Doctor in Education (Ed.D.)

Research has provided evidence supporting the effects of input-based learning on learners’ language learning through Extensive Reading (ER), Extensive Listening (EL), and bimodal input (e.g., reading while listening, listening passage previewing). Less studied, however, is how input-based learning impacts learners’ language use, particularly speaking proficiency. This is important as the learners’ competence in producing the language either written or oral becomes the success parameter in learning a foreign or second language. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the potential effects of input-based learning through ER, EL, and the combination of ER and EL (EREL) on second language (L2) learners’ spoken performance.

Employing an embedded mixed-methods design, this study investigated the impact of different input-based language learning programmes on participants’ speaking skills and their perceptions of these programmes. Quantitative data were collected from students taking a Speaking for Academic Purposes (SAP) course at an English department, in a public university, Indonesia. These participants were assigned to four groups: Extensive Reading Only (ERO; n = 38), Extensive Listening Only (ELO; n = 41), Extensive Reading-Extensive Listening (EREL; n = 51), and a control group (n = 53). The extensive learning groups had access to Xreading, an online library, and each group received different language instructions. The ERO group received written texts; the ELO group received oral texts, and the EREL group received language input from both written and oral texts. The control group, however, was not exposed to Xreading platform. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design to assess learners’ language skills (listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and vocabulary knowledge), and their speaking performances. Prior to conducting statistical analysis, the Rasch model was conducted to prepare learners’ language skills, and the many - facet Rasch measurement was applied to validate their speaking skills. Furthermore, the qualitative data were gathered from the questionnaires, learning logs, and focus group interviews to investigate the participants’ perceptions about the extensive learning programmes. The data were analysed using MaxQDA, a qualitative analysis application, to augment the quantitative findings.

The results of this study, as suggested from repeated-measures MANOVA and oneway ANOVA, indicate significant progress in language skills and speaking performance across each experimental group. In terms of gains from their pre and post -test, the EREL group performs better in listening and speaking compared to the control group. In addition, from the qualitative data results of the questionnaires and focus group interviews, the participants in both EREL and control groups believe that engaging with written and oral texts is important for their language development (e.g., vocabulary, listening, reading, and speaking) as they believe this helps them learn new vocabulary and improve the pronunciation of these words in language production. However, the students in the experimental group showed little interest to record their experiences in learning logs as post activities. They perceived these tasks as potentially discouraging further engagement in reading and listening activities. Despite this, the study offers valuable suggestions for future implementation regarding input-based learning, directed towards teachers and practitioners in classroom settings.

Online teaching and learning for the professional development of workers in service is ever pervasive and continually growing. Yet, studies of teaching and learning with technology are mostly conducted in K-12, pre-service, or higher education contexts resulting in a lack of attention given to the in-service or professional development field. This study aims to alleviate the issue by investigating online courses in a professional development context, particularly in a government institution such as the Financial Education and Training Agency (FETA) under the Indonesian Ministry of Finance. By conducting a study in the institution providing online professional development courses, this study focuses on adult learners.

There are also more studies investigating learners compared to instructors, even though the latter are reportedly struggling in conducting online courses. One of the struggles instructor faces includes choosing relevant technologically enhanced andragogy that are in line with the learning contents and intents. This happened amidst the growth of online professional development courses due to increasing demand accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Online learning needs to be improved not only in terms of quantity but also quality.

By analysing 148 curriculum documents known as the course syllabi, followed by interviewing three gatekeepers and seven instructors conducting online courses at FETA, and informed by prevailing theories of education and educational technology adoption, the present study aimed to uncover practice-based considerations in crafting online course curricula for professional development. Frameworks used in this study include the adult learning principles of andragogy, the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, and the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model.

The study found the distinction between various types of online courses for professional development: distance learning, webinars, and web-based learning courses. Distance learning can be supplemented with prerequisite and/or action learning. Web-based learning can be limited to specific learners or opened to the general population of learners depending on the learning content. The study also found connections between learning objectives and the use of technology in online courses. The considerations in choosing internet-assisted course types and relevant technologies for online courses include learning content. Characteristics of learning content are considered, such as range, specificity, and confidentiality. These characters correspond to the specification of learners which are adult learners. Both content and audience are considered in crafting online course curricula.

