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The differential impact of observational learning and practice-based learning on the development of oral presentation skills in higher education
Higher Education Research & Development
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The present study focuses on the design and evaluation of an innovative instructional approach to developing oral presentation skills. The intervention builds on the observational learning theoretical perspective. This perspective is contrasted with the traditional training and practice approach. Two sequencing approaches – learners starting with observational learning versus learners starting with practice opportunities only – were compared. It was hypothesised that learners starting with observational learning would outperform learners in the practice only condition. The results suggest a significant differential impact on development of oral presentation skills. This impact of the observational learning training approach is only found in a limited number of evaluation criteria. Results additionally suggest that students are highly motivated to learn this type of skill. Interaction effects between student characteristics and instructional interventions were not significant.
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... Presentation-related studies have been widely researched. Previous research has focused on the impact of oral presentation on language proficiency, speaking ability, oral communication abilities, self-confidence, attitudes, challenges, and factors of influence in learning presentation skills [8,[14][15][16][17][18]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no research thus far has been conducted on the use of online instructional interventions to train students in how to present themselves in English. ...
... Similar to this intervention, research has found that presentation qualities like eye contact, body posture, and voice aid English-speaking abilities [42], and project-based learning using presentation can significantly affect students' speaking skills [55], with students' oral presentation skills improving significantly after instruction due to enhanced confidence and the experience of speaking in front of a crowd [14]. As in this study, previous research has reported participants favoring a multimedia design [15], which improves students' confidence [52], and also collaborative learning, as it enables the co-construction of knowledge and skills [56]. Such courses can enhance students' oral presentation abilities and vocabulary uptake/retention levels [54], as well as making them more enthusiastic, motivated, and eager to produce outstanding presentations as they grow more self-assured and relaxed. ...
... De Grez [62] also suggested that students are highly motivated to learn how to present. In terms of the use of technology, this study employed Blackboard to facilitate deliver of the intervention program, which may have helped improve students' performance [15]. This result accords with previous studies that used technology to improve students' speaking and presentation skills, employing a multimedia approach [51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. ...
Studies and reports indicate that some graduates struggle to find jobs, in part because they lack the key presentation skills and competencies the labor market needs. Thus, this research investigated the effectiveness of a Blackboard-mediated intervention program in strengthening English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ presentation skills. The research followed a quasi-experimental (time series) design, delivering workshops on presentation skills and collecting data from the students (N = 30) using a set of instruments: a pre-and post-assessment checklist and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the students’ presentation skills improved significantly post intervention. Also, the participants reported positive attitudes concerning the intervention. Drawing on these findings, recommendations and suggestions are presented.
... However, many aspects of complex skills mastery refer to motoric activities, time-consecutive operations and processes that are hardly captured in text (e.g. body posture or use of voice during a presentation) (De Grez et al., 2013;O'Donovan et al. 2004). Furthermore, the context in which a skill is practiced and behavior enacted is important. ...
... A video-enhanced rubric (VER) is the synthesis of video modelling examples and a text-based analytic rubric in a digital formative assessment format (Ackermans et al., 2017(Ackermans et al., , 2019b. Video-enhanced rubrics could foster observational learning from desired behavior of a role model in (good/bad) video modelling examples (De Grez et al., 2013;Rohbanfard & Proteau, 2013;Van Gog et al., 2014). They can also capture implicit contextual knowledge, as they show motoric, temporal and contextual information of a skill, which cannot be expressed in words (Ackermans et al., 2017;Westera, 2011). ...
... They can also capture implicit contextual knowledge, as they show motoric, temporal and contextual information of a skill, which cannot be expressed in words (Ackermans et al., 2017;Westera, 2011). Van Gog et al. (2014) found an increased performance of task execution when a video-modelling example of an expert was shown and De Grez et al., (2013Grez et al., ( , 2014 found comparable results when learning presentation skills. Moreover, when teacher trainees compare their own performance with video-modelling examples they 'overrate' their own performance less during self-reflection than without these examples. ...
