Educ. Sci., Volume 9, Issue 3 (September 2019) – 88 articles

In this research, an effort is made to compare the effectiveness of reading texts presented through electronic books in a computer environment and regular (printed) texts, in terms of the development of the reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition skills of students with special needs within inclusive educational environments. The research was designed with ‘Adaptive Alternating Applications’, and the study group of the research was formed by using the ‘purposive sampling’ method. As a requirement of the research design used, two special needs students were studied. According to the results of the study, the vocabulary acquisition levels of both students produced more effective results in presentations made with electronic texts, and in addition, electronic texts were found to be more effective in improving reading comprehension skills than printed texts. Full article

An association between students’ learn-online engagement and academic performance was investigated for a third-year Water Resources Systems Design course at the University of South Australia in 2017. As the patterns of data were non-parametric, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed using SPSS. It was revealed from the test results that distributions of students’ logins to learn-online site for all categories and sub-categories including gender, international/domestic students and grades were almost similar. Therefore, it is relatively unrealistic to use lean-online engagement data to predict students’ performances. A correlation test was further performed to validate the hypothesis testing results and a weak relationship (Pearson’s r = 0.29) between login to learn-online site and grade was observed. The smaller F ratios of one way ANOVA also validated the test results. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests can be applied to course analytics data for face-to-face and online courses to understand a better picture about the uses of learn-online engagement data. Full article

Background: This study raised the following problem: How reliable is the Inclusion for Children and Adolescents Questionnaire (ICAQ) when measuring the attitudes of students with hearing loss towards inclusive education (IE) in public schools in the Canary Islands? Methods: The sample consisted of 297 students from the province of Gran Canaria, and 137 students from the province of Tenerife, with an average age of 11 years old. An exploratory factor analysis determined the reliability and relevance of ICAQ. Results: The authors found four factors of students’ attitudes towards IE: Family involvement and use of technology, inclusion in the centre, communication with medical specialists, and assessment of the support technology. Conclusion: There were significant differences between the students with hearing loss in terms of the following factors: Inclusion in the centre and assessment of the support technology. The total score of students’ attitudes towards IE was high. This piece of research is very important for the governing body of any school administration, especially in relation to schools’ educational planning and IE. Full article

The teaching of Earth Sciences (ES) is particularly delicate and seems to be problematic for both learners and Moroccan teachers for multiple reasons. Based on this observation, this study aims at identifying the difficulties related to the teaching of ES by exploring the points of view of the Moroccan teachers toward this field. As an investigative tool, we used a questionnaire and semi-directive interviews with nearly 122 secondary school teachers of Life and Earth Sciences (LES). The results of our survey revealed that the major difficulties that hinder the teaching of natural sciences are mainly related to the teachers’ university studies. Most of them had training in biology as well as in the relationship that the natural sciences maintain within time and space, the limited abstraction capacity of unmotivated learners, and the inadequacy of their prerequisites in these sciences. On the other hand, they were aware of the demotivating geological knowledge taught to the learners and the lack of initial and continuous training for teachers, especially for those who specialized in natural sciences. Full article

The current study examines perceived hunger, which may result from food insecurity, and its effect on academic and athletic performance in students on a liberal arts college campus in New Hampshire. It also examines how students compensate for hunger and their preferences for different types of resources to address hunger. A review of the literature on food insecurity in college students informed the development of a questionnaire on hunger. A mixed-method approach was used to collect qualitative/quantitative data from students of different disciplines. Three hundred and seventy-one students had complete surveys. Thirty-six percent and 34% of students reported that their academic and/or athletic performance, respectively, had been affected by hunger. Forty-seven percent of students responded they would consider taking advantage of an on-campus food pantry. In an open-ended question, students reported concerns about the social stigma related to economic instability and utilizing a food pantry. Our research findings support many on-campus initiatives including the creation of a student-run on-campus food pantry, longer dining common hours, a Swipe It Forward program, and the creation of a task force to address food insecurity on campus and to work with college systems to develop opportunities to better serve students at the college. Full article

