Abstract:

This exploratory case study investigates student engagement and the affordances of Stanford Mobile Inquiry-based Learning Environment (SMILE). SMILE is an inquiry-based mobile learning framework designed to promote student-centered inquiry and reflection leveraging mobile media in the classroom setting. The participants were pre-service teachers enrolled in student teaching seminar that met once a week through web-conference. This study examined how students engaged with course contents, peers, and the instructor by constructing questions using SMILE. The data collection instruments included a survey, analysis of questions created by students in SMILE, observations made by the instructor during seminar class and focused group interview. Survey questions were developed from the Classroom Survey of Student Engagement (CLASSE) instrument with 15 SMILE related questions based on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principle guidelines for engagement. The results indicate that using SMILE provides multiple means of engagement as described by UDL principle guidelines. Student engagement with the course content and peers increased when the inquiry topic was relevant and meaningful to the pre-service teachers. Engagement with the instructor was contingent on how the instructor facilitated the activity. The discussion explores the implications of the role of the teacher and possible considerations for promoting further student engagement.

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