To master complex skills, it is important to practice regularly and to form a mental model of the strived-for skills. If you know for which mastery level you are striving and can mirror performances against this benchmark with help of others, then you can focus on practicing deficient sub-skills to become a ‘master’. Although regular and structured practice is indispensable, secondary schools do often not facilitate this in daily educational practice. We expected that a technology-enhanced formative assessment method with analytic rubrics could support both mental model formation as well as regular practice of students’ skills. However, we further hypothesized that text-based analytic rubrics offer limited capacity to convey contextualized, procedural, time-related and observable behavioral aspects of a complex skill, thus restricting the construction of a rich mental model. We expected that using video-enhanced rubrics, an integration of analytic rubrics with video modeling examples, within a technology-enhanced formative assessment method would lead to a ‘richer’ mental model, improved feedback quality and positive growth in skills performance. Therefore, various stakeholders jointly developed and tested the Viewbrics technology-enhanced formative assessment method with (video-enhanced) rubrics for three generic complex skills, namely presenting, collaborating and information literacy. The Viewbrics method was then piloted by means of a quasi-experimental design (video-enhanced or textual rubric condition and a control group) in 6 classes in two secondary schools. Results show that the structured technology-enhanced formative assessment method had a positive effect on both mental model growth as well as on skills’ mastery levels of students. This effect was independent of the used rubric format (textual or video-enhanced).
... Exploration encourages curiosity in students to find answers to problems and gain practical knowledge resulting in optimizing the learning experience. These findings support the results by De Grez et al. (2014) which assert that observation acts as a motivation to learn. ...
Over-the-top (OTT) platforms have been considered a popular medium of entertainment. The purpose of the study is to examine how over-the-top platforms can be leveraged in optimizing the student learning experience in education. The research investigated 35 students from 10 different countries having under graduate and postgraduate backgrounds. The research employed a grounded theory approach where a three-level coding process led to the emergence of concepts grounded in the data. The different concepts were identified as analytical learning, group learning, edutainment learning, adaptive learning, and observational learning. A theoretical model for optimizing the learning experience was constructed using the five concepts. The research contributes to the existing literature by highlighting how OTT-based learning can create more adaptive, entertaining, and learner-centered experiences compared to existing learning platforms. The study also provides opportunities for OTT developers to expand in areas of education.
... Second, Inconsistencies and Discrepancies in Channel Integration. Despite endeavors to exploit multiple communication channels, disparities in the execution of these channels by EFL students emerge [22], resulting in damages to the audience's perceptions of their attitudes [4] and even undermining the credibility of their presentation content [32]. For instance, an EFL student may highlight a point on a slide without adjusting their tone of voice and maintain an inappropriate hand gesture with crossed hands. ...
Academic Oral Presentation (AOP) allows English-As-Foreign-Language (EFL) students to express ideas, engage in academic discourse, and present research findings. However, while previous efforts focus on training efficiency or speech assistance, EFL students often face the challenge of seamlessly integrating verbal, nonverbal, and visual elements into their presentations to avoid coming across as monotonous and unappealing. Based on a need-finding survey, a design study, and an expert interview, we introduce Trinity, a hybrid mobile-centric delivery support system that provides guidance for multichannel delivery on-the-fly. On the desktop side, Trinity facilitates script refinement and offers customizable delivery support based on large language models (LLMs). Based on the desktop configuration, Trinity App enables a remote mobile visual control, multi-level speech pace modulation, and integrated delivery prompts for synchronized delivery. A controlled between-subject user study suggests that Trinity effectively supports AOP delivery and is perceived as significantly more helpful than baselines, without excessive cognitive load.
... Keywords: mobile-video, self-reflection, peer feedback, oral presentations, Japanese students introduction The ability to deliver informative and interesting presentations with the aid of visuals is considered to be a critical skill for English-language learners (ell) who are preparing to participate in an increasingly globalized work environment (Danielewicz-Betz & Kawaguchi, 2014;De Grez, Valcke, & Roozen, 2014). In the higher education (he) context, many Englishlanguage instructors require their students to deliver a class-fronted presentation utilizing software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, or Prezi. ...
In universities throughout Japan, English language learners are required to stand in front of their peers and make a presentation with the aid of software such as Microsoft PowerPoint. This type of public speaking activity can often be an anxiety-inducing, glorified reading or memorization exercise of text-heavy slides that fails to meet the intended objective of developing the learners’ presentation skills. This paper reports on the perceptions of Japanese university students toward an action research project that utilized poster presentations in conjunction with mobile-video reflective feedback. An activity systems analysis helped uncover the systemic contradictions and tensions that existed in the participants’ English as a foreign language (efl) oral presentation lessons. One hundred and twenty-nine undergraduate economics students from nine classes completed a paper-based survey. In addition, seven students from the same second-year international economics course participated in a focus group interview. The results indicated that most participants viewed mobile-video enhanced self- and peer-reflective feedback as beneficial tools that could help improve the quality of their efl presentation performances. However, many students expressed concern about public speaking anxiety, the protection of personal privacy, as well as the cultural contrast between Western and Japanese presentation styles.
