Matching Items (14)
Description
Collaborative learning is a potential technique for teachers to use to meet the diverse learning needs of the students in their classrooms. Previous studies have investigated the contexts in which the benefits of collaborative learning show greater presence. The most important factor found was the quality of the interactions. Studies have suggested that high achieving students are capable of improving the quality of interactions. This bears the question if prior knowledge plays an influence in the learning outcome of students in collaborative learning. Results show that high prior knowledge students do not face a detriment in having low prior knowledge students as a partner comparing to having another high prior knowledge student and that low prior knowledge students show significantly higher learning outcome when partnered with a high prior knowledge partner than with another low prior knowledge student. It is therefore likely that having a high prior knowledge student within a dyad improves the quality of interaction, resulting in greater learning outcome through collaborative learning.
ContributorsKeyvani, Kewmars (Author) / Chi, Michelene (Thesis director) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Education plays a key role throughout many different fields of study. My question has to do with not what we are learning, but how we are learning it, therefore focusing more on the teaching and instructional design aspect of the learning process. Specifically, the goal of my thesis is to theoretically define collaborative learning and develop a framework that demonstrates how collaboration and interactivity can be successfully implemented in a language learning classroom. Language learning is essential in schools because it enables students to be culturally aware. According to the Modern Language Teachers' Association of South Australia, language learning plays a significant role in 21st Century learning. It assists students in being more community engaged as well as culturally diverse. They state that "knowing additional languages and cultures involves connecting, engaging, and interacting with others and negotiating boundaries based on diverse ways of understanding the world." (MLTASA) Collaboration can be very beneficial in the human learning process. According to Webb, students that collaborate with each other engage in challenging conversations and produce joint solutions whereas students that don't collaborate engage in conversation about practical rather than abstract matters (Webb, 2009). The success of collaboration is defined by the content of the dialog, groups won't necessarily engage in beneficial dialogue without help and facilitation by the teacher. It's important for teachers to keep groups on task and monitor their progress throughout the lesson. Through collaborative learning the student is able to take more from the lesson and view each concept from an alternate perspective. With teacher facilitated group discussions, students preform knowledge construction and challenge individual thoughts in order to come up with a joint solution that's takes everyone's point of view into perspective (Nastasi, 1999). Many researchers have concluded that collaborative learning, is a very beneficial learning method when it comes to challenging thoughts and concepts between students. Because each individual has a different thought process and ideas, each student brings a different concept that can be challenged and discussed among the group. Many researchers have previously studied the benefits of collaborative learning as well as the teacher's role in correctly facilitating and implementing it. Webb, highlights the importance of teachers actively pushing students to collaborate and challenge ideas. She states "In classrooms in which teachers pushed students to make explicit the steps in their mental processes (whether students' answers and strategies were correct or incorrect), collaborative groups engaged in frequent explaining and provided explanations that were correct and complete" (Webb, 2009, pg.18). Similarly, researchers such as Rijkje Dekker and Marianne Elshout-Mohr argue that collaboration in classrooms is especially important in terms of the type of work that is assigned. Assignments that require collaboration generally go more in depth and are considered more challenging than those given in individual assignments "Collaborative learning tasks are in general designed as complex, challenging and authentic problems. Such problems motivate students to attempt different strategies and co-construct and justify solutions" (Elshout-Mohr and Dekker, 2000, pg.40). Collaboration in language learning classrooms is beneficial and quite easy to implement (Elshout-Mohr and Dekker, 2000).
