ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Making a Transition: The Development of Academics' Role and Identity in Online Teaching
Author: Thanaraj, Ann
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Professional Identity,Teacher Role,Online Courses,Electronic Learning,Educational Practices,Educational Change,Delivery Systems,Instructional Innovation,Performance Factors,Teacher Attitudes,Barriers,Case Studies,Semi Structured Interviews,Observation,Teaching Experience,College Faculty,Change Strategies,Teacher Effectiveness,Teaching Skills

This paper explored the journey of three academics as they moved from face-to-face teaching to online teaching over a period of twenty months. From the findings of this study, it is recommended that for an academic to make an effective transition they need to be supported effectively to embrace the changes to their role and to their practice and consequently to their identity. It is hoped that this study may assist in discussions around staff development training and in supporting academics on the transition.
Write Away from It All! The Value of Running a Writing Retreat for Doctoral Students
Author: Davis, Geraldine
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Doctoral Programs,Academic Discourse,Literature Reviews,Intervention,Writing Improvement,Writing Skills,Skill Development,Participant Satisfaction,Graduate Students,Foreign Countries

Doctoral candidates often struggle to write at doctoral level. This struggle has many causes, but includes finding the time and support to write. We analyse a doctoral writing retreat aimed to encourage doctoral candidates to develop their academic writing and offer new insights into successful retreats. A comprehensive review of the literature about writing retreats and how these have been conceived and devised, includes the international literature about development of academic writing and the range of retreats. We identify the approach to writing within the UK and the limited references to retreats to support doctoral candidates to develop their writing. The writing retreat we devised is considered in detail. Features of the retreat which were valued by participants are identified and explored including specific skill development, a supportive environment with time and space to write. The findings extend the knowledge and understanding within the existing literature about doctoral writing retreats.
The Strategic Approach to Studying, and the Value of Assessment
Author: Sutton, Paul
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Learning Strategies,Learning Processes,Educational Theories,Strategic Planning,Attribution Theory,Educational Sociology,Social Influences,Value Judgment,Theory Practice Relationship,Inquiry,Learner Engagement,Academic Achievement

In this paper I seek to reflexively theorise the following pedagogical problem: why do so many students adopt a strategic approach to studying and value assessment for the grade awarded rather than as a learning opportunity? Firstly, I differentiate my sociological perspective from the phenomenographic perspective, and argue that the strategic approach is worthy of serious analysis. Secondly, I deploy the concepts social character and the social individual to argue that the strategic approach is a product of extrinsic rather than intrinsic forces: it emanates from within the social relations of contemporary capitalism. Thirdly, I frame the strategic approach as academic labour using concepts from Marx's labour theory of value: use and exchange value, concrete and abstract labour. This enables me to explain how assessment has become commodified and why students have a limiting quasi-market concept of value that privileges grades over learning. Finally, I argue that Marx's dialectical method of enquiry enables practitioners to not only deconstruct the strategic approach to studying but also to challenge it.
Exploring Students' Concepts of Feedback as Articulated in Large-Scale Surveys: A Useful Proxy and Some Encouraging Nuances
Author: Carver, Mark
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Feedback (Response),Foreign Countries,Higher Education,Factor Analysis,College Students,Student Satisfaction,National Surveys,Questionnaires,Statistical Analysis,Correlation

Surveys asking Higher Education students about feedback tend to find similar results: feedback should be prompt, specific, understandable and regular. Efforts to improve the feedback experience therefore emphasises that feedback be more frequent, detailed and turnaround times reduced. However, indications that students misunderstand key phrases in the questions or have limited conceptions of feedback have also led to suggestions that these surveys should not be as influential as they currently are. To explore students' understanding of feedback in greater detail, 613 students completed a 35-item survey about a specific time they received feedback during a work-based learning placement. Results indicate that students typically saw feedback as straightforward communication where an expert tells them what to do. However, principal component analysis of the survey responses indicated a pattern of responses in which students tacitly hold a more sophisticated understanding of feedback. Their patterns of response directly challenge many of the ways that feedback provision is currently monitored, suggesting better ways to evaluate and improve feedback provision. Curiously, these patterns of response had a close relationship with the standard questions used in the UK's National Student Survey. Results therefore suggest that this national survey is still a robust measure of satisfaction with feedback, but learning how to improve the feedback experience requires asking different questions.
Measuring the Impact of High Quality Instant Feedback on Learning
Author: Nutbrown, Stephen
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Feedback (Response),Foreign Countries,College Students,Computer Science Education,Student Surveys,Higher Education,Student Improvement,Programming,Comparative Analysis,Grading,Formative Evaluation,Summative Evaluation

