Literature Review

Christopher Shively

LAI 529 – Literature Review

Define formative assessment
Define peer feedback
It is because of this low interest in authentic vocabulary instruction, that I have reviewed the research done on methods of vocabulary instruction and vocabulary acquisition. The research I review examines the following aspects of vocabulary acquisition as it relates to reading comprehension 1. Learning words through context, and 2. Direct Instruction of Vocabulary – this will include specific instructional strategies used to promote new word learning. The instructional strategies reviewed are 1. reading aloud, 2. establishing a reading purpose, 3. flashcards, 4.use of dictionary, 5.overview guides and 6. mnemonic vocabulary strategies. Direct Instruction will also include elements of vocabulary instructional programs.

Using Peer Feedback to Enhance the Quality of Student Online Postings: An Exploratory Study

Research Questions

What is the impact of peer feedback on the quality of students' postings in an online environment? Can the quality of discourse/learning be maintained and/or increased through the use of peer feedback?

Dependent Variables:

What are students' perceptions of the value of receiving peer feedback? How do these perceptions compare to the perceived value of receiving instructor feedback?

What are students' perceptions of the value of giving peer feedback?

Methods:
case study framework

semester-long, graduate level course


Using both descriptive and evaluative approaches


the students were asked to respond to weekly discussion questions (see Appendix for examples). In a typical week, students were expected to post at least one response to the discussion question (DQ) and one response to another student's post.



For this study, feedback was defined as: 1) a numerical score (from 0-2) based on Bloom's taxonomy and 2) descriptive comments supporting the assigned score and relating specifically to the quality of the post. Postings at the knowledge, comprehension, and application levels received one point; postings demonstrating analysis, synthesis, or evaluation received two points; non-substantive comments received zero points.


- first professors posted as a model and then students were required to post


- students submitted feedback to professors first and then they filtered it to students - thus promoting anonymity


Data:


Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through participant interviews, scored ratings of students' weekly discussion postings, and responses to both entry and exit survey questionnaires



the research team scored all discussion postings, using the same rubric that students had used


Two researchers rated all of the students' postings


At the end of week five, students completed a survey (13 Likert-style items and 5 open-ended questions)


Sample Size:

15 graduate students (10 female, 5 male) enrolled in an online technology integration course


Findings:



By the end of the course, students' perceptions of the importance of feedback in an online course had significantly increased


Although the quality of students' postings did not improve with peer feedback, neither did it decrease; suggesting that peer feedback may be effective in maintaining quality of postings, once a particular quality level has been reached



the semester, students' perceptions of the value of instructor feedback (M=4.6) had not changed significantly - it was more important than peer feedback

- due to student motivation

- time

- biases on the part of students


Additional benefits to receiving peer feedback included confirmation that their ideas were meaningful to others, as well as profiting from their peers' insights and perspectives.


When asked on the post-survey to rate the importance of both giving and receiving peer feedback, students rated them at the same level (M=3.7), that is, as important to their learning.


The main concerns for giving feedback related to consistency and fairness (n=4). For example, one student commented, "I think peer feedback is good but, in some respects, I don't know if I'm really qualified to give a grade to anybody."


Overall, more than half of the students (n=8) felt that the benefits of providing peer feedback outweighed the costs.


results showed no significant improvement in students' postings from the beginning to the end of the course


Notes:


- By asking students to provide constructive feedback to each other, instructors are inviting them to participate in each other's learning and thus achieve greater understanding and appreciation for their peers' experiences and perspectives.


students are offered the opportunity not only to reflect on the work of their peers but also on their own work, which over time can lead to increased learning


challenges


overcoming students' anxiety


receiving feedback


ensuring reliability


As Meyer (cited in Meyer, 2004) explains, "Questions created to trigger personal stories [do] so, and questions targeted to elicit information or higher-level analysis [do] so" (p. 112)


As Topping suggests, if learners perceive peer feedback to be invalid, they may end up de-valuing the entire peer feedback process. This suggests the importance of explicitly addressing students' perceptions up front and taking steps to counter their strong pre-conceived ideas of the relatively weaker value of peer feedback.


According to Dunlap and Grabinger (cited in Dunlap, 2005), "the process of reviewing someone else's work can help learners reflect on and articulate their own views and ideas, ultimately improving their own work


Help students understand not only how the peer feedback process works, but why it is being used (e.g., to provide additional feedback, to better gauge postings).