In this paper, we present a thought piece examining recent core policing reforms introduced in the Republic of Ireland (ROI), responding to a perceived crisis of legitimacy, for An Garda Síochána (AGS) (translated: ‘The Guardian of the Peace’). Central to this process is the critical reform of the education and training of police and their relationship to the professionalisation and legitimacy of policing. In this paper, we put forward an explorative analysis of the potential link between the professional education of police and their perceived legitimacy. A literature review was carried out on the reform process, including the related elements of police education, training, professionalisation, community policing, police legitimacy, code of ethics (CoE) and police culture. We consider the espoused ambition to professionalise policing via processes including the provision of professional learning in universities and how this might be deemed to contribute (or not) to legitimacy. While no empirical research to date has been carried out on these specific reforms in the ROI, the reform recommendations had several resonances with broader examination of the themes and challenges (in particular police ethics and culture) associated with reform of democratic policing in other jurisdictions, particularly with respect to increasing professional learning and perceived police legitimacy. Full article

(1) Background: In self-concept research, Likert scales are still relied upon despite the fact that they pose methodological difficulties for research in culturally diverse societies. This calls the validity of the data into question. In the present study, we develop a mixed methods design for culture-sensitive academic self-concept research. We test it in a study about chemistry self-concept with secondary school students; (2) Methods: Interview (N = 43) and questionnaire (N = 116) data were collected; (3) Results: The mixed methods approach allowed connecting self-concept with culturally shaped narratives: in the quantitative data, we found the well-documented gender gap in favor of boys. However, among the students with a Turkish migration background, the girls showed stronger chemistry self-concepts. The interviews suggested that girls with Turkish migration background find it easier to connect their chemistry learning to their personal life than the boys with Turkish migration background; (4) Conclusion: Based on further literature, we hypothesize that these differences might be due to a less masculine conception of science in the Turkish society. The mixed methods approach allows detecting measurement bias, which increases the validity of science self-concept data in culturally diverse contexts. Full article

The limited attention given to financial education in the development of student competencies can undermine the decision making of individuals in their adulthood. This circumstance has been widely studied in the literature, where the effect of financial literacy on creative entrepreneurship is influenced. The objective of this study is to analyze global research trends on the effect of financial education and financial literacy with the creativity of individual entrepreneurship. For this, a bibliometric analysis was carried out on 665 documents related to the subject of study during 1990–2018 period. The results show the most influential journals, authors, institutions, countries, and areas of knowledge on this scientific research. This work detects the main trends and patterns to offer a vision of the relationship between financial education and creative entrepreneurship. It should be noted that this research area has become a relevant field of study in education, finance, business, and management issues. Full article

The purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that the fertile learning circle of creative production/cultivation and technology in the organization and implementation of school projects by secondary schools for students aged 12–18, is aimed at the management of digital content, not just by using ready-made applications, but also by emphasizing the “we” in the use of technology. This entails focusing on a pedagogical notion of the efficacy of art, and also expanding the concept of the artwork by investigating it as a participatory practice, studying the relations between multiple nodes, the dynamic potentials and practices of composition in the media. Artwork as a rhizome, complex, pluralistic emerges as an open-ended assemblage and reorients the way of teaching. The dynamic field ‘Art and Technology’ as a field of synthesis, convergence, a modality of happening, and as a means of acquiring the skills and extensive knowledge necessary to bring about change, is based on technological, experimental, interactive and procedural technologies that involve the actions and/or influences and input of multiple persons as well as the machines. A new reality is built, encoded, recorded, and students are actively involved. Full article

As Finnish university admissions are reformed, more information is needed on the relationship between performance in prior education and later academic achievement. Transition to university is a critical period, and low performance in prior education is associated with challenges in later study. In the present study, law students’ (n = 426) performance in the National Matriculation Examination was investigated in relation to later academic achievement at university. Quantitative methods were used. Findings showed that prior performance was not only associated with study success but also with study progress. The results also showed that law students who had grades in the advanced mathematics course were faster and more successful at university. This work contributes to the existing knowledge of university admissions ahead of the Finnish reform by providing new insights into prior performance and how it is related to academic achievement at university. Full article

