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Live Instruction Predicts Engagement in K–12 Remote Learning
Abstract
How does live instruction relate to student engagement in distance learning? Does the relationship differ across grade levels? This study addresses these questions by examining data from a random sample of families from a large urban school district in southern California. We find a strong correlation between live instruction and student engagement in online learning among elementary school students, with every additional hour of live instruction per week increasing the probability of reporting that students have completed all their schoolwork by 26%. The correlation is also significant though smaller in magnitude for middle and high school students.
... Compared to a study by Christopoulos and Sprangers [2021] about asynchronously student-centered approach that some students appreciated the intervention and wanted to keep practicing, whereas others felt frustration and dissatisfaction [22]. According to a study by Aguilar et al. [2022], there is a substantial association between live instruction and student engagement in online learning among primary school pupils in California [49], making synchronized student-centered interventions more engaging than other types. There was a 26% increase in the likelihood that students will finish all of their assignments for every additional hour of live instruction per week [49]. ...
... Compared to a study by Christopoulos and Sprangers [2021] about asynchronously student-centered approach that some students appreciated the intervention and wanted to keep practicing, whereas others felt frustration and dissatisfaction [22]. According to a study by Aguilar et al. [2022], there is a substantial association between live instruction and student engagement in online learning among primary school pupils in California [49], making synchronized student-centered interventions more engaging than other types. There was a 26% increase in the likelihood that students will finish all of their assignments for every additional hour of live instruction per week [49]. ...
... According to a study by Aguilar et al. [2022], there is a substantial association between live instruction and student engagement in online learning among primary school pupils in California [49], making synchronized student-centered interventions more engaging than other types. There was a 26% increase in the likelihood that students will finish all of their assignments for every additional hour of live instruction per week [49]. Student engagement can be explained by self-determination theory consisting of autonomy [feel in control of our own behaviors and goal], competence [feel competent and effective], and relatedness [experience interaction and feel connected] [50]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic containment measures such as school closures remarkably disrupt the educational system, from in-person learning to remote or distance education with different interventions. This study aimed to identify the characteristics of interventions in remote or distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate the outcomes of each intervention. A systematic review was conducted between October 2021 and May 2022 using four databases. Finally, 22 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included for data analysis. Most of the interventions were synchronous student-centered approaches followed by asynchronous student-centered approaches and mixed-learning through online channels such as desktop- and web-based modality. Remote or distance education is effective in academic development in any learning approach while having mixed effects in student attitudes and perceptions. Academic-related behaviors were most engaged by students in synchronous student-centered approaches. Finally, difficulties or burdens, and mental health or social interaction were similar for all learning approaches in technological problems and support systems from families and teachers. Synchronous student-centered approaches should be the main method of education, but other approaches can be used to complement based on the students’ needs. Finally, educational infrastructure and support from teachers and parents are also necessary in remote or distance education. Further studies are needed to focus on primary school students, especially in low-income regions, and apply a randomized study design.
... Live instructions increase interaction (Camilleri & Camilleri, 2022a), which is important for distance learning (Moore, 1989) and allows students to receive immediate feedback from their instructors. According to the findings, synchronous tools positively predict engagement in distance learning in terms of homework completion (Aguilar et al., 2022). Synchronous tools also enable collaborative problem-solving in the moment, whereas asynchronous tools empower reflection and story sharing, as well as multiple opportunities for learners to think, rearticulate, and edit their responses (Sümer, 2021). ...
... First of all, the transition was too fast. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, students, parents, and schools were required to work with learning technologies that they were unfamiliar with (Aguilar et al., 2022). Also, synchronous tools require a good internet connection, a computer, and devices such as a microphone and an earphone. ...
Schools and universities insisted on using live instructions and synchronous learning for the main strategy of learning during the global crisis. For this reason, it may be critical to investigate the students’ use and acceptance of live instruction behaviors to see if they use it or not. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors affecting undergraduate students’ acceptance and use of learning in live instructions during the global crisis in Turkey within the context of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model (UTAUT). This model examined whether students’ gender, grade, experience, and major moderated BI and use live interaction. PE and SI were the primary determinants of BI. However, EE and FC had no effect on live instruction acceptance. Students’ lack of knowledge or confidence in the live instruction environment may influence effort expectancy and facilitating conditions.
... Teachers are undoubtedly an integral part of their students' learning outcomes and experiences (e.g., Aguilar et al., 2021;Ball et al., 2005;den Brok et al., 2004;Perera & John, 2020). With the recent shift to distance learning at the K-12 educational level due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Aguilar et al., 2021;Cardullo et al., 2021), understanding how teachers' skills and cognition are related to their remote teaching practices is an important task, especially within the domain of spatial skills because of the marked effect that students' spatial skills have on their success in STEM domains (e.g., Wai et al., 2009). ...
