“Εφαρμογή του μαθησιακού μοντέλου 4ΜΑΤ με την αξιοποίηση authoring tools (CourseLab) στη διδασκαλία των αρχαίων ελληνικών”

Abstract

In the age where there has been significant development of new technologies, when communication, information exchange and accessibility technologies constitute a considerable change in the essence of civilization and society, it would have been impossible for education not to be part of the progress. Students in classes are changing; they are no longer satisfied with the traditional teaching methods of lectures and examinations and find school less appealing. As teachers, we are obliged to deal with this development and accept changes in both teaching methodology and the content of subjects taught and incorporate technology as a means of education. Nowadays,  fourth-generation electronic media such as the Internet, PCs and Web 2.0 tools are used in the classroom, and more and more teachers are implementing or shaping electronic learning environments themselves, thus enhancing their teaching with e-learning methods.

In this thesis, issues concerning e-learning were researched, the basic principles ruling the designing of electronic applications and the pedagogical theories were introduced, the most popular authoring tools like CourseLab were examined and presented. Also, the 4MAT learning model, the theories on which the four learning styles and the eight steps of the McCarthy learning cycle were based, and the most important overview of the bibliography on the subject, particularly in secondary education were presented and analyzed.

The objective was to investigate and detect any differences that might arise in the learning results, due to the implementation of three different methods: the traditional method, the 4MAT model and the computer-aided teaching based on the 4MAT model and the use of the CourseLab as the authoring tool, for the subject of Ancient Greek in a first year class of senior high school (on average, 15 year old students) and in particular from the "Greek" of Xenophon. For this purpose an experiment was designed with a sample of 67 students of three classes of the first year. The dependent variable is the learning outcomes despite the independent type of educational method used. Initially, the students participated in a diagnostic test to check whether the groups-parts were equivalent. Data analysis with One-way ANOVA confirmed that there were no significant statistical differences in the level of students in the three departments.

Two educational scenarios were created in the ancient Greek language course of the 1^st year of the  senior high school, based on the 4MAT model and in agreement with the ASA and then two electronic courses were developed using these scenarios. The same educational modules were taught in three different classes. All three groups were taught the same modules at the same time (7 hours devoted to the teaching of the first module and 2 hours for the teaching of the second module). The first module concerned a text of ancient Greek from translation while the second module a text from the original. Two evaluation criteria were then designed to test the learning outcomes from the teachings and the pupils were given questionnaires to evaluate e-learning.  

 One-way ANOVA was used in the statistical processing of the findings, after verifying the regularity of the distribution by applying the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk criteria and the homogeneity of dispersion criteria of Levene and Kruscal-Wallis on the opposing cases. In order to apply every possible crosscheck, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney criterion was also used. Although the findings showed improvement in performance across all groups, the assessment showed no significant differences in learning outcomes for any of the three teaching methods.   

A questionnaire was then distributed to students who were taught using the 4MAT model in an electronic CourseLab environment to assess whether the learning experience in the online environment was interesting and satisfactory. The questionnaire was based on the evaluation method for electronic applications of Zaharia and Poylimenakoy. The students assessed topics related to: their attitudes towards e-learning, application content, self-assessment learning, design and navigation. Subsequently, a descriptive statistical representation of the findings with the creation of graphs was drawn up. From the processing of the questionnaire data, a generally positive attitude of the pupils towards the teaching through electronic means emerged. More specifically, by comparing traditional learning methods to e-Learning, they appear to consider the latter more effective, less difficult, that it triggers and provoked their active engagement in learning, enables self-learning and self-evaluation, and develops their critical capacity at a rate higher than 50%.            

 The results of the study converge to a wide extent with findings of other studies related to both the 4MAT model and digitally supported learning. This study shows that the teaching of the ancient Greek course can be successfully conducted in an electronic environment, as was done with the modules taught with the help of  CourseLab which followed the learning cycle of the McCarthy model. In this way modern pedagogical principles are applied in the design and realization of teaching such as experiential learning, knowledge as a result of social interactions, and learning with the help of applied methodology and practice. However, we believe that due to the limited time of teaching and the small sample, further research would be useful either on the same subject or on a similar, longer-term and larger and more representative sample.