ContributorsAhmad, Nshwah Khalil (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis director) / Li, Na (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The quality of support provided to students in higher education can have a powerful impact on the student’s experience, their perceptions of challenges, and their overall academic success, particularly retaining in and completing their degree. Though many universities create robust services to support undergraduate students, existing literature and efforts by universities may be lacking when it comes to doctoral student support. The purpose of this action research, mixed methods study was to evaluate academic support to first year doctoral students in the School of Life Sciences (SOLS) at Arizona State University, specifically addressing the following concepts related to their doctoral study: development of self-efficacy, awareness of requirements and policies, and sense of belonging. With Communities of Practice and self-efficacy theory providing a framework for this study, first year doctoral students in SOLS were invited to participate in a twelve-week, two-condition study during their first semester. The two-condition study involved a Personal Support and a Social Support condition, wherein Personal Support participants (n=8) received 1:1 academic advising and biweekly newsletters, while Social Support participants (n=14) engaged in biweekly advising sessions within groups of 3-6 students and an academic advisor. Results suggest Social Support significantly impacted SOLS doctoral student self-efficacy scores (z = -1.96, p = .05), it created an avenue for students to cultivate community with doctoral student peers thus benefiting sense of belonging, and collaborating with peers influenced awareness to the point of Social Support participants becoming a resource for other students not participating in the study. In contrast, Personal Support appeared to have less of an impact on self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and awareness. For students with vulnerable needs to disclose, Personal Support has the potential to reinforce self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and awareness, but the impacts are nominal otherwise. Furthermore, by the end of their first academic year Social Support participants had retained their self-efficacy and sense of belonging scores. Ultimately, the findings suggest the need for reevaluating how doctoral students are supported in and outside SOLS, with a specific discussion about incorporating Social Support as a permanent model for academic support.
ContributorsFranse, Kylie Rae (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis advisor) / Vogel, Joanne (Thesis advisor) / Farmer-Thompson, Antoinette (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This research aimed to analyze and ultimately understand the relationship between the four dimensions of the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) 2.0 (optimism, innovation, discomfort, and insecurity) when compared to self-efficacy and learning. The experiment design was a one-group pretest-posttest where a participant’s TRI 2.0 acted as a subject variable. This information was then correlated to changes in self-efficacy and content mastery (learning) from pre-/post-test scores pertaining to Google Sheets functions for introductory statistics. In-between the pre- and post-tests, a learning activity was presented which asked participants to analyze quantitative statistics using Google Sheets. Findings of this research demonstrated a statistically insignificant relationship between technology readiness and self-efficacy or learning. Alternatively, significance was observed in changes from pre- to post-test scores for both learning and self-efficacy where a relationship was found between the degree to which participants’ content mastery and self-efficacy change before and after a computer-supported learning activity is assigned. These findings directly contribute to current understanding of how and why individuals can effectively learn and perform in computer-supported learning environments.
ContributorsCervantes Villa, Sabrina Marie (Author) / Craig, Scotty D. (Thesis advisor) / Donner, Jodie (Committee member) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This three-paper dissertation explores the ways in which the skills, dispositions, tools, social norms, and ways of knowing associated with maker practices and design theory illuminate opportunities and challenges for changing education systems. Making and design are unique in that they provide alternative visions for the central aims of schooling as well as a novel set of approaches for the realization of such visions. This duality is explored at three organizational scales: student experience, educator practice, and school leadership. The findings of these investigations highlight major barriers to creating and sustaining innovative education systems while also suggesting ways that these barriers may be overcome. The first paper, which details a qualitative study of 27 young adult makers and their parents, suggests that even strong proponents of maker-based education are bound by the institutional logics of formal education and have a hard time imagining how making could be integrated into school. The second paper documents a design-based research study, in which 20 preservice teachers in an integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education course show that their current training emphasizes the delivery standards-based content over the design of student-centered learning experiences. These studies prompted and shaped the development of a theoretically grounded, design-based conceptual model, detailed in the third paper, which aims to help multi-stakeholder design teams more rigorously imagine new futures for existing schools using generative, participatory prototyping activities.