Model and provide examples of effective feedback prior to implementing the peer feedback process


Provide guidelines regarding how to provide effective peer feedback, such as "always begin with positive feedback and then offer information on areas for improvement.


Monitor the process and, in turn, provide feedback on the feedback, at least initially, to help the process run smoothly and to allow students to benefit from the strategy.


Ensure that the feedback is anonymous so that students can provide ratings without feeling pressure from peers


THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF ANONYMITY AND PROXIMITY IN AN ONLINE SYNCHRONIZED COMPETITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Research Questions

1.) Thus, this study examines the mediating effects of anonymity and proximity,

two important components manipulable with the support of networking technologies, on group dynamics within cooperating dyads.



Methods:


The present study compared the differential effects of three different competition modes (i.e., face-to-face team competition, decreased proximity team competition, and anonymous team competition)



- Three classes from the fourth-grade level of one primary school in the southem

part of Taiwan were randomly selected to participate in the study. In total, 103

fourth-graders (ages 10-11) participated in three instmctional sessions over

three consecutive weeks.


- online synchronous competitive leaming system, called Joyce, (allows leamers practice answering multiple-choice questions with competing opponents simultaneously face-to-face or via network)


Joyce provided randomized tests questions from a bank of questions


Treatments:

A- face-to-face - near each other

B- dyads were not near each other (decreased proximity) - names were shown on the screen

C - names were not revealed - pseudonyms were used


Data:


- A post-experiment self-report questionnaire was disseminated to participants to be completed individually. The questionnaire consisted of "Student Perceptual Impressions of In-group Processing" and "Student Perceptual Impressions of Classroom Climate."


- Semi-structured interviews with six students purposively selected from the target audience and expert reviews were undertaken during scale development to ensure validity of the measurement instruments.


Findings:


- subjects in Treatment A rated significantly less favorably on inner-group processing than

those in Treatment B and C


- students in Treatment C rated significantly more favorably on classroom climate than those in Treatment A and B


- Data from this study supported our proposition that anonymity and proximity are more favorable for in-group processing.


- Students participating in the physical separation and anonymity team competition conditions in this study perceived themselves to be more focused on

information-sharing and exchanging as compared to the face-to-face team

competition condition.


- In other words, anonymity and reduced proximity minimize the in-group process losses associated with face-to-face team competition situations and induce more task-related interaction and effective com-

munication within groups.


The present study also found that students in the anonymous team competition

condition rated significantly more favorably on classroom climate than those in

the other two treatment conditions.

THE INTERNET SELF-PERCEPTION SCALE: MEASURING ELEMENTARY STUDENTS' LEVELS OF SELF-EFFICACY REGARDING INTERNET USE

Research Questions

1.) Because students' perceptions of themselves play such a crucial role in forming one's view of self-efficacy and may ultimately impact success, it is important to

determine if the four major components of self-efficacy exist when children leam

to use the Intemet.


2.) if there are subsets of students in the classroom who view themselves

differently in terms of their ability to use the Intemet.



Methods:

- 170 fourth graders fi-om two schools, Applegate Ele-

mentary School in Ohio, and Lincoln Middle School in Illinois.

- participated in WISH (WorldGate Intemet School to Home) to get free internet access

- Lincoln - 90% black - 90% free/reduced lunch - teacher comfortable using the web

- Applegate - 15% black - 31% free/reduced lunch - only one 4th grade teacher was comfortable using the web


- One purpose of the current study was to investigate the structure of the ISPS

scale using exploratory factor analysis (EFA).

**** Students were given a survey to answer


Data:


- Factor 1 was named "Personal Self-efficacy." - describe children's evaluations of their Intemet abilities.


- Factor 2 was named "Comparison to Peers" reflecting a student's self-efficacy as compared to their classmates.


- Factor 3 was named "Physiological States", described the emotions that children felt when using the Internet


- Factor 4 was named "Social Feedback", thought to reflect social feedback provided by parents and others


Findings:

Cluster 1 - Internet Positive - 40% - skills comparable to others

Cluster 2 - Internet Able - 21% - skills comparable to others - but not as high as above

Cluster 3 - Internet Able - unsure - 25% - low agreement when comparing themselves to their peers

Cluster 4 - Poor Internet Attitude - 11% - low feedback from others

Cluster 5 - Negative Internet Feedback - 3%


1.) these findings suggest that children's self-perceptions of their Intemet

use should be considered as important as self-perceptions of their ability to leam

other content areas.


