Experimental Research Task

Experimental Task: Using Portfolios for Reflection

Hypothesis: that the format of a student's portfolio has an effect on their English writing improvement.

Ho: That there is no significant difference in the improvement in student writing between using a digital portfolio or a paper based traditional portfolio.

Ha: That there is a significant difference in the improvement in student writing and that the mean improvement for digital portfolios is higher than paper based portfolios.

Participants:

Population: an entire year level in a high school eg year 10 students at WIS

Sample: take 2 classes randomly selected (all classes are mixed ability - based on CATs data - at WIS). One class to be assigned to digital portfolio another paper portfolio.

Instruments:

Students are assigned to classes on the basis of CATs data so that they are of mixed ability. It can be assumed on this basis that the classes are of similar ability.

To determine the ability of the class use the National Standard rubrics to assess student level at the start and end of the year. The mean “value- added” for each class is to be calculated.

Research Plan:

Comparison of Two different Approaches – one class will use digital portfolio tools and the other class will use traditional paper based portfolio.

Execution of Plan:

Students will use the portfolios for the full academic year – this will enable students to get comfortable with the approach and give sufficient time for reflection and feedback in both treatments. Also students should be able to create several pieces of work for their portfolio during this period of time.

Analysis of Data:

For each student a value-added figure needs to be arrived at – the difference between the beginning of year and end of year results. The class mean of these figures needs to be calculated.

Using t-test and level of significance of 0.05

Updated Journal

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Correlation Research Question

Correlation Question Research

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Correlation Research Question

1. Potential correlation research question (with 2 variables)

Is the secondary school student academic performance (Variable 1) correlated to their medium of instruction in school (Variable 2)?

Correlated Variable 1: Secondary school student academic performance

Correlated Variable 2: Medium of instruction in school

Testing Hypothesis

H0:

Null hypothesis means that secondary school student academic results are not related to their medium of instruction in school.

2. How could data for the correlated variables be collected?

First of all, assume the score of public examination can measure students’ academic performance in Chinese/English as a Medium of Instruction (CMI/EMI) school, by keeping all the other factors constantly.

Then, collect the samples from CMI and EMI school for pilot test, a graph can be plotted with score of students’ public examination, against the medium of instruction.

After the data collection, correlation coefficient “r” will be computed for that two correlated variables, if r = 0, it means there is no relationship between student academic result and their medium of instruction in school.

Likewise, if r ≠ 0, it means there is a direct relationship between student academic result and their medium of instruction in school.

Further analysis

If correlation coefficient is r ≠ 0, an alternative hypothesis will be set.

HA:

Students have a better academic performance if they study in a EMI school.

Further analysis will be conducted if necessary, such as rank the student academic performance in CMI and EMI school.

3. Provide argument how answer to that question can contribute to improvements in some aspect of education/ teaching and learning?

If the correlation coefficient is >0.5, it is a positive correlation. Then, the school can consider to enhance the students’ academic results / performance by using English as a medium of instruction in school.

Introduction of VoiceThread

Some pages has been added for VoiceThread presentation, amendments are welcome, contents are as follow:

What is VoiceThread?
It's a web-based communications network. Simple, powerful and safe,VoiceThread is a place for creating and collaborating on digital stories and documentaries, practicing and documenting language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving math problems, or simply finding and honing student voices.

Private, or Public

All VoiceThreads are private by default and creators can easily control who can view, edit and comment on content. Within this private state educators can collaborate with students, students with each other, and entire classes with other classes around the world. It's never necessary to make a VoiceThread publicly viewable, but we do believe students grow when they share and collaborate with others.

The act of publishing content, that can be seen by anyone anywhere, reinforces the message that student work is unique, valuable, and worthy of the world's attention.

Demostration of VoiceThread

Voicethread for Research

The voice thread above discusses some of the affordances a VoiceThread has for Academic Research.

Allen and Iris - please log into VoiceThread and add your comments to the thread.

What's a VoiceThread anyway?

This is a "voicethread" from VoiceThread that explains the tool, its functions etc. As with all Web2.0 tools this is just the beginning. Once you understand how the tool works you need to look at the affordances that the tool offers for your area i.e. how can we use this Web2.0 tool as a research tool. This is what our next posting will be explaining.

Session 3 Task

Identify and evaluate one computer tool that can be used to facilitate research
(e.g., data collection, analysis, report construction, literature management)

Session 2 Task

ACM Digital Library publishes 21 journals and transactions. Journal on Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC) is one journal that I feel suitable to research in.

One seemingly interesting article:
Reducing Abstraction in High School Computer Science Education: The Case of Definition, Implementation, and Use of Abstract Data Types
Victoria Sakhnini, Orit Hazzan
Volume 8, Issue 2, Journal on Educational Resources in Computing

Link to the article

Problem for the study:
What difficulties do students face when dealing with abstract data types

What procedure was used for the study:
Interview with 16 students to study their mental processes.
Also do observation in 3 CS classes.

What were the major conclusions for the study:
It is found that students tend to reduce the level of abstraction of the concept involved in different problem-solving situations. It is very similar to a previous study on mental process of reducing abstraction. The same framework is applied in the field of studying abstract computer science problems.

How to classify the study?
Qualitative approach