This paper presents findings from the practical implementation of Bloom’s taxonomy into the class of Intercultural Business Communication that has been taught for several years at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. The class utilizes blended learning, and recently, Bloom’s taxonomy has been introduced into the online course. Research I tests the students’ satisfaction with the class before introducing Bloom’s taxonomy, and Research II tests the students’ satisfaction with the new approach using the Bloom’s taxonomy. The findings are as follows: the students realized the difference after the implementation of Bloom’s taxonomy into the online course; moreover, the students also evaluated the new course in a much more positive way than the previous one. Bloom’s taxonomy, therefore, proved to be enormously useful in this blended learning environment, and the present paper highlights the importance of such an implementation. As a consequence, blended learning courses using Bloom’s taxonomy will be more systematic and therefore more efficient. The results of this research show that proper linguistic utilization of Bloom’s taxonomy terminology proved to be useful, and the paper stresses the importance of systematic approaches in blended learning courses so that they are creative and attractive for the new generation of online course users. Considering the small number of participants, further studies are needed to confirm the results of this research. Full article

This study aims to investigate whether emotional and behavioral difficulties (EBD) differ between children with cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids (HAs), according to multi-informant ratings. Methods: A battery of psychological measures (e.g., Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA), Peabody Image Vocabulary Test (PPVT), and Raven Progressive Matrices Test (RPM), was administered to children with CIs or HAs. The study involved 187 children with CIs, 113 children with HAs, 176 fathers and mothers, and 300 schoolteachers. Results: Significant disagreements were found between children, parents, and schoolteachers with regard to SDQ ratings. Total SDQ difficulties score correlated poorly with other outcomes (e.g., total ITPA, final PPVT, and final RPM). Regression linear analyses showed six socio-demographic and linguistic covariates that significantly predicted children’s total SDQ difficulties score. Conclusion: Several independent variables were found to be associated with children’s total EBD scores. This article highlights the importance of providing professionals with sufficient training so that they are knowledgeable about the procedures they are to use to support children with EBD (e.g., developing and implementing instructional approaches for school students with EBD). Full article

Public perceptions, increased scrutiny and successive governments’ reshaping and attempting to define what is and what is not social work has eroded the progressive and radical force of the profession. This article explores how students’ perceive the profession and presents evidence from a small-scale study conducted in a Northern Ireland University with 37 undergraduate social work students and 25 postgraduate student social workers (training-as-practice educators) on their perceptions of the characteristics of a professional social worker. A quantitative research design was used, consisting of a face-to-face survey distributed to respondents following an input on the Place Model, (Clarke, 2016). Respondents also shared their perceptions in relation to Freidson’s (2001) three logics: professionalism, bureaucracy and the free market, with Ternary graphs and word clouds used as a novel way to present this data. Several themes emerged as important characteristics of social work professionals including reliability, accountability, ethics and appearance. At the other end of the scale, respondents identified unprofessional, de-personalised and cynical as the least aspirational qualities of the profession. Full article

In order to support teachers preparing their teaching resources, a teaching ecosystem for developing an online service system to acquire teaching materials, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan, implemented an Integrated Course Service System (ICSS) to assist teachers in searching for instructional resources from distributed Educational Six Learning Networks (ESLN) of MOE. The study designed the ICSS and developed an instrument to investigate the satisfaction for the teachers of primary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools. By analyzing 253 teachers, the results show that demographics, such as age, school level, teaching experience and position, have significant effects on the ICSS satisfaction. Further, the teachers were found to be satisfied with the system content, system accuracy, report format, ease of use, system timeliness and community building offered by the ICSS that helps us to understand the teachers’ online behavior in more detail for the popularization of the course service system. Full article

