 5 (it is totally true for me) with 31 items were read to a different group of pupils (N = 28, 15 girls, 13 boys) in order to find out vague items. 12 items were difficult to comprehend especially by 4th graders, or meaning of some items were repeated, so these items were excluded. At the end 19 items were selected for C-TANCS-C. At the end the trial form consisted of 19 items. Fourth step In the fourth step, the trial form of C-TANCS-C was administered to a sample of 317 students (134 girls, 166 boys, 17 unknown genders). The validity of CTANCS-C consisted of content validity analysis via expert opinions, and structure validity analysis via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. For reliability analyses, Cronbach’s alpha, and for the item discrimination, corrected item total correlation, and t-test scores were calculated. The reliability and validity analyses were conducted via SPSS 11.5 and LISREL 8.51. Concurrent Validity Procedure Rosenberg self-esteem scale, children hope scale, and the last version of CTANCS-C were administered to a different sample of 303 students (136 girls, 167 boys) from primary and secondary schools, and also in this step, coping with teasing levels were examined depending on gender, and grade level.

In scale construction process, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses assessed whether the instrument is valid or not. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is combined related variables to explore conceptually meaningful new variables or tested the models that indicate the relationships among factors and their indicators as a multivariate statistic procedure (Sipahi, Yurtkoru, & Çinko, 2008). Moreover, before conducting structure validity methods, the data set should was checked for convenience for factor analysis via correlations among variables and sampling adequacy values. KMO value should be higher than .60 and Barlett test should be significant to carry out a factor analysis with a given data set (Büyüköztürk, 2010). Besides, Tabachnick and Fidell (2001) and Çokluk, Şekercioğlu and Büyüköztürk, (2010) stated that oblique rotations are convenient in situations when factors may not be orthogonal. Yet, other contention proposes that an oblique rotation may produce a slightly better structure than a varimax rotation (Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum, and Strahan, 1999). However the patterns of loadings have usually been the same (Barbuto, Wheeler, 2006). Depending on all these cautions and deliberations about test construction, KMO sampling adequacy, Barlett Sphericity Test were checked, and varimax and oblique rotation were applied. In Table 1, the first exploratory factor analysis and related factor loadings were demonstrated.

Items 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Table 1: The First Exploratory Factor Analysis Components 1 2 3 .50 .29 .11 .12 .79 .04 .09 .84 -.06 .74 .16 -.01 .78 .03 .07 -.01 .04 -.09 -.19 .16 -.04 -.08 .79 .02 .11 .77 .07 -.25 -.17 -.22 .33 .11 .50 .43 .21 .62 .20 .10 .75 -.07 -.17 .63 .36 .06 .65 .50 -.05 .33 .66 .01 .29 .68 .10 .14 .53 -.18 .30

4 -.13 -.05 .00 -.11 -.07 .85 .78 .16 -.01 .53 -.13 -.14 -.06 -.06 -.09 -.18 -.10 -.03 -.07

The results demonstrated that KMO sampling adequacy test coefficient was .85, and Barlett Sphericity Test was significant (χ2= 1857.806 p < .001), which imply that factorable. For C-TANCS-C, variance scores for each item were quite similar even though oblique rotation produced a slightly better value as stated by Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum, and Strahan (1999). The first EFA revealed that © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

the preliminary C-TANCS-C has four factors with eigenvalues higher than 1.0, from 1st to 4th factor, explained 27.22%, 14.55%, 7.17%, and 6.48% all 55.4% of total variance respectively. Though no consensus on item omission criteria, items with loadings lower than .30, (Büyüköztürk, 2010) or .50, .70 (Sipahi et al., 2008) could be the subjects of item omission. For C-TANCS-C, items with lower than .50 factor loadings were omitted. From the results of EFA and expert’s discernments, the final version of C-TANCS-C consisted 12 items with categorization in three factors. The factors were Aggression (A), Ignoring (I), and Convincing (C) as similar to Scambler et al. (1998) findings in some way (i.e. aggression and ignoring), in which three ways of coping were suggested. Convincing factor was emerged as a result of student interview as mentioned before. At the end, the results of the analysis revealed that A factor was accounted for 34.96 % of variance, I factor was accounted for 19.29 % of the variance, and C factor was accounted 8.70 of the variance. As in table 1, factor loads of A varied between .76 to .85, factor loads of I varied between .67 to .74, and factor loads of C varied between .69 to .78. These three factors together explained 62.94 % of the total variance of C-TANCS-C. Factor loads were presented in Table 2. Table 2. Factor Loadings and Explained Variance Values of C-TANCS-C Scores Factor Explained variance (%) Item no Loadings F1 2 .76 Aggression 3 .85 8 .78 9 .76 34.96 F2 4 .74 Ignoring 5 .68 17 .74 19 .67 19.29 F3 11 .69 Convincing 12 .77 13 .78 15 .75 8.70 In order to find out relationships among the factors, bivariate correlation coefficients were calculated. The results have shown in Table 3. Table 3. Correlation coefficients of inter factors of C-TANCS-C I C A Ignoring Convincing

1 .58**

Aggression

.18** .22** **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Confirmatory Factor Analysis Accuracy of factor structure that is determined by exploratory factor analysis can be tested with confirmatory factor analysis (Şimşek, 2007). First-order and second-order confirmatory factor analyses were conducted with 12 items. First Order Confirmatory Factor Analysis The three factors of C-TANCS-C (Aggression, Ignoring and Convincing) were analyzed with the first order confirmatory factor analysis to detect the factor structure defined by exploratory factor analysis, to determine at which point theory and reality diverge from each other, and to analyze problematic areas using LISREL 8.51 (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 2001). The results revealed that the model provided a good fit to the data (Χ2/DF = 2.09, P<.00), RMSEA = .069, GFI = .93, AGFI = .90, CFI = .97, IFI = .97, NFI = .94, RFI = .92, SRMR = .061). In addition, AIC (174.15) and CAIC (300.05) values were lower than the independence model’s AIC and CAIC values (1958.47, 2014.42, respectively). Results were illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Factor Loadings and Path Diagram for the C-TANCS-C Second Order Confirmatory Factor Analysis As presented, exploratory factor analyses revealed three factors for C-TANCS-C. Second order confirmatory factor analysis was carried out in order to test whether these three factors were predicted by C-TANCS-C as a latent variable. In order to test the factor structure, the model examined with second order confirmatory factor analysis. Results were illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Factor Loadings and Path Diagram for the C-TANCS-C According to the model, results provided a good fit to the data (Χ2 /DF = 2.09), RMSEA = .069, GFI = .93, AGFI = .90, CFI = .94, IFI = .94, NFI = .90, RFI = .90, SRMR = .061). In addition, AIC (174.15) and CAIC (300.05) values were lower than independence model’s values (1203.00, 1258.95, respectively). Therefore, regarding admissible fit indices, the assumed C-TANCS-C model had an acceptable fit to the data. Concurrent Validity In order to determine the concurrent validity of the scale, the relationships among C-TANCS-C, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and Children Hope Scale (CHS) were calculated. The results of the concurrent validity analyses revealed that C-TANCS-C was significantly correlated with RSES (.19), CHS (.30), In addition, RSES was correlated with CHS (.61) with p< .01. Correlations C-TANCS-C with RSES and CHS and results of concurrent validity analyses are presented in Table 4. Table 4: The Results of Concurrent Validity of C-TANCS-C X̅ sd Scales C-TANCS-C RSES CHS C-TANCS-C 1 43.11 10.75 RSES .19** 1 31.63 5.23 CHS .30** .61** 1 28.78 5.57 ** p< .01 Reliability Reliability analysis was conducted using Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest reliability. The internal consistency reliability score was found .81 for the aggression subscale, .75 for the ignoring subscale, and .78 for the convincing subscale. The overall reliability of the scale was .82.

Item Analysis The aim of the item analysis is to choose the most related item with the construct. This aim is done by evaluating how each item is related to its own unidimensional construct (Gorsuch, 1997). Positive and high item total correlations mean these items have capability of sampling similar behaviors If the item total correlations are higher than .30, the item can be included in the construct (Özdamar, 2004). One other way for item analysis is comparing means of lower 27% and higher %27 of the sample with independent sample t-test. The significant difference is accepted as the demonstration of internal consistency of the scale and the items can discriminate measured behaviors or attitudes of the individuals (Büyüköztürk, 2010). In this regard, item analysis, corrected item-total correlations and t-test scores were calculated. The corrected item-total correlations scores of C-TANCS-C ranged from .26 to .62 that was almost all item total correlations were above .30. T-test results were found significant (p<.0001). T values of lower-upper 27% groups were between -7.44 and -16.49 for whole scale. T-values of factors were for aggression between -7.44 and -13.74, for ignoring -9.75 and 16.49, for convincing -9.99 and -14.75. Corrected item total correlations, means, standard deviations, and t-test scores for upper and lower scores of 27% of the sample were presented in Table 5. Table 5: Corrected item total correlations, means, standard deviations, and t-test scores for upper and lower scores of 27% of the sample rjx of rjx of factors t values of factors Factor Item no C-TANCS-C Aggression 2 0,46 .62 -11,561 3 0,41 .71 -13,744 8 0,26 .58 -7,441 9 0,43 .58 -11,040 Ignoring 4 0,54 .56 -16,490 5 0,52 .57 -11,508 17 0,52 .59 -12,456 19 0,35 .46 -9,752 Convincing 11 0,51 .57 -13,497 12 0,62 .64 -14,747 13 0,46 .58 -9,985 15 0,52 .58 -12,154 p< .001 Other results Differences in terms of Gender and Grade Level Within this study, coping levels of students were investigated according to gender and grade level via t-test, and Welch's t-test with Tamhane T2, as presented in Table 6. The analysis unfolded that coping levels of students CTANCS-C scores changed according to gender, and also it changed according to grade level (4th, 7th, 8th).

Table 6. C-TANCS-C differences, means and t values in terms of Gender and Grade Level sd t Female 44,38 9,92 2,326* Gender Male 41,52 11,44 *p<0,05, **p<0.001 Significant mean differences were found between the C-TANCS-C scores according to gender. Female students’ C-TANCS-C scores were higher than male students’. In order to test differences among grade levels of C-TANCS-C scores, data was examined via Levene test for the homogeneity of variance [F(2,300) = 4.104.864, p= .017]. The Levene test results forced analysis to non-parametric correspondence of one-way anova, that is Welshc test. The differences between groups were examined with Tamhane T2. The results were presented in table 7. Table 7. Results of Welsch Test In Regard With Grade Levels (I) Grade level 4 7 8

(J) Grade Level

Mean Differences (I-J)

7 8 4 8 4 7

8,05* 8,69* -8,05* 0,64 -8,69* -0,64

*p<0,05 Significant mean differences were found between 4th grade and 7th grade, and 4th grade and 8th grade (p< .05). 4th grades C-TANCS-C scores were higher than 7th and 8th grade students’ C-TANCS-C scores.

Discussion and Conclusion In this study, a coping with teasing and name-calling scale for children was developed. In the literature of bullying, teasing and name-calling, there are some scales related to teasing such as Physical Appearance Related Teasing Scale (Thompson, Fabian, Moulton, Dunn, Altabe, 1991) and its revision. But this scale is not aimed to determine coping levels of pupils. Depending on the coping behaviors of students being teased, further teasing attacks may change, if the behavior of coping effective, it stops, if does not, the teasing behavior continues. If coping styles with teasing does not seem to be effective, it is time to prepare and implement functional and socially acceptable psycho-educational programs for improving coping behaviors of students being teased. Therefore, it becomes very substantial to ascertain and categorize the coping styles of students. In the findings of Scambler et al. (1998) , when reaction to the teasing is humor, it is the most effective way to cope with teasing behavior. When it is ignorance, it is very similar to not giving reinforcement. In this case, coping effectiveness is © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

also successful, but not as successful as humor. In the case of fight or hostility, the least effective result is obtained by the person being teased. These findings were accounted for the development of this C-TANCS-C. During the C-TANCSC development, primary and secondary school students were interviewed and coping alternatives of them were categorized. Hence, it was assumed that the scale had three factors. When the categorization examined, it was very similar to Scambler et al. (1998) except humor. Instead of humor, convincing factor conceived by the students. It may be because of social desirability effect or group dynamic in which the students affected each other during the itemgeneration period. It is very obvious that C-TANCS-C covers coping styles of ignorance and aggression as proposed by Scambler et al. (1998). Moreover, student interviews demonstrated that there is one other way of coping, convincing teasers, was confirmed by the analysis. In this study, the first order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that assumed model of C-TANCS-C had an acceptable fit (RMSEA = .069), and second order CFA had also an acceptable fit (RMSEA = .069) to the data due to all indicators had reasonable scores. According to Hu & Bentler (1999) Rootmean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) .08 or below indicates an acceptable fit. According to Ullman (2001), the criterion for acceptance of the relative or normed chi-square (chi-square index divided by the degrees of freedom) should be less than 2, but according to Schumacker & Lomax (2004) it could be less than 5. Root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) is .05 or below indicates a good fit, while .08 or below indicates an acceptable fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999). In terms of the adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) and goodness of fit index (GFI), values of .90 and higher are considered as indicative of acceptable fit, in terms of CFI, values greater than .95 are considered as indicative of acceptable fit (Schermelleh-Engel, Moosbrugger, &Müller, 2003). During the C-TANCS-C test construction process, items with higher values as a result of exploratory factor analysis were extracted, it may be the reason for acceptable fit for the C-TANCS-C’s all three factors were confirmed by first and second order CFA. In order to ensure the originality of a scale, in other words, to approve the scale measures a different characteristic or structure than other scales concurrent validity should be performed (Büyüköztürk, 2010). In this regard, concurrent validity was carried out in order to approve C-TANCS-C’s originality. Because hurtful teasing is related to lower self-esteem, anxiety, loneliness (Embry and Luzzo, 1996; Bucchianeri et al. 2014), Rosenberg self-esteem scale would be appropriate for concurrent validity. Also hopelessness is related to negative life events including teasing and humiliation (Gibb & Alloy, 2006), Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1997) would be convenient. Thus children hope scale and Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used for the concurrent validity. The scores revealed significant positive correlations between C-TANCS-C and RSES (r = .19), and between C-TANCS-C and CHS (.30) which means coping with behaviors of children rise, both hope and self-esteem levels also increase. Though correlation scores between scales were significant, the scores were relatively low. Because the correlation coefficients below .30 is accepted lower © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

relationships (Büyüköztürk, 2010). However this result demonstrates that CTANCS-C is a different construct than RSES and CHS, and assumed hypothesis was revealed that when coping with teasing levels increase, hope and selfesteem levels also increase. The current study also revealed that coping levels of students changed according to gender that was girls’ coping levels were higher than boys. These differences can be explained by the different types of relationship behaviours between boys and girls. Boys are usually less oriented to study compare to girls, especially in general schools (Van Houtte, 2004). Boys show more disturbing plays and behaviors, distracted more (Warrington at al, 2000), and involved in sports activities more than girls (Martinović, et al., 2011). Boys also choose more intense and higher levels competitive ball games activities (Blatchford et al., 2003; Parrish et al. 2009), while girls’ choices were more socializing games. Also, achievement differences between gender taking into account, boys’ cumulative grade point average (CGPA) scores or achievement levels are lower than girls (Warrington et al, 2003). In the case of underachievement, boys can compensate this gap with undesired manners like teasing achievers. In the case of boys’ ball games and sports activities, teasing behaviors can be seen more often, aggression is easily manifested instead of convincing the opponent or ignoring. In both cases boys also could be less likely to cope with teasing by ignoring and convincing. They may prefer aggression instead of convincing and ignoring. Thus, as in this study, male students’ C-TANCS-C scores were lower than female students. In the case of grade level, 4th grade students’ coping levels were significantly higher than 7th and 8th. 7th graders had the lowest coping level and 8th graders had slightly higher even though the difference was not significant. 7th grade students are mostly at the age of 12-13, 8th grade students mostly at the age of 13-14, and 4th grades are at the age of 9-10. Adolescence period is accepted between the ages of 12-19 (Spear, 2000). In this manner, 7th and 8th graders are in adolescence period, while 4th graders are not. Adolescence is a period that includes abstract thinking and reasoning, viewing oneself with others’ eyes as well as biological and physical changes that the adolescent is much more sensitive than other developmental stages. For this reason, coping with teasing levels of students may diminish in 7th and 8th grades. Even though it was not significant, the reason for 8th grades coping behavior slightly higher than 7th grades may be because of the accustomed to this transition period compare to 7th grades. In Turkey, there are national high school entrance examinations called TEOG. All 6th , 7th, and 8th grades students should enter these examinations in order to enroll in a high school. It causes too much stress and anxiety especially for 8th graders, because 8th grade TEOG is very important in this process. Thus, as all 8 grades share it as a common problem, takes too much energy and time to study. For this reason students may not be interested in teasing and being teased, and also they may become closer to each other because of this common problem. Also for 4th grade, students are in childhood period, not as sensitive as adolescents to undesired behaviors © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

towards themselves, and very familiar to other classmates because of four years togetherness, meaning very familiar to their classmates teasing manners, and may develop how to cope. Besides all possibilities related to differences of coping with teasing behavior, primary and secondary schools, it is a well-known case that some of children being teased are negatively affected by teasing. Hence, future research is required for a psycho-education program related to coping with teasing and name-calling to test its effectiveness and spread it to needed schools in order to improve students coping with teasing and name-calling.

References

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 17-34, June 2015

Assessment for Learning: How Plagiarism can be used as an Efficient Learning Tool Lucía Morales Dublin Institute of Technology Dublin, Ireland Amparo Soler-Domínguez Universitat Jaume I Castellón de la Plana, Spain

Abstract. There is no doubt that plagiarism is a major source of concern among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Academic honesty and integrity practices need to be carefully cultivated to ensure that students understand the seriousness and implications of failing to properly acknowledge the information and resources that they use in their college assignments. This paper explores the importance of complying with ethical standards through a review of the literature in the field, from which a case study was developed using observation techniques to gather the data. A research sample of seventy students registered in their final year of study was considered acceptable to support the analysis. Face-to-face feedback sessions were arranged with students after their work had been reviewed and assessed. The feedback sessions were scheduled individually where there was evidence of poor referencing and writing standards that led to cases of plagiarism, which were then discussed with student concerned. The main research findings indicate that students did not have an understanding of what plagiarism involved and in some instances they failed to acknowledge the existence of a problem in the work presented for assessment. Furthermore, the role of the educator became central to ensure that formative feedback was properly developed to motivate and help students to understand the importance of complying with their institution’s ethical guidelines. The study highlights the need to consider cases of plagiarism as another learning tool that contributes to the students’ formation. By developing assessments for learning, the punitive aspect of the assessment process should be kept to a minimum and educators should focus their attention on how plagiarism cases can be used as an efficient learning tool. Keywords: assessment for learning; responsible feedback; plagiarism; student motivation.

1. Introduction Instructors should consider the role of responsible feedback as one of the main priorities of their teaching and learning strategies. It is well known that feedback is the bridge between students and instructors, as students’ work is reviewed and put into an appropriate learning context. In this context, we argue that detecting and dealing with cases of plagiarism in students’ work should be regarded as an additional vehicle to allow students to meet established academic standards and to ensure their work complies with their academic institution’s guidelines and regulations. Educators should use plagiarism detection tools constructively to encourage students to follow best practices. They should help, inspire and guide their students as well as motivating them to work harder and reflect on the quality of their work. As part of this process, quality feedback plays a crucial role in identifying areas of weaknesses in writing standards, which educators should consider carefully when guiding their students to comply with academic rules and principles. We must not forget that students are learners who need tutoring and mentoring, along with objective and clear guidelines that keep them focussed and motivated. In this regard, formative feedback and assessment for learning practices should be considered to help students understand the importance of ensuring that the standard of their work meets their institution’s guidelines on academic integrity and honesty. Accordingly, we argue that feedback should address academic integrity practices efficiently and constructively, and educators should avoid demotivating and discouraging their students when bad practices are identified. In this regard, students need to be aware that plagiarism has very negative connotations in academia and it must be monitored, but they also need to be able to learn from their mistakes and their educator should be able to coach and support them in a constructive manner. This context of ethical standards leads us to consider some initial issues. The first point relates to educators, who should be capable of developing quality feedback that motivates their students while at the same time offering objective views on the seriousness of plagiarism and the need to ensure that students properly acknowledge the research sources they use to support their work. The second issue to bear in mind is the value that quality feedback creates if educators are able to consider plagiarism as just another learning tool, and they transmit to their students - in constructive sessions designed to inform them about academic integrity and honesty practices – the importance of referencing and acknowledging others’ work when used to support their own. The third issue that needs to be considered is the kind of assessment that educators should use and how they should grade and evaluate their students’ work while ensuring that they understand the implications of plagiarising others’ work without demotivating and punishing their students. We believe that the answers to the issues raised lie in educators’ ability to develop quality and responsible feedback that is personalised and that seeks to address their students’ individual needs. Therefore, throughout this study, we explore the use of plagiarism as a constructive tool that can make a positive difference to the students’ learning experience. Our main objective is to offer an initial view of practices and recommendations that could be followed by educators who want to change the way they deal with cases of plagiarism from a © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

punitive approach to one with a more constructive and positive outcome. The goal is that educators will learn to support their students and encourage them to reflect on their work. Reflecting on their own ways of doing things will raise students’ awareness of the academic practices that will help them produce quality work in line with their institution’s basic guidelines and requirements.

2. Literature Review Plagiarism is a growing area of concern in third level education (education at college or university level) due to its strong negative connotations and serious implications for students’ academic progress and achievements. According to the Oxford online dictionary, plagiarism is defined as, “The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own”. Presenting the work of another author as one’s own is seen as a form of cheating or fraud at an academic level. However, students do not seem to recognise the seriousness of plagiarism, nor do they appear to understand the implications of such practices for their academic careers. In this regard, students’ understanding of what plagiarism is and its potential implications for their learning process appears to be quite distorted. The use of general ideas, complete sentences or paragraphs from diverse and multiple research sources that are not properly referenced is considered a dishonest practice at an academic level, and appropriate mechanisms are required to minimise this kind of behaviour among students. Moreover, there is also a need to make students aware of the consequences of plagiarism, the ramifications that this type of practice might have during their academic career, and how it might return to haunt them at some stage later in their professional careers. Some researchers in this field study argue that the increase in information availability due to the rapid development of new technologies has contributed to a substantial proliferation of plagiarism among higher education students (Childs, 2001; McCabe, 2001; Marsden, Carroll and Neill, 2005; Furedi, 2003). More worryingly, some authors are also pointing to the existence of strong correlations between the level of academic dishonesty among some students and the level of unethical behaviour they exhibit later on when they join the workforce (Nonis and Swift, 2001). Staggering evidence on this issue has shaken European universities in recent years. Unethical behaviour among individuals in leadership positions has been picked up by the media and the cases highlighted have dearly affected the political class in major countries, and as a direct consequence these malpractices have also impacted on the universities where these individuals completed their education (BBC News, 2012; The Guardian, 2013; International Business Times, 2012). One public example concerns cases affecting the German government, which began with their defence minister’s resignation following accusations of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, a condemnation that seems to be spreading among other members of the German government. Other cases that have been identified and made public in the media include high profile politicians in Romania, Hungary and other European countries. The BBC made the following comment on improper practices in respected European universities: “A spectre is haunting Europe, and this time it is the spectre of plagiarism and scientific misconduct. Some high-profile politicians have had to resign © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

but the revelations are also shaking respected European universities” (BBC News, 2012). This finding raises important concerns about the quality of education offered at European universities and the procedures followed to support students and ensure they understand the importance of their work complying with the standards of academic integrity. If students cannot abide by the basic guidelines, regulations and ethical criteria in their written work, serious concerns will be raised about their ability in the future to perform properly in leading positions that are closely associated with higher levels of responsibility and ethical behaviour. Some cases that raise the alarm are given below as they were reported in the media, and offer a clear picture of the seriousness of the matter and the need to start taking appropriate action to deal with it. Example 1: “Hungary's President Pal Schmitt says he is resigning, after being stripped of his doctorate over plagiarism” (BBC News, 2012) Example 2: “German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned from Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet on Tuesday. The move comes after weeks of mounting pressure surrounding accusations that he plagiarized significant portions of his doctoral dissertation” (Spiegel, 2011) Example 3: “The prime minister of Romania has denied claims by a British science magazine that he plagiarized large parts of his doctoral thesis, which was published in 2003” (International Business Time, 2012) Example 4: “Annette Schavan's resignation over plagiarism ahead of election is second case to hit Merkel's government in two years” (The Guardian, 2013) Example 5: “Since Mr. Guttenberg resigned from all of his offices in March 2011, dozens of German politicians have had to give up the right to call themselves doctor. The spate of similar cases has prompted a re-examination of academia, as well as the weight a doctorate pulls in the German job market and society” (The New York Times, 2013) Example 6: “German universities are scared; they know they should be doing something, but they don’t know what” (The New York Times, 2013) The cases presented above are a small sample of situations where plagiarism practices among high profile individuals have been identified. Without doubt, this is a very serious issue that raises many questions and concerns about the standards and academic integrity assurance procedures in European universities. Furthermore, concerns have been sparked about educators’ ability to connect with their students and help them align their work practices with basic academic requirements, which are also on the table and need to be addressed.

2.1 Plagiarism: a Real Source of Concern Academic integrity compliance is a major source of concern for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as highlighted in the examples provided above. Appropriate mechanisms to prevent, minimise and correct this kind of practice therefore need to be put in place to ensure that educators and students are aware © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

of the implications that such unethical practices can have for their academic and professional careers. As HEIs are responsible for producing future leaders and individuals to fill prominent roles in society, issues related to academic integrity, ethical behaviour and best practices should be nurtured, monitored and integrated as central aspects of the educational process. Students should be able to produce scholarly work while using a broad range of information sources. But they must also comply with quality standards and avoid using other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research and identified information sources in a deceitful way, whether or not this deceit is intentional. Existing research on this question suggests that careless source referencing and acknowledgement is a common problem among undergraduate students and it also highlights the lack of understanding about how to reference properly (Stappenbelt and Rowles, 2009). Moreover, students do not appear to understand the implications of incorrect referencing and the seriousness of failing to acknowledge the sources used to support their work. Specialised software (text-matching software) can help educators to identify potential cases of plagiarism in course work and is commonly used to detect omissions of citations and/or acknowledgement of information sources. However, the design of the available software seems limited in that it only identifies matching words, phrases and sentences, which does not necessarily constitute plagiarism, as such. Furthermore, the identification of high matching scores traditionally results in penalisations imposed on studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performances and encourages negative assessments of their work. We consider that this is an unconstructive approach, as it does not help the student to move forward and address his or her understanding of academic integrity and required written standards. Within this context, we argue that plagiarism should be used as just another learning tool that helps educators to support their students when explaining the importance of the referencing process and the need to properly acknowledge sources of information used in their assignments, thus enabling them to comply with ethical procedures and guidelines. Delvin and Gray (2007) argue that some of the key reasons for why plagiarism occurs are related to inadequate admission criteria, an uninformed understanding of plagiarism, and poor academic skills stemming from teaching and learning issues. These findings are significant to our study, as they indicate that educators at third level education institutions should be aware of the need to introduce clear guidelines dealing with plagiarism. Educators should therefore introduce appropriate activities in the early stages of their courses, covering issues such as writing standards and proper referencing skills, and students should be made fully aware of the importance of complying with ethical standards in their work, in an attempt to avoid cases of plagiarism from arising in the first place. Plagiarism detection is commonly linked to disciplinary actions against students who might not be fully aware of their responsibility to follow certain academic rules. In this regard, we argue that students should be given appropriate training on what plagiarism is and the implications of such practices in the early stages of the learning process. This training could be a complementary tool that would help educators to support their students when the incorrect use of ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

research material is identified, and thus keep punitive measures to a minimum. Formative feedback should be at the centre of educatorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; practices, and they should be able to explain and clarify the concept of plagiarism to their students. Furthermore, educators should be able to explain to their students how to ensure that their work is presented as required and abides by the basic academic standards. In this regard, formative feedback plays a crucial role in helping educators to offer appropriate support and coaching to their students. Through the feedback process students should come to understand why they must avoid plagiarism in their work and how they can comply with basic referencing requirements when they use existing research and information to support and enhance their own assignments and course work.

2.2 Research Motivations and Questions The increase in dishonest practices and inappropriate teaching and feedback practices at third level institutions coincides with the dramatic increase of information available to students, who nevertheless do not seem to make full use of existing knowledge that could support their learning (White, Owens and Nguyen, 2008). Research examining the main causes for and extent of academic dishonesty suggests that the quality of the institution and the type of student play a significant role in this phenomenon, rather than the society within which they live (Delvin and Gray, 2007). In this study, we reflect upon and review the way we teach and explore how plagiarism can be used to correct dishonest practices in our classrooms (Badge, Cann and Scott, 2007). We agree with White, Owens and Nguyen (2008) that plagiarism should be tackled in the first year of academic courses in order to reduce this problem, although we would go a step further to argue that this issue should be addressed at even earlier stages of the learning process. The integration of good practices should be considered from the moment that students become part of the educational system, and primary and secondary institutions should make appropriate efforts to start training their students on how to credit the sources of information they use in their homework. At the heart of the issue, we find that there is a lack of proper education and coaching that can help students understand what plagiarism is and why it is regarded as a serious matter. We therefore posed three main questions to lead this study and that aim to clarify how plagiarism can be used as an additional learning tool. The first question looks at the use of plagiarism to motivate students to comply with their institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guidelines on academic standards: How can educators use plagiarism as a tool to motivate and guide their students? The second question explores the use of plagiarism in a constructive way: In what way can plagiarism be used for constructive learning rather than a source of punishment? The third question reflects on the kind of actions educators can consider when looking at ethical behaviours and how to develop them among their students: What kind of actions should educators take to encourage ethical academic conduct? To develop our research context and offer a comprehensive response to the questions outlined above, our analysis proceeds with some general reflections ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

and critical insights on selected research studies that have addressed the issue of plagiarism and that helped us to highlight the importance of this matter and the need to identify specific actions that deter students from plagiarising others’ work.

2.3 Reflections on Initial Research Findings The key issue to emerge from our initial discussion and review of the literature on plagiarism and its implications is that the detection of plagiarism is essential to ensure that HEIs are able to instil and reinforce sound academic practices, work ethics and quality standards among their students. Nevertheless, the main problem to be addressed relates to the abilities and capacity of educators to detect and deal with plagiarism cases in an efficient and constructive manner. Vinod et al., (2011) offer a number of recommendations to aid instructors in dealing precisely with this task. These authors outline some basic points to be taken into account by educators who want to start recognising and detecting plagiarism practices that they can use to foster and encourage proper academic practices among their students. 1. While search engines are helpful, they are unfortunately not foolproof methods for detecting plagiarism. Nevertheless, a significant amount of time is spent attempting to identify cases where students have copied material from online sources. This firstly exposes the question of material that has not yet been digitised. Search engines are therefore fairly limited, as not all sources of information are available online. 2. Another problem concerns the sudden change in grammar and spelling rules from British to American English or vice versa, especially when shifts in style take place between paragraphs. The inability to maintain a consistent writing style might raise questions about material that could have been copied from other original sources. A careful approach must be taken here, especially when correcting work from students whose first language is not English. 3. A change in font style/size etc. may be due to a ‘ghost writer’ and might provide evidence of copy and pasting practices indicating the potential existence of plagiarised work. 4. Educators could also randomly check references and page numbering to verify the accuracy of the reference and determine whether it does indeed come from existing research. 5. Electronic detection tools can be used to help identify the percentage of material that matches available information, with the aim of verifying the originality of the work. There are different strategies HEI educators can follow to detect plagiarism. However, we believe it is better to develop methods of preventing this activity at undergraduate level and earlier stages of the formative process in a way that also teaches students good practices. Students should understand that identifying plagiarism is not only about the educator assessing the originality of their work; they should also be made fully aware of what plagiarism is and its implications, so they understand the importance of adhering to their university’s guidelines and standards. Thus, there is a need to give students a clear definition of plagiarism, discuss the concept with them and offer them the opportunity to © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

clarify any doubts or initial confusions that they might have. Educators should be able to explore ways in which this activity can be integrated into the classroom to help prevent plagiarism from occurring. We argue that the role of third level institutions should be to educate their students about the difference between good and unethical practices. Being able to simply identify plagiarism is not enough; educators should be able to help their students to avoid unethical behaviour and tendencies by making them understand how they actually breached the guidelines and what they need to do to correct their behaviour.