The findings gathered through this study may not only sharpen the crafting of online course curricula but also assist in providing effective support for online teaching and learning. It provides a better understanding of the connection between learning content and the use of technology for online courses in a professional development context meant for adult learners. Such a better understanding of instructors’ considerations helped explain why online course curricula are crafted with certain approaches. It is hoped that the considerations borne by this study can be useful in guiding the practice of designing the curricula for online courses in professional development contexts for adult learners while assisting in providing relevant support for instructors.

An increased interest in Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Environments (IVRLE) necessitates understanding how augmented feedback can be used effectively to improve motor skills learning in such an environment. In this study, a motor task in the context of sports fencing was designed within an IVRE to study the effects of the types of augmented feedback, Knowledge of Performance (KP) and Knowledge of Results (KR), and the modes of augmented feedback; unimodal auditory augmented feedback and multimodal auditory-visual augmented feedback, on learning motor skills.

All 58 participants experienced the VR Fencing Coach Simulator IVRLE, where they each learnt to perform three fencing motor skill tasks in three different augmented feedback conditions. The participants were divided into two groups: one experiencing no feedback and unimodal KP and KR augmented feedback. In contrast, the second group experienced no feedback and multimodal KP and KR augmented feedback. The order of the KP and KR simulation sessions was randomised to ensure no carryover effects. All participants also took part in a retention test and a post-experiment interview.

The experimental design approach was used, deploying appropriate statistical tests, such as paired-sample t-tests and ANOVA and an embedded qualitative survey. The study's results affirm the IVRLE's ability to provide automated augmented feedback during virtual training, improving participant performance and enabling retention and transfer of the learnt skills. However, further examination of the types and modes of feedback found no significant difference in either condition, leading the researcher to propose that effective augmented feedback types and modes in the IVRLE could better be provided in combination rather than in isolation. This research advances the role of the IVRLE from one of novelty to a serious learning solution and informs upon the further development of IVRLEs for learning across different disciplines.

Two consecutive macro-cycles (MC I and MC II), each consisting of the three phases, were carried out with a six-week interval between the two teaching experiments of MC I and MC II. Prior to MC I, a preliminary study consisting of teachers’ interviews and a small-scale teaching experiment was also conducted. Findings from the preliminary study helped improve our instructional design in the form of a conjectured local instruction theory (LIT) which consists of conjectures about a possible learning process and possible means of supporting that learning process. The conjectured LIT was then elaborated in the form of a hypothetical learning trajectory (HLT) where instructions and conjectures of students’ responses were made more explicit. There was a sequence of five lessons in the HLT which was structured based on our identification of integer addition and subtraction problem types, that is, four types of integer addition problems, and six types of integer subtraction problems.

The teaching experiments of MC I and MC II were conducted in a classroom of sixth graders (11 to 12 years old students), each in School A and B, respectively. Both schools implemented the revised edition of the 2013 national curriculum, where concepts of negative integers and the four basic arithmetic operations involving negative integers are first introduced in grade six. In each macro-cycle, a written pre- and post-test were administered to all students in the classroom before and after the intervention in the teaching experiment phase. Following the pre- and post-test, individual interviews were conducted only with the selected nine students for the purpose of further analysis regarding their reasoning and how the NNL model have benefited them in solving difficult addition and subtraction problems. The participation in this study was voluntary, and all participant identifiers were removed in this report.

Findings reported in Chapter 5 and 6 were derived from the retrospective analysis by combining the task-oriented analysis and the constant comparative method, where conjectures about students’ learning in the HLT were constantly compared with the actual (observed) learning trajectory throughout the study. Similarities and differences across macro-cycles were identified to provide confirmation or counter examples regarding the generated conjectures. This study demonstrates how the NNL model gradually developed as a ‘model for’ students’ reasoning in solving integer addition and subtraction problems. Students who have built the conceptual system of the NNL model are able to solve any types of integer addition and subtraction problems, able to communicate and justify their solutions, and able to deduce abstract relationships between addition and subtraction.