Flipped learning - Pedagogic dilemmas

Author(s): Tomislava Vidić,Marina Đuranović,Irena Klasnić / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Scientific and practical examinations of pedagogues, educators and teachers are directed to finding the approach, methods and strategies which would motivate students and make them more active in the learning process. One of the ways to achieve this is flipped learning. This article aims to describe some characteristics of flipped learning, and also questions the pedagogic foundation, justification and limits of the usage possibilities and the potential challenges in the implementation of this model into the educational system. The research reports findings based on the trends in flipped learning. By replacing activities carried out in the classroom and at home, students are put into a new situation. A student independently realises the initial contact with the teaching content at home, whereas in the classroom, the activities (with the teacher and other students) that provide understanding and application of the learned are implemented

Constructive online feedback to enhance learning achievement of open and distance students

Author(s): Rudi Susilana,Benny Agus Pribadi / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

The purpose of the present study was to elaborate the effect of providing the constructive feedback to open and distant students who enrolled in the online learning program. The participants were 30 students who studied in eight sessions of the online course. They had to discuss course content in available chat forum of the Learning LMS and complete written assignments. The constructive feedback with some characteristics - specific and actionable; descriptive and helpful; showing respect; address to issues and tasks; and provide dialogue - were immediately provided by the tutors on the students’ discussion and their written assignments. Pre-test and post-test sessions were implemented to get information regarding the influence of constructive feedback on students’ cognitive aspects. In addition, the online interview session was also applied to gather the information concerning the impact of the constructive feedback provision on students’ motivational aspects. It is therefore concluded that the provision of constructive feedback student’s motivation and knowledge while they were participating in online learning program.

Synchronous collaborative writing instruction in a university EFL context: Challenges and solutions

Author(s): Panachanok Chanwaiwit,Bhornsawan Inpin / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

This study explored EFL instructors’ perceptions and practices to identify challenges of teaching synchronous collaborative writing (SCW) and then proposed solutions to the problems. The instructor survey of practices in online English writing instruction was sent to 52 instructors from 15 regional universities in Thailand; 51 responded to the survey and, after selection, 24 participants were included. Data also included classroom observations and interviews. The participants felt unprepared to teach SCW because of insufficient online pedagogical skills in engaging students in the classroom and a lack of technology skills in managing online classrooms, facilitating real-time collaborative writing and giving objective formative assessments. The findings suggest that EFL instructors improve their teaching quality regarding student engagement, goals, content, tools, classroom management strategies, instructor and student roles, SCW activities and assessment. These discoveries enable educators to develop contextualised guidelines for SCW practices and suggest initial preparation for EFL cyber education.

Virtual teaching: Teachers' perspectives on online virtual classroom effectiveness during and beyond Covid-19

Author(s): Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Subaie / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2021

The purpose was to investigate the Arabic language teachers' perspectives on online VC effectiveness during and beyond COVID-19. Participants were 340 teachers. This study employed cross-sectional descriptive method, with the main focus on Arabic Language teachers' perspectives on online VC effectiveness during and beyond COVID-19. Findings from descriptive analysis of the teachers’ responses on the importance of using virtual classrooms in distance education program shoed that the rank agree comes first, where teachers responded with agree in 17 items, 2 with strongly agree and only one item for disagree. Using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), findings showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the responses of the study sample towards the use of virtual classrooms by gender, while academic qualification and years of experience contributed significantly, where those with higher qualification, and who are experts had positive perspectives on online VCs effectiveness during and beyond COVID-19.

