ACEID2023 Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations

Learning Experiences, Student Learning & Learner Diversity

66683 | Learning Experiences to Support Equity for Student Living in Poverty

Jill Tussey, Buena Vista University, United States

Michelle Metzger, Buena Vista University, United States

Jessy Bibler, Buena Vista University, United States

Leslie Haas, Xavier University of Louisiana, United States

Poverty can affect the background knowledge and vocabulary development of students before they enter our elementary classrooms. As educators it is key to ensure that we provide a variety of learning experiences to help ensure equity inside and outside the classroom setting for these students. Out-of-school learning has the potential to help decrease the academic gaps of students living in poverty. Additional background knowledge about the role government and schools can play when dealing with poverty. The main age population of this presentation and expectations focuses on kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Participants will gain a deeper understanding about the effects of poverty on children during the presentation. In addition, the presenters will share educator resources as well as sample classroom games and activities in the areas of literacy, math, and physical education to provide a positive and equitable learning experience for elementary students. Activities and games with the focus of literacy, math, and physical education for students to utilize outside of the classroom setting will also be explored and shared during the presentation. All of the activities and games are ones that can be embedded in elementary classrooms.

67142

| Barriers and Challenges of Online Assessments During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of Undergraduate Pharmacy Students

Aisyah Saad Abdul Rahim, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Syamimi Jamil, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed inherent weaknesses and posed novel challenges during the implementation of distance education. This mixed-method study aimed to investigate undergraduate pharmacy students’ perceptions of the barriers and challenges in online assessments during the pandemic lockdowns. A self-reported questionnaire was designed to collect responses from third-year pharmacy students from April –May 2021. A total of 126 pharmacy students from a Malaysian public university completed the survey. Five themes of inadequate online interactions, unconducive learning environment, mental health concerns, heavy assignment workload and preparedness as future pharmacists emerged from this study as challenges and barriers students perceived in online assessments. The findings in this study indicated students adopted surface learning strategies rather than deep learning to cope with heavy assignment workloads. Students also asserted that the underdevelopment of communication skills and practical knowledge relevant to the pharmacy profession might directly impact their preparedness as future pharmacists. Future research could explore the long-term ramifications of the pandemic on pharmacy students’ learning and professional skills.

67329 | Self-Identity in a Connectionism Learning Environment

Wafa Al-Maawali, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Oman

Connectivist learning theory has been widely discussed with online collective higher-order thinking skills and critical reflection. Yet it is unclear how students negotiate their own identity within this collective learning. Therefore, the current study aims to explore the individual intentional approaches and processes of learning within a group. The methodology is a qualitative case study in Oman higher education. The methods of data collection are interviews and observations. The interviews were with 60 Omani college students after engaging in online and face-to-face collective meaning making and negotiations. The groups were observed three times distributed in a month. The initial analysis of results of the study indicate over-reliance on groups strongest members and decreased critical work by some students indicating that connectivism learning theory can allow students to get better assessment results than they actually deserve, it is applied for marked assignments. Pedagogical implications regarding collective group mechanism and processes are going to be presented.

68523 | Mediating Effects of a Poster Activity on Taiwanese Students’ Self-determined Learning Readiness

Brady Michael Jack, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan

Hsin-Hui Wang, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan aceid.iafor.org/aceid2023-virtual-presentations

Investigation explored the mediating effect of small group poster activity on Taiwanese grade 11 students’ self-determined learning readiness (SD-LR). This poster activity paralleled small group discussions concerning the socio-scientific issue (SSI) topic of restarting Taiwan’s 4th nuclear energy plant. A corresponding survey was constructed to measure three scales: active learning (AL, measuring autonomy), critical thinking (CT, measuring competence), and group sociability (GS, measuring relatedness). The mediation role of GS verbal discussions verses GS with the visual hands-on prompt of a poster activity on the relationship between CT and AL among students (N=20) was examined. Partial least squares was used to test for mediation effects and the fitness of data to a three-factor model consisting of AL, CT, and GS. Results revealed good model fit to the data. Analysis of mediation effects of the three factors revealed no significant indirect or direct effects when students only verbally deliberated about the SSI. However, indirect effect of CT on AL and total effect of CT on AL were significant when students used the visual hands-on prompt of a poster activity. The inclusion of the mediator GS showed no significant effect of CT on AL, indicating that GS fully mediated the relationship between CT and AL. These results suggest that verbally deliberating exclusive of the visual hands-on prompt of the poster activity excited a mediation mechanism whereby critical thinking (CT) no longer had direct impact on active learning (AL), but instead worked indirectly by impacting group sociability (GS) which then enhanced active learning (AL).