Inventing motivates and prepares student teachers for computer‐based learning

Abstract

A brief, problem-oriented phase such as an inventing activity is one potential instructional method for preparing learners not only cognitively but also motivationally for learning. Student teachers often need to overcome motivational barriers in order to use computer-based learning opportunities. In a preliminary experiment, we found that student teachers who were given paper-based course material spent more time on follow-up coursework than teachers who were given a well-developed computer-based learning environment (CBLE), leading to higher learning outcomes. Thus, we tested inventing as an instructional method that may help overcome motivational barriers of teachers' use of computer-supported tools or learning environments in our main experimental study (N = 44). As a computer-based environment, we used the 'Assessment of Learning strategies in Learning journals'. The inventing group produced ideas about criteria to evaluate learning strategies based on student cases prior to the learning phase. The control condition read a text containing possible answers to the inventing problem. The inventing activity enhanced motivation prior to the learning phase and assessment skills as assessed by transfer problems. Hence, the inventing activity prepared student teachers to learn from a CBLE in a motivational as well as cognitive way.

Measuring learning gain: Comparing anatomy drawing screencasts and paper‐based resources

“…With various studies exploring differences in paper‐ and computer‐based resources (Lee and Weerakoon, ; Maleck et al, ; Chang et al, ; Cantillon et al, ; Glogger‐Frey et al, ; Poulton et al, ; Shotwell and Apigian, ), and student perceptions not necessarily being overwhelmingly positive (Berg et al, ; McNeish et al, ), it is important to understand how the design of multimedia resources can support the learner (Wilson, ). By comparing the anatomy drawing screencast to the textbook in relation to the principles of the CTML, it could be postulated that the differences in learning gain are due to this instructional design approach with obvious differences being drawn.…”

“…This study aims to continue investigating the integration of anatomy drawing screencasts into a medical anatomy curriculum by comparing the learning gain achieved to a traditional paper‐based resource. Numerous studies have assessed the impact of digitally delivering resources compared to a paper‐based equivalent for assessment (Lee and Weerakoon, ; Cantillon et al, ; Shotwell and Apigian, ), case‐based teaching (Maleck et al, ; Poulton et al, ), motivation (Glogger‐Frey et al, ) and patient outcomes (Chang et al, ) with contrasting results. Although it is appreciated that web‐based learning is effective, issues such as information technology (IT) experience, independent study skills and password accessibility need to be addressed prior to implementation (Wilkinson et al, ; Cook et al, ; Cook, ).…”

Inventing a solution and studying a worked solution prepare differently for learning from direct instruction

“…In a previous study (Glogger-Frey et al, 2015), we found that an inventing group indeed outperformed a control group. The control group had read a text which was designed to givedas much as possibledthe same information as the inventing group got or generated, respectively.…”

Helping preservice teachers with inaccurate and fragmentary prior knowledge to acquire conceptual understanding of psychological principles

“…To conceptualize the pretraining intervention, we first needed to identify activity categories that (preservice) teachers often confuse with learning strategies. Therefore we reanalyzed pretest data from previous studies (Glogger, Kappich, Schwonke, Holzäpfel, Nückles, & Renkl, 2011; Glogger et al., 2012) originally used to control for differences in prior knowledge. Furthermore, we considered findings from studies in the USA (Clift et al., 1990; Hamman, 1998) that analyzed teachers' knowledge about learning strategies.…”