... Teachers are undoubtedly an integral part of their students' learning outcomes and experiences (e.g., Aguilar et al., 2021;Ball et al., 2005;den Brok et al., 2004;Perera & John, 2020). With the recent shift to distance learning at the K-12 educational level due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Aguilar et al., 2021;Cardullo et al., 2021), understanding how teachers' skills and cognition are related to their remote teaching practices is an important task, especially within the domain of spatial skills because of the marked effect that students' spatial skills have on their success in STEM domains (e.g., Wai et al., 2009). Starting with their first experiences in school, spatial thinking has been found to be a consistent independent predictor of later STEM achievement (e.g., Simmons et al., 2008) for children in the earliest grades. ...
Spatial skills are critical for student success in K-12 STEM education. Teachers’ spatial skills and feelings about completing spatial tasks influence students’ spatial and STEM learning at both the primary and secondary levels. However, whether spatial skills and spatial anxiety differ or not between these two teacher levels is unknown. Additionally, the relations between teachers’ spatial skills, spatial anxiety, and their use of spatial pedagogical practices in remote learning settings is unknown. Here, we investigated if spatial skills and spatial anxiety differ between teachers working at primary versus secondary levels, and examined the relations between their spatial skills and spatial anxiety while accounting for additional influential factors—general reasoning ability and general anxiety. Lastly, we investigated how teachers’ spatial skills in conjunction with their spatial anxiety relate to their use of spatial teaching practices for online instruction. Sixty-two K-12 teachers completed measures of spatial skills, spatial anxiety, general anxiety, general reasoning, and a teaching activities questionnaire. Results indicate that spatial skills and spatial anxiety may not vary between teachers working at primary versus secondary levels, but that higher spatial skills in teachers are associated with lower spatial anxiety for mental manipulation tasks. Additionally, teachers with weaker spatial skills and lower mental manipulation anxiety reported more frequently using spatial teaching practices when teaching remotely due to COVID-19. These findings may have broad implications for teacher professional development with regards to developing students’ spatial skills during remote learning.
... As it is widely acknowledged that engagement plays a critical role in learning (Greene, 2015;D'Mello et al., 2017), advancing the scientific study of how students learn ML requires investigating students' engagement with ML activities. This study's findings align with existing evidence that indicates when students are engaged in their own learning, it comes with multifarious benefits including increased motivation and achievement (Aguilar et al., 2022;Sinatra et al., 2015). Our result suggests the students were cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally engaged based on the three components of engagement proposed by Fredricks et al. (2004). ...
Researchers' efforts to build a knowledge base of how middle school students learn about machine learning (ML) is limited, particularly, considering the African context. Hence, we conducted an experimental classroom study (N = 32) within the context of extracurricular activities in a Nigerian middle school to discern how students engaged with ML activities. Furthermore, we explored whether participation in our intervention program elicit changes in students' ML comprehension, and perceptions. Using multiple qualitative data collection techniques including interviews, pre-post open-ended surveys and written assessments, we uncover evidence that indicated evolution of students’ ML understanding, ethical awareness, and societal implication of ML. In addition, our findings showed that a middle school student can learn and understand ML, even when one had no prior knowledge or interest in science related careers. The findings have implication for pedagogical design of AI instruction in middle school context. We discuss the implication of our results for researchers and relevant stakeholders, highlight the limitations and chart future work paths.
... In this study, most students reported higher agreement with the ease of use of the mobile devices and the access to the platform, yet unfamiliarity with some of the tools on the platform. As to instructor and instruction, the latter plays a vital role in predicting both behavioral and psychological engagement, however, no statistical significance has been observed with the former, which is consistent with Aguilar et al. (2021), who found a strong correlation between live instruction and student engagement in online learning. A possible reason is that the participants are adult learners, they may be more goal-oriented and concerned about the course and the instruction (Abedini et al., 2021) rather than the instructor. ...
Mobile learning provides more flexibility and holds considerable promise for improving the learning process and promoting lifelong learning. In order to reduce the sense of isolation felt by the learners, this research integrates mobile learning in the blended synchronous learning environment (BSLE). This study proposed a mobile learning model in BSLE at Shanghai Open University, and 51 students' satisfaction and engagement surveys were examined. The results showed that student satisfaction with instruction and with interaction can significantly predict behavioral engagement, while satisfaction with instruction and with technology can significantly predict psychological engagement. The findings prove that the mobile learning mode in the blended synchronous learning environments is effective and contributes to the predictors of student engagement. Thus, it can provide some insights to construct a more flexible and effective learning space.
