Posts Tagged ‘learning’

PISA Estonia China US

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/17/chinas-education-system-produces-stellar-test-scores-so-why-do-students-head-abroad-each-year-study/

Education scholars have already critiqued PISA as a valid global measure of education quality — but analysts also are skeptical about the selective participation of Chinese students from wealthier schools.

Second, Chinese students, on average, study 55 hours a week — also No. 1 among PISA-participating countries. This was about 20 hours more than students in Finland, the country that PISA declared to have the highest learning efficiency, or reading-test-score points per hour spent studying.

But PISA analysis also revealed that Chinese students are among the least satisfied with their lives.

Students look overseas for a more well-rounded education

Their top destination of choice, by far, is the United States. The 1.1 million or so foreign students in the United States in 2018 included 369,500 Chinese college students

hostility in U.S.-China relations could dampen the appeal of a U.S. education. Britain, in fact, recorded a 30 percent surge in Chinese applicants in 2019, challenging the U.S. global dominance in higher education.

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https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/12/03/us-students-gain-ground-against-global-peers.html

Immigrant students, who made up 23 percent of all U.S. students taking PISA, performed significantly better compared to their native-born peers in the United States than they did on average throughout the OECD countries.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/news/pisa-rankings-2019-four-chinese-regions-top-international-student-survey/ar-BBXGCZU

The survey found that 15-year-old students from Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang ranked top for all three core subjects, achieving the highest level 4 rating.

Students from the United States were ranked level 3 for reading and science, and level 2 for math, while teens from Britain scored a level 3 ranking in all three categories.

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Looking for Post-PISA Answers? Here’s What Our Obsession With Test Scores Overlooks

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-12-03-looking-for-post-pisa-answers-here-s-what-our-obsession-with-test-scores-overlooks

By Tony Wan     Dec 3, 2019

Andreas Schelicher, director of education and skills at the OECD—the Paris-based organization behind PISA wrote that “students who disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement ‘Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much’ scored 32 points higher in reading than students who agreed or strongly agreed.”

Those results are similar to recent findings published by Carol Dweck, a Stanford education professor who is often credited with making growth mindset a mainstream concept.

“Growth mindset is a very important thing that makes us active learners, and makes us invest in our personal education,” Schleicher states. “If learning isn’t based on effort and intelligence is predetermined, why would anyone bother?”

It’s “absolutely fascinating” to see the relationship between teachers’ enthusiasm, students’ social-emotional wellbeing and their learning outcomes, Schleicher notes. As one example, he noted in his summary report that “in most countries and economies, students scored higher in reading when they perceived their teachers as more enthusiastic, especially when they said their teachers were interested in the subject.

In other words, happy teachers lead to better results. That’s hardly a surprising revelation, says Scheleicher. But professional development support is one thing that can sometimes be overlooked by policymakers when so much of the focus is on test scores.

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https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/
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more on Estonia in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=estonia

AR and PokemonGo

GOTTACATCHEMALL:EXPLORING POKEMON GO IN SEARCH OF LEARNING ENHANCEMENT OBJECTS
Annamaria Cacchione, Emma Procter-Legg and Sobah Abbas Petersen
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filologia, Av.da Complutense sn, 28040 Madrid, Spain Independent; Abingdon, Oxon, UK SINTEF Technology and Society, Trondheim, Norway
https://www.academia.edu/30254871/_GOTTACATCHEMALL_EXPLORING_POKEMON_GO_IN_SEARCH_OF_LEARNING_ENHANCEMENT_OBJECTS
KEYWORDS
Pokemon Go, MALL, Learning, Augmented Reality, Gamification, Situated learning
ABSTRACT
The Augmented Reality Game, Pokemon Go, took the world by storm in the summer of 2016. City landscapes were decorated with amusing, colourful objects called Pokemon, and the holiday activities were enhanced by catching these wonderful creatures. In light of this, it is inevitable for mobile language learning researchers to reflect on the impact oft his game on learning and how it may be leveraged to enhance the design of mobile and ubiquitous technologies for mobile and situated language learning. This paper analyses the game Pokemon Go and the players’ experiences accordingto a framework developed for evaluating mobile language learning and discusses how Pokemon Go can help to meetsome of the challenges faced by earlier research activities.
A comparison between PG and Geocashing will illustrate the evolution of the concept of location-based games a concept that is very close to that of situated learning that we have explored in several previous works. 
Pokémon Go is a free, location-based augmented reality game developed for mobile devices. Players useGPS on their mobile device to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures (a.k.a. Pokémon), whichappear on screen overlaying the image seen through the device’s camera. This makes it seem like thePokemon are in the same real-world location as the player
“Put simply, augmented reality is a technology that overlays computer generated visuals over the real worldthrough a device camera bringing your surroundings to life and interacting with sensors such as location and heart rate to provide additional information” (Ramirez, 2014).
Apply the evaluation framework developed in 2015 for mobile learning applications(Cacchione, Procter-Legg, Petersen, & Winter, 2015). The framework is composed of a set offactors of different nature neuroscientific, technological, organisational and pedagogical and aim to provide a comprehensive account  of what plays a major role in ensuring effective learning via mobile devices

