Search results for: Web-based instruction

In this study, the authors inspected teachers’ online discussions of animations of classroom episodes realized with cartoon characters, looking at the difference in the content of conversation turns when members made evaluative comments and when they did not make evaluative comments. They were interested in finding out whether making evaluative comments correlated with participants’ reflection on their professional practice and proposal of alternative teaching actions. They found statistically significant evidence that the more the participants actively evaluated the teaching in the animations, the more they proposed alternative teaching actions and reflected on instructional practice.

The authors report on a comparative case study of first and final year pre-service teachers enrolled in an undergraduate education degree who engaged with an online classroom simulation. The findings indicated the first year pre-service teachers were able to identify and articulate their emerging teaching philosophy and began to visualise themselves in the role of a classroom teacher. By way of comparison, the final year pre-service teachers were able to draw upon their previous experiences and knowledge whilst engaging with the simulation to articulate their philosophy of teaching and make important connections between their university coursework and field experiences.

The authors describe reflections from two cycles of developmental research that involved creating and refining a series of computer-based applets for reasoning about the relative magnitude of fractional quantities. The results indicated that the intent of many of these features did serve their intended pedagogical purposes. In particular, features such as strategic hint tools and nonjudgmental feedback enhanced users’ experiences. However, non-interactive aspects, such as written reflection questions, did not enhance users’ experiences.

The purpose of the current study was to explore students’ perceptions of the virtual classroom in terms of the impact they considered it made on their sense of transactional distance. The author used Moore’s (1997) Theory of Transactional Distance to analyze students' perceptions. The findings reveal that the use of the virtual classroom can potentially, at least, contribute to the development of quality dialogue. However according to Moore’s theory, this dialogue depends on structural aspects and, consequently, student perception of learner autonomy.