... The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an important opportunity to further consider teachers' use of social media for professional learning. The pandemic created a need for additional professional learning to support the rapid deployment of emergency remote teaching (Hodges et al., 2020), especially considering the greater need for that support in underresourced areas (Aguilar et al., 2020(Aguilar et al., , 2021. Notably, while the pandemic induced many stressors in the lives of most people (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; Pfefferbaum & North, 2020), the transition to emergency remote teaching often posed additional stress factors for teachers (Klapproth et al., 2020;Košir et al., 2020;Oducado et al., 2021). ...
Teachers participate in professional learning activities to enhance their pedagogical knowledge and share best practices—and the increasing role of technologies in education, including social media, is shifting how this professional learning occurs. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to consider the role of social media for professional learning. Using intensive longitudinal methods, we repeatedly surveyed 14 teachers’ use of social media both before and during the pandemic (N = 386 total responses). We found patterns in social media platforms uptake and their purposes, but teachers’ use of social media was largely idiosyncratic. Also, teachers demonstrated notable shifts in social media use after the pandemic started; multilevel models indicated that teachers were more likely to use social media to connect and share, especially, as well as learn and follow, compared with before the pandemic. Higher levels of COVID-19-related family stress were also associated with more use of social media to find materials.
Students are often unmotivated to engage with their online coursework. Research has shown that concretely visualizing one's goals (e.g., photo‐taking) can improve motivation to learn. This study explored the effect of taking a photo of one's study space (i.e., a studygram photo similar to a post on Instagram) on students' motivation to start, engagement with, and enjoyment of routine assignments. In a within‐subjects design, students took a photo of their study space before starting or after completing the assignment or took no photo. Data were collected from six undergraduate courses across three disciplines (Education, Psychology, and Theatre). Results revealed that students in an online Education course completing routine and formulaic assignments were significantly more motivated to start their coursework when they took a photo compared to when they did not. Results were similar for student engagement and enjoyment. Outcomes were replicated in the course's second iteration but were not found in the Psychology or Theatre courses. Differences between the courses' formatting may have lessened the impact of photo‐taking on students' experiences. Together our results suggest that motivation and engagement with routine coursework may be influenced by an easy‐to‐implement visualization intervention under certain circumstances. Potential implications for teaching are reviewed.
Background
E-cigarette prevention education aims to mitigate adolescent e-cigarette use. Such education is increasingly delivered through virtual/video-based teaching platforms (e.g. Zoom, Google Classrooms). However, there is little evidence about the effectiveness of virtual e-cigarette education compared to in-person education on adolescents’ knowledge about e-cigarettes, perceived addictiveness and intent to try e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and marijuana.
Objective
To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual e-cigarette education compared to in-person education on student knowledge and perceived addictiveness of e-cigarettes and intent to try e-cigarettes.
Design, Setting and Method
We conducted a pre- and post-education evaluation among 10 middle and high school students in the Greater Birmingham area, Alabama, who were non-randomly assigned to receive either virtual ( n = 745) or in-person e-cigarette education ( n = 286) (mean age: 14.36 years). The study used a 25-minute educational presentation about the health effects of e-cigarettes, the risks of second- and third-hand smoke, the addictive nature of nicotine, and marketing strategies of e-cigarette companies. Participants completed a 10-minute self-administered survey immediately before and after the presentation.
Results and conclusion
Except for certain e-cigarette knowledge-related items, our study shows that both virtual and in-person education had similar effects on improving knowledge about e-cigarettes, increasing perceived addictiveness and reducing intent to try e-cigarettes, cigarettes and marijuana among participants. Virtual education may be applied where in-person education is not feasible (e.g. in rural communities).
TeachersPayTeachers.com (TpT) is the largest online teacher resource exchange, boasting over 3 million materials and over 1 billion downloads of those materials and not enough is known about the kinds of materials teachers access through TpT. We used web-scraping, cluster analysis, and natural language processing to break down the pre-pandemic TpT marketplace of over 500,000 resources along dimensions of grade level, content focus, resource type, cost, authorship, and ratings. We also relate the features we observe to the number of ratings received, offering a glimpse into the factors that may predict teachers’ use of these materials. We draw three main conclusions from this work: First, TpT predominantly serves elementary school grades; second, Common Core standards, while present, are not a focal point of most content; and third, close to 70% of material is characterized as being a “printable” or an “activity,” which suggest direct pedagogical values. We discuss the implications of this work and suggest that TpT suffers from pitfalls associated with being a market-based platform that is not bound by the need to adhere to sound learning theory or best pedagogical practices.