The purpose is to investigate process drama for teaching civics, mainly democracy and migration. Process drama implies students and teacher to take on roles, to explore a subject content collectively. The study is based on a secondary school educational initiative where a drama pedagogue was invited to address civics through process drama. Four civic lessons were video recorded and analyzed through an activity theory framework. From this perspective, process drama can be understood as two activities with different motives/objects, the educational and the fictional, where the fictional activity should have a playful format. The results show that the dialogical approach used by the drama pedagogue created a democratic opportunity and also established the playful format. The students’ engagement was notably high. However, it was obvious there were no challenging or probing questions being asked by the drama pedagogue or the civics teacher, neither in nor out of role. As a consequence, the full learning potential of process drama in civics education could not be achieved. We suggest a co-teaching approach between civic teachers and drama pedagogues, to overcome challenges in using process drama in civic education for learning objectives to be attained. Full article

Digital mindfulness-based interventions (d-MBIs) present an unprecedented opportunity to share mindfulness training at scale. However, the feasibility of digital mindfulness training for high schools remains unknown. Using a one-group pre–post design, this feasibility study evaluated the adoption of a digital mindfulness course in a public high school. The 22-day course was delivered on laptops, tablets, or phones via a custom digital learning platform. The course included a total of 2.25 h of instruction designed to improve focus, stress management, and emotion regulation. The intervention was implemented across 11 classrooms with 9th–12th grade students. On average across all classes, students completed 80% of lessons and 77% of daily exercises. Although the one-group design precludes definitive conclusions about the intervention’s effects, paired t-tests from pretest to post-test (N = 190) revealed improved emotional regulation and stress management despite students experiencing significantly increased life demands toward the end of the academic term. Results suggest that students also adopted a stronger growth mindset about their ability to focus, and they felt more motivated and confident to train this ability. A total of 64% of students indicated that the course improved their focus. Among the 81.6% of students who reported at baseline that they paid attention in class less than they should, focus during class increased significantly. This investigation supports the feasibility of digital mindfulness training for high schools and highlights strategies for increasing fidelity of implementation of digital interventions in school settings. Full article

This study explored teachers’ autonomy-supportive and controlling behaviors through video-taped observation in the classroom. Four lessons by two teachers from a secondary school in Finland were videotaped and analyzed using a rigorous coding protocol. It was found that teachers employed both autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching during the same lesson, and even combined them in the same instructional sequence. This finding suggests the complexity of the use of autonomy support and control in the classroom, as well as their context-dependent aspects. The novel finding from this study was that teachers showed error tolerance and creativity to support students’ autonomy. Showing error tolerance and teaching creatively have not been investigated from the perspective of autonomy support in previous research. Furthermore, this study suggested that indirect control and its negative effects on students’ learning and well-being should arouse more concern in future research. Implications for teaching practice concerning supporting students’ autonomy have been provided. Full article

This article addresses some fundamental issues of concept mapping relevant to discipline-based education. The focus is on manufacturing knowledge representation from the viewpoints of both human and machine learning. The concept of new-generation manufacturing (Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, and connected factory) necessitates learning factory (human learning) and human-cyber-physical systems (machine learning). Both learning factory and human-cyber-physical systems require semantic web-embedded dynamic knowledge bases, which are subjected to syntax (machine-to-machine communication), semantics (the meaning of the contents), and pragmatics (the preferences of individuals involved). This article argues that knowledge-aware concept mapping is a solution to create and analyze the semantic web-embedded dynamic knowledge bases for both human and machine learning. Accordingly, this article defines five types of knowledge, namely, analytic a priori knowledge, synthetic a priori knowledge, synthetic a posteriori knowledge, meaningful knowledge, and skeptic knowledge. These types of knowledge help find some rules and guidelines to create and analyze concept maps for the purposes human and machine learning. The presence of these types of knowledge is elucidated using a real-life manufacturing knowledge representation case. Their implications in learning manufacturing knowledge are also described. The outcomes of this article help install knowledge-aware concept maps for discipline-based education. Full article