Google in the classroom

How Has Google Affected The Way Students Learn?

con?:with the advent of personal assistants like Siri and Google Now that aim to serve up information before you even know you need it, you don’t even need to type the questions.

pro: Whenever new technology emerges — including newspapers and television — discussions about how it will threaten our brainpower always crops up, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker wrote in a 2010 op-ed in The New York Times. Instead of making us stupid, he wrote, the Internet and technology “are the only things that will keep us smart.”

Pro and conDaphne Bavelier, a professor at the University of Geneva, wrote in 2011 that we may have lost the ability for oral memorization valued by the Greeks when writing was invented, but we gained additional skills of reading and text analysis.

conDaphne Bavelier, a professor at the University of Geneva, wrote in 2011 that we may have lost the ability for oral memorization valued by the Greeks when writing was invented, but we gained additional skills of reading and text analysis.

con: A 2008 study commissioned by the British Library found that young people go through information online very quickly without evaluating it for accuracy.

pro or con?: A 2011 study in the journal Science showed that when people know they have future access to information, they tend to have a better memory of how and where to find the information — instead of recalling the information itself.

pro: The bright side lies in a 2009 study conducted by Gary Small, the director of University of California Los Angeles’ Longevity Center, that explored brain activity when older adults used search engines. He found that among older people who have experience using the Internet, their brains are two times more active than those who don’t when conducting Internet searches.

the Internet holds great potential for education — but curriculum must change accordingly. Since content is so readily available, teachers should not merely dole out information and instead focus on cultivating critical thinking

make questions “Google-proof.”

“Design it so that Google is crucial to creating a response rather than finding one,” he writes in his company’s blog. “If students can Google answers — stumble on (what) you want them to remember in a few clicks — there’s a problem with the instructional design.”

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more on use of laptop and phones in the classroom in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/04/03/use-of-laptops-in-the-classroom/

use of laptops phones in the classroom

Why I’m Asking You Not to / Use Laptops

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https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2019/08/27/reading-teenagers-electronic-devices/

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-06-move-over-laptop-ban-this-professor-teaches-a-5-hour-tech-less-reading-class

research showing how laptops can be more of a distraction than a learning enabler. Purdue University even started blocking streaming websites such as Netflix, HBO, Hulu and Pandora.

But others say banning laptops can be counterproductive, arguing these devices can create opportunity for students to discover more information during class or collaborate. And that certain tools and technologies are necessary for learners who struggle in a traditional lecture format.

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Supiano, B. (2019, April 7). Digital Distraction Is a Problem Far Beyond the Classroom. But Professors Can Still Help. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/Digital-Distraction-Is-a/246074
Flanigan, who studies self-regulation, or the processes students use to achieve their learning goals, began researching digital distraction after confronting it in the classroom as a graduate instructor.
Digital distraction tempts all of us, almost everywhere. That’s the premise of Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport, an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University.

The professor is upset. The professor has taken action, by banning laptops.
Bruff, whose next book, Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching, is set to be published this fall, is among the experts who think that’s a mistake. Why? Well, for one thing, he said, students are “going to have to graduate and get jobs and use laptops without being on Facebook all day.” The classroom should help prepare them for that.

