Eﬀects of Scrum methodology on students’ critical scientific literacy: the case of Green Chemistry

Secondary science education plays a key role in students’ process to become scientifically literate citizens. However, teaching students to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to deal with complex societal issues is challenging. This paper reports about a study in which Scrum – a methodology to manage complex projects – was implemented in secondary chemistry classrooms to increase students’ conceptual understanding as well as their critical scientific literacy. A quasi-experimental design was used with 198 Grade 11 students from eight different classes. The experimental condition (99 students, 4 classes, 25 groups with 3 or 4 students, 2 teachers) used Scrum methodology during a context-based course on Green Chemistry. The comparison condition (99 students, 4 classes, 29 groups of 3 or 4 students, 3 teachers) completed the same module about Green Chemistry, without using Scrum methodology. At the end of the course students formulated a written advice on the greenest synthesis of adipic acid. A pre-test on prior knowledge of Green Chemistry principles and a post-test on conceptual understanding of the chemistry concepts involved were administered. In addition, the Standard Observed Learning Outcomes taxonomy (SOLO) was used to analyse the quality of the written advices as a measure for students’ critical scientific literacy. Students from the experimental condition outperformed their peers from the comparison condition in their conceptual understanding. Moreover, the quality of the advices of students from the experimental condition were rated higher than the quality of advices of students in the comparison condition. These findings are discussed and connected to Scrum methodology as teaching approach to scaffold both students’ conceptual understanding and its potential to promote the development of their critical scientific literacy.

Introduction
An important goal of secondary science education is to promote students' competences to become scientifically literate citizens. Secondary education enables students to engage with sciencerelated dilemmas that play a role in their personal lives (Eilks and Rauch, 2012). This is of the highest importance as society faces a broad variety of challenges (UN, 2015), including ecological issues such as climate change and chemicalisation (Ekberg, 2007;Sjöström et al., 2016). Inevitably, students, need to learn how to discuss dilemmas related to science, industry and the environment. Therefore, there is a clear need for students to acquire substantial science knowledge to understand underlying concepts. Moreover, students should develop appropriate skills to deal with complex issues, which enables them to participate in societal processes of democratic decision making . In short: the reality that society evolves towards greater complexity requires students to develop their scientific literacy. However, a challenging question is how to educate students to become scientifically literate citizens. Therefore, there is a need for teaching strategies that scaffold students on their way to become scientifically literate citizens.
This research explored to what extent the implementation of Scrum, a methodology intended to monitor and manage complex projects, can contribute to enhance students' scientific literacy.