We analyze how the size and composition of social media repertoires is associated with key sociodemographic variables: age, gender, socioeconomic status, education, and occupation. Specifically, we ask what is the association between these variables and: (a) social media use as a whole, (b) the number of platforms people include in their social media repertoires, (c) the platforms included in such repertoires, and (d) the most prevalent repertoires? To answer these questions, we analyze data from an in-person survey (N = 700) about use of media and communication technologies conducted in 2016 in Argentina by a polling firm. Our findings indicate that: (a) the odds of using social media are higher among younger people, women, those with higher socioeconomic and educational levels, and those employed; (b) whereas an increase in age is associated with a decrease in the size of the repertoire, higher educational attainment is associated with an increase in the number of platforms included in the repertoire; (c) age, gender, education, and occupation are significantly associated with the inclusion of different platforms in the repertoire; and (d) some of these variables are significant for the uptake of different repertoires, but not others. We interpret these findings drawing upon scholarship about digital inequalities and social media repertoires, and we assess and reflect on their implications for research on the digital divide.
Discovery learning approaches to education have recently come under scrutiny (Tobias & Duffy, 2009), with many studies indicating limitations to discovery learning practices. Therefore, 2 meta-analyses were conducted using a sample of 164 studies: The 1st examined the effects of unassisted discovery learning versus explicit instruction, and the 2nd examined the effects of enhanced and/or assisted discovery versus other types of instruction (e.g., explicit, unassisted discovery). Random effects analyses of 580 comparisons revealed that outcomes were favorable for explicit instruction when compared with unassisted discovery under most conditions (d = –0.38, 95% CI [−.44, −.31]). In contrast, analyses of 360 comparisons revealed that outcomes were favorable for enhanced discovery when compared with other forms of instruction (d = 0.30, 95% CI [.23, .36]). The findings suggest that unassisted discovery does not benefit learners, whereas feedback, worked examples, scaffolding, and elicited explanations do. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Purpose
This paper provides a research-based approach for evaluating resources for transitioning to teaching online.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses Davies’ (2011) discussion of technological literacy; Koehler and Mishra’s (2009) Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK); Leacock and Nesbit’s (2011) Learning Object Review Instrument; and Reynolds and Leeder’s (2018) expanded notion of “technology stewardship” to underpin an approach that educators can use to evaluate educational resources for transitioning to teaching online.
Findings
This paper introduces and applies an approach focused on evaluating the source of a given educational resource, as well as how it can be implemented.
Research limitations/implications
This paper synthesizes frameworks relating to qualities of educational technologies and frameworks relating to qualities of educators, and introduces two criteria for evaluating resources for transitioning to distance learning.
Practical implications
This paper provides readily applicable criteria for evaluating resources in a time of emergency distance learning.
Social implications
This approach enables educators to evaluate resources in a time of emergency distance learning.
Originality/value
The synthesis of four approaches to evaluating educational technologies, and applying the approach to four resources that have emerged to address COVID-19-related instructional needs.
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a targeted overview of relevant digital equity gap literature that serves to contextualize the current crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this review of the literature, the author introduces five guidelines that educators can use to guide their decisions about how to adapt to remote learning. It concludes with an overview and full text of two tools educators and researchers can use to better understand the challenges faced by students: the Digital Equity Gap Interview Protocol and the Digital Equity Gap Survey Instrument.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper is grounded on the theoretical framework of Martha Nussbaum's “Capability Approach,” which outlines core human capabilities that (if fostered) enable individuals to generate valuable outcomes for themselves.
Findings
It is suggested that it is important to attend to human capabilities when addressing digital equity gaps exacerbated by the pandemic. The author provides two tools that are intended to help individuals gather important information about the communities they serve and/or study.
Research limitations/implications
Both tools provide descriptive information that will contextualize digital equity gaps, should they be present.
Practical implications
This paper provides concrete tools for educators who wish to understand digital equity gaps within the communities they serve.
Social implications
In time of unprecedented distance learning, it is important for both K-12 educators and higher education instructors to understand the technological capabilities of their students. The Digital Equity Gap Interview Protocol and the Digital Equity Gap Survey Instrument give them a place to start.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills an identified need to study and address digital equity gaps.
This paper argues that, apart from interactive activities, the perceptions of psychological presence that distance education students hold of their teachers, peer students, and the institution can be significant predictors of their learning. The "perception of presence" in this paper is defined as the degree to which a distance education student senses the availability of, and connectedness with, each party. This form of presence is designated here as "Transactional Presence" (TP). In this study, distance education student learning was assessed in the light of students' perceived learning achievement, satisfaction, and intent-to-persist. An analysis of student survey data indicates that a distance student's sense of institutional TP predicts all the selected measures to do with success in distance learning. While a sense of peer student TP is significantly related to satisfaction and intent-to-persist, the effect of teacher TP is found to relate only to student-perceived learning achievement. Implications of the TP construct are discussed with respect to the theory, research, and practice of distance education, along with recommendations for future research.
How parents of K-12 students view online learning
- J M Horowitz
- R Igielnik
COVID-19 and the distance learning gap
- H Galperin