Overall Reflection for my learning experience in MEd 858

Two weeks flew by quickly... but nevertheless, it has been a great learning journey.

I started as a dummy in the ICT domain, reluctant to involve myself in the many interesting aspects of the online environment.

"No blogs for me.. they are for the young people.. for their social network.. i dun need it"

Yet two weeks later, I have a blog which I am proud to call my own. :)

"I can never create any webpages cos I dunno any html language to create or format it"

Yet two weeks later, I have a WIKI account with my group's research findings uploaded on it... just in case you haven't assessed it yet, it is at www.kurtlewin.wetpaint.com

I realised that I had been reluctant to try due to the fear of the unknown. I did not know what I must learn and how to learn it. How often our students are like us. How often have they withdrawn before they even try. How wasteful.

Realised that all these online learning tools are so user-friendly and fool-proof. Just follow the instructions and fiddle with the functions and ta-da.. you have it! Not difficult at all!

Another aspect of the overall learning environment for our group is this... we have super motivated students in this course! Our beloved moniteress started off the course by asking for the assessment rubrics. I guess she set the tone for the classroom environment. Everyone's ears pricked up when it comes to assessments and grades as we have to achieve the minimum grade of 2.5 (correct or not?) Then, we have siao on people like Brian, (who happens to be my group mate) so I just need to rub some siao-onness off him.. ;) Then we have the two-chongs who love to play act their presentations ;) and of course, our well-loved Dr Quek, who took the effort to get to know us better and make sure we have good food for lunches. (Thanks Thanks Thanks)

As the course draws to a close, these are my key takeaways:

• Learnt the use of blogger, wetpaint, docs.google sufficiently to apply it for teaching and learning in school. Will want to try using blogs to get students to journal their learning and use wetpaint WIKI to get students to present research findings for research topics. Think that they are very useful tools that are relevant to them at this age.
• Learnt the key concepts of learning environments. What is it? How do you assess it?
• Researched on the gurus of learning environment research like Kurt Lewin, Murray, Rudolf Moo, Fraser, Fisher. Learnt about their theories and their contribution to the researches in the learning environment
• Learnt a brief about different instruments used to assess learning environments and why and how to modify them to suit our research needs.
• Learnt basics about writing research papers

And of course, all the good food available all around the campus :)

Will miss the on-ness of this class but glad to finally start the school holidays! Enjoy! :D

Our last session for MEd 858

No matter how many "don't worry" assurances from Dr Quek, most of us came to class today knowing that we have to complete quite a fair bit of work to be assessed. We came into class, ready to work, ready to give our best (as usual ;p)

The first piece of work is a group work where we were supposed to do a snapshot writeup of a research paper based on our class' perceptions of the learning environment we experienced and to analyse results that we have collected using modified WIHIC. This took us the whole morning and part of the afternoon.

Some learning points on writing research papers:

• Abstract should be short (<100>
• When presenting findings on a table, values should not be bold, lines should not be thick, number of decimal places of values presented should be standardised throughout the table, decimal places should be aligned for neat presentation of data
• Graphs should be plotted to show significant differences between the item means. For points with no significant differences, average value of the preferred and actual item mean should be plotted as one single point.
• The word "findings" should be used instead of "results" for more accurate representation

For the rest of the afternoon, we went around to view each others' blogs and give a peer assessment score for each blog.

Some features of good blogs are as follows:

• Aesthetically pleasant and easy on the eye
• Captures the readers' attention in one way or another (either through beautiful pictures, meaningful diagrams, or simply music to engage the feelings)
• Interesting write up that entice readers to read on and on
• Insightful reflections

We were then tasked to complete our individual reflection as homework. sigh.. had thought that everything could be wrapped up by 5pm today.

