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1 – 10 of over 154000Nancy C. Patterson, Ashley G. Lucas and Michael Kithinji
There is a tacit understanding among social studies teachers and educators that incorporating primary source documents in planning and teaching is desirable for many reasons, most…
Abstract
There is a tacit understanding among social studies teachers and educators that incorporating primary source documents in planning and teaching is desirable for many reasons, most prominent among them the ways in which it challenges students to think at higher levels. This study is a descriptive study of public school teachers’ uses of primary source documents in social studies planning, in which we review lesson activities of various grade level teachers to evaluate their use of primary documents for higher order cognitive purposes. Given the salient theme of critical thinking in the literature, we established a baseline continuum of uses that served as our framework for evaluating these activities. We asked the following questions: When history teachers incorporate the use of primary source documents in their planning, to what degree do they promote development of higher level critical thinking? What might a planned activity look like when they do? We found that the majority of the activities examined here employ primary source documents for lower order purposes but held the promise of easy transition to higher order uses.
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Mathews Zanda Nkhoma, Tri Khai Lam, Narumon Sriratanaviriyakul, Joan Richardson, Booi Kam and Kwok Hung Lau
The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of case studies in teaching an undergraduate course of Internet for Business in class, based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of case studies in teaching an undergraduate course of Internet for Business in class, based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The study provides the empirical evidence about the effect of case-based teaching method integrated the revised Bloom’s taxonomy on students’ incremental learning, measured by the four constructs: knowledge application, higher-order thinking, practice evaluation knowledge and knowledge improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, learning activities associated with the revised taxonomy-based learning strategy were proposed to support the development of higher-level cognitive skills. Revised application scale, higher-order thinking scale, practice evaluation knowledge scale and knowledge improvement scale were used to measure students’ perception of skills corresponding to their level of application, analysis, evaluation and creation, respectively. After completing each task pertinent to case studies, students were encouraged to complete the survey questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to examine the relationships between constructs. Students participate in a course where case studies are employed as the main learning activities to promote higher-order thinking. Upon completing the course, they fill in a survey to evaluate the four constructs of incremental learning: level of knowledge application, higher-order thinking, practice evaluation knowledge and knowledge improvement. The relationships between the four constructs are then examined using SEM.
Findings
Analysis reveals that with the use of case-based learning activities, knowledge application creates a positive impact on higher-order thinking. Higher-order thinking has positive influence on practice evaluation knowledge. Eventually, practice evaluation knowledge produces a positive effect on knowledge improvement. The results show the desired effects of incremental learning.
Research limitations/implications
The case studies designed for teaching the Internet for Business course might not be suitable in terms of content for other courses, which limit the implication of the findings.
Practical implications
The key implication is that cognitive process is enhanced by using case studies where learning activities are designed, based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy.
Originality/value
The paper offers a comprehensive perspective on incremental learning where students’ knowledge of Internet for Business moves developmentally towards the higher-order cognitive process dimension of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy.
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Tien-Chi Huang, Shin-Jia Ho, Wen-Hui Zheng and Yu Shu
The importance of multidimensional and engaging instruction for sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education cannot be overstated. Such instructions should motivate…
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of multidimensional and engaging instruction for sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education cannot be overstated. Such instructions should motivate students not only to memorize and contemplate these goals but also to actively participate in addressing SDG-related challenges. Consequently, this study aims to develop practical and appropriate instructional approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) in higher education to enhance students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors concerning sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
By using a quasi-experimental design, this ESD study was conducted at a university in central Taiwan. A total of 121 students from diverse academic backgrounds participated in the 16-week experiment, which was divided into three groups. Lecturing, thematic teaching and design-thinking strategies were applied to these respective groups.
Findings
The thematic-teaching and design-thinking groups displaying improved cognitive performance. However, the quantity results revealed that the design-thinking group surpassed the other two groups in sustainability knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and mind map tasks. The qualitative findings further indicated that design thinking – through multiple practical problem-solving activities – guided college students to think independently and sustainably, as well as enabled them to internalize the value of sustainable development. By implementing these effective approaches, the core goals of ESD-related personal and societal transformations may be realized.
