Innovative Pedagogy to Overcome Student Struggles with Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a problem that affects English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner all over the world. Rather than simply labelling students who plagiarize as “offenders,” finding solutions to guide them away from it is of primary importance. Ten instructors teaching a 30-week EFL academic writing course at a large urban university in Japan were interviewed about their methodologies to do so. Two academic writing classes (N=40) were asked to write reflections on what they were learning and how it was being taught to them. The student reflections and instructor interview transcripts were coded and analysed, instructor strategies to deal with plagiarism proactively in this context identified, and student responses to these strategies explored. The strategies were largely found to be a combination of existing methods with one notable exception, which is introduced in detail here. It is based on Rubin’s Four Tendencies personality framework, which is a method that relies on instructors recognizing learners as responding to expectations in one of four ways and harnessing this to help them achieve. This personalized instruction can be seen as one of the modern approaches to facilitate learning and engagement outlined by Owens and Kadakia (2016). Student responses to it were positive, and the instructor using it felt that it both reduced stress and improved relationships with students. As such, the method has been added to the departmental pedagogy for the next intake of students.

Empowering Teachers with AI: Co-Designing a Learning Analytics Tool for Personalized Instruction in the Science Classroom

AI-based educational technology that is designed to support teachers in providing personalized instruction can enhance their ability to address the needs of individual students, hopefully leading to better learning gains. This paper presents results from participatory research aimed at co-designing with science teachers a learning analytics tool that will assist them in implementing a personalized pedagogy in blended learning contexts. The development process included three stages. In the first, we interviewed a group of teachers to identify where and how personalized instruction may be integrated into their teaching practices. This yielded a clustering-based personalization strategy. Next, we designed a mock-up of an AI-based tool that supports this strategy and worked with another group of teachers to define an `explainable learning analytics' scheme that explains each cluster in a way that is both pedagogically meaningful and can be generated automatically. Third, we developed an AI algorithm that supports this `explainable clusters' pedagogy and conducted a controlled experiment that evaluated its contribution to teachers' ability to plan personalized learning sequences. The planned sequences were evaluated in a blinded fashion by an expert, and the results demonstrated that the experimental group -- teachers who received the clusters with the explanations -- designed sequences that addressed the difficulties exhibited by different groups of students better than those designed by teachers who received the clusters without explanations. The main contribution of this study is twofold. First, it presents an effective personalization approach that fits blended learning in the science classroom, which combines a real-time clustering algorithm with an explainable-AI scheme that can automatically build pedagogically meaningful explanations from item-level meta-data (Q Matrix). Second, it demonstrates how such an end-to-end learning analytics solution can be built with teachers through a co-design process and highlights the types of knowledge that teachers add to system-provided analytics in order to apply them to their local context. As a practical contribution, this process informed the design of a new learning analytics tool that was integrated into a free online learning platform that is being used by more than 1000 science teachers.

Improving K-12 Teachers’ Acceptance of Open Educational Resources by Open Educational Practices: A Mixed Methods Inquiry

Teachers in K-12 settings increasingly demand instructional materials beyond textbooks to follow the upward momentum of personalized instruction. Especially during the outbreak of COVID-19, K-12 teachers are forced to quickly adapt to online teaching and thus have more difficulties of delivering personalized instruction in a relatively resource-restraint situation. Open educational resources (OER), allowing teachers to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute high-quality educational resources at no costs, can be a viable option for teachers. However, the acceptance of OER in K-12 education still remains low. Effective strategies are needed to reinforce teacher intention to adopt OER. This research showcased a two-phase sequential explanatory mixed method inquiry to investigate whether engaging K-12 teachers in open educational practices (OEP)—such as renewable assignments—increased their acceptance of OER. The quantitative phase, referring to the technology acceptance model (TAM), examined the change in factors influencing teachers’ acceptance of OER. The qualitative phase was followed up to provide supplementary perspectives of the quantitative findings. By integrating complementary findings, this research found that OEP increased teachers’ perceived ease of and self-efficacy towards using OER. Although teachers’ intention of implementing OER is not significantly improved, qualitative findings offered additional insights into the benefits of OEP in promoting OER usage and the recommended directions for future effort. Practical implications on improving teachers’ acceptance of OER in K-12 curriculum are discussed at the end.

Adapting: A Study of Implementing Adaptive Personalized Instruction, Innovation, and Technology From an Instructor’s Perspective

As time transforms education, methodology also needs to adapt to course instruction. However, instructors face a challenge to be effective while meeting each student’s learning needs. One such need for students today is the implementation of technological approaches to learning. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of a new instructor in higher education of implementing adaptive learning into their coursework, curriculum, and instruction. Data were collected quantitatively through the Stages of Concern Questionnaire, which showed the participant’s concerns about the implementation of adaptive learning. Qualitative data were collected via interviews with the participant that followed the Levels of Use protocol. The interviews allowed the participant to provide their views and beliefs about adaptive learning. Results show the participant was curious and interested in learning more about adaptive learning and its benefit in their classroom. Future research should focus on how universities can develop approaches to help faculty effectively learn and implement new instructional strategies.

Co-designing Research Methods Lesson Plans in the Interactive Research Methods Lab

In this article we present a series of co-design sessions conducted throughout the 2019-2020 academic year, of which the aim was to plan and implement lessons on research methods for undergraduate and graduate students in the Interactive Research Methods Lab (IRML). The IRML is a brand new resource in the Bagwell College of Education (Kennesaw State University) that provides students with personalized instruction and practical experience in generating research designs, conceptual frameworks, and reviews of literature using Augmented Reality (AR) interactive contents. We followed the seven characteristic features of co-design as outlined by Roschelle et al. (2006) and structured sessions for co-design in accordance with Cober et al. (2015) and Barberá et al.’s (2017) proposed stages: a) Exploration, b) Envisioning, c) Operationalization, and d) Assessment and Reflection. Successful implementation of the co-designed lessons and their integration with the IRML as a technological learning resource highlight the affordances of using a co-design approach to confront the inherent challenges in designing authentic and meaningful learning experiences when teaching research methods.

The Montessori Approach as a Model of Personalized Instruction

I present a brief overview of the key elements of personalized learning and Montessori education, a related pedagogical approach, aiming to examine common theoretical principles and key elements. I discuss the common features of personalized instruction and the Montessori approach of education. Both personalized instruction and the Montessori approach stand firmly on a constructivist paradigm and share many philosophical and theoretical principles. Research has shown that Montessori education is one of the most visible models that incorporates numerous aspects of personalized instruction and shares many common elements with personalized learning. This research has shown that, while personalized instruction also suggests many strategies for implementation of the concept, Montessori education actualizes the principles of personalized learning.

A Qualitative Inquiry of K–12 Teachers’ Experience with Open Educational Practices: Perceived Benefits and Barriers of Implementing Open Educational Resources

Teachers in K–12 schools have shown an increasing desire for open educational resources (OER) to ensure all students can learn effectively. OER provide teachers with free access to open-licensed educational resources that they can retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute for personalized instruction. Open educational practices (OEP) have been considered a pathway to reinforce the acceptance and readiness of K–12 teachers to use OER. This research thus showcases a qualitative study that investigates teachers’ experiences with OEP. This research explains K-12 teachers’ perceived benefits of implementing OER and also discusses their perceived barriers hindering OER usage in K–12 settings. The study also discusses the practical implications of integrating OER in K–12 curriculum.