No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
When Am I Ever Going to Use Any of This?
Abstract
Most children are bored by school and can see no connection between what they do there and some exciting future pursuit. The reason why elementary schools are so tedious is that they have no real sense of adventure or high purpose. “High purpose” is what all children’s popular movie and literary heroes have in their lives: a sense they are involved in something of world-saving importance. “Adventure” is the exciting path a person takes when realizing high purpose in life. Without these inspiring images of adventure and high purpose, school is simply drudgery. The chapter concludes by exploring a common scenario where a student asks during his math lesson, “When am I ever going to use this?” If the teacher answers this question, she might say, “Don’t you think you’ll need to balance your checkbook someday?” Hidden within this “need-it-for-your-checkbook” answer is an actual vision of the future. The teacher conjures an image of him sitting at his desk balancing his checkbook. These are the images of the future that often lie hidden within many elementary school lessons, but will this image of an adult balancing a checkbook inspire a child?
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
This study seeks to understand the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of student engagement by investigating the ‘aims’ that students pursue through engagement (i.e., their achievement goals) and the ‘reasons’ driving such engagement (i.e., their motivation). Self-report instruments measuring students’ motivational reasons, achievement goals, and engagement in the context of their mathematics classes were administered to a sample of 491 Singapore elementary students (54% girls; Mage = 11 years). Mediational path analysis showed that achievement goals, collectively, played a significant mediating role in almost all the links connecting motivational reasons to different engagement outcomes. Specifically, whilst autonomous motivation (AM) was associated with greater effort/persistence, heightened elaboration, and lower anxiety, controlled motivation (CM) was associated with higher anxiety. Although self-based goals strengthened the positive direct effects of AM on effort/persistence and elaboration, and channeled the adaptive effects of CM on these two engagement outcomes, this goal type also heightened the effect of CM on anxiety and cancelled out the benefits of AM in reducing anxiety. Taken together, findings pointed to the more adaptive role of AM relative to CM, and the apparently double-edged-sword effects of self-based goals on student engagement. Key findings and their implications for teaching and school psychology practices are discussed.
Can design education have a positive impact on primary school education beyond merely preparing designers? As designers, we know almost intuitively that design education is ‘good education’, and most designers would affirm that it would be beneficial to expose children to design education, because of the benefits of the signature pedagogies of design, such as problem-based learning, human centred creativity and iterations of prototyping and testing.
This paper seeks to review and synthesize existing literature and make preliminary analyses, which will support the development of design thinking education interventions at primary school level, which could lead to a paradigm shift in education at this level. While it has been widely demonstrated that design education can play a successful role in supporting traditional education models in the delivery of skills such as math and language arts, this paper seeks to demonstrate that in addition to meeting traditional education demands, design thinking principles in children’s education, such as empathy, collaboration and facilitation, human-centeredness, and creativity by iterations of prototyping and testing, will provide a sound base for children not only seeking to enter a design profession in the future but moving into any profession in the future and will lead to higher engagement at school and greater success in life.
This study explored the effects of a modified argument-driven inquiry approach on Grade 4 students’ engagement in learning science and argumentation in Taiwan. The students were recruited as an experimental group (EG, n = 36) to join a 12-week study, while another 36 Grade 4 students from the same schools were randomly selected to be the comparison group (CG). All participants completed a questionnaire at the beginning and end of this study. In addition, four target students with the highest and the other four students with the lowest pretest engagement in learning science or argumentation to be observed weekly and interviewed following the posttest. Initial results revealed that the EG students’ total engagement in learning science and argumentation and the claim and warrant components were significantly higher than the CG students. In addition, the EG students’ anxiety in learning science significantly decreased during the study; and their posttest total engagement in learning science scores were positively associated with their argumentation scores. Interview and observation results were consistent with the quantitative findings. Instructional implications and research recommendations are discussed.
Khan Academy, an online platform offering educational videos and exercises in different content areas, has awakened intense interest among foundations, multilateral organizations, policy makers, and educators about how this tool can help meet the educational challenges facing countries around the world. With support from Intel, Education Development Center (EDC) researchers sought to understand how this technology fits into the complex realities of schools in a developing country. In August of 2013, researchers traveled to Santiago, Chile to conduct research in five schools where teachers are using Khan Academy. We found that the way KhanvAcademy functions as a digital learning environment changes the ways and the degree to which tudents engage with and are engaged by the math content; it also changes the way teachers and students interact with each other. Even though the use of Khan Academy may plant the seeds of deeper pedagogical changes such as mastery learning or differentiated instruction, teachers did not need to change their entire teaching model to start using it. Khan Academy’s straightforward approach of providing an endless bank of practice exercises makes it an inviting and universally adaptable tool across different types of teachers, classrooms, and countries.
