Sui Lin Goei

Simulations, Serious Games and Their Applications

This book presents the state of the art technology in Serious Games which is driven extensive by applications and research in simulation. The topics in this book include: (1) Fashion simulation; (2) Chinese calligraphy ink diffusion simulation; (3) Rehabilitation (4) Long vehicle turning simulation; (5) Marine traffic conflict control; (6) CNC simulation; (7) Special needs education. The book also addresses the fundamental issues in Simulation and Serious Games such as rapid collision detection, game engines or game development platforms. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in the field of Serious Games and Simulation. The major part of this book comprises of papers presented at the 2012 Asia-Europe Workshop on Serious Games and Simulation held in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (May 9, 2012). All the contributions have been peer reviewed and by scientific committee members with report about quality, content and originality.

The effects of digital learning material on students’ mathematics learning in vocational education.

Abstract This study investigates the effects of Digital Learning Material (DLM) including instructional clips, online guidance, structuring of content, and a collaboration tool on students’ mathematics learning in Dutch vocational education. A pretest–posttest design was used. Apprenticeship students were asked to complete assignments and to discuss them with their peers and the online teacher. The results showed that DLM can enhance students’ mathematics learning in vocational education. The learning enhancement was mostly due to the use of instructional clips and structuring of the content of the mathematics tasks. Elaborations of these results, implications, limitations and recommendations for further research are provided.

Characteristics of teacher-identified students with special educational needs in Dutch mainstream primary education

Background: Traditionally, special educational needs (SEN) were often defined in terms of child deficits. Recently, there has been a tendency to define SEN in terms of (additional) support needed in the classroom. However, little is known about how teachers define students with special educational needs. To close this gap, characteristics of teacher-identified students with special educational needs in Dutch mainstream primary education were explored. In order to identify these students, 52 teachers from 14 mainstream primary schools were asked: Which of your students are in need of additional support to achieve set educational goals? It was made clear that educational goals could pertain to a specific subject, but also to a student’s social, emotional or behavioural development. Purpose: The study aims at exploring characteristics of students with special educational needs in mainstream primary education of those identified by teachers as in need of (additional) support to attain set educational goals. When teachers assess their students’ special educational needs, it is likely that they take students’ characteristics into account that could be hindering the learning processes: students’ perceived self-competence, teacher-perceived students’ on-task behaviour, teacher-perceived relationship with the students and teacher-perceived students’ internalising and externalising (problem) behaviour. Thus, the present study was designed to compare these characteristics of teacher-identified students with norm-referenced groups. Sample: A total of 151 students (58.9% boys; mean age 9.7 (0.98)), range 8–12 years) were identified by their teachers as in need of additional support to accomplish set educational goals. Methods: Validated questionnaires measured students’ perceived self-competence, teacher-perceived students’ on-task behaviour, teacher-perceived relationship with the students and teacher-perceived students’ internalising and externalising (problem) behaviour. Scale scores of teacher-identified students were compared with norm-referenced groups. Within-group analysis compared high- to low-achieving teacher-identified students. Results: About two-thirds of teacher-identified students with special educational needs were male and about 40% were scoring higher than the national average in key skills. The majority had no clinical diagnosis (boys 76.4%, girls 82.3%). On average, the characteristics of teacher-identified students with special educational needs did not differ radically from the norm-referenced groups. However, teacher-identified students showed significantly more problematic scores on the scales ‘depression’ and ‘self-competence’ than the norm-referenced group. Within-group analysis showed several significant differences between high- and low-achieving teacher-identified students with special educational needs. Conclusion: The group of teacher-identified students with special educational needs was heterogeneous, including boys and girls, high- and low achievers, and mainly children without a clinical diagnosis. The teachers’ view demonstrated in this study underlined the multifaceted nature of special educational needs. Therefore, these students should not be regarded a homogenous group that can be defined categorically, rather a group characterised by a spectrum of needs with many variations. Further research is being done by the authors to discriminate sets of support needs of teacher-identified students with special educational needs.

Teachers' perceptions of students' additional support needs: in the eye of the beholder?

Nowadays, teachers are regarded as key players in the process of identifying and catering to students’ additional support needs within mainstream primary classrooms. However, teachers’ professional judgements regarding students with special needs have been found to be contextually influenced (e.g. by school context, student population, level of achievement). It is unclear whether teachers’ perceptions of their students’ actual support needs are also influenced by their personal and professional characteristics. Hence, a better understanding of the value of teachers’ perceptions regarding students’ needs is needed. Therefore, this study explored perceptions of 109 Dutch mainstream primary teachers regarding four dimensions of students’ additional support. It addressed whether these teacher-perceived students’ needs are affected by teachers’ years of experience, level of training, personality traits and self-efficacy beliefs. It was found that teachers’ perceptions of students’ needs were relatively unbiased by their personal and professional characteristics.