3. Why Higher Education Institutions Should Be Concerned About Plagiarism Plagiarism research indicates that at least 90 percent of students have plagiarised at least once in their academic career, while a significant number of students have done so on multiple occasions (Vinod et al., 2011). It is argued that while students are aware that plagiarism is wrong, they continue to do it because they either do not believe that they will be caught or because in our current ethical climate, plagiarism seems trivial when compared to well-publicised instances of political and corporate scandals and dishonest practices (Vinod et al., 2011). If students consider plagiarism to be a minor issue with only trivial consequences, HEIs are failing to inform them about the importance of academic integrity. Royce (2003) claims that plagiarism practices have little significance at the institutional level and, thus, students and staff sometimes overlook this practice. These findings suggest that plagiarism practices are not considered to be serious either by students or HEIs themselves, and as a result the appropriate information is not being integrated into course syllabuses and it is not properly transmitted to students in the classroom. Plagiarism is a dishonest practice that can lead to more serious unethical behaviours among those who are not made aware of the importance of properly acknowledging the work of other authors. This could set the foundations for other kinds of fraudulent behaviour at later stages in their lives. Plagiarism means that the individual is not producing original work and that s/he takes the views, opinions and work developed by others as his or her own. The practice of copying and/or stealing the ideas and work of others and presenting it as oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own is regarded as a serious academic offence and educators should be able to make these points very clear to their students. The issue of plagiarism should therefore be a major source of concern for the education system as a whole. Although advances in technology have facilitated methods of detecting plagiarism, the available software can only match text and identify text similarities. Thus, qualified educators who can interpret the reports the software generates play a fundamental role in the entire process. The role of the educator is therefore crucial, as they should be able to prepare learning assessments that offer proper guidance and help students understand the importance of complying with ethical standards in their work.

3.1 Main limitations of text-matching software The use of text-matching software to detect plagiarism is subject to major limitations and diligence is required when interpreting the report output. SoÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

called plagiarism detection systems cannot identify specific cases of plagiarism. Rather, the software has been designed to detect matching words, numbers and phrases, but by itself it cannot identify when plagiarism has taken place (Royce, 2003). Another important limitation of the software concerns its inability to review or check all of the available material. For example, material that is not digitised and available online cannot be crosschecked. Some other limitations are listed below: 1. It cannot access all of the resources available on the Internet and their sources. 2. Information that is available in different languages might not be detected. 3. Minor alterations made to written documents, such as simple changes in wording or basic rephrasing practices enable students to beat the system. 4. High matching percentages might be reported as plagiarism in documents even though they are properly referenced. 5. The software cannot check the scholarship of the work, such as the appropriate use of references, because it is mainly designed to perform comparisons between similar phrases. 6. Matching information could be linked to incorrect sources. 7. It is not a replacement for other tools that have been traditionally used to identify plagiarism. Without appropriate support from qualified educators, text-matching software tools are of little help to students. Therefore, the use of software to detect plagiarism should be considered carefully, as it is just another tool educators can use to complement and support their assessments and to develop formative feedback to help their students. Educators must therefore be aware that the tool by itself does not identify cases of plagiarism, and it does not in any way eliminate dishonest academic practices. Furthermore, if educators cannot properly interpret the report and offer specific quality feedback to their students, there is no value added to the learning process and the problem among students might worsen.

4. Research Framework The study was conducted in the College of Business at Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland. Our main objective was to gain a better understanding of student practices at undergraduate level and to be able to develop and introduce appropriate coaching, tutoring and assignments that help minimise practices that do not comply with the institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s academic integrity guidelines and that lead to dishonest behaviour when students are completing their course assignments. It was considered appropriate to select a sample of final-year students, as they had attended sessions on the importance of proper referencing, quoting and paraphrasing, as well as plagiarism and its implications. To help students prepare quality assignments, explanations based on reports generated by specialised text-matching software were used. These reports presented appropriate examples of incorrect practices to discuss with students, with the aim of preventing them from plagiarising work from reviewed research sources and ensuring that their work complied with their course requirements. The main ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

research method used to support the analysis was observation of student compliance with the institution’s academic integrity guidelines. In order to gather the data to support our research, students’ assignments were closely monitored and instances where evidence of plagiarism had been identified were recorded on a spreadsheet. After the students completed the allocated assignments, face–to-face interviews took place with their educator to ensure they were able to clarify any questions they may have had. The sessions were based on a careful review of the students’ work and they were encouraged to voice their thoughts and concerns. Students’ identities were not recorded in the spreadsheet and their comments and views were anonymised to protect their identities and personal data. Students’ written consent to participate in the study was obtained and time was allocated to explain and clarify the nature of the study.

4.1 Sample Seventy final-year students were selected to participate in this study. At the beginning of the first semester, they were reminded of the institution’s policies and guidelines on plagiarism. The institution’s definition of plagiarism was used as the starting point to explain to students what plagiarism is: “Plagiarism occurs when a researcher or scholar claims or implies original authorship of material which s/he has not actually created, such as when a person incorporates material from someone else's work into his/her own work without attributing it. Plagiarism is a breach of academic values, academic conventions and codes of practice”. The students were given explanations of the concept of academic integrity and the importance of proper referencing and acknowledgement of research sources, together with specific examples and guidelines on how to write and present their assignments, which were followed up by appropriate tutorials. The case study spanned a whole academic year (2012/13) and was divided into two main phases. During the first semester (winter term), the students were reminded of the importance of proper referencing and instructed in all the basic details of the APA style (the referencing style followed by the College of Business). All resources were made available to the students through the Blackboard interface, and specific sessions were scheduled to show them examples of good academic writing practices. Sessions focusing on how to write assignments and how to follow proper referencing guidelines were also scheduled to clarify and address students’ concerns. Students were also introduced to the text-matching software selected to support their work and were given full explanations on how the educators would use the reports it generated to assess their work. They were instructed to submit their completed assignments to the text-matching tool, and were made aware that they had access to the report it generated. Finally, students were given information about the implications of plagiarism and time was allocated to deal with their specific questions and concerns. The study continued with the analysis of students’ behaviour and practices when completing assigned course work during their second semester. The © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

students were then given five assignments specific to their area of study (i.e., after they had received all the appropriate resources and support on academic integrity compliance). The assignments were uploaded on the Blackboard interface together with detailed instructions on their completion and the assessment process clarifying the ‘zero tolerance’ of plagiarised work, and implications in terms of marking. Taking into account the comment in the New York Times that European universities are facing major challenges in identifying ways of dealing with students’ unethical behaviour, we considered the need to reassess our own practices and start taking the first steps to prevent such behaviour and to create awareness among the student population of the importance of aligning their work with the requirements of academic integrity and honesty. Therefore, through our study we were able to gather initial data on student practices to help us take appropriate measures to minimise the potential for unethical behaviour among students. To support our study we proceeded to review each student’s work and the text-matching report generated helped us identify cases where students did not reference or acknowledge the research sources used in their assignments. We focussed our attention on analysing the assignments and the implications regarding plagiarism and we did not attempt to draw correlations and connections with students’ final scores in the module. The final written exam represented sixty percent of their assessment, and as it was mainly based on numerical questions there was little potential for plagiarism due to the close monitoring process during the exam and the fact that students could not conduct any research to support their work. The study therefore focussed on work that the students completed in their continuous assessment.

4.2 Case Study Results The results of our study highlighted that most of our students did not understand what plagiarism means and that the faculty’s previous efforts to instruct and guide them had been unsuccessful. We base our findings on five assignments that were put through text-matching software to check students referencing, acknowledgement of sources used to support their work and compliance with academic guidelines. Before the assignments were given to the students in the second semester, sessions were scheduled to remind them of the importance of following the guidelines that had been outlined during the first semester. Students were re-directed to relevant material and examples of plagiarism and they were reminded of the implications of submitting work that did not meet the institution’s guidelines on academic integrity. Table 1 below presents the major outcomes of the study. The research approach consisted of the electronic collection of the students’ assignment and the analysis of the textmatching report generated to support their submission. Students were required to upload their assignment to the text-matching tool and they were made aware of the availability of their submission and the generated report in the Blackboard interface. We then gathered all the completed assignments and reviewed all the reports to identify instances of minor plagiarism, major plagiarism and collusive practices. Attendance had previously been taken during sessions addressing

plagiarism issues to monitor the potential implications for students who had not attended the information sessions. Table 1: Academic Integrity Cases. Minor plagiarism <30% of material copied, major plagiarism >50% material copied from research sources, collusion >50% copied from peers (research sample size =70 students). Results based on averages of data collected from the research sample.

Assignment 1 2 3 4 Average 5

Academic Integrity Outcomes Minor Plagiarism Major Plagiarism 4.29% 28.57% 2.86% 22.86% 1.43% 35.71% 1.43% 25.71% 2.50% 28.21% 0% 0%

Collusion 4.29% 2.86% 0% 1.43% 2.14% 0%

The results show very high rates of bad practices among our students. For the first four assignments an average of 28.21 percent of submissions were affected by major plagiarism. The text-matching scores were above 50 percent for the recorded cases. Minor plagiarism and collusion was found in approximately 2 percent of the submissions. The fifth assignment was given as an extra exercise after detailed feedback and comments on students’ overall performance had been discussed in class. Despite all the efforts made during the first semester to inform and guide students on the type of work that they were required to produce, our study shows a high level of failure to comply with basic plagiarism guidelines. However, the results for the fifth assignment were very encouraging, as no breaches of academic integrity guidelines were detected. Nevertheless, due to the findings in the first four assignments, we decided to support our study with one-to-one interviews to discuss the outcomes of the assessments and to allow students to voice their own views and put forward their areas of concern. The interviews aimed to discuss students’ work and to explain the main areas of concern about their practices. Students were not asked structured questions; they were simply encouraged to voice their thoughts and concerns after the feedback process on their work and having received their grades. Students’ responses during the one-to-one interviews were quite surprising and enlightening. A sample of their comments is offered below: Student 1: “The guidelines on what plagiarism was about were not clear”. This was a surprising answer, as specific sessions focusing on plagiarism had been arranged and students had had the opportunity to ask questions and to clarify doubts. Further research revealed that students who had failed to attend these classes had submitted assignments affected by major plagiarism. Student 2: “We worked together; we did not know that sharing our work was not allowed”. Students were encouraged to work together, but the difference between collaboration and collusion had been clearly explained to them. This was another surprising outcome, as students had been given clear guidelines to prevent this practice. © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Student 3: “The guidelines the instructor provided were misleading”. In this case students did not acknowledge that there was a problem with the work submitted and attempted to transfer the blame on to the educator. This was an interesting outcome, as it allowed us to reconsider our teaching approach during the first semester and the need to rethink the kind of resources and support provided to students. Student 4: “Referencing is not relevant, what is important is the content”. This response reflects students’ lack of understanding of the connection between acknowledging the sources used and the quality of their work. This was another interesting response that helped us to reconsider the explanations and support offered to students, and to ensure that future sessions would include clarifications on the importance of proper referencing. Student 5: “I don’t agree with your assessment; I did not plagiarise; I will appeal against your assessment”. On a number of occasions we came across students who refused to acknowledge the problem and did not accept the explanations or feedback given to them. This was another interesting learning outcome that led us to reflect carefully on our learning and teaching approach and the need to reconsider how plagiarism explanations and examples can be integrated into the teaching programmes. As noted above, in cases where major plagiarism was identified, we found that students’ class attendance rates were poor. These students had therefore missed all the information sessions and showed a clear lack of understanding of the institution’s guidelines on academic integrity practices. The same students were identified as those who would not accept any suggestion of wrong-doing (i.e., they argued that they were not aware that they were required to support their work with references to the sources of information used). These students also attempted to find excuses for their unethical behaviour and wanted to appeal against their assessments. When all the feedback sessions were completed, the official results of the students’ work were released through the Blackboard platform. There was no record of students appealing their final results. These results provide some evidence supporting Landau, Druen and Arcuri (2002) and Vinod et al.’s (2011) findings that students are aware of wrong practices but they do not expect to be caught. Our results also support the findings of studies that show that teaching students about referencing and what constitutes plagiarism (through examples), paraphrasing exercises and formative feedback are effective practices in reducing student plagiarism practices (Delvin and Gray, 2007; Yeo, 2007; Underwood and Szabo, 2003 and White, Owens and Nguyen, 2008). We found that students with higher attendance rates during the academic year had not breached the guidelines on collusion or plagiarism. In addition, students whose work evidenced minor plagiarism sought further support and clarification to help them align their work with the institution’s basic academic standards.

5. Discussions and Critical Reflections

Class absenteeism, lack of knowledge or understanding of what plagiarism is and its implications for academic work were found to be the main problems affecting our students’ work. In this study we concluded that preventative practices need to be integrated as part of routine teaching practices. Students at HEIs should be informed of ethical behaviour early on in their degree. We believe that in order to prevent plagiarism, instructors should be fully aware of the kind of problems that students are facing, and whether they are struggling to understand what plagiarism is and its connotations and implications for their academic career and learning development. This will enable them to offer appropriate support to their students through the formative feedback. Students should be given formative feedback with the aim of offering them a clear view on the issues that require attention. Information should be communicated in an unambiguous and transparent manner to allow for a change of behaviour and reduce unethical practices. In figure 1 below we illustrate how plagiarism detection and prevention is impacted by three main pillars: 1. Formative feedback needs to be made available to students to ensure that they have a clear understanding of what plagiarism is and its implications. 2. Instructors and students should be fully aware of their institution’s guidelines on academic standards and good practices. 3. Awareness of ethical behaviour should be developed in the early stages of students’ academic lives to ensure that they can comply with guidelines, be aware of their importance and know how to integrate them in their practice.

Formative Feedback

Plagiarism Detection Ethical Behaviour

& Prevention

Awareness

Instructor/Student Awareness

Figure 1: Preventing Plagiarism (Source: the authors)

In line with Underwood and Szabo (2003) we consider it relevant to offer some recommendations that might help educate students about plagiarism: 1. Plagiarism and its implications should be clearly explained to students in the early stages of their learning experience to ensure that they develop awareness of ethical behaviour. This should not only be a concern at third level education; academic integrity should be explained to students in previous educational stages so that they are able to develop ethical behaviours as they progress through their studies. 2. Students should be reminded of the importance of plagiarism and compliance with academic integrity and ethical behaviour. Guidelines should be integrated into their learning curriculum.

3. Students should be given examples and scenarios that are related to their area of study to help them understand plagiarism and its implications for their future career. 4. Students should be fully informed of the institution’s formal ways of dealing with plagiarism. Educators should align their practices with those procedures. 5. Students’ work should be supported by formative feedback that helps them to differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable forms of collaboration in the context of their work. 6. Students should be given opportunities that help them practice and repeat activities designed to improve their writing and referencing skills. Online resources and specific tutoring sessions could be provided as part of the learning experience. 7. The negative connotations of failing to comply with academic integrity guidelines should be made clear to students in the early stages through formative feedback and assessment. 8. Penalties should be clearly introduced as part of the assessment method, but should be avoided in the early stages of the learning process to ensure that students remain motivated and engaged in their course work. 9. Students should engage in small group activities where they are required to deal with a range of specific scenarios that oblige them to test their understanding of plagiarism and benefit from peer interaction. Our study offers some evidence to suggest that students who attend classes and receive constructive feedback and guidance on plagiarism have a better understanding of the importance of following correct academic practices. Students need to have a clear understanding of why they must pay attention to their writing skills, and should be more conscientious about complying with guidelines. We believe that the prevention of plagiarism in the early stages of the learning process would help HEIs to minimise the potential for dishonest academic behaviour (Hansen, 2003).

5.1 Study Limitations This study did not aim to provide results that are generalisable to the student population, and its main limitations should therefore be kept in mind. Firstly, our research sample was quite small and a larger sample would help us gain a better insight into plagiarism and students’ views and concerns about it. Furthermore, high levels of absenteeism affected our sample during the academic year and this issue clearly had an impact on the research outcomes. However, our analysis manages to offer some information on the main issues that are affecting students’ work and it helped us to identify common trends in students’ behaviour with regard to academic integrity practices. Finally, correlations between cases of plagiarism and final scores for the module were not presented due to the lack of any similarities between the type of skills that were tested in their continuous assessment and in their final exam.

6. Conclusion

This study provides evidence on the use of text-matching detection software to identify improper writing practices and unethical behaviour among students (Yeo, 2007). Our findings suggest that educators could help their students to understand the value of aligning their practices with academic writing standards through the use of specialised text-matching software and with the support of formative feedback. We believe that the use of more stringent preventative measures would act as an efficient deterrent to dishonest practices among students at HEIs (White, Owens and Nguyen, 2008). Educators should follow some basic steps to help their students understand what plagiarism is and its implications. 1. Plagiarism should be clearly explained to students and they should be reminded of its importance and implications. 2. Specific examples offering evidence of cases where plagiarism practices have been identified should be properly presented and explained to students. 3. The institution’s policy and guidelines on academic honesty and integrity procedures need to be discussed and explained to students. 4. Students should be supported by formative feedback that identifies instances where the institution’s policies have been breached and where constructive comments are offered to help the student correct his/her practice. 5. Students should be given the chance to learn from their mistakes and to ask questions that aim to improve their performance. 6. The negative connotations of plagiarism should be made very clear and the assessment procedures and implications in terms of marking course work should be clearly presented to students. 7. Group work should be integrated into the learning process to help students deal with cases of plagiarism and to look to the educator for support and explanations to clarify areas of concern. Plagiarism has been found to be a critical matter that needs to be considered in the early stages of the learning process, if institutions are serious about addressing the problem and helping their students to comply with academic integrity and honesty practices. The role of educators was found to be crucial in this process, as they are the ones who can take a more constructive approach when plagiarism is discovered and they need to be able to offer effective feedback and support to their students. Educators should be able to use plagiarism as an additional tool to support their students’ learning and they should eliminate the punitive aspect during the early stages of the learning process but without dismissing the value of offering objective assessment and grading their students’ work fairly. Our study shows that plagiarism can be integrated into the learning experience when combined with formative feedback, as in this way students will get a better understanding of the issues that they need to address. Face-to-face sessions were found to be particularly helpful in the process, as they gave students the chance to clarify their concerns and review their work with the help of their educator. Students’ lack of awareness of the implications of plagiarising work, and their belief that copying from research sources and peers without proper acknowledgement will not impact their course results is an issue that needs to be addressed. Further research is required to help develop efficient practices designed to give students a better understanding of the importance of ethical behaviour at an academic level and the © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

repercussions that malpractice can have at later stages of their academic and professional careers.

Acknowledgement We are grateful to the students for their cooperation in completing the questionnaires. We would also like to thank Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland) and Universitat Jaume I (Spain) for providing the facilities and resources to develop this project. Finally we gratefully acknowledge editorial assistance from M. Savage who has notably contributed to the quality and accuracy of this paper.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 35-52, June 2015

The use of Technology to Support the Innovative Teaching of Mathematics to Students with SEBD: A Debate Related to the use of Technology in the Classroom to Promote Inclusion Jonathan Camenzuli Stella Maris College, GĹźira, Malta Abstract. This paper explores in detail the innovative uses of technology that link to a connectionist approach together with a reference to classroom experience. This paper ties the debates related to the use of technology in the classroom into broader issues relating to inclusivity. It also recognises the individual difference of students within the classroom framed around a recognition of social and emotional differences. This is thought about and understood as a pedagogical challenge and one in which technology facilitates shifts (or the opportunity to shift) in the approach to teaching utilised. It is argued this will be beneficial for all, and potentially crucial for some, and a convincing case is presented. Keywords: Mathematics; Teaching, Learning, Technology, SEBD.

1.0 Introduction 1.1 The Context The potential of computer technology to assist students in engaging in the learning of Mathematics is commonly acknowledged as a fact (Zbiek, Heid, Blume & Dick, 2007), however educational research and reports (Dynarski et al., 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, 2009; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008) indicate that merely introducing technology into the classroom environment does not necessary imply a significant improvement in the learning and teaching of Mathematics. Technology is just a medium and the pedagogy used still remains a key feature in offering the students an engaging and meaningful educational experience. Technology can offer a range of pedagogical tools that can help students engage in learning. Hence, it can aid the teacher to offer students in the classroom a better and more engaging educational experience. This paper will focus on how the incorporation of technology in the

Mathematics classroom can be used in the development of innovative teaching, such as Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), which in turn will offer all the students in the classroom, particularly those with Social Emotional Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) in mainstream schooling, a better and more significant educational experience. To argue in support of this statement, I will first discuss how technology can be used to bring about a change in pedagogy, which can better meet the needs and the learning characteristics of students with SEBD. I will move on to give an example of such a pedagogical change leading to innovative teaching, namely IBL. I will also discuss how IBL, integrated in the Mathematics classroom, with the help of technology, can have a positive effect on students with SEBD.I will draw upon a project I conducted two years ago related to this topic (see Camenzuli, 2012; Camenzuli & Buhagiar, 2014). 1.2 Overview of need The presence of Students with SEBD creates particular difficulties for schools since they challenge the mainstream school systems (Ofsted, 2004). Hence, they are generally misunderstood at school, consequently the least likely to receive effective and timely support (Baker 2005; Kalambouka et. al. 2007; Ofsted, 2007). Students with SEBD tend to dislike traditional lessons that are typically restricted to written work with little interaction and application to real life (Cefai, 2010). This type of learning environment alienates students with SEBD even more than others, as they find it especially hard to take a passive role in the learning process (Munby, 1995). Schooling that, as von Glaserfeld (1989) argues, has traditionally positioned students as passive recipients of knowledge, places students with SEBD at a disadvantage and they will become increasingly disengaged from the learning process. Thus, these students need to be actively involved in learning (see Groom and Rose, 2005). Students with SEBD have less tolerance for frustration, and thus, it is more likely that students with SEBD will get distracted or exhibit undesirable behaviours if the educational experience presented to them is not of a good quality. The end result is that these students risk being excluded from schooling for simply exhibiting the behaviours that define their special educational needs (Jull, 2008). It is fair to say that although students, who do not have SEBD, are less likely to exhibit undesirable behaviours when presented with an irrelevant or inadequate learning experience, they will also benefit from the use of a more active pedagogy being used in class. Hence, the point here is that the improvement in standards of the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; learning experience on offer will be beneficial for everybody, but particularly effective with students with SEBD given their critical inclination to deviant behaviours when poor educational standards are presented to them. Moreover, technology is relevant since itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s utilization can be used to drive the standard of teaching forward. Furthermore, it can be used to aid innovative teaching in the classroom and can offer a range of pedagogical tools that can help students engage in learning and become less distracted and disengaged from learning. The introduction of technology in the classroom must not be a mere cosmetic change for the sake of looking modern and up to date with modern times. My ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

argument is that the introduction of technology is most effective when it also includes a pedagogical and paradigm shift in teaching and learning towards a more active and meaningful learning experience. 1.3 Defining the main terms An important aspect of every piece of writing is to decide which understanding I will be attaching to the main terms that will be used throughout. Thus, I will now briefly give my own working definition of the main terms that will be used in this paper. In the introduction, I have already referred to some difficulties students with SEBD pose to the educational system. I will be adopting Cefaiâ&#x20AC;&#x;s (2010) definition of SEBD since it captures the complexity of these difficulties, describing SEBD as a: Loose umbrella term encompassing behaviours and expressions of emotion among students which are experienced by adults and students as disruptive and/or disturbing, and which interfere with the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; learning, social functioning and development and/or that of their peers. (p. 117) When it comes to the teaching and learning of Mathematics, Askew et al. (1997), Enest (1991) and Swan (2006) describe three main approaches. These are: the transmission approach, the discovery approach and the connectionist approach. Table 1.1, which is reproduced from Swain and Swan (2005; cited in Primas, 2011) summarises the main features of these three approaches. A careful reading of this table reveals that, for each approach, views on the nature of Mathematics are intimately linked to how the teaching and learning of the subject are perceived. Table 1.1: Three approaches to the teaching and learning of Mathematics (Swain and

Swan 2005; cited in Primas, 2011) Discovery Views of Transmission Approach Approach the subject A given body of A creative subject in knowledge and which the teacher standard procedures. takes a passive, A set of universal facilitating role, truths and rules expecting students which need to be to create their own conveyed to concepts and students. methods. Views of An individual An individual learning activity based on activity based on watching, listening practical and imitating until exploration and fluency is attained. reflection.

Connectionist Approach An interconnected body of ideas which the teacher and the students create together through discussion.

An interpersonal activity in which students are challenged and arrive at understanding

Views of Structuring a linear teaching curriculum for the students; giving verbal explanations and checking that these have been understood through practice questions; correcting misunderstandings when students fail to „grasp‟ what is taught.

Assessing when a student is ready to learn; providing a stimulating environment to facilitate exploration; avoiding misunderstandings by the careful sequencing of experiences.

through discussion. A non-linear dialogue between teacher and students in which meaning and connections are explored verbally. Misunderstandings are made explicit and worked on.

Hence foward, innovative teaching methods in Mathematics should move away from the transmission approach towards the connectionist approach. In fact, the European Union (EU), through the project named Promoting Inquiry in Mathematics and Science Edcuation Across Europe (PRIMAS, 2010) (see http://www.primas-project.eu) is promoting this exact pedagogical change in the EU: PRIMAS aims to effect change across Europe in the teaching and learning of mathematics and science by supporting teachers to develop inquiry-based learning pedagogies so that in turn, pupils gain first-hand experience of scientific inquiry. Our objective is that a greater number of pupils will have a more positive disposition towards the further study of these subjects and the desire to be employed in related fields. Notwithstanding this campaign by the EU, an analysis of national contexts conducted on behalf of the EU-funded PRIMAS project revealed the low level of application of IBL oriented pedagogy in all the 12 participating countries 1 (PRIMAS, 2010). Instead, this analysis shows the continued dominance of the transmission teaching approach in most of these countries. This in spite of PRIMAS (2010) reporting that, in recent years, in all the countries taking part in their project there have been policy changes favouring the adoption of IBLfriendly pedagogies. This reality reveals that it takes more than policy changes to actually change teacher practices. However, the introduction of technology in the classroom can serve as catalyst to bring about this change in pedagogy as proposed by the EU. Technology can be vital in helping the teacher implement innovative ways of teaching moving away from the traditional transmission approach of teaching.

Countries which took part in the PRIMAS project are Germany, Switzerland, Netherland, England, Spain, Slovakia, Hungary, Cyprus, Malta, Denmark, Romania and Norway. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Finally, I will be adopting a very vast definition of technology including any physical technological components such as projectors and laptops and any forms of digital media such as social networks, educational games and educational software packages.

2.0 Technology in Mathematics Education 2.1 A paradigm shift in pedagogy Linking principles of learning to the teaching of Mathemtics using technology is of utmost importance. Technology can be used to promote a shift to a better and more meaningful pedagogy in the Mathematcs classroom. Hasselbring (2001), in fact, made a very important point by arguing that the integration of technology should also be accompanied by important learning principles such as connectedness with prior knowledge, developmental of understanding rather than only memorisation and include active learning. All this links with a connectionist approach in teaching Mathematics. This is beneficial to all students learning Mathematics, especially students with SEBD as will be documented later. It is important that technology integration in the calssroom supports students‟ abilities to actively engage in and make sense of Mathematics (Allsopp et al., 2010). Similarly, Hofstetter (2001), addressed this issue by arguing that the readily available technological tools make the activation of prior knowledge and incorporation of revlevant connections more possible. Hence, here Hofstetter (2001) emphasises the importance of linking the integration of technology with cognitive learning principles. Quite simply the arguments of both Hasselbring (2001) and Hofstetter (2001) are that technology should be used to push foward innovative ways of teaching. Thus, the change here is not between having a technology free classroom to one in which technology exists. The change must be a pedagogical one, essentially about replacing „surface learning‟ with „deep learning‟ with the help of technology. According to Marton and Säljö (1976), in contrast to a surface approach to learning which is dependent on attempts to remember course material whilst treating it as unrelated; a deep approach to learning encompasses an active search for meaning, underlying principles, structures that link different concepts or ideas together, and widely related techniques. The student agency implied in the pursuit for deep learning clearly calls for some form of inquiry on students‟ part as they engage in activities that mimic mathematicians‟ efforts to develop mathematical knowledge (see Van Schalkwijk et al., 2000). Simply integrating technology in the classroom will not bring about „deep learning‟. 2.2 Trends of the use of technology in Mathematics Education: An overview Technology‟s integration in the classroom can be shown to have a positive impact on student learning in Mathematics (Craig et al., 2009). In 1999, Schacter, reviewed over 700 empirical studies in which students had exposure to the use of technology in the classroom and showed an overall positive gains in

achievment. Nevertheless, the research on using technology to imporve Mathemtaical understanding demonstrates mixed results. Dynarski et al. (2007) reviewing various software products designed for Mathematics learning found no significant test score differences between the groups of students using the system as part of their classroom instruction and the groups of student in a standard classroom. Harris et al. (2008) and Mayo (2009) in two different studies suggested that use of technology in the Mathematics classroom increased achievement (as measured by standardized testing). Kebritchi‟s (2008) study supported the potential of technology in the Mathematics classroom although establishing positive results for students achievment, no positive effects were recorded with regards to student motivation. Ke and Grabowski (2007) investigations on a particular mathemtatics educational computer package showed that students using this package outperformed their peers in achievement gains. Students with low socioeconomic backgrounds registered the greatest improvement. Simply integrating technology in the classroom setting does not automatically increase students‟ achievement or motivation in the subject. Young et al. (2012) suggests that careful research needs to conducted on the use of technology and technology should be designed to allow the use of contempory learning theories.