The reality of using Moodle In a distance education program

Author(s): Tarik Faris Al Soub,Nidal Zaki Amarin / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2021

Using e-learning system (moodle) in distance education in time of the Covid-19 has become a reality, and the study was concerned with revealing the degree of faculty members ’benefit from the Moodle system, as well as the nature of the challenges they faced, in addition to their vision to develop the use of Moodle system in teaching. The study used the descriptive analysis method, and the results showed that faculty members have benefited from the Moodle system for a high degree, although they indicated that there are significant challenges. The faculty members suggested continuing training on using the Moodle system and updating the version of the system available at the university. Results also showed that there are statistically significant differences in the estimates of the study sample of the reality of employment in favor of female faculty members as well as faculty members with low teaching experience, in the youth group. Accordingly, the study recommends training the teaching staff to use educational platforms and face the challenges facing distance education through these platforms

Remote learning in basic education schools in Latvia during COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience of pedagogical internship

Author(s): Arija Kolosova / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2021

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, most students were forced to study remotely, including students in Latvia. This publication aims to reflect on the remote learning process during Covid-19, analysing the results obtained by students during their internships. The research study involves 81 full-time and part-time students of Liepaja University study programmes. This publication is based on qualitative empirical research, using the case study method within a natural environment. The results were analysed using content analysis. As the result of this study, the conclusions are drawn, revealing the identified problems, strong points and contradictions in the learning process, providing a basis for improvements. The obtained research results can serve as a foundation for the research in future.

Assisting student knowledge and critical thinking by E-Learning media: Post-Harvest Fungi poster

Author(s): Rida Oktorida Khastini,Nani Maryani,Indria Wahyuni,Suroso Mukti Leksono,Nadya Pratiwi Tri Lantanfi / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The challenge for a teacher in the learning process is to engage students with the subject and help them comprehend biology using creative and efficient learning media. The research aims to provide information on the postharvest fungi as well as their role as contaminant fungi in Bantenese emping melinjo chips as the contents in the poster as learning media and to determine its effect on assisting student knowledge and critical thinking skills. The Research and Development was conducted using the ADDIE model. The information was gathered through the use of interview guidelines, validation sheets, and students’ response questionnaires. The research findings informed that a total of 35 species of post harvest fungi have been successfully isolated from eight different locations in Banten Province. The evaluation results of the poster as learning media showed that it was considered very valid by media and material validators. Student responses showed that the developed poster was categorized as very feasible media. The student knowledge and critical thinking skills achievement facilitated by the poster as e-learning media was significantly higher compared to another class. The produced poster was found to be suitable to be used as e-learning media in the Biology subject.

Validity and reliability of eight-grade digital culture test in light of item response theory

Author(s): Moen Salman Alnasraween,Raeda Mofid Ammari,Mohammad Saleh Alkaramneh / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The purpose of this study is to construct a digital culture test in light of the Item Response Theory and to investigate its psychometric properties. The study sample consisted of six hundred fifty (650) male and female students in the eighth grade from the Directorate of Education and Teaching of Salt District. To obtain the results, the descriptive approach was used. The results showed that the items have acceptable indicators of discrimination and extend on the continuum of difficulty adequately. The validity and reliability of the test were verified by using several methods, including content validity and internal consistency. The study findings showed that most of the test items fit the assumptions of the two-parameter logistic model. The results also displayed statistically significant differences in the arithmetic means of the digital culture test due to gender in favor of female students. Moreover, the outcomes presented statistically significant differences attributed to the education sector variable favoring the private sector.

CHALLENGING LEARNING EXPERIENCES THROUGH THE VR@SCHOOL PROJECT

Author(s): Anca Cristina COLIBABA,Claudia Elena DINU,Irina Gheorghiu,Anais Colibaba,Ovidiu Ursa,Ramona Cârșmari / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2021

The article is a study of the VR@School project (Erasmus+ programme), as it is being implemented by EuroEd Foundation Iasi, Romania. The article introduces the project’s objectives and outputs and gives insights into the teachers’ online training course on how to use Virtual Reality (VR) and to create VR lesson plans. The article also presents the main findings of the surveys carried out on the participants in the project, exploring teachers’ opinions of the training course and the use of VR in teaching as well as students’ attitudes towards their VR experiences.