2.) Children may leam the Intemet quickly, but leaming such skills should not be trivialized because they do not necessarily represent a traditional subject area.


3.) This study showed that children do run the risk of being "tumed off from using the Intemet if the feedback received from peers and adults is negative and shows the importance of nurturing and supporting students while they are leaming these skills.


4.) Knowledge of children's self perceptions of their Intemet use can be very useful to the classroom teacher and it is thought that the groups that were found with this study may be generalized to the classroom.


5.) Children in the Intemet Able-Unsure group reported high positive self-efficacy

when using the Intemet, but may be overly critical when comparing skills to their

peers. In the classroom, these children could be targeted to boost their self-esteem

by not allowing them to be discouraged by comparisons to peers. This could be

done by pairing students with their more Intemet savvy classmates or assigning

them to work in teams on collaborative Intemet-related projects.



6.) Poor Internet Attitude and Negative Internet Feedback need to hear positive feedback about their skills



Notes:

-Bandura's Self-Efficacy factors - These are Performance, Observational Comparison, Social Feedback, and Physiological States.

Teaching Formative Assessment Strategies to Preservice Teachers: Exploring the Use of Handheld Computing to Facilitate the Action Research Process

Research Questions

The goal was to explore whether the introduction of handheld data collection tools and new pedagogical practices embedded in an action research project is a feasible expectation for novice teachers.



Dependent Variables:

The participants were all teacher candidates in the final semester of their elementary education program.



Methods:

Two year study

- two groups of teacher candidates

- handheld computing device ... used iPAQs

- QUEST (Rose et al., 2007) diagnostic

strategy of formative assessment within the action research process.

- DataInHand Software on handheld - software include a simple interface that permits survey development on

the computer (Likert scale, yes/no, short-response questions) and simple

transfer and retrieval of completed surveys to and from the handheld device.

-we asked participants to select one student identified with special needs from their student teaching experience to tutor one on one for 2 hours each week.

- participants created their own questions, tried them out and modified them to use for the rest of the semester


Year 2 modifications to the questions occurred because:

- Assessment instruments need to be short, and questions must

permit input via the stylus rather than the keyboard.

- Although open-ended questions yield rich data, they make field-

based data collection challenging.

- increased use of Likert-type items

because entering the data with the keyboard was difficult


Data:

Quantitative - see table

Qualitative


Sample Size: 32


Findings:

See table

- The coded data indicates that the

most suggested change surrounded the candidates’ frustration with the

hardware.

- Secondarily, candidates said that using the right software and

instrumentation were vital aspects of a successful experience.

- preservice teachers recognized the value of formative assessment as a method for improving instructional practice.

- Primarily, problems with the hardware provided challenges for the majority of the participants.

- Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of participant re-

sponses, the researchers decided that further integration of handheld data collection would require more modern and reliable tools.

- Participants in both groups agreed

that their understanding of how technology can be used for formative

assessment was enhanced by this experience.




Notes:

- QUEST Cycle

Questioning student understanding of a particular concept


Uncovering understanding and misunderstandings using a

problem


Examining student work


Seeking links to cognitive research to drive next steps in instruc-

tion


Teaching implications based on findings and determining impact

on learning by asking an additional question.


- Stiggins (2005) suggests, one reason for the recent resurgence of interest in formative assessment has been educators’ realization that once-a-year summative standardized testing doesn’t happen frequently enough to

affect specific day-to-day, week-to-week, or even month-to-month instructional decisions. Further, such testing fails to provide a sufficiently detailed picture of student learning to enable teachers to identify ways to help individual students.

Peer assessment for learning from a social perspective: The influence of interpersonal variables and structural features

Peer assessment involves collaboration in the appraisal of learning outcomes by those involved in the learning process, i.e., students


We argue that interpersonal variables play a substantial role in the process of peer assessment, since these might interfere with the appraisal and affect relating to learning outcomes.


