Browsing by Author "Koh, Kim Hong"

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    Enhancing High School Students’ Spatial Reasoning Through Geometry Transformation Instruction in Ghana
    (2023-08) Tay, Mawuli Kofi; Preciado-Babb, Armando Paulino; Koh, Kim Hong; Francis, Krista
    Spatial reasoning is a critical skill for learning mathematics, yet efforts to improve high school students' spatial reasoning skills within mathematics classrooms are limited or absent in Ghana. This study aimed to investigate the impact of using dynamic and static visualization approaches within the Experience-Language-Pictorial-Symbolic-Application (ELPSA) pedagogical framework to teach geometry transformation concepts and enhance students’ spatial reasoning skills and geometry transformation knowledge during a four-week intervention. Due to the mixed results regarding the type of visualizations, the study also aimed to compare the effects of dynamic versus static visualization. The study used a one group pretest-post-test design to compare the effects of dynamic versus static visualization instruction. Seventy-seven (77) students from a single school participated in the study and were purposively assigned to either the dynamic (n = 35) or static (n = 42) group. The intervention lasted for four weeks (16 hours), and the dynamic group received dynamic visualization instruction, while the static group received static visualization instruction. The students' spatial reasoning skills and geometry transformation knowledge were assessed using a spatial reasoning instruction and geometry transformation achievement test before and after the intervention. Although there were no significant differences between the groups, both visualization approaches significantly improved students' spatial reasoning skills, including mental rotation, spatial orientation, and spatial visualization, as well as their geometry transformation knowledge. Additionally, the study found a positive relationship between students' geometry transformation scores and their spatial reasoning scores, suggesting that an ELPSA pedagogical approach to visualization instructions can enhance students' spatial reasoning skills within the context of geometry transformation. Overall, these findings have important implications for mathematics educators and curriculum developers, as the findings provide conclusive evidence that targeted geometry transformation instruction within ELPSA pedagogical framework can enhance students' spatial reasoning skills, regardless of the type of visualization used to teach geometry transformation.
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    Incidental Learning of Chinese Idioms through Academic Listening
    (2023-03-30) Kang, Shuo; Cai, Wei; Carroll, Susanne; O'Brien, Mary; Koh, Kim Hong
    The present study adopted a pre-test/post-test between-groups design to examine whether Chinese as a foreign language learners could incidentally acquire and retain unfamiliar idioms through listening to a lecture on medical science. Moreover, it investigated the effect of different types of idioms on the incidental learning gains. It also employed a retrospective interview to explore the cognitive processes involved in idiom learning and the listening strategies used for idiom interpretation. Finally, it investigated the relationship between lecture comprehension and idiom learning. 159 medical students participated in the study. Six weeks after the pre-test that measured their prior knowledge of 18 target idioms, students in the experimental group one (n = 53) listened to a lecture where 18 target idioms were embedded; the experimental group two (n = 53) listened to 18 short paragraphs extracted from the same lecture, with each paragraph including one target idiom; the control group (n = 53) did not receive any input. Then, all participants wrote a post-test to show their learning outcomes. Five participants in each group were interviewed to determine what listening strategies were used for idiom comprehension. Twelve weeks after the post-test, all participants wrote a delayed post-test to measure their retention of target idioms. The results demonstrated that 1) the mean score of the post-test in the experimental group one was significantly higher than that of other groups, indicating the positive effect of lecture on idiom learning; 2) The mean score of the delayed post-test in the experimental group one was significantly higher than other groups, suggesting that academic listening could facilitate idiom retention; 3) Chinese idioms having translation equivalents in English were the easiest to learn, followed by Chinese idioms with some and no components in common with English counterparts. This indicates that cross-language similarity between Chinese and English has a significant effect on incidental idiom learning; 4) Proficient listeners could use their metacognitive knowledge to monitor the listening process and direct the deployment of various cognitive strategies; 5) There was a strong and positive relationship between lecture comprehension and incidental idiom learning. The results have important practical and theoretical implications.
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    IT Leadership and Cloud Computing Adoption in Western Canadian K-12 School Districts
    (2018-07-18) Holowka, Peter; Kowch, Eugene G.; Jacobsen, Michele; Scott, Donald E.; Koh, Kim Hong; Veletsianos, George
    Cloud computing IT infrastructure continues to grow in prevalence globally and across industries. This research sought to explore the extent of cloud computing adoption in Western Canadian K-12 districts, and to better understand the factors that influence its adoption (or nonadoption) within an educational context. This research answers the questions of how IT infrastructure decisions are made in K-12 districts, what is the IT infrastructure within these districts, and what are the influences/priorities that shape this infrastructure. The Frambach and Schillewaert (2002) conceptual framework for organizational innovation adoption was central to this research, identifying both the influences/priorities that affect districts’ adoption of cloud computing, as well as districts’ stages of adoption. This case study followed a data transformation model mixed-methods triangulation design, employing semistructured interviews, document analysis, and statistical correlation analysis. A finding of this study was that IT infrastructure decisions were most often made by leaders in either the instructional or financial branch of the district’s superintendent’s office, though who was responsible for IT decisions produced negligible differences concerning the IT infrastructure used. A major finding of this study is that cloud computing is ubiquitous in large Western Canadian K-12 school districts. In this study of all 75 districts in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, with 5,000 students or more, 100% of districts used cloud computing for at least one domain of their IT infrastructure. Non-cloud computing IT infrastructure was rare, and, when found, was typically used to complement cloud computing. The province in which a district was located had the greatest influence on its IT infrastructure. This was due to the influence of each province’s unique legislation. Additional factors that influenced districts’ IT infrastructure were a district’s size and the other types of IT infrastructure used within that district. A recommendation of this study is that K-12 districts in Western Canada, and around the world, continue to shift their IT infrastructure towards cloud computing.