Practical implications
This study proposed a goal-oriented ESD instructional model for educators, demonstrating the efficacy of design thinking in cultivating higher-order thinking and affection for ESD in students. Additionally, this study introduced an innovative evaluation approach – mind mapping – to the ESD domain, which may compensate for the limitations of the survey method.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of design thinking and thematic-based pedagogies in sustainable development higher education. Additionally, it also offers a practical ESD instructional model with reference value for scholars and multi-domain instructors. Moreover, the study highlights that by examining organizational governance from the perspectives of design thinking and higher-order affection, sustainable and economic development need not be mutually exclusive concepts. Instead, pursuing SDGs can be viewed as investment opportunities for organizations rather than mere costs.
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Student populations in higher education in the United States have become increasingly diverse as a result of demographic changes. As a result, educators need an understanding of…
Abstract
Student populations in higher education in the United States have become increasingly diverse as a result of demographic changes. As a result, educators need an understanding of the background and characteristics of these demographic subgroups in order to improve the quality of their education. Students’ approaches to learning affect their quality of learning and are influenced by their perceptions of the learning environment and assessment. The present study extends prior research by examining the approaches to learning, assessment preferences, and the relationship between approaches to learning and assessment preferences of intermediate accounting students enrolled in a public university in the United States with a diverse student population. Students with higher deep approaches to learning had higher preferences for assessment involving higher-order thinking tasks, integrated assessment, and nonconventional assessment. Students with higher surface approaches to learning had lower preferences for assessment involving higher-order thinking tasks. The differences in these relationships for subgroups of students defined by citizenship, age, gender, and race are presented. The implications of the results for teaching and learning in accounting education are discussed.
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Qingquan Meng, Jiyou Jia and Zhiyong Zhang
The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of smart pedagogy to facilitate the high order thinking skills of students and to provide the design suggestion of curriculum and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of smart pedagogy to facilitate the high order thinking skills of students and to provide the design suggestion of curriculum and intelligent tutoring systems in smart education.
Design/methodology/approach
A smart pedagogy framework was designed. The quasi-experiment was conducted in a junior high school. The experimental class used the smart pedagogy and smart learning environment. The control class adopted conventional teaching strategies. The math test scores of these two classes were compared to verify the effectiveness of smart pedagogy.
Findings
The smart pedagogy framework contains three sections including the situated learning (S), mastery learning (M), adaptive learning (A), reflective learning (R) and thinking tools (T) (SMART) key elements model, the curriculum design method and detailed teaching strategy. The SMART key elements model integrates the situated learning, mastery learning, adaptive learning, reflective learning and thinking tools to facilitate the high order thinking. The curriculum design method of smart pedagogy combines the first five principles of instruction and the SMART key elements model to design the curriculum. The detailed teaching strategies of smart pedagogy contain kinds of innovative learning methods. The results of the quasi-experiment proved that the learning outcome was significantly promoted by using smart pedagogy.
Originality/value
This research investigates a general framework that can be used to cultivate the high order thinking skills in different subjects and grades was one of the first to introduce high order thinking skills into smart education. The framework of smart pedagogy was innovative and effect in practice.
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Tessa Withorn, Jillian Eslami, Hannah Lee, Maggie Clarke, Carolyn Caffrey, Cristina Springfield, Dana Ospina, Anthony Andora, Amalia Castañeda, Alexandra Mitchell, Joanna Messer Kimmitt, Wendolyn Vermeer and Aric Haas
This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2020.
Findings
The paper provides a brief description of all 440 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested in a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
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Juan Yang, Xu Du, Jui-Long Hung and Chih-hsiung Tu
Critical thinking is considered important in psychological science because it enables students to make effective decisions and optimizes their performance. Aiming at the…
Abstract
Purpose
Critical thinking is considered important in psychological science because it enables students to make effective decisions and optimizes their performance. Aiming at the challenges and issues of understanding the student's critical thinking, the objective of this study is to analyze online discussion data through an advanced multi-feature fusion modeling (MFFM) approach for automatically and accurately understanding the student's critical thinking levels.
