Future in Educational Research最新文献

Online learning became a central feature of education during the COVID-19 pandemic, as traditional classrooms were rapidly replaced by virtual environments within students' homes through platforms such as Zoom. This abrupt transition required parents of K-12 students to assume the unfamiliar role of at-home educators, often without adequate preparation or support. However, existing studies did not comprehensively examine the multifaceted challenges parents faced or offer a systematic synthesis of their experiences. Utilizing activity theory as a conceptual framework, this systematic review analyzes 47 empirical studies conducted between 2019 and 2024 to uncover the key obstacles parents encountered in supporting their children's online learning. These challenges include balancing multiple responsibilities, limited access to technology, inadequate pedagogical and digital skills, and shortcomings in the online teaching practices employed by schools and educators. To address these issues, we developed a tripartite model categorizing influencing factors into three interdependent domains: internal, external, and transactional. Based on this framework, we propose targeted recommendations to enhance parental engagement, offering actionable and scalable strategies essential for building equitable, effective, and sustainable online learning systems in the post-pandemic era.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of virtual simulation-supported museum-based learning (VSS-MBL) versus a traditional classroom on students' multidisciplinary knowledge acquisition, learning motivation, critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills in C-STEAM courses. We invited 112 primary school students to participate in a series of C-STEAM lessons in both VSS-MBL (58 students) and traditional classroom settings (54 students). Students were able to interact with exhibits during their museum visit using virtual simulation technology, such as watching shadow play using AR and applying VR to draw personalized face paintings. Repeated ANOVA results showed that VSS-MBL had a more significant impact on learning motivation, critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills than students learning in a traditional classroom setting. However, the significant effect on multidisciplinary knowledge acquisition was not as significant as learning in a traditional classroom environment, and there was no significant change in engineering knowledge. This study further discusses the reasons for this and provides scientific guidance for primary schools wishing to integrate C-STEAM education into their museums.

Although inclusive education has progressed in line with international policy and practice, special education schools (hereafter, special schools) continue to offer dedicated services to enhance the cognitive, social and health outcomes of learners with disability, particularly those with intellectual disability (ID). This pragmatic epistemic study examined the services, professionals, challenges and ways to support learners with ID and enhance their education and social inclusion. Data from 52 participants (n = 24 teachers and n = 28 parents) in Ghana were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Results show that although different special needs services were available to learners with ID in special schools, their provision faces challenges such as negative attitudes, inadequate personnel and limited funding. Increasing personnel, adequate funding and active parent engagement were the topmost enablers of quality special needs services. The qualitative findings suggest mainly that positive attitudes and mind change from all stakeholders are crucial and have cross-cutting influence on the services provided, education and social inclusion of learners with ID in special and general education schools. The paper claims that the education and social inclusion of children with ID is about positive practice cultures that encourage quality services and instruction, and not the setting per se, whether segregated or inclusive.

Although speaking anxiety plays a significant role in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning, research indicates that English speaking anxiety stands out as a crucial problem that EFL learners experience. Integrating technology into the EFL contexts may help learners significantly, and artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) chatbots may create many speaking opportunities for them which can help them reduce their speaking anxiety. Nevertheless, there have been a fairly limited number of studies investigating the impact of AI-based chatbots on reducing EFL learners' speaking anxiety. This study aims to unveil the probable effects of AI-based chatbots on speaking anxiety. It also aims to compare traditional speaking tasks and AI-based chatbot speaking tasks in terms of decreasing speaking anxiety. This quasi-experimental study gathered data from 44 university preparatory students in a Turkish state university via a background questionnaire and the Turkish version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. The findings demonstrated that the AI-based chatbot speaking tasks do not significantly reduce learners' anxiety. However, traditional speaking activities with peers in the classroom significantly decrease speaking anxiety. It was recommended that teachers should not depend on AI-based chatbots excessively by also being conscious of the potential benefits of traditional speaking tasks.

Technological integration has transformed educational practices, making virtual and immersive platforms essential to learning. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and virtual reality (VR) to sustain effective learning environments and improve accessibility. Although video conferencing platforms support communication, VR offers an experiential learning mode that enhances engagement and adapts to diverse learning needs. Both, however, present challenges, particularly the risk of cognitive overload, impacting user experience and retention. In the current educational landscape, training educators on these platforms is crucial. Training can help instructors to navigate and optimize their unique benefits while minimizing drawbacks. This study examines the role of video conferencing platforms and VR technologies in instructor professional development programs, focusing on language training applications. The data for this study were collected using surveys and think-aloud reflections. The survey data were statistically analyzed, and the thematic analysis was conducted for the qualitative data. This study revealed that VR typically offered a greater sense of immersion and engagement than Zoom. Both VR and Zoom were linked to moderate levels of frustration among participants. However, participants experienced a higher degree of cognitive load while using Zoom compared to VR. Overall, this study highlights the benefits and limitations of VR and Zoom for professional development and suggests implications for how a balanced approach to their implementation may optimize engagement and cognitive ease for users.

