Yao Ting Sung

The Effect of Concept Mapping to Enhance Text Comprehension and Summarization

Abstract Although graphic strategies, such as graphic organizers and knowledge maps, have proved helpful for text learning, certain important application issues such as surface processing and cognitive overload have yet to be resolved. The authors tested the learning effects of a concept-mapping strategy. They designed 3 concept-mapping approaches—map correction, scaffold fading, and map generation—to determine their effects on students text comprehension and summarization abilities. The experimental results from 126 fifth graders showed that the map-correction method enhanced text comprehension and summarization abilities and that the scaffold-fading method facilitated summarization ability.

Web‐based collaborative inquiry learning

This study proposes a web-based collaborative inquiry learning system. This system uses the World-wide web (WWW) as a source of knowledge exploration, and provides exploratory problems to guide students to think and explore. A concept map is used as a tool of anchoring and representing knowledge during inquiry process. In the process of learning, learners are allowed to exchange the evidence they have collected, their personal opinions, and the concept maps that they have built. In order to effectively integrate the inquiry learning, collaborative learning, and concept map in the system, this study proposes a collaborative inquiry learning model and related learning activities. Two studies were constructed based on the collaborative inquiry learning model to investigate students learning processes in the collaborative inquiry learning on the web.

How many heads are better than one? The reliability and validity of teenagers' self- and peer assessments

Self- and peer assessments are becoming more popular in classrooms, but there are few data on the reliability and validity of such assessments performed by school children. Because these factors are greatly affected by the number of raters, we conducted two studies to determine the rating behaviours of teenagers in self- and peer assessments, and how the number of raters influences the reliability and validity of self- and peer assessments. The first study involved 116 seventh graders (the first grade of middle school), where students individually playing musical recorders were subject to self- and peer assessments. The second study involved 110 eighth graders, with Web pages constructed by students being subject to self- and peer assessments. Generalizability theory and criterion-related validity were used to obtain the reliability and validity coefficients of the self- and peer ratings. Analyses of variance were used to compare differences in self- and peer ratings between low- and high-achieving students. The coefficients of reliability and validity increased with the number of raters in both studies, reaching the acceptable levels of 0.80 and 0.70, respectively, with 3 or 4 raters in the first study (involving assessments of individual performance) and with 14-17 raters in the second study (involving assessments of group work). Furthermore, low- and high-achieving students tended to over- and underestimate the quality of their work in self-assessment, respectively. The discrepancy between the ratings of students and experts was higher in group-work assessments then in individual-work assessments. The results have both theoretical and practical implications for researchers and teachers.

Supporting teachers' reflection and learning through structured digital teaching portfolios

Digital teaching portfolios have been proposed as an effective tool for teacher learning and professional development, but there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting their effectiveness. This study proposed the design of a structured digital portfolio equipped with multiple aids (e.g. self-assessment, peer assessment, discussion and journal writing) for the professional development of teachers. This study also empirically evaluated the reflection and professional development as demonstrated in digital teaching portfolios with multiple supporting measures. Fourty-four in-service substitute teachers participated in a course of classroom assessment and used a web-based portfolio system. Based on the framework of teacher reflective thinking developed by Sparks-Langer et al., we found that most teachers demonstrated moderate levels of reflection in their journals but only one-third of them showed the highest level of reflection. We also found that the professional knowledge of teachers about classroom assessment - as shown by their implementation of it - improved significantly during the construction of portfolios. The above findings also represent good evidence that digital portfolios with multiple aids are beneficial to teacher reflection and professional development.

Use of hierarchical hyper concept map in web-based courses

The study proposes a hierarchical hyper concept map (or HHCM) course system. A HHCM course consists of a navigation map, concept maps, and hypermedia documents. The navigation map is a guide to the course, illustrating how the course is composed of learning units. The concept map demonstrates the conceptual structure of each unit, and each node in the HHCM is linked to the hypermedia document, which has a more detailed illustration of the concept. Such a combination for the HHCM course can be viewed as a three-dimensional structure of course representation. The effects of HHCM as a course representation were empirically tested. The experimental results found that students who learn from the course represented by HHCM achieve better learning than those who learn from a linearly represented course. Moreover, students can learn more efficiently than those who learn from the course represented by navigation maps. These findings suggest that the HHCM has a good potential as a device for designing Web-based courses.