Four interpersonal variables influencing learning from and with peers are discerned in this paper: psychological safety, value diversity, interdependence and trust


Psychological safety


Psychological safety, for example, prevents teams from perceiving differences in viewpoints as disagreements, creates room for framing a problem, and so promotes collaborative learning


When peers perceive their environment as safe for interpersonal risk-taking they will be less prone to such conduct as, for example, friendship marking


Value diversity


For students involved in peer assessment the task of using their knowledge and skills to review, clarify, and evaluate the work of others is cognitively demanding.


Therefore, we contend that low value diversity will have a positive influence on peer assessment for learning.


Interdependence

Learning from peer assessment occurs when there is a positive interdependence between the peers, i.e., when peers perceive that they are connected to each other in such a way that the assessment task cannot be performed successfully unless everyone participates in a responsible manner

Trust

The influence of confidence or trust in both self and the other in relation to learning effects is hardly addressed in empirical studies.

Scaffolding Young Children's Reflections With Student-Created PowerPoint Presentations -

Research Questions

1.) How do young children reflect upon their learning experience?

2.) How might they express their reflections through computer technology, specifically SCPP?

3.) Are there gender or age differences in their reflections?

4.) What functions does SCPP server in students' reflections?

5.) In what ways does SCPP support or challenge the students' reflective learning?



Dependent Variables:

K/1 classroom - University Primary school

14 students - 8 1st graders (one girl and seven boys)

9 W

2 B

2 A

1 Korean



Methods:

Project Approach Method

- interpretative study that focuses on social-cognitive dynamics

- Students were engaged in a three-phase project about measurement

- write/draw about what they know about measurement or how it has been used in their lives

- investigated how people in different professions used measurement

- drew tow and three dimensional representations related to their experiences and reflected on what they learned


Students:

- chose samples of their work

- with TA, they reflected upon their chosen work

- TA helped students build PPT presentations using scanned images and worked with the kids to type in comments - no student comments were altered

- Students shared their work with their parents at an open house


Data:

- spring semester

- observation and videotape

- interviews with teachers


Authors measured:

- outcomes of PPTs - length, structure, and layout

- data was coded - level and pattern of reflections, age, gender

- - analyzed complexity

- analysis of video



Sample Size:

14


Findings:

- students could create PPTs

- SCPP projects corresponded to objectives being taught

- level and patterns of reflection were not gender related

- older students reflected more

- students chose unique layout designs

- SCPP provided a means to articulate their thinking and reflection in a communicative way

- offered an alternative venue

- provided a means for teachers to assess student progress

- it made the SCPP a socially shareable event - open house

- digital literacy skills

- SCPP stimulated children's thinking about what they learned

- The TA typed for Jack who had writing issues - Jack also liked the one-on-one interactions with the teacher

- Working in small groups enabled the teachers to remedy the knowledge base while it was still forming

- teacher analysis of student ideas - measuring fire - will alter their approach to this unit in the future

- the semi-structured design provided enough of a scaffold to stimulate thinking because of the flow: What do you know, what do you learn, and how did you learn it

- meeting one-on-one compliments the group reflection of the Project Approach


Notes:

- Reggio Emilia - record children's discussions about their work - a reflective approach




PEER SCAFFOLDING OF KNOWLEDGE BUILDING THROUGH COLLABORATIVE GROUPS WITH DIFFERENTIAL LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Research Questions

1. Are there differences in the interaction patterns and discourse between a

more experienced group and a novice group in knowledge building?


2. Will the interaction patterns and discourse of the novice group change when

it collaborates with the more experienced group?


3. If the interaction patterns and discourse of the novice group change, will the

changed patterns be sustained when the more experienced group no longer

participates in the collaboration?



Methods:


Case Study


As a result, the two teachers

agreed that their students, 22 from Hong Kong and 22 from Toronto, all in fifth

grade, would collaborate through the online platform, Knowledge Forum


Scaffolds: in the form of word cues such as “New information,” “New idea,” “I

need to understand,” and “My theory.”


Stage 1 - schools worked separately on knowledge building of topics


Stage 2 - schools collaborated around the topic of ancient civilizations


Stage 3 - faded collaboration -


Data:

- focused on the students’ participation and interaction patterns on KF and their levels of engagement with respect to knowledge building, with special attention given to the change in behavior and discourse of the Hong Kong students over the three stages.


