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1.
In the present paper, we assess whether website rating systems are useful for selecting educational apps for preschool age children. We selected the 10 highest scoring and 10 lowest scoring apps for 2–4-year-olds from two widely used websites (Good App Guide; Common Sense Media). Apps rated highly by the two websites had a higher educational potential as assessed by a validated questionnaire for evaluating the educational potential of apps and were more likely to include a learning goal and feedback compared to low scoring apps. However, high scoring apps scored on average just 9/20 for indicators of educational potential, and both high and low scoring apps had poor language quality as determined by psycholinguistic and construction type analyses. We argue that website rating systems should also include quality of feedback, adjustable content, social interactions, storyline and a more fine-grained analysis of language in their assessments.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic
  • Appropriately designed apps for preschool age children have the potential to teach early school readiness skills.
  • Selecting high quality educational apps for preschool age children is challenging.
  • The children's app marketplace is currently unregulated.
What this paper adds
  • We assess whether two leading app rating websites are useful for selecting educational apps for preschool age children.
  • Children's apps rated highly by two app website rating systems had a higher educational potential than low rated apps as measured by a research informed app evaluation tool.
  • In-depth analysis of the language in apps shows that highly rated children's apps on app rating websites may not enrich a child's early language environment.
Implications for practice and/or policy
  • Children's app rating website assessments should include potential for feedback, language, adjustable content, storyline and social interactions.
  • Policy should be implemented for app ratings in the app stores or on website app rating systems.
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2.
Educational applications (apps) are ubiquitous within children's learning environments and emerging evidence has demonstrated their efficacy. However, it remains unclear what the active ingredients (ie, mechanisms), or combination of ingredients, of successful maths apps are. The current study developed a new, open-access, three-step framework for assessing the educational value of maths apps, comprised of type of app, mathematical content and app design features. When applied to a selection of available maths apps previously evaluated with children in the first 3 years of school (the final sample included 23 apps), results showed that practice-based apps were the most common app type tested (n = 15). Basic number skills, such as number representation and relationships, were the most common area of mathematics targeted by apps (n = 21). A follow-up qualitative comparative analysis showed observed learning outcomes with maths apps were enhanced when apps combined the following: a scaffolded and personalised learning journey (programmatic levelling) and explanations of why answers were right or wrong (explanatory feedback), as well as praise, such as ‘Great job!’ (motivational feedback). This novel evidence stresses the significance of feedback and levelling design features that teaching practitioners and other stakeholders should consider when deciding which apps to use with young children. Directions for future research are discussed.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic
  • Educational apps have been shown to support maths attainment in the first 3 years of school.
  • Several existing frameworks have attempted to assess the educational value of some of these maths apps.
  • Emerging experimental evidence also demonstrates the benefits of specific app design features, including feedback and levelling.
What this paper adds
  • Practice-based maths apps are the most common type of app previously evaluated with young children.
  • These evaluated maths apps have mostly focused on basic number skills.
  • The combination of explanatory and motivational feedback, with programmatic levelling (either dynamic or static), was a necessary condition for enhancing learning outcomes with maths apps.
Implications for practice and policy
  • The inclusion of feedback and levelling in maths apps should be considered by app developers when designing apps, and by educational practitioners and parents when deciding which apps to use with their children.
  • Further consideration is also needed for the development of educational apps that include a broad range of maths skills.
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3.
The present study assessed the effectiveness of the ECRIMO educational application designed to build first-grade level spelling skills. We tested whether using the app to teach spelling would be as effective as providing the same training using traditional paper exercises. The effect of integrating gamification into mobile learning apps, which has been little studied in the context of young children, is also investigated. A pretest/training/posttest design was implemented with 311 first-graders divided in four groups: no training, paper training, the ECRIMO app with gamification features, and the ECRIMO app without gamification. Spelling, reading and phonological awareness abilities was measured at both pretest and posttest. The training was conducted over a 7-week period (4.40 hours in total). The experimental design allowed us to answer three questions: (1) Is spelling training effective regardless of the medium used? (2) Is training through the app as efficient as paper-based training? (3) Does gamification impact students' learning performance? Mixed-model analyses revealed (1) a positive effect on the training outcome depended on the initial spelling ability of participants, (2) a comparable efficiency between autonomous training using the ECRIMO app on tablets and the same training provided by teachers using paper exercises and (3) a marginally positive effect of gamification that is greater for the weakest students. The present study proposes an original and pertinent experimental design to test the relevance of educational applications. The design features of learning apps can impact students' learning differently depending on their initial level. A critical step should be verifying that using online apps for training is at least as effective as the same training using paper exercises.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic
  • A significant number of children experience difficulties in reading and spelling from the first years of learning.