This paper examines the impact of a novel assessment technique that has been used to improve the feedback given to second year Computer Science students at the University of Nottingham. Criteria for effective, high quality feedback are discussed. An automated marking system (The Marker's Apprentice--TMA) produces instant feedback in synergy with the highlighted best practises. This paper investigates improvements in the work submitted by students after receiving this type of feedback. It draws upon surveys, as well as comparisons to previous cohorts for validating the positive impact of these techniques. It was found that the cohort (141 students) made 35% fewer common mistakes on a subsequent exercise than the previous cohort. 100% of students surveyed (35) claimed to have read the feedback, and 91% agreed it clearly identified areas for improvement. 68% agreed the feedback is useful for their learning, which is backed up by the improvements seen on the last exercise. Supported by these results, this paper concludes that following feedback best practises can have a substantial impact on learning, and that automated assessment can play a key role in providing this instant, high quality feedback. The results and similar techniques can be applied to other disciplines.
The Effects of a Comprehensive Reading Program on Reading Outcomes for Middle School Students with Disabilities
Author: Hock, Michael F.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reading Programs,Reading Achievement,Middle School Students,Learning Disabilities,Quasiexperimental Design,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Comparative Analysis,Program Effectiveness,Achievement Gap,Special Education,Urban Schools,At Risk Students,Faculty Development,Reading Tests,Statistical Analysis,Teaching Methods,Cooperative Learning,Intervention,Grade 6,Achievement Tests,Standardized Tests,Pretests Posttests,Multivariate Analysis

Reading achievement scores for adolescents with disabilities are markedly lower than the scores of adolescents without disabilities. For example, 62% of students with disabilities read &quot;below&quot; the basic level on the NAEP Reading assessment, compared to 19% of their nondisabled peers. This achievement gap has been a continuing challenge for more than 35 years. In this article, we report on the promise of a comprehensive 2-year reading program called Fusion Reading. Fusion Reading is designed to significantly narrow the reading achievement gap of middle school students with reading disabilities. Using a quasi-experimental design with matched groups of middle school students with reading disabilities, statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and comparison conditions on multiple measures of reading achievement with scores favoring the experimental condition. The effect size of the differences were Hedges's g = 1.66 to g = 1.04 on standardized measures of reading achievement.
Improving Learning for All Students through Equity-Based Inclusive Reform Practices: Effectiveness of a Fully Integrated Schoolwide Model on Student Reading and Math Achievement
Author: Choi, Jeong Hoon
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Inclusion,Equal Education,Educational Change,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Educational Practices,Models,Urban Schools,Elementary Schools,Middle Schools,Comparative Analysis,Quasiexperimental Design,Longitudinal Studies,Growth Models,Improvement Programs,Public Schools,Fidelity,Disabilities

The present investigation examines the schoolwide applications model (SAM) as a potentially effective school reform model for increasing equity-based inclusive education practices while enhancing student reading and math achievement for all students. A 3-year quasi-experimental comparison group analysis using latent growth modeling (LGM) was used with seven urban elementary or elementary/middle schools and seven matched comparison schools in the same district. Results suggest significantly larger growth for experimental school students in math and no statistically significant difference in reading score growth between experimental and comparison schools. However, reading score growth for experimental schools was statistically significant in a post hoc analysis of selected schools. Additional descriptive analysis is presented for three schools that implemented the model with the highest measured fidelity; these schools made improvements on both reading and math scores while those of matching comparison schools decreased.
Empirical Data and Emerging Power Critiques: Lessons Learned
Author: Stockman, Caroline
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Electronic Learning,Mixed Methods Research,Technology Uses in Education,Interviews,Content Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Regression (Statistics),Methods,Research Design,Qualitative Research,Focus Groups,Educational Technology