... Traditional pedagogy and assessment have been deemed inadequate, stimulating research into developing and applying innovative learning strategies for oral presentation activities [26,37]. A considerable amount of research has addressed the integration of innovative learning strategies for oral presentations in higher education, although a limited amount of this research has focused on engineering courses [14,48]. ...
... Terdapat tiga dimensi yang dapat diukur dalam penilaian presentasi oral yaitu dimensi konten, dimensi pengiriman pesan dan dimensi kolaborasi (5,9,10). Berdasarkan studi sebelumnya, dimensi konten merupakan keterampilan terendah dalam presentasi oral mahasiswa, disusul oleh dimensi pengiriman pesan dan kolaborasi (11). ...
One goal of developing soft skills in the social studies class on higher education student is communication skill. This article explains how to effect peer assessment to developing communication skill, especially oral presentation in the small group discussion. The subject in this research is 51 students Faculty Education of Universitas Swadaya Gunung Djati Cirebon who contract social studies class. The research design is an experimental study. The design consisted of two groups an experimental and control. Instruments used to measure an oral presentation is a valid and reliable rubric, can be accessed online. Based on the result of research, there is a significant effect on online peer assessment to oral presentation skill in the small group discussion. Students have a role to be a respectable assessor. They assess the oral presentation colleagues objectively and authentic. Online peer assessment is useful for the assessment process. Besides that, students obtain feedback for improving oral presentation performance.
The majority of the consumers of radio stations’ programming are the youth, most of whom are students in high schools, colleges, and universities. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine the structure of FM radio talk shows listened to by university students in Eldoret town. Uses and Gratifications theory guided this study. The study utilized a descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study were 3000 students from university campuses within Eldoret, and the sample size was 300. The researcher adopted a stratified sampling and simple random sampling technique to arrive at the sample that would best fit or present the intended purpose of the research. Data was collected using a questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques that included frequencies, percentages. The findings revealed that FM radio talk shows typically feature a mix of news, interviews, and light entertainment to engage listeners at the start of the day. The study established that interactive formats allowing listeners to call in with requests or opinions, countdown formats featuring popular music tracks, and narrative-driven programs were popular among respondents. The study findings from focus group discussion revealed that FM radio talk shows in Eldoret Town typically follow a similar format, often beginning with an opening segment where the host introduces the topic and guests. This is followed by an in-depth discussion led by the host, with opportunities for audience participation through call-ins, SMS messages, and social media interactions. Radio stations targeting university students should create a balanced format that includes a mix of news, interviews, and light entertainment. The study concluded that FM radio talk shows in Eldoret Town typically follow a similar format, with an opening segment, in-depth discussions led by the host, and opportunities for audience participation. The study recommended that Radio stations targeting university students should create a balanced format that includes a mix of news, interviews, light entertainment, structured segments, in-depth discussions, sports coverage, interactive formats, countdown formats, live performances, music genres, structured discussions, narrative-driven programs, informative segments, and light-hearted content.
This study investigates second year English - majored students and EFL teachers’ perspectives of the value of video-recordings in English presentation skill courses in Hanoi University of Industry to promote the effectiveness of this teaching approach. Data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively through surveys with second year English- majored students and semi-structured interviews with EFL teachers. Findings found that both students and teachers regarded video recordings as an alternative approach to enhance students’ presentation skills. There remained several challenges that hindered the application of the approach such as student unfamiliarity of technology, limitation of body language performance, motivation due to non-audience and inaccurate assessment due to quality of the video -recordings. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
Higher education is faced with the question of how large numbers of students can be supported to learn complex skills without increasing teachers' supervision time proportionally and while preserving, or preferably improving, quality. Just practicing skills once does not work. Students need repetitive practice, feedback, and structured support to master a skill. They need to gain insight into what went well and what could be improved so that they can further direct their attention while practicing. However, teachers cannot provide feedback on every practice session of students, as their time is scarce. To solve this problem, an online formative assessment method for interactive and practice-oriented skills' training, Pe(e)rfectly Skilled, was developed that provides structured support for self-regulation, goal setting, feedback, and reflection. This method affords practicing skills repetitively, both individually and collaboratively, at students' own time, pace, and place. In this article, theoretical and practical underpinnings underlying the Pe(e)rfectly Skilled method are described.