Background: Adventure education is an instructional model where students participate in adventurous activities to acquire physical, cognitive, and affective skills. It also has strong connections with cooperative learning. Parkour is a fast-growing sport practiced by thousands of youngsters all over the world. The media does not portray it as an educational content, but resourcefulness, maturity, cooperation, and respect are among its basic principles. It also appears to have a direct connection with risk-taking, self-discipline, and autonomy.
Reflections on the design and implementation of the flipped instruction model in two mathematics classrooms.
Student-centered learning (SCL) identifies students as the owners of their learning. While SCL is increasingly discussed in K-12 and higher education, researchers and practitioners lack current and comprehensive framework to design, develop, and implement SCL. We examine the implications of theory and research-based evidence to inform those who seek clear guidelines to support students’ engagement and autonomous learning. SCL is rooted in constructivist and constructionist as well as self-determination theories. Constructs of these theories have been studied respectively; however, the intersections among the three theories require further exploration. First, we identify autonomy, scaffolding, and audience as key constructs of SCL engagement. Then, we propose a design framework that encompasses motivational, cognitive, social, and affective aspects of learning: Own it, Learn it, and Share it. It is recommended that students: (a) develop ownership over the process and achieve personally meaningful learning goals; (b) learn autonomously through metacognitive, procedural, conceptual, and strategic scaffolding; and (c) generate artifacts aimed at authentic audiences beyond the classroom assessment. Furthermore, we suggest ten design guidelines under the framework and conclude with questions for future research.
This article presents results on how students became engaged and motivated when using digital storytelling in knowledge creation in Finland, Greece and California. The theoretical framework is based on sociocultural theories. Learning is seen as a result of dialogical interactions between people, substances and artefacts. This approach has been used in the creation of the Global Sharing Pedagogy (GSP) model for the empirical study of student levels of engagement in learning twenty-first century skills. This model presents a set of conceptual mediators for student-driven knowledge creation, collaboration, networking and digital literacy. Data from 319 students were collected using follow-up questionnaires after the digital storytelling project. Descriptive statistical methods, correlations, analysis of variance and regression analysis were used. The mediators of the GSP model strongly predicted student motivation and enthusiasm as well as their learning outcomes. The digital storytelling project, using the technological platform Mobile Video Experience (MoViE), was very successful in teaching twenty-first century skills.
This study examines student reading engagement with children’s science books in elementary classrooms. Reading engagement in science is conceived in terms of a Transmission—Transaction continuum. When centered on transmission, science reading entails passive reception of a textually encoded scientific message. By contrast, when science reading is transaction-centered, teachers and students actively engage in the negotiation of scientific meanings that transcend the text itself. Examination of reading engagement relied on a discourse-centered method whose analytical goal was to uncover and better understand meaning-making around textual artifacts. More specifically, it took the form of a discourse analysis across three science read-alouds. While meaning-making in one aloud reading was predominantly centered on transmission, the other two read-alouds were characterized by increasing levels of transaction. Further, adoption of transmissive or transactional strategies was consistent with how teachers perceived reading in the context of science instruction. This study underscores the multiplicity of ways that reading can be conceived by science teachers and approached in elementary classroom settings. It is suggested that a more sophisticated understanding of how to systematically engage young students with science texts can help elementary teachers effectively integrate reading with science instruction, meet literacy requirements of current science education policies, and recognize that science reading transcends passive reception of facts.
Adventure learning (Al) provides learners with opportuni-ties to explore real-world issues through authentic learning experiences within collaborative online learning environ-ments. This article reports on an Al program, designed using Keller's Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ACRS) motivational model of instructional design, which encompassed more than 3 million learners worldwide. The implementation of AL was examined through two experimen-tal lenses: (a) how student motivation is related to student and teacher characteristics and (b) how student motivation is related to the ways in which the program was used within the classroom. Qualitative and quantitative measures were analyzed, including 21 teacher interviews and surveys of 228 respondents who used the online curriculum in 300 separate courses in grades K -10 ranging from social studies to sci-ence to history courses.
Developmental and child psychology remains a vital area in modern psychology. This comprehensive set covers a broad spectrum of developmenal issues, from the psychology of the infant, the family, abilities and disabilities, children's art, imagination, play, speech, mental development, perception, intelligence, mental health and education. In looking at areas which continue to be very important today, these volumes provide a fascinating look at how approaches and attitudes to children have changed over the years. The set includes nine volumes by key development psychologist Jean Piaget, as well as titles by Charlotte Buhler and Susan Isaacs.
Teacher morale, student engagement, and student achievement growth in reading: A correlational study
- J T Sabin
- JT Sabin
Producer), & Haines-Stiles, G. (Director)
- E Akuginow
Timber for president
- A Doering
- C Scharber
- E Riedel
- C Miller