E_LEARNER SUPPORT IN AN EXPERIENTIALLY DRIVEN FRAME OF TEACHING/TRAINING APPROACH

Author(s): Doina Irina Simion / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

Connectivity has brought many challenges to education in general and academic education in particular. A most sensitive one is the challenge to the experiential approach. The electronic barrier may have a significant impact upon the design, delivery, form or timing of most offers of direct learner experience in teaching or training. Nevertheless, there are three features that ensure its attraction despite obstacles. First, the motivational boost inherent in any personal experience is still likely to enhance the outcome of any quality educational act: knowledge, skills or attitudes. Furthermore, the scope for an experiential approach as a teaching/training philosophy in the online context does not differ from the classroom context: it may be implemented at the pre, while or post-course learner support stages. Finally, it can also be activated in the transmission, teacher centred stage of knowledge delivery as well as in the transformational stage of learner centred processing. The present paper reports on the results of implementing an experiential approach in the post-stage of the English for Professional Communication course. The subjects were first year students of e_engineering (electronics and computer science) at the University Politehnica of Bucharest. The students were asked to resort to self-managed group e_work tasked to devise the questions that they thought relevant for a course feedback questionnaire. This kind of task partly draws on three stages of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, i.e. concrete learning, reflective observation, and abstract conceptualization. The paper also deals with ways of implementing an experiential approach in the practice stage of activities to be delivered by trainers / trainees involved in the EXTEND project.

THE POSSIBILITY OF DEVELOPING AN E-LEARNING PLATFORM USING CLOUD ERP SOFTWARE: A CASE STUDY ON ODOO

Author(s): Cezar - Octavian Mihalcescu,Ana Maria Mihaela Iordache,Beatrice SION, / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

E-Learning portals are large data warehouses that allow the interconnection of various types of activities in order to automate and streamline of the decision-making process. Distributed learning allows the realization of an educational process of the best quality, based on a modern education and a very high perspective, customized according to the increasingly demanding and complex individual needs. In the paper we studied the possibility of using the Odoo ERP program, implemented in the Cloud environment for the development of an e-learning platform. For a company that offers paid qualification courses, we have implemented the whole e-learning process, starting from the moment a student enrolls in a certain course and until the issuance of the participation certificate. All activities are carried out automatically, via email. The payment of the courses can be done with the card or bank transfer and is automatically registered in the accounting, the invoice being issued automatically, reaching to the recipient by email.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE PLANTAR PRESSURE IN THE GIANT SLALOM TURN IN THE HIGH PERFORMANCE ALPINE SKIING

Author(s): Nicoleta Leonte,Iancu Răchita,Ofelia Popescu,Teodora Wesselly / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2020

The specific bypass of the giant slalom in the high-performance alpine skiing is characterized by specific movements of pivoting the inner ski, by advancing the trunk forwards and by a sharp turn. As the speed increases, the centrifugal force is higher, and the skier will activate a control of the pressure of the external ski, giving him the possibility of steering the bypass. The plantar pressure exerted by the skier during the turns steering becomes extremely important, being a determining factor in improving the control over the edges. The purpose of the research is to identify the main mistakes during the turn and to make the preparation more efficient by identifying the ideal route. The constatative research is a descriptive case study that used a single subject, a member of the national group of alpine skiing. The research was conducted during the preparatory period (November, 2018), in Austria. The evaluation was carried out through the Pedar X analysis system, which adds to the kinematic analysis data regarding the distribution of pressures at the foot plant level, information that is particularly useful in assessing the dynamics of the movement. This evaluation system allowed us to observe, in real time, the distribution of the plantar pressures and the forces exerted by the athlete in the most difficult area of the route. The results obtained emphasized the need to improve the technical training, focusing on the equal distribution of plantar pressure on both feet near the gate.

Enseñar y aprender los marcadores discursivos en español/ LE: proyecto telecolaborativo

Author(s): Barbara Pihler Ciglić,Hannah Schyvens,Catalina Fuentes Rodríguez,An Vande Casteele / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 12/2021

This article aims to analyze some of the most important challenges presented by discursive markers in the field o f teaching Spanish as a FL, taking into account the importance of collaborative learning and new didactic tools such as ICT. Based on the results of a telecollaborative activity between the Spanish language learners and the native speakers, a concrete didactic proposal is offered that aims to meet the communication needs of the E / LE learners when they participate in a spontaneous conversation. Opting for the flipped class method and blended learning, we offer video-based instructional material with authentic oral input and metapragmatic information, as well as opportunities for oral interaction with native Spanish speakers in an international telecollaborative context.

