A Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Teaching Model using a Cloud-Based Constructivist Learning Environment to Enhance Thai Undergraduate Creative Thinking and Digital Media Skills

The objective of this research was to develop a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Model which used a cloud-based constructivist learning environment to enhance Thai undergraduate creative thinking and digital media skills. Initially using a mixed-methods approach, a five-step model was conceptualized. Thereafter, a panel of five academic experts gave input into the model’s design from which the model was expanded to include six related learning environments. The instrument used in the research was a problem-based assessment form. Data collection was carried out utilizing group chats and analyzed using descriptive statistics including the mean and standard deviation. The results of the study revealed that the initial model contained five steps including (1) <em>problem identification</em>, (2), <em>problem analysis</em>, (3) <em>research</em>, (4) <em>presentations</em>, and (5) <em>summary and evaluation</em>, which is integrated into the model’s additional six learning environment elements. These six learning environments were (1) <em>problem-based</em>, (2) <em>resources,</em> (3) <em>cognitive tools</em>, (4) <em>collaboration</em>, (5) <em>scaffolding</em>, and finally, (6) <em>coaching</em>. When applying the proposed model and related environments, there was a consensus from the experts that the model had excellent suitability and can be used as a model for teaching and learning at the bachelor's degree level.

Computer Simulation Integration in Secondary Physics

This paper explored the teaching experiences of physics teachers in integrating computer simulations in their pedagogy to promote a constructivist learning environment. Its objectives are to determine how physics teachers describe computer simulations based on how they are used, how these are embedded in the teaching-learning process, their impact on the teaching-learning process, and the challenges of integrating these into physics teaching. Using the phenomenological design, two themes emerged for the first objectives, which are process-based and system-based. First, the teacher-manipulated with sub-themes of engaging, demonstrating, elaborating, and evaluating, and student-manipulated emerged on how the simulations are used. Second, the impact to teaching generated knowledge-based, skill-based, and value-based learning-based primarily on the three learning domains. Also, respondents emphasized that the integrations of computer simulations are convenience, efficacy, and heterogeneity. Finally, the challenges in the integration process are classified as teacher and school-related. The results showed that teachers are integrating computer simulations differently depending on their resources and the TPACK knowledge.

Instructor Impact on Differences in Teaching Presence Scores in Online Courses

Using three interdependent constructs: social, cognitive, and teaching presence, the Community of Inquiry framework is a theoretical process model of online learning. Specifically, teaching presence contains three sub-elements—(a) facilitation of discourse, (b) direct instruction, and (c) instructional design and organization—that work together to create a collaborative-constructivist learning environment. Data from the Community of Inquiry survey from 160 learners in 11 course sections were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine whether statistically significant differences existed in teaching presence scores between sections of two online courses with identical course design taught by different instructors. Results showed significant differences between individual instructors’ teaching presence scores for each of the two courses. Specifically, significant differences were found in each sub-element of teaching presence except for one course’s instructional design and organization. Conceptual and methodological explanations of the findings are provided, and implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Weaving CLES-FS and talanoa to capture Fijian student's science learnings: Exploring possibilities

This study seeks to explain how a modified Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) was implemented together with talanoa to explore Fijian students' perceptions of a constructivist learning environment in the science classroom in New Zealand secondary schools. The modified CLES, called CLES-FS, was developed explicitly for Fijian students in the New Zealand secondary schooling context. The adapted CLES-FS instrument included five components of constructivist learning: relationship and identity, familiar context, talanoa, critical voice and shared control. The inclusion of talanoa within the CLES-survey tool has not been done before to collect data from iTaukei (Indigenous) and Fijian-Indian students. The implication of using talanoa alongside CLES-FS has provided the unfolding of possibilities when weaving together qualitative as well as quantitative data. As an emerging Pacific researcher, the exploration exercise is essential learning that helps make sense of what it means to engage in research, particularly within the post-Covid context.

EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Constructivist learning environments are a core instructional factor affecting students’ critical thinking (Mathews & Lowe, 2011). However, few classroom environment research have specifically investigated relationships between students’ perceptions of their learning environment and their critical thinking ability (e.g., Fraser, 2012), especially in the context of Chinese learners. Therefore this study would fill this research gap by investigating the relationships between constructivist learning environments and critical thinking ability among Hong Kong secondary school students. The study used a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from a convenience sample of 967 students studying Liberal Studies or Integrated Humanities in Secondary Three (Grade 9) in Hong Kong. The respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire which included the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X, and demographic information on age and gender. The findings showed that students perceived their learning environment to be moderately constructivist in nature, and scored a moderate level of critical thinking ability. Both age and school banding differences were identified in which younger and students in schools with higher banding tended to perceive a higher degree of constructivist characteristics in their learning environment and they obtained higher critical thinking ability scores. Multiple regression analyses indicated that five of the seven independent variables were predictors of critical thinking ability. Shared Control was the strongest predictor and negatively associated with critical thinking ability. Personal Relevance, Critical Voice, and Uncertainty were positively while age was negatively related to critical thinking ability. The hypothesized model of seven demographic and CLES variables accounted for 10% of variance of critical thinking ability, suggesting a medium effect size. Findings of the study are discussed with reference to developing students’ critical thinking ability in classrooms.

The Impact of Dynamic Geometry Software on Creating Constructivist Learning Environment

This chapter aims to review the ways that digital technologies may impact learning geometry. To be more focused, Dynamic Geometry Software (DGS) is investigated as an assistant digital in the classroom for discussing the impact of learning geometry. Particularly, it is discussed whether DGS may have an effect on some knowledge accession skills suggested by constructivists approach. The chapter indicates that DGS has positive impacts on providing a constructivist classroom learning environment. Even though there is much research indicating the positive impacts of DGS in providing an environment shaped by the constructivist approach, some research provides different results. The reasons the results contradict each other could be explained by the prior knowledge, skills, and needs of students; a lack of time for whole class discussions; and insufficiency in the design of DGS applets and worksheets. Therefore, it should be noted that using DGS alone cannot create a learning environment shaped by constructivism.

The "ups" and "downs" of the upside-down: Constructivist and self-determined learning in the flipped classroom during COVID-19

The flipped classroom method (FCM) is based on individual online learning followed by student-teacher group interactions and has shown some advantages over traditional learning even in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic context. FCM is conducive to the constructivist learning approach, characterized by active knowledge construction rather than passive consumption of predetermined concepts. Both approaches are expected to facilitate the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness as proposed by self-determination theory (SDT). Given the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, FCM has been imposed on many universities that lack the resources to take a constructivist approach and satisfy students' basic psychological needs. Considering the challenges of inverted teaching induced by the pandemic, this review paper aims to further address the following problems in an integrated theoretical framework: What are the pros and cons of the pandemic-constructed flipped classroom?; Is constructivist learning possible and to what extent during the pandemic?; How can a constructivist environment be created in the pandemic-constructed flipped classroom? Can the flipped classroom be used as a virtual mediator between the constructivist learning environment and students' basic psychological needs? More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to integrate constructivist learning within the flipped classroom method and to explore how constructivist learning may facilitate basic psychological needs through the characteristics of the flipped classroom. The paper proposes a conceptual framework of the constructivist environment associations with basic psychological needs through the perceived usefulness of technologymediated flipped classrooms. Specifically, it explores whether the communicative, instrumental, and pedagogical functions of the flipped classroom could help satisfy students' basic psychological needs. Challenges to the practical and empirical applications of the framework are discussed.