3.0 A pedagogy that caters for all: How can technology help? Disruptive behaviour can obstruct learning more than inattentivness since it effects the whole classroom, disrupts the teacher and wastes lesson time. An international study amongst twenty-three countries, reported that one of the major factors which hampers teachers‟ effectiveness was misbehaviour in school, with an average thirteen percent of teacher time spent on maintaining order and correcting misbehaviour in the classroom (OECD, 2009). Students are known to misbehave in school or to skip school altogether, not because they dislike school, but because they do not appreciate the way in which they are being taught (White, 1982). Thus, it is essential to have a pedagogy that caters for all types of students (Davies, 2005). In spite of this key role played by pedagogical issues, there is a tendency to focus support to students with SEBD on issues of behaviour management rather than to enhance pedagogical methods in class. Major importance needs to be given on the ways in which teachers deliver the curriculum if students with SEBD are to benefit from their educational experiences (Moody et al., 2000). Indeed, the rooted policies, practices and provisions in the chosen pedagogy either support or hinder the learning of these students (Visser, 2005). For instance, it is essential that students with SEBD get immediate and regular feedback (Hughes & Cooper, 2007), which can easily be done by the integration of technology. In addition, technology also gives the teacher the opportunity to be flexible according to student‟s needs and to build upon their prior knowledge rather than to follow blindly a rigid curriculum. From personal experience, technology can be used to adapt and differentiate

material according to the students‟ ability. Thus technology can help the teacher set indvidualised learning tasks and carry out indivisualised training in the classroom. Hence, technology removes barriers to making progress in the classroom. This can be an advantage for students with SEBD who are known to engage more with a flexible academic programme (see Crowley, 1993; Habel et al., 1999). Rather little research has been conducted so far regarding instructional, curricular, or classroom settings that is aimed at enhancing the learning and academic performance of students with SEBD (DuPaul & Stoner, 2004). Still, the array of pedagogical approaches that are used by teachers to support students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (see DuPaul & Stoner, 2004; Purdie et al., 2002; Zentall, 1995) can easily be applied to students with SEBD. These so called „educational‟ approaches are designed to exploit, rather than inhibit, some of the characteristics that are associated with ADHD or any other form of SEBD (Hughes & Cooper, 2007). One of the suggested strategies involves students writing answers to teachers‟ questions on cards and holding these up for inspection by the teacher (see Zentall, 1995). The strategy‟s embedded provision of visual motor-tasks increases the active participation of students with SEBD. This reduces the oftenproblematic waiting intervals between the accomplishment of the tasks and the receiving of teacher feedback. This strategy – which helps to improve both performance and behaviour of students with SEBD (Hughes & Cooper, 2007) – can be easily integrated using technology in the classroom. Instead of using cards, students can use their laptops or tablet to share their answers and get immediate feedback. Students with SEBD tend to be talkative at unsuitable times. This behaviour can be very annoying for teachers. An increase in participation by students can be a solution for this problem (Zentall, 1995). With the use of technological applications, students can increase their participation and communication with the teacher and peers thus reducing the need for talking out of turn and disrupting the flow of the lesson. Hence, technology can help teachers offer students a better educational experience (Allsopp, McHatton, Farmer, 2010). It is essential that students with SEBD are given an active role during lessons (see Camenzuli, 2012; Camenzuli & Buhagiar, 2014). For, as Munby (1995) warns, these students often experience alienation when they are required to take a passive role in the learning process. On the contrary, students with SEBD react well to an active style of learning. Thus, this type of learning appears to: (i) increases students‟ attention levels while doing tasks, thereby reducing disruptive and impulsive behaviours (Hughes & Cooper, 2007); and (ii) encourages student agency which is a key feature of a constructivist approach on which innovative learning styles, which will be discussed later, are grounded. Technology can help the teacher give students an active role during the lesson since students can be involved for large periods of time in

investigations which they conduct themselves with the help of computer packages. An example of this instance will be discussed in section 5.1

4.0 Technology and innovative teaching 4.1 The context The Maltese National Curriculum Framework (NCF) (Ministry of Education & Employment (MEE), 2012) emphasises that: Teaching is most effective when learners are provided with opportunities to make sense of new knowledge in a context which allows them to interact with the teacher and other learners to discuss and negotiate their understanding. In this view, a teacher-dominant pedagogy, which relegates learners to a passive role, emphasizes memorisation and limits interactions between learners, is not recommended. (MEE, 2012, p. 39)

Thus local policies are pushing for innovative constructivist pedagogies such as Inquiry-Based Learning. Rather than the transmissive approach to education (see section 1.3), this pedagogy is increasingly being pushed forward globally as a way of ensuring that students acquire „deep learning‟ as opposed to „shallow learning‟ (see Marton & Säljö, 1976). Technology can be a key element in this change since it can be used to aid the implementation of such an innovative way of teaching and can be an ideal partner for the teacher. Thus, technology can be vital in the move away from a transmissive way of teaching Mathematics to a constructivist one which results in „deep learning‟ such as IBL. 4.2 Innovative teaching Technology should push forward innovative ways of teaching in the Mathematics classroom. But what do we understand by innovative teaching and how can this be implemented with the help of technology? Here, I will first discuss what innovative teaching in Mathematics involves, drawing upon IBL. Later on I will give an example of how technology can be used to implement innovative teaching in the Mathematics classroom. Innovative teaching approaches in Mathematics should on one hand fundamentally move teaching away from the „transmission‟ pedagogy that is characterised by teachers imparting „their‟ knowledge to students (Gattegno, 1971) who are viewed in turn as passive recipients ready to be filled with „that‟ knowledge. The handing down of „knowledge objects‟ from the expert to the novice is the main attribute of this teaching approach (Burton, 2002). Here the knowledge is itemised into discrete skills, concepts and techniques that are delivered in a hierarchical manner, starting from the simpler tasks and gradually moving on to the more complex ones to facilitate its transmission.

However on the other hand, innovative teaching should draw upon contemporary work in cognitive and constructivist psychology which has shown that knowledge, far from being an external map that can be transposed directly into a student‟s head, results from the organic process of reorganizing and restructuring undertaken by the student as he or she learns (Gipps, 1994). Students are now seen as agents, active constructors of meaning and knowledge who share responsibility for learning with their teacher, but no longer perceived as passive receivers of knowledge (Murphy, 1996). Knowledge from a social constructivist perspective is a product of dialogue and negotiation between and among teachers and students (Jaworski, 2002). The latter perspective holds that “we learn from being part of and interacting within a social environment, and that individual construction of knowledge is derivative of its social construction” (Jaworski, 2002, p. 73). In both instances, … understanding involves creating links in the mind and that „making sense‟ of something depends on these links. Isolated pieces of information do not have links to existing mental frameworks and so are not easily retained in the mind. The identification and creation of links to existing frameworks depends on the active participation of the learner and on the familiarity of the context of the material to be learned. Understanding, in this view, is the process of construction and reconstruction of knowledge by the learner. What is known and understood will, of course, change with new experience and as new ideas and skills are presented to help make sense of it. (Harlen & James, 1997, p. 368) This definition of understanding signifies a move away from what Black (1998) calls an „atomised approach to learning‟ that promotes learning by rote, of small pieces of information without the understanding that links them together, and of fixed rules and procedures. The new direction in learning that is being planned is towards a more collaborative course in which students work together on interconnnected and challenging tasks (see PRIMAS, 2010) that inspires their thinking and create opportunities for critical reflection and understanding (see Jaworski, 1994). The change, therefore, is essentially about replacing „surface learning‟ with „deep learning‟. The student agency implied in the pursuit for deep learning clearly calls for some form of inquiry on students‟ part as they engage in activities that emulate mathematicians‟ efforts to develop mathematical knowledge (see Van Schalkwijk et al., 2000). 4.2.2 Exploring Inquiry-Based Learning Inquiry-based learning which is an example of innovative teaching in Mathematics is intimately connected to constructivist approaches in education that have shown how students‟ learning experiences are deeper and more significant if they are dynamically involved in instances where they investigate

rich situations and if they share responsibility of monitoring their own learning (PRIMAS, 2011). Inquiry can be described as a process, which can be commenced by either the teacher or the students, in which students investigate central, essential questions under the guidance of their teacher (Alvarado & Herr, 2003). Given that the teacher must follow a predetermined syllabus at school and certain curriculum attainment levels should be reached, the teacher has to keep students on track during this process of inquiry so that students do not deviate away from the material to be covered (Alvarado & Herr, 2003). According to Li et al. (2010), scientific inquiry prompts students to ask stimulating questions, plan and conduct investigations, use suitable techniques to collect data, think critically about evidence and possible explanations and share their arguments, rather than forcing students to follow a prescribed routine. Along similar lines, the Rocard Report (see Rocard, 2007) represents IBL as the planned process of identifying difficulties, reviewing experiments, differentiating alternatives, planning investigations, researching conjectures, searching for information, constructing models, debating with peers, and forming coherent arguments. Thus, with these characteristics attached to inquiry-based learning, it is no surprise to understand why the PRIMAS project (see PRIMAS, 2011), to which I referred in section 1.2, has described IBL with reference to Mathematics as a way of teaching and learning in which students are supposed to work in ways that are similar to what mathematicians actually do. The IBL approach, apart from requiring students to be active in their learning, carries important implications for the teacher in line of constructivist learning theories. According to Ronis (2008), the teacher‟s role in IBL – which is, at times, also referred to as problem-based learning – is that of a facilitator rather than a leader. The teacher facilitates the learning process by directing students and shaping the learning environment (Li et al., 2010). As part of this facilitation, for instance, the teacher refocuses students on their tasks through the use of guiding questions (Alvarado & Herr, 2008). Apart from challenging students through effective, probing questions, a teacher who is committed to an IBL approach is expected to make constructive use of students‟ prior knowledge by managing small group and whole class discussions that offer space for alternative viewpoints and help students to make connections between their ideas (PRIMAS, 2011).

5.0 Integration of technology to deliver IBL to students with SEBD: an example How can technology help to promote inquiry and hence innovative teaching in the Mathematics classroom and how will this in turn help students with SEBD experience a better educational journey? Here I will draw upon a project (see Camenzuli, 2012; Camenzuli & Buhagiar, 2014) that I carried out to answer this question.

The data, which was essentially qualitative, was collected over 15 consecutive weeks. Several data collection methods were used to explore the implementation process in great depth and detail (see Feagin, Orum & Sjoberg, 1991). I used a journal in order to guarantee a detailed record of the lesson proceedings. This journal also provided the space and time for data interpretation and critical reflection on the unfolding events inside my classroom (see McNiff and Whitehead, 2008; Mertler, 2009). I also regularly checked students‟ work and kept samples of it as part of the research data. The students, on their part, were invited to keep a personal journal in which they were asked to provide feedback about their thoughts, perceptions and learning experiences (see Mertler, 2009). To enhance further the effective articulation of students‟ views, I interviewed and digitally recorded my students at two different stages of the study – midway and towards the end of the study. Both interviews were semi-structured: Although interview guides had been prepared, prompts and supplementary questions were availed of and the actual sequence of the questioning changed according to students‟ responses and the flow of the conversation (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007; Gillham, 2005). Focus group sessions with the students were also conducted discussing different processes of IBL. The project was conducted in a secondary school for boys in Malta that groups students, aged roughly from 11 to 16 years, in mixed ability classes spread over five Forms. This school offers a range of support initiatives for students who encounter specific learning difficulties. One of these initiatives – known as „core programme‟ – caters for the three core subjects of the local educational system, namely, Malta‟s two official languages (i.e., Maltese and English) and Mathematics. Although the school advocates inclusive policies, students who are at risk of exclusion from their class and eventually from school are provided with small group out-of-class teaching in these three subjects. This replication of „special‟ provision within a mainstream school (see Head, 2005) is not meant to lower students‟ goals and expectations. Instead, the aim of the core programme is to offer students who either have serious learning difficulties in the three core subjects or exhibit SEBD in class with the same mainstream syllabus in a more student-friendly learning environment. The embedded emphasis on providing these students with a second chance to reach their full potential is guided by the understanding, highlighted by Cooper (2009), that students‟ learning is closely linked to how they feel about themselves and to how they relate to other students. The programme thus tries to redress, among other things, students‟ feelings of fear and anxiety, as these can act as a barrier to their engagement with learning (see Cooper, 2009). The main aim of this project was to explore how students‟ with SEBD react when taught through a constructivist pedagogy such as IBL. Here, technology played an integral part of this project since it helped me implement inquiry-based lesson. Technology was helping me, the teacher, make a pedagogical shift towards a more active and meaningful one as advocated by Hasselbring (2001) and Hofstetter (2001). A pedagogy in which students made use of prior

knowledge and one in which „deep learning‟ was facilitated. Students used computers to carry out investigations that otherwise would not have been feasible due to time constraints. Adequate software packages were used in order to design experiments to reach the desired learning goals (see section 5.1). Basically, by preferring connectionist approaches to both transmission and discovery approaches (see table 1.1), I used classroom practices that based on mathematical inquiry as a way of engaging learners with mathematical ideas and to deepen their understanding of and connections between mathematical concepts. Consequently, I did not only expect students to solve problems, but also to understand what they are doing, to explain their methods and to follow the explanations of others. The idea is for students to view Mathematics as a significant endeavor, to develop a range of strategies for mathematical work and to employ these in a flexible and eventually efficient manner. This understanding helped me to develop lessons that value students‟ prior knowledge of mathematics and engage them in a wide variety of processes that facilitate deep learning. I will briefly discuss here my main findings from this project. Firstly, students started to view learning as an activity in which they were active agents and as an enjoyable experience. Compared with their previous traditional learning experiences, students had a positive reaction to this active way of learning. Research evidence shows that the IBL-induced shift away from traditional teaching also introduced a strong element of enjoyment into their Mathematics lessons. The research evidence also indicated a notable improvement in students‟ behaviour during the „core programme‟ Mathematics lessons. Both the students and the teacher appear to have credited this improvement mainly to a less rigid classroom environment combined to a more active and collaborative learning approach. The noted improvement in students‟ behaviour during the „core programme‟ Mathematics lessons was accompanied by a genuine motivation on the students‟ part to learn mathematics. Also, the students linked their improved behaviour in the „core programme‟ Mathematics class to both environmental and pedagogical changes, they tended to explain their increased motivation more in terms of being exposed to specific IBL-related processes. The resulting positive effect that IBL was having on students‟ motivation to learn did not go unnoticed and it opened the door in turn for students‟ learning that was reflected in higher achievement. Evidence from this project also suggests that IBL supports students‟ learning of Mathematics and leads to better achievement. The students, on their part, regularly referred to this „new way of doing mathematics‟ as „an opportunity for learning‟. Many of the students in class expressed the wish to have more IBL lessons and their desire for similar lessons was not only based on „enjoyment‟, but also on a sincere belief that they were beginning to understand things and learn Mathematics.

5.1 A concrete example In the following section, I will be giving an example of how technology can be used to help in the implementation of innovative ways of teaching such as IBL in the Mathematics classroom. This particular example deals with the teaching of the Tangent ratio in Trigonometry. Similar methods can be used for other topics such as angles, Pythagoras‟ theorem, circle theorems and various other topics in the Mathematics curriculum. The objectives of this particular lesson was to understand the Tangent ratio, apply it, support student‟s creativity and belief in their own abilities and model a humane picture of Mathematics in pupils‟ mind and humanistic educating via demonstrating an experimenting technique using technology to „discover‟ the trigonometric ratio. Key IBL pedagogical skills used during this lesson was: promoting student co-operation, autonomous learning, securing basic knowledge and experiencing subject boundaries and interdisciplinary approaches. The following figure illustrates the IBL method used.

Figure 4.1: The IBL Circle

Using a computer package such as Cabri-géomètre the following file (figure 4.2) was prepared for students on their computers. The students were split into groups, each group having access to a computer. Without technology this would have consumed too much time and its feasibility would have been questioned. However, with the integration of technology students could be exposed to many examples of right-angled triangles and they could investigate the relationships based on various examples. Hence, here technology is helping in overcoming obstacles related to lack of time. In fact, teachers mentioned problems related to time constraints as a reason for not using innovative teaching methods in the classroom and reverting back to a transmission approach (Rocard, 2007). Also, technology can help the teacher in his/her preparation. For example, here the teacher does not have to prepare different sets of right angles for the students to measure.

Figure 4.2: Teaching Trigonometry

Very simply, students are asked to drag point D so that angle BÂC was 10°. Using the software, the students are then queried to measure side BC (Opposite) and AB (Adjacent). Afterwards, they are requested to keep the same angle and move B along AE to another four different positions and note the lengths of BC and AB. Every time they are asked to record sides BC and AB using the software. The boys are asked to find a relationship between BC and AB. What happens when they add them? Subtract them? Multiply them? Divide? The different groups are invited to communicate their findings. What can they conclude? Does this only work for 10° angles? Why? How can they prove it? Here students are engaged in „deep learning‟ through inquiry with the help of technology.

6.0 Conclusion Technology can play a unique role in facilitating a paradigm shift away from a classroom pedagogy that is grounded on a transmission approach to one that engages students in cognitively demanding tasks (Bransford, Brown & Cooking, 2000; Culp, Honey & Mandinach, 2003; Jonassen, Howland, Moore & Marra, 2003). Technology can be used as a catalyst for pegagocial change which is greatly needed in the light that a dominance of a transmission approach still remains in some EU countries (see Primas, 2010). However, even though research has shown that technology can be used in ways to support students‟ efforts to engage in cognitevely demanding tasks, technology has not been widely adopted for this purpose in most classrooms (Becker, 2001; Wenglinsky, 2005). Unfortunately, as argued by Young et al.‟s (2012), technology has become a mere 20-minute activity during the lesson rather than an integral part of the curriculum. If technology is being used just for the sake of appearing modern and justifying the thousands of Euros spent in introducing technology in the class, then its use will not bring about the positive change in education we all desire. Educators have to look at technology as an ideal partner which will help them bring about the required pedagogical enhancements in education. For example, © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

technology can be used to drive the change from using a transmissice pedagogy in class to the use of innovative teaching strategies grounded on a constructivists approach. The use of innovative teaching in the Mathematics classroom can be regarded as an „educational approach‟ (see Du Paul & Stoner, 2004) that will help all students in the classroom have a better educational experience, but will have an even deeper impact with students with SEBD. This is because students with SEBD will exhibit deviant behaviours more easily when presented with an inadequate learning experience given that they are less resilient to it. Technology offers on important opportunity for the implantation of such „educational approaches‟ and can be an integral tool in the development of innovative teaching methods in class as shown in the example given.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 53-63, June 2015

An Effective Approach for Teaching Database Course K. S. Sastry, Musti University of West Indies,

St. Augustine, Trinidad Abstract. Teaching a Database course in general is a challenging task, due to several influencing factors such as increasing expectations of the job market, different and ever-changing database products, quality standards and limited time frames of a regular semester system. This course is different from other courses in the sense that hands on training is essential to train students to maximize learning effectiveness. Learning database principles and concepts involves various activities, starting from fundamental concepts to state of the art in the area. This paper presents a typical balanced approach that has been designed and implemented in teaching the database course to students of a taught masterâ&#x20AC;&#x;s program at the University of West Indies. The course design in this approach ensures both skills and knowledge training to meet the requirements of prevailing job market and international quality standards. Course design, composition, content delivery, independent learning through coursework, hands-on skills training, and assessment criteria are presented in a detailed manner. Keywords: Database and Information Systems; Problem Based Learning, Course Design; Engineering Education; Graduate teaching.

1. Introduction Information Technology (IT) world is witnessing phenomenal change on a continuous basis at faster rates when compared to other, non-IT technologies. Teaching in Computer Science and Information Technology related courses is influenced by several factors such as a) Rapid and continuous development in tools and technologies b) Increasing expectations of IT employers from new recruits c) Procurement and management of laboratory infrastructure d) Wide range of IT knowledge e) Different, stricter quality assessment frameworks. Hence, teachers and laboratory personnel are required to keep apace (when compared to their peers in other specializations) with the rapid changes in IT field especially in using the development tools and technologies to be able to train the students effectively. Obviously, IT courses, in particular at masterâ&#x20AC;&#x;s level courses should be designed to satisfy a wide range of requirements and standards (EC-UK, 2013). In particular databases have matured from one stage to another such as stand-alone, client-server, web and cloud models. ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Database course is an integral component of any degree program specializing in Computer Engineering. The general thinking pattern about teaching databases is centered on learning normalization techniques, SQL statements, operating a given database product and to design a single, large database for the entire class in a semester. However in reality, this approach will not satisfy the master‟s level course organization, especially in programs of applied nature. Traditional delivery techniques emphasize the theoretical aspects of databases, which may not capture skills building and knowledge in state-of-the art; and often exclude exposure to real world projects. Yet, time limits of the semester system; experience, skills and professional background of teachers; and the need for extensive laboratory support often present significant challenges to the planning and delivery of more effective approaches. Naturally, the development and delivery of database courses have attracted a great deal of attention on account of the many pressing challenges in a typical university environment. Over the years, researchers have presented various aspects of teaching a database course. Most of the authors have focused on teaching database course to undergraduate students with major emphasis on database design, normalization and E-R diagrams. Mata-Toledo et al (2002) presented their experiences in teaching both undergraduate and graduate students using Oracle 8i. They also raised the issue of most universities not teaching Database Administration (DBA) and illustrated few reasons too. However, the database course taught by MataToledo et al (2002) focused only on database administration aspects alone. Some authors (Connolly, 2006; Shaw et al, 2007) felt that the usage of real world problems and examples will help students learn Database courses better. Few authors have used Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach, though they did not explicitly discuss the issues with PBL in database teaching. Hoque and Bashiry (2014) used SQL learning and evaluation system with PBL teaching for databases. Kam et al (2013) used gaming and Gudivada and Nandigarm (2007) used large datasets to teach databases. The approach suggested in this paper also uses PBL for coursework. Few authors (Mata-Toledo et al, 2002; Guimaraes, 2006) presented a detailed discussion on contents of their database course. Guimaraes (2006) course has major emphasis on database security and networking aspects. However, it should be noted that contents of the course vary from university to university based on requirements, level of course of offering, overall program requirements etc. And teaching databases to engineering students is a different undertaking from that of non-engineering students. Abe and Sagar (2008) discussed the difficulties in teaching IT courses to engineering students and presented a model to teach database. Few authors even developed special tools and strategies for teaching database courses. Chen and Ray (2004) suggested a step-by-step approach for teaching; Kung and Tung (2006) developed a Java applet based e-learning tool for teaching normalization; Kaschek and Kinshuk (2005) developed a knowledge management system for teaching; Shaw et al (2007) developed a „real-word integration‟ approach and used role playing techniques in classroom; Murray and Guimaraes (2009) developed an interesting, animated courseware and kept their courseware openly for wide circulation. However, these strategies mostly are limited to teaching fundamental concepts of databases especially normalization, E-R diagrams and design. Other reported strategies for teaching databases include © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

– using a simple Database server using JDBC (Sciore, 2007) and extensive laboratory training (Guimaraes, 2006). From the above, it can be seen that there are several teaching approaches and methodologies for this course. However, the circumstances, needs, requirements and objectives will be different from place to place. In essence, it can be seen that there is a significant interest in database course design, different approaches and teaching methodologies. However, issues like international accreditation standards, challenges such as ever-changing database products, licensing and ownership issues/ related costs to the teaching departments, job market expectations, independent learning aspects etc. This paper addresses such major issues by focusing from course design to meet the IET, UK standard specification for learning outcomes through a systematic discussion. This paper is divided into five sections. Section 1 provides the background and experiences of earlier contributors. The factors that influenced the course design are typical, which are explained in section 2. The course design, contents, learning outcomes and assessment strategies are illustrated in section 3. Student feedback and feelings on the course is presented in section 4 and a brief discussion on the approach is presented in section 4. Then section 5 has the conclusion.

2. Influencing factors In general, designing a database course can be very complex, due to vastness of the content, limiting factors such as laboratory infrastructure, costs of commercial licenses and various influencing factors. These aspects are discussed below. 2.1 Internal and External Quality Processes This course is offered in a department where classical British Educational model is followed for all undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The quality process naturally is driven by both internal and external reviews. All the undergraduate programs are accredited by Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK. Hence the programs are expected to maintain the quality standards and satisfy the requirements of both internally and external quality review exercises. The EPC Engineering Graduate Output Standard (EC-UK, 2013) clearly states the importance of courses meeting certain standards and uses phrases such as „an ability to use techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice‟, „ability to carry independent research‟ and „knowledge of contemporary issues‟. The internal quality process checks the fitness of the courseware, alignment of course learning outcomes with those of overall program. 2.2 Learning Outcomes and Overall Program Outcomes Learning Outcomes based assessment is followed widely and strictly in IET accredited programs. This is also one of the requirements for the internal quality assurance framework. This database course uses a departmental standard course outline template, in which the learning outcomes are stated clearly and tied to the assessment. The learning outcomes are aligned to the overall program outcomes.

Skills/ Hands-on Training – Laboratory Practice on Database Design, and data manipulation, PL/SQL Programming; DBA Overall LOs of MASc Programs activities and experiments

Internal & External Quality Processes

Local Industry requirements

Core Course Components – Database Modeling, Design, Programming and administration

Advanced Theoretical Concepts – Data Warehousing, Business Information Systems, Other programming languages – Java, PHP

Expected Course Outcomes

Contemporary/ State-ofthe art developments in Databases/ Technologies/ Related Research

Limited Financial resources

Constraints influencing the Course Design

Course ware and Components

Figure 1: A thematic model for Database Course Design with influencing factors, content and outcomes

2.3 Local Industry Practices and Job market requirements Oracle is the most preferred database for this course as it is widely used in the local industries. Oracle had kept their latest versions of the products on their site for free download for limited usage purposes. Students are encouraged download the latest version and install on their personal machines, so that they can have flexibility in practice at home or at office or in classroom. 2.4 Issues related to Student Learning at the Masters‟ level Trinidad and Tobago is blessed with a vibrant local economy which is mainly supported by oil, gas and energy industries; and offers an excellent job opportunities for the qualified students immediately after completing their undergraduate programs. Hence, the master‟s programs are offered on evening basis to serve the students who are full time employees of the local industries and utilities. Departments appoint a panel of experts (chosen from local industries and serving as honorary consultants) in each thematic area to help the teachers to set the appropriate course content and learning outcomes. The members of this panel help the departments in building the appropriate courses that might impart necessary skills to the students to help their work environment and career prospects. The panel also reviews courses periodically. Keeping in view of wide ranging requirements and existing resources, the course is designed in a typical fashion to balance both skills training and theoretical knowledge gain. The overall course design with influencing factors, content outlines and expected outcomes is shown in Figure 1.

3. Course Content, Learning Outcomes and Assessment The course is divided into five major areas â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1) Database design and practical training on Oracle database; 2) Database Administration 3) Programming with PL/SQL to provide user interface with the database. 4) Design and development of Information systems. 5) Research on state-of-the-art technologies related to Databases and Information Systems. At the graduate level, students must be able to model any existing system and then design an appropriate database. The emphasis is more on design rather than understanding internal mechanisms of database products, data storage and retrieval. Programming with PL/SQL is aimed at imparting logic development skills and information extracting from an existing database(s). The learning outcomes are specified based on these five areas. Upon successful completion of this course, the learning outcomes are (in other words, students will be able to): 1. Construct SQL statements to query the database for specific information. 2. Design a DBMS for information processing of a given system 3.Understand the concepts, tools and technologies related to information systems 4. Manage and administer different database users with appropriate privileges and roles 5. Design, Development and implement PL/SQL programs for existing databases for information extraction and decision making. 6. Design, development and implement Database applications using different platforms and technologies (emphasis: APEX) 7. Independent learning on cloud database tools through research. The learning outcomes are coupled to the assessment. The table 1 shows the Assessment Breakdown. TABLE I.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Assessment Component

Weight %

Details

PL/SQL Lab Exam

25%

SQL / DB Design (Take Home) CW1 DBA (Take Home) CW2 Information System with APEX (Take Home) CW3 Research on State-of-art Information Technologies

20%

Two separate Exams in the class/ Students must bring their own machines for this exam Design & Development of Database for a business application/ problem Add on layer for DB Administration and Security for the DB developed in CW1 Design and Development of Front-End user screens using APEX for the DB designed Reading articles on cloud databases such AWS, and implementing a prototype for the same chosen problem

10% 20%

25%

(e.g. type - written, oral, practical; duration)

The classroom lectures are delivered over 3 hours every week. Students are encouraged to bring their personal laptops to the classroom. Students are ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

provided with a guided installation of oracle on their laptops. Teacher installs the product on one machine, which is connected to the projector and students follow the same steps on their machines. In case of any specific issues with any student‟s installation process is dealt with the staff on the spot. Every class will provide interactive learning opportunities for students through teaching, hands-on practice and assessment based on the Oracle database throughout semester of thirteen weeks. Students can also practice and learn outside the class hours, since Oracle is installed on their laptops. Students typically choose one major topic (or problem) for all the coursework components CW1, 2, 3 and 4. The focus is to learn and operate the database product and design effective solutions; as opposed to learn about the topic itself. This approach is based on the principles of PBL Hoque and Bashiry (2014). Different coursework components are discussed below. 3.1 Course Work1 (Design): This part of the course aims at students to understand how to specify a problem with specific objectives; design and development of a database for meeting the set specific objectives; and testing the database design. Some of the problems given for this part are 1. Information System for Police Department 2. Vehicle Insurance Company 3. Information System for Income Tax Transactions 4. Software for Cricket Matches 5. MIS for Property Insurance Company 6. MIS for a Bank 7. Prison Management System 8. MIS for chain of Restaurants owned by different individuals 9.MIS for Property Insurance Company 10. MIS for Vehicle Rental Company. Expectations of CW1 are: A report (MS-Word Document not more than 16 pages) and a DB script (txt file). The report contains a) Problem specification, abstract, objectives and scope b) Overall design strategy for the problem c) Database table design with at least 8 tables d) E-R Diagram e) automated checks and data control using Triggers f) Usage and Test report g) Conclusions. The contents of the report should include - complete table create scripts, removal scripts, test data insert scripts, triggers for automated processes and information/ URLs, screen shots of any tools used. Students have used different developmental tools like SQL developer, Tool for Oracle Application Development (TOAD), Computer Associate‟s (CA) Erwin (a data modeler product) in solving their course work problems. From the above it can be seen that the stages of work, level of challenge, amount of efforts spent in each course work are more or less same. Also, students have ample opportunities to acquaint themselves with standard software tools and technologies and build their information technology skills. From the above, it can be seen that though the course work problems are different from each other, their solutions have common pattern and stages. 3.2 Course Work2 (DBA): A report (MS-Word document, not more than 8pages) and a DB script (txt file). The report contains a) Description of different users, need to have them and the hierarchy (show in a figure). b) Explanation on user privileges who should © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

have access to what information. c) Purpose for creating a trigger â&#x20AC;&#x201C; usually to automate a computational process, or generating complex information based on a DB event. 3.3 Course Work 3 (Front End Design and Development): Expectations of CW3: A report (MS-Word Document) + DB script (txt file) + APEX file The report contains a running notes and screenshots of ALL of your activities step-by-step. a) APEX admin - user creation b) invoking existing DB users c) be able to provide login screen for users d) accessing existing DB tables and the data e) information generated in different formats (pie, line, bar) f) export and import with testing 3.4 Course Work 4 (Research) This coursework challenges mastersâ&#x20AC;&#x; level students in their independent learning skills. Students are expected to research and understand on their about latest cloud databases such as Microsoft Azure, Google Spreadsheets etc and to implement a prototype database of the same problem that they worked in previous assignments. Students make a 15 minute presentation at the end of the semester summarizing their experiences. This benefits other students as many recent developments in the area will be presented. 3.5 Laboratory Examination A three hour laboratory examination is held to assess the PL/SQL programming skills. Students need to answer three questions using conditional statements, loops, functions and triggers. This examination ensures the skills of programming and logic building. It can be observed that complete, ready-made solutions for these coursework problems are not commonly available on the internet. However, it is a normal practice among the students to look for help over the internet for solutions. So, generally the course work problems should not be based on well-known problems, algorithms or so called stereo type problems. Every student is given with a particular problem though a lottery process. Only a short description on each course work problem is provided and this is deliberate. This provides students to think without limits and come up with their original ideas, specifications and features. In both course works, students are expected to define the scope, develop requirement analysis and then approach the solution for the given problem. Students are openly encouraged to consult each other on database design, application development, documentation standards, screen design, use of standard development tools etc. This strategy of assigning individual problems is opposed to the well-known, classical method of assigning a large, single problem to the entire class. This approach automatically ensured an effective learning process and also prevented the students from plagiarism as the problems are different and the solutions are not available on internet. Table 2 summarizes the overall learning activities and associated tools and technologies. ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

TABLE II.

Activity / Stage of DB design Table design with checks columns and primary and secondary keys linking to other tables Development of E-R diagram Development of Database Removal script with a specific sequence Triggers

LEARNING ACTIVITIES WITH TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES Expected Tools to be used SQL Developer or CA Erwin data modeler or TOAD

Learning activities

SQL Developer or CA Erwin data modeler or TOAD SQL Developer or CA Erwin data modeler or TOAD

Techniques of representing information using diagrams and also analyzing the diagrams of large information systems Students learn how to insert and delete data in the tables. Also learn the development of „Delete Table Scripts‟ to understand the need to have a specific sequence. Students identify the possibilities of bad entries, data items and then generate the necessary triggers to related data manipulation and computation tasks Students generate necessary functions and subroutines to automate most of the calculations and report generating activities in a modular fashion Knowledge of bad data, importance of data formats, experiencing large data transfers from different database products and data migration This is a versatile tool which requires no programming effort. By using this tool students can develop ready-to-use and corporate style applications on existing databases and to provide versatile reports with valuable information.

SQL Developer or CA Erwin data modeler or TOAD

Functions and Subroutines

SQL Developer or CA Erwin data modeler or TOAD

Data Loading

SQL* Loader

Design and development of Front End Screens

Oracle Application Express (APEX)

Students develop the „DB Scripts‟ by modeling the objects, identifying the data components and developing a relational model by linking these objects

4. Overall Student Performance and Feedback The attention and participation of students registered for this course is very good as evident from their response and overall feedback in the classroom. As the master‟s students are more matured and belong to a full time working class; they have enjoyed their individual project problems. As the assignments are take home type, students had all the freedom to discuss, research and collaborate among themselves in understanding the concepts and techniques of various aspects of databases and effectively attempted the course works. All students have shown great deal interest in the course works and the quality of © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

solution development is also found to be good. Figure 2 shows a sample report generated by a student in the topic â&#x20AC;&#x17E;MIS for Health Diagnostic Tests Laboratoryâ&#x20AC;&#x; as a part of CW3 using APEX. In fact, students develop a small database driven web applications as part of CW4. This is an indicative and supporting factor that the developed course design is a success. Students are appreciative of overall course delivery mechanism, theoretical content and the hands-on-training aspects. Students felt that they had the freedom in solving the course work which is essentially take home type. The strategy of having one problem to each student paid rich dividends. When students completed the first coursework, they felt the experience of completing one complete database design and implementation cycle involving use of various IT tools. Students liked the principles of PBL approach, as they do not have to research much on the problem itself and can focus on providing a database solution to the problem.