Investigating Writing Challenges Encountered by Saudi EFL1 Learners: Implications for Improvement

Author(s): Mohamad Ahmad Saleem Khasawneh / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The effect of mobile learning on students’ attitudes using mobile devices

Author(s): Shai Solomovich,Ciprian Ceobanu / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2021

Mobile learning (m-learning) has the potential to vastly change and improve education as we know it. Its main advantage consists in extending the educational contexts to any place and any time. This leads to possibilities of more active and experiential learning. Furthermore, it greatly improves the potential for communication and access to information. All of these improvements, if utilized properly, can lead to more meaningful learning and greater internal motivation for learning. However, these changes are not easy to implement and require the overcoming of several obstacles. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes towards m-learning and its relationships with ubiquitous learning, experiential and active learning, meaningful learning, cooperative learning, internal motivation for learning, and demographic variables. To measure these constructs, 200 participants completed the questionnaires. The results suggest that the youngest generations (15-17 years old) and those who used their mobile phones the most have the strongest attitudes towards m-learning. There were no differences between genders or people with various levels of education. Furthermore, the effects of mobile and ubiquitous learning on meaningful learning were mediated by collaborative and experiential and active learning. Lastly, the effects of mobile and ubiquitous learning on internal motivation for learning were direct. The findings indicate the importance of utilization of mobile learning and its positive consequences on both academic and personal aspects of the students’ lives.

GERAS GRĮŽTAMASIS RYŠYS NUOTOLINĖSE STUDIJOSE: BŪSIMŲ PEDAGOGŲ SAMPRATA

Author(s): Gintautė Žibėnienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2022