ContributorsWeiner, Steven (Author) / Jordan, Shawn S (Thesis advisor) / Lande, Micah (Committee member) / Mishra, Punya (Committee member) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Images are ubiquitous in communicating complex information about the future. From political messages to extreme weather warnings, they generate understanding, incite action, and inform expectations with real impact today. The future has come into sharp focus in recent years. Issues like climate change, gene editing, and smart cities are pushing policy makers, scientists, and designers to rethink how society plans and prepares for tomorrow. While academic and practice communities have increasingly turned their gaze toward the future, little attention is paid to how it is depicted and even less to the role visualization technologies play in depicting it. Visualization technologies are those that transform non-visual information into 2D or 3D imagery and generate depictions of certain phenomena, real or perceived. This research helps to fill this gap by examining the role visualization technologies play in how individuals know and make decisions about the future.
This study draws from three phases of research set in the context of urban development, where images of the future are generated by architects and circulated by built environment professionals to affect client and public decision-making. I begin with a systematic review of professional design literature to identify norms related to visualization. I then conduct in-depth interviews with expert architects to draw out how visualization technologies are used to influence client decision-making. I dive into how different tools manage the future and generate different forms of certainty, uncertainty, persuasion, and risk. Complementing the review and interviews is a case study on ASU at Mesa City Center, a development project aimed at revitalizing downtown Mesa, Arizona. Analysis highlights how project-specific visual tools affect decision-making and the role that client imagination and inference play in understanding and preference. This research unpacks the social, technical, and emotional knowledge embedded in visualization technologies and reveals how they affect decision-making. Information about the future is uniquely mediated by each technology with decision-making bound up in larger sociopolitical processes aimed at reducing uncertainty, building trust, and managing expectations. This suggests that the visual tools we use to depict the future are much more dynamic and influential than they are given credit for.
This study draws from three phases of research set in the context of urban development, where images of the future are generated by architects and circulated by built environment professionals to affect client and public decision-making. I begin with a systematic review of professional design literature to identify norms related to visualization. I then conduct in-depth interviews with expert architects to draw out how visualization technologies are used to influence client decision-making. I dive into how different tools manage the future and generate different forms of certainty, uncertainty, persuasion, and risk. Complementing the review and interviews is a case study on ASU at Mesa City Center, a development project aimed at revitalizing downtown Mesa, Arizona. Analysis highlights how project-specific visual tools affect decision-making and the role that client imagination and inference play in understanding and preference. This research unpacks the social, technical, and emotional knowledge embedded in visualization technologies and reveals how they affect decision-making. Information about the future is uniquely mediated by each technology with decision-making bound up in larger sociopolitical processes aimed at reducing uncertainty, building trust, and managing expectations. This suggests that the visual tools we use to depict the future are much more dynamic and influential than they are given credit for.
ContributorsSelkirk, Kaethe (Author) / Selin, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Wylie, Ruth (Committee member) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Many college campuses institute residency requirements intended to provide intentional support, engagement, and assistance in the transition into life as a first-year college student. However, first-year students opting to continue living at home with family and commuting to campus each day has become a growing trend. This group of students can often be more sizable than some may assume and their developmental needs can be consistent with those of their on-campus peers. The objective of this mixed-methods action research study was to better understand how peer-to-peer experiences and opportunities are perceived and to describe and explore the concept of social capital and sense of belonging within the first-year commuter student population. This feeling of isolation can often expand to a lack of campus involvement and engagement in social opportunities. As a result of the perceived needs of this growing first-year commuter student population, a peer mentoring program was launched as a pilot to localize, personalize, and support students by providing a peer student leader in the form of a commuter peer mentor (CPM). Results from the qualitative and quantitative data collected as a part of this study demonstrated that first-year students value specific and easily-identified resources made available to their unique need cases and while many first-year commuter students may feel well supported and connected academically, they articulated challenges with social connections within the university setting. The understandings gained from this action research can inform higher education and student affairs practitioners as they seek to establish or improve programs, resources, and practices that intentionally and thoughtfully support first-year commuter students.