Figure 2: A Report Generated by a student in CW3

5. Discussion Though this type of course design is both interesting and challenging to the students, this poses an equal amount of challenge to the teacher as well. Teacher needs to prepare a new set of database design problems (with same level of difficulty, yet different in nature) in every offering. The approach of giving one problem to each student for smaller class sizes up to 15 to 20 students and if the student numbers are higher; then the class needs to be divided into groups. Also, the laboratory infrastructure (in terms of hardware, software and training material) needs to be prepared and verified every time. Initially it may appear challenging, but after few offerings, course will be effective in training the ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

students. It should be noted that the course work problems must have same level of challenge in solving, a common solution frame work. Variations to the course contents may be taken up by inclusion or omission of some selected topics without changing the pattern of learning outcomes and the overall design approach. Such attempts of making variations to course contents will broaden the scope of course material and supports variation in assessment patterns in university internal quality frameworks as well the externally driven accreditation processes. From the student point of view it will involve similar thought process though the problems are different. Students have specifically shown greater interest in learning database design and developing front end screens using APEX; PHP/ HTML; Java technologies. Projects combining database backend and webenabled front-end are quite common in building information systems in local industries and hence, that is reflected in the interests expressed explicitly by students. Few students expressed interest in using Dynamic SQL and developing search techniques and algorithms.

Conclusion Teaching IT courses and in particular database course is always challenging as there are several factors influencing the course design, delivery and assessment processes. Keeping in view of various needs and expectations, a new design strategy for has been developed and implemented for teaching a database course. This typical design has well defined learning outcomes, assessment strategy and combines skills training and theoretical concept coverage. From the analysis of student feedback and overall experiences gained, it can be seen that course design achieves the expected outcomes and satisfies all the influencing factors. This design strategy and our experiences may be useful to those who are similar situations and engaged in continuous improvement of courseware.

References Connolly, T.M. and Begg, C.E. (2006) “A constructivist-based approach to teaching database analysis and design”, Journal of Information Systems Education, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.43–53. Catherine Chen, Charles Ray, (2004), “The Systematic Approach in Teaching Database Applications: Is There Transfer When Solving Realistic Business Problems?” Information Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 9-21 EC-UK (2013), “Chartered Engineer and Incorporated Engineer Standard, UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence,” Engineering Council, UK Edward Sciore, (2007), “SimpleDB: A Simple Java-Based Multiuser System for Teaching Database Internals”, Proc. of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE'07), March 7–11, Covington, Kentucky, USA Kung, Hsiang-Jui; Tung, Hui-Lien (2006), “An Alternative Approach to Teaching Database Normalization: A Simple Algorithm and an Interactive e-Learning Tool”, Journal of Information Systems Education, October, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 315-326

Mario Guimaraes (2006), “New challenges in teaching database security, Proceedings of the 3rd annual conference on Information security curriculum development”, Georgia, USA, pg. 64-67 Lei Zhang Kaschek, R. Kinshuk (2005) “Developing a knowledge management support system for teaching database normalization”, Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), 5-8 July, pp. 344 – 348 Maslin Masrom, and Halimah Hasan , and Habsah Abdullah, (2007), “Using a TeamBased Approach in Teaching Database Course”, National Conference on Programming Science (ATUR 07), 5 December Pacific KLIA, Selangor. Meg Murray and Mario Guimaraes (2009), “Animated Courseware Support for Teaching Database Design”, Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, Vol. 6, Part-1, pp. 201-211 Ramon A. Mata-Toledo., Carlos A. Reyes-Garci (2002), “A model course for teaching database administration with personal oracle 8i”, Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Vol. 17, No. 3, February, pp. 125 – 130 Shaw, D., Woodford, B.J. and Benwell, G.L. (2007) „Educating future IS professionals through real-world integration‟, Int. J. Teaching and Case Studies, Vol. 1, Nos. 1/2, pp.66–83. Zeid, Abe; Kamarthi, Sagar, “Best Teaching Practices in Database Courses for Engineering Students”, (2008), International Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 24, Number 5, September pp. 980-989 Md. Latiful Hoque; Md Muradul Bashiry; Uddin, M.R., (2014), “Equivalence of Problems in Problem Based e-Learning of Database”, IEEE Sixth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E), Clappana, India, pp. 106 – 109 Hwee-Joo Kam, Gogolin, G. ; Blakemore, D. ; Emerick, G. (2013), “Playing online games on Facebook: The conscious and unconscious learning in database design”, IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Oklahoma City, USA, pp. 514 - 516 Gudivada, V.N.; Nandigam, J. ; Yonglei Tao (2007), “Enhancing student learning in database courses with large data sets”, 37th Annual Frontiers In Education Conference (FIE '07), pp. S2D-13 - S2D-17, Milwaukee, USA Oracle (2015), „Oracle Database Express Edition 11g Release 2, http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/databasetechnologies/express-edition/downloads/index.html, accessed May 2015

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 64-83, June 2015

Circuit Analysis Tools: Integrating Smartphone and Tablet Applications and Simulation Software into Circuit Analysis Instruction and Laboratories John Ulrich Ivy Tech Community College Indianapolis, IN Charles Feldhaus, Elaine Cooney and David Nickolich Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN

Abstract: The purpose of this practical action research design pilot study was to evaluate different technological applications and software available for use in circuit analysis to new electrical engineering and technology students and observe the use and response of students to these tools. The research design followed a four-step procedural framework called the Dialectic Action Research Spiral. This is a cyclical procedure where the teacher-researcher chooses an area of focus, determines data collection techniques, analyzes and interprets the data, and develops an action plan. The area of focus of this research was chosen during the first semester of instruction and observation in the Fall 2013 semester in ECET 10700. During the first semester through observations and interaction with students the researcher was able to find key elements relative to why students have trouble understanding concepts taught. In Spring of 2014, the same course was taught by the same instructor using interventions developed based on findings from 2013. The significance of this procedural framework is that it is recurrent and data is always being collected and evaluated against the focus to see if the process is working its way towards an actionable solution. Results, conclusions and recommendations are included in the study. Keywords: engineering technology; circuit analysis courses; key learning concepts; multisim.

Introduction Electrical engineering technology students are fortunate to live in a world where they are able to utilize the laboratory to actually test through concepts and ideas and see real-world at work. They do not rely solely on theory or abstract thinking and then on “good faith” make assumptions when doing their work. Theories can actually be tested and verified in the laboratory in the world of engineering technology. The use of the laboratory is a major component of engineering technology and can be argued is the most important portion of the engineering technology student‟s college career for any core course. This is where students become masters of what they have learned in the classroom or in textbooks. It‟s not unreasonable to suggest that graduates of engineering technology degree programs have a more versatile background than other engineering areas of study because of their ability to troubleshoot and verify what they have learned. Students can apply the same engineering problem solving method to solve every problem they encounter. This makes them valuable assets in any company as they are not limited to a single area of expertise. Laboratory experience will serve students in industry well. The knowledge they gain is applicable for whatever task given to them by referring back to the problem solving methods learned and utilized. A key goal for any instructor is not simply to have students parrot back and memorize information they may never use again, but to facilitate concept retention and understanding. Each core course that engineering technology students take is a precursor to some greater theme or concept in their studies. A student must grasp all aspects of the knowledge they are acquiring to perform well in subsequent courses not simply remember formulas and equations. To effectively embrace this goal instructors should be open to new tools and make the effort to evaluate their effectiveness for possible use with their students. In the digital age the increase of powerful software simulation has been the single biggest improvement in recent years for many fields of study. It allows a student to model whatever it is they are building or organize a problem they are trying to solve. It is much cheaper and quicker (and sometimes necessary) to try something in a computer program. Parameters can be easily adjusted and multiple plans of attack saved at the click of a button rather than having a team of students manually perform calculations and physically build a project from scratch. The field of engineering technology is no exception and in some ways the practitioners are leaders in this foray because they can actually do some of the programming themselves. Currently there is somewhat of a race for programmers to find how best to use computers and now tablets and smartphones to perform these tasks because of the new business of downloadable applications. The advent of the tablet and smartphone and applications that can be installed on them have increased the pool of © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

programmers and therefore the range of problem-solving tools available to teachers and students. Anyone with programming knowledge and the will to make a better application to solve a problem can create one of these applications in the comfort of their own home. No longer do students have to rely solely on a very expensive, allinclusive program platform to complete work. They can simply open a tablet or smartphone and find a reasonably cheap or even free application that can aid them in whatever task they are performing. This is not to take anything away from well-established, engineering specific software that still continues to be relevant and necessary to perform higher level tasks. This is merely to suggest that the landscape of tools available is changing and as such, instructors have to be open to the change and embrace current pedagogy in instructional design for learning to take place.

Purpose Statement The purpose of this study was to evaluate different technological applications and software available for use in circuit analysis to new electrical engineering and technology students and observe the use and response of students to these tools. The intent of this study was to find how to improve studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; understanding of circuit analysis using circuit simulation tools on computers, smartphones, and tablets. Since electrons propagating through a circuit are impossible to see with the naked eye, analysis becomes a rather unique concept and can be difficult for students to understand. Even those skilled at mathematics can sometimes do a lot of algebra or calculus in their circuit analysis and produce answers that mean nothing to them because they cannot see the results or understand what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x;ve just evaluated. In the Fall 2013 semester ECET 10700: Introductory Circuit Analysis course including basics of voltage and current and different analysis techniques was offered to engineering technology students at a large, Midwestern, urban university. It is important to understand the struggles when first learning the material and what techniques and aids are available to help student comprehension. Because smartphone and tablet circuit applications are so new, little research has been done on their effectiveness when used with standard circuit simulation software in the classroom. New electrical engineering technology students should be afforded every tool available to them to succeed not only in their immediate circuit courses but future courses and ultimately in their careers. In an introductory course like ECET 10700, where there is focus on building circuits in the laboratory along with manual analyzation by calculations, circuit simulation seems to be a logical aid to further improve understanding of fundamental concepts. By examining these tools, instructors of circuit analysis courses can use this information to better instruct their own students in this digital age of tablet applications and software simulation.

Literature Review

As this is an action research study, it is important to understand the research that is relevant to the key elements of the study. This review of the literature germane to this study is divided into three areas: instructor bias; active learning in computer-aided learning environments; and the use of Multisim as a learning tool in circuit analysis courses. Instructor Bias This study is different in that the instructor performing the research had never taught this course before. There must be an identification of the fact that in doing research on a course over two semesters that there may exist some bias between semesters strictly due to the instructor. Although bias is very difficult to eliminate in most studies and in the research process in general, awareness of what biases exist can aid in the reduction of the influence of that bias (Clark and Creswell, 2014; Malone et. al, 2014). One of the biases that can exist is that teaching a course for the first time is going to be different than teaching the same course again. Once it has been taught the instructor may develop a better understanding of his or her own teaching method and will use the improvements in the subsequent semesters. An awareness not to entirely change the same delivery of material presented should be present to establish a baseline. Acknowledgement of the process of reflexivity is a common and encouraged aspect in research, especially in qualitative studies. Creswell (2007) believes “how we write is a reflection of our own interpretation based on the cultural, social, gender, class, and personal politics that we bring to research.” However these should not unduly influence the objective eye of what a study should accomplish. As McCabe & Holmes (2009) attest “reflexivity is often thought of as a focused attention on one‟s own relative ability to be unbiased while also recognizing and considering the effect of one‟s existing biases on the research.” In this study there was careful consideration to this and every decision was challenged by the researcher to ensure there was no baseline deviation in teaching methods from semester to semester. Johnson et. al (2013) indicates “experience is a demographic factor that could affect teaching performance.” The bias that could occur from that would possibly skew the data and a better result or attitude in student behavior seen in the second semester could indicate something the instructor has consciously or subconsciously done to improve his or her method. Mantzoukas (2005) states “the aim is to extricate any biases from the research study so as to acquire the objective facts and thus to approximate the truth and reality of the phenomena as far as possible.” Careful attention was paid to teaching the course material the same way both semesters. Observations were made objectively without allowing how the material was taught to affect the interpretation of the data. On the subject of letting bias affect interpretation Walther et. al (2013) state “interpretation should emerge purposefully from the combination of data and interpretive view.” This had to be the control mechanism that allowed the researcher to focus on the new tools available to students. A different method of teaching might also unduly influence the motivation of the students to use these new tools. When doing © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

research on students Prave & Baril (1993) state “to effectively control for initial student motivation that is not dependent on the instructor, researchers must ensure that this item measures only that interest directly related to course content.” Active Learning in Computer-Enabled Learning Environments In the digital age, instructors have the advantage of using computers to aid in teaching and learning. The methods of how computers are being used has shifted. Phelps (2002) states “end-user training in the use of computer software and hardware has become a significant area of professional development in a range of educational, organizational, and community contexts.” Now computers are almost an essential part of everyday learning for students, and research shows that computer-enabled learning environments can increase aptitude and creativity. Researchers have discovered that computer materials attract student attention and cause them to spend more time on material, but that students with higher creativity levels will actually use the materials to generate some valuable information (Brand-Gruwel et al., 2014; Hannifin et al., 2014; Hsu et al., 2009) . This is encouraging news considering how much of a potentially negative impact the overuse of computers can have when students already are glued to them for social networking and entertainment purposes. Since most computing is done on the internet with access to these distractions, it is a possibility that these easily accessed distractions could stifle a student‟s focus on the tasks they are being asked to accomplish. And so as to not single out students considered to have lower creativity, Hsu et al (2009) recommend utilizing reading comprehension training and group discussions to “persuade students to generate ideas and then increase their cognitive abilities” when using computerrelated materials. Computer-enabled learning environments are becoming even more prevalent due to the increasingly popular variety of online courses being offered. As Katuk (2012) states “the number of students who enroll in online courses has also been growing more rapidly than the overall higher education enrollment. But she also points out that the drop-out and attrition rates of e-learners are also increasing. So there must be care taken by the instructor in a computer learning environment to create an atmosphere where students still can be motivated to succeed and that the computer is an aid to the course work and doesn‟t detract from it. Phelps (2002) reiterates this by stating “successful computer learning requires learning approaches closer to those implicit in the contemporary adult literature.” Just having access to a computer doesn‟t mean a student will get out of a course what they need if their focus is more on learning the computer as opposed to using it as a learning tool. There is one thing that a computer-learning environment does well and that is to get the student to become an active participant in what they are learning. This can be accomplished through discussion boards students have to be involved in, or group projects using computers where they can communicate and send materials to each other, or even being asked to complete assignments in a computer program. Lecturing is still an important tool that an instructor must © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

utilize, but there is evidence that active learning can be very effective. Freeman et. al (2014) completed just such a study that found that students in traditional lecture courses were 1.5 times as likely to fail as those in active learning courses. An encouraging feature of using active learning in a classroom is that the methods of what works in a particular course can be very diverse and instructors should constantly evaluate their own methods to see if they are producing better results. Using Multisim in Circuit Analysis Traditional circuit analysis done by manual calculation methods will always be important to a student‟s understanding of analysis techniques, but in the advent of the computer learning age the usage of simulation software can enhance that understanding. One circuit analysis simulation software program introduced to the electrical engineering and technology world is Multisim by National Instruments. The use of Multisim should not be used as a replacement for traditional circuit analysis lecturing, but rather as an addendum. Guo-hong et. al (2011) suggest to “introduce Multisim software to combine with traditional teaching ways as it has an abundant element library and powerful function of analyzing and simulating circuits. However it should not be entirely substituted for traditional teaching methods entirely or it will weaken the students operating ability.” It affords a student the ability to improve their comprehension of circuit analysis. The large library of Multisim and unlimited virtual instruments that can be employed allow a student to test through circuits and verify circuit analysis techniques. As Wei et. al (2008) state “it provides up to more than 10 virtual instruments, whose external form and operating methods are similar to actual instruments.” So not only are they getting the benefit of verifying circuit element values by using the program they are by proxy learning how to use the actual instruments they will use in the analysis of circuits when physically built and tested. There is also a cost benefit to using Multisim. Since it is a simulation software program the cost benefit of using Multisim lies in its ability to quickly change circuit parameters without having to actually own a box full of circuit components to test. This also means that more students can be involved in the actual measurement and verification of circuits without having to have a physical lab station for each student. As Mahata et. al (2010) state “laboratory resource sharing is becoming increasingly important to educational institutions as well as practicing engineers, mainly driven by the advancements in computer technology.” The use of Multisim is not limited to simple AC and DC circuit analysis. Topics like power electronics, digital electronics, controls and many others are included in this software package. Some of these fields are very expensive to test in industrial settings and the use of a simulation program like Multisim allows an engineering team the ability to test their expectations quickly before moving to hardware implementation. As Cheng (2011) describes it “provides a software © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

platform to allow users to observe and analyze before the realization of hardware.” This means more testing can be accomplished quickly which saves employers time and money. Kejie et. al (2009) expand on this for the academic world by stating “if we can provide a software simulation platform before the hardware experiment, the theory models and the circuit build models could be clearly shown to the students and they could adjust the parameters in the circuits arbitrarily in the simulation program to see the influence and response, which could reduce blindness to the experiment at a large scale.”

Research Design This study was a pilot study and utilized a practical action research design. As Creswell (2012) states “Practical action research involves a small-scale research project, narrowly focuses on a specific problem or issue, and is undertaken by individual teachers or teams within a school.” Mills (2014) adds that practical action research “assumes that teacher researchers are committed to continued professional development and school improvement and that teachers want to systematically reflect on their practices.” As this study meets all criteria from both Creswell and Mills, a practical action research design was employed. This research was done by an individual instructor and not a group of instructors. Although the outcomes and suggestions of this pilot study can be used by other faculty to continue the research, it is important to know that because of the nature of the study, and because of the organizational complexity and uniqueness of each classroom, the results are not generalizable (Gay et al., 2011).

Population and Sampling Frame The population for this study consisted of all students who completed all coursework from the Fall 2013 semester and from the Spring 2014 semester of ECET 10700. Any student who did not attend class regularly or did not finish the class was excluded from the population. Since all students who completed the course participated in all tests, quizzes, homework assignments, and lab experiments, the entire population was included in the sampling frame. The population demographics for the Fall 2013 semester are shown in Table 1: Table 1 – Fall 2013 Demographics

Number of students 21 21 19 2 19

Did Not Pass Course

Excluded from Population Withdrew from course Not Attending Class Regularly

9 9 0

The population demographics for the Spring 2014 semester are shown in Table 2: Table 2 – Spring 2014 Demographics

Total Population Size Sampling Frame Males Females Successfully Passed Course Did Not Pass Course Excluded from Population Withdrew from course Not Attending Class Regularly

Number of students 27 27 22 5 27 0 13 9 4

Sample Size for Interviews Since there was no quantitative data being analyzed in this study, the strategy for sampling was based on observations made by the researcher. As Creswell (2012) states “This is not a probability sample that will enable a researcher to determine statistical inferences to a population; rather, it is a purposeful sample that will intentionally sample a group of people that can best inform the researcher about the research problem under investigation.” To narrow down who would best inform the researcher on the research problem, criteria for students in the sampling frame for the Fall 2013 semester who were sampled included students who started to establish themselves as either performing well or were struggling but still passing the course through the first exam (test). “Performing well” was defined as having an overall course grade percentage of at least 90% after the first test was graded. “Struggling but still passing the course” was defined as having an overall course grade percentage between 72% and 60% after the first test was graded. Once these two groups were established, 3 non-probabilistic convenience samples were obtained for each of the two groups of students totaling six in all for the fall semester. In the spring semester the same sampling criteria was used © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

and six more interviews were obtained. Cohen et. al (2007) state that convenience sampling “involves choosing the nearest individuals to serve as respondents and continuing that process until the required sample size has been obtained or those who happen to be available and accessible at the time.”

Data Collection Methods To help establish validity in this study, triangulation was instituted. Three methods of data collection were used. Data were collected via interviews with students and also from observations made from the researcher during lab periods and before and after lecture periods. Finally, data from student outcomes from the course were collected including GPA, performance on quizzes, tests and labs, attendance and other course assignments. Although the findings of this study may be reproduced elsewhere at other sites, there was no generalizability intended with this research.

Interview Protocol During the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 semesters, interviews were conducted. Field notes were used to record these interviews. As described by Creswell (2012, 168) a researcher is enabled to “take notes during the interview about the responses of the interviewee. It also helps a researcher organize thoughts on items such as headings, information about stating the interview, concluding ideas, information on ending the interview, and thanking the respondent.” The format of structured formal interviews where the same set of questions was asked to each of the defined groups (Mills, 2014) was utilized. There were two questions asked of the sampled students. For the students who were defined as “performing well” they were asked, “Aside from taking notes and paying attention in lectures and doing the required homework, why do you think you are doing well in this course?” The second question asked was “What is it about analyzing circuits and the coursework that seems to make sense to you?” The students defined as “struggling but passing the course” were asked two similar, open-ended questions. So that they did not feel like the questions were intimidating or demeaning, the questions were prefaced by stating that this was an effort to try and make their learning experience better so that they could succeed and the questions asked were meant to help them. The first was “What do you think could be done to better help you understand the material being presented?” The second question was “What is it about analyzing circuits that doesn‟t make sense or is confusing to you?”

Observational Protocol For this study the researcher was an active participant observer. Mills (2014) states “as researchers of our own teaching practices, active participant observation is likely to be the most common „experiencing‟ data collection © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

technique that we use.” As with the interviews, records of these observations were written in field notes. Mills‟ (2014) protocol to observe and record everything possible to attune the researcher what was most interesting was utilized. Mills elaborates that “during these observational periods you can start with a broad sweep of the classroom and gradually narrow your focus as you gain a clearer sense of what is most pressing (2014).” Both semesters during lab periods and before and after lectures observations were made. Student interactions and discussions before and after lecture and during labs were observed. Readiness for class and lab was observed. This entailed seeing if students were prepared with homework done and pre-labs completed prior to entering the classroom or were they trying to finish an assignment at the last minute. In the Spring 2014 semester along with the aforementioned observations, there was also a focus on observing use of the apps and Multisim. Mills (2014) suggestion to look for bumps or paradoxes was also followed. He states “in this strategy, you consider the environment you are observing as if it were „flat‟; nothing in particular stands out to you.” Unexpected responses from students to the action plan enacted or other anomalies from expectations were noted. To find what cellular devices were being used and who had smartphones or tablets, lab periods were used to make those observations. Students tend to leave their phones and tablets out during their lab work and since the researcher was interacting with every lab station during lab periods, it was easy to tally up what kinds of devices students were using. If a student didn‟t leave their device out the researcher found opportunities to ask them about their devices as the opportunities presented themselves.

Methodological Framework The design followed a four-step procedural framework called the Dialectic Action Research Spiral. As described by Mills (2014) this is a cyclical procedure where the “teacher-researcher chooses an area of focus, determines data collection techniques, analyzes and interprets the data, and develops an action plan.” The area of focus of this research was chosen during the first semester of instruction and observation in the Fall 2013 semester in ECET 10700. During the first semester through observations and interaction with students the researcher was able to find missing links of why students have trouble understanding the key concepts taught. Essentially this can be thought of as the reconnaissance portion of the research to establish what the focus of the study should encompass (Creswell, 2012). The significance of this procedural framework is that it is recurrent and data is always being collected and evaluated against the focus to see if the process is working its way towards an actionable solution. As Creswell (2012) states, “It is a „spiral‟ because it includes four stages where investigators cycle back and forth between data collection and a focus, and data collection and analysis and interpretation.”

The Spring 2014 semester was devoted to the analysis and interpretation of the data along with a continuous evaluation against the intended focus of the study. Between the two semesters a temporary action plan of possible solutions was established and then analyzed for effectiveness and usefulness. The interpretation of the observed data in this study was important as there was only one researcher. Creswell (2012) describes interpretation as “extending the analysis by raising questions, connecting findings to personal experiences, seeking the advice of critical friends, and contextualizing the findings in literature and theory.” Field notes were used and from those notes themes were sought from the interviews and observations. As Mills (2014) states “if data are to be thoroughly analyzed, they must be organized.” Although the process was not fully linear since this research was conducted over two semesters with different students, Mills‟ organizational protocol to “become familiar with the data and identify potential themes, examine the data to provide detailed descriptions of settings, participants and activity, and categorize pieces of data and grouping them into themes (2014)” was still utilized. In the spiral framework this was done until all data were collected. The data from the Fall 2013 semester was analyzed and interpreted to create an action plan to institute in the Spring 2014 semester. The observed data of students using the apps was then used to determine a finalized action plan. As Creswell (2012) describes, “The plan includes a summary of findings, recommended actions, and the identification of individuals responsible and those who need to be consulted or informed.”

Limitations One of the limitations of this study is that it was performed over the course of two semesters. To ensure that the action plan is ultimately successful the study would ideally be performed over a longer period of time so that the cyclical nature of the Dialectric Action Research Spiral could be allowed to unfold and recycle itself long enough to provide more data and interpretation. Another is that the smartphone/tablet applications reviewed and proffered to the students were done solely on Android and iOS devices. Any student who had a smartphone or tablet operating on a Windows or Blackberry (RIM) OS might not have the same immediate access to these tools as a student who owns a device with the aforementioned operating systems. Time was devoted by the instructor to let those students who did not have Android and iOS devices to use these applications, but it should be noted that this is not equable to a student having access to them at any time if they owned them.

Results As success in this introductory circuit analysis course serves as a foundation to the students‟ success in subsequent circuits courses, it was important to © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

understand the frustrations and hindrances of why students were not grasping the foundational concepts of circuit analysis and what tools could be afforded to them to alleviate these issues. This course is an introduction to both AC and DC circuit analysis. For the AC and DC circuit analysis the researcher focused on what could help the students understand the concept of current. For AC calculations the researcher focused on how students could easily use and compute complex numbers to perform their analysis using the same analysis techniques learned in the DC portion of the course. These seemed to be the two biggest impedances to student comprehension. During interviews conducted comments about visualization and current like the following were common: “I just can‟t visualize what is going on with the current. I feel like I‟m just putting numbers into formulas” “I can visualize the electrons moving through the circuit. To me it‟s like a physics problem.” Clearly, visualization of the concepts was a major theme of the interviews conducted. Students who were performing well could visualize what was occurring in circuit. When concepts such as current and how it was simply electrons propagating through a circuit based on voltage and resistance were explained, they said that they could picture the electrons moving at a rate based on those other two parameters. In fact a majority said circuit analysis problems seemed to make sense if they thought of them in terms of physics because at the very foundation, circuit analysis deals with the physics concepts such as energy and velocity when talking about power and charge movement rate (current). It made sense then that when talking to the students who were performing poorly they said they could not visualize the concepts. Yes they were told that the rate which electrons moved through a circuit is the current and yes they could punch numbers in a calculator to obtain an answer using Ohm‟s law, but it was meaningless to them because it was just a number they were told to find. Subsequent formulas for power and circuit analysis techniques such as mesh and nodal analysis only deepened their confusion. Add to that confusion the looming lessons on time dependent devices such as capacitors and inductors and a handful of students start to think about changing their major. As evidenced by the interviews, visualization seemed to be the key that some were missing for circuit analysis. An effort was then made to find tools to further enhance their ability to visualize what is occurring in a circuit and hopefully give them the push over that hurdle on which they were stuck. Focus was turned to the burgeoning world of smartphone and tablet applications. Examining the personal mobile devices of each of the students in the Fall 2013 semester found that of the 21 students who finished the course, although they all had a cellular device, only 2 did not have a smartphone or tablet, and 7 students had both a smartphone and a tablet. It was also found that of the 19 who did have a smartphone or tablet that 18 were either Android or iOS devices and one © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

being a Windows OS device. Having been involved in this department the last three years this data reinforced previous observations in other courses the instructor taught and assisted with that the overwhelming majority of engineering technology students carried either Android or iOS devices. The data for these observations can be found in Table 3: Table 3 – Fall 2013 Smartphone/Tablet Counts for Students

Number of students completed course

Number of students with smartphone or tablet

Number of students with both smartphone and tablet Number of students with Android or iOS device

Number of students with other smartphone or tablet

Armed with this knowledge the researcher downloaded, evaluated, and read the reviews for as many circuit analysis applications as could be found on both devices. It must be noted that the researcher owns both types of devices and has for many years. Being familiar with how each one works, the researcher felt comfortable making these evaluations without other input. It was found that for Android devices the best choice was an application called “EveryCircuit” and for iOS the best choice was “iCircuit”. Both apps are very similar in available features and in how they operate. The key feature of both apps is an ability to construct any type of circuit the student might encounter and then simulate the program to watch how the charge moves through the circuit. Animated dots are displayed in the circuit to show students the direction the current is distributing charge and how it is being split amongst the branches. To visually indicate how strong a current is in any particular branch of a circuit, the moving dots are bigger and brighter and move faster where the current is stronger and are dimmer and move slower where the current is not as strong. In each app the student can click on a branch to get realtime values for voltage, current, and power for each component. As with any modeling software, values for circuit sources and components can be changed at any time with relative ease to see how different values will affect current and voltage values in the circuit. In DC circuits students can follow the distribution of charge in one direction in a circuit as they are taught in the classroom and observe how that charge is split if it has any parallel branches. They can also see how in RC series circuits for instance the time constant works and that after five time constants the capacitor has the entire voltage of the source and there ceases to be any current flow, meaning the animated circuit current dots in the app become slower and less bright until they are not there anymore. They can see in RL series circuits how the circuit current builds over five time constants to where the inductor has an effective voltage of 0 V and acts like a short, meaning the circuit current dots in © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

the app start off very dim and slow and get brighter and move faster until the circuit reaches steady-state. In AC circuits students can visually see the current switch directions based on the frequency and voltage of the source. They can see how increasing the frequency of the source affects the current frequency. Real-time graphs for voltage and current can be shown at the same time. In purely resistive circuits it can be seen how the voltage and current are in phase with one another, but when you add a capacitor or inductor (or both) you can observe how the current either lags or leads the voltage. The helpfulness of these apps is in their relatively short learning curve for use, their portability and convenience, but most importantly, their ability to let students visualize exactly what it is they are studying. It brings another perspective to the table instead of just parroting an analysis technique and obtaining a result. It now makes that result meaningful because they can see what it is they are analyzing. The other focus of this research was in the AC section of the course and the struggle of introducing complex numbers into circuit analysis. During observations and impromptu discussions with students in the fall semester, it was found that not everyone had the same skillset in mathematics. Although all students had taken and sufficiently passed the required college-level algebra and trigonometry prior to enrollment in ECET 10700, not all students excelled and retained the knowledge. It was found that they remembered the concept of an imaginary number, but not what that looked like as a vector on a graph with a real component. They also had trouble converting between polar and rectangular notation. It is crucial to be able to use these mathematical concepts to excel in AC analysis. The students who performed well said they were aided by the fact that they knew their scientific calculators forwards and backwards and that they used them extensively in their calculations of complex numbers and converting between the two notations. This is not a mathematics course and there is no objective in the course outcomes that says they will relearn how to manually solve every complex equation and problem with proficiency. But since AC circuit analysis and the concept of impedance requires that a student be proficient enough in complex numbers to do simple functions like addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication, it seemed necessary that time was spent finding tools the students could use that did this easily and effectively. One solution could have been to find the exact model number of every single calculator the students were using, navigate to the respective manufacturers websites find the user manuals, and post the relevant section on complex numbers for each calculator. Instead drawing upon the data obtained that a majority of students were carrying a smartphone or tablet, it was decided once again to explore the app world for a solution. A search was again made in the respective Android and iOS app stores for apps that would focus solely on quick and easy complex number calculations. The ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

two essential requirements were that they had to be able to convert a number from polar to rectangular and vice versa and also be able to take any complex number (polar or rectangular) and add/subtract/multiply/divide any complex number (polar or rectangular). It was determined that for Android devices the best choice was an app called “Complex Calc” and for iOS devices the choice was an app called “Complex RPN Calculator”. Both apps had a very clean interface and easy functionality. The Complex RPN Calculator app had a much steeper learning curve than the Complex Calc app, but the Complex RPN Calculator had a more than sufficient help menu to help lower that curve. Both performed the same functions and provided good answers, and they were quick and easy to use with a little practice. And the other good thing about each app is they are free to download. Due to the cyclical nature of the Dialectic Action Research Model and the constant reevaluation of the data that was being obtained through observations, it was discovered that another key area to focus on was laboratory performance. Labs took entirely too long and students were not completing their pre-labs before lab. Some of this was due to poor time management but as some students pointed out they felt as if they had plenty of homework assigned dedicated to the manual calculations of circuit voltages and currents and time constants and things of that nature. Students felt that the pre-lab work where they obtain theoretical values which are later tested and verified through physical construction of circuits was excessive for this being a 100-level course. Instead of writing this off as students complaining and being lazy, this was treated as a way to introduce them to another circuit analysis tool. Typically in one of the later lab assignments of the semester they are introduced to a powerful and more costly PC-based software program called Multisim. To this point it has only used once or twice in the later part of the semester. It was decided that introducing them to this program earlier on in the semester through newly created Multisim assignments would be a way to give them another tool and alleviate some of their concerns about the “excessive” (in their words) pre-lab work they were required to do. Multisim is an all-inclusive circuit analysis program. It can be used for circuit modeling, for bigger projects involving groups of people, and has the ability to interface with the powerful and important LabVIEW program. It has a laundry list of features and applications, but the analysis will be narrowed to the relevant coursework for which it can be used. Unlike the smartphone and tablet apps reviewed, this program does not show animations of circuit current. However one can build any circuit, attach a limitless number of virtual measurement instruments in the circuit and obtain any current, voltage, and many other component and circuit values. An example of the interface for Multsim can be found in figure 1:

Figure 1: Multisim Interface

In laboratory, students are asked to build physical circuits and use measurement instruments to obtain values in the circuit. The compromise to them not having to do manual calculations for pre-labs was to build the circuits in Multisim prior to lab and use those values as their pre-lab values. This way they would have a better grasp on how to use the program and on top of that they have yet another tool they could use in their struggle to understand key concepts in the course. And if they had measured values that didn‟t match their theoretical values they could easily manipulate their program and do some troubleshooting to see whether they entered a component value wrong or they had a mistake in their physical circuit. As Heying et. al (2010) state “students can improve the performance of designs by taking advantage of powerful simulation to identify errors earlier in the design flow and reduce costly prototype iterations.” The three major changes instituted in the Spring 2014 semester based on the evidence and analysis of the Fall 2013 semester were to introduce the circuit analysis apps, the complex numbers apps, and introduce earlier on in the semester the all-inclusive software program Multisim. The students of the Spring 2014 semester were introduced to the software and applications to help them better understand the same material presented to students in the Fall 2013 semester who did not have access to the same tools.