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    Self-Regulated Learning for Chinese, Adult Language Learners: An Intervention Study in a Blended Learning Environment
    (2023-07) Dekker, William; Babb, Armando Paulino Preciado; Jacobsen, Michele DM; Koh, Kim Hong
    Blended learning is a well-established learning design providing much needed accessibility to learning resources and improved pedagogy through technological means. The flipped classroom model is one approach that can help promote engagement through the prioritization of learner-led discussions and collaborative work in the classroom while extending access to language learning practice outside of class time (Bergman & Sams, 2012; Forsey et al., 2013; Johnson & Marsh, 2016). Implicit within the design, however, is the introduction of non-linear access to information which often requires learners to assume more responsibility for their learning process, deploying self-regulated learning strategies to achieve their objectives (Perez-Alvarez et al., 2018). My dissertation explores the increased need for self-regulated learning experienced by Chinese, adult English language learners for achieving success in a blended, flipped learning environment. As a design-based research study, my focus was on the overarching objective of the development of an intervention. This objective was addressed in three, iterative stages of research involving the analysis of the context, and the design, development, and subsequent evaluation of prototypes. This process led to the creation of some initial design principles that were used to guide the development of a digital app that was deployed to a small group of participants. During the implementation and evaluation of the app-based intervention, an additional research objective relating to achievement goal orientation was adopted to explore the types of goals that language learners with high persistence were likely to pursue. Multiple, qualitative data sources were used to address the research questions including document analysis, focus groups, interviews, and field observations. Findings that emerged from the study contributed to the refinement of design principles and provided insight for subsequent development of the intervention. Findings suggested that personalized instructor feedback fulfilled an important emotional function for learners in this context. Enabling a dialogical feedback process between participants and the instructor helped engage learners in more thoughtful self-assessment using external feedback including data visualizations. This process contributed to the development of trust in the source of the feedback, which was more likely to lead to a change in behaviour. Additional insights concerning achievement goals were derived from the interviews, suggesting benefits of multiple different achievement goal profiles could be found. These findings lend further support to the value of using qualitative methods for investigating learner goal-orientations. This study included a small group of learners who demonstrated high persistence. It was recommended that future research involve a larger sample of learners to explore variations in response to the intervention to improve the effectiveness of the design and implementation.
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    The Integration of Community Service Learning and Reflection in a Post-Secondary Chemistry Lab
    (2023-06) Ho, Karen; Clark, Douglas B.; Bohac-Clarke, Veronika Elizabeth; Friesen, Sharon L.; Koh, Kim Hong; McCollum, Brett
    This manuscript-based dissertation was prompted by first and second-year university students' challenges in learning chemistry due to the traditional focus of chemistry labs on recalling information rather than applying critical thinking. The three manuscripts (Chapters 2 to 4) in this dissertation explore the possibility of supporting students’ meaningful learning through the integration of Community Service Learning (CSL) and Reflection in the Analytical Chemistry II lab. This multi-year project analyzes three different cohorts of students. Chapter 2 (Manuscript 1) focuses on the CSL design intervention and students’ attitudes toward the service learning activity. Post-instructional surveys were completed, and the data was analyzed using a mixed methodological approach. All learners self-reported favourable engagement, attitudes, and higher self-confidence after the CSL activity. Chapter 3 (Manuscript 2) builds on the previous chapter by exploring how intentional reflection enhances students’ conscious awareness of their learning. A series of reflective essays were assigned at the beginning, during, and after the CSL activity. Reflective essays, focus group interviews, and student observations were collected from fourteen students using a case study methodology. Students articulated their learning progression across three phases: (a) connection with and contribution to the world, (b) identification of areas that are missing and development of reasoning abilities, and (c) integration in learning. Students reported liking the reflective essays because they enhanced their abilities to develop self-competency in learning. Chapter 4 (Manuscript 3) further extends this research by exploring students' attitudes toward a range of different reflective strategies. Content analysis was selected as both methodology and method to analyze the data from reflective writings, reflective discussions, and scrapbook reflections. The combination of reflective exercises supported students in recognizing the interconnections between the ideas they were learning. In addition, the step-by-step process of teaching reflection increased students’ comfort level and willingness to learn Chemistry. Chapter 5 concludes that the integration of CSL and Reflection can serve an important role in students’ academic enhancement, personal growth, and civic engagement while supporting practical skills and intellectual stimulation in the laboratory.