  • The use of new technologies to support classroom teaching is rapidly developing as a topic of interest for educational professionals and researchers.
  • Evaluations of new technologies developed to enhance literacy skills suggest that many factors can vary their effectiveness.
  • The effectiveness of a digital educational application can be enhanced or undermined by design choices, such as gamification.
What this paper adds
  • Spelling training with the app ECRIMO seems effective for first year students, especially those with the lowest and middle level.
  • Comparable effects of both the tablet-based and paper equivalent training on participants' spelling were found.
  • The use of gamification in ECRIMO could be more suitable for the weakest students.
Implications for practice and/or policy
  • Educational technologies should be evidence-based and should be evaluated with both a passive and an active control group.
  • The design should be carefully considered and tested, as it may be advantageous for some students and disadvantageous for others.
  • The use of digital technology in education can be beneficial for classroom practice, when the activity can be carried out in total autonomy, leaving the teacher available for a group of pupils with specific needs.
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4.
Interactive apps are commonly used to support the acquisition of foundational skills. Yet little is known about how pedagogical features of such apps affect learning outcomes, attainment and motivation—particularly when deployed in lower-income contexts, where educational gains are most needed. In this study, we analyse which app features are most effective in supporting the acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy skills. We compare five apps developed for the Global Learning XPRIZE and deployed to 2041 out-of-school children in 172 remote Tanzanian villages. A total of 41 non-expert participants each provided 165 comparative judgements of the five apps from the competition, across 15 pedagogical features. Analysis and modelling of these 6765 comparisons indicate that the apps created by the joint winners of the XPRIZE, who produced the greatest learning outcomes over the 15-month field trial, shared six pedagogical features—autonomous learning, motor skills, task structure, engagement, language demand and personalisation. Results demonstrate that this combination of features is effective at supporting learning of foundational skills and has a positive impact on educational outcomes. To maximise learning potential in environments with both limited resources and deployment opportunities, developers should focus attention on this combination of features, especially for out-of-school children in low- and middle-income countries.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic
  • Interactive apps are becoming common to support foundational learning for children both in and out of school settings.
  • The Global Learning XPRIZE competition demonstrates that learning apps can facilitate learning improvements in out-of-school children living in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • To understand which app features are most important in supporting learning in these contexts, we need to establish which pedagogical features were shared by the winning apps.
What this paper adds
  • Effective learning of foundational skills can be achieved with a range of pedagogical features.
  • To maximise learning, apps should focus on combining elements of autonomous learning, motor skills, task structure, engagement, language demand and personalisation.
  • Free Play is not a key pedagogical feature to facilitate learning within this context.
Implications for practice and/or policy
  • When developing learning apps with primary-aged, out-of-school children in low-income contexts, app developers should try to incorporate the six key features associated with improving learning outcomes.
  • Governments, school leaders and parents should use these findings to inform their decisions when choosing an appropriate learning app for children.
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5.
Educational applications (apps) offer opportunities for designing learning activities children enjoy and benefit from. We redesigned a typical mobile learning activity to make it more enjoyable and useful for children. Relying on the technology acceptance model, we investigated whether and how implementing this activity in an app can increase children's intention to use. During the 27-day study, children (N = 103, 9–14 years) used the app to memorize one-sentence learning plans each day. Children used three different app-based learning activities throughout the study. In two standard activities, children reread or reassembled the words of the plan. In the redesigned activity, children represented the meaning of the plan with emojis. Children repeatedly reported on their attitude towards each activity. Subsequently, children reported perceived enjoyment and intention to use the app. Results showed children found the emoji activity most enjoyable, and enjoyment of the emoji activity contributed uniquely towards intention to use. Additionally, children's enjoyment of the app mediated their intention to use the app in the future. Overall, the study suggests that children's enjoyment of an app is crucial in predicting their subsequent intention to use, and it provides a concrete example of how emojis can be used to boost enjoyment.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic
  • Educational applications provide children with unrestricted access to mobile learning resources.
  • Positive attitudes towards educational applications predict behavioural intention to use these applications, at least in young adults.
  • There is a need for more research examining the relevance of enjoyable learning activities in fostering children's sustained usage of an educational application.
What this paper adds
  • Positive attitude towards the use of emojis during learning activities uniquely contributed to children's behavioural intention to use the application.
  • Perceived enjoyment predicted behavioural intention to use the application.
  • Perceived enjoyment mediated the effect of attitude towards using learning activities on the behavioural intention to use the mobile educational application.
Implications for practice and/or policy
  • These findings highlight the importance of enjoyment for children's' acceptance of educational applications.
  • Enjoyable learning activities are necessary to ensure sustained usage of educational applications.
  • The paper provides a concrete example of how emojis can be used to boost enjoyment of a typical mobile learning activity.
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6.

