Search results for "Computers"
showing 10 items of 3243 documents
Course Satisfaction in Engineering Education Through the Lens of Student Agency Analytics
2020
This Research Full Paper presents an examination of the relationships between course satisfaction and student agency resources in engineering education. Satisfaction experienced in learning is known to benefit the students in many ways. However, the varying significance of the different factors of course satisfaction is not entirely clear. We used a validated questionnaire instrument, exploratory statistics, and supervised machine learning to examine how the different factors of student agency affect course satisfaction among engineering students (N = 293). Teacher’s support and trust for the teacher were identified as both important and critical factors concerning experienced course satisf…
Approaches to Learning, Wellbeing, Study Success and Employment Expectations in a Finnish Business School
2018
In business school contexts, the relationships between the learning approach, wellbeing, study success, and employment expectations have not been widely studied. In this paper, we analyze learning approaches and student wellbeing in a Finnish business school. We found a significant relation between them and success in business school studies and employment expectations. Major-subject related differences in approaches to learning were observed. For example, social relations were particularly emphasized by students of marketing. More specifically, we found seven learning approaches: 1) Independent learners, 2) Teacher-centered learners, 3) Social learners, 4) Fumbling learners, 5) Theoretical…
Student engagement in Finnish higher education : Conflicting realities?
2019
This chapter focuses on how students are engaged in Finnish higher education by describing issues related to student engagement from macro, meso and micro perspectives and highlights the fact that student engagement is more than representativeness in decision-making bodies. It presents a concrete example for each perspective. Student engagement at the macro level refers to the socio-cultural climate on student experience, which typically is created at the national level. In Finnish higher education, student engagement seems to have two layers or realities. First, at the level of representativeness, students are well engaged and students have strong voices in decision-making bodies and strat…
Visual Literacy From the Perspective of the VTS Method
2017
The purpose of this article is to investigate visual literacy from the perspective of the VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) method. The authors examine the viewpoints of seven American elementary school teachers on visual literacy and its meanings in the context of the VTS method. Data collection was done using a semi-structured questionnaire, which was followed by theory-driven content analysis. The authors emphasize that when supporting holistic development in a teaching context, it is the interconnected nature of aesthetics, growth and the learner’s learning which is more important than developing special skills, like visual literacy. In the teaching context visual literacy and language d…
"The English Class of My Dreams!" : Envisioning Teaching a Foreign Language
2018
The psychology of the second (or foreign) language learner has been extensively researched since the mid-1950s. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the psychology of the teacher. Of the psychological make-up of the learner, motivation has been found to be one of the key issues affecting not only the outcome but also the process of learning second (or foreign) languages. Much less is known of the motivation of the teachers involved in these efforts. The teaching of English as a foreign language is faced with new challenges because of the rapid spread of the language in different parts of the world, including Finland. Here, this has meant reconsidering the status of the language, with c…
Student agency analytics: learning analytics as a tool for analysing student agency in higher education
2020
This paper presents a novel approach and a method of learning analytics to study student agency in higher education. Agency is a concept that holistically depicts important constituents of intentional, purposeful, and meaningful learning. Within workplace learning research, agency is seen at the core of expertise. However, in the higher education field, agency is an empirically less studied phenomenon with also lacking coherent conceptual base. Furthermore, tools for students and teachers need to be developed to support learners in their agency construction. We study student agency as a multidimensional phenomenon centring on student-experienced resources of their agency. We call the analyt…
Eye-Movement Study of Mechanics Problem Solving Using Multimodal Options
2020
We used an eye-tracking method to investigate students’ approaches to solving a physics task using various representations. Eight upper-secondary school students from Finland took part in the study. We found that students who preferred either the text or graph representations watched the options differently, but they used both representations to be sure of their solution. Transitions between text and graph alternatives were different for students preferring either text or graph representations. Interviews revealed typical misconceptions about the concept of force. Implications for physics instruction are presented. peerReviewed
Assessing reading and online research comprehension: Do difficulties in attention and executive function matter?
2021
This study evaluated the relation between sixth graders' (N = 426) teacher-rated difficulties in attention and executive function (EF) and their comprehension skills. Reading comprehension was assessed with a multiple-choice task and online research and comprehension (ORC) with a problem-solving task. The analyses were controlled for gender, reading fluency and nonverbal reasoning. To investigate differences in students' performance between the tasks, comprehension skills in the multiple-choice task were also controlled for in the ORC task. Structural equation models showed that teacher-rated attention and EF difficulties were related to students' performance more in the problem-solving tas…
Studying in Comprehensive School with Low Second Language Writing Proficiency
2013
In this article, we report a case study on the Finnish as an L2 writing skill of weak writers in grades 7–9 of comprehensive school. The study is based on writing performances of 25 students who each completed four different writing tasks (i.e., 100 texts) and a questionnaire about their background information, self-assessment of writing and literacy practices. First, we discuss target language writing proficiency in the school context from the curriculum and pedagogical point of view. Then we present the results of the questionnaire data and focus on the performances of writers with A1 writing proficiency on the CEFR scale. The findings show that students with low writing proficiency in fa…
Insights into Finnish first-year pre-service teachers’ twenty-first century skills
2016
This study focuses on Finnish pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their twenty-first century skills, especially their learning strategies, collaboration and teamwork, as well as knowledge and attitudes related to ICT in education. The target group consist of 263 first-year pre-service teachers from three universities. The results outline how pre-service teachers perceive their twenty-first century skills, the relationships between different areas of these skills, and the differences among pre-service teachers in terms of perceived skills. The results indicate that the pre-service teachers perceive themselves as skilled learners in terms of learning strategies used as well as collaboration …