Reading on The Classroom Social Environment and Changes in Adolescents' Motivation and Engagement During Middle School

Some interesting findings from the journal research:

• Classroom social environment plays an important role in supporting or undermining changes in young adolescents' motivation and engagement.
• Perceiving the teacher as supportive was especially important for students' confidence in relating to the teacher, self-regulated learning and display of disruptive behaviour. When students perceived their teacher as supportive (caring, friendliness, understanding, dedication and dependability), their efficacy for communicating and getting along with their teacher increased and they engaged in more self-regulated learning. They also engaged in less off-task and disruptive behaviour in the classroom.
• Students' perception of being encouraged to interact with others in the classroom and to share their ideas was correlated with motivation and engagement. Interaction among students is a critical component of student-centred instructional approaches. Encouraging interaction may also meet social needs and thus result in decreased disruptive behaviour in the classroom.
• Being in an environment where students' ideas and efforts are respected, with minimal threat of being embarrassed or teased, boosts students' confidence in their ability to learn, and suggests that they devote more cognitive resources to engaging with the tasks in hand.
• When students felt that their actions would be compared directly to others in the class, they expressed less confidence in their ability to relate well to their teacher and also reported engaging in more disruptive behaviour. Students may be less willing to engage in the task and may become more disruptive when they believe their performance will be viewed as an indicator of their relative ability.

Reflections on Session 5

Some key learning points of Session 5:

Surveyed the Web 2.0 Framework and discovered the numerous free softwares available for all to use. Some programs I am itching to try... Ning. com (a combination of blog and wiki), CPS (Classroom Performance System; which I have tried before in my previous school and found it quite useful and fun), docs.google.com (which all of us have tried to use; basically microsoft office available on the web)... etc... cool...

After administering the LE instrument to the students to assess the learning environment, what next?

• In today's session, we embarked on the journey through SPSS software to generate quantitative data using the results from the LE instrument (WIHIC). Some simple but very useful statistics that we can generate using SPSS include the Mean, Standard Deviation, Reliability and Paired-sample t-test. Of course, SPSS can do much more, but sad to say, we are limited by our knowledge of statistics used to analyse data... will find out more in the module on Educational Inquiry II... till then..
• After analysing the data generated, we need to address gaps in the different dimensions in the learning environments. Interviews and focus group discussions could be carried out with the students with regards to what is lacking or deficient in the learning environment and an intervention plan (about 2 months duration) could be planned and implemented. The learning environment is then assessed again after the intervention to check for any improvements in the learning environment. External agencies may be required to be called in to intervene if deficient learning environment persist.

That's my learning points so far... grrrr... there will be some form of assessment on Thursday.. Hope everything goes well (Read: Dr Quek, pls don't slaughter us... ;)) ... Till then.. Cheers :)

Reflections on Readings (Science Learning Environments: Assessment, Effects and Determinants

Phew… had a packed weekend with my two little “precious” taking up all of me (my time and energy)… finally got some time to do some reading on the journals, conference papers and book chapters that was disseminated during the course… The previous week had been like a mini crash course on learning environment (what it is and how to assess classroom learning environments using different available validated instruments). The readings serve as a good consolidation of what have been covered so far. Will try to document my key learning points so far…

Developments of Learning Environment Research:

• Lewin’s field theory recognized that both the environment and its interaction with personal characteristics of the individual are potent determinants of human behaviour. B = f(P, E)
• Murray’s need-press model allows the analogous representation of person and environment in common terms. Personal needs refer to motivational personality characteristics representing tendencies to move in the direction of certain goals, while environmental press provides an external situational counterpart which supports or frustrates the expression of internalized personality needs. Some key terms used: Alpha press (the environment as observed by an external observer), Beta press (the environment as perceived by milieu inhabitants). Stern, Stein and Bloom also distinguish between the idiosyncratic view that each person has of the environment (private beta press) and the shared view that members of a group hold about the environment (consensual beta press).
• Herbert Walberg developed the widely-used Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) as part of the research and evaluation activities of Harvard Project Physics (Walberg & Anderson 1968).
• Rudolf Moos began developing the first of his social climate scales, including those for use in psychiatric hospitals and correctional institutions, which ultimately resulted in the development of the Classroom Environment Scale (CES) (Moos 1979; Moos & Trickett 1987). Moo suggested a scheme for classifying human environments into three basic types of dimensions: Relationship Dimensions (which identify the nature and intensity of personal relationships within the environment and assess the extent to which people are involved in the environment and support and help each other), Personal Development Dimensions (which assess basic directions along which personal growth and self enhancement tend to occur) and System Maintenance and system change Dimensions (which involve the extent to which the environment is orderly, clear in expectations, maintains control and is responsive to change).
  

