Piret Luik

Cyberbullying Definition Among Adolescents: A Comparison Across Six European Countries

Several criteria have been proposed for defining cyberbullying to young people, but no studies have proved their relevance. There are also variations across different countries in the meaning and the definition of this behavior. We systematically investigated the role of five definitional criteria for cyberbullying, in six European countries. These criteria (intentionality, imbalance of power, repetition, anonymity, and public vs. private) were combined through a set of 32 scenarios, covering a range of four types of behaviors (written-verbal, visual, exclusion, and impersonation). For each scenario, participants were asked whether it was cyberbullying or not. A randomized version of the questionnaire was shown to 295 Italian, 610 Spanish, 365 German, 320 Sweden, 336 Estonian, and 331 French adolescents aged 11-17 years. Results from multidimensional scaling across country and type of behavior suggested a clear first dimension characterized by imbalance of power and a clear second dimension characterized by intentionality and, at a lower level, by anonymity. In terms of differences across types of behaviors, descriptive frequencies showed a more ambiguous role for exclusion as a form of cyberbullying, but general support was given to the relevance of the two dimensions across all the types of behavior. In terms of country differences, French participants more often perceived the scenarios as cyberbullying as compared with those in other countries, but general support was found for the relevance of the two dimensions across countries.

What is important in electronic textbooks for students of different achievement levels

This paper reports the findings of a study that explored which characteristics of electronic textbooks correlated with knowledge acquisition by learners of different achievement levels. The study was carried out on 35 units of electronic textbooks that were studied by 19 high-achieving and 19 low-achieving students in four Estonian schools. The low-achieving students profited from clear instructions, familiar icons, examples, and answering from the keyboard. The high-achieving students benefited from key-combinations, menus with different levels, the Internet, analogies and lower density of terms in the content of the material. In electronic textbooks, not only the content, but also the design of the software, should be different for learners with a different achievement level.

Characteristics of Drills Related to Development of Skills

It is important for the teacher to choose effective software for students. It is also important for designers to know what features of educational software make it effective. But the results of studies dealing with the effectiveness of educational software are contradictory. One reason for such results might be the fact that meta-analysis covers different kinds of educational software, simulations and drills for example, but it is hard to compare them. Another reason might be that the conditions (instruments, subjects, etc.) of the various studies were different. A third possibility might be that a particular type of educational software could consist of both good and bad characteristics. Therefore, research is needed on the characteristics of educational software. This type of study focuses on a particular kind of educational software, and this article is about the findings of one such study, exploring the characteristics and the effectiveness of drills in Estonian elementary schools. Sixteen characteristics of drills that had statistically significant correlation with student learning, and the influence of these characteristics are discussed as the results of this study. The results indicated that characteristics related to feedback, presentation of information and questions are the most critical evaluating quality of drills and in designing such educational software.

Do girls and boys need different electronic books

Many researchers have found differences in the ways in which boys and girls use computers, but there has been no systematic investigation into what types of electronic textbook are good for girls and which are good for boys. This paper describes an experimental investigation in which 35 units from electronic textbooks on mathematics, history, chemistry, geography and the Estonian language were studied by 33 girls and 21 boys aged between 15 and 16 years of age. The correlation coefficients of the girls’ and the boys’ post‐test scores (with the different characteristics of the electronic textbooks) are presented and discussed. The girls’ results were associated more with the characteristics of navigation and design of information than the boys’ results. There were also different characteristics of text and self‐assessment associated with the girls’ and boys’ test scores. This paper explains the findings in terms of societal factors and the girls’ lower level of computer skills. From the findings recommendations for composing electronic textbooks and attitude formation towards computer‐aided learning can be recommended.

Supporting educational researchers and practitioners in their work in education: Assessing the verbal reasoning skills of five- to six-year-old children

The purpose of this study was to design an instrument for five- to six-year-old children to help measure their verbal reasoning skills and assess the validity and reliability of the resulting instrument. For this purpose, the researchers have created the Younger Children Verbal Reasoning Test (YCVR-test) and a control instrument, which have been used experimentally with 24 five- to six-year-old children from kindergarten. The instrument has then been evaluated using the Pearson correlation coefficient and Cronbachs alpha measure for internal consistency. Additionally has been evaluated the Cronbachs alpha with 129 five- to six-year-old children. The findings of this study indicate that the YCVR-test is an internally consistent and reliable tool for use in assessing the reasoning skills of young children.