- to obtain statistical information—such as the number of notes created, number of build-on notes created, number of reads, and what kinds of scaffold used—for each student within a certain period


-focus-group interviews were conducted with Hong Kong students after the third stage to find out their perception of the learning experience and whether they perceived any

difference between the two classes of students when they engaged in collaborative



Findings:


- To summarize, when HK students began to collaborate with their CA peers,

they tended to write more notes that were linked with one another and no longer

confined themselves to the discussion of their own topic but joined in the

discussions of other topics as well.


-The results also suggest that these interaction

patterns among HK students were sustained even when the CA students were no

longer present on the discussion forum.


- the HK students commented that CA students tended to ask more

questions in their notes. Perhaps, the increase in their use of the scaffold “I need to

understand” in stage three reflected the HK students’ efforts to model how to ask

questions as a productive knowledge building activity.


** Stage 2 - It appears that the discourse of the CA students triggered their HK peers to advance in their level of knowledge building engagement. HK students’ notes also exhibited more advanced levels of knowledge building, especially in the negotiation of meaning (21%), while the percentage of information sharing notes dropped to 67%.


- In stage 3, the HK students did not build as much knowledge - It appears that without the disagreeing discourse contributed by the CA students, the level of dissonance became lower at this stage.


**** Secondly, the interaction patterns and discourse of the novice group changed

through collaboration with the more experienced group: more linked notes are

written, more disagreements and negotiations of meaning are expressed in the

discourse, and members no longer confined their participation to their own topic

but join in the discussions of other topics as well.


***The above results suggest that collaborating with a more experienced group in knowledge building can have a scaffolding effect on knowledge building for a

novice group of students.



Notes:

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a relatively new

pedagogical approach to create a powerful learning environment in combination

with the ideas of collaborative learning and networked technology (Jarvela,

Hakkinen, Arvaja, & Leinonen, 2004).


In other words, for students to

become more advanced in knowledge building, they need to move from sharing or

comparing information to the discovery of disagreement, negotiation of meaning

and beyond.



A scaffold is: Wood, Bruner, and Ross

Ross (1976),

what happens between a tutor and a child: a “process that enables a child or

novice to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be

beyond his unassisted efforts” (p. 90)


Piaget argued that because of the unequal power relations, interactions with an adult will simply cause the children to abandon their ideas.

a problematizing move is a form of action that calls something previously held to be unproblematic into doubt

This article opens up the possibility of peer scaffolding of knowledge

building by a more experienced group which generates more problematizing

moves.


Assessment-Driven Improvements in Middle School Students’ Writing

- many students get little informative feedback about their work. Often, this is because few teachers have the luxury of regularly responding to each student’s work and learning.

- Peer and self-assessment are key elements in formative assessment, because they involve students in thinking about the quality of their own and each others’ work, rather than relying on their teachers as the sole source of evaluative judgment.

- important to use a rubric

- "fishbowl" - student feedback activity

- COACH is an acronym for Commend (offer praise), Observe (note ways in which their writing is similar to the writing they are editing), Ask (ask the writer questions about what he or she meant or intended), Consider (always be considerate of the writer’s feelings), and Help (offer help in a useful way). - A formative assessment (self)

-valid rubric - based on NYS test rubrics

Click or clique? Using Educational Technology to Address Students’ Anxieties About Peer Evaluation

The ‘average’ student would be familiar with the process of grading presentations using clickers, as the technology is similar to the procedure on

mainstream television shows like American Idol, where audience members vote to support their favourite contestants, or with the real-time tracking of focus group responses to televised political debates. It was perhaps not surprising,

mainstream use of audience response strategies in television, that students equated peer review of presentations in the classroom with popularity contests and were anxious about possible peer bias, or the formation of ‘cliques’ based on personality, impacting on the validity of the results.

- The literature on the use of clickers discusses a number of advantages to their use, including active learning, providing feedback, increasing attention span and motivation

- Peer assessment can give learners opportunities to dynamically practice applying criteria, giving and receiving feedback, comparing their work with others, while also providing a framework for clearer goals and expectations.

- The overall benefits of peer assessment are understood to include the promotion of higher order thinking and cooperative learning.

- There is a general expectation in the literature that students will ‘over-mark’, that is, give higher marks than their teachers.

- In this study, both male and female students talked about not wanting to fail their peers, although the male students set this up as a preventative measure, as they ‘hoped they wouldn’t fail you’, while the female students wanted ‘everyone to do well’.