Learning through VR gaming with virtual pink dolphins for children with ASD

ABSTRACT Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder with different levels of severity. Although the exact causes of ASD is not yet known, nor is there a medical cure for ASD to date, special facilities and schools have been established to help individuals coping better and becoming more independent. With the advancement in Virtual Reality (VR) technology, there has been a greater depth of development of technology-enhanced game-based learning for children with ASD. This paper will describe our effort on virtual pink dolphins to assist children with ASD in their learning, at the same time, to avoid the use of physical pink dolphins which is a species endangered. A study on the use of a low-cost VR enabled pink dolphins game for children with ASD to learn direction following, psychomotor skills and hand-eye coordination will be reported.

Teachers' capacities to meet students' additional support needs in mainstream primary education

Abstract Mainstream primary school teachers generally acknowledge the need to implement adaptive teaching; however, meeting a variety of students’ needs is a challenge. Studies have addressed the conditions under which teachers attribute their (in)capacities, but these have mainly involved vignettes. Therefore, it remains unknown whether teachers are capable of meeting their own students’ needs and what is of help or hindrance to them. The current study drawn from survey data obtained from 108 Dutch teachers addresses teacher-perceived (in)capacities to meet their students’ needs and perceived sources of help or hindrance in meeting them. Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs were expected to partly explain teachers’ capacity. Results show that teachers feel fairly adequate in meeting students’ needs. They discern four sources of help or hindrance to which teachers attribute their success, including the teacher him/herself, student characteristics and school/working conditions. Attributions at the teacher and school levels were mostly related to teacher-perceived capacities rather than to teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs.

Formative assessment in teacher talk during lesson studies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent of systematic examination of students’ educational (support) needs by teachers participating in lesson study (LS) meetings within a framework of formative assessment (FA). Design/methodology/approach The study took place in the context of upper preparatory vocational education in the Netherlands. The learning trajectory of two LS teams was examined qualitatively, using the framework of FA to analyze teachers’ explorative talk during LS-meetings. The sample included Dutch language teachers and mathematics teachers. Findings Findings revealed how the process of FA was intertwined with the LS process. Systematic examination of teaching practice was partly identified, however, FA was frequently inadequately applied. Teachers tended to rush into talk about pedagogics, instead of identification of goals and students’ educational (support) needs. In total, 12 characteristics of teacher talk were related to the extent to which FA was applied. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study suggest that guidance and support during LS-meetings is desirable for systematic practices during LS-meetings and this guidance and support should adapt to specific weaknesses and strengths of a LS team. Originality/value This study builds on previous findings suggesting that a systematic approach is important for teachers during LS-meetings. The findings provide a starting point for realizing the potential of LS in preparatory vocational education, by revealing potential pitfalls of systematic practice during LS-meetings. Moreover, this study presents a framework of FA as a potential tool in facilitating a systematic practice of LS.

Virtual Reality Enzymes: An Interdisciplinary and International Project Towards an Inquiry-Based Pedagogy

Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is moving towards more inquiry-based and creativity-stimulating pedagogies. Part of a curriculum based on such pedagogies should be challenging learning activities that engage students in investigation. At the same time, it is imperative that such activities are developed and validated in collaboration with the teachers who will incorporate them in their lesson planning. In this project, educators, researchers, and developers from Singapore and the Netherlands are working closely to develop innovative tools that assist biology education. Model-based and virtual reality-enabled solutions are being studied through interdisciplinary and international collaboration among the project members from the two countries.

Empowering Vocational Math Teachers by Using Digital Learning Material (DLM) with Workplace Assignments

Digital Learning Material (DLM) are fast becoming a key instrument in teaching. The focus on E-learning systems with Digital Learning Material (DLM) is mostly on the medium and resources, instead of on the role of teachers. But like students, teachers also need to professionalize their digital competencies. And rather than describing how the teacher should take up his/her online role, teachers can also be trained by using online materials and experiencing DLM themselves. Therefore the first objective of this study is to design an e-learning system with DLM to train seven vocational math teachers. The second objective is to investigate the aspects of the learning activities in terms of “learning engagement,” “teachers’ self learning process” and “professional learning to enhance teachers’ knowledge.” In this research, teachers participating in this project had a 6 week online training in an e-learning system with DLM. After this, teachers completed the questionnaires on these aspects. Teachers were satisfied with the components “learning engagement” and “teachers’ self learning process.” They specifically appreciated the domain-specific literature and the online moderation of the expert teacher. With regard to the component “professional learning,” teachers did not collaborate and only three teachers abstract and detach information from its original context and applied to it in new contexts by their questions and contributions in the forum discussions. For other teachers the “space to act and arrange” seemed too broadly. Future study should pay more attention to the development of assignments that require specific tasks in collaboration between the teachers.

The Effectiveness of the Game LINGO Online: A Serious Game for English Pronunciation

In this chapter an evaluation of the LINGO Online, a serious game for English pronunciation is described. The game is applied in two primary and two secondary schools in the Netherlands. During 8 weeks of experiment, students from the schools either played the game or followed regular English lessons. Data were collected on learning outcomes (pronunciation performance), student learner characteristics, game characteristics, expectations and experiences of teachers and their coordinators, and teaching practice. Results on the effectiveness of the game are summarized (with clues for the working mechanism of the game). It shows that the game has the potential to compensate for insufficient facilities for English pronunciation education, to save teaching time, and to make the student less dependent on the expertise of the teacher. However, implementation of the game introduces new (technical) challenges.