Pedagogical literature pays a lot of attention to feedback, discussing different types of feedback, analyzing what constitutes good feedback, and looking for advanced feedback practices. Feedback helps learners understand learning goals and anticipate areas for improvement, and student feedback has a direct impact on a teacher’s professional development, which obliges educators to make appropriate choices about activities and questions that provide information about the effectiveness of their teaching. In the study process, feedback provides opportunities for the student to find out what needs to be improved, the student receives useful information about what and how they understood, what they did not understand and why, what mistakes they made, how to do better, and learns recommendations for their more successful studies. M. Hast (2021) notes that, especially in distance learning, in hybrid teaching, and in the COVID-19 situation, it is especially important to think about organizing feedback, to find out what kind of feedback would be appropriate, and to consider how to involve students in organizing distance feedback and study (Higher Education in COVID-19: Implementing Online Feedback in a Different Way). Thus, it is important for prospective teachers to study the concept of feedback by explaining what good feedback is, as this will allow teachers to organize good feedback and student engagement more effectively.This article raises the following questions: What is the concept of good feedback for future educators in distance learning? What are the characteristics of feedback for future educators? The aim of the article is to reveal the concept of good feedback in distance learning for future teachers. The object of the research is the concept of good feedback for future teachers in distance learning. To this end, a survey was organized in January–March 2021, and an analysis of literature sources and legal acts was applied. The data collection method used was open questions and incomplete sentences. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the investigation was conducted remotely, using an IT tool suitable for anonymous investigation: Google Forms. Criteria selection was applied according to the following criteria: a prospective teacher who has studied pedagogical studies for at least half a year (semester), and has studied at least one semester at a distance.Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data, which allowed conclusions to be drawn based on the analysed text. This method of analysis was based on systematic analytical steps: multiple readings of records, systematic interpretation of distinguished categories and subcategories, and their justification based on the evidence from the transcribed texts – confirmatory statements. According to the qualitative research methodology, confirmatory statements are extracts from answers provided by the participants which cannot be changed by the researcher; therefore, they are quoted exactly as given by the participants. The initial interview data was handled in such a way as to ensure that it was impossible to identify the persons involved in the study. The answers of the future educators were coded, and each person was assigned the letter S and a number according to the order of analysis, e.g. S1.The research was organized and data analysis was carried out and presented based on the principles of qualitative research ethics: ensuring respect for individual privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity, with goodwill and justice.After making conclusions from literature sources, we can state that any credible feedback: gives positive comments first; is provided immediately after or during the work; confirms what is being done correctly; identifies mistakes and gaps; provides clear recommendations for improvement; is identified in a clear, specific, and reasoned manner; talks about what excited people and what caused this; is about attitude and personal activity, but not about the person; chooses the right type of feedback and how to handle it; empathetically listens, adjusts, and answers; and is cognizant of the feedback’s quality and what affected it (duration and time, volume of feedback, feedback form, feedback participants, voice tone, eye contact, environment and situational circumstances, level of confidentiality, and other circumstances).The features of good feedback in distance learning identified by prospective educators are related to the features of good feedback presented in various literature sources.Conclusions. Qualitative research revealed the features of good feedback in distance learning based on the concept of future teachers, and distinguished two categories: 1) features of good feedback corresponding to those mentioned in the pedagogical scientific and methodological literature; 2) the signs of feedback (in the opinion of future teachers) that are not mentioned in the pedagogical scientific and methodological literature.Analyzing the features of good feedback identified by future educators, the following subcategories have been identified: creating a pleasant, safe, and benevolent environment; having positive effects; helping or encouraging self-assessment; and providing clear feedback. When talking about good feedback, future educators focused on: creating an emotional, benevolent environment during the feedback (benevolent, pleasant); methodological aspects of providing feedback (clear recommendations for improvement, encouraging self-assessment), so that positive comments are given first in the learning process, but without mentioning the appropriate choice of feedback type; comments that are justified and reasoned; feedback that talks about what excited people and what caused this; and feedback that is about attitude and personal activity, but not about the person. This study did not reveal any specific features of good feedback during distance learning. Prospective educators’ emphasis on a good emotional environment during feedback may be related to their own experiences or the peculiarities of a possible COVID-19 situation, where most people were characterized by hypersensitivity and a desire for good emotions. This can be a good experience for future educators when they themselves are the organizers of feedback rather than recipients, as an emotionally good environment is important during feedback.This research revealed that some prospective educators still need to delve into what constitutes good feedback and depart from an egocentric position, because feedback cannot be just compliments and naming good things. Also, the essential purpose of feedback is not to cheer and lift the mood or to expect a quick response at any time of the day.The results of this research allow us to state that a positive environment, clear naming of positive things, motivation, encouragement, and consideration of circumstances and practices that allow the student not to be passive (self-assessment, reflection, etc.) are especially important for organizing good feedback in distance learning.

AZ ÖNREFLEXIÓ MEGVÁLTOZOTT TARTALMA ONLINE OKTATÁS IDEJÉN A VALLÁSTANÁROK NÉZŐPONTJÁBÓL

Author(s): Gabriella Márta Gorbai / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2022

The Changed Content of Self-Reflection during Online Teaching – The Perspective of Religion Teachers. The spread of the coronavirus pandemic took its toll on all areas of life, and we can safely say that it has fundamental-ly altered education, too, throughout the globe. Teachers around the world exhibited a wide array of responses to the changed situation, some of them having no real problem with the transition to online teaching, while the ma-jority of them having suffered a considerable loss of faith concerning their effectiveness as teachers when coming up against the changed environment and the new challenges.Most teachers of religion were experiencing a sense of lack due to the enforced suspension of the day-to-day interpersonal relationships, considering that personal encounters have a particular relevance to religion as a subject on account of its pasto-ral care and spiritual aspects. Teachers did not only have to struggle with the new challenges emerging in their working environment, with problems around ensuring an appropriate technological background, or with the transformation of the existent teaching material for online use, but the adoption of a successful coping in a situa-tion never dealt with before could be affected by certain (psychological) factors running much deeper such as their faith/beliefs, while the reasons for coming to a deadlock can often be traced back to the issues of professional identity, (sense of) mission, or religious spirituality.The present study points out that (self-)reflection increases teachers’ efficiency and productiveness, and it is the author’s belief that conscious reflection can serious-ly add to teachers’ professional fulfilment during the crisis situation created by the virus, when online teaching methods have to be adopted, since reflection can put intrinsic motivation to work, as a result of which teachers can set a course to their own development. Further, we will present a reflection model that provides a con-tent framework for reflection and wherein there is a possibility for a deeper-level re-flection as well, thus going beyond the aspects of environment, behaviour, and views and reaching the levels of professional identity, mission, and religious spiritu-ality.