 When Volk teaches a course with 50 or 60 students, he said, “the idea is to keep them moving.”Shifting the focal point away from the professor can help, too. “If they are in a small group with their colleagues,” Volk said, “very rarely will I see them on their laptops doing things they shouldn’t be.”
Professors may not see themselves as performers, but if they can’t get students’ attention, nothing else they do matters. “Learning doesn’t happen without attention,” said Lang, who is writing a book about digital distraction, Teaching Distracted Minds.
One aspect of distraction Lang plans to cover in his book is its history. It’s possible, he said, to regard our smartphones as either too similar or dissimilar from the distractions of the past. And it’s important, he said, to remember how new this technology really is, and how much we still don’t know about it.
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Study: Use of digital devices in class affects students’ long-term retention of information

  • A new study conducted by researchers at Rutgers University reveals that students who are distracted by texts, games, or videos while taking lecture notes on digital devices are far more likely to have their long-term memory affected and to perform more poorly on exams, even if short-term memory is not impacted, EdSurge reports.
  • Exam performance was not only poorer for students using the devices, but also for other students in classes that permitted the devices because of the distraction factor, the study found.
  • After conducting the study, Arnold Glass, the lead researcher, changed his own policy and no longer allows his students to take notes on digital devices.
A nationally representative Gallup poll conducted in March showed that 42% of K-12 teachers feel that the use of digital devices in the classroom are “mostly helpful” for students, while only 28% feel they are “mostly harmful.” Yet 69% of those same teachers feel the devices have a harmful impact on student mental health and 55% feel they negatively affect student physical health.
 According to a 2016 study of college students, student waste about 20% of their class time for “non-class” purposes — texting, emailing, or using social media more than 11 times in a typical day. In K-12, increased dependence on digital devices often interferes with homework completion as well.
Though the new study focused on long-term retention, past studies have also shown that indicate a negative correlation between use of digital devices during class and exam scores. A 2015 study by the London School of Economics revealed that pupils in schools that banned cell phones performed better on exams and that the differences were most notable for low-performing students.
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By Jack Grove Twitter: @jgro_the  April 4, 2017

Using laptops in class harms academic performance, study warns. Researchers say students who use computers score half a grade lower than those who write notes

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/using-laptops-in-class-harms-academic-performance-study-warns

findings, published in the journal Economics of Education Review in a paper, based on an analysis of the grades of about 5,600 students at a private US liberal arts college, found that using a laptop appeared to harm the grades of male and low-performing students most significantly.

While the authors were unable to definitively say why laptop use caused a “significant negative effect in grades”, the authors believe that classroom “cyber-slacking” plays a major role in lower achievement, with wi-fi-enabled computers providing numerous distractions for students.

April 07, 2006

A Law Professor Bans Laptops From the Classroom

http://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Law-Professor-Bans-Laptops/29048

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Classroom Confrontation Over Student’s Laptop Use Leads to Professor’s Arrest

June 02, 2006

The Fight for Classroom Attention: Professor vs. Laptop

Some instructors ban computers or shut off Internet access, bringing complaints from students http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Fight-for-Classroom/19431

Classroom Confrontation Over Student’s Laptop Use Leads to Professor’s Arrest

http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/classroom-confrontation-over-students-laptop-use-leads-to-professors-arrest/31832

by Anne Curzahttp://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2014/08/25/why-im-asking-you-not-to-use-laptops/

Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254

March 13, 2017

The Distracted Classroom

http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Distracted-Classroom/239446

Welcome, Freshmen. Look at Me When I Talk to You.

http://www.chronicle.com/article/Welcome-Freshmen-Look-at-Me/237751

October 28, 2015

Memorization, Cheating, and Technology. What can we do to stem the increased use of phones and laptops to cheat on exams in class?

http://www.chronicle.com/article/Memorization-Cheating-and/233926

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intrinsic motivation:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2019/11/13/intrinsic-motivation-digital-distractions/

The learning experience is different in schools that assign laptops, a survey finds

The learning experience is different in schools that assign laptops, a survey finds

High schoolers assigned a laptop or a Chromebook were more likely to take notes in class, do internet research, create documents to share, collaborate with their peers on projects, check their grades and get reminders about tests or homework due dates.

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https://teacheveryday.com/cellphones-in-the-classroom/

Blended Learning – the idea of incorporating technology into the every day experience of education – can save time, raise engagement, and increase student retention.

Lets face it, our students are addicted to their phones. Like…drugs addicted. It is not just a bad habit, it is hard wired in their brains(literally) to have the constant stimulation of their phones.

If you are interested in the research, there is a lot out there to read about how it happens and how bad it is.

Scientific American article published about a recent study of nomophobia – on adults (yes, many of us are addicted too).

