Design Implications for Explanations: A Case Study on Supporting Reflective Assessment of Potentially Misleading Videos

Online videos have become a prevalent means for people to acquire information. Videos, however, are often polarized, misleading, or contain topics on which people have different, contradictory views. In this work, we introduce natural language explanations to stimulate more deliberate reasoning about videos and raise users’ awareness of potentially deceiving or biased information. With these explanations, we aim to support users in actively deciding and reflecting on the usefulness of the videos. We generate the explanations through an end-to-end pipeline that extracts reflection triggers so users receive additional information to the video based on its source, covered topics, communicated emotions, and sentiment. In a between-subjects user study, we examine the effect of showing the explanations for videos on three controversial topics. Besides, we assess the users’ alignment with the video’s message and how strong their belief is about the topic. Our results indicate that respondents’ alignment with the video’s message is critical to evaluate the video’s usefulness. Overall, the explanations were found to be useful and of high quality. While the explanations do not influence the perceived usefulness of the videos compared to only seeing the video, people with an extreme negative alignment with a video’s message perceived it as less useful (with or without explanations) and felt more confident in their assessment. We relate our findings to cognitive dissonance since users seem to be less receptive to explanations when the video’s message strongly challenges their beliefs. Given these findings, we provide a set of design implications for explanations grounded in theories on reducing cognitive dissonance in light of raising awareness about online deception.

Philosophical Musings Drawn from the Gadamer-Cheng Dialogue of May 2000

A critical summary and reflective assessment of the Chinese account of the dialogue that occurred between Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) and Chung-ying Cheng (1935-) in Heidelberg in May 2000 is presented for the first time in English within this article. It ends with an account of the ontological nature of Sprache/language as both philosophers deal with this key term in Gadamerian philosophic hermeneutics.

Using reflective, authentic assessments to embed employability skills in higher education

PurposeReflection on performance and progress prepares students for workplace environments where self-management is expected, and yet this is something students are not often required to do formally in higher education (HE). This paper explores this gap in students' ability and seeks to address it through a reconsideration of summative assessment practices which, particularly in light of COVID-19, must align with the needs of graduates and their employers.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws from data collected from the summative reflective assessment reports that degree apprentices (DAs) submitted during the final year of their Business Management degree while undertaking a problem-based module. We undertook a document analysis of these reports and used thematic analysis where we systematically looked for repeated themes in students' reflections.FindingsStudents problematise the skills needed during COVID-19, and beyond, both in their academic studies and the workplace. Authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to work on skills and projects which are relevant to them. Through reflective accounts of skills they developed, students were able to bridge academic and professional practice and identify areas of convergence. Students engaged with academic theories in a constructive and meaningful way which suggests that authentic reflective accounts as part of assessment have the potential to maintain academic rigour.Originality/valueSkills development can bring the workplace into HE in a meaningful and systematic way and this article provides guidance for those looking to introduce reflection on skills to other courses. We suggest how this model can be utilised across modules which do not have work-integrated learning in their delivery.

Examining Online Discourse Using the Knowledge Connection Analyzer Framework and Collaborative Tools in Knowledge Building

This study examines the problem of the fragmentation of asynchronous online discourse by using the Knowledge Connection Analyzer (KCA) framework and tools and explores how students could use the KCA data in classroom reflections to deepen their knowledge building (KB) inquiry. We applied the KCA to nine Knowledge Forum® (KF) databases to examine the framework, identify issues with online discourse that may inform further development, and provide data on how the tools work. Our comparisons of the KCA data showed that the databases with more sophisticated teacher–researcher co-design had higher KCA indices than those with regular KF use, validating the framework. Analysis of KF discourse using the KCA helped identify several issues including limited collaboration among peers, underdeveloped practices of synthesizing and rising above of collective ideas, less analysis of conceptual development of discussion threads, and limited collaborative reflection on individual contribution and promising inquiry direction. These issues that open opportunities for further development cannot be identified by other present analytics tools. The exploratory use of the KCA in real classroom revealed that the KCA can support students’ productive reflective assessment and KB. This study discusses the implications for examining and scaffolding online discussions using the KCA assessment framework, with a focus on collective perspectives regarding community knowledge, synthesis, idea improvement, and contribution to community understanding.