These pioneering works on perceptions of classroom environment developed into major research programs and spawned a lot of other researches.

Instruments for Assessing Classroom Environment

• Learning Environment Inventory (LEI): developed and validated in conjunction with the Harvard Project Physics (Fraser, Anderson and Walerg 1982). Final version contains 105 statements (seven per scale) descriptive of typical school classes. Four response alternatives were given
• Classroom Environment Scale (CES): developed by Rudolf Moos; contains nine scales with 10 items of True-False response format in each scale. Published materials include a test manual, a questionnaire, and answer sheet and a transparent hand scoring key.
• Individualised Classroom Environment Questionaire (ICEQ): assesses dimensions which distinguish individualized classrooms from conventional ones. (Fraser 1990). Contains 50 items altogether, with an equal number of items belonging to each of the five scales. Five-point scale response alternatives.
• My Class Inventory (MCI): A simplified LEI for use among children aged 8 – 12 years old. Originally developed for use at primary school level but has also been used with students in junior high school. Contains only five of the LEI’s original 15 scales and item wording has been simplified to enhance readability. Response format has also been reduced to a two-point (Yes-No) format. 38 items. Goh, Young and Fraser (1995) successfully used a three point response format with a modified version of MCI which includes a Task Orientation scale.
• College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI): developed for use in higher education classroom; for use in small classes. Seven seven-item scales. Four response alternatives.
• Questionaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI): focuses on nature and quality of interpersonal relationships between teachers and students. Draws upon a theoretical model of proximity (cooperation-opposition) and influence (dominance-submission). Assess student perceptions of eight behaviour aspects. Five-point response scale.
• Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI): specifically suited to assess the environment of science laboratory classes at senior high school or higher education levels. Five scales each with seven items. Five response alternatives.
• Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES): assess the degree to which a particular classroom's environment is consistent with a constructivist epistemology, and to assist teachers to reflect on their epistemological assumptions and reshape their teaching practice. According to the constructivist view, meaningful learning is a cognitive process in which individuals make sense of the world in relation to the knowledge which they already have constructed. This sense-making involves active negotiation and consensus building.
• What is Happening In This Class Questionaire (WIHIC): combines modified versions of the most salient scales from a wide range of existing questionaires with additional scales that accomodate contemporary educational concerns (e.g., equity and constructivism). Has separate Class Form and Personal Form. Final version of WIHIC contains seven eight-item scales.
• Scales and items in existing questionaires can be drawn upon to develop modified instruments to better suit particular research purposes and research contexts.

Short forms of the ICEQ, MCI adn CES were developed as some researchers and teachers reported that they would like instruments to take less time to administer and score. Total number of items in each of the above instrument was reduced to approximately 25 to provide greater economy in testing and scoring time. Short forms were also designed to be amenable to easy hand scoring. Short forms are also likely to have adequate reliability fo the many applications which involve averaging the perceptions of students within a class to obtain class means.

Class Forms elicit an individual students' perceptions of the class as a whole, while Personal Forms elicit students' perception of his own role within the classroom. The distinction between personal and classforms is consistent with Stern, Stein and Bloom's (1956) terms of 'private' beta press (idiosyncratic view that each person has of the environment), and 'consensual' beta press (the shared view that members of a group hold of the environment).