Learning through computer-based concept mapping with scaffolding aid: Learning through computer-based concept mapping

Concept mapping has been applied in a variety of fields, including instruction, learning, curriculum development, and assessment. Because many empirical studies have proven the validity of concept mapping, a computer-based concept mapping system has been developed. The system provides two learning environments. In the ‘construct-by-self’ environment, the system provides students with the evaluation results and corresponding hints for feedback. The students construct concept maps by themselves with only the assistance of the feedback. In the ‘construct-onscaffold’ environment, in addition to the feedback, the students receive an incomplete concept map, within which some nodes and links were set as blanks for the scaffold. A study comparing the effectiveness of the ‘construct-by-self’, ‘construct-on-scaffold’, and ‘construct by paper-andpencil’ concept mapping showed that the ‘construct-on-scaffold’ had better effect for learning on biology. Both of the two computer-based procedures are helpful for students in completing their concept maps.

Socratic-dialectic learning system of recursion programming

The purpose of this research was to construct a recursion programming learning system based on Socratic dialogue. Since recursion programming learning relates to the formation and evolution of mental models, the learning may not be effective if teachers rely only on simply telling the students the standard solutions. Instead, teachers should urge the students to consider the mistakes and contradictions discovered by themselves in the learning process. Socratic dialogue is applied as a dialectic method, which presents questions to students and encourages them to reflect on their own thinking. In this study, we explored the fundamental Socratic dialogue reasoning principles and implemented these principles through production rules. This Socratic-dialectic learning system was implemented using database techniques and evaluated by an empirical study. According to the experimental results, the Socratic dialogue was proven to have positive impact on recursion programming learning.

Supporting teachers' reflection and learning through structured digital teaching portfolios: Digital teaching portfolios

Digital teaching portfolios have been proposed as an effective tool for teacher learning and professional development, but there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting their effectiveness. This study proposed the design of a structured digital portfolio equipped with multiple aids (e.g. self-assessment, peer assessment, discussion and journal writing) for the professional development of teachers. This study also empirically evaluated the reflection and professional development as demonstrated in digital teaching portfolios with multiple supporting measures. Fourty-four in-service substitute teachers participated in a course of classroom assessment and used a web-based portfolio system. Based on the framework of teacher reflective thinking developed by Sparks-Langer et al., we found that most teachers demonstrated moderate levels of reflection in their journals but only one-third of them showed the highest level of reflection. We also found that the professional knowledge of teachers about classroom assessment - as shown by their implementation of it - improved significantly during the construction of portfolios. The above findings also represent good evidence that digital portfolios with multiple aids are beneficial to teacher reflection and professional development.

Supporting teachers' reflection and learning through structured digital teaching portfolios: Original article

Digital teaching portfolios have been proposed as an effective tool for teacher learning and professional development, but there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting their effectiveness. This study proposed the design of a structured digital portfolio equipped with multiple aids (e.g. self-assessment, peer assessment, discussion and journal writing) for the professional development of teachers. This study also empirically evaluated the reflection and professional development as demonstrated in digital teaching portfolios with multiple supporting measures. Fourty-four in-service substitute teachers participated in a course of classroom assessment and used a web-based portfolio system. Based on the framework of teacher reflective thinking developed by Sparks-Langer et al., we found that most teachers demonstrated moderate levels of reflection in their journals but only one-third of them showed the highest level of reflection. We also found that the professional knowledge of teachers about classroom assessment - as shown by their implementation of it - improved significantly during the construction of portfolios. The above findings also represent good evidence that digital portfolios with multiple aids are beneficial to teacher reflection and professional development.