Title: The characteristics of gifted students' ecology inquiries in ubiquitous learning activities

Authors: Pi-Hsia Hung; Gwo-Jen Hwang; I-Hua Lin; I-Hsiang Su

Addresses: Graduate Institute of Measurement and Statistics, National University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of Measurement and Statistics, National University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of Measurement and Statistics, National University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences on science inquiry competence and meta-cognitive strategies between the gifted and the average students in ubiquitous ecology learning activities. The participants were 27 gifted students and 63 average students from 4–5th grades. Two major instruments were developed for this investigation. The first was the criterion variable, Science Inquiry Literacy Assessment (SILA); the second was a questionnaire which consisted of three rating scales for ubiquitous ecology inquiry. All participants were required to respond to these two instruments after 8 weeks of inquiry. The results revealed that the gifted students performed significantly better than the average students in SILA and perceived usefulness of the mobile devices. The preliminary validities of perceived usefulness ratings also looked more promising for the gifted students than those for the average students. The meta-cognitive strategies for learning progress between two ability groups was not significant different.

Keywords: ubiquitous learning; u-learning; science inquiry; gifted students; perceived usefulness; meta-cognitive strategies; ecology inquiries; competence; average students; 4th grade students; 5th grade students; criterion variables; literacy assessments; rating scales; mobile devices; learning progress; ability groups; Taiwan; mobile learning; m-learning; online learning; e-learning; electronic learning; online learning; internet; world wide web.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMLO.2012.046882

International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 2012 Vol.6 No.1, pp.52 - 63

Published online: 23 Dec 2014 *

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