The analysis describes the broad consensus which is currently emerging about the nature of the educational changes which are necessary for the creation of a 'learning society' and contrasts this vision with the contemporary reality of an education system which is every day more constrained by formal assessment. The implications of these tightening bonds for the development of universities in the third millennium are explored in terms of research evidence which documents the impact of conventional forms of assessment on student learning. The argument is made that this emphasis on 'categoric' assessment if fundamentally incompatible with aspirations towards the creation of a 'learning society'. This is partly because institutions must necessarily give their attention to obtaining high scores and cannot risk the substantial changes in the reorganisation of teaching and learning that an 'empowering' educational environment would arguably require and partly because of the power of the prevailing assessment discourse to define priorities. The article uses Lyotard's concept of 'performativity' to examine these contemporary tensions in higher education, their origins and potential significance for the creation of a 'learning society'.  相似文献   

7.
Abstract

Early childhood education has been characterised in recent times by discussion associated with the similarities, differences and various merits of developmental and sociocultural theory as theoretical informants to curriculum and educational practice. In the main, these discussions centre on the way each theory views development and positions the child as a learner. This article argues that the debate may be furthered by considering the extent to which each perspective is related to the other and draws on Kuhn's conceptualisation of the evolution of knowledge in communities of practice in order to examine the extent to which newer explanations for development are being considered in relation to traditional ideas. The article concludes with an emphasis on the idea that the evolution of knowledge concerned with children's development and learning is a process of continued growth and one that requires an active awareness as to how and why it is utilised and interpreted as an informant to early childhood education.  相似文献   

8.
Abstract

A review of environmental education literature reveals a paucity of constructivist-based research. To support the case for this approach, the author reviews theoretical aspects of science education research of this type. It first situates different approaches to educational research in relation to different epistemologies and then reviews constructs used in constructivist science education research. Issues associated with the adoption of this epistemology—topics deemed worthy of research, importance given to the learner's pre-instructional knowledge, and perspectives on learning and understanding—are considered. The article concludes with proposals for constructivist research in environmental education across the educational commonplaces.  相似文献   

9.
Mobile applications (apps) for learning technical scientific content are becoming increasingly popular in educational settings. Neuroscience is often considered complex and challenging for most students to understand conceptually. iNeuron is a recently developed iOS app that teaches basic neuroscience in the context of a series of scaffolded challenges to create neural circuits and increase understanding of nervous system structure and function. In this study, four different ways to implement the app within a classroom setting were explored. The goal of the study was to determine the app’s effectiveness under conditions closely approximating real-world use and to evaluate whether collaborative play and student-driven navigational features contributed to its effectiveness. Students used the app either individually or in small groups and used a version with either a fixed or variable learning sequence. Student performance on a pre- and post-neuroscience content assessment was analyzed and compared between students who used the app and a control group receiving standard instruction, and logged app data were analyzed. Significantly, greater learning gains were found for all students who used the app compared to control. All four implementation modes were effective in producing student learning gains relative to controls, but did not differ in their effectiveness to one another. In addition, students demonstrated transfer of information learned in one context to another within the app. These results suggest that teacher-led neuroscience instruction can be effectively supported by a scaffolded, technology-based curriculum which can be implemented in multiple ways to enhance student learning.  相似文献   

10.

This article is set in the context of current moves in British education policy towards a fixed concept of 'what works' and a questionable certainty about 'best practice'. The author explores the value of postmodern thinking in challenging these state-endorsed certainties and in opening up new possibilities for research, critique and practice. She identifies four key areas of educational authority to which postmodernism offers a significant challenge: the authority of power/knowledge; the authority of models of learning; the authority of identity; and the authority of language. The author identifies recent work in a postmodern frame which challenges these authorities, and outlines current educational contexts in which postmodern thinking has a valuable contribution to make. In conclusion, she suggests that postmodernism opens a new window on the politics of possibility, offering one of the most powerful contemporary radical approaches to inquiry and critique available to the sociology of education.  相似文献   

11.
Abstract

This article analyses the required content and strategies of information and communications technology (ICT) training for teachers in terms of learning to know, learning to do, learning to live with each other and with others, and learning to be. We conclude that the fast-changing role and nature of ICT in education, combined with the low level of penetration of ICT into present educational practices, requires a strategy that includes three aspects. These aspects are the training of students within teacher training institutions, the high-level implementation of ICT in schools as a joint effort by students, schools and teacher training institutions, and the formation of cooperating communities of practice to ensure the continued flow of emerging knowledge and practices to the educational field. Special attention should be given to unwanted and unforeseen side effects that may affect pupils' lives today and in the future.  相似文献   

12.