A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON COVID-19 ONLINE TEACHING, LEARNING, AND ASSESSMENT WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR RESEARCH

Author(s): André du Plessis / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

COVID-19 had a severe impact on teaching and learning in schools and tertiary education institutions. Human Rights Watch (Impact of Covid-19 on Children’s Education in Africa, 2022) posits that due to the closure of many schools in African countries, a significant majority of learners were excluded from continuing their education as learning and teaching halted. The pandemic has also had its effect on the higher education sector within the South African context, however, data about non-attendance and drop-out seems not to be freely available as revealed by searching online. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to assume that there were drop-outs and non-attendance by students, however, not to the same extent as within schools as universities embarked on contingency plans to minimize dropouts. Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha South Africa where the author of this editorial resides, implemented contingency plans within weeks of the COVID pandemic outbreak to offer students ICT devices on loan, e.g. by debiting it against their student accounts while Wi-Fi data access was secured through collaboration with internet providers. It appears that the university sector was able to be more proactive than schools, which can probably be attributed to the fact that the majority of universities have their own ICT infrastructures. In addition, many modules incorporated the use of ICT in various ways, including the use of learning management systems such as Moodle or similar. This resulted in many universities being better prepared to embrace the opportunity to extend online teaching, learning, and assessment in various forms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING THE FUNCTIONALITIES OF AN ONLINE LEARNING PLATFORM – A CASE STUDY

Author(s): Robert Oliwa / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

This study investigates the process of designing the functionalities of an online learning platform put forward by three types of its users: students, academics and admin staff. Moreover, the study intends to get an insight into the impact the attitudes of the participants of the instruction process have on the process of the platform construction. The case study design was used to see if users of an online learning platform could contribute to defining its functionalities in the areas of creating and sharing classes remotely, conducting tests, tests and exams and advanced reporting of student activity. Moreover, the author wished to learn if different platform users would put forward similar platform functionalities. It was discovered that the parties involved in the platform construction processes may, first of all, have a lot to offer in terms of the platform functionalities and should therefore be involved in the platform construction process. Second of all, although their contributions as far as the functionalities of the platform are concerned may have a lot in common, there are certain aspects of the platform which only people involved in seemingly narrow areas can come up with.

MOBILE-MEDIATED INTERACTIONAL FEEDBACK (MMIF) EFFECT ON IRANIAN LEARNERS’ ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH ARTICLES

Author(s): Thana Hmidani,Narges Zareian / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The role of interactional feedback (IF) has been the interest of researchers in communicational context. Some studies have shown low rate of improvement following IF in a classroom setting, hence a shift to computer-assisted feedback. This study explored IF in a mobile-mediated environment (MMIF) on Telegram and compared it with in-class IF. The aim was to solve the problem of students who were unable to attend classes regularly due to family or schoolwork conditions. Forty highschool and undergraduate students of low intermediate level were randomly assigned to two groups. The experimental group attended three sessions out of six: an introductory one for pre-test and the procedure; a halfway session for face-to-face discussions with the teacher; and one for post-test and assessment of the procedure. The control group attended six regular classes. The experimental group sent their compositions online to the teacher who highlighted the mistakes and posted them to be discussed by the learners who were further divided into subgroups of five for more opportunity to participate and by the teacher who provided more feedback when needed. Data were collected from the first and last compositions produced in-class by both groups and results were compared with a focus on article use. The mixed method study revealed that MMIF is advantageous and time-saving.