| dc.description.abstract | Adaptive learning is a teaching method that has been on the rise in recent years. It provides a digital method in which students can learn on their own level and at their own speed. Therefore each student follows its own path through the assignments of the software, while in the end they all have accomplished the same learning goals. At this moment, adaptive learning is mostly used in the alpha and beta courses, like maths and languages, but for the gamma courses it’s hardly been used. Last year publisher Malmberg started developing an adaptive learning program for geography. This program is called the Wereldbeeldtrainer (World image-trainer). With this program they want to teach students a broader, more detailed world image, or mental map. The goal is that with a better world image, students can answer assignments on exams easier and faster. It combines topography with regions, climates, economic statuses and more.
Next to adaptive learning, citizenship education is more and more applied in secondary education. For geography, this is mostly reflected by one of the core goals, namely core goal 38: “The pupil learns to use a contemporary image of their environment, The Netherlands, Europe and the world to place phenomena and developments in their environment’. The Wereldbeeldtrainer can attribute to this goal, by learning the students a contemporary image of the world.
This research has investigated the effectiveness of the Wereldbeeldtrainer in itself, but also in relation to core goal 38 of citizenship education. The main question was: To what extent can the Wereldbeeldtrainer enrich the world image of geography students and to what extent can the trainer contribute to gaining insight into the placing of phenomena and developments in their environment?
To answer the question this research has used the method of effect research. The Wereldbeeldtrainer has been tested on two different schools, the Van Maerlantlyceum in Eindhoven and ‘t Streek in Ede. A total 89 students have participated in the research, whether being part of the control group that did not use the Wereldbeeldtrainer or the group that did work with the trainer.
During this research the two groups made two tests, that were created especially for this research, containing 21 multiple choice question, very similar to the questions that are part of the Wereldbeeldtrainer, and 1 open answer question that was consistent with core goal 38. The students made one test before using the Wereldbeeldtrainer, and one 3-4 weeks later after using the Wereldbeeldtrainer. The results of these two tests have been analysed using SPSS statistics. The main focus while analysing was, whether or not the students that have been working with the trainer during the period between test 1 and 2 had improved results on test to in comparison to test one, but also to the control group that did not use the trainer.
The results show that only the students that practised with the Wereldbeeldtrainer between 1 and 2 hours have made significant progress in their world images. So students would have to use the program for at least more than 1 hour to get an enriched world image. There were too little students that used the Wereldbeeldtrainer for more than 2 hours to see if this also benefits the world image, but these students did achieve a higher score on test 2 than they did on test 1.
Another remarkable result is that students scored significantly higher on assignment 5 on test 2, which was about regional application, which means that the students had to combine their knowledge about different subjects in these questions. This result supports that combining different features about countries, helps students to learn them better. It also shows that the Wereldbeeldtrainer is most effective while using more contexts and features of countries, and using assignments like regional application, in which this knowledge has to be combined. As to core goal 38, the results showed no improvement. This can be due to the little amount of time the students worked with the Wereldbeeldtrainer, or the Wereldbeeldtrainer has no effect on the core goal.
Due to the fact that the students that participated had not much time for practising with the trainer, the results of this research are not as strong as they were hoped to be. Therefore, another research is recommended, in which the students will have more time to work with the program and is spread over a larger period of time. | |