The changes in our society in recent years and the consequent idiosyncrasy of young people demand new teaching methodologies. The methodology known as flip teaching, in which pupils study the subject before the class experience, using the material given by the teacher, makes it possible to turn the classroom into a place to solve different problems, to introduce new advanced concepts and to participate throughout collaborative learning in the classroom. Parallel to the social transformation, Information and Communication Technologies, also known as ICT, have undergone an important development accompanied by a clear reduction in costs and ease of use of different devices to create and edit quality videos, as well as the possibility of disseminating them on the network. In this way, the didactic material provided to the student can be in video format, which let us to be closer to students and also allow them to revise the class everywhere and all the times they need. In this work, we present and discuss the results of an experience carried out over several years with students of first and fourth grade of the subjects Discrete Mathematics and graphs, models and applications, respectively, at the Universitat Politècnica de València, in relation to the acceptance, advantages and drawbacks of flip teaching. Full article

Digital technologies are becoming seamlessly incorporated in all we do, no less in teaching and learning. As technological developments and interdependent social change steer us deeper into a postdigital existence, higher education institutions are observed increasing the availability of learning technologies and related academic development initiatives. Alongside these developments, models of teaching as transmission are popularly criticized and set in contrast to models of teaching as participation, which are commended and avowed as more suited for the present day digital university. This paper presents the research findings of a qualitative study, which was specifically taken up in response to observed developments. The findings derive from phenomenographic analysis mapping variation in the accounts of 27 academics describing their experiences using digital technologies for teaching. These results represent a wide-ranging description confirming previous research findings and add new detail. They reaffirm teaching orientations of transmission and participation as important and significant facets of teaching moreover existing claims based on logical argumentation. These research results potentially serve professional development constructively supporting academics seeking to incorporate contemporary digital technologies in their teaching practices. Full article

Comparison is an everyday process of thinking, which is also frequently used in geography lessons. However, in geography pedagogy, the term ‘comparison’ remains vague and insufficiently defined. In this paper, we will propose a clear definition of what comparison is and introduce it as a systematic method for secondary school geography education. This definition and method is the result of our theoretical–conceptual approach, according to which we have analyzed the current academic discussion about scientific comparison and converted it into a method for teaching. We argue that applying comparison as a pedagogical tool may improve students’ skills to argue, reflect, solve problems, and promote good judgement. Full article

Inspired by the mobile phone market boost, several low cost credit card-sized computers have made the scene, able to support educational applications with artificial intelligence features, intended for students of various levels. This paper describes the learning experience and highlights the technologies used to improve the function of DIY robots. The paper also reports on the students’ perceptions of this experience. The students participating in this problem based learning activity, despite having a weak programming background and a confined time schedule, tried to find efficient ways to improve the DIY robotic vehicle construction and better interact with it. Scenario cases under investigation, mainly via smart phones or tablets, involved from touch button to gesture and voice recognition methods exploiting modern AI techniques. The robotic platform used generic hardware, namely arduino and raspberry pi units, and incorporated basic automatic control functionality. Several programming environments, from MIT app inventor to C and python, were used. Apart from cloud based methods to tackle the voice recognition issues, locally running software alternatives were assessed to provide better autonomy. Typically, scenarios were performed through Wi-Fi interfaces, while the whole functionality was extended by using LoRa interfaces, to improve the robot’s controlling distance. Through experimentation, students were able to apply cutting edge technologies, to construct, integrate, evaluate and improve interaction with custom robotic vehicle solutions. The whole activity involved technologies similar to the ones making the scene in the modern agriculture era that students need to be familiar with, as future professionals. Full article

This article presents theoretical orientations and practical applications for the assessment of d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) children. It discusses current approaches to assessment and the factors affecting d/Dhh children’s participation in assessments using those approaches. Gaps in the field around access to appropriate assessments are discussed. This review also shares information on the relationship between the purpose of the assessment and the approach selected. Basic considerations for both d/Deaf and hard of hearing multilingual learners (d/DMLs) and d/Dhh children with additional disabilities will be addressed. Finally, general recommendations are made for research and practice. Full article