Typical validation data for Validation of Scales

• Each scale's internal consistency reliability (alpha coefficient)
• Discriminant validity (using the mean correlation of a scale with the other scales in the same instrument as a convenient index)
• The ability of a scale to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms (significance level and eta2 statistic from ANOVAs)

Some important findings involving Educational Learning Environment Research:

• Student perceptions account for appreciable amounts of variance in learning outcomes, often beyond that attributable to background student characteristics.
• Better achievement on a variety of outcome measures was found consistently in classes perceived as having greater Cohesiveness, Satisfaction and Goal Direction and less Disorganisation and Friction.
• Learning is a multiplicative, diminishing-returns function of student age, ability and motivation; of quality and quantity of instruction; and of psychosocial environments of the home, the classroom, the peer group and the mass media. Classroom and school environment was found to be a strong predictor of both achievement and attitudes even when a comprehensive set of other factors was held constant.
• Classroom environment variables differentiated revealingly between curricula, even when various outcome measures showed negligible differences.
• Differences were found between students and teachers' perceptions of the same actual classroom environment. Differences were also found between the actual environment and that preferred by students or teachers. Students preferred a more positive classroom environment than was actually present. Teachers perceived a more positive classroom environment than did their students in the same classrooms.
• Weak associations were found between classroom environment and school environment. Classrooms are somewhat insulated from the school as a whole.
• Girls were found to prefer cooperation more than boys, but boys preferred both competition and individualisation more than girls. Boys preferred friction, competitiveness and differentiation more than girls, whereas girls preferred teacher structure, personalisation and participation more than boys. Females generally hold perceptions of their classroom environments that are somewhat more favourable than the perceptions of males in the same class.
• Using a person-environment interaction framework, it is noted that student outcomes depend, not only on the nature of the actual classroom environment, but also on the match between students' preferences and the actual environment (person-environment fit)

Sorry folks for this extremely lengthy post... found the reading to be very comprehensive and useful... treating this platform as a way of keeping my own notes on this module as well... Hope you gained some learning points from here as well... :)

Reflections of Session 4

Some key learning points for Session 4:

Different types of forms available for different tests:

• Preferred Forms (the learning environments students prefer) and Actual Forms (the learning environment that the students experienced). Results from the two types of forms gives quantitative data as to whether there is significant difference between the preferred learning environment and the actual learning environment. Paired sample t-test could be performed on the two tests to test for any statistically significant differences.
• Class Forms (elicit individuals' perceptions of the class) and Personal Forms (evaluate an individuals' perceptions of her own role within the class)

We were also introduced to the OLES (Online learning environment survey). This is an instrument used to evaluate e-learning in an online environment. "Oodles" and "Survey Monkey" are some free softwares we can use to create our own online surveys!

Considerations when choosing a LE Instrument:

• Whether the language used in the instrument is suitable: appropriate difficulty level of the language used for the level and age of students, cultural suitability of the wordings used in the instrument.
• Whether the dimensions in the instrument is relevant for the research question.
• We can select and choose the scales and items to use in each instrument and we can even plug scales from other instruments to include in the instrument to be used in our own study if necessary. However, it is important to note that QTI measures slightly different dimensions compared to the rest of the LE instruments.

We also did a group case study of three different schools and sift out some factors in the school learning environment that actually makes it conducive and non-conducive for learning to take place. Overall, factors that contribute to effective learning environment include good leadership, teachers' intrinsic motivation to help students improve, students' self-discipline in their own learning, good overall discipline of the school, strong and good school culture.

We were privileged to attend a conference presentation in the APERA (Asia-Pacific Education Research Association) conference 2008 where Marsiling Secondary School teachers were sharing on using Knowledge Forum (KF) in an online environment to scaffold and enhance students' learning in D&T.

That's all for today.. Cheers and have a great weekend! :)

Reflections of Sesson 3

Some key learning points from Session 3:

1) 3 aspects of the learning environment: Physical environment, Social environment and the Student interaction in the environment.
2) Scales used to assess the learning environment can be categorised into Rudolf Moo's 3 dimensions: Relationship dimension (extent of people involvement and support for each other), Personal Development dimension (Direction along which personal growth and self-enhancement occur) and System maintenance and system change (extent ofwhich the environment is orderly).
3) Kurt Lewin's field theory states that a person's behaviour is influenced by the person and the environment. Behaviour = f(Person, Environment). Applications of the field theory include Group dynamics, Experiential learning and Action research.

Tired.. tired.. tired.. ;(