This chapter reviews the recent research on motivation, beliefs, values, and goals, focusing on developmental and educational psychology. The authors divide the chapter into four major sections: theories focused on expectancies for success (self-efficacy theory and control theory), theories focused on task value (theories focused on intrinsic motivation, self-determination, flow, interest, and goals), theories that integrate expectancies and values (attribution theory, the expectancy-value models of Eccles et al., Feather, and Heckhausen, and self-worth theory), and theories integrating motivation and cognition (social cognitive theories of self-regulation and motivation, the work by Winne & Marx, Borkowski et al., Pintrich et al., and theories of motivation and volition). The authors end the chapter with a discussion of how to integrate theories of self-regulation and expectancy-value models of motivation and suggest new directions for future research.
The Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS) were designed as measures of achievement goals and other motivational constructs in educational settings. The scales have been developed and refined over time by a group of researchers using goal orientation theory to examine the relation between the learning environment and students’ motivation, affect, and behavior. Student scales assess 1) personal achievement goal orientations; 2) perceptions of teacher’s goals; 3) perceptions of the goal structures in the classroom; 4) achievement-related beliefs, attitudes, and strategies; and 5) perceptions of parents and home life. Teacher scales assess their perceptions of the goal structure in the school, their goal-related approaches to instruction, and personal teaching efficacy.
In Great Minds In Management Ken G. Smith and Michael A. Hitt have brought together some of the most influential and original thinkers in management. Their contributions to this volume not only outline their landmark contributions to management theory, but also reflect on the process of theory development, presenting their own personal accounts of the gestation of these theories. The result is not only an ambitious and original panorama of the key ideas in management theory presented by their originators, but also a unique collection of reflections on the process of theory development, an area which to date little has been written about by those who have actually had experience of building theory. In their concluding chapter, Ken G. Smith and Michael A. Hitt draw together some common themes about the development of management theory over the last half a century, and suggest some of the conclusions to be drawn about how theory comes into being.
Although the health care community expects its members to make effective presentations, presentation strategies are seldom explicitly taught. Those who do attempt to systematically teach or learn these skills soon realize that 'how to' guides for making effective presentations contain useful, but not sufficient, information. To become an effective presenter, it is necessary to understand not only the generic strategies that characterize effective presentations, but also the context-specific presentation strategies of a particular practice community. The framework for making effective presentations proposed in this paper is grounded in the knowledge of how experts acquire and use strategy knowledge, and rakes into account not only the 'how to' of making presentations, but the circumstances and belief systems that determine effective presentation strategies in varying contexts. The framework is designed to make presentation strategy knowledge more transparent, and to permit presenters to learn from every presentation they give and attend.
According to Bandura (1977, 1981, 1982), psychological procedures change behavior in part by creating and strengthening perceived self-efficacy, which refers to judgments of one's performance capabilities in a given domain of activity. Self-efficacy can influence choice of activities, effort expended, persistence, and task accomplishments. Efficacy information is conveyed through actual performances, vicarious (observational) experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological indexes (e.g., heart rate).
Extracts available on Google Books (see link below). For integral text, go to publisher's website : http://www.elsevierdirect.com/product.jsp?isbn=9780121098902
Publisher Summary
There is considerable agreement about the importance of self-regulation to human survival. There is disagreement about how it can be analyzed and defined in a scientifically useful way. A social cognitive perspective differs markedly from theoretical traditions that seek to define self-regulation as a singular internal state, trait, or stage that is genetically endowed or personally discovered. Instead, it is defined in terms of context-specific processes that are used cyclically to achieve personal goals. These processes entail more than metacognitive knowledge and skill; they also include affective and behavioral processes, and a resilient sense of self-efficacy to control them. The cyclical interdependence of these processes, reactions, and beliefs is described in terms of three sequential phases: forethought, performance or volitional control, and self-reflection. An important feature of this cyclical model is that it can explain dysfunctions in self-regulation, as well as exemplary achievements. Dysfunctions occur because of the unfortunate reliance on reactive methods of self-regulation instead of proactive methods, which can profoundly change the course of cyclical learning and performance. An essential issue confronting all theories of self-regulation is how this capability or capacity can be developed or optimized. Social cognitive views place particular emphasis on the role of socializing agents in the development of self-regulation, such as parents, teachers, coaches, and peers. At an early age, children become aware of the value of social modeling experiences, and they rely heavily on them when acquiring needed skills.