Denise Whitelock

Pedagogical approaches for technology-integrated science teaching☆

The two separate projects described have examined how teachers exploit computer-based technologies in supporting learning of science at secondary level. This paper examines how pedagogical approaches associated with these technological tools are adapted to both the cognitive and structuring resources available in the classroom setting. Four teachers participated in the first study, undertaken as part of the InterActive Education project in Bristol; all of them used multimedia simulations in their lessons. The second study presented was part of the wider SET-IT project in Cambridge; 11 teachers in eight schools were observed using multimedia simulations, data logging tools and interactive whiteboards. Teachers were interviewed in all cases to elicit their pedagogical thinking about their classroom use of ICT. The findings suggest that teachers are moving away from only using ‘real’ experiments in their practice. They are exploring the use of technologies to encourage students to engage in “What If” explorations where the outcomes of ‘virtual’ experiments can be immediately accessed, for example through using a simulation. However, this type of activity can serve just as a mechanism for revealing – and indeed reinforcing – students’ informal conceptions if cognitive conflict is not generated or remains unresolved. The teachers in our studies used simulations, data logging, projected animations and other dynamic digital resources as tools to encourage and support prediction and to demonstrate scientific concepts and physical processes – thereby ‘bridging the gap’ between scientific and informal knowledge. They also integrated technology carefully with other practical activities so as to support stepwise knowledge building, consolidation and application. Research of this kind has design implications for both curriculum-related activities and emerging computer-based learning technologies, in terms of helping us to understand how teachers capitalise upon the technology available in supporting students to construct links between scientific theory and empirical evidence.

Secondary school pupils’ commonsense theories of motion

This research sets out to test a commonsense theory of motion derived from Hayes (1979) Naive Physics Manifesto. The theory hypothesizes that our knowledge about motion is tacit, presenting the methodology with the difficult task of eliciting such knowledge. Comics, being smaller and more amusing version of our world, provided excellent interview material since they provided a wide range of motion events. Thus on episodes in four comic strips, children between the ages of 11 and 18 were asked whether and why events about motion could or could not happen. Analysis of variance showed that there is no significant variation between subjects, nor between incidence of explanations and school year in two fundamental areas of the theory tested, as predicted by the theory. It was further predicted that certain episodes would be interpreted similarly by pupils and there is some evidence to show some patterns of this kind emerging.

Editorial: e‐assessment: developing new dialogues for the digital age

This editorial offers insight into the way e-assessment can open pathways to student reflection and open dialogues with peers and tutors alike but also raises questions about the limitations that can be found in the systems to date.

Investigating a model of commonsense thinking about causes of motion with 7 to 16‐year‐old pupils

This research reports the testing of a formal causal model of thinking about motion. In order to test a large number and wide age range of subjects (7‐16 years), a matching‐pairs paper and pencil task was developed. Subjects were asked to distinguish between examples of nine stereotypical motions by comparing the similarity or difference of causes of pairs of motions. It was then possible to test theoretical predictions of the comparisons against empirical data. The results suggest that responses can be predicted by the model but that there is an improvement in the correlations with the addition of an animacy correction. An independent test was carried out where the animate nature of moving objects was varied systematically and it was found that this feature, previously neglected by the theoretical account, was an important distinction in subjects’ consideration of causes of motion.

Multimodality, Orchestration and Participation in the Context of Classroom Use of the Interactive Whiteboard: A Discussion

This paper will offer a discussion of the literature concerning multimodality, orchestration and participation related to classroom use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB). Specifically, it will explore the place, or potential use, of the IWB to resource a multimodal approach to teaching and learning, emphasising the complex connections that need acknowledging when viewing the IWB in context. Comments on the IWB’s effectiveness or otherwise, however, are beyond the scope of this paper. Conceptions of the role of language in mediating other modes and media, in terms of its centrality or complementarity, will necessarily be addressed by considering activities such as classroom talk aligned to other resources. The role of various actors (including teachers and learners) in designing, orchestrating and interpreting multimodal material will be considered. Whilst recognising the substantial debate regarding multimodality as an analytic lens, the discussion will focus on multimodality in terms of materials used in the classroom.