This article analyses the relationship between sexual biography and pedagogic practice. It is based on life history interviews with sex education practitioners (teachers and a school nurse) that aimed to explore elements of these individuals' sexual biographies, their experiences of learning about sex and their pedagogic practice. The article considers why the sexuality of sex educators may be important, how this manifests itself in school and, finally, some of the implications for policy and practice.  相似文献   

13.
ABSTRACT

Despite being regarded as an essential element in social work education, practicums are often arranged with little consideration as to what a potential supervisor can offer a particular student. This paper reports on the developments of the Content of Supervision Scale which can be used by university fieldwork staff to measure the supervisory priorities of potential supervisors. Three distinct dimensions of supervision sessions are measured: ‘student learning,’ ‘becoming a social worker’ and ‘social work theory and practice.’ Each of these subscales have demonstrated internal consistency. By matching what supervisors can offer with students' educational needs, the potential for student learning is likely to be enhanced.  相似文献   

14.
A popular activity among young children is the use of mobile devices and apps. Yet, the impact of mobile devices on learning and development is rather underexplored. The limited studies identified explore effects on literacy development and communication and report on mixed findings. A considerable gap is observed as to how the use of mobile apps relates to young children's understanding in diverse domains including science learning, and to extend, whether and how mobile apps should be used and how in early years' settings. The aim of this paper is to shed light on this area by examining the learning effects of touch screen mobile game applications, in particular the game Angry Birds, on two groups of preschoolers 4 and 5 years old respectively. Evidence from a comparative study with 32 participants reveal significant differences between the two groups in terms of game skills and their understanding of projectile motion. Implications for educational stakeholders, parents and app designers are discussed along with future research directions.  相似文献   

15.
ABSTRACT

Basic differences in temperament, learning styles, motivation, and interaction styles have major impacts on people yet receive little attention in social work education. Faculty must understand the different ways students learn and be receptive to new patterns of teaching in order to achieve educational excellence. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one tool that identifies specific preferences among individuals that explain difference in learning styles. This paper discusses educational considerations in implementing a “type-sensitive” curriculum in social work education, including strategies for using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to differentiate learning styles and strategies for facilitating educators' and students' ability to appreciate these differences. It examines the ways in which differences in type can complement each other in the educational process. Understanding difference can provide insights into personal, academic, and professional performance, as well as an appreciation of the diversity of client types.  相似文献   

16.
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17.
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18.
ABSTRACT

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in innovation in teaching and learning in higher education. Now more than ever, academics are advised that engaging in educational innovation for the purposes of improved student learning is supported, valued, and rewarded. However, embracing innovative teaching practice requires academics to develop new skills and understandings, take on extra work, risk failure and invite disapproval from staff and students. Ultimately, focusing upon educational innovation rather than discipline research can be a risky career move if it is not undertaken strategically. This paper provides insight into the characteristics of two innovative academics from the discipline of science and explores the dimensions of innovation as it pertains to teaching and learning. A framework emerged from an analysis of their experience which identifies different types of educational innovators in higher education, discriminating between three individuals with regards to the level at which they seek to influence practice.  相似文献   

19.
Abstract

This article is a pedagogical contribution to the debate about the meaning, usefulness and possible integration of PLEs into formalized education. We assume that PLEs represent a change in the rules of traditional teaching taking place in formal educational contexts. We use the comparison of a solid knowledge taught in textbooks compared PLEs in the context of the liquid culture of cyberspace as a metaphor for learning. The article provides an overview of the features and elements of a PLE in formal education and suggests that the educational objective of PLEs is the formation of digital citizenship. This concept implies that learners must become aware of their digital identity and develop competence in five dimensions for an intelligent use of digital technology and culture. We conclude by referring to PLEs as an educational ideology and its potential evolution from the deschooling theses and educational reform in schools.  相似文献   

20.

Inclusive education is central to contemporary discourse in special needs education. There are difficulties, however, in allowing the concept to be a key organising principle for educational provision. These difficulties are set out. It is argued that setting aside the preoccupation with inclusion would result in a clearer focus on core educational values and, in particular, on students' learning and development.  相似文献   

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