This paper evidences the importance of maintaining a dynamic interpretive stance in e-learning research. In particular, it shows how a rigorous methodology, tailored to the research question, overlooked the importance of power and knowledge in technology acceptance research for education. It was perhaps the affordance of the mixed methods design, explained in this paper, which allowed for a blind spot to come to the surface, and prompt a renegotiation of the data. Empirical studies on the use of technology in education don't always take the pervasiveness of power dynamics into account. Yet this study shows how direct and effective they are in a teacher's decision to use or not use a technology. Using Michel Foucault's theory as an analytical tool, the findings from an original empirical study are re-examined. The analysis offers a new understanding of the critical manifestations of a performance culture in UK schooling, which goes hand in hand with a culture of observation and accountability. This is further underlined by the authority of time pressures. Both of these go at the cost of pedagogical considerations, which is arguably the primary concern of educators. That is where a power critique shows it value, but also its necessity. It traces the breaking points of the system; the moment where it undermines the rationality which it uses as its own justification. We correctly motivate our research choices through methodological paradigms and domain loyalties, but including a power critique suggests a new imperative for e-learning research. It offers the possibility to question normalised forces and better understand technology acceptance in education. We need to consider this critical position in any research design to continue challenging our theorising about e-learning.
A Roadmap to Cope with Common Problems in E-Learning Research Designs
Author: Sarsa, Javier
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Electronic Learning,Research Design,Educational Technology,Instructional Effectiveness,Methods,Validity,Educational Research,Technology Uses in Education,Teaching Methods,Statistical Analysis,Pretests Posttests,Qualitative Research,Online Courses,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Comparative Analysis

E-learning research is plenty of difficulties, as also research in education is. Usually, the high number of features involved in e-learning processes complicates and masks the identification and isolation of the factors which cause the expected benefits, when they exist. At the same time, a bunch of threats are ready to weaken the validity of the research, for example, disregard of previous research, use of small samples, absence of randomization in the assignment to groups, ineffective designs, lack of objectivity in the measuring process, poor descriptions of the research in publications (which implies few possibilities of replication), wrong statistical procedures, inappropriate inference of results, etc. All of these obstacles accumulate and are carried along the whole research, resulting in low quality studies or irrelevant ones. This theoretical paper suggests a roadmap in order to face the most common problems in e-learning research. The roadmap informs about some cautions which must be considered at each stage of the research and recommendations to increase the validity and reproducibility of results. The roadmap and conclusions included in this paper have been obtained from our experience in educational and e-learning research, also from our long path as reviewers in key journals of these fields, and from readings of significant research handbooks. This is not a strict guide but a set of milestones on which it is necessary to stop and reflect.
Using a Mixed Methods Research Design in a Study Investigating the &quot;Heads of e-Learning&quot; Perspective towards Technology Enhanced Learning
Author: Almpanis, Timos
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Mixed Methods Research,Research Design,Electronic Learning,Foreign Countries,Technology Uses in Education,Higher Education,Research Methodology,Colleges,Staff Development,Blended Learning,Online Courses,Semi Structured Interviews,Questionnaires,Epistemology,Educational Technology

This paper outlines the research design, methodology and methods employed in research conducted in the context of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and focuses on the Heads of e-Learning (HeLs) perspective about Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) by campus-based UK institutions. This paper aims to expand on the research design and the research methodology that was followed as part of this research, making a justified argument for mixed methods approaches in e-learning contexts. The background of this research and its research questions is outlined first to provide the context of this research. Following a review of the literature on TEL that informed this research, this paper provides an explanation of the researcher's worldview before discussing the chosen research design. The status of the findings and their generalisability based on the chosen methodology are then discussed. The research findings show that most universities represented in the survey offered various staff development opportunities to their academic staff in the effective use of TEL and that examples of innovative use of technology are evident in some areas in all participating institutions. Staff's digital skills and competencies coupled with a pedagogical underpinning as well as a supportive institutional culture were found to be the enablers for the effective implementation of TEL, according to the HeLs' expert informed responses. The paper is summarised and concluded making a case for the adoption of Mixed Methods Research (MMR) in e-learning settings.
Schema-Based Instruction with Concrete and Virtual Manipulatives to Teach Problem Solving to Students with Autism
Author: Root, Jenny R.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Schemata (Cognition),Mathematics Skills,Word Problems (Mathematics),Problem Solving,Elementary School Students,Autism,Pervasive Developmental Disorders,Student Interests,Manipulative Materials,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Instructional Effectiveness,Rating Scales,Questionnaires,Likert Scales

The current study evaluated the effects of modified schema-based instruction on the mathematical word problem solving skills of three elementary students with autism spectrum disorders and moderate intellectual disability. Participants learned to solve compare problem type with themes that related to their interests and daily experiences. In addition, researchers compared the effects of concrete and virtual manipulatives within the treatment package. Results of the multiple probes across participants with an embedded alternating treatments design showed a functional relation between modified schema-based instruction and word problem solving. Two of three participants performed more steps in the virtual condition and one participant had equal performance in both concrete and virtual conditions. When given a choice between conditions upon skill mastery, all three participants preferred the virtual condition and maintained treatment effects. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
The Kaleidoscope of Voices: An Action Research Approach to Informing Institutional e-Learning Policy
Author: Roushan, Gelareh
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Action Research,Electronic Learning,Educational Policy,Educational Change,Universities,Organizational Change,Models,Technology Uses in Education,Higher Education,Information Technology,Stakeholders,Transformational Leadership,Data Analysis

