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Promoting students’ higher order thinking in virtual museum contexts: A self-adapted mobile concept mapping-based problem posing approach

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Abstract

This study explored the effects of a self-adapted mobile concept mapping-based problem-posing (CMPP) approach applied in a virtual museum context. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experimental design was applied to compare the critical thinking tendency, meta-cognition tendency, problem-solving tendency, computational tendency, cognitive load, and flow experience of college level students using the self-adapted mobile CMPP approach to those using the conventional mobile-based problem-posing and points-listing approach. A total of 56 university students from two classes were involved in the experiment. The two classes of students adopted different approaches to learning in the virtual museum for comparing their critical thinking tendency, meta-cognition tendency, problem-solving tendency, and computational tendency as well as flow experience and cognitive load. One class with 29 students was the experiment group adopting the self-adapted mobile CMPP approach, while the other class with 27 students was the control group using the conventional mobile-based learning approach. The results of the study showed that the proposed strategy could significantly improve learners’ critical thinking tendency, meta-cognition tendency, problem-solving tendency, and computational tendency compared to the conventional approach. Though the proposed approach raised slightly higher flow experience and cognitive load, there was no significant difference between the flow experience and the cognitive load of the proposed approach and that of the control group. The interview results complemented the experimental results and indicated that the proposed approach was effective in terms of developing learners’ thinking capability, knowledge construction, and self-learning capability.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of East China Normal University under contract number 2022ECNU-HWCBFBLW002.

Funding

This research received grants from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NO. 2022ECNU-HWCBFBLW002).

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Contributions

The study was designed by both of the authors. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Dr. Hu. The draft was revised by Professor Hwang.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gwo-Jen Hwang.

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Appendix

Appendix

Items adopted in measurement

Items

Flow Experience

1. I felt in control of what I was doing during the learning activity.

2. I was absorbed intensely by the activity

3. I found the activity enjoyable

4. I was completely immersed in this learning activity.

5. I found the activity interesting.

6. During the learning activity, time seemed to pass fast.

7. The activity excited my curiosity.

8. I knew the right thing to do in the learning activity.

Critical Thinking Tendency

1. In the process of learning, I would think whether what I have learned is right.

2. During the learning process, I would judge the value of new information or evidence presented to me.

3. I would try to understand what I have learned from different perspectives.

4. During the learning process, I would evaluate different opinions to see which one is more reasonable.

5. In the process of learning, I can identify what information is acceptable.

6. As I learn, I identify facts that are supported by evidence.

Metacognition Tendency

1. I ask myself periodically if I am meeting my goal.

2. I periodically review to help me understand important relationships.

3. I find myself pausing regularly to check my comprehension.

4. I ask myself how well I accomplished my goals once I’m finished.

5. I ask myself if I learned as much as I could have once I finish a task.

Problem-Solving Tendency

1. I believe that I have the ability to solve the problems I encounter.

2. I believe that I can solve problems on my own.

3. I have experiences of solving the problems I encounter.

4. When encountering problems, I am willing to face and deal with them.

5. I will not escape from the problems I encounter.

6. I always try my best to solve the problems I encounter.

Computational Thinking Tendency

1. When dealing with a complex problem, I know how to divide it into several small problems and solve each of them.

2. I can usually develop a step-by-step procedure for solving a complex problem.

3. I enjoy dealing with complex problems.

4. I am good at developing regular plans for solving complex problems.

5. I usually use a systematic method to compare and decide on the options I have.

6. I can easily capture the relations or sequence between the subtasks for solving a complex problem.

Cognitive Load

1. The learning content in this learning activity was difficult for me.

2. I had to put a lot of effort into answering the questions in this learning activity.

3. It was troublesome for me to answer the questions in this learning activity.

4. I felt frustrated answering the questions in this learning activity.

5. I did not have enough time to answer the questions in this learning activity.

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Hu, Y., Hwang, GJ. Promoting students’ higher order thinking in virtual museum contexts: A self-adapted mobile concept mapping-based problem posing approach. Educ Inf Technol 29, 2741–2765 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11930-2

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