Nadira Saab

Data-based decision making : Teachers’ comprehension of Curriculum-Based Measurement progress-monitoring graphs

Teachers have difficulty using data from Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM) progress graphs of students with learning difficulties for instructional decision-making. As a first step in unraveling those difficulties, we studied teachers’ comprehension of CBM graphs. Using think-aloud methodology, we examined 23 teachers’ ability to read, interpret, and link CBM data to instruction for fictitious graphs and their own students’ graphs. Additionally, we examined whether graph literacy—measured with a self-report question and graph-reading skills test—affected graph comprehension. To provide a framework for understanding teachers’ graph comprehension, we also collected data from “gold-standard” experts. Results revealed that teachers were reasonably proficient at reading the data, but had more difficulty with interpreting and linking the data to instruction. Graph literacy was related to some but not all aspects of teachers’ CBM graph-comprehension ability. Implications for training teachers to comprehend and use CBM progress data for decision-making are discussed.

The Relation of Learners' Motivation with the Process of Collaborative Scientific Discovery Learning.

In this study, we investigated the influence of individual learners’ motivation on the collaborative discovery learning process. In this we distinguished the motivation of the individual learners and had eye for the composition of groups, which could be homogeneous or heterogeneous in terms of motivation. The study involved 73 dyads of 10th‐grade learners. Learners worked in dyads on separate screens in a shared discovery learning environment. They communicated using a chat box. A self‐report questionnaire was used to measure the motivational beliefs of learners. We used on‐line measures to measure communicative and discovery activities of the learners. Task value seems to be an important motivational construct with regard to the composition of dyads. The results show that the performance of a dyad existing of a highly and a lowly motivated learner can be influenced positively by the highly motivated peer.

Effects of Subtitles, Complexity, and Language Proficiency on Learning From Online Education Videos

Open online education has become increasingly popular. In Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) videos are generally the most used method of teaching. While most MOOCs are offered in English, the global availability of these courses has attracted many non-native English speakers. To ensure not only the availability, but also the accessibility of open online education, courses should be designed to minimize detrimental effects of a language barrier, for example by providing subtitles. However, with many conflicting research findings it is unclear whether subtitles are beneficial or detrimental for learning from a video, and whether this depends on characteristics of the learner and the video. We hypothesized that the effect of 2nd language subtitles on learning outcomes depends on the language proficiency of the student, as well as the visual-textual information complexity of the video. This three-way interaction was tested in an experimental study. No main effect of subtitles was found, nor any interaction. However, the student’s language proficiency and the complexity of the video do have a substantial impact on learning outcomes.

Peer feedback on academic writing: undergraduate students’ peer feedback role, peer feedback perceptions and essay performance

Abstract Within the higher education context, peer feedback is frequently applied as an instructional method. Research on the learning mechanisms involved in the peer feedback process has covered aspects of both providing and receiving feedback. However, a direct comparison of the impact that providing and receiving peer feedback has on students’ writing performance is still lacking. The current study compared the writing performance of undergraduate students (N = 83) who either provided or received anonymous written peer feedback in the context of an authentic academic writing task. In addition, we investigated whether students’ peer feedback perceptions were related to the nature of the peer feedback they received and to writing performance. Results showed that both providing and receiving feedback led to similar improvements of writing performance. The presence of explanatory comments positively related both to how adequate students perceived the peer feedback to be, as well as to students’ willingness to improve based upon it. However, no direct relation was found between these peer feedback perceptions and students’ writing performance increase.

Peer feedback on college students’ writing : exploring the relation between students’ ability match, feedback quality and essay performance

ABSTRACT There does not appear to be consensus on how to optimally match students during the peer feedback process: with same-ability peers (homogeneously) or different-ability peers (heterogeneously). In fact, there appears to be no empirical evidence that either homogeneous or heterogeneous student matching has any direct effect on writing performance. The current study addressed this issue in the context of an academic writing task. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, 94 undergraduate students were matched in 47 homogeneous or heterogeneous reciprocal dyads, and provided anonymous, formative peer feedback on each other’s draft essays. The relations between students’ individual ability or dyad composition, feedback quality and writing performance were investigated. Neither individual ability nor dyad composition directly related to writing performance. Also, feedback quality did not depend on students’ individual ability or dyad composition, although trends in the data suggest that high-ability reviewers provided more content-related feedback. Finally, peer feedback quality was not related to writing performance, and authors of varying ability levels benefited to a similar extent from peer feedback on different aspects of the text. The results are discussed in relation to their implications for the instructional design of academic writing assignments that incorporate peer feedback.