ContributorsMoore, Jeremy (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis advisor) / Aska, Cassandra (Committee member) / Kim, Samuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
This research study focuses on enhancing the Professional Student Coach (PSC) program as an innovation to help students improve their leadership skills. Using Katz’s Skills Leadership Theory to define leadership, this mixed methods study suggests an evidence-based leadership program can increase student self-efficacy and expand their leadership perceptions. Transformative learning theory, student involvement theory, and self-efficacy theory are used to guide the development of this study. Qualitative and quantitative data sources are collected to answer the following research questions: (1) How does participation in a student leadership program affect a coach’s self-efficacy?; (2) How does participation in a student leadership program affect a coach’s perceptions of leadership?; (3) How does participating in a student leadership program affect a coach’s ability to lead groups?; and (4) How do non-coach participants (first-year
ew students) perceive the student leadership program?
ew students) perceive the student leadership program?
ContributorsSadri, Sam (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis advisor) / Drane III, Daniel (Committee member) / Nagare, Melissa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
The National Center for Educational Statistics (2018) reported that only 59% of first time college students will retain from their first to second year. The institutional effects of retention are wide ranging and nationwide colleges and universities are seeking effective methods of improving the retention of first year students. Isaak, Graves, & Mayers (2007) identified both emotional intelligence and resilience as important factors contributing to student retention. According to Daniel Goleman (1995), emotional intelligence is integral to success in life, and a significant relationship has been found with grades and successful acclimation to the college environment (Ciarrochi, Deane, & Anderson, 2002; Liff, 2003; and Pekrun, 2006). This study explored the impact of an emotional intelligence (EI) intervention within a First Year Experience course on students’ emotional intelligence, resilience, and academic success. Forty four students at a small, private, liberal arts institution in the southeastern United States participated in the EI intervention and were measured for EI and resilience utilizing the EQ-i 2.0 and the 5x5RS measures as pre and posttests. Based on the results of this study, the EI intervention may have positive implications on EI, resilience and academic success. Institutions and researchers should continue to explore EI as a mechanism to improve resilience and academic success among first year students.
ContributorsDavis, Alexander M (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis advisor) / Correa, Kevin (Committee member) / Duncan, Tisha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Students across the United States of America are struggling to achieve college and career readiness in reading before they graduate from high school. The phenomenon of reading comprehension in older adolescent students plagues teachers because of its complexity and the perceived need for multiple solutions. However, close inspection of the research reveals factors such as self-efficacy, motivation, and lack of skills with regards to using reading strategies all contribute to the problem. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of sketchnoting as a reading strategy on student self-efficacy for reading, motivation for reading, and reading comprehension in a high school classroom setting. With words, symbols and pictures, sketchnoting as a reading strategy provides students with a platform to interact with their text while recording key ideas and details as well as connections they make to the text. While there are several theoretical frameworks that guide research on reading, this concurrent, mixed methods, action research study specifically focuses on Collaborative Learning Theory, Self-determination theory, and Schema Theory. These theoretical frameworks also establish a foundation for the study of methods to address the problem. This framework is rooted in the constructivist perspective in that each student brings to the learning environment their own levels of motivation and self-efficacy as well as their own perspectives on the truth to be learned. The participants of this study were juniors in a required English 11 class that I was teaching. There were six instruments used for this study: pre- and post-reading survey, Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI), Reading Skills Assessment, general observations, sketchnote assessment, and interviews. Results of the semester-long study show that while there statistically was no evidence of a relationship between student use of sketchnoting as a reading strategy and an increase in reading motivation or self-efficacy for reading, there was evidence to show that there is a relationship between student perception of sketchnoting being meaningful to their understanding of the text and their motivation and self-efficacy. Sketchnoting as a reading strategy did not have a statistical influence on student reading comprehension; however, the students reported that they remembered the details of the text they read better when using sketchnoting and that sketchnoting helped them make connections to the text they read. This research showed that sketchnoting as a reading strategy provided students with a tool to help them identify the key ideas and details of a text and it also provided them with a platform to take them beyond the key ideas and details through making connections.
ContributorsTreptow, Jennifer (Author) / Wylie, Ruth (Thesis advisor) / Peyton Marsh, Josephine (Committee member) / Droessler Mersch, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020