OpenEssayist: a supply and demand learning analytics tool for drafting academic essays

This paper focuses on the use of a natural language analytics engine to provide feedback to students when preparing an essay for summative assessment. OpenEssayist is a real-time learning analytics tool, which operates through the combination of a linguistic analysis engine that processes the text in the essay, and a web application that uses the output of the linguistic analysis engine to generate the feedback. We outline the system itself and present analysis of observed patterns of activity as a cohort of students engaged with the system for their module assignments. We report a significant positive correlation between the number of drafts submitted to the system and the grades awarded for the first assignment. We can also report that this cohort of students gained significantly higher overall grades than the students in the previous cohort, who had no access to OpenEssayist. As a system that is content free, OpenEssayist can be used to support students working in any domain that requires the writing of essays.

Reframing e‐assessment: adopting new media and adapting old frameworks

Over the past 10 years, learning and teaching have benefited from greater use of social constructivist and situated learning, through more widespread adoption of the ideas of Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner (e.g., Lave and Wenger 1991; Brown 2004). However, assessment has consistently failed to follow through these innovations, substantially because it squares the desire for improved constructivist learning against the demand for institutional and external reliability and accountability. Consequently, assessment has not kept pace with these developments and has remained largely transmission orientated in both conception and practice (Knight and Yorke 2003). This new generation of e-assessment is still in its early days, but its foundations are broader and more solid. No longer the speciality of a technologically-aware few, the pedagogical, social and even political dimensions of the problems of e-assessment are better known. Wide access to the knowledge and tools needed to deploy and develop innovative technology for learning has blurred the boundaries between pedagogical and technical specialists. Institutional support has improved, and open source virtual learning environments are being built by people who know both pedagogy and technology. E-assessment is starting to deliver measurable and successful improvements; but there is still much work to be done.

Parents Reading with Their Toddlers: The Role of Personalization in Book Engagement.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of personalized books on parents’ and children’s engagement during shared book reading. Seven native English parents and their children aged between 12 and 33 months were observed at home when sharing a book made specifically for the child (i.e. a personalized book), a comparable book with no personalized content, and a favourite book of the child. The interactions were videotaped and later coded to provide information about the frequency of behaviours that indicated engagement with the books. Statistical analyses revealed that children and parents showed significantly higher overall frequencies of smiles and laughs with the personalized books in comparison to the non-personalized books, and showed higher frequency of vocal activity with the personalized as opposed to the child’s favourite book. In addition, there was a significantly higher rate of children’s smiles and laughs with the personalized than with the non-personalized book. It appeared that most of the children’s positive affect with the personalized books was in response to the content of those books, while the parents’ smiles occurred mostly in response to a smile or laugh from the child. These findings are among the first to suggest that personalized features of books result in specific distinct responses in parents and children during shared book reading.

Assessing the self‐esteem of female undergraduate students: an issue of methodology

For many students, embarking on higher education can pose particular threats and challenges, not only to academic identity, but also to fundamental, personal aspects of the self. This paper reports a methodological study that employed quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore the impact on the sense of self and self‐esteem of a group of female first‐year undergraduates. Results from a Self‐esteem inventory, a variation on Q Methodology, an Ideal‐self inventory and a semi‐structured interview revealed different but complementary aspects of the self and indicated that participants’ self‐esteem increased over the duration of the study, as recorded on all four measures. It is suggested that the most appropriate way of uncovering and understanding mediators of self‐esteem may be through a mixed‐method approach.

Would you rather collect data in the rain or attend a virtual field trip? Findings from a series of virtual science field studies

Virtual field trips open new possibilities for instructional designers to create more interactive worlds for learners. Three virtual field trips are examined which have all been developed for the Open University undergraduate science courses and make clever and innovative use of QuickTime Virtual Reality to allow students to enter three contrasting environments. Learning gains have been ascertained from pre- and post-test cognitive change scores. Perceived learning was also measured with a post experience questionnaire. The findings are interesting in that students felt they learnt more from the virtual environment than standing in the cold identifying biological samples. However, when it came to dealing with rock samples, students wanted to handle the real thing. This paper describes the advantages and disadvantages of using virtual science field trips and suggests the fine-tuning of feedback to students requires careful consideration in these types of virtual learning environments.