Eportfolios as Reflective Assessment of Social Justice

This article explores the potential for eportfolios to contribute to the development of student critical awareness of social justice, including the role of the university as a social justice actor, through module assessment. It will critically address how eportfolios were introduced in 2019-20 to assess student reflection on social justice in a first year law module ‘Critical Approaches to Law’ at DCU. To date, there has been a slow adoption of eportfolios in Irish higher education (Farrell 2018). Although there is some evidence of reflective assessment in comparative legal education, especially in schools with an emphasis on socio-legal approaches to law, and in clinical legal education, there is limited analysis of eportfolio assessment in classroom-based or blended legal education, (Waye and Faulkner 2012) and none in the Irish context. The article will discuss the motivation to use eportfolios; the benefits, challenges and lessons learned in the design of the assessment, and the first time experience for the educator of marking and student experience of eportfolios. It assesses eportfolios as a mechanism for prompting student reflection and the development of critical thinking, (Farrell 2019) with a particular reflective focus on social justice and university education as a social justice experience. (Connell 2019). It queries the extent to which eportfolios enable students to incorporate prior learning experiences to their reflection, (Chen and Black 2010) and for students self-determine the parameters of their personal interaction with social justice questions raised by the experience in the module and their lived experience. (Brooman and Stirk 2020)

Digital Experiments in Higher Education—A “How to” and “How It Went” for an Interactive Experiment Lecture on Dental Materials

A digital lecture with motivating experiments—how can this be done in practice? This question shall be answered in the context of a case report from the field of material science. A digital experimental lecture as a substitute for a lecture with student experiments was evaluated by students to provide information on whether an adequate substitute for experiments in the digital teaching context is possible. This paper addresses the question of how to transfer a demonstrative experimental lecture to the digital space on two levels: (a) the procedure of an experimental lecture in the digital space with a focus on implementation, student activation, and audience response. A self-reflective assessment by the lecturer/author and an evaluation by the participating students was performed to judge the suitability of the digital experimental lecture in terms of students’ motivation. (b) Subject-specific experiments from the field of dental materials and their transfer from “students do it themselves” to a series of demonstration experiments. The detailed explanations of the procedure and the observed results shall serve as a basis for adaptation for other experiments or lectures. In conclusion, methods and tools (audience response systems such as joined blackboards, chat, and voting) suitable to activate students in partaking in the lecture by suggesting experimental parameters or speculating on the outcome of experiments are presented. The evaluation showed that with the help of these systems a demonstrative experimental lecture in the digital space can still be perceived as adequate experimentation if a certain student influence and animating approach to the audience is integrated, which might result in the students’ conclusion of, “It felt like you were “live” on site.”.

Web-Enhanced Peer Feedback in ESL Writing Classrooms A Literature Review

This paper aims to review literature on the impact of using web-based technology such as blogs and social networks to facilitate and promote peer feedback in ESL writing classrooms. It also investigates how giving and receiving comments from peer students can improve students’ performance in writing as well as their critical thinking skills. A combination of 47 peer reviewed studies were included in this review. All these studies were found on MUN online library and the selection criteria I used in searching was studies that are relevant to: ESL writing, the importance of peer feedback and the role that web-based technology can do to facilitate peer feedback in ESL writing classrooms. The results showed that reflective assessment of peers’ writing helps students develop their peers’ and their own writing performance. They also stressed the role of web-based technology in providing a stimulating environment for students to reflect on peers’ written work. However, some studies revealed the challenges that might affect using this technology such as students’ reluctance, fear of sharing writing online and their sensitivity to being criticized publicly.

Developing Children’s Concepts in Mathematics and Natural Sciences in Elementary School: From Initial Representations to Scientific Concepts

The article provides psychological and pedagogical background for a technique aimed at transforming children’s initial representations in mathematics and natural sciences into scientific concepts in elementary school. The methodological basis underlying this technique is largely shaped by L.S.Vygotsky’s ideas of holistic and unified development of concepts in the process of learning. We emphasize the key ideas of designing tools for working with students’ initial representations and transforming them into mathematical and natural scientific concepts: identification and joint discussion of children’s naive representations, reflective assessment of different views on the explored subject concept, coordination of opinions and assessments. We analyze the main approaches and practices of working with the students’ initial representations developed in foreign and Russian psychological and pedagogical research. It is worth noting that there is no universally recognized technique for transforming students’ initial representations into scientific concepts in elementary school; nonetheless, there is a number of effective methods in pedagogical practice that we outline in the paper. Finally, we stress the importance of training teachers to work with children’s initial representations in the course of developing their scientific concepts within the learned subject.

Taking an action reflective assessment approach when teaching dispute management

Encouraging life-long learner skills and preparing students for a new style of lawyering in the 21st Century to meet changing needs requires approaching teaching in renewed ways. This paper describes the action reflection learning approach adopted when teaching a mediation law course in an Australian law school. The approach and outcomes are described with specific attention to how this style of teaching enriches the student experience. Student reflections describe the teaching method as having developed their skills, learning and appreciation of a new conflict resolution advocacy style.