Thursday, June 19, 2008
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.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
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.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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.
Monday, June 9, 2008
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.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Session 3 Task
(e.g., data collection, analysis, report construction, literature management)
Session 2 Task
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