Saeed Khazaie; amir mashhadi
Abstract
IntroductionReading comprehension skills are the cornerstones of lifelong learning of sciences. The confluence of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics has currently ushered in the close collaboration of English teachers with subject area teachers in non-English speaking countries to ...
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IntroductionReading comprehension skills are the cornerstones of lifelong learning of sciences. The confluence of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics has currently ushered in the close collaboration of English teachers with subject area teachers in non-English speaking countries to highlight the possible benefits of new methods of teaching and learning sciences (e.g., Content-Based Instruction or CBI) through English. In tandem, the integration of Augmented Reality Games (ARGs) into flipped classrooms has made provision for students to preemptively tackle the challenges that they are likely to face in the professional contexts. As such, the experiential comprehension of reading sciences introduces the concept of lifelong learning.MethodThis longitudinal study, using a sequential explanatory design and adopting co-teaching in the social constructivism throughout the academic years 2019-2021, explored the feasibility of CBI through English in the pre-reading flipped classrooms for the lifelong learning of secondary and postsecondary sciences. Using the design of experiments, 721 Persian and non-Persian male and female high-school students majoring in applied sciences were selected in the margin errors of 1%. The participants were then randomly divided into four groups to learn the sciences through CBI in the (non)-ARG-assisted flipped classrooms. To fulfill complementarity, the process of CBI in the (non)-ARG-assisted flipped class continued with teaching and formative assessment of the participants' reading comprehension skills in both instruction-learning and healthcare contexts, along with a survey and a focus-group interview. While the quantitative data were analyzed through the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Spearman's correlation coefficient, the repeated measures ANOVA, and the linear mixed effects model, the qualitative data were analyzed through MAXQDA.Results and DiscussionDescriptive and inferential analyses of the data revealed the feasibility of CBI in the ARG-assisted flipped classrooms for teaching reading comprehension skills of sciences in both secondary and medical postsecondary education which, in turn, paved the way for lifelong learning (ß = 6.9, p<.05). From the participants' viewpoints, adopting an active role in doing the ARGs in the process of CBI of reading sciences facilitated their reading comprehension in favor of lifelong learning.ConclusionThe findings revealed that English communication between students and co-teachers for the completion of the reading activities contributed to students' lifelong learning of reading comprehension skills.
educational technology
Amir Mashhadi
Abstract
With the rapid advancements in new communication technologies, the authorities of Iranian educational ministry emphasized opening a new room in teaching and learning with the application of the new medium of mobile communication from the early childhood so as to attract the learners as well as to improve ...
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With the rapid advancements in new communication technologies, the authorities of Iranian educational ministry emphasized opening a new room in teaching and learning with the application of the new medium of mobile communication from the early childhood so as to attract the learners as well as to improve their main skills of learning. The current study was conducted to examine the effect of combining two main non formal media of gaming and mobile communication with face to face teaching on learning English language. To that purpose, the performance of 270 Iranian students ranging from 12 to 17 with pre-intermediate proficiency level was traced to highlight their blended learning of new words while being provided with marginal introduction to the contents via digital games within three groups. While the face to face instruction was common to all the participants in the education context, the first group did the prefabricated games and the second and third ones did the native Iranian game of 'Xhane Bazi', which was modified for the purpose of English language instruction, both in real and virtual environments. The assessment of students' performance was not limited to mere reliance on the traditional methods of pretest. Instead, posttest and the formative assessment, survey, and summative assessment were also utilized. The qualitative and qualitative analysis of data revealed a meaningful effect of indigenous instructional games on learning English language.