It was found in the Spring 2014 semester, of the 27 students who completed the course and attended class regularly, 22 had smartphones or tablets and 10 had both a smartphone and tablet. Of those 22, 19 were either Android or iOS devices and there was one Blackberry and two Windows OS devices. Again, the overwhelming majority of students had either Android or iOS devices. The data can be found in Table 4: Table 4 – Spring 2014 Smartphone/Tablet Counts for Students Spring 2014

Count

Number of students completed course

Number of students with smartphone or tablet

Number of students with both smartphone and tablet Number of students with Android or iOS device

Number of students with other smartphone or tablet

In the spring semester interviews were conducted and students were observed at different points in the semester to see if they had a positive effect in their comprehension of the key concepts. The extra assignments created to introduce the students to Multisim throughout the semester didn‟t seem to take much extra time outside of class to complete and the students responded well to the inclusion of the assignments. They liked being able to use Multisim on the prelab assignments as well. Pre-lab assignments were being done on time and students even used Multsim to double check their homework assignments. The biggest success was the introduction of the smartphone and tablet apps. In observing the use of these apps the most commonly heard exclamations upon learning how to use the circuit analysis apps and seeing the circuit current move were “Ah!” and “Oh!” and “Aha!” indicating that the concept clicked for them and it became clear what it was they were studying. Students downloaded these in the first few weeks of the course and used them extensively throughout the semester as an aid to finish homework, studying for tests, and answering extra even-numbered problems in the book. And because they are exciting and visual tools, students were observed using them when there wasn‟t even an assignment due. Some students would go to the instructor‟s office or while in the lab and show off to the instructor what new features they found and how interesting the work was due to the ability to “play” with their device and get something educational out of it in the process. And there a positive unintended consequence of using these apps was found. Not only were they understanding the concepts better, but there was an enthusiasm and an intrigue into what they were studying. In other words, the course became something they wanted to learn more about.

Students were allowed to use the complex number apps on their quizzes and tests so more attention had to be paid during test time to make sure they weren‟t using their device to cheat. But it was found that the instructor repeated information less often during lectures and the only students who dropped the course either had medical issues or were absent from class an inordinate amount of time in the Spring 2014 semester, and the students who had dropped the class in the Fall 2013 semester due to poor performance all passed and most excelled in the Spring 2014 semester.

Conclusion, Discussion and Recommendations No other conclusion from this study can be drawn than to say that affording study participants the use of the circuit analysis and complex number apps and the early introduction of Multisim through extra assignments helped achieve positive course outcomes. Allowing study participants to use Multisim on prelab assignments also helped students achieve positive course outcomes. The goal of this study was to find solutions to some of the glaring problems that existed in student comprehension of crucial early circuit concepts. The hope is that more research can be done in this area to even better aid students in the future. As Cohen et al. (2007) state, “Action research starts small, by working through changes even a single person can try, and works towards extensive changes.” For future studies it would be wise to monitor the amount of other operating system devices such as Blackberrys and Windows being used by students and maybe seek out similar apps that are comparable. As of the date of this study the overwhelming majority of students not only own either Android or iOS devices, but they are fiercely loyal to their brand, indicating they don‟t plan on switching anytime soon. It is safe to say that there will be a need to focus on these operating systems for the foreseeable future but faculty must be aware of any changing trends to best aid the students. It is clear that additional quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research should be designed and performed. Larger sample sizes could be used for quantitative studies designed to find out more about student perception regarding any number of issues germane to visualization, basic core concepts of circuits, and student access to various hardware and software. Additionally, more in depth qualitative research could be conducted including large-scale comparative case studies or smaller ethnographies that help researchers understand how and why certain students visualize and comprehend complex foundational concepts the way they do. Finally, a high quality mixed methods research design could focus on combining quantitative survey data and feelings and perceptions from qualitative data gathered during focus groups to determine a deep understanding of issues related to this study. The following recommendations comprise the finalized action plan as an answer to the perceived deficits in student comprehension. Recommendations based on data gathering and analysis include:

1. Alert students prior to the semester that an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet would be beneficial to their success, just as you would suggest or require a good scientific calculator 2. For students using Android devices, let it be known your approval of and suggestion to download the circuit analysis app “EveryCircuit” and complex number calculator “Complex Calc”. 3. For students using iOS devices, let it be known your approval of and suggestion to download the circuit analysis app “iCircuit” and complex number calculator “Complex RPN Calculator”. 4. Let students use the circuit analysis apps for their homework and general understanding of circuit concepts and let them use the complex number apps on homework, quizzes, and tests. 5. Introduce the use of Multisim earlier in the semester with extra assignments and allow them to use Multisim on pre-labs instead of doing manual calculations. In conclusion, it is important for all students to succeed early in their academic careers. Unfortunately, in engineering and engineering technology foundation level courses, it is often a short window for students to produce academically. If students cannot comprehend both the theoretical and applied nature of complex engineering concepts, they have little chance of graduating. It is imperative for engineering and engineering technology faculty to use every tool at their disposal in an effort to serve students. It appears that recent developments in terms of access to technology and new software programs can provide the necessary clarity for students to succeed.

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Hannafin, M. J., Hill, J. R., Land, S. M., & Lee, E. (2014). Student-centered, open learning environments: Research, theory, and practice. In Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 641-651). Springer New York. Heying, B., Kejie, D., and Li, J. (2010). Application Multisim to Virtual Laboratory for Experiment Teaching, 2010 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Software Engineering (CiSE), 1-4. Hsu, H., Lin, C.J., Chu-Yun, S., Fei, Y. (2009) Digital knowledge learning strategies and individual creativity. ICEMI '09 9th International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments, 4-640-4-645. Johnson, M.D., Narayanan, A., and Sawaya, W.J. (2013). Effects of course and instructor characteristics on student evaluation of teaching across a college of engineering. Journal of Engineering Education, 102(2), 289-318. Katuk, N., (2012). Students' experiences in guided computer-based learning: A progressive evaluation. 2012 IEEE Symposium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research (SHUSER), 1199-1204. Kejie, D., Shenbo, Z., and Limin, H., and Niansheng, W. (2009). The Application of Mixed software simulation platform based on Multisim and MATLAB for electric specialty experiment teaching, 2009 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Software Engineering (CiSE), 1-4. Mahata, S., Maiti, A., and Maiti, C.K. (2010) Cost-effective web-based electronics laboratory using NI MultiSim, LabVIEW and ELVIS II, 2010 International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E), 242-243. Malone, H., Nicholl, H., & Tracey, C. (2014). Awareness and minimisation of systematic bias in research. British Journal Of Nursing, 23(5), 279-282. Mantzoukas, Stefanos (2005). The inclusion of bias in reflective and reflexive research: A necessary prerequisite for securing validity. Journal of Research in Nursing, 10(3), 279-295. McCabe, J. L., & Holmes, D. (2009). Reflexivity, critical qualitative research and emancipation: a Foucauldian perspective. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(7), 1518-1526. Mills, Geoffrey E. (2014) Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. Phelps, R.; Ellis, A, (2002). Helping students to help themselves: case studies from a metacognitive approach to computer learning and teaching. Proceedings of the international conference on computers in education, 2, 1035-1036. Prave, R. S., & Baril, G. L. (1993). Instructor ratings: Controlling for bias from initial student interest. Journal of Education for Business, 68(6), 362. Walther, J., Sochacka, N.W., and Kellam, N.N. (2013). Quality in interpretive engineering education research: Reflections on an example study. Journal of Engineering Education, 102(4), 626-659. Wei, L., Jingao, L., and Shuxian, W. (2008). Research of Multisim in the Experiment Teaching, 2008 International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering, 515517.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 84-104, June 2015

Efficacy of Cognitive Instruction in Teaching Deictic Motion Verbs in EFL Classrooms Hu, Ying-hsueh English Department, Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Abstract. This study investigated an alternative pedagogy to teaching motion deixis, in particular, two English deictic verbs bring and take to EFL learners. Sixty-five first year students from a university in Northern Taiwan participated in a comparative experiment. They were divided into 1) a control group (CT), receiving implicit treatment with no particular rules explained, apart from Chinese translation, and 2) an experimental group, receiving explicit Cognitive Instruction (CI). Each group was treated with four sessions (30 minutes per session) of respective instruction, and a pre-test prior to and two post tests (one post-test and one delayed post-test) after the treatment were administered to gauge participants‟ performance. Results indicate that the CI group made significant improvements in both short-term and long-term recall, while the CT in short-term recall only. The findings support that CI instruction of vocabulary and grammar is beneficial, and even necessary, to some aspects of EFL learning, particularly those concerned with learning deixis concepts. Keywords: Motion Deictic Verbs; EFL Pedagogy; Cognitive Linguistics; Language Motivation.

Introduction EFL learners encounter basic words, such as go/ come, bring/ take, this, here, or there at a very early stage of their learning (Kusuyama 2005, p. 31). Despite their „basic-ness,‟ they are not easy to master as their usage has proven to be challenging and confusing in many contexts. Deictic words are a case in point: When using deixis, the information of the situation of the speech participants and the deictic center, namely, the situation of the interlocutors to the time and place is crucial for correct usage (Croft & Cruse 2004, p. 60). Certain deictic motion verbs are even more perplexing for learners, as they entail different sorts © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

or levels of deictic shifts. With this high level of complexity, not much literature or research has been devoted to understanding their acquisition in EFL settings (Coe, 1973). Although there has been some discussion on deixis in general in recent years (Croft & Cruse , 2004, p. 59), the verbs go, come, bring, and take still have not been studied consistently in recent EFL literature. Due to this, any effective pedagogy and learning obstacle for these verbs have remained largely unknown. Traditionally, teachers and textbooks in Taiwan have provided sentence-level examples with translations to students, a method too simple to adequately explain deixis usage which can involve various speaking contexts. It is thus not surprising after a decade of learning, many learners are not able to use them correctly, and remain confused about their usage. This highlights the magnitude of didactics in L2 and FL (foreign language) learning which has been of great concern to researchers and practitioners, particularly in Taiwan where English has been heavily promoted as a primary foreign language. English was even briefly contemplated to be promoted as an official language in the beginning of this millennium. It shows that the government in Taiwan places great importance in the teaching and learning the language from the primary school onwards to tertiary level, as English is considered an important communication means to internationalization (Su, 2006). With the emphasis shifting from learning English as a school subject for passing exam to learning it in order to communicate in real life, teaching approaches in classrooms have slowly evolved from rote learning and grammar/translation instruction to more whole language and communicative teaching approaches in Taiwan (Zhang, 2004). In view of this change, the current study was set out to examine the pedagogical application of a cognitive linguistics (CL) oriented approach in teaching vocabulary that has been suggested and applied by several CL researchers elsewhere (Boers, 2000; Boers & Lindstromberg, 2011; Tyler & Evan, 2004) as an alternative to rote learning and grammar/translation instruction. Boers and Lindstromberg (2011) support the advantage of applying CL to language teaching by extending the motivation concept proposed by Lakoff (1987, p. 438) and extended by Boers and Lindstromberg, (2011, p. 17) that “lexical meanings in a language is not arbitrary but motivated by language users‟ experience of their physical, social and cultural surroundings”. This motivational view is derived from the basic CL framework that language is an integral part of general cognition, and linguistic phenomena necessarily reflect general cognitive process (see Evans, 2014, for comprehensive discussion). Such symbiosis has prompted several cognitive linguists (Boers, 2002; Boers & Lindstromberg, 2011) to suggest that the linguistic motivation of certain vocabulary, which can provide a rich © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

context for learning, should be and can be explicitly taught in language classrooms. It is also of importance to note that CL adopts a usage based language view, whereby meanings are determined by contexts. It in fact complements the general concept of communicative teaching. This approach (referred to as cognitive instruction, CI, hereafter) was hence adopted for this study by focusing on two deictic verbs, bring and take, for their intriguing differences from their counterparts in Chinese. The cross-linguistic differences as exemplified in bring and take, have been explained by cognitive grammarians (Filmore, 1976; Langacker, 1987, 2002; Talmy, 1985) through a key concept of „construal‟ in understanding language features. In the case of bring and take, two motion verbs in English, it is important to consider the construal of motion events. Talmy (1985, 2000) argues that motion events are constructed differently within and across languages, contributed by the differential attention paid to various stages of a motion event (Ungerer & Schmidt, 2006, pp. 218-229). Although Chinese is more similar to English, than, say Spanish is to English regarding the construal of motion events, they still differ in some aspects. Some languages prefer verbs that encode the information of Manner, some Path, and some others Figure. Some languages contain all three of them with one being more favored. Although Chinese has all three types, it prefers the MOTION + MANNER construct (Talmy, 1985). Thus, the English verbs bring and take are of the MOTION + PATH type, while their equivalents ná 拿 and dài 帶 in Chinese, can be either MOTION + MANNER or MOTION + FIGURE constructs, depending on context. Such differences highlight how translation oriented classroom instruction without explicit explanations can be inadequate. The CI adopted in the study makes the motion and path information in bring and take explicitly available to learners. It also makes the transfer between their deictic senses and non-deictic senses explicit. According to research on polysemy (Brugman & Lakoff, 1988; Sweetser, 1990; Tyler & Evans, 2003, 2004), polysemous senses of a word are not arbitrary but connected through metaphor or metonymy. For example, the take in “Please take the garbage out” encodes the basic deictic sense of a MOTION+PATH schema (i.e., moving something away from the speaker, implying simultaneously removing an object from one space into another space), while the take in “the bus takes 60 people” refers to a nondeictic sense, conjuring up an image of objects (or people, in this case) moving from one space into another space. In short, the non-deictic senses of take are still related to its basic deictic schema(s) through various degrees of abstraction. In an earlier small scale study on bring and take conducted by the researcher and an associate (Hu and Kang, 2008), the advantage of CI over an implicitly oriented and traditional method (i.e. translation) that is often practiced in the © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

EFL classrooms of Taiwan was explored and the study found that CI was indeed more beneficial to learning in the immediate recall. The translation group (the Control Group, CT), however, regressed. As there was no delayed post-test administered at the time, it was quite difficult to consolidate those findings. The current study, hence, sought to expand the earlier study by incorporating a delayed post-test to explore the following issues: 1) Does a CI approach that draws on CL theory, where the motivation of language is explicitly taught, lead to a better learning outcome? and 2) Does this approach lead to a better awareness of proper usage for the learners? In order to measure learning outcome, a three-item multiple choice test was designed to be administered to observe short term and long term retention by administering a pre-test, post-test and a delayed post-test. In order to assess the degree of awareness achieved in the proper usage of the verbs, a verbal protocol was implemented whereby learners verbalized their understanding of bring and take. The aim of the study, through teaching deictic motion verbs, is not to replace grammar-translation method per se, but to highlight the importance of teaching vocabulary for long-term retention by providing language motivation clues in meaningful contexts, with communicative purposes in real life in mind.

Research Background Motion Verbs and Deixis In terms of motion events, according to Talmyâ&#x20AC;&#x;s typology, there are mainly two types: satellite-framed and verb-framed languages (S-languages vs Vlanguages). He believes Chinese belongs to the first type, similar to English. Some researchers suggest otherwise and they consider Chinese of a third, equipollent-framed type (Slobin, 2004). The major difference between the first two types is that the verbs in satellite-framed languages do not encode Path information as the verb-frame languages such as Spanish do. The former would use a series of prepositional phrases to indicate Path, whereas the latter conflate such information in the verbs. Although most of the Chinese motion verbs do not encode Path information as in English with the use of prepositional phrases, Chinese would use a series of verbs to indicate Path. They are not even obligatory, as in Englishin some cases. Due to these differences, some linguists such as Slobin (2004) argue for Chinese not belonging to this dichotomy of S- vs. E-languages. Such characteristics of motion verbs heighten the difficulty of acquiring anL2 or FL, especially if the L1 and L2/FL are quite different in this regard can be exacerbated when motion verbs are only limitedly taught as vocabulary. As discussed above, motion verbs should be studied as part of syntax. For example, in English, the phrasal structures that follow motion verbs are crucial to their ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

meaning. Certain types of motion verbs such as deixis in English are even a pragmatic phenomenon as the speaker‟s intention is the key to right interpretation. To decode a speaker‟s intention correctly, contextual cues are crucial (Blakemore 1996, p. 39). It is not surprising then that the study of deixis, which means „pointing to‟ or „pick out‟ in Greek (Grundy 2000, p. 23) is subcategorized under pragmatics. Croft and Cruse (2004) state that deixis is the phenomenon of consulting subject‟s situatedness which includes temporal, epistemic, and cultural contexts (Croft & Cruse, 2004, pp. 58-59). Further, Grundy (2000) contends that deictic words are a closed class. They could be in turn clustered into three sets: person deixis, place deixis, and time deixis (Grundy, 2000, p. 26). The deictic verbs go/ come and bring/ take are hence assigned to place deixis (Grundy, 2000, p. 28). More specifically, they are known as deictic motion verbs illustrating a schema of Source-Path-Goal. As these verbs include the Path of motion information, they are also regarded as Pathconflating motion verbs (Talmy, 2000). When interpreting this kind of deixis, the actual physical position of the participants in communication is sometimes irrelevant but the issue of perspective acts as a significant hint instead (Lee, 2002, p. 3). Take the deictic verbs go and come as an example: come suggests the movement towards the speaker whereas go implies the movement away from him/her. Nevertheless, the sentence with the first person subject, namely, „I‟ and the deictic verb come would demonstrate an alternative image. Hence, the sentence „I am coming over‟ shows the action that the speaker is moving not away but towards the hearer although the verb come does not lean to the perspective of the speaker but the addressee (Lee, 2002, p. 3; O‟grady, Dobrovolsky, & Katamba 1997, p. 298). In this sense, the actual position is insufficient to ensure the correct use of deictic verbs. Instead, we have to take the pragmatic property, namely contexts, which usually contain information of Path movements, into our consideration. As the difficulties with the usage of the deictic motion verbs seem to be common among Japanese learners of English, Kusuyama (2005) investigated the most notable set of the English deictic verb go and come and confined the research scope to the usage of these verbs possessed by Japanese ESL learners. The element differentiating English and Japanese is the deictic shift—English allows the speaker to take a hearer‟s viewpoint but this shift is not valid in Japanese language. For instance, the sentence „I will come there‟ is acceptable in English but not so in Japanese. That is, the speakers‟ viewpoint in English tends to be transferred to the hearers easily, while the shift seems to be awkward in Japanese. This highlights clearly the diverse roles deictic shifts can play in these two languages.

Kusuyama (2005) stated that Chinese‟s deictic shift pattern appears to be similar to that of English. However, in the case of bring and take, its equivalents in Chinese do not require deictic shifts. Consider the English and Chinese differences in the use of bring and take as exemplified in the following sentences:

(a)

Bring a glass of water to me. 拿一杯水給我。 ná yì bei shuěi gěi wǒ

(b)

Take a glass of water to your father. 拿一杯水給你爸爸。 ná yì bei shuěi gěi nǐ bà ba°

(c)

(d)

Don‟t forget to bring your textbook. 不要忘了帶課本。 bú yào wàng le° dài kè běn Don‟t forget to take your textbook. 不要忘了帶課本。 bú yào wàng le° dài kè běn

As we can see, both the deictic verbs bring and take could be simply translated into the verbs ná 拿 in sentences (a) and (b) or dài 帶 in examples (c) and (d) in Chinese. The Path of movement for the verbs ná 拿 and dài 帶 in Chinese are not included in their lexical meaning as that of bring and take in English. For direction or path of the movement, ná and dài require a second verb such as lái 來(come), cyù 去 (away, go) or zǒu 走(go), to indicate Path information, a feature which is more similar to some motion verbs in English such as run or walk, but not like verbs such as enter, which is a Path-conflating motion verb. Furthermore, with lái 來 , cyù 去 and zǒu 走 , the verbs that encode Path information are not even obligatory in idiomatic Chinese when using ná 拿 and dài 帶. Hence, the above Chinese translations are fairly natural to the native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. In short, grammatically speaking, ná and dài are not deictic verbs as bring and take are, at least in their basic senses in English. Hence, from translation alone, it is nearly impossible to differentiate the use of bring from take. Owing to such differences, students tend to get confused with the use of these deictic verbs in English. This confusion can often be exacerbated by the non-deictic usages of bring and take; hence, an effective pedagogy is urgently needed. This pedagogy should not only show deictic senses of the said verbs clearly, but also separate them from their non-deictic senses in order to facilitate coherent learning. Current Classroom Practices © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

In FL classrooms, repeated but varied practices and drills are regarded as part of an indispensable method for students to master the target language. Coe (1973) believes that the explanation of the usage of these deictic motion verbs come, go, bring, and take would be exceedingly simple; nevertheless, the adoption of the practice of those verbs would be a challenging task for teachers. He warns that non-contextualized practice, such as grammar-translation, is dangerous when students are not exposed to the knowledge that their usage depends on the extra-linguistic information. Coe further asserts that despite the fact that the extended use of those verbs could be fairly confusing, it somehow gets ignored in classroom learning. He mentions that the first extended use takes place when the speaker is neither at the beginning nor at the end of movement (Coe, 1973, p. 138). For instance, he explains with a sentence describing the route by which Indonesian businessmen exported their spices to European countries in the 17th Century: “Indonesian businessmen went to Europe and took spices with them.” In this context, the use of go and take is the first extended use. The second extended use proposed by Coe is that „the speaker‟s choice is determined not by his physical position but by where he is in his thoughts‟ (Coe, 1973, p. 138). From the extended use of those verbs, it can be seen that the choice of the verbs is not arbitrary and might alter on the ground of the state of the speaking circumstance. In other words, the choice of deictic verbs depends on the speakers‟ viewpoint, so the deictic center shifts according to speaker‟s mental location. With such complexities in mind, it is important to note that the grammartranslation method that Coe (1973) and Kusuyama (2005) criticize is not an issue in itself. In fact, this method, when applied appropriately can be useful (Cook, 2010). In the case of bring and take, however, when the difference in typology between the target and native language is relatively big, such as that of English and Chinese in the motion event construct, the translation method alone may not be appropriate or sufficient. Although Coe‟s (1973) remarks on deictic verbs in classrooms were made more than three decades ago, a recent brief survey of English textbooks used in schools in Taiwan by the researcher indicates that apart from providing the translation for bring and take and some example sentences for each verb, there is little elaboration, for instance, of hearer‟s and speaker‟s physical as well as mental shifts. A semi-formal interview of 26 junior high school teachers in the Taipei metropolitan area, conducted in 2008 by the researcher, supports this observation (Hu and Kang, 2008). The teachers were asked 1) if they knew about the differences between bring/take, and 2) to describe their didactics. They had all been informed about the purpose of the interview and agreed to participate anonymously. It was found that all of them except one would use Chinese ná 拿 and dài 帶 to explain the differences between bring and take, showing translation was an essential part of their lessons. Although more than one third of the © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

surveyed teachers claimed they knew the difference but their eventual interpretations were not entirely accurate. Only one teacher‟s explanation was closer to the deictic shifts discussed above, but said there was no time to explain their differences in class and believed learners would „pick them up‟ as time passes. More than half of the interviewees expressed similar sentiment. Unfortunately, as certain FL knowledge needs a great deal of noticing, awareness raising, and explicit instruction for acquisition to occur, it is indeed imperative to explore different approaches (Schmidt, 2001).

CI Pedagogy Lakoff (1987) opines that “it is easier to remember and use motivated knowledge than arbitrary knowledge” (1987, p. 346). This observation has provided a basis for a series of CL-inspired pedagogical studies in L2 and EFL. Csabi (2004) summarizes five possible motivations for word meanings: conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, conventional knowledge, image schemas and construal (2004, p. 235). Conceptual metaphors and metonymies have been incorporated into many of Boers‟ (2000, 2004) and Boers and Lindstromberg‟s (2008a, 2008b) research. They have for several years espoused the application of CL to the FL classroom in many of their research studies on teaching vocabulary and phraseology in recent decades. They argue for the merit of explicating the cognitive motivations of language to learners based on their empirical findings. In one study, Boers (2000) applied conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) to teaching words describing upward and downward trends in economy (e.g. soar, peak, dive, and plunge) to French speaking university students and found the CL-inspired approach elicited better learning outcome than the control group that was treated with translation without CM clues provided. Similarly, Csábi (2004) taught two English verbs hold and keep and their polysemy senses to Hungarian secondary school children (13-15) with a CLinspired approach. As the participants were relatively young, Csábi was careful not to make direct reference to terms such as “metaphor,” “metonymy,” or “image schemas” during teaching. Nonetheless, Csábi ensured that the participants in the experimental groups understood the cognitive motivations that give rise to the various senses of the said verbs. They were treated with schema like drawings to understand the motivations of various senses. Results show that their learning outcome was significantly better than the control groups which only received translation instruction. CMT has often been incorporated into teaching English chunks such as idioms and phrasal verbs (PVs). Yasuda (2010) experimented with phrasal verbs involving five particles: up-down, into-out, and off to 115 Japanese university students. These particles are all motivated by orientational metaphors such as DOWN IS LOWERING/DECREASING, OFF IS DEPARTURE/SEPARATION, © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

UP IS MORE VISIABLE/ACCESSIBLE, and so on. The experimental group was instructed with these clues when learning target phrasal verbs while the control group was given a list of these phrasal verbs and their Japanese translation to memorize. The test design involved previously learned PVs (“exposed”) and new PVs (“unexposed”) to support Yasuda‟s postulation that CM clues should be able to aid learners to predict never encountered PVs. The test results indeed support this hypothesis, and another hypothesis that there should not be any marked difference between the outcomes of exposed PVs. Yasuda explains that when the target PVs are already stored as a lexical unit in the mental lexicon of the learners, the CL instruction does not seem to make much difference from the traditional method (2010, p. 261). Yasuda concludes her study by stating that increasing the awareness of the cognitive motivations of the language, such as orientational metaphors in this case, can greatly aid the learning of PVs for the EFL learners than mere memorization and translation. All the works cited above also rely heavily on the image schema theory on spatial particles that was pioneered by Brugman and Lakoff (1988), who propose various schema-like images in explaining the English spatial particle (SP), over, in an attempt to illustrate how its senses vary and are related to one another. These images, they argue, are based on the „image schemas‟ deriving from our constant bodily interactions with the world around use (Lakoff, 1987; Johnson, 1987), and consist of key components such as „Landmark,‟ „Figure,‟ „Ground,‟ and „Path.‟ They show different constellations of these components to represent the polysemy senses of over. Langacker (2002), Lindstromberg (1998), Evans (2010), and Tyler and Evans (2003, 2004) continue with similar schema-like images in analyzing and illustrating several other SPs and motion events. Their analyses have provided a useful tool for practitioners to experiment with cognitive instruction and compare its efficacy with other more traditional approaches. Such an instruction has been used in several studies for pedagogical purposes (Hu & Ho, 2009; Lam, 2003; Luo, 2013; Winke & Kim 2002) which have all proven to have some merits in FL classrooms. In light of this, this study applied a series of image schemas for the various senses of bring and take that incorporated the shifts of speaker‟s/hearer‟s viewpoint visually as treatment materials, which had been developed by the researcher and Kang‟s earlier small study (Hu & Kang, 2008). They were used as context cues in that study. These schemas, though simple in form, can capture a comprehensive scenario that shows clear interactions among Agent, Path, Goal, and Landmark—all the elements that are necessary for understanding major conceptualizations in grammar. Csábi (2004) applied some schema-like drawings such as a circle with an X inside and outside to indicate the schema of keep in/out in her experiment, but did not give any visual aid to the control groups, which could have compromised the findings (Boers and Lindstromberg, © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

2011, p. 32). To minimize this confounding factor, similar to the researcherâ&#x20AC;&#x;s earlier study (Hu & Kang 2008), the current study ensured that both groups in the experiment received visual input. , This experiment also presented the extended senses of bring and take, which are not deictic per se, in a systematic way. When learning the schemas of the basic meanings well, in this case, the deictic senses of bring and take, learners should have less difficulty in learning their extended senses, as suggested in Yasudaâ&#x20AC;&#x;s study (2010). In the earlier study (Hu & Kang, 2008) which applied image schemas and language motivation to the experimental group (CI), it was found that CL inspired approach improved learning of bring and take significantly, while the control group (CT, also translation group) regressed significantly in the immediate post-test. The CI group made significant improvement especially with bring in both deictic and non-deictic senses. The verbal protocols from the group showed that the participants had some awareness of the image schema and deictic shifts that had been taught to them, while these were all absent in the CT group. As there was no delayed post-test, it was quite difficult to determine what could have contributed to the regression. Furthermore, as all senses of bring were taught before those of take, it could have been a memory bias attributing to a better learning of bring than take in the CI group. The current study, thus, incorporated a delayed post-test. Some treatment methods, such as presenting bring and take in the same teaching session instead of in different sessions, and test design were also modified from two-item choice test to threeitem choice test to increase the validity of the results. Details of the design are presented in the Method section.