A remote-controlled experiment for power electronics was developed for a virtual laboratory. Power converter experiments were set up, allowing students to conduct a remote-controlled experiment with special hardware and electric power. Students can activate parameter controls, connect wires, and tune electric load conditions with preset electronic laboratory instruction. Waveforms and experimental voltage and currents are measured, and the results can be delivered to users via the internet. The virtual laboratory features lecture notes and other computer simulations to improve learning. The development was used in a class of a power electronics course, in which students participated in a trial of the virtual experiment. The feedback from the students was very positive, and it was observed that students displayed better time management and improved learning and understanding of laboratory procedure as compared to a conventional laboratory class. Full article

Assessment and feedback (A&F) are two major components of any educational program and must be properly in place to ensure student learning and quality of experience. However, these important components come under severe challenges of meeting student expectations in the large class size context. When the program delivery relates to a transnational educational (TNE) scenario, the additional constraints on staff–student physical interaction, regional time differences and cultural background gaps introduce additional challenges: Conducting proper assessments and provide timely and constructive feedback to the students. In this paper, the authors propose a novel assessment and feedback framework which exploits having a large student number as a positive factor by introducing staff–student partnership to implement efficient assessment and feedback strategies. Authors propose to use students for peer-review, assessment design, evaluation rubric design and tutorial-based feedback. The students also take part in preparing feedback clusters based on which the instructor provides pseudo-personalised video feedback. Through feedback clusters, authors introduce the trade-off between individual feedback and generic feedback. The results of the study are particularly promising in terms of student satisfaction and learning enhancement. Full article

Bullying is a problematic situation that negatively affects thousands of children and adolescents in today’s world. The multicultural society resulting from globalization has caused different reactions throughout society. In the school context, some authors indicate that ethnicity and race are risk factors for being victims of bullying. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to analyze the scientific production on racial or ethnic bullying with the greatest impact at present, considering nine variables: Publication date, authors, organizations, countries, journals, type of document, area of research, language, and reference with more impact (cites). We conducted a bibliometric study through systematic review, documentary quantification, and data visualization techniques. We analyzed 831 documents, with a notable increase in recent years (2011–2019), highlighting the production from Dewey Cornell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA). On the other hand, the results showed that ethnic identity constitutes a differential factor in harassment appearing, accompanied by very poor socio-economic and cultural levels favoring depressive tendencies and drug consumption in the ethnic harassed. In short, bullying has a negative impact both physically and psychologically on the victims. For this reason, we must continue to work from the school context to eradicate the situation that is affecting more and more people. Full article

To gauge the variability in expert problem-solving strategies for stoichiometry problems, a set of experts in different career tracks were studied with the cohort including 17 graduate students in chemistry, three college chemistry instructors, and seven college graduates working in the industry. The goal of the study was to determine whether variability would be observed based upon experience and career trajectories. The data were collected using interviews and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using the COSINE (Coding System for Investigating Sub-problems and Network) method. Although the method was developed for the analysis of undergraduate problem-solving, it appeared to be effective in examining experts’ problem-solving in chemistry as well. The study revealed similar abilities for succeeding at solving a series of problems, but the strategies were variable for the three cohorts of experts. Specifically, the amount of information used to solve the problems differed across the three cohorts with graduate students focusing more upon each of the specific subproblems within each problem compared to industry chemists utilizing the big-picture approach in lieu of breaking down each problem into respective subproblems. Familiarity with the question types and ability to chunk information were common characteristics observed consistently for the expert participants, which is consistent with existing research. Full article

Anchored in the thirteenth of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), climate change is one of the key content areas in education for sustainable development. This evaluation study describes a school project that introduces students to scientific work and, more specifically, to scientific research methods in climate research. Using a pre-post design, the evaluation uses a scale measuring epistemological beliefs, as well as two other scales addressing the relevance of climate change in society and career prospects in the field of climate research. The quantitative questionnaire data indicate an increase in future career aspirations in the field of climate research. The qualitative interview data reveal positive changes in the understanding of science and show that an understanding of the nature of science can be promoted. Full article