- anonymity might reduce social pressure, it also reduces responsibility, resulting in careless responses, or ‘ruthless’ feedback (Bostock, 2000).

- While the majority of students appreciated the marking criteria framework for the peer evaluation, some students found the numerical responses to be too limiting, and suggested that they would have welcomed the opportunity to add more commentary, either in an anonymous survey or in class presentation of the discussions.

-‘politeness effect’

- The students reported that the peer evaluation process encouraged ongoing and active engagement with the class presentations:

- Many students were concerned about their capacity to evaluate,

- their engagement with the class presentations, and of the reported parity of between student and teacher results, students persisted in their reluctance to formally assess their peers:

Conclusions

- Students appreciated the use of the clickers in the context of this peer assessment activity for their functionality, novelty and, most particularly, anonymity.

-The students’ caution in recommending the use of clickers as a part of the summative assessment process suggests that its effectiveness rests on its future use, as part of the process of learning, as a formative learning activity.

-However, the neutrality of the clickers in this peer evaluation context was undermined by their very familiarity, as students had been habituated to the process of voting using communication technologies in mainstream television popularity, talent, or game shows. This popular culture contextualisation potentially reinforced student anxieties about personality bias in the peer evaluation process.

Digital Photo Journals: A Novel Approach to Addressing Early Childhood Technology Standards and Recommendations

Research Questions

1. How does the digital camera project create meaningful technolgy integration within the physical space and learning environment?

2. And second, how does the activity of making a digital journal provide children with opportunities for social engagement and reflection?

Methods:

- k/1 classroom

- 21 students

- 8 boys 13 girls

- one digital camera and computer

- students took pictures all day, they were taught how to use the camera

- the pictures were uploaded to the computer, the students picked pictures and the investigators typed captions (dictated to them by the students)

- the investigators used open-ended questions

- the entire journal creation process was videotaped

- they displayed their journals to their parents at an open-house night


Data:

Findings:

- children had four basic approaches to talking about their pictures

-- descriptive approach - simply say what was on the screen

-- explanatory approach - described the reasoning behind why they took or chose particular pictures

-- situative approach - which relays the physical, temporal and social context of the picture (Sam and Bryan always sit together)

-- interpretative approach to reflection - children filling in details about the people in the photos

- it served as an opportunity for students to reflect on their environment and social networks with an adult


Embedding E-mail in Primary Schools: Developing a Tool for Collective Reflection

Research Questions

1.) How can e-mail be implemented in the classrooms so that children become

engaged in collective reflection?

2.) What is the reflective nature of the e-mail activities?

Methods:

First Design Experiment

- paired partnerships between schools (support measure)

- group emails - not individual

- fixed timing (email was sent on a fixed day and there were a fixed number of emails) (support measure)

- a paper worksheet was used (support measure) with email format simulated

- fixed reflection period (read email before the lesson and wrote email after the lesson)

Second Design Experiment

- worksheet was modified

- freewriting was inserted as a way to promote reflection


Participants

1st: - The schools were sited in villages in a rural area of Enschede,

the Netherlands. Both schools participated with one classroom (grade 5-6, aged

10-12). In total, 16 groups participated.


2nd: Three schools voluntarily participated in the second design experiment. The

schools were sited in villages in a rural area of Enschede, the Netherlands. All

schools participated with one classroom (grade 5-6, aged 10-12). In total, 12

groups participated.





Data:

- A range of data was gathered to gain insight in the teachers’ implementation of

the e-mail tool, the children’s motives to engage in collective reflection and e-mail

- use, and the reflective nature of the e-mails. Classroom observations and field

notes of all lessons were taken. Informal interviews were held with the teachers

after each lesson and at the end of the project. All design products, and e-mails

were collected. Semi-structured interviews with a few children (n = 8) randomly

chosen from one classroom were held after each lesson.



Findings:

First Design Experiment

- Thus, the support measures helped to practically embed e-mail use in the lessons, and create favorable conditions for collective reflection.

-the practicality of the e-mail tool we conclude that it fitted the circumstances at schools, and was successfully embedded in the lessons.

- In relation to the validity of the tool, we conclude that the children experienced

e-mail as related to the task, and wrote down descriptions and to a lesser extent

evaluations that witness the beginning of reflection.