Method Participants Two groups of first year non-English language majors at a college in northern Taiwan were recruited for the study. Their English proficiency was categorized as intermediate based on the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) they had taken prior to college. GEPT is a norm-based multiple-choice test which targets English learners at all levels in Taiwan. This test was designed specifically in correspondence to Taiwan's English education framework. Upon entering the university, they had been randomly assigned into two classes by the university (Class A and Class B of the department they belonged to). They took many mandatory courses in the first year based on such division. Freshmen English was such a course they had to take with fellow students from the same class. In order to boost voluntary participation, and accessibility to the time and location for the experiment, the convenience sampling technique was adopted to recruit participants form the class they were in for Freshmen English. The participants for CT were recruited from Class A (N =27), while those for CI ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

from Class B (N = 38). Their proficiency level was comparable and considered suitable for the experiment. Boers (2004) observes that intermediate learners seem to be more open to this novel pedagogy and more willing to take risks with various CM clues, while advanced learners are more set in their well-established strategies and thus less adventurous with this novel approach. As for elementary learners, Boers points out, this novel approach may still be too abstract for them. Certainly, such observation may not apply to all CL-inspired studies. However, with the two target verbs in this investigation, we believe, based on Boerâ&#x20AC;&#x;s suggestion, that intermediate learners would be an ideal group. At this university, all freshmen need to attend one, four-hour English class per week, which is divided into two sessions (one focusing on reading-writing and the other on listening-speaking). Additionally, most of their assigned textbooks are written in English but their teachers teach in Mandarin Chinese. In other words, first year non-English majors spend four hours per week attending English classes on average, with some extra hours devoted to preparing materials in the textbooks. The time spent on this varies from student to student. It was not known how many hours per week the participants in this study spent on learning English, but according to the instructor of their listening and speaking class, they all seemed to be highly motivated learners.

Design According to the Freshman English classes (Class A and Class B) these participants had been enrolled in by the university, the researcher recruited students from Class A to be in the control group (CT, Class A) receiving Chinese translation-only instruction, and students from Class B in the experimental group with cognitive instruction (CI). They were given a pre-test to record their knowledge concerning the usage of the verbs bring and take at the time when the experiment began. A post-test was administered after a four-week treatment to gauge immediate recall. Each treatment lasted 30 minutes. One week before and after the treatment were reserved for the pre-test and immediate post-test; a delayed post-test was administered four weeks after the immediate post-test for longer term retention. The treatment and test materials were derived from example sentences selected from various sources: Longman Dictionary, Oxford Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, Collins Cobuild English Usage, Longman Dictionary of Common Error, and British National Corpus. They were selected based on frequency and the proficiency level of the target participants, including both deictic and nondeictic use of the two verbs in question. Bring (4xdeictc and 4xnon-deictic) deictic senses include: 1.To carry somebody (sb) or something (sth) in the direction of the person who is speaking, 2.to carry sth or be accompanied by sb else, 3. to carry sb or sth to a place or person, and ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

4.to carry sth or sb to the place he is talking about. Bring non-deictic senses are: 1.To result in or cause sth, 2.to produce sth as profit or income, 3.to cause sb/sth to do sth or be in a certain state, place, feeling, or position, and 4. To cause sb to move in the way specified or in a particular direction. For take (4xdeictic and 5xnon-deictic) deictic senses, they are: 1. To carry sb/sth or accompany sb from one place to another, 2. to remove or obtain sth from a particular place or source, 3. to remove sth from its proper place without permission or by mistake, and 4. to gain possession or control of sth, capture or win sth. Take non-deictic senses include: 1.To accept or receive sb or sth that is offered, suggested, or given, 2. to be able to endure or bear something, 3. to (a) hold or adopt a view, an attitude, etc., or (b) consider sb or sth as an example, 4. to (a) react to sb or sth or (b) consider, understand, interpret them in a specified way, and 5. to choose what s/he needs or sth to be the correct or suitable size, type, etc. for a particular person or thing. Initially, the examples of these senses, 66 of them, had been selected and designed into two-item choice questions (bring or take) that was used in Hu and Kang‟s study (2008). They had been tested on another group of students who did not participate in the experiment for the reliability and validity of the test. After several analyses, 50 of these questions were finally chosen for the study. The remaining 16 items and some from the 50 were then adapted and modified for treatment material. For the current study, to increase the test‟s reliability and validity, the 50 items were modified into a three-item multiple choice test with four additional motion verbs (i.e., make, turn, hold, and give) and ten controlled questions that are not related to bring and take were also added to expand the test into a sixty item test. Similar to the previous study (Hu & Kang, 2008), the participants in this study were asked to verbalize and write down how they made their decisions through think-aloud protocol method in order to understand participants‟ choices and to gauge awareness and possibly knowledge. Based on their verbalization, their metalinguistic knowledge was coded and analyzed to determine progress.

Treatment Each group received four sessions of treatment, with each session lasting approximately 30 minutes. In contrast to the previous study (Hu & Kang, 2008), senses of bring and take were taught together in one session. The first three sessions included two bring senses and two take senses, while the last session contained two bring sense and three take senses. All deictic senses were taught before their extended senses. Both CT and CI groups were first provided with the deictic use of these two verbs bring and take and a number of sentences acting as examples. A minimum of four sample sentences for each sense, but there were five sample sentences for the first basic deictic sense of bring as they © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

were all fairly short sentences. CT group was supplied with Chinese translation and pictures following those examples (see Figure 1), whereas the participants of CI group were provided with English example sentences without Chinese translation. The Chinese translation was checked by two other native speakers not involved in the study for idiomaticity prior to the treatment. The CI group was exposed to cognitive explanations that involved path information and shift of deictic center which were in turn illustrated in schema like images of these two target verbs (see Figure 2). This design was to highlight the necessity of taking the viewpoint of the speaker and the location of the deictic center, into their consideration. What was different with this design from Hu and Kang‟s (2008) was the translation with the CT group. The translation in Hu and Kang‟s study did not always included 來 lái (come) and 去 (go) cyù, the verbs that show PATH, as they are not obligatory in Chinese. In the current study, information of 來 lái and 去 cyù were always provided, although without any explicit explanation. Despite the difference in treatment, it was ensured that the total treatment time both groups received was the same. The design of teaching materials, as in the previous study (Hu & Kang, 2008), also includes the non-deictic use of bring and take. Learners in the CI groups were made aware through similar schema-like drawings with deictic meanings that these usages are still related to their more prototypical meanings, so presenting them in a non-arbitrary way should help learners understand that the phenomenon of polysemy is not random, and learning the basic meanings of these two verbs can help predict, to some extent, their extended meanings. CT group members, similarly, were also shown the pictures, ensuring both groups‟ input quantity and quality were comparable, but with no emphasis on shift of deictic center. Pictures for extended meanings did not show any obvious connection with their more basic meanings. Instruction language in both groups was mainly Chinese. English was used when example sentences were explained, and all participants were encouraged to ask questions in their native language. The instructor for both groups was the same instructor who was also involved in the research. There certainly was a risk of the Halo Effect (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Thorndike, 1920), but it was minimized as much as possible by scripting all instructions beforehand as much as possible to ensure consistency and reduce biases. Figure 1 Treatment of Control Group

Don’t forget textbook.

bring

your

不要忘了帶課本來 lái (come) Don’t forget to take your textbook. 不要忘了帶課本去 cyù (go)

Figure 2 Treatment of Experimental Group

Don’t forget textbook.

bring

your

When the movement is towards speaker, we should choose the verb „bring‟.

Speaker

Don’t forget to take your textbook. When the movement is away from speaker, we should choose the verb „take‟.

Speaker

Results Through the test-retest reliability test on the scores of the CT group (N=27), significant correlations (Pearson‟s) between their pre- and post-test (r = .479* , p < .05), and also between the post-test and delayed post-test (r = .644** , p < .01 were able to be established, demonstrating stability in test-takers‟ behavior The validity of the test through item discrimination analysis (paired samples t-test) comparing the top 27% and the bottom 27% of participants‟ scores was also found to be highly significant ( t(16) = 6.39, p < .001, r = .83) as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 The Analysis of paired samples t-test for the Top 27% and Bottom 27% (Validity)

Groups Top 27% Bottom 27% Note: *** p < .001

M 69.33 48.89

SD 3.87 8.78

t-value

6.39***

.83

Firstly, analysis of the pre-test results without referring to students‟ protocols, from both groups shows they possessed similar knowledge of bring and take before treatment as the difference is not significant (t(16) = .62, p > 0.05, r = .07). © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Table three below shows the pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test results of the CT and CI groups. Tables 3 and 4 illustrate the progress made in both groups in the immediate and delayed post-test. It can be seen that both CT and CI made progress (Independent t-test) in the short term and long term time frame, i.e., from pre- to post-test and from pre- to delayed post-test respectively, but with CI group making significant improvement in both areas ( t(26) = -4.44, p < .001, r= .32 for the former; t(37) = -6.44, p < .001, r = .41 for the latter). Furthermore, the CT group regressed slightly from post-test to delayed post-test (MD = -.15), while the CI group improved (MD = 1.37), although the difference is not significant.

Tests Pretest Posttest Delayed posttest

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics for CT and CI scores in three tests Group N. M SD CT 27 60.15 10.21 CI 38 58.58 9.99 CT

63.78

13.34

CI CT CI

38 27 38

65.21

9.25

63.63 66.58

10.12 7.29

Table 3 Paired samples t-test of Multiple Comparisons in CT Group

Tests Comparison Pretest to Posttest Pretest-Delayed Posttest Posttest-Delayed Posttest

Mean Difference 3.63

t-value

12.32

-1.53

.15

3.48

9.78

1.85

.16

-.15

10.32

.08

.00

Table 4 Paired samples t-test of Multiple Comparisons in CI Group

Tests Comparison Pretest - Posttest Pretest-Delayed Posttest Posttest-Delayed Posttest Note: *** p < .001

Mean Difference 6.63

t- value

9.21

-4.44*** .32

8.00

7.65

-6.44***

.41

1.37

6.79

-1.24

.08

An independent t-test was administered to determine whether there were intergroup differences in the short term and long term recall. It was found that the progress recorded in the long term time frame (from pre-test to delayed posttest), the CI group outperformed the CT group significantly with a nearly medium effect size. ( t(63) = -2.09, p <. 05, r = .25), but not so in the immediate recall, and there was no significant difference between them from post-test to delayed post-test, either. Table 5 Independent T-test for CT and CI Intergroup Comparison

Tests Pre-and Posttest Pretest and Delayed posttest Posttest and Delayed posttest Note: *p<.05.

Group CT CI

Minimum Maximum t-value

3.63

12.32

-20

6.63

9.21

-14

3.48

9.78

-16

8.00

7.65

-8

-2.09* .25

-.15 1.37

10.32 6.79

-14 -14

24 20

-.67

-1.13

r .13

.08

The participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x; verbal protocols were analyzed with the coding from 1 to 5, with 1 standing for correct answer (ans) and correct protocol, 2 for correct ans, wrong protocol, 3 for wrong ans, correct protocol, 4 for both wrong, and 5 for correct ans, no protocol. Results are presented in percentage (Table 6) to reflect their awareness of the usage of the target verbs.

Table 6 Coding of Students' Protocols in three tests

Coding

Pretest %

Posttest %

Delayed Posttest %

Pretest %

Delayed Posttest Posttest % %

1 2 3 4 5

3.11 14.52 .45 39.48 42.44

20.74 14.89 5.41 30.96 28.00

13.70 22.52 3.63 32.59 27.56

5.74 16.11 .89 40.79 36.47

27.16 15.37 7.84 27.00 22.63

28.37 18.79 7.37 26.37 19.10

Total

100%

100

Note. 1: correct answer (ans) and correct protocol, 2: correct ans, wrong protocol, 3: wrong ans, correct protocol, 4: both wrong, 5: correct ans, no protocol. The figures above demonstrate that both the CI and CT group members increased their awareness of the usage of the target verbs in the immediate recall, as shown in coding 1 (3.11% to 20.74 % CT, 5.74% to 27.16 % for CI). However, the CI group continued to make progress in the long term recall (27.16% to 28.37%), whereas CT regressed (20.74% to 13.70%), suggesting that CI approach helped with long-term retention. This can be corroborated by the less use of wrong protocol (18.79%) in the delayed post-test of coding 2, comparing with the 22.52% in the CT group. Both groups also increased in their attempts to apply their newly learned knowledge to explain the target verbs, as seen in coding 5, where the figures for no protocol reduced in both groups. When the target verbs were examined separately, it was found that CI group made significant progress in the deictic senses of bring in both the short and long term time frame (t(37) = -7.21, p < .001, r = .48; t(37)= -2.19, p <. 01, r = .17 for preto post-test and pre- to delayed post-test respectively), whereas in the time frame from post-test to delayed post-test, CI regressed significantly. Moreover, it made highly significant progress in the non-deictic senses of bring in the immediate and long-term recall (t(37) = -5.65, p < .001, r = .39; t(37) = -4.53, p < .001, r = .35), while moderately significant progress in take in the two long term time frames ( t(37) = -2.33, p < .01, r= .15 for post-test to delayed post-test, t(37) = -2.20, p < .001, r= .17 for pre- to delayed post-test). As for the CT group, they made significant progress in the deictic senses of bring ( t(26) = -3.89, p < .001, r= .31) and its non-deictic senses ( t(26) = -3.73, p < .001, r = .36) in the short term time frame (pre- to post-test). They did not make much gain with the deictic senses of take in the short-term recall ( t(26) = .00, p > .05) or in the two long-term recalls—from the post-test to delayed post-test and from the pre-test to delayed post-test ( t(26) = -1.24, p > .05 and t(26) = -1.24, p > .05 respectively), and regressed slightly in its non-deictic senses.

Discussion It seems raising the awareness of PATH information in this study, with the CI group more explicitly, and with CT group more implicitly, did lead to some degree of understanding among the participants of both groups in the shortterm recall, although the CI showed a significant advantage in the long-term recall (pre- to delayed post test). A few participants in the CI group would draw the schemas they learned in class during the post-test to illustrate the path information. Some participants would say bring as in “He asked if he could come to your party and bring a friend with him” is not “away” from the “he” and is moving toward the addressee, indicating some awareness of the deictic shift. Some participants would add 來 lái (come) or 去 cyù (go) and 走 zǒu (go) specifically to indicate different directions the two target verbs entail. Some © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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participants even demonstrated that the non-deictic senses of bring and take are the abstract extension of their deictic senses by saying “ 抽象 chou siàng” (“abstract”) as in “Her energy and talent took her to the top of her profession.” One participant gave a schematic drawing for “What did you take this comment to mean,” showing the “comment” has been moved from one space into another space which is the brain, even though he/she could not verbalize the knowledge he/she gained from the instruction. The drawing did illustrate that his/her understanding of the derivation of the abstract sense of take, is somewhat connected to its basic sense. Unlike in the Hu and Kang‟s study (2008), the number of those who could not verbalize their choices in both groups dropped, and the number of verbalizations giving wrong protocols also dropped. In the CT group, some of the subjects would say take is like 帶 dài, which is to carry with the speaker, while bring is like 拿 ná, which is held by hand, apparently resulting from L1 transfer. However, some would use 來 lái and 去 cyù to indicate whether bring or take was moving away or to the speaker. They were also able to make progress in the immediate post-test with bring‟s deictic senses. Similar to Hu and Kang‟s study (2008), none of them indicated any knowledge of the connection between the deictic and non-deictic senses of the target verbs. However, providing them with 來 lái and 去 cyù information in Chinese seemed to help their learning of the non-deictic senses of bring as well. Judging from the data from Hu and Kang‟s study and this study, bring arguably appears to be easier to learn than take to Taiwanese EFL learners even though the memory bias was reduced in this experiment by presenting bring and take simultaneously instead of successively. In short, the Motion+Path schema is crucial to learning the target verbs, be it explicitly taught or implicitly implied in learners L1. This finding can be supported by Luo‟s study (2013), who recruited two groups of participants for her PVs instruction, with one group receiving translation, while the other CI. Luo added extra PATH information in the translation group by providing, for example, 蓋起來 gài cǐ lái, along with 掩蓋 yǎn gài for to cover up. Luo used 起來 cǐ lái (rising + DIRECTION) to illustrate one extended sense of up which is “covering an area completely.” However, Luo presented such clues implicitly without consciously drawing learners‟ attention to them, while in the experimental group these cognitive clues were explicitly explained without translation and aided by corresponding image schemas. Their learning outcome, as discussed previously, showed that the CI group had significantly better long-term retention in the productive task in both basic and extended/abstract PVs. However, this advantage disappeared somewhat during short-term recall. As for comprehensive tasks (multiple choice questions), the control group also made good progress in basic and extended senses for short and long-term recall. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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Nonetheless, the advantage of CL-inspired approach seems to lie with long-term retention. It seems knowing how language is motivated helps learners to be able to recall even after some time lapse such as over two months after the initial treatment. Luo‟s (2013) study and those of Condon (2008), and Hu and Ho (2009) seem to support this finding. Furthermore, this study on learning extended senses (non-deictic) of the target verbs also seem to corroborate Yasuda‟s (2010) findings that understanding the motivation of language facilitates the learning of newly encountered vocabulary and phrases. With these findings, this study proposes that deictic verbs such as bring and take, which entail complex grammatical and pragmatic rules, would benefit positively from a CL-inspired instruction in which language motivation is explained. Conversely, this type of verbs may not receive long-term benefit from translation-only instruction without incorporating some more explicit awareness-raising activities regarding their deictic shifts and the connection to their non-deictic senses.

Conclusion Results of the study strongly support the importance of combining theory and pedagogy. They show that CL can have some positive contribution to the EFL classroom. They also consolidate the researcher‟s earlier findings (Hu & Kang) that CI approach could enhance the teaching and learning of motion deictic verbs. Above all, this study demonstrates the pedagogical potential of CI in facilitating better long-term retention of key vocabulary. Future research could focus on its efficacy on younger learners (10-17 years of age), who arguably need to know the correct usage of these two verbs, at least regarding their deictic senses, is required. There are very few studies on this age group. A previous study (Yang & Hsieh, 2010) that relied on cognitive instruction in teaching phrasal verbs to senior high school students in Taiwan did not support its merit. Hence, future research should focus on this particular age group. Apart from the age of learners, different levels of proficiency should be investigated to consolidate what Boers (2004) suggested regarding the susceptibility to CLinspired approaches. It would also be of great value to test on less motivated EFL learners, the so-called low achievers, to determine if the CI approach would work well on them.

References Blakemore, D. (1996). Understanding Utterances. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Boers. F. (2000). Metaphor awareness and vocabulary retention. Applied Linguistics, 21(4), 553-571. Boers, F. (2004). Cognitive Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Foreign Language Teaching. In M. Achard & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Expanding Learners’ Vocabulary Through Metaphor Awareness: What Expansion, What Learners, What Vocabulary? Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Boers, F. (2013). Cognitive Linguistic approaches to second language vocabulary: Assessment and integration. Language Teaching: Surveys and Studies, 46(2): 208-224. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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Boers, F. & Lindstromberg, S. (2008a). Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Teaching Vocabulary and Phraseology. In F. Boers & S. Lindstromberg (Eds.), From empirical findings to pedagogical practice. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Boers, F. & Lindstromberg, S. (2008b). Formulaic sequences and L2 oral proficiency: Does the type of target language influence the association? International Review of Applied Linguistics, 49(4), 321-343. Brugman, C. (1988). The Story of Over: Polysemy, Semantics, and the Structure of the Lexicon. New York: Garland. Brugman, C. & Lakoff, G. (1988). Cognitive topology and lexical networks. In S. Small, G. Cottrell & M. Tannenhaus (Eds.), Lexical Ambiguity Resolution (pp.477-507). San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufman. Csábi, S. (2004). A cognitive Linguistic View of pilysemy in English and its Implications for Teaching. In M. Achard & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Foreign Language Teaching. (pp. 233-256). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Coe, N. (1973). „Come‟, „Go‟, „Bring‟ and „Take‟. English Language Teaching, 27(2), 137-142. Condon, N. (2008). How cognitive linguistic motivations influence the learning of phrasal verbs. In F. Boers & S. Lindstromberg (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Teaching Vocabulary and Phraseology (pp.133-158). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Cook, G. (2010). Translation in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Croft, W. & Cruse, D. A. (2004). Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Evans, V. (2004). The Structure of Time: Language, Meaning and Temporal Cognition. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing. Evans, V. (2010). A lexical concepts and cognitive models approach to spatial semantics: the “state” sense of English prepositions. In V. Evans & P. Chilton (Eds.), Language, Cognition and Space (pp.215-248). London: Equinox Publishing. Evans. V. (2014). Language myth: Why language is not an instinct. Cambridge: CUP. Fillmore, C. J. (1966). Deictic categories in semantics of „come‟. Foundations of Language, 2(3), 219-227. Fillmore, C. J. (1976). Frame semantics and the nature of language. Annual of the New York Academy of Science: Conference on the Origin and Development of Language and Speech, 280, 20-32. Fordyce, K. (2014). The differential effects of explicit and implicit instruction on EFL learners use of epistemic stance. Applied Linguistics, 35(1), 6-28. Grundy, P. (2000). Doing Pragmatics, (2nd ed). London: Arnold, Hodder Headline Group. Hu, Y. H., & Ho, Y. C. (2009). Prepositions we live by: Implications of the polysemy network in teaching English prepositions in and on. In B. LewandowskaTomaszczyk & K. Dziwirek (Eds.), Studies in Cognitive Corpus Linguistics (pp. 335370). New York; Frankfurt: Peter Lang Verlag. Hu, Y. & Kang, Y. C. (2008, October). Bring and take—that’s the question in teaching deictic shift in FL classrooms. Paper presented at 2008 Second Language Forum, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA. Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kusuyama, Y. (2005). The acquisition of deictic verbs by Japanese ESL Learners. NUCB JLCC, 7(2), 31-43. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lam, Y. Y. (2003). Challenging Prepositions: The Effectiveness of Interrelating Rules for Teaching POR and PARA in Spanish as a Second Language (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundation of Cognitive Grammar. Vol. 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. CA: Stanford University Press. Langacker, R. W. (2002). Concept, Image, and Symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar, 2nd ed. New York, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Lee, D. (2002). Cognitive Linguistics – An Introduction. UK: Oxford University Press. Luo, P. W. (2013). Implication of the Polysemous Network in Teaching Phrasal Verbs with Spatial Particles: Out, Up and Off. (Unpublished Master‟s thesis). Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Nisbett, R. E. & Wilson, T. D. (1977). The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgements, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 4, 250-256. O‟grady, W., Dobrovolsky, M., & Francis, K. (1997). Contemporary Linguistics – An Introduction. London: Pearson Education Limited. Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In P., Robinson. (Eds.). Cognition and second language instruction.(pp.3-32). Cambridge: C.U.P. Su, Y. C. (2006). EFL teachers‟ perceptions of English language policy at the elementary level in Taiwan. Educational Studies, 32(3), 265-283. doi: 10.1080/03055690600631218 Slobin, D. I. (2004). The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events. In S. Strömqvist & L.Verhoeven (Eds.), Relating Events in Narrative: Typological and Contextual Perspectives (pp. 219-257). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Sweetser, E. E. (1986), Polysemy vs. abstraction: Mutually exclusive or complementary? In K. Nikikoridou, M. Varclay, M. Niepokuk & D. Feder (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society (pp. 528-538). Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistic Society. Sweetser, E. E. (1990), From Etymology to Pragmatics: Metaphorical and Cultural Aspects of Semantics Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Talmy, L. (1985). Lexicalization patterns. Semantic structure in lexical form. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. 3 (pp. 36-149). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Talmy, Leonard. (2000). Toward a Cognitive Semantics, Vol. 2, Typology and Process in Concept Structuring. Cambridge, London: MIT Press. Thorndike, E.L. (1920). A constant error in psychological ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4(1), 25-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0071663 Tyler, A. & Evans, V. (2003). The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Senses, Embodied Meaning and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tyler, A. & Evans,V. (2004). Spatial experience, lexical structure and motivation: the case of in. In G. Rudden & K. Panther (Eds.), Studies in Linguistic Motivation (pp. 157-192). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Ungerer, F. & Schmid, H.-J. (2006). An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics, 2nd ed., UK: Pearson. Winke, P. & Kim, Y. (2002, October). It's not over with over: Cognitive approaches to teaching prepositions. Poster session presented at Second Language Research Forum. Toronto, Canada. Yang, Y. Y. & Hsieh, C. Y. (2010). Conceptual metaphor awareness on English phrasal verbs teaching and learning for adolescents in Taiwan. Retrieved October 20, 2014 from ir.lib.ncku.edu.tw/handle/987654321/108255. Yasuda, S. (2010). Learning phrasal verbs through conceptual metaphors: A case of Japanese EFL learners. TESOL Quarterly, 44(2), 250-273. Zhang, Y. P. (2004). English as a foreign language teaching in Taiwan, Taizhong Teacher Collegel Journal, 18(1), 79-90.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 105-118, June 2015

Teaching in Interactive Pedagogical Perspective at Primary Schools in Northern Mountainous Provinces of Vietnam This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number VI2.1-2013.22 Associate Prof. Dr. Duc-Hoa Pho Hanoi National University of Education Abstract. With the efforts to improve the quality of education, Vietnam has released specific policies to develop teaching staff and invested the facilities to serve teaching and learning. In order to reduce the gap in the quality of education among regions, and to ensure the needs and rights of learning of every child in our country, the Education Sector has implemented the Strategies for the Development of Education 2011 – 2020 with one significant task “Enhancing support for the educational development for disadvantaged areas, ethnic minorities, and social policy beneficiaries.” Education in disadvantaged areas is still assessed as being weak in many aspects such as teaching quality and educational efficiency. Besides, many teachers have not met the goal of improving the quality of teaching and learning, and teaching methods as well as educational contents have not developed well. Starting from practical teaching, we discussed the situation of using interactive pedagogy in modern teaching at primary schools in Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam. In an educational process, mutual impacts between the factors - teachers, students, and the environment - are considered holistically and comprehensively. This approach reflects the teaching trend based on students and their activities, especially the nerve activities of learners. Interactive teaching in the pedagogical environment is reviewed and researched under multidimensional perspectives. Keywords: Interactive pedagogy, primary school, strong points, weak points.

1. Introduction - Interactive Pedagogy is considered as a current of thought in modern teaching. In the 90’s of the twentieth century, French authors, Margolinas C. and Brousseau G. researched the interaction among different elements of teaching activities. Actually, the interactions between two activities – teaching and learning, had been studied for a long time in the history of pedagogy. However, nowadays, the interactive pedagogical activities include three elements: teachers – students

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– the environment, as mentioned in the book "Toward an interactive pedagogy" (Denomme, J. M. & and Roy, M. (2000)), which was typical. This approach of teaching activities emphasize the relationship between teachers, students, and the environment. According to the authors, interactive pedagogy is a new vision of teaching and learning activities. It is the establishment of a thinking structure – how to coordinate teachers, students and the environment in order for learners to acquire the knowledge on a solid scientific and naturalistic foundation. Interactive pedagogy is an approach that revolves around the role of students, teachers, and the environment. This understanding is as a positive thinking which helps educators to select appropriate teaching methods for learners in the impacts of the environment. Thus, interactive pedagogy is an approach of teaching activities, which emphasizes the dialectical relationship among the three factors learners, teachers, and the environment in educational activities. - The interactive pedagogical activities are mainly based on the interaction among learners, teachers and their environment with a basic orientation, which fully evaluates the role of learners, teachers and the environment as well as the special attention to the relationship between these three factors. It is the interaction among three factors that causes the interactive pedagogical activities (Nguyen, B. K. (1998)). All the interaction among teachers, students and the environment aims at supporting and promoting the teaching and learning activities. However, the interaction does not merely mean making the questions and answers. The interaction only takes place when learners try to operate their brain to adjust the learning process. Thus, the interaction is represented by operations, responses, adjustments and re-adjustments. It is not only the matter of using language, but also conveying non-verbal issues through various activities during school time. In the traditional conception, there is an interaction between two factors: teachers and students; however, the interactive pedagogy has the impact of another factor – the environment. This is clearly reflected in the current educational practice. - The mechanism of interactions in the pedagogical environment is the movement of an interactive process of teaching. We can perform this mutual relationship with the triangular diagram of interactive pedagogical activities, as follows (Nguyen, B. K (1998)): Learners

The environment

Teachers

Looking at the diagram, we see formats of the interactive pedagogy in current practical teaching: • Interaction between learners and teachers • Interaction between learners and the environment

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â&#x20AC;˘ Interaction between learners, teachers, and the environment The interaction between learners and teachers is the one that expresses the twoside nature of the teaching process. Teaching activities (teachers) and learning activities (learners) take place simultaneously. This dialectical relationship brings the interaction: teachers create/design - learners practice. Interactive activities aim at learners, which highly appreciates the active role of learners under the organization and coordination of teachers. Modern education considers that learning activities play a primary role in class. This is the basis for studying and applying positive teaching methods in school types. The interaction between learners and the environment plays an important role in the process of intellectual development and the formation of moral qualities for learners. Practical education shows that the relationship between learners and the environment expresses in many different ways. The environment impacts on learners from many different sources of information such as the advice of parents in the family, the teaching of the teachers in schools, the exchanges with friends, colleagues and other people, as well as the sources of information from newspapers, magazines, documents and reference books, television and the internet, etc. This is the interaction between learners and the external social environment with a rich source of information. However, it is also difficult to control the sources because some information is appropriate with learners, but some others may not, etc. The environment is where learners expose and develop their intellectual abilities. A good environment is a favorable condition for the formation and development of learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; personality. Vice versa, learners also affect the environment positively in favor of the social community. The interaction between learners, teachers, and the environment is the comprehensive interaction among the three factors in pedagogy. The three agents of three-triangular-peak interactive pedagogy are considered as a mechanism of action in current teaching. The environment here is considered and researched in a dynamic state, tending to change and influence teachers and learners from many sides (Pho. D. H., & Ngo. Q. S. (2011)). The environment includes home environment (with genetic traits, custom, economic conditions, family values, etc.), school environment (the place forming and training personalities for students), classroom environment (space, time, light, sound, classroom arrangement, etc.), and social environment (affecting teaching activities in schools by the political institutions, the policies of the Government, the orientation and education reform, the education law and the implementation). To sum up, the interaction mechanism in pedagogical environment is the interference among the three actors: the teachers, learners and the environment. The interaction among the three factors or between two of the three factors depends on different conditions and circumstances. However, the interactive teaching environment is the operation address for the interaction between

108

teachers and learners. The environmental factors are considered in a dynamic state but not a static one. Thus, the environment always operates with the development of the education process in order to meet the needs and demands of society. The active teaching methods along with teaching technologies which are proposed and applied in modern teaching also follow this trend. The interactive pedagogical activities can be applied in the teaching process at different school levels under the study mechanism given above. However, depending on the awareness and psychological characteristics of students at each level, there are differences in the performance at every phase of learning mechanism in interactive pedagogical perspective. According to us, for primary students, their minds are at a particular level and depend heavily on visual characteristics of objects, particular phenomena, and unintentional attentions developing at a high level. Thus, in the first phase of the process (the sense receptors), in order to help students get the overall perception of the study object teachers should pay attention to stimulating the senses of students by impressive visuals. However, the attention ability of elementary students cannot sustain for too long because it will make them stressed out. Therefore, stimulating the senses of children should also have certain limitation. This limitation depends on specific subjects, but generally, stimuli from teachers should stay at a sufficient level to let students recognize the academic tasks or are enough for students to understand the characteristics of the objects that affect them. Moreover, integrated analysis capabilities of primary students are still at an elementary level. It is difficult for them to analyze abstract problems and requires complex thinking manipulation. Therefore, learning issues should be easy and visualized in order to be appropriate to the qualifications of students so that they can easily engage in learning activities. According to the view of interactive pedagogy, environmental factors play such a significant role in affecting teaching and learning activities that they need attention. Primary students are dreamy and innocent, which makes the environment of the students at this age different from that of adults. In teaching, teachers let the students live in a classroom environment decorated closer to their lives so that they feel comfortable and easy to develop imagination. Promoting children's imagination helps them have the connection between experience and new insights about the phenomena to discover new knowledge. For primary students, the external environment has its own characteristics and is seen through the prism of children, so it should be idealized. They feel all the phenomena in the world by their own mind. As a result, teachers respect childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own world and bring joys as well as confidence in learning for students, encouraging children to dream and make their dreams come true. Above all, based on the advantages of teaching in interactive pedagogical perspective and the cognitive characteristics of primary students, we have found that the application of interactive pedagogical perspective in teaching at primary schools based on criteria that are consistent with cognitive psychological characteristics of primary students is the right thing in the current period. At primary education level, however, the research on this issue in general is not

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effective and must be continued and have specific analysis of the reality to propose the way to develop more purposefully.