This paper describes a two-spiral action research approach (AR) in its analysis of the experience of a British University endeavouring to change and reposition itself in the context of fast pace external change in terms of innovation. Taking the European Union (EU) 2020 digital competence framework (Ferrari 2013), with its drive to address the huge EU digital skills gap as technological adaptation and use speed up and the call from the UK Government, employers, and students themselves to produce digitally competent graduates Higher Institutions need to consider their proposition. An action research approach, with its reflective stance, is relevant for complex and policy based studies, we argue, as the framework can encompass mixed methods techniques. Informed in conjunction with a &quot;Panel of Experts&quot;, thought-leaders drawn from industry and academia, and incorporating a strong student voice, we believe the AR approach is key to offering insights and transparency in the quest for change. The transition from an initial top-down management approach to a kaleidoscopic middle-out partnership of the executive team with key internal stakeholders, including students, academic staff, librarians, learning technologists and IT specialists offers a new and inclusive approach offering the agility and the synergy that traditional models lack. Results indicate that strong research and technological leadership, building internal alliances with key stakeholders, focusing on the &quot;middle out&quot; and a partnership approach to working with the Students Union all contribute to a transformational and shared approach to institution-wide change at a time of complexity and contestation in Higher Education policy.
Exploring the Effect of Immediate Video Feedback on Coaching
Author: Suhrheinrich, Jessica
Date: 2017-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Coaching (Performance),Video Technology,Feedback (Response),Autism,Pervasive Developmental Disorders,Teaching Methods,Special Education Teachers,Paraprofessional School Personnel,Instructional Effectiveness,Program Implementation,Fidelity,Technology Uses in Education,Professional Development,Handheld Devices,Satisfaction

Although evidence-based practices for autism spectrum disorders exist, they are often not effectively incorporated into school-based programs, indicating a need for enhanced training strategies for educators. This study examined the effects of immediate video feedback during coaching for teachers and paraprofessionals learning Classroom Pivotal Response Teaching (CPRT). Special education teachers, along with their classroom paraprofessionals, were randomly assigned to a coaching as usual (CAU) or a coaching with video enhancement (VE) condition. Both groups received both verbal and written feedback regarding strengths and weaknesses of their CPRT implementation. Additionally, the VE condition received video feedback during their coaching sessions. Overall, teachers demonstrated higher fidelity of implementation than paraprofessionals, t(44) = -2.73, p &lt; 0.01, but no significant group differences were identified between VE and CAU conditions. Univariate analysis of variance models were conducted to examine the relationship between participant satisfaction regarding overall quality of the training and highest percentage of CPRT components passed, F(2, 37) = 3.93, p = 0.03. Results indicate use of the iPad may impact training outcomes and participant satisfaction with training procedures and add to the very limited literature on how technology may be used to enhance in-service training for teachers.
Predicting Success in Higher Education: The Value of Criterion and Norm-Referenced Assessments
Author: Prince, Robert
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Criterion Referenced Tests,Norm Referenced Tests,Educational Benefits,Prediction,Higher Education,Benchmarking,Student Placement,Cohort Analysis,College Students,Minimum Competency Testing,Scores,Student Certification,Bachelors Degrees,Statistical Analysis

Higher education's ability to retain students through to graduation appears to be an international challenge. This is also the case in South Africa where only 27% of student complete their studies in minimum time and where 55% are unlikely to ever graduate. These challenges have meant that extended degree programmes, where degrees are formally done over a longer period of time, have become a feature of South African education. One challenge is determining which students will benefit from an extended programme. In South Africa there are two sets of assessments that are pertinent to this debate: the national school leaving examinations (a statutory requirement for entry into higher education) and the National Benchmark Tests. The national school leaving assessments are norm-referenced, making it often difficult to interpret the results for placement purposes. The National Benchmark Tests are criterion-referenced, and are thus better suited for this placement. This paper describes the two assessments, and tracks the academic standing of a cohort of students over six years at one higher education institution. It argues that using the results of the two assessments in complementary ways is the most productive approach for the purpose of placement at this institution and others in South Africa. The implications of considering these assessments is briefly explored in broader higher education contexts.