The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and securi... more The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and security, especially with teenagers since they show various forms of unsafe behavior on SNS. Media literacy emerges as a priority, and researchers, teachers, parents and teenagers all point towards the responsibility of the school to educate teens about risks on SNS and to teach youngsters how to use SNS safely. However, existing educational materials are not theoretically grounded, do not tackle all the specific risks that teens might encounter on SNS and lack rigorous outcome evaluations. Additionally, general media education research indicates that although changes in knowledge are often obtained, changes in attitudes and behavior are much more difficult to achieve. Therefore, new educational packages were developed –taking into account instructional guidelines- and a quasi-experimental intervention study was set up to find out whether these materials are effective in changing the awareness, attitudes or the behavior of teenagers on SNS. It was found that all three courses obtained their goal in raising the awareness about the risks tackled in this course. However, no impact was found on attitudes towards the risks, and only a limited impact was found on teenagers’ behavior concerning these risks. Implications are discussed.
Peer assessment is becoming more popular in higher education, however it often goes together with... more Peer assessment is becoming more popular in higher education, however it often goes together with undesirable social effects like peer pressure and favoritism, especially when students need to evaluate peers in a face-to-face setting. The present study was set up to investigate increased anonymity in peer assessment to counter these undesirable social effects. It was hypothesized that modes of peer assessment that provide an increased anonymity will induce a reduced perception of peer pressure, increased feelings of comfort and more positive attitudes towards peer assessment. Classroom response technology (CRT) was introduced as a tool that enables anonymity. In addition, oral and written feedback was organized to meet the need for feedback. The results show that the proposed peer assessment practice combines the positive attitudes and feelings of comfort related to the anonymous use of CRT with the perceived added value of argumentation in oral and written feedback.
The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and securi... more The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and security, especially with teenagers, since they show various forms of unsafe behavior on SNS. It has been put forth by researchers, teachers, parents, and teenagers that school is ideally placed to educate teens about risks on SNS and to teach youngsters how to use SNS safely. Privacy attitudes also need to be taken into account if we want to decrease the amount of unsafe behavior. However, there is a lack of research that focuses on the role and impact of school education on privacy attitudes or actual safe behavior on SNS. To counter this shortcoming, a survey study was set up with 638 pupils exploring teenagers’ attitudes towards privacy on SNS. The first question was: Do they care about their privacy? Next to that, the extent to which they show unsafe behavior on SNS was questioned. Finally, the impact that school education has on both privacy care and the safety of teenagers’ behavior on SNS was studied. It was found that teenagers do not care much for their privacy, and that a lack of privacy care leads to unsafe behavior on SNS. However, school education has a positive impact on privacy care, and by raising privacy care it also has an indirect positive impact on the safety of pupils’ behavior. Our results suggest, therefore, that more efforts for school education about safer use of SNS are important, especially since the attention for the topic in schools is still found to be extremely limited and not organized in the curriculum. Practical implications are discussed.
Pupils involved in peer assessment often state that they do not feel entirely comfortable with pu... more Pupils involved in peer assessment often state that they do not feel entirely comfortable with publicly evaluating their peers. It is found that peer-pressure might cause stress and a lack of accuracy of the assessment (Falchikov, 2003). Based on social impact theories (e.g. Latané, 1981), anonymity within peer assessment can be considered as a solution. Yet, although the benefits of anonymity are previously investigated in the context of classroom voting and debating in higher education (Ainsworth et al., 2011), no research is found regarding anonymity in the context of peer assessment in a face-to-face secondary education setting. To fill this gap, the present study was set up to investigate whether anonymity of the assessors in peer assessment can counter undesirable social effects. It was hypothesized that anonymous modes of peer assessment will induce a reduced perception of peer pressure, a reduced fear of failure, and more positive attitudes towards peer assessment. Classroom response technology (CRT) was introduced as a tool that enables anonymity within face-to-face settings (Kay & Knaack, 2009). A quasi-experimental study was set up in four secondary classes in Belgium (n=69). In all classes, pupils had to assess each others’ group presentations on different criteria in a face-to-face classroom setting. In the control group (2 classes) a traditional peer assessment approach was used, i.e. raising score cards-, while in the experimental group (2 classes) CRT was used to give scores anonymously. In the latter, score distributions were presented on a screen in front of the class. Feelings of peer-pressure, fear of failure towards the other, and pupils’ general attitudes towards peer assessment were measured using a post-questionnaire. It was found that the pupils who used CRT as a tool to give scores anonymously, felt less peer pressure and fear of failure than those in the classic peer assessment condition. They also reported more positive attitudes towards this kind of evaluation. Implications of these results are discussed.