- relation to the effectiveness of the tool we conclude that most of the reflections

were intellectual - but because of the teacher and not the researchers questions

- sometimes the kids wrote silly responses

- teachers had to prompt kids to ask questions

Second Design Experiment

- revised worksheet left out distractions - like the assignment

-Because of the three minute thinking and freewriting - The individual writings were used as a source for group writing. Composing e-mails now took less time. With the individual preparations at their disposal,

children had more to discuss.

- No unreflective, quiz-like questioning was found in the e-mails.

- the group emails included more did. The content of most e-mails was composed from all the freewritings of a group.

*** We concluded that the supportive measures helped to embed e-mail within the learning task (practicality), and encouraged individual and collective personal reflection on the process and products of learning (validity). The children wrote individual reports, and used these to compose group e-mails.

- Composing a group e-mail by using individual freewritings as a starting point

proved to be fruitful for collective reflection in various ways. First of all, it

provided the children with the opportunity to give expression to their own

personal voices, and defend these when constructing a group opinion. Besides

that, the freewritings made the children aware of different views that resided in

their groups. Reading each other’s freewritings often led to acknowledging the

uniqueness of each writing and to copying unique parts from each freewriting

into the group e-mail. Sometimes these unique parts were summarized in a new

group opinion.


- Implementing freewriting led to more extensive dialogues surrounding the

writing of e-mails. Hence, reflection not only occurred through writing, but also

through talking. And when receiving e-mails from the partner group, reading and

talking were prevalent activities. Thus, collective reflection with e-mail comes

about through a diversity of language-based activities.

Learning Through Teaching: Peer-Mediated Instruction in Minimally

Research Questions


"how does knowledge get transmitted, shared and/or acquired?"


Methods:


Participants:

A total number of 250 children (boys and girls) were selected for the study. The spread between the genders is more or less equal. In others words, the number of boys and girls in the study is more or less the same. These children are regular users of the learning stations. Their age ranges from 6 to 14 years; the average age being 10-11 years. A majority of these children study at the elementary school level (below grade 8). They come from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. They are typically Hindus, Muslims and Christians.


1.) Students visit a MIE LS (minimally invasive education learning station) and interact with the computer

2.) A Reseach Consultant befriended the kids and wrote observations

a.)

- Number of children at the LS, their names and gender, nature of the children's interaction, which children were working together in a group, or was a given child working on his or her own. Further, the RC also periodically asked the children details of the activity or activities they did on that day, what new aspect they had learnt during the course of their visit to the LS, how did they perform that activity, from whom they had learnt it and to whom did they teach it to.


3.) Identification of learning methods adopted by the children at the LS when working in groups in comparison to while working independently at the LS.


4.) To map the course of development of computer literacy for each child, as leader or follower of the group, and the spread of information and learning from one child to another. It would help in the identification of leaders and members present in a group. Such an exercise would enable the evaluation of flow of information within the group and between groups, and provide an estimate of the number of children who stand to gain from any one group or leader.


Data:

Methods of Learning

- Trial and Error

- Rehearsal - something happens, the kids recognize something happened and make it happen again

- Self-discovery - something happens, the kids make it happen and then they want to know more

- Demonstration - one child shows another

- Verbal inputs - one child tells another

- Observation - children observe and learn

- Practice and Drill - This parameter reflects the capability acquired by the children.


Findings:

Independent Learing at LS

1.) Trial and Error - This activity serves as an indication of the inquisitive nature of young children. Trial and error is a fundamental initial method of learning, especially when there is no other source of receiving or obtaining information The figure clearly shows that the usage of trial and error was least used (4%)


2.) Rehearsal - Figure 1 indicates that children, to begin with, use this strategy by only 10%, but its use, although a little erratic, increases to nearly 30%. Hence, the child, while working independently at the MIE LS, employs this method constantly over the period of 9 months. The contribution of this method in comparison to the other methods is 14%.


3.) Practice and Drill - The contribution of this method in terms of its comparison to other methods is the highest at 52%, indicating the importance of practise and drill in learning contexts. the gradual increase of the use of this strategy--from 3% to 25% over a period of 9 months.


4.) Self-discovery - I do not know --> I know some things with the help --> I have learned on my own --> The contribution of Self-discovery as a method of learning is 30% as compared with other methods (Figure 2) over the 9-month period


Group Learning at LS

1.) Trail and Error - method drops completely after August


2.) Rehearsal - drops off after the initial months and then goes away completely - The total contribution of this method is 3% when compared with other methods.