Processing of expository and narrative texts by low- and high-comprehending children

The present study investigated comprehension processes and strategy use of second-grade low- and high-comprehending readers when reading expository and narrative texts for comprehension. Results from think-aloud protocols indicated that text genre affected the way the readers processed the texts. When reading narrative texts they made more text-based and knowledge-based inferences, and when reading expository texts they made more comments and asked more questions, but also made a higher number of invalid knowledge-based inferences. Furthermore, low- and high-comprehending readers did not differ in the patterns of text-processing strategies used: all readers used a variety of comprehension strategies, ranging from literal repetitions to elaborate knowledge-based inferences. There was one exception: for expository texts, low-comprehending readers generated a higher number of inaccurate elaborative and predictive inferences. Finally, the results confirmed and extended prior research by showing that low-comprehending readers can be classified either as readers who construct a limited mental representation that mainly reflects the literal meaning of the text (struggling paraphrasers), or as readers who attempt to enrich their mental representation by generating elaborative and predictive inferences (struggling elaborators). A similar dichotomy was observed for high-comprehending readers.

Peer assessment in MOOCs: The relationship between peer reviewers’ ability and authors’ essay performance.

Abstract: In a relatively short period of time, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become a considerable topic of research and debate, and the number of available MOOCs is rapidly growing. Along with issues of formal recognition and accreditation, this growth in the number of MOOCs being developed increases the relevance of assessment quality. Within the context of a typical xMOOC, the current study focuses on peer assessment of essay assignments. In the literature, two contradicting theoretical arguments can be found: that learners should be matched with same‐ability peers (homogeneously) versus that students should be matched with different‐ability peers (heterogeneously). Considering these arguments, the relationship between peer reviewers’ ability and authors’ essay performance is explored. Results indicate that peer reviewers’ ability is positively related to authors’ essay performance. Moreover, this relationship is only established for intermediate and high ability authors; essay performance of lower ability authors appeared not to be related to the ability of their reviewing peers. Results are discussed in relation to the matching of learners and instructional design of peer assessment in MOOCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who wants to become a teacher? Typology of student-teachers’ commitment to teaching

Abstract Understanding student-teachers’ decisions to enter and stay in the teaching profession after graduation could help teacher educators to find appropriate procedures to enhance commitment to teaching. This study classified student-teachers based on their levels of commitment to teaching, and described these types based on student-teachers’ motivation to enter the teaching profession and their perceptions of the teaching profession and environmental aspects e.g. school condition and significant others. Thirty-seven undergraduate student-teachers from the Dar es salaam University College of Education in Tanzania were interviewed. Four student-teacher types from our results were identified: (1) committed passionate, (2) committed compromisers, (3) undecided and (4) uncommitted. Implications from the findings include the importance of designing teacher education curriculum in a way that caters for the needs of student-teachers in each type in order to enhance their commitment to teaching.

Evaluating retrieval practice in a MOOC: how writing and reading summaries of videos affects student learning

Videos are often the core content in open online education, such as in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Students spend most of their time in a MOOC on watching educational videos. However, merely watching a video is a relatively passive learning activity. To increase the educational benefits of online videos, students could benefit from more actively interacting with the to-be-learned material. In this paper two studies (n = 13k) are presented which examined the educational benefits of two more active learning strategies: 1) Retrieval Practice tasks which asked students to shortly summarize the content of videos, and 2) Given Summary tasks in which the students were asked to read pre-written summaries of videos. Writing, as well as reading summaries of videos were positively related to quiz grades. Both interventions seemed to help students to perform better, but there was no apparent difference between the efficacy of these interventions. These studies show how the quality of online education can be improved by adapting course design to established approaches from the learning sciences.

How do self-efficacy beliefs for academic writing and collaboration and intrinsic motivation for academic writing and research develop during an undergraduate research project?

Abstract Research skills are important for university graduates, but little is known about undergraduates’ motivation for research. In this study, self-efficacy beliefs and intrinsic motivation for several research activities were measured three times during an undergraduate research project (N = 147 students). In order to promote self-efficacy for writing and collaboration, a collaboration script was developed and tested on half of the students. Twelve students were interviewed three times to gather in-depth information about motivational and self-efficacy beliefs. All measures except intrinsic motivation for research increased significantly during the project. Interview results suggest that enactive mastery and positive social interdependence promoted self-efficacy. Feelings of relatedness seemed to promote intrinsic motivation for writing. Lack of autonomy and low perceived relevance may explain why motivation for research remained stable. The script had no impact on self-efficacy beliefs. Relatedness, autonomy and positive social interdependence may boost motivation for research, but more evidence is needed.