This study investigated the impact of different modes of scaffolding on students who are learning... more This study investigated the impact of different modes of scaffolding on students who are learning science through a web-based collaborative inquiry project in authentic classroom settings and explored the interaction effects with students’ characteristics. The intervention study aimed to improve domain-specific knowledge and metacognitive awareness during online information problem solving (IPS) as part of an online inquiry project. Three experimental conditions (teacher-enhanced scaffolding, technology-enhanced scaffolding, and both forms of scaffolding) were compared with a control condition in a two-by-two factorial quasi-experimental design. Moreover, gender and prior knowledge were examined as two factors which may have a significant impact on Web-based learning. In a four-week field study in secondary science education, pretest-posttest differences were measured. In total 347 students from 18 secondary school classes were involved and the classes were randomly distributed over the 4 conditions. Our findings support the notion of multiple scaffolding as an approach to enhance both knowledge acquisition and metacognitive awareness with respect to IPS-processes and to meet a mix of students with different needs within the context of a web-based inquiry learning project.► Effects of scaffolding on knowledge acquisition and metacognition are examined. ► Technology-enhanced scaffolding and teacher-enhanced scaffolding are compared. ► Teacher-enhanced scaffolding is important to increase knowledge acquisition. ► Providing technology-enhanced scaffolds improves students’ metacognitive awareness. ► Girls and low-achievers benefit more from teacher-enhanced scaffolding.
The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and securi... more The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and security, especially with teenagers since they show various forms of unsafe behavior on SNS. Media literacy emerges as a priority, and researchers, teachers, parents and teenagers all point towards the responsibility of the school to educate teens about risks on SNS and to teach youngsters how to use SNS safely. However, existing educational materials are not theoretically grounded, do not tackle all the specific risks that teens might encounter on SNS and lack rigorous outcome evaluations. Additionally, general media education research indicates that although changes in knowledge are often obtained, changes in attitudes and behavior are much more difficult to achieve. Therefore, new educational packages were developed –taking into account instructional guidelines- and a quasi-experimental intervention study was set up to find out whether these materials are effective in changing the awareness, attitudes or the behavior of teenagers on SNS. It was found that all three courses obtained their goal in raising the awareness about the risks tackled in this course. However, no impact was found on attitudes towards the risks, and only a limited impact was found on teenagers’ behavior concerning these risks. Implications are discussed.
Peer assessment is becoming more popular in higher education, however it often goes together with... more Peer assessment is becoming more popular in higher education, however it often goes together with undesirable social effects like peer pressure and favoritism, especially when students need to evaluate peers in a face-to-face setting. The present study was set up to investigate increased anonymity in peer assessment to counter these undesirable social effects. It was hypothesized that modes of peer assessment that provide an increased anonymity will induce a reduced perception of peer pressure, increased feelings of comfort and more positive attitudes towards peer assessment. Classroom response technology (CRT) was introduced as a tool that enables anonymity. In addition, oral and written feedback was organized to meet the need for feedback. The results show that the proposed peer assessment practice combines the positive attitudes and feelings of comfort related to the anonymous use of CRT with the perceived added value of argumentation in oral and written feedback.
