Augmented Reality in STEM Education: Bibliometric Analysis

Augmented reality applications in STEM education have increasing importance in recent years and it draws attention that scientific studies on this subject have gained momentum in the literature. The purpose of this research is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of studies on the use of augmented reality applications in STEM education in the literature. The Web of Science database has been used to collect the data. A total of 741 studies were accessed by going through various screening processes for the research. Content analysis and bibliometric analysis have been used in the analysis of the data. In the research, the distribution of publications by years and countries and the most published authors, journals, and countries were accessed. As a result of the research, in terms of the institutions with which the authors work, "National Taiwan University of Science Technology" ranked near the top for the number of citations and "National Taiwan Normal University" ranked near the top for the number of publications as the most productive institutions. It has been detected that "Wu, H. –K." and "Chang, H. –Y" are the most effective and productive researchers. According to the analysis conducted in the context of journals, "Computers Education" and "Interactive Learning Environments" have been the journals that contributed the most to this subject. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the co-authorship network structure is predominant in England and Spain. Concepts that become apparent in clusters in co-occurrences analysis are "augmented reality", "virtual reality", "mobile learning", "science education" and "mixed reality".

A Preliminary Evaluation of a Digital Token Economy to Increase Student Engagement during Group Teletherapy

Shortly following the temporary nationwide school dismissal amid COVID-19, the current exploratory case-study evaluated the feasibility of two engagement strategies delivered during group teletherapy: Class Dojo and opportunities to respond (OTR). Three elementary students with emotional and behavioral difficulties participated. An A-B-A design was used to evaluate the effects of Class Dojo on student engagement with therapist-delivered OTRs. Due to one student’s poor response to the contingency, an A-B-C design was used to evaluate the additive effect of student-delivered OTRs on his engagement. Results indicated moderate to high rates of student attendance, and consistently high rates of engagement for two students. When students delivered OTRs, the student who initially struggled to engage demonstrated an increase in engagement. Practical issues are discussed and recommendations are considered for future research on increasing student engagement during online settings.

Enacting Number Talks in a Simulated Classroom Environment: What Do Preservice Teachers Notice About Students?

Number talks are short mathematical discussions offering sensemaking opportunities for students. Aside from bolstering students’ mathematical learning, this instructional routine may also support preservice teachers (PSTs) in investigating how to facilitate discussion-focused instruction. In this study, PSTs engage in a learning cycle to explore, plan and rehearse two separate number talks during human-in-the-loop simulations, and then reflect on these experiences. During the first simulation, PSTs focus on understanding the routine’s components while positioning avatar-students as sensemakers as they elicit their participation. In the second simulation, PSTs build their instructional skills as they record representations of students’ mathematical thinking, probe students’ thinking in order to make mathematics visible, as well as notice missed opportunities to support students’ mathematical reasoning during reflections of their experiences. Implications of this study suggest that simulations, when embedded within a cycle of enactment and reflection, support PSTs in developing professional noticing skills.

The Effect of Digital Storytelling Method on Learning and Study Strategies

The general aim of this study is to determine the effects of teaching method based on digital storytelling on students’ learning and study strategies. In this study, as one of the true experimental models, pre-test/post-test control group experimental design was used via detachedly selected experiment and control groups. In the study, a teaching method based on digital storytelling was applied for the participant students in experiment group on the other side, the teaching technique based on PowerPoint Presentation was used in control group. According to the results of the data that was analyzed for this study, it was determined that there was a positive effect of digital storytelling on learning and study strategies. It was clarified in this study that digital storytelling succeeded more points on dimensions namely attitude, anxiety, concentration, selecting main ideas and test strategies under the main concept of learning and study strategies than the teaching technique based on PowerPoint Presentations.

Using Virtual Museums to Promote Activity Design Competencies for Out-of-School Learning in Pre-Service Teacher Education

Virtual solutions of museums can be notably used to promote distance learning activities by providing information about their collections. However, the effective use of this potential depends mainly on the exact alignment of the learning activities with the educational goals. For this purpose, this study focuses on the analysis of pre-service teachers’ activity designs based on virtual museum visits for out-of-school learning environments. Within the scope of the case study design, 40 activity plans developed by pre-service teachers for elementary mathematics, science, and classroom teaching were examined. The activity designs for selected virtual museums emerged as a result of a semester program. The research findings indicated that the activities emphasized the strategies of supporting learning outcomes, the guidance process for students in the virtual museum environment, and the engagement of the student with the virtual environment. Based on this, the study revealed that using virtual museums as a teaching tool for pre-service teachers supports teachers’ knowledge and skills of the activity design.