3.) Demonstration - the usage of this method is erratic though continuous. In the beginning month, ie, in the month of August, there is heavy usage followed by a drop in the next month followed by a rise again. This pattern is observed across the 9 months. -- Imitation represents an act that one person copies from another. It is an educative step the child could not have attained on his own. Cognition derives from social realities that surround the child. Modelling by significant others has a special impact on young children. *** It also takes on the form that if he is teaching other children, there is an awareness that he must learn not only for his own self, but also in order to teach his group of collaborators.


4.) Verbal Inputs - The contribution that verbal inputs has is 4% as compared with other methods. results indicate towards the fact that other knowledgeable individuals, namely peers, serve to impart the required information. The two major learning methods adopted by children when they seek help of others are observation and enquiring about information from peers (experts-leaders) who have more knowledge about computer usage.

- Collaboration emerges as a core aspect of cognitive development and cannot be divorced from the social context.


**** Yet, the results obtained at the MIE LS indicate that young children are open to a variety of learning methods. Each learning method has its significant role in the entire process of learning computer skills.


***In the MIE setting, we find that the children's new capacities are being developed in the ZPD through collaboration in actual, concrete, situated activities with the help of more capable peers.


-- An important aspect that needs to be noted is that when children work in groups at the MIE LS, synergy is generated in collaborative contexts. This synergy provides a significant platform that produces or creates a learning environment via:

- motivation to learn

- Second, children in collaborative settings learn from one another. (this is in contrast to our schools where independent practice is the norm or requirement)

- group activity creates more activity and leads to learning from peers


***** The data on learning suggests that children require an approach in which children interact in small groups. It will allow them to observe, experiment, inquire and examine aspects of their environment. In this way, they make sense of their own experience and the world around them.

Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment

assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs


All these studies show that innovations that include strengthening the practice of formative assessment produce significant and often substantial learning gains.


Many of these studies arrive at another important conclusion: that improved formative assessment helps low achievers more than other students and so reduces the range of achievement while raising achievement overall.


For assessment to function formatively, the results have to be used to adjust teaching and learning; thus a significant aspect of any program will be the ways in which teachers make these adjustments


How Can We Improve Formative Assessment?

The self-esteem of pupils.

when they have any choice, pupils avoid difficult tasks. They also spend time and energy looking for clues to the "right answer."


many become reluctant to ask questions out of a fear of failure


Pupils who encounter difficulties are led to believe that they lack ability, and this belief leads them to attribute their difficulties to a defect in themselves about which they cannot do a great deal


What is needed is a culture of success, backed by a belief that all pupils can achieve


While formative assessment can help all pupils, it yields particularly good results with low achievers by concentrating on specific problems with their work and giving them a clear understanding of what is wrong and how to put it right


Self-assessment by pupils


The main problem is that pupils can assess themselves only when they have a sufficiently clear picture of the targets that their learning is meant to attain


When anyone is trying to learn, feedback about the effort has three elements: recognition of the desired goal, evidence about present position, and some understanding of a way to close the gap between the two


New understandings are not simply swallowed and stored in isolation; they have to be assimilated in relation to preexisting ideas


Tasks have to be justified in terms of the learning aims that they serve, and they can work well only if opportunities for pupils to communicate their evolving understanding are built into the planning


One common problem is that, following a question, teachers do not wait long enough to allow pupils to think out their answers. When a teacher answers his or her own question after only two or three seconds and when a minute of silence is not tolerable, there is no possibility that a pupil can think out what to say.

It is also generally the case that only a few pupils in a class answer the teacher's questions.

What is essential is that any dialogue should evoke thoughtful reflection in which all pupils can be encouraged to take part, for only then can the formative process start to work


Feedback has been shown to improve learning when it gives each pupil specific guidance on strengths and weaknesses, preferably without any overall marks


fixed I.Q." view -- a belief that each pupil has a fixed, inherited intelligence that cannot be altered much by schooling

"untapped potential" view -- a belief that starts from the assumption that so-called ability is a complex of skills that can be learned

ways of managing formative assessment that work with the assumptions of "untapped potential" do help all pupils to learn and can give particular help to those who have previously struggled.


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