The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and securi... more The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and security, especially with teenagers, since they show various forms of unsafe behavior on SNS. It has been put forth by researchers, teachers, parents, and teenagers that school is ideally placed to educate teens about risks on SNS and to teach youngsters how to use SNS safely. Privacy attitudes also need to be taken into account if we want to decrease the amount of unsafe behavior. However, there is a lack of research that focuses on the role and impact of school education on privacy attitudes or actual safe behavior on SNS. To counter this shortcoming, a survey study was set up with 638 pupils exploring teenagers’ attitudes towards privacy on SNS. The first question was: Do they care about their privacy? Next to that, the extent to which they show unsafe behavior on SNS was questioned. Finally, the impact that school education has on both privacy care and the safety of teenagers’ behavior on SNS was studied. It was found that teenagers do not care much for their privacy, and that a lack of privacy care leads to unsafe behavior on SNS. However, school education has a positive impact on privacy care, and by raising privacy care it also has an indirect positive impact on the safety of pupils’ behavior. Our results suggest, therefore, that more efforts for school education about safer use of SNS are important, especially since the attention for the topic in schools is still found to be extremely limited and not organized in the curriculum. Practical implications are discussed.
Pupils involved in peer assessment often state that they do not feel entirely comfortable with pu... more Pupils involved in peer assessment often state that they do not feel entirely comfortable with publicly evaluating their peers. It is found that peer-pressure might cause stress and a lack of accuracy of the assessment (Falchikov, 2003). Based on social impact theories (e.g. Latané, 1981), anonymity within peer assessment can be considered as a solution. Yet, although the benefits of anonymity are previously investigated in the context of classroom voting and debating in higher education (Ainsworth et al., 2011), no research is found regarding anonymity in the context of peer assessment in a face-to-face secondary education setting. To fill this gap, the present study was set up to investigate whether anonymity of the assessors in peer assessment can counter undesirable social effects. It was hypothesized that anonymous modes of peer assessment will induce a reduced perception of peer pressure, a reduced fear of failure, and more positive attitudes towards peer assessment. Classroom response technology (CRT) was introduced as a tool that enables anonymity within face-to-face settings (Kay & Knaack, 2009). A quasi-experimental study was set up in four secondary classes in Belgium (n=69). In all classes, pupils had to assess each others’ group presentations on different criteria in a face-to-face classroom setting. In the control group (2 classes) a traditional peer assessment approach was used, i.e. raising score cards-, while in the experimental group (2 classes) CRT was used to give scores anonymously. In the latter, score distributions were presented on a screen in front of the class. Feelings of peer-pressure, fear of failure towards the other, and pupils’ general attitudes towards peer assessment were measured using a post-questionnaire. It was found that the pupils who used CRT as a tool to give scores anonymously, felt less peer pressure and fear of failure than those in the classic peer assessment condition. They also reported more positive attitudes towards this kind of evaluation. Implications of these results are discussed.
This study investigated the impact of different modes of scaffolding on students who are learning... more This study investigated the impact of different modes of scaffolding on students who are learning science through a web-based collaborative inquiry project in authentic classroom settings and explored the interaction effects with students’ characteristics. The intervention study aimed to improve domain-specific knowledge and metacognitive awareness during online information problem solving (IPS) as part of an online inquiry project. Three experimental conditions (teacher-enhanced scaffolding, technology-enhanced scaffolding, and both forms of scaffolding) were compared with a control condition in a two-by-two factorial quasi-experimental design. Moreover, gender and prior knowledge were examined as two factors which may have a significant impact on Web-based learning. In a four-week field study in secondary science education, pretest-posttest differences were measured. In total 347 students from 18 secondary school classes were involved and the classes were randomly distributed over the 4 conditions. Our findings support the notion of multiple scaffolding as an approach to enhance both knowledge acquisition and metacognitive awareness with respect to IPS-processes and to meet a mix of students with different needs within the context of a web-based inquiry learning project.► Effects of scaffolding on knowledge acquisition and metacognition are examined. ► Technology-enhanced scaffolding and teacher-enhanced scaffolding are compared. ► Teacher-enhanced scaffolding is important to increase knowledge acquisition. ► Providing technology-enhanced scaffolds improves students’ metacognitive awareness. ► Girls and low-achievers benefit more from teacher-enhanced scaffolding.
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