2. Strong points of interactive pedagogy - Interactive pedagogy defines the structure of the process of teaching including three following factors: Teacher – Learners and Environment. These are the best three basic centered factors of teaching activities. - Interactive pedagogy asserts the function of each factor: Learners – workers, teachers – instructors, environment and its effects. - Interactive pedagogy defines the reciprocal relationship (the connections) between factors and smaller units in a factor. - Interactive pedagogy analyzes the learning engine and its activeness (neurological basis) clearly, as well as other conditions (real-life experience, style, emotion) of learners in order for pedagogical acts to be more effective. - Interactive pedagogy describes comprehensively the physical environment, spirit environment, inner environment, and outer environment which previously in conditions of the theory of teaching were not interested and assessed properly for their effects on the organizing pedagogic acts of teachers. Interactive pedagogy also shows the dialectical relationship between inner factors and outer factors, asserts the initiative role of learners and teachers when affected by outer factors. - Interactive pedagogy confirms its essential factors: interest, corporative pedagogy and successful pedagogy as well as parts of teaching acts: planning, instructing and communicating (organizing and corporating) (Vu Van Cong, (2009)).

3. Weak points of interactive pedagogy - In interactive pedagogy, the environment is considered by many sides, many different levels; however, it is only considered as a static, available factor existing and affecting teachers, students and their acts. The important thing is not only to define, concretize the reciprocal and diversified relationship between the environment and learners but also to point out the means and ways to exploit the active acts and restrict the negative acts of learners’ environment and their methods. - In interactive pedagogy, what belongs to content (knowledge) will be likened to the environment factor by the author. Meanwhile, up to now, knowledge has existed and acted like a factor belonging to the structure of teaching acts. (Vu Van Cong, (2009))

4. Methods We have learned the materials, the studies of interactive pedagogy in teaching and researches of psychological and physical characteristics of primary students in Vietnam. Thus, we affirm that the teaching activities according to the interactive pedagogy can perform effectively in teaching in primary schools and

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are a trend consistent with the teaching perspective towards capacity development of education in Vietnam. Next, we conducted a survey on the reality of the teaching in interactive pedagogical perspective at primary schools in Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam in order to learn the reality of the perception of management staff and primary school teachers in this issue. Is it right or not? How did they use it? And in the process of using this teaching standpoint, what difficulties did they have? Etc. In order to have an objective and correct view, we conducted investigations on total 999 management staff, teachers, and students (in which 39 are management staff, 60 are teachers, and 900 are students) at primary schools in Dien Bien, Lai Chau, and Son La provinces (we delivered survey forms on the reality of the teaching in interactive pedagogical perspective at primary schools Northern mountains provinces of Vietnam to them). These three provinces are in the Northwest of Vietnam. They have difficult economic conditions, terrain, and traffic, but are rich in cultural diversity. Most of the students are from the ethnic majority, so they have few chances to study and little access to modern educational services. This is also the reason causing the educational gap and limits the efficiency of education in these areas. Through surveys and statistics, we have had a basis for assessing the situation on the use of interactive pedagogy in teaching at elementary schools in Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam. This is an important basis for studying and proposing the way to organize teaching process in perspective of interactive pedagogy effectively in primary schools. To test the effectiveness of using interactive pedagogy in teaching at primary schools in Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam, we chose to create teaching plans in perspective of interactive pedagogy in writing assignment â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a division of Vietnamese subject to conduct the experiment. Vietnamese is the mother tongue subject that is compulsory and extremely important. Students need to have fluent skills in using Vietnamese so that they can learn and communicate. This is the main reason why we chose this course to design teaching plans. There are 2 stages according to chronological including empirical exploration and impact experiment. The empirical exploration aims to investigate the existence of the organization of teaching in the view of interactive pedagogy in teaching practical subjects in primary schools today, and also to orientate and create the basis for us to conduct the next experiments. To do this, we randomly conducted examining a number of lesson plans at some elementary schools (Thanh Luong elementary school in Dien Bien, Nam Loong elementary school in Lai Chau), noting and analyzing the results. During the observation, we recorded the activities of teaching that strengthened the interaction between teachers and students in the initial level. This is a positive signal for the initial implementation of organizing learning in interactive pedagogical perspective at primary schools in the Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam. To be able to conduct experiments correctly and achieve the best possible result, we carried out organizing activities for students (interviewing their learning needs, organizing games, collecting documents related to the lesson, having

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students watch videos, etc.) We also created cooperating and creative exercises for teaching the content of Describing animals in Vietnamese writing assignment grade 4 parallel with the main curriculum. The selection of the experimental classes and schools as well as collating class was particularly interested because this would directly affect the outcome of the experiment. When selecting the experimental objects, we noticed to choose students from areas that have different qualified economic, social, and cultural developing levels; some areas are very favorable, but some still have so much difficulty. At each location, we chose the classes and objects with different qualifications and learning capacity. The collating classes had similar basic conditions with the experimental classes (teaching conditions, the capacity of teachers and students ...). The process of work helped us have an objective view on the effectiveness of the application of interactive pedagogy in teaching at primary schools.

5. Outcome The trend of teaching through studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; capacity that Vietnam is actively approaching requires learners to develop, seek knowledge with teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; instructions. With this trend, applying interactive pedagogy is required. The question is how to organize teaching effectively in this view in order to maximize the positive properties of teaching. The initial investigation helped us with a general and preliminary practical insight in teaching activities of interactive pedagogy at primary schools. The survey results of the awareness of managers and primary school teachers in all 3 regions: north, central and south (Table 1) about interactive pedagogy showed that the judgment of the majority on this matter was not enough, but they initially gained an understanding and approach. This also explained why the interactive pedagogy is not interested and effective at elementary schools. When they still have misconceptions, they cannot apply interactive pedagogy confidently and effectively in teaching. Table 1. Survey of the awareness levels among managers and primary teachers of interactive pedagogy Orders

1 2

Levels of awareness

Not right Right but not enough

Right and enough

Dien Bien

Lai Chau

Quantity of answers 14

Ratio %

Son La Ratio %

42.4

Quantity of answers 12

27.3

30.3

Total Ratio %

36.4

Quantity of answers 12

Ratio %

36.4

Quantity of answers 38

39.4

45.5

37.4

24.2

18.1

24.2

38.4

According to us, the results in table 1 reflects the reality exactly because the interactive pedagogy was a new view, new approach, and new orientation that existed in the management staff and primary teachers in the Northern mountainous provinces in general as well as other management staff and primary teachers in particular. 24.2% of the management staff and teachers

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having the right awareness of interactive pedagogy mean that although this initial result was modest, they had an interest in this approach. 37.4% of the management staff and teachers would gradually aware of it enough and correctly. As a result, they would apply interactive pedagogy better in their teaching process at primary schools. Besides, when investigating the awareness of the staff and primary school teachers of the importance of the relationship among the elements in the teaching process through a questionnaire divided into 5 levels (critical, important, normal, less important, not important), we saw that the order of the relationships is equivalent. The relationship between teachers, students, and the methods was ranked first place; second was the relationship between teachers, students, and the content; and the relationship between teachers, students, and organizational forms was in the third place. The three relationships were ranked adjacently because in the teaching process, the internal elements: contentmethods-organization had a close relation. Method is the way teachers convey the contents and help students achieve the specific objectives of the curriculum content, and the organization was reflected in the teaching form of teachers. The relationship between teachers, students, and the assessment ranked fourth. Through direct exchange of data and statistical surveys, we conspicuously saw the wrong conception of the importance of the relationship between teachers, students, and the assessment. Similarly, the relationship between teachers, students, and the environment was assessed at a low level and ranked last. This is not a proper concept and reflected that teachers were only interested in the contents and educational methods. Moreover, considering the average of the total survey in all three provinces, the percentage of people who had misconceptions and correct ones but not the factors affecting educational outcomes of students is approximately 76.8% - a relatively large proportion (Table 2). It reflects the awareness of management staff and primary teachers was still low in environmental factors and the interaction between the three factors teachers, students, and the environment. Furthermore, managers and teachers did not fully understand the concept of Environment in education, so most of them chose the relationship between teachers, students, and families. Table 2: The awareness of managers and primary teachers of the factors that affect educational outcomes of students Levels Dien Bien Lai Chau Son La Total

Not right Right but not enough Right and enough

Quantity of answers

Ratio %

Quantity of answers

Ratio %

Quantity of answers

Ratio %

Quantity of answers

Ratio %

30.3

39.4

36.4

35.4

36.4

39.4

48.5

41.4

33.3

21.2

15.1

23.2

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From the analysis of the above data, we can conclude that a big segment of the management staff and primary teachers in the Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam were not yet correctly and completely aware of what factors affecting the educational outcomes of students. There can be many reasons, one of which may be because they had not been fully equipped the theoretical basis on this issue, or due to objective or subjective factors affecting the educational process of students. On the other hand, the invested results of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; awareness in the interactive relationship with factors: students, teachers, and the environment (Table 3) showed that the students usually had discussions and share with each other during school time. This may be because of studying and living together in the same school of boarders or having the same difficulties with the language of ethnic minority students. The statistical results of the interactive relationship between the student - student took first place among the three provinces (According to our data) as follow Table 3: The awareness of primary students of the interactive relationship with students, teachers, and the environment Level

Student Student Student Teacher

Dien Bien

Student Environment

Lai Chau

Son La

Total

Average score

Ranking

Average score

Ranking

Average score

Ranking

Average score

Ranking

1.21

1.09

1.23

1.18

0.86

0.92

0.82

0.87

0.78

0.84

0.83

0.82

Additionally, when being asked about the classmates and members of their groups, students often felt very excited and shared many interesting stories. This confirmed the accuracy and objectivity of the statistical results. However, looking at the statistics, we also see that the students did not have much interaction with the teachers and the learning environment. The relationships between the students and these two elements were only ranked second and third in total. It is also obvious that students in all the three provinces are from ethnic majorities. Therefore, it is difficult for them to learn and communicate in Vietnamese. Language barrier is one of the main difficulties for these children when they want to share and communicate with teachers in the learning process. On the other hand, the organization of teaching activities in class had not been really promoted to be active; thus, like other primary students in other areas, they had inferiority complex and were afraid of sharing ideas with their teachers. Therefore, only few students answered that they often took the initiative to ask the teacher about the problems of learning; the remaining majority of the students often felt afraid to ask their teachers questions. Another issue is the survey of the interactive relationship between students and the environment. As analyzed above, the environment in the interactive pedagogy means all the elements of natural conditions and social impact on the learning of students. However, with difficulty in the economical conditions of the mountainous northwest provinces, to ensure that all children have an adequate school with full facilities and a stable economic life to study better is ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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still a big problem that have not been solved. Therefore, learning and teaching in poor conditions and lacking familiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; care are quite common. This has made a great influence on the development of the capacity and the learning needs of students. After a period of time training and applying interactive pedagogy in teaching at primary schools in Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam, we have obtained concrete results of this issue. To carry out the empirical research, we created interactive lesson plans in Vietnamese writing assignment in grades 4 and conducted experimentation in three primary schools in the three regions Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Son La of Vietnam. Each primary school was chosen randomly, ensuring the basic requirements of facilities and quality of education prescribed by Vietnam. Table 4: Statistical results before and after exploratory experiments in Dien Bien Class

Number of students

Score 1

Score 2

Score 3

Score 4

Score 5

Score 6

Score 7

Score 8

Score 9

Score 10

Score 0 Q % 0 0

Before experiment After experiment Collate (before)

Q 0

% 0

Q 0

% 0

Q 1

% 2.8

Q 2

% 5.6

Q 9

% 25

Q 9

% 25

Q 8

% 22.2

Q 5

% 13.8

Q 2

% 5.6

Q 0

% 0

5.6

8.3

33.3

2.8

5.6

34.3

14.6

25.7

11.4

22. 2 5,6

5. 6 0

Collate (after)

2.8

25.7

11.4

31.4

17.1

8.8

Goo d scor e 44/ 121 65/ 121 48/ 121 57/ 121

Ave rage scor e 51/ 121 27/ 121 46/ 121 42/ 121

The statistical result of the empirical research shows that applying interactive pedagogy in teaching Vietnamese writing lessons made the academic result of students better than before. Some weak points in the experimental classes (grades 1 to 4) decreased from 2.8% to 0% and good grades increased a lot after applying interactive pedagogy in teaching. This shows the effectiveness of teaching in interactive pedagogical perspective. Compared with the collating classes, the result of experimental classes was very much higher. The more important thing is that the learning attitude of students in the experimental classes changed in a positive way. They actively engaged in activities and writing lessons in literature. With the interactive learning, students were encouraged to express their thoughts and expression in their own way. As a result, they were very interested in learning to write in literature. This is an encouraging result for us to continue the impact experiment at many other schools. We conducted the impact experiment at three schools in three provinces in Vietnam. The selection of the collating schools and classes was conducted similarly in the empirical research. Table 5: Statistical results before and after the impact experiment Levels

Dien Bien Excelle Good nt score score

Avera ge score

Low score

Lai Chau Excelle Good nt score score

Before E

4/41

13/41

18/41

6/41

2/34

After E

10/41

25/41

6/41

0/41

5/34

Collate (Before) Collate (after)

5/43

16/43

6/43

2/33

8/43

20/43

13/43

2/43

1/33

11/ 34 18/ 34 12/ 33 15/ 33

Avera ge score

Low score

Son La Excelle nt score

Good score

Avera ge score

Low score

16/34

5/34

7/46

20/46

17/46

2/46

9/34

2/34

12/46

22/46

12/46

0/46

15/33

4/33

7/45

20/45

15/45

3/45

15/33

2/33

8/45

22/45

14/45

1/45

Total Excelle nt score 13/ 121 27/ 121 14/ 121 17/ 121

Low scor e 13/ 121 2/ 121 13/ 121 5/ 121

2. 8

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The experimental results have clearly confirmed the effectiveness of applying the interactive pedagogy in teaching. Compared with the collating classes in all three areas, the number of good scores in the experimental classes after experimentation is always higher and even higher than the previous ones. The experimental classes selected in the same area also showed similar results.

6. Discussion Interactive pedagogy is a new approach. Therefore, it is not easy for staff and primary teachers to understand it fully and completely in a short time. This explains why they are not fully and properly aware of the nature of interactive pedagogy. Moreover, the awareness of the importance of the relationship between the elements in the teaching process showed that teachers generally paid much attention to the content and teaching methods without having proper attention to other factors. The above results clearly indicate the level of awareness of the management staff and primary teachers of the relationship between the elements in the teaching process. The disregard for the role of the environment in the teaching process affects the quality of education a lot. Because teaching is a process influenced by many factors, each of which has its own position, important role and relationship, assessing the importance of this factor or the others is relatively dependent on each stage and period of the teaching process. The problem is how teachers combine those factors in order to organize effective teaching activities. Besides, through the actual exchange with officials and primary teachers about the advantages and disadvantages in using interactive pedagogy in elementary education, we found that the majority of teachers realized the advantages of interactive pedagogy in developing the capacity in active learning and the engagement in teamwork of students. However, when using this perspective, the participants had certain difficulties. There are the limitation on awareness and technical capacity, difficulties in organizing classes and establishing the relationships between family, school, and the society. These difficulties start from the psychological fears of change as well as the limited time in each class and the lack of the share of families in education. Students themselves when being asked about the interactive relationship with teachers and the environment stated that these interactions were very limited. They were lacking the share and care of teachers, families, and the society in their learning. This is the main reason that prevents the use of interactive pedagogy to teach at primary schools in Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam in the current situation. After analyzing the results of the impact experiments and empirical research, we have initially drawn some conclusions as follows: - After a period of experimentation, the writing results of 4th grade students in the experimental class was much higher than the collating class and compared with itself. - The choice of things to describe was diverse and different from before the experiment; it proves that studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experiences have improved and their communication environment has expanded. - The number and frequency of using word classes at different levels as well as the use of euphemism in Describing Literature increased significantly. The

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amount of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work that was good increased compared with that of the collating classes as well as the experimental classes. - The application of teaching organizational measures towards enhancing interoperability in Writing is affirmed to be initially feasible and has contributed to improving the quality of subject teaching. In addition to analyzing and processing the quantitative results of the tests, in each assignment, we found that the vocabulary of experimental students had expanded, compared with the collating class students. To express an idea, students in experimental classes used many different words to avoid repetition; their work had creativity through customizing their vocabulary; and they described animals in different ways.

7. Conclusion Interactive pedagogy is an approach to teaching activities, particularly emphasizing the relationships between three factors, which are learners, teachers, and the environment in pedagogical activities. The characteristics of the interactive pedagogy show that it is not a method which belongs to workmanship or related to methods or techniques, but it is an approach related to behavior, a philosophy which is set through each stage of the practice of teachers and learners. The process of teaching or teaching methods in interactive pedagogy is not the teaching process that we normally know, the process of the teaching methods and teaching techniques, while interactive pedagogy is not, but is the behavior of teachers to students. It is also the impact of teachers to help students learn through different teaching methods but still aims at helping learners operate their learning apparatus under the operation of their machine of learning. Thus, despite what methods, educators should help learners experience different crucial periods required in the operation of the nervous system to learn. Owing to the advantages and the above aspects, it is obvious that the application of interactive pedagogy to teach at primary schools based on consistent criteria of cognitive psychological characteristics of primary students is appropriate in the current period. It is especially suitable for the spirit of the students in an academic environment that is 'safe and friendly'. On the other hand, in fact, the management staff and primary teachers in the northern mountainous area of Vietnam did not really understand how to use interactive pedagogy in teaching. Their statements are sometimes emotional and vague. Hence, they have not evaluated accurately and been aware of learning about the capabilities and learning needs of their students. They also have not had measures to inspire students, to use teaching facilities to support the lessons, and to learn the psychology of students in their pedagogical activities. The issue "teaching in perspective of interactive pedagogy" is new for primary teachers. There should be both theoretical training and skills for teachers if they want to apply this perspective in teaching. In fact, primary teachers have been more or less using some interactive pedagogical activities, but they have just concentrated in some familiar activities that are easy to apply. On the other hand, economic conditions and mechanical facilities of each region are different, which leads to the limitation to adoption. Therefore, training teachers to let them have a solid theoretical basis on this issue as well as supplying practical

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measures will help them overcome obstacles and gradually access the interactive pedagogical perspective effectively.

8.Acknowledgements We would like to express our sincere thanks to the management staff and primary teachers of the primary schools in Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Son La, who allowed us to progress the investigation and data collection to support the researching process of this issue.

References Alan D., Janet E, Finlay-Gregory D. & Abowd-Russell B. (2003). Human-Computer Interaction (3rd Edition).Hardcover –Prentice Hal. Charles, L. (2006). Applying constructivism and inquiry models in teaching volumetemperature relationship of gases (Charles law). Penang, Malaysia. SEAMEO Regional Centre for Education. Christopher. B. (2005), The effects of interactive pedagogy during the ninth grade on high school dropout, University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, doi: http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/2347/1/umi-umd-2204.pdf Dang, T. H., Trinh, T. H. H., Nguyen, K. H., & Tran. V. K. (2012), Teaching method theory. University of Thai Nguyen Publishing, Vietnam. Denomme, J. M. & and Roy, M. (2000). Toward an interactive pedagogy. Hanoi. Youth Publishing. Derek B. (2009). Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments. Jossey-Bass Publishing. Dragos. V. (2011), Interactive teaching and learning in primary school (Applications in the curricular area “Mathematics and sciences”), Doctoral Dissertation. Jan P. (2012), Pedagogical communication and pedagogical interaction : A survey of theory and empirical research in Czechoslovakia, European Journal of Psychology of Education, Volume 1., Issue 1, pp. 91 – 100. Matthew. J. K., Punya. M., Mete. A., & Joshua. M. R, The technological Pedagogical content knowledge framework for teachers and teacher educators, Common wealth Educational media centre for Asia, doi: http://www.mattkoehler.com/publications/Koehler_et_al_2013.pdf. Moyles, J., & and Hargreaves, L. (2003), Interactive teaching in the primary school. Maidenhead, Philadelphia. Open University Press. Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction- A methodological framework. New York. Nguyen, B. K. (1998), The pedagogical conclusions derived from situational theory, Vietnamese Educational journal. Nguyen, B. K. (2002), Mathematical method, Vietnamese Pedagogy University Publishing. Petrea, R. (2011), From face-to-face teaching to online teaching: pedagogical transitions, Ascilite. doi: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/hobart11/downloads/papers/Redmo nd-full.pdf Pho, D. H. (2009), Active teaching and the approaches in teaching primary schools. Hanoi, Hanoi National University of Education Publishing. Pho, D. H., & Ngo, Q. S. (2011). Methods and technology in teaching in interactive pedagogical environment. Hanoi National University of Education Publishing. Pineda, B. (2013), Pedagogical models, collaborative work and interaction on online undergraduate programmes in Colombia: still some way to go, Rusc, Vol. 10, No 2.

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doi: http://rusc.uoc.edu/index.php/rusc/article/view/v10n2-pineda-hennigsegovia/v10n2-pineda-hennig-segovia-eng Rob, C. (2014). Separating work and play: privacy, anonymity and the politics of interactive pedagogy in deploying facebook in learning and teaching, Digital Culture & Education, 6(1). Vu, V. C. (2009). Applying the interactive pedagogical view to teach “The transfer transformation and the similar transformation in plane” of grade 11 advanced of upper secondary school, A dissertation for the Degree of the Master of Education, Thai Nguyen University.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 119-132, June 2015

Discussion Forums in MOOCs Afsaneh Sharif and Barry Magrill The University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract. Discussion forums in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) represent a unique opportunity for insight into the formation of learning communities. Discussions are the locus of a MOOC’s social experience and the forum space a testing ground of instructor presence. In MOOCs, the global scale of peer-to-peer contact represents a network of crosscultural sharing and collaborative problem-solving, a relationship that generates the opportunity for experts to scaffold a novice’s learning (Anderson, 2008). How learners acquire and build upon prior knowledge sets, sharing them with others in discussion forums, contributes to the robustness of learning communities. As extant literature suggests, collaborative learning accelerates content acquisition, providing a diverse approach to intellectual inquiry based upon the social construction of meaning. This paper outlines a framework for diagnosing a scaffolding of knowledge based on the social and contextual patterning in MOOC discussion forums. Keywords: Scaffolding; Collaborative Learning

Peer

Support;

Learning

Communities;

Introduction Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were introduced into higher education around 2010. Through MOOCs learners gained open access to courses from leading universities and started networking with a global pool of professionals with various life and academic experiences. In MOOCs, a collection of video lectures, readings, projects, quizzes, peer-graded assignments, and discussion forums drew learners together. We propose that discussion forums deserve further investigation, particularly in relation to the formation of subcommunities facilitating a scaffolding of knowledge. Discussion forums in MOOCs promote experiential learning and, we suggest, provide a crucial avenue of user-generated content typically associated with the connectivist approach in cMOOCs where learner input is critical to course development. Thus, learning spaces become a locus of cross-cultural sharing and collaborative problem-solving that collapse time zones and national boundaries. The plentiful research and scholarship about MOOCs as disruptors of higher education has nonetheless left an open question around knowledge scaffolding © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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through discussion forum participation. An instructor’s presence, consisting of the design and administration, discussion facilitation, and direct instruction (Anderson et al., 2014), became a point of learner collaboration; that is, the instructor set the groundwork for collaboration by designing an active learning experience. Thereafter, learners populated the discussion forums with posts that often show how experts scaffold the knowledge of novices. Peers very often assisted one another in the teaching process since the instructor and even a team of teaching assistants could neither be active nor keep up with the scale of posts in the discussion forums at every given moment during the course’s run. Ownership of knowledge became communal, literally. To better understand the scaffolding of knowledge in MOOCs, this paper examines social and learning distribution patterns in discussion forums. In particular we look at the formation of sub-communities in MOOCs and the impact of the discussion types on student learning. The roots of our investigation can be traced back to the early days of MOOC development when Andrew Ng, the Stanford professor who pioneered Coursera Inc. as a major provider of MOOCs, described the online learning process as community-based engagement. Ng’s remarks indicating the secondary status of an institutional course brand to the online engagement of learners underscored the importance of online communities and peer-to-peer learning theories . In the next few sections, we will examine the patterns in MOOC discussion forums and how sub-communities take shape in MOOCs.

Patterns in MOOC Discussion Forums Discussion forums are spaces for the exchange of ideas in MOOCs. In simple terms, a discussion forum involves making original posts (ideas and analyses expressed in text, images, or videos), reading posts, responding or commenting on posts, and possibly engaging in a rating scheme. In keeping with their significance to MOOCs, where learners are scattered across the globe, forum sub-communities are empowering spaces that learners use to test out new concepts, galvanize ideas, and reinforce new thinking. Replacing the term ―discussion‖ with ―discourse‖, Anderson (2008, p. 280) makes the important distinction that online forums facilitate a community of inquiry where learners work out new ideas and articulate them to one another. Misconceptions are uncovered, resulting in dialogue and debate. In this view of MOOCs, learners enter forum discussions with the expectation that the spaces are far more than chat rooms. Courses that have a higher level of insightful discussion posts have been found to have created trust amongst the learning community, typically by using ―Get to Know You‖ introduction forums and interactive maps, Thus, the measurement of learning may be mapped according to a matrix of interrelated discussion posts, forming a community of learning, rather than a quantitative measurement of forum posts that might be linked to attrition rates. We also recognize that discussion forum participation is modest in MOOCs, typically in the range of 10–20% of registered learners, yet it nonetheless represents an important aspect of active learning that deserves further study. The type of posts related to course content include alternative perspectives, additional data, links to new and innovative research, and requests/offers of advice. That learners’ posts brought forward personal/professional perspectives, raised local issues,

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and shared experiences accounts for a sense of learner ownership among the sub-community topics. Forums allow students in massive enrollments to congregate in smaller virtual spaces, like virtual villages, distilling social learning from large groups into manageable sizes. These sub-communities tend to form naturally around a broad range of topics. It is not surprising that small sub-communities form in MOOCs as a reaction to the perceived scale of the course and despite the fact that individual registrants cannot see the size of the course cohort. Thus, the subcommunities that form in MOOC discussion forums are a type of ―imagined community‖, as theorized by B. Anderson’s (1982) seeking to define nationalist endeavor, herein gathered together temporarily without the benefit of face-toface connection but projecting a horizontal comradeship. The sub-communities in discussion forums in MOOCs negate the actual inequalities (social, economic, and political) of participants through the pursuit of having a voice amongst content put forth via a single individual, the instructor. Though the instructor can determine the forum topics, it is the learning cohort that populates them. Learners are often responsible for populating the forums with the exciting interactions, solutions, and perspectives that result in new knowledge, usergenerated content (Anderson, 2004). Since well before T. Anderson (2004) theorized that content in and of itself does not do the job of teaching, educators have focused greater attention on the reception of content material. Scaffolding one’s knowledge fits into this educational matrix. The phenomenon of geographically displaced learners forming an imagined community, not necessarily homogenous or sharing worldviews, for a short time around the desire to have a voice still revolves around the notion of print capitalism. People have knowledge they can share that builds a communal learning ladder and user-generated content should increase when learners are empowered in an open educational environment. A more or less common vernacular language, predominantly English, deployed in sub-communities of MOOC discussion forums explains the popularity of social constructivism. What is the nature of the variety of learner perspectives in MOOCs and how are they able to benefit a scaffolding of knowledge in the discussion forums? Having a scale of learners ranging from novices to experts means having a robust ecosystem of learners helping each other throughout the life of the discussion forums. Though there have been many ways to identify forum users according to the roles an individual will play in the forums, these basically break down into learners searching for assistance and learners seeking to provide help to others (Anderson, 2004; Gillani, Osborne, Roberts, Eynon, & Hjorth, 2014). Experts benefit from articulating concepts new to novices. Novices learn to make deeper connections by working through the perspectives offered by their peers. Still, it is not entirely clear how and why some discussion forums succeed in achieving deeper participation where others fail. The demographics of any particular discussion forum may be a factor; as well, instructor presence in forums likely helps create a locus of identification, which may extend to the design strategies used in setting up forums. Yang, Wen, Kumar, Xing, and Rosé (2014) emphasize that social support exchanged through online discussion is a significant factor leading to decreased attrition in other online communities. © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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They encourage educators and instructional designer to obtain insight into ways that we can design more engaging and socially conducive MOOCs by providing learners a platform where they can lend or receive social support and providing instructors a platform or method to gain a bird’s-eye view of the emerging social structure in discussion forums and other social tools. One suggestion is for instructors and assistants to interject probing questions at critical opportunities to keep the discussion going until the appropriate depth has been reached. This means looking for patterns in the forums. Some patterns are based on learner demographics, motivations, and life experience, i.e., adult learning pathways require higher levels of self-motivation and are often job-related learning, whereas younger demographic groups typically acquire abstract knowledge for an unspecified future purpose. Gillani et al. (2014) identified patterns in discussion forums using demographic and geographic data sets. In either event, one thing is clear: learners like to engage online course materials through some kind of community even though their connection to the learning materials is self-directed and self-determined. With this idea in mind, it is clear that an individual cannot disrupt traditional learning pathways. Disruption is a group activity. Furthermore, our ideas about an online learner working alone and periodically checking into a discussion group may be inaccurate. Rather, it appears that online learners consider themselves to be part of multiple and everevolving mini-communities. They access these communities on a need-to-know basis and feel connected to the group(s) via a temporary horizontal comradeship. Being part of a cohort that begins and ends the course together and on the same trajectory, no matter how separate in time and space, may be a significant factor in student retention rates. It is not simply that individuals’ psycho-social connection to the online sub-community holds them in the course until completion, but rather it is the additional sense that an individual who participates in discussion forums feels a sense of belonging to a group that is arranged around the temporal formation of that sub-community. We assert that ―on-demand‖ MOOCs are socially isolating and the disconnection that results damages the potential for knowledge scaffolding. A discussion thread entitled ―Why is No-One Here?‖ illustrates the point, which was prompted by a learner in an ―on-demand‖ MOOC called ―How Things Work‖ on Coursera. Replacing the cohort system with on-demand learning appears to alienate and isolate learners particularly; why would someone post a comment if they were not certain that there was anybody to respond? These communities are strongest when comprised of a broad cross section of learners: education, profession, and life experience. These online sub-communities are heterogeneous and form for opportunistic reasons. It stands to reason that a learner can expect more help from a diverse group of peers, drawing on different backgrounds, experiences, and professions. This may apply most especially to courses that rely on problemsolving, where multiple perspectives shared in discussion forums will benefit the novices. Learners new to a subject have the steepest learning curve to tackle, and help from experts ought to increase a novice’s engagement with the content. Rather than giving up when the content gets challenging, novices appear to turn to the discussion forums for help from peers. Strategies that promote learner engagement vary. For MOOC discussion forums, the act of participating in © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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discourse may be its own reward. The activity of the group creates its own cohesiveness that fosters a positive group dynamic. Participants keep coming back to the discussions that are in a positive feedback loop. To create and maintain the positivity, instructors often feature new and innovative posts in a weekly announcement. Badges for forum participation and visualization tools to assess individual activity are currently being deployed (Anderson, Huttenlocher, Kleinberg, & Leskovec, 2014). Platforms such as Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn provide an e-mail notification feature that alerts thread subscribers to new posts, eliminating the learner’s need to constantly check for updates. The extent to which these features contribute to group cohesiveness remains to be seen. Learner engagement is closely linked to persistence, especially in terms of forum participation. Persistence in forum participation depends on several factors, our interest being linked to some practical aspects. At which point in time a group collectively agreed that an answer was discovered, at which point a community of learners exhausted all possibilities for solutions to problems, and at which point in time an instructor posted what was perceived to be the ―answer‖ in a thread are all potential factors affecting persistence. The reasons, as noted, that discussion forums fill up with activity depends on a network of factors that we are not intent on exploring in a paper of this length. Some interesting practical reasons include increases to forum participation just before a graded activity or test. The increased traffic stems from a desire to seek peer feedback, and it is simply human nature to work towards deadlines. Thus, paying greater attention to the discussion threads, student responses to topics, and overall student activity is an opportunity for modeling group learning in online forums (Gillani et al., 2014). Another reason that groups form, at least temporarily, is to ―game‖ the course. They may share quiz answers, usually in chat rooms outside of the course proper. These content-related formations are similar to those instances where students try to help each other navigate problems accessing content. Cheating aside, participation in discussions forums appears to influence the scaffolding of knowledge, and this is the focus of our next section.