Student’s Perceptions of Cyberbullying in the Context of Cyberbullying Criteria and Types: The Role of Age

The aim of the study was to describe how 12–13 and 15–16 years old Estonian students perceived cyberbullying, in the context of cyberbullying criteria and type of cyberbullying behaviour, and if any differences occurred between the age groups. The questionnaire sample consisted of 325 adolescents from two age groups: 12–13 (49%) and 15–16 (51%) year olds. Data were analysed and statistical comparisons made between the two age groups. The results revealed that scenarios involving power imbalance criteria were labelled more as cyberbullying and were evaluated more severe among both age groups, than all the other cyberbullying criteria scenarios. Two criteria specific to the cyber context (publicity and anonymity) were not so important for students in order to label behaviour as cyberbullying. Impersonation and visual cyberbullying represented the cyberbullying construct better, with no differences between the two age groups, and were considered more serious than written–verbal behaviour and exclusion.

Perceptions of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) among pre-service teachers in Estonia

Most countries stress that preparing quality teachers for twenty-first century students is an essential task for teacher training institutions. Besides the skills for how to teach subjects effectively, teachers should also know how to integrate digital technology into their teaching. Several studies have been done based on the TPACK framework. Some of these studies use this framework for specific subject domains. In this study a generally applicable instrument for measuring TPACK was created. The aim of the paper was to validate the created instrument and to find out how pre-service teachers perceive their technological, pedagogical and content knowledge regarding the TPACK framework in Estonia, in a technologically highly developed country where technology is broadly used in general education. Conducting factor analysis all items with technology merged into one factor meaning that young generation perceives technology already integrated with content and pedagogy. The results indicate that pre-service teachers lack pedagogical knowledge, but they perceive that they are good at integrating technology into their teaching. Differences in perceptions were also found according to gender, age and curricula.

Automatic Assessment of Programming Assignments Using Image Recognition

Automatic assessment of programming tasks in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) is essential due to the large number of submissions. However, this often limits the scope of the assignments since task requirements must be strict for the solutions to be automatically gradable, reducing the opportunity for solutions to be creative. In order to alleviate this problem, we introduce a system capable of assessing the graphical output of a solution program using image recognition. This idea is applied to introductory computer graphics programming tasks whose solutions are programs that produce images of a given object on the screen. The image produced by the solution program is analysed using image recognition, resulting in a probability of a given object appearing in the image. The solution is accepted or rejected based on this score. The system was tested in a MOOC on 2,272 solution submissions. The results contained 4.6% cases of false negative and 0.5% cases of false positive grades. The method introduced in this paper saved approximately one minute per submission of the instructors’ time compared to manual grading. A participant survey revealed that the system was perceived to be functioning well or very well by 82.1% of the respondents, with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5.

The function of questions in developing a preschooler’s verbal reasoning skills during philosophical group discussions

ABSTRACT Effective questioning helps preschoolers to reason verbally during philosophical group discussions. The aim of this study was to identify which researcher’s questions preschoolers respond to with verbal reasoning during such discussions. The data were collected through video-recorded group discussions. A total of 1567 questions and 1119 verbal reasons were analysed using mixed-methods. The findings showed that during 20 philosophical group discussions, researchers asked three types of questions: (1) open-ended questions (45.64%) with four functions: Initiating, interpretation, process, and speculative; (2) closed-ended questions (30.5%) with two functions: Yes/No, choice; and (3) off discussion questions (23.86%). Results indicate that the preschoolers yielded proportionally the most verbal reasons at different levels (association based on reality; connection between the words; sense-making explanation) in response to interpretation, process and Yes/No questions.

Self- and Automated Assessment in Programming MOOCs

This paper addresses two MOOCs in Estonian about programming where different kinds of assessment were used. We have used two kinds of automated assessment: quizzes in Moodle and programming exercises with automated feedback provided by Moodle plug-in VPL. We also used two kinds of self-assessment: (1) self-assessment questions with feedback and explanations for every answer and (2) so-called “troubleshooters” for every programming exercise, which contain answers to the questions that can arise during the solution of a given exercise. This paper describes our experience in the creation of quizzes, programming exercises, and tests for automated feedback, self-assessment questions, and troubleshooters. The paper discusses the problems and questions that arose during this process and presents learners’ opinions about self- and automated assessment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the impact of self- and automated assessment in MOOCs, describes the work of MOOC organizers and the behaviour of learners in MOOCs.