Design/methodology/approach
An advanced MFFM approach is proposed in this study. Specifically, with considering the time-series characteristic and the high correlations between adjacent words in discussion contents, the long short-term memory–convolutional neural network (LSTM-CNN) architecture is proposed to extract deep semantic features, and then these semantic features are combined with linguistic and psychological knowledge generated by the LIWC2015 tool as the inputs of full-connected layers to automatically and accurately predict students' critical thinking levels that are hidden in online discussion data.
Findings
A series of experiments with 94 students' 7,691 posts were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The experimental results show that the proposed MFFM approach that combines two types of textual features outperforms baseline methods, and the semantic-based padding can further improve the prediction performance of MFFM. It can achieve 0.8205 overall accuracy and 0.6172 F1 score for the “high” category on the validation dataset. Furthermore, it is found that the semantic features extracted by LSTM-CNN are more powerful for identifying self-introduction or off-topic discussions, while the linguistic, as well as psychological features, can better distinguish the discussion posts with the highest critical thinking level.
Originality/value
With the support of the proposed MFFM approach, online teachers can conveniently and effectively understand the interaction quality of online discussions, which can support instructional decision-making to better promote the student's knowledge construction process and improve learning performance.
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Chenchen Liu, ChiuLin Lai, Gwo-Jen Hwang and Yun-Fang Tu
This study aims to investigate the information literacy (IL) performance and higher order thinking skills of students with different levels of growth mindset and their perceptions…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the information literacy (IL) performance and higher order thinking skills of students with different levels of growth mindset and their perceptions of library-supported learning by using the annotate, summarize, question and evaluate (ASQE)-based learning approach.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the ASQE-based learning approach was applied to the learning activities to cultivate students’ IL, problem-solving awareness and critical thinking tendency. A total of 60 postgraduate students were invited to participate in this study. In addition, students’ perceptions of library-supported learning were analysed via drawing analysis.
Findings
Introducing ASQE-based learning into an IL learning activity promoted reflection and thought and had positive effects on students’ problem-solving awareness and on the critical thinking tendency of students with different levels of growth mindset. Additionally, the drawing analysis indicated that most of the students with low levels of growth mindset believed that learners should actively study in the library and students with higher levels of growth mindset preferred more motivating and enjoyable learning environments.
Originality/value
The findings of this study demonstrate that the ASQE-based learning approach can improve higher order thinking skills of students with different levels of growth mindset. In addition, this study examined the perceptions of students with different levels of growth mindset of library-supported learning via drawing analysis.
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Hina Amin and Munawar Sultana Mirza
This paper intended to explore the knowledge and use of the digital verbs and tools by the students and teachers for conceptual understanding in the virtual and conventional…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper intended to explore the knowledge and use of the digital verbs and tools by the students and teachers for conceptual understanding in the virtual and conventional learning environment. The study also explored the use of such digital tools for lower- and higher-order thinking.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey research method was used for the study. All the students and teachers of the faculty of education from one virtual and one conventional university were the population of this study. Teachers were selected through census sampling. Student enrollment in the faculty of education of the virtual university during Spring 2019 was 1,139 while the conventional university had 1,809 students. In total, 20% of the students from each of the two universities were sampled by using a convenient proportionate sampling technique. A questionnaire was developed by the researchers and validated by three experts before administration. The reliability of the instrument was a = 0.934. Mean, SD, parametric and nonparametric statistics were applied for data analysis.
Findings
The study reveals that the students of ODL are far better in using digital tools and activities that is, googling, collaborating and Skyping. They are good at understanding and application levels and are involved in higher-order thinking tasks, that is, publishing and podcasting as well. Unlike the students, the teachers of the virtual university are using digital tools of lower-order thinking. The authors infer that the students and teachers of the online universities are using these tools regularly because of the demands of the ODL environment. These findings suggest further research to explore the factors that hinder the use of higher-order thinking skills by the teachers in the online environment.
Originality/value
The study suggests the adoption of Bloom's digital taxonomy in teaching–learning processes, that is, curriculum, instructions and assessment for the millennials. The findings may motivate the online and conventional higher education institutions to adopt digital pedagogy for instructional purposes as the students of the digital age are already extensively involved with digital tools.
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