Scaffolding and Community Building in MOOCs Social interaction and peer support have recently proved to be key elements in the learning process. How does one give support to less-experienced learners in MOOCs? What skills do less-experienced MOOC learners need: study skills, a regular study schedule, problem-solving, aggregating information, or managing information? Do we need a MOOC on how to take a MOOC? Although some authors claim that there is ―no correlation between awareness of time management strategies and learning success‖ (Jung, 2008), educators generally agree that metacognitive self-regulation correlates with learners’ course completion (Puspitasari, 2012). How does self-learning occur in a flexible learning environment such as a MOOC?

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Kop (2011) says ―It takes time for people to feel competent and comfortable to learn in an autonomous fashion, and there are critical literacies, such as collaboration, creativity, and a flexible mindset, that are prerequisites for active learning in a changing and complex learning environment without the provision of too much organized guidance by facilitators. Especially at the start of the learning journey, support by more knowledgeable others proved to be helpful in this.‖ Connectivists claim that learning does not happen in a single space, but it happens across the web and beyond through learners’ engagement with the knowledge. In the constructivist view, learning is enhanced by four major types of activity: 1) aggregation, access to, and collection of resources 2) relation: after reading, watching, or listening to those resources, the learner might reflect and relate it to previous learning or to earlier experiences 3) creation: learners might create something of their own after some reflection (i.e., discussion, blog post, video) 4) sharing: learners might share their work with others (Kop, 2011). What is it in MOOCs that directs educators’ attention to the scaffolding concept? 

  

Learners at different levels (novice to mastery): MOOCs create an opportunity for novices to meet fellow master learners who are interested in similar subjects; those connections can live on as we choose Self-directed learning, which is unleashed and can be unnerving There is no finality and the learning is not structured and is on-going; learners can go as far as they want for as long as they want Continuous experiments, trying things as they are evolving

Scaffolding Scaffolding is an instructional technique in which an instructor or a learner assists another learner to improve and build on prior knowledge. One of the key characteristics for success of online courses is scaffolding, which MOOCs also follow. Owing to the global nature of MOOCs, learners come from different backgrounds and levels and connect with each other to move towards heterogeneous learning objectives. Those who are more skilled might create a ladder for the novices by providing them with more resources, information, or responses. They use course content or tools or they bring new tools and content or in some cases create new content; these resources become tools for learning. The challenge for learners is often learning how to learn, rather than being content driven; therefore, peer support and connection help learners to move to the next step and build on their knowledge. Larkin (2002) suggests eight guidelines that teachers most commonly follow when developing scaffolded lessons. In the following the guidelines have been modified for MOOCs’ purposes: 1) Focus on curriculum goals to develop interactive activities

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2) Define a shared goal for learners to achieve through engagement in specific tasks 3) Provide flexible instructions that can be modified or adapted to each student’s ability 4) Encourage students to remain active and focused 5) Provide instant feedback through tools/technologies (e.g., game-based approach) or provide venues for peer feedback 6) Create an environment where students feel safe taking risks and which presents opportunities for students to move into unfamiliar territory successfully 7) Promote responsibility for independent learning 8) Introduce community building and peer support Community Building Learning is culturally and contextually dependent, ideally situated within an activity; people learn by doing. A critical component of situated learning is social interaction where learners become involved in a ―community of practice‖ that represents certain behaviors and beliefs to be achieved. As the beginners move from the sides of this community to its center, they become more confident, and involved and assume the role of expert. Furthermore, situated learning is usually unintentional, not deliberate. Lave and Wenger (1990) call these ideas the process of ―legitimate peripheral participation.‖ ―Learning is a social activity, whether we immerse ourselves into what Etienne Wenger called a community of practice, learn what Michael Polanyi called tacit knowledge, and be able to complete, as Thomas Kuhn famously summarized, the problems at the end of the chapter‖ (Downes, 2013). In MOOCs, social activities and peer connection are the pillars of learning. Learners in MOOCs form communities to share ideas, discuss problems/offer solutions, share interests, achieve course learning outcomes, etc. (Figure 1). Some communities are interest based, i.e., ―formed around a topic of interest, a profession, or a domain‖ (Downes, 2013). In such communities, as Wenger (2004) explains, ―members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information.‖ And they share a practice — a repertoire of resources, a vocabulary, and common ways of approaching a problem. Some communities are shaped around a problem or question in which members engage to find a solution or resolve the issue. A MOOC is to create a place where members can share ideas and beliefs. There are communities that move outside of the MOOC and meet in person to have the human touch and continue the journey. These communities are activated by peer learning. One recent example, a MOOC offered by Wesleyan University, entitled ―The Language of Hollywood: Storytelling, Sound, and Color‖, included learner posts asking for and offering peer opportunities to join virtual and face-to-face study groups outside the course. Known examples of peer group formation outside of the MOOC parameters were initiated by the Clinical Associate Professor of Information at the University of Michigan, Dr. Charles Severance (aka Dr. Chuck), who recorded and posted ―meet-ups‖ he had with students in many parts of the world. His manipulation of the online peer community into a face-to-face community added to his Coursera celebrity status.

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Peer online learning communities are vital to learning as they provide a safe learning environment. Being part of an active sub-community may help learners navigate the more difficult moments when their motivation in a course is tested. ―Though each may be pursuing a different educational goal, their overall objective and means of travel is the same, and thus they offer mutual support, encouragement, and reassurance‖ (Downs, 2013). Huang, Dasgupta, Ghosh, Manning, and Sanders (2014) posited the idea that ―superposters‖ may be responsible for the lion’s share of the activity on discussion forums, which does not negate but rather supports the idea that communities create forums around the sharing of thoughts, concepts, and solutions despite the chance that receptive readers outnumber active forum posters. Because users attempt to generate content via participatory avenues, discussion forums appear ubiquitous across MOOC typology.

Figure 1: Different communities within a MOOC

A variety of communities form in MOOCs, based on the approaches of designers and instructors: Connectivist MOOCs (connection) communities. ―the cMOOC experience’s distributed, flexible nature produces more robust and persistent communities largely because the community’s focus is less on the course itself and more © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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focused on the intersection of the course content with the lives and work of the students‖ (Caulfield, Collier, and Halawa, 2013). Cross-institutional/courses communities. “The key element connecting experiments such as these is that the differences in the local versions of each class are seen not as deviations but as net benefits to the cross-institutional community; the dialogue among students in different classes is meant to foster a diverse community of learners‖ (Caulfield et al., 2013). Real-world communities. ―In these cases, the community can act to connect students to engaging, real-world opportunities that might be impossible to provide in the context of a smaller, face-to-face course. Example projects include Waterfeed, a crowd-sourced, student-managed site that aggregates and summarizes recent news on water policy, science, and technology‖ (Caulfield et al., 2013) and the student-led ―Online Data Privacy‖ cMOOC (Griesbaum, 2014). It is also important to mention that there are communities that form within a MOOC and move together to another MOOC for comparison, experiments, and learning (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Cohort moving from one MOOC to another

The scale of a MOOC poses challenges to visualize the formation of communities; however, there are also clear indications in forum posts that suggest some communities that started with one form, such as problem-based communities, moved to another form of communities, such as interest based, as problems are resolved and members’ interests/attention shift. As a MOOC and © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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its environment evolve, learners’ behaviors with regard to learning also evolve; therefore, the benefits and characteristics of communities in MOOCs need further exploration.

MOOCs at The University of British Columbia Patterns in Community Development and Discussion Forums In 2012/2013, The University of British Columbia (UBC) ran a pilot project to produce four MOOCs using the Coursera platform: Useful Genetics, Climate Literacy, Introduction to Systematic Program Design, and Game Theory (in partnership with Stanford University). Each course consisted of video lectures, quizzes, assignments, and discussion forums, the latter representing the interface of peer-to-peer learning. Discussion forums were important parts of the learning plan. It was anticipated that learning amongst a group of peers would encourage deeper learning (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Stahl, Koschmann, & Suthers, 2006; Vygotskiĭ, 1978; Kizilcec, Schneider, Cohen, & McFarland, 2014). Each course attracted tens of thousands of participants, collectively producing thousands of discussion forum posts. In the Climate Literacy MOOC at UBC, a single discussion thread initiated by a student, called ―The Carbon Cycle‖, offers a compelling case analysis. The thread received 70 posts by peers and was viewed 425 times. The variety and depth of many of the individual posts suggest that the discussion group attracted people with prior knowledge around climate science. Participants suggested links to a variety of climate science studies and readings. They hypothesized and suggested alternate solutions to real-world problems related to the carbon question, e.g., what happens to crops as the carbon level in the atmosphere changes? Students were articulate, thoughtful, and generally respected alternate viewpoints. Overall, the instructors described the discussion forums as positive spaces for group learning. Other patterns of social engagement evolved out of the discussion forums of these MOOCs. In Climate Literacy and Introduction to Systematic Program Design there was anecdotal evidence that group interaction extended beyond the limits of the MOOC. Not only did learners continue to return to the discussion forums after the course had ended but also it was clear that some people wanted to continue the conversation outside of the MOOC domain. Facebook pages and blogs were launched as a result of the initial meetings inside the MOOC forums. This practice was actually encouraged by the course authors, Sarah Harrison and Sara Burke, who wanted learners to continue thinking about the impact people have on the planet. They invited learners to consider, record, and share their ideas about climate literacy by asking questions such as, ―Are you still turning off the lights you don’t need six months after the courses ended?‖ Continuing the discussion about climate literacy beyond the boundary of the MOOC was actually an integral part of the course structure. People continued to post new discussion threads to the forums for several weeks after the course closed because individuals had a social space and an audience. Even after the forums were officially closed to prevent misuse, people found © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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ways to access the forums to create posts by adding comments to earlier comments. This was a creative tactic to make posts in a discussion forum that had locked out new posts. Each of the UBC MOOCs relied upon Teaching Assistants (TAs) and volunteer Community Teaching Assistants to monitor the forums. Teaching Assistants and Community Teaching Assistants directed the traffic of discussion posts inside the forums, providing feedback, guidance, and support. While the MOOC was active, TAs and Community TAs became the custodians of knowledge transfer in the peer-to-peer model and thus took on a significant responsibility in the learning process. Learners exercised the option to create anonymous posts in discussion forums, though most course instructors adopted a policy of asking people to create unique nicknames. This method allowed people to freely express themselves no matter where they lived. Even in traditionally ―open‖ countries some subjects crossed boundaries, and so nicknames allowed people to feel safe in their selfexpression. Anonymous or nickname posts were not an invitation to disrupt or otherwise act inappropriately, though in these cases the crowd often metes out its own form of justice. MOOC forum participation is an intrinsic phenomenon, whose success depends on personal satisfaction derived from being part of a robust community. Lessons Learned: Promising Practices for MOOC Development and Delivery Through the first round of MOOC offering, the first lesson learned was to spend more time planning. The major tasks in planning include assess needs, define project scope, determine resources, create a project schedule, and determine budget. The importance of needs analysis for the design of syllabus and course design is supported by many educators in the field (Gomez Garcia, 2007; Pilar & Mayo, 2000). MOOCs appear to be primarily about the video lectures. In fact, recent trends in MOOCs suggest that lecture videos complement rather than replace a variety of educational materials. Other lessons learned include developing learning materials, such as storyboards, project plans, project and media charters, and activities, before producing video. An important, if overlooked, component of the design and development phase is how to build compelling discussion forums. Thinking about questions that will engage a broad sector of learners is crucial to student motivation. Developing healthy discussion forums that attract students who push for deeper learning as a group does not happen by accident. Design MOOCs to support communities and culture and promote peer support and learning. It is important to have a core team to work on MOOCs in which members’ roles and responsibilities are discussed and confirmed, including subject matter expert, media producer, graphic designer, instructional designer, and technical support. It is also important to review and discuss promising practices and strategies for online learning with all the team members. From our findings and experiences, we recommend the following steps to designing MOOCs:

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    

 



  



Talk to faculty about promising practices and teaching strategies for online learning and MOOCs. Adopt open educational resources in support of your MOOCs. Include potential content and community partners in MOOC design. Consider different forms of online community beyond the discussion forum. Ensure the social presence of the facilitators and of participants, which enhanced the ―community‖ forming and the sense of belonging that built confidence and stimulated active participation. Discuss strategies for anticipating how diverse users in a mass audience will interact. Consider what learners need to take away from the MOOC, and then figure out how to get the students to learn it on their own through the MOOC’s learning objects. Keep learners motivated and on track by providing a weekly announcement/email update summarizing the key points covered and signposting to the following week’s activities (Conole, 2014). Invite experts to participate in Google Hangouts or in a module’s discussion forum. Consider and invite internal and external subject matter reviewers for your MOOC. Introduce all the tools/technologies used in the course and their benefits. For example, using blogs to develop e-portfolios as a means of participants collecting all the artifacts they have developed throughout the MOOC to achieve learning outcomes or Wiki as a collaborative tool to develop an online resource. Encourage and ensure active learning and participation, e.g., get participants to work collaboratively and develop an online resource on a particular topic using a Wiki or encourage them to create and comment on blogs.

Conclusion Users in discussion forums are an integral part of MOOCs, their participation constituting a sub-community. Forming on an ad hoc basis and in connection with the presentation and design of learning content, sub-communities are an avenue of user-generated content. Forums become populated with data that users feel adds to the matrix of learning materials and perspectives that round out the vision of the course topics. The heterogeneous composition of discussion forum sub-communities enhances the scaffolding of knowledge by putting the broad range of experience of both experts and novices in league with one another. It is clear that scaffolding knowledge is an important aspect of the learning process that happens to also be a significant part of successful discussion forums. These are areas where students command the greatest amount of control, precisely because of scale, requiring a new standard of practice in course design. A crucial step to making this successful is encouraging user-generated content. Getting students to feel empowered to add their own content to a course, in discussion forums in an xMOOC for instance, requires setting up a space of trust inside the course. This means moving passive learners into active ones. It is clear that students are more engaged when they find a personal connection between their interests, goals, and a specific topic provided © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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by the course. Scaffolding opportunities within the discussions, the diversity of students, the presence of experts and novices, and good design practices assist students to find such personal connections. This strategy increases motivation until learners move to the next step, past initial confusions, and settle more comfortably into the course. We have also noted the difficulty of trying to create user-generated content in an on-demand course that foregoes cohorting. The objective of this paper has been to demonstrate, by the aggregation of existing studies, the relevance of user-generated content on the learning ecosystem in MOOCs as it applied to sub-communities forming in discussion forums.

References Anderson, A. (Ed.) (2008). Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton, AB: Athabasca Press. Anderson, A., Huttenlocher, D., Kleinberg, J., Leskovec, J. (2014). Engaging with massive online courses. arXiv:1403.3100. Retrieved December 2014 from http://arxiv.org/pdf/1403.3100.pdf Anderson, B. (1982). Imagined communities. London: Verso Press. Anderson, T. (2004). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning (pp. 33–60). Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school: Expanded edition. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Caulfield, M., Collier, A., Halawa, S. (2013). Rethinking online community in MOOCs used for blended learning. EDUCAUSE Review Online. Retrieved April 2014 from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/rethinking-online-community-moocsused-blended-learning Conole, G. (2014). Tips for designing MOOCs and useful teaching strategies. Retrieved June 2014 from e4innovation.com Downes, S. (2013). MOOC — The resurgence of community in online learning. Half an hour. Retrieved May 2014 from http://halfanhour.blogspot.ca/2013_05_01_archive.html Gillani, N., Osborne, M., Roberts, S., Eynon, R., & Hjorth, I. (2014). Communication communities in MOOCs. arXiv:1403.4640 Gomez Garcia, L. (2007). The importance of needs analysis in syllabus and course design. The CMC-E project: a case in point. Retrieved August 2013 from http://www.spertus.es/Publications/Lidia/valladolid.pdf Griesbaum, J. (2014). Students as teachers in MOOCs? The double gain of MOOCs as an in-class teaching method experiences from a student-made MOOC ―Online data privacy‖. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 4(1), 29–34. Huang, J., Dasgupta, A., Ghosh, A., Manning, J., & Sanders, M. (2014). Superposter behavior in MOOC forums. Proceedings of the First ACM Conference on Learning@Scale (L@S), pp. 117–126. doi:10.1145/2556325.2566249. Jung, M. (2008). The effects of integrating time management skills into a blended distance learning course. PhD Thesis, University of Southern California. Kizilcec, R. F., Schneider, E., Cohen, G. L., & McFarland, D. A. (2014). Encouraging forum participation in online courses with collectivist, individualist and neutral motivational framings. In U. Cress and C. D. Kloos (Eds.), EMOOCS 2014, Proceedings of the European MOOC Stakeholder Summit. pp. 80–87. Kop, R. (2011). The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: Learning experiences during a massive open online course. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Special Issue — Connectivism: © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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Design and Delivery of Social Networked Learning, 12(3). Retrieved February 2014 from http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrccnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?action=rtdoc&an=18150443&lang=en Larkin, M. (2002). Using scaffolded instruction to optimize learning. ERIC Digest. Arlington, VA: Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, ED474301. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1990). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Pilar, M., & Mayo, G. (2000). English for specific purposes: Discourse analysis and course design. Bilbao: Servicio Editorial. Universidad del Pais Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea. pp. 37–39. Puspitasari, K. (2012). The effects of learning strategy intervention and study time management intervention on students’ self-regulated learning, achievement, and course completion in a distance education learning environment. PhD Thesis, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. Stahl, G., Koschmann, T., and Suthers, D. (2006). Computer-supported collaborative learning: An historical perspective. In Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 409–426). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Vygotskiĭ, L. L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Yang, D., Wen, M., Kumar, A., Xing, E., & Rosé, C. P. (2014). Towards an integration of text and graph clustering methods as a lens for studying social interaction in MOOCs. The International Review of Research In Open and Distributed Learning. 15(5). Wenger, E. (2004). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Retrieved April 2014 from https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/11736/A brief introduction to CoP.pdf?sequence=1

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 133-141, June 2015

An Empirical Research on the Use of Mobile Phones to Support Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Mathematics Learning Nguyen Danh Nam and Trinh Thi Phuong Thao Thai Nguyen University of Education Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

Abstract. This paper presents some empirical findings on the use of mobile phones to support studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mathematics learning in some Vietnamese schools, specifically for facilitating self-study among students. An empirical research was carried out aimed at investigating the mobile phone as a portable learning device in the high school mathematics classrooms. It also finds out how the potentials and functionality of the mobile phones can be effectively used and facilitated in educational settings. A web-based learning model was proposed to assist K-12 students to learn mathematics beyond the activities in the classroom. The research also shows that mobile web-based content provides students with opportunity to learn at their own pace, to learn in accordance with their preferences, and to guide them self-study at home. Keywords: m-learning; self-study; mobile learning; mathematics

Introduction Mobile phones are becoming a vital part daily life of almost student and teacher. Most of students had high access to Internet on mobile phones. Therefore, recently, much research has been done in exploiting the potentials of mobile phones for their pedagogical uses and many researchers have announced effectively case studies at mobile learning in different contexts. According to Sharples, Taylor and Vavoula (2007), mobile learning is described as a type of learning that creates flexible learning environments which enhances the mobility of learners, the mobility of technology and the mobility of learning (p.222). Nowadays, most of handheld devices (including mobile phones) can run various types of application software and be equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS capabilities to connect to the Internet. Therefore, mobile phones will provide students with opportunity to learn anytime and anywhere. In other words, mobile learning with the support of mobile phones offers new chance for empowering the learning experiences in some aspects that other devices cannot collaborate effectively (Lam & Duan, 2012).

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The presentation of mobile phones in the daily life of students positively assists the integration of technological world into mathematics education and there have been a number of studies of effective learning models with mobile phones all over the world. Tatar, Roschelle, Vahey & Penuel (2003) investiagated the influence of mobile phones in mathematics teaching and learning by organizing some interactive tasks such as: (i) distribution: transmitting the same learning resources to all students; (ii) differentiation: offering different tasks and assignments to each student; (iii) contribution: forwarding an exercise or real-life data investigation done individually and then shared to other classmates; and (iv) harvesting: managing the team work of some groups of students. Kukulskae-Hulme and Traxler (2005) revealed that learning with mobile devices provides learners with comprehensive instruction in all educational settings. Moreover, mobile phones creates a learning environment to enhance current face-to-face learning and improve student-teacher interaction. In fact, Wei and Chen (2006) designed an e-book interface on mobile phones that allowed students to type their questions, feedbacks and comments on the text which were moved to a discussion section. Other studies such as Genossar, Botzer & Yerushalmy (2008) found that the mobile phone encouraged students to do exercises that connect to real world. The students were able to percieved useful mathematical knowledge in such situations. Franklin and Peng (2008) offered a model for using iPods to support students’ mathematics learning. They could use the device to solve algebraic equations and graph them. In this research, videos were used to assist students’ out-ofschool learning. In order to enhance instantaneous learning interaction, Kinsella (2009) designed a program on mobile phones which engaged students to send their unsolved problems to teachers. The teachers had responsibilties of giving concise, objective comments to all learners intantaneously. In addition, Symbian Tweet (2010) confirmed that mobile learning was able to enhance students’ motivations in some contexts. More recently, Kearney, Schuck, Burden and Aubusson (2012) espoused a pedagogical framework of mobile learning informed by a socio-cultural perspective, comprising three features: personalization, authenticity and collaboration. Other research, Vani & Permanand (2012) designed MobileMath in order to examine the effect of mobile devices in supporting learning mathematics, especially to determine whether they can maximize students’ learning outcomes in mathematics or not. This program used a lot of techniques (e.g. games, puzzles, authentic tasks, personal differentiation, instant feedbacks) to assist students during learning process. The results of the study indicate that the application would create a positive environment for supporting students to learn secondary school mathematics. There exists a huge gap between the school life of students and their daily life. According to Freudenthal (1983), there is a strong connection between mathematics and the real life. As a result, it must be close to students in the classroom (p.113). Almost every student consider mobile phone as a part of the after-school activities. However, the students have restricted access to mobile phones and Internet because school managers and teachers do not encourage their students using mobile phone during the class. For that reason, the aim of © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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this research was to gain an understanding of the way mobile learning approaches can enhance real-life mathematics teaching and learning as well as how mobile phones support students to self-study at home. Moreover, using mobile phones are effective way for teachers to keep in touch with parents and communicate with students instantaneously. Students can work with other classmates and share their results by using chat, SMS, MMS, e-mail, video sharing, blogging, working screen without being in same place. Nevertheless, there has been little research conducted on identifying the actual functionalities that mobile phones could support students to self-study. Therefore, this research would demonstrate that mobile phones facilitate students to gain mathematical insight, promote mathematical understanding, assist self-study at home and approach ubiquitous learning.

A proposal for teaching K-12 mathematics using mobile phones The effect of mobile learning may well depend on the learning assignments that mobile phones are used for, and on the integration of activities within a well designed learning contexts. Lubega et al (2004) realized that most students used the mobile phones for communicating purposes like web browsing, emails, phone calls, SMS and MMS. Inparticular, they used mobile phones for teamwork, real time discussion with their classmates and received personalized supports from their tutors and teachers. In order to investigate the real situation of using mobile phones to support the process of teaching and learning mathematics, we conducted a large-scale survey in eight public high schools in Vietnam, where five schools were located in urban areas and three other schools were located in rural and mountainous areas. The survey was conducted to analyze the strategies of using handheld devices such as mobile phones and how students use these devices to support their learning. Consequently, we have designed an interactive mobile website for teaching and learning K-12 mathematics. This website integrates a sequence of modules in each e-lesson. These e-lessons were constructed based on the national curriculum as well as school knowledge and skill standards. They can be accessed from mobile phones at the website: www.mlearningvn.com. During the course, students could read their e-books, did their pre-tests, completed assignments, raised questions and listed diffculties to teachers. The teachers took their responsibility to check, evaluate and respond them. In this research, we proposed a model that integrates web-based e-lesson on the interactive website for supporting K-12 mathematics students to self-study. Every e-lesson contains four following modules: 1) Theoretical Review: The content of this module presents basic knowledge and a series of typical examples. Students can read the content of the lesson, try to understand the problems and methodological knowledge which was provided in these examples. 2) Instructional Exercises: This module includes the exercises that were designed based on differentiated system. The solution of an exercise was divided into “dose”. In order to complete one “dose” and move on the next “dose”, students must reply to all of the questions correctly. In the process of solving the problem © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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in each “dose”, students were given some suggestions or hints if they met difficulty in finding the answer. In this case, students had to spend much more time to review theory or even took different steps to reach a full solution. 3) Drilling Exercises: This module was designed for knowledge reinforcing as well as differentiated purposes. These exercises contain the suggestions for the answer but not full solution. The levels of difficulty of each exercise will be automatically adjusted based on the students’ responses to the preceding exercises. 4) Test and Feedback: Students were able to participate in discussion boards and undertake online activities such as surveys and quizzes. The test was designed based on different levels of students. In other words, questions and exercises in the test depend on the preliminary results and the whole process of doing them. After completing the test, students were provided constructive feedback and consequently made a good progress in their learning. At the end of the course, we conducted a pilot study with 474 students in two high schools in Thai Nguyen City which located on the north of Vietnam. They were allowed to access to the Internet using their mobile phones and use providing resources on the website throughout their school day. Moreover, teachers encouraged them to self-study at home by doing individual homework and assignments. Finally, we conducted a small-scale survey to examine the attitudes of students towards this pedagogical model and to explore how mobile phones support their mathematics learning. At the same time, we took an semistructuted interview with participating teachers to gain an insight into teaching process and instructional methods to guide their students self-study at home using mobile phones.

Results Mobile phones offer solutions to the following education challenges such as: providing teachers with opportunity to design different difficulty levels which are suitable to students’ ability and enabling teachers to realize which student have difficulties in interpreting mathematical concepts in real time, support students both independent and collaborative learning, and track students’ progress. Findings from the large-scale survey indicate that mobile phones are highly popular in Vietnamese high schools. Although we predicted a huge usage of mobile phones than computers in schools, the collected data were amazing: 86.47% of students have their own mobile phone (see Table 1 below) and researchers predict that by the end of 2015, more than 90% of K-12 students will own one mobile phone on average. This is appropriate to the nationwide trend of mobile application development. More importantly, about 71.71% of students possess mobile phones that can access to the Internet and other mobile applications. In other words, a considerable percentage of students possess smart phones that integrate Internet access, audio record and player, integrated camera and interactive learning applications. It is also said that the mobile phone penetration among students is very high in high schools. This situation suggests a lot of empirical research on how mobile phones could be used for © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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promoting learning and teaching purposes in different educational systems. Therefore, there is a technical support at schools for students to improve their learning performance in mathematics. As a result, teachers can provide students with a rich opportunity to engage them in learning activities which are facilitated by mobile phones. Table 1: K-12 students’ possession of mobile phones. Name of High School

Numbers of Students

Numbers of Mobile phones

Percentage (%)

142 133 250

116 107 236

81.69 80.45 94.40

Mobile phones with Internet Accessibility 95 97 198

150

138

92.00

121

80.67

292 150 136 129 1382

290 124 102 82 1195

99.32 82.67 75.00 63.57 86.47

276 114 64 26 991

94.52 76.00 47.06 20.16 71.71

Dong Hy Khanh Hoa Thai Nguyen Luong Ngoc Quyen Chuyen Chu Van An Phu Binh Dinh Hoa Total

Percentage (%) 66.90 72.93 79.20

The data from Table 1 shows that students from urban areas (such as Thai Nguyen, Luong Ngoc Quyen, Chuyen, Chu Van An) have significantly higher access to the Internet than their rural peers (such as Dong Hy, Khanh Hoa, Phu Binh, Dinh Hoa). Hence, we chose two urban high schools to investigate how students use the mobile phones and Internet supporting their study. We found that entertainment, reading newspapers and accessing social networking services are the basic functions of mobile phones that students use to support their learning. About 30.8% of the students have access to mobile phones to exploit math websites and only 10.6% of the students enroll in online math courses (see Table 2 below). Table 2: Some K-12 students’ popular activities on mobile phones.

Activity Listening to online music Watching online movies Reading newspapers for latest news Accessing school’s website Using SMS for peer discussion Using social networking for peer discussion

Thai Nguyen Percentage High School (%)

Chuyen High School

Percentage (%)

183

92.4

242

87.7

183

92.4

193

69.9

154

77.8

182

65.9

163

82.3

276

100.0

16.2

34.4

131

66.2

244

88.4

138

Taking online tests or quizzes Exploiting mathematics websites and resources Participating online mathematics courses Total

140

70.7

257

93.1

30.8

105

38.0

10.6

3.3

198

100.0

276

100.0

In particular, there were only a few students in a class who access to the Internet to look for learning resources because of low quality content websites as well as high cost for using mobile services. In order to find a suitable solution for this situation, we designed the interactive mobile website to support students learning mathematics at home. This pedagogical model would encourage individual learning by providing each student with a device and students can access the website on the mobile phones every time throughout their personal life. During the course on the website, students were offered opportunities to gain access to learning experiences by using some popular functions of mobile phones like messaging, imaging, games, sharing, media, etc. The survey on students’ attitudes towards their satisfaction with the interactive mobile website showed a surprising result. There was a different evaluation among four groups of students (see Table 3 below). About 71% average students and 68% good students satisfied with the content on the website and it helped them to learn mathematics effectively and we observed that they only focused on two modules during their learning (theoretical review and instructional exercises). Conversely, only 33% excellent students and 35% bad students satisfied with modules and “dose” in each module. These percentages show that we need to design the content of each “dose” in every module such that it can support all students. In other words, the knowledge contained in each “dose” requires a higher level of differentiation which allows students to self-study at home with their own pace and to learn in accordance with their preferences. Table 3: Levels of students’ satisfaction with the interactive mobile website.

Level of satisfaction Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

Excellent students 12 % 21 % 23 % 30 % 14 %

Good students 27 % 41 % 22 % 3% 7%

Average students 19 % 52 % 13 % 11 % 5%

Bad students 7% 28 % 32 % 23 % 10 %

Data collected from the teacher’s take notes as well as data from surveys, interviews were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the interactive website www.mlearningvn.com in supporting students self-study K-12 mathematics at home and the model of using the mobile phone to deliver learning resources as well. The purpose of this research was to investigate how the web-based learning model on mobile phones could be exploited to assist mathematics learning. The results show that there are a lot of benefits to use mobile phones to © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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support students learning mathematics because they can facilitate students learning anytime, anywhere, from any source, at any pace. In other words, mobile phones can support students learning with high flexibility and personalizing: each “dose” in a certain module suitable for a group of students; online forum allows students communicate, arguments with other members and learn from each other; integrate testing modules which allows students to selfevaluate and make a plan for their progress; SMS services help the students get instantaneous feedbacks and comments from their teachers,… In general, the research shows that most students using mobile phones for webbased learning purposes and private communication. We have also recognized that mobile phones were used successfully by some of the teachers for personal support with information gathering, timetabling, lesson observations, records of meetings, calculating and graphing, students’ attendance and grades, and online assessment. Moreover, a large number of teachers realized that the mobile phones are useful and flexible for teachers, especially people who have no experience with computers. However, data from interview also indicate that mobile phones did not significantly influence students’ performance including students who using these devices to learn mathematics for the first time.

Conclusion The purposes of this paper were to provide an overview of great potentials for using mobile phones to support the students learning mathematics whenever and wherever they want. Students can access to the Internet on mobile phones to review theory, do differentiated exercises, post comments on a forum, take online quizzes and choose the strategy of learning on their own. The designed website was also explored to determine if it can motivate and offer the advantages of learning mathematics anywhere and anytime. The results of this empirical research would contribute to further investigation of the benefits of mobile phones in educational setting. Although most of the schools in Vietnam banned or limited the usage of mobile phones, but these devices are available and are part of the daily culture of almost Vietnamese student. Therefore, our proposed model of using mobile phones aimed at providing a rich opportunity for students to learn mathematics at home. Teachers can also use different “dose” on the website to facilitate students to self-study in a differentiated approach with different types of learning. It is realized that this approach can facilitate the mobility of the students and decrease location limitations of learning. More importantly, the research reveals that the students were able to improve their learning performance and they were also satisfied with using mobile phones as a tool for supporting to learn mathematics at school and at home as well.

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