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by

Best Practices for Laptops in the Classroom

http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/best-practices-for-laptops-in-the-classroom/39064

September 11, 2016

No, Banning Laptops Is Not the Answer. And it’s just as pointless to condemn any ban on electronic devices in the classroom

http://www.chronicle.com/article/No-Banning-Laptops-Is-Not-the/237752

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Don’t Ban Laptops in the Classroom

http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/09/23/dont-ban-laptops-in-the-classroom/

Use of Laptops in the Classroom: Research and Best Practices. Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1157

By

On Not Banning Laptops in the Classroom

http://techist.mcclurken.org/learning/on-not-banning-laptops-in-the-classroom/

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F January 26, 2001

Colleges Differ on Costs and Benefits of ‘Ubiquitous’ Computing

http://www.chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Differ-on-Costs-and/17848

“Bring Your Own Device” Policies?

http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/bring-your-own-device-policies/42732

June 13, 2014, 2:40 pm By Robert Talbert

Three issues with the case for banning laptops

http://www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2014/06/13/three-issues-with-the-case-for-banning-laptops/

3 Tips for Managing Phone Use in Class

Setting cell phone expectations early is key to accessing the learning potential of these devices and minimizing the distraction factor.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-tips-managing-phone-use-class

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more on mobile learning in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=mobile+learning

learning out of comfort zone

Learning Outside Your Comfort Zone

By:  March 22nd, 2017

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/learning-outside-comfort-zone

When we learn something outside the comfort zone, we attempt to acquire knowledge or skills in an area where we’re lacking. Part of the discomfort derives from learning something we anticipate will be difficult. We have no idea how to do it, or we think it requires abilities we don’t have or have in meager amounts. Moreover, poor performance or outright failure lurk as likely possibilities.

I wonder if learning outside the comfort zone isn’t especially difficult for faculty. Theoretically, it shouldn’t be. We’ve devoted years to learning, but most of what we know resides in one area. We’re experts at learning more about what we already know and love. And we’re used to having our learning expertise recognized—by students, colleagues, and sometimes even at home. However, plop us down in a discipline unlike our own, task us with learning a skill we don’t have, and suddenly, we look and act exactly like our students. And that’s the very reason this kind of learning has all sorts of positive implications for teaching. It’s good every now and then to be reacquainted with feeling stupid.

learning out of comfort zone

My note. Eventually, I had to tell a [already departured] library director: it is better to throw stones in the swamp of mediocrity then to sink slowly into it. To the objection of my colleague that throwing stones does NOT improve the situation, I could only say: making ripples until someone more diplomatic will draw the attention means more then just slowing sinking into the swamp of mediocrity. That swamp is determined by the inability / unwillingness of faculty the leave their comfort zone.

In regard to the teacher, who has students memorize and recite a poem – I will never forget Herr Klenske, who made us memorize in 10th grade of high school “Erlkoening” (http://ingeb.org/Lieder/werreite.html). It made us hate him as much, as now I, at least, appreciate his unique approach to fostering to high school students persistence and will.

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more about learning in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=learning

adler maslow rogers

Alfred Adler

http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/adler.htm

Adler examined personality around the same time as Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. They worked on some theories together until Adler rejected Freud’s emphasis on sex, and maintained that personality difficulties are rooted in a feeling of inferiority deriving from restrictions on the individual’s need for self-assertion.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

by published 2007, updated 2016

http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Carl Rogers

http://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html

agreed with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, but added that for a person to “grow”, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood).

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more about psychology in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=psychology

pedagogy across disciplines

This article pleads for a consideration what now is a full-blown reform in Finland (replacing subjects with topics) and seriously considered in the UK, as reported in this IMS blog: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/03/24/education-reform-finland/

Broadening Pedagogical Knowledge by Learning from Other Disciplines

By: January 20th, 2016

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/broadening-our-pedagogical-knowledge-by-learning-from-other-disciplines/

there’s a long-standing and still fairly widely held belief that the teaching needed for a particular kind of content is unique. Unless you know the content, you can’t know how to teach it.

What and how we teach are linked, but there are other connections besides those between method and material, and those connections aren’t all unique to the discipline. All (well, almost all) teachers want students engaged, and student engagement in physics and philosophy doesn’t look all that different. All teachers are concerned with classroom management issues. If students are dealing more with their phones than the material, the content is irrelevant. All teachers have a responsibility to prevent cheating. All teachers aspire to use fair and equitable grading practices. Course design principles transcend disciplines. The features of a good multiple-choice question are not discipline specific. And then there are those student characteristics that challenge teachers in every field: passivity, lack of motivation, low self-esteem, less than adequate study skills, and excessive grade-orientation start the list.