One-On-One Technology Mentoring for In-Service Teachers: The Experiences of Future ICT Coordinators

With the increasing demands of technology integration by the institutions, educators felt the need to develop themselves professionally. In this study, as a way of professional development, we focused on one-on-one technology mentoring for in-service teachers because the experiences of mentors would shed light on professional development programs in the context of both mentors’ progress and mentoring in-service teachers. Mentors for teachers were assigned to facilitate teachers’ ICT usage and ICT integration skills. The mentorship implementation lasted two semesters with 42 mentors’ participation. The determination of the content of the mentoring process was completely based on the needs and interests of the teachers. After the implementation, the perceptions and experiences of the mentors were asked and coded through content analysis. According to the analysis, the responses of the mentors were grouped into five main categories; (a) affordances of the technology mentoring process, (b) the contribution of the project to the teachers, (c) the contribution of the project to the mentors, (d) the challenges experienced by the mentors, and (e) the weaknesses of and the suggestions for the mentoring process. The findings of this study indicated that future ICT coordinators believed that one-on-one technology mentoring in real school settings is an effective way not only for training in-service teachers but also for creating awareness of being an ICT coordinator and developing ICT mentoring skills.

Maximizing Scalability in Literacy Game App Design for Minority Languages

Minority language communities lack access to educational technology that facilitates literacy skill building. The approach currently taken by most educational game app developers privileges widely spoken languages and often requires intensive resource investment. In response, a new game app was designed to provide easily localized, pedagogically appropriate games for literacy skill building. Scalability to multiple minority languages was possible through a programming design based on language packs that could be compiled by local implementation teams without specialized technical skills and without significant resource investment. We describe the scalability issues encountered when localizing the app for the initial ten minority language pilot groups and how a language-neutral app design that relies on language packs to specify language-specific content and parameters can adequately address these issues. When it comes to meeting the demands of growing education technology markets in underserved Indigenous and minority communities, localizing an app initially designed for maximum scalability is more feasible than investing significant resources converting apps custom designed for one language into new languages.

An Examination of the Relationship between Generation, Gender, Subject Area, and Technology Efficacy among Secondary Teachers in the United States

The current study uses a correlation design and multiple linear regression to determine whether generation, gender, and subject area predict teachers’ technology efficacy as measured by the Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment for 21st Century Leaning (TPSA C-21). An online survey was provided to all participants. The survey consisted of demographic questions and a technology self-efficacy instrument. Results demonstrate that gender and generation are statistically significant predictors of technology efficacy, namely on the Total, WWW, Integrated Applications, and Emerging Technologies Skills subscales of the TPSA C-21. The subject area variable, however, did not demonstrate a statistically significant ability to predict teacher technology efficacy scores on any subscale of the TPSA C-21. The findings of the current study add to the existing body of literature by enhancing understanding of the teachers’ perceptions of technology efficacy in one geographic location in the US. These findings are timely, especially given the largely technology dependent nature of education—whether in physical classrooms or in virtual settings and the increasing necessity of using technological tools in education settings. Implications are discussed, including suggestions for future research.

Development and Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Microscope for Science Learning: A Design-Based Research

This study aims to develop and evaluate an augmented reality microscope, “MicrosAR”, for a middle school Science course, which was aimed for use both in and out of school, and to understand the users’ perceptions about it. The study adopted design-based research to iteratively develop and evaluate the MicrosAR. Learning activities and working handouts in the application were grounded upon inquiry-based learning. The initial prototype was evaluated with 99 middle school students, as well as 18 preservice and six experienced in-service science teachers. The second prototype was then evaluated with 96 different middle school students. Accordingly, design changes were applied to the second prototype to present the final product development. Participants’ experiences and perceptions were gathered through a self-developed, paper-based instrument after they practiced with the MicrosAR. The findings indicated that the MicrosAR was favored by and recognized as an effective and useful tool by the participants. The study highlighted the benefits that augmented reality technology and such an application can offer for learning purposes, and that it can be practiced at any place to deliver a “real” learning experience over virtual platforms, thereby saving costs, enhancing its availability, and improved learner interest.

Mobile Technology Pedagogy: Improved Student Engagement for Improved Self-Assessment

There is minimal research which makes the connection between mobile technology and improved student achievement. This study addressed the gap in the literature and considered the dynamic and fluid engagement mobile technology brings to the teaching and learning environment to improve student essay scores in the composition classroom. Freshman composition essay scores were collected over the course of five semesters: two semesters where the instructor did not teach with mobile application technology, and three semesters after adoption of mobile technology. There was a statistically significant difference in mean writing project scores, with the mobile technology curriculum producing higher mean scores for all three writing projects. The purpose of this study was to expand current research to consider the effects of student achievement when using mobile application technology, and to inform current pedagogical practices across all disciplines.