Field-based experiences enhance cognitive and affective skill sets of undergraduate students. Although field-based learning is a highly effective pedagogical modality, it is not accessible to all students, necessitating the development and evaluation of alternate modalities that convey equivalent benefits. Virtual reality (VR) may allow students to engage in experiences without requiring them to be physically present within a field environment. Although VR is gaining popularity, there are limited examples of using it to simulate field experiences and of its efficacy in influencing student learning gains and attitudes toward environmental content. Therefore, we created immersive 360° cinematic VR (CVR) experiences focused on coastal marine ecosystems and compared them to traditional modalities: a field course and 2D videos focused on the same content. Students (n = 86) across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM majors from three institutions—Bentley University, Florida International University, and Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium—were given a preassessment/postassessment to understand learning gains and attitude changes related to each modality. Although significant learning gains happened across all modalities, CVR students experienced the greatest learning gains, though postscores were correlated with prescores and CVR students had lower prescores than field course students. There were no cross-institutional or major-related differences in learning gains for field course students. Students across all modalities experienced shifts in attitudes, with consistent increases in the use of keywords related to coastal marine ecosystems in postassessments. Ultimately, CVR is an effective supplement or alternative for undergraduate students who cannot access in-person field-based experiences and may be particularly impactful for non-STEM majors.

It is well established that most higher education students experience stress, stemming from a range of factors such as exams, time demands, and financial pressure. Given the rising number of students completing their tertiary studies online, identifying stressors faced by the growing online student cohort is important. Therefore, a systematic review was undertaken to identify and consolidate what the key stressors experienced by online higher education students are. This review analyzed 68 articles published in English between 2001 and 2022, retrieved from three databases: ERIC, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. The review found that online university experience a range of stressors, including challenges related to course delivery, technology access, online communication, home learning environments, peer relationships, motivation, and assessments. Strategies to mitigate these stressors include improving course design with engaging and interactive contents, providing technological support and digital literacy training, fostering peer connections through structured interactions, and offering flexible assessments tailored to online contexts. These findings underscore the importance of considering the unique stressors experienced by online students and highlight the need to develop interventions to mitigate these stressors when designing and delivering online courses.

In L2 writing education, the topic of L2 writing teachers, who play critical roles in nurturing and shaping students' L2 writing abilities across diverse educational and social contexts, has received proliferating research attention over the past decades. Despite the accumulated studies in the investigation of L2 writing teachers, nonexistent studies have provided a holistic and comprehensive picture of L2 writing teachers in terms of their unique identities and complex experiences of teaching and learning to teach (Hirvela & Belcher, 2007; Lee, 2010). Therefore, this position paper reports discourses from the published literature on L2 writing teachers by addressing the ten key questions in this area, respectively, on L2 writing teachers' roles, beliefs and perspectives, identities, writing teaching, feedback giving, assessment, received education, and expertise development. These ten questions respond to the “what” in L2 writing teachers (such as roles, identity, and beliefs), and the “how” of L2 writing teachers, including how they instruct, provide feedback, assess, and develop professional expertise. This conceptual paper sheds light on multiple dimensions of L2 writing teachers to reveal a holistic and comprehensive picture of L2 writing teachers in terms of their beliefs, practices, and experiences of teaching and learning to teach.

Disciplinary difference is an important issue for the research on student learning in higher education. Based on responses from 2104 Chinese undergraduates, the study utilized a quantitative research approach to examinng the disciplinary differences in terms of course experience and its relations to two desirable learning outcomes (overall satisfaction and academic efficacy [AC]) for students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and humanities and social sciences (HSS). Specifically, course experience consisted of six dimensions: clear goals, generic skills, emphasis on independence, good teaching, appropriate workload, and appropriate assessment. The results of structural equation modeling showed that some similar relations existed between students majoring in STEM or HSS. For instance, clear goals could not predict overall satisfaction or AC, while generic skills were significantly related to both; appropriate workload could negatively affect AC of students with different majors. Meanwhile, several significant differences in the relationships between course experience and learning outcomes also appeared. The effects of emphasis on independence, good teaching, and appropriate workload on learning outcomes were distinct between STEM and HSS students. For instance, emphasis on independence was positively related to STEM students' overall satisfaction but had no significant effect on HSS students' satisfaction. These differences may result from the significant distinctions in learning contents, aims, and strategies between STEM and HSS disciplines. These findings not only enrich current literature on university students' learning experience, but also provide implications for improving teaching and learning in higher education institutions in the post-pandemic era.