Scientific literacy and science education
The term 'scientific literacy' has been used extensively in the educational literature (Holbrook and Rannikmae, 2009). Although there are many, often overlapping, definitions, it seems that there is consensus that this term includes students' ability to understand, use and apply scientific knowledge (Norris and Phillips, 2003). In addition, scientific literacy entails the ability to recognize topical real-world questions and, furthermore, the skill to draw evidence-based conclusions in order to generate well-informed decisions required for participation in democratic societies (Yacoubian, 2018). Based on this concept of scientific literacy, Roberts (2011) elaborated two viewpoints of science education. Vision I focuses on scientific theories, its underlying concepts and the scientific method. Typical examples are found in teacher-directed, traditional teaching approaches in which students develop understanding of concepts in a rather isolated way, without regard to how these concepts might be transferred to other contexts (Aikenhead, 2007). Within Vision I, contexts are used to illustrate concepts. In contrast, teaching based on Vision II starts with a meaningful, real-life context, and devotes particular attention to its societal aspects. Within these authentic practices, concepts are introduced on a 'need-to-know' basis (Pilot and Bulte, 2006). Moreover, students work collaboratively with classmates and are encouraged to explain course materials to other students. In addition, students receive timely and frequent feedback intended to enhance their learning process. Furthermore, they are invited to transfer the concepts learned and competencies acquired to new contexts. They are challenged to recognise and solve real-world problems by using relevant information sources. In sum, students work in small groups, deploy versatile communication skills to become independent and lifelong learners (Overton and Randles, 2015) as well as scientifically-literate citizens (Bennett, 2017, 23). Learning within Vision II can be characterised as student-centred. Its characteristics can be found in several teaching strategies, including problem-based learning (Barrows and Tamblyn, 1980), project-based learning (Krajcik and Shin, 2014) and context-based approaches (Pilot et al., 2016).
Worldwide, the major trend in secondary chemistry education reform is a shift from Vision I to Vision II (Pilot et al., 2016;Sevian et al., 2018). However, recently, a more elaborated form of Vision II is proposed, called Vision III (Sjöström and Eilks, 2018). It emphasizes that students need to develop a criticalreflexive attitude towards the context and concepts presented to them. Vision III is value-based and intended to take into account the complexity of life, of society and their mutual interactions (Sjöström, 2015) and is similar to critical scientific literacy (Sjöström and Eilks, 2018). Vision III aims at strengthening students' learning beyond content (Vision I) and contexts (Vision II). Within Vision II students learn about a specific context and its underlying concepts, whereas within Vision III students develop a critical-reflexive attitude that goes beyond the context and concepts and that helps them to make wellinformed, data-based, and value-based decisions. Vision III is intended to stimulate students to take responsibility for their personal lives and to participate in society. Although there is some overlap between Vision II and Vision III with regard to learning objectives and learning strategies (Table 1), it seems reasonable to assume that measurement of students' learning progress within these learning environments requires additional, innovative assessment strategies. In contrast to a Vision I learning environment, in which teachers often use standard, straightforward, summative assessments, with multiple choice questions or questions with well-defined answers, within Vision II and Vision III special attention is paid to feedback and reflection. Therefore, formative assessments might play an important role as an appropriate assessment tool, although summative assessments are not without relevance and often used (Orpwood, 2007).
Clearly, due to the multifacetedness of socio-scientific issues, assessing students' critical scientific literacy is rather complex, as students might propose different solutions for the real-world issue. Assessing and subsequently quantifying the multiplicity of students' solutions, is challenging (Romine et al., 2017). Romine et al. (2017) showed that a broad variety of assessment tools, including tools to measure informal reasoning, argumentation, and reflective decision making, have been used to measure students' scientific literacy. However, it seems reasonable to expect that a Vision III learning environment might benefit from additional, innovative teaching and assessment strategies to measure students' critical scientific literacy.
The key-characteristics of Vision I, II and III with regard to learning goals, learning process and assessment have been brought together in Table 1. The characteristics are adapted from Pilot et al. (2016, 228-229) and Sjöström et al. (2018) and complemented.
Enhancing students' critical scientific literacy (Vision III). The selection of an appropriate context or task is a crucial first step to enhance students' critical scientific literacy. A suitable context meets with the following criteria: (1) it consists of a reallife question, (2) students experience the context as relevant, (3) it promotes discussion, and, preferably, (4) it has a controversial character in society (Marks and Eilks, 2009;Stolz et al., 2013). Such contexts force students to think about potential (dis)advantages, and invite them to propose solutions based on values and scientific data (Eilks and Hofstein, 2014, 10). There are numerous examples of suitable contexts available, including socio-scientific issues on climate change (Flener-Lovitt, 2014), and genetic modification (Lederman et al., 2014). Furthermore, the field of green chemistry provides a broad variety of socioscientific issues, that can be used in an educational context: e.g. on biofuels (Mamlok-Naaman et al., 2015), and biopolymers . Green chemistry takes into account the effects of chemicals on people and planet and focuses on sustainability. It intends to stimulate people to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of substances which are harmful to human health and the environment by investigating alternative processes to synthesize chemicals (Anastas and Warner, 1998;Zuin and Mammino, 2015). Green chemistry takes into account the entire life cycle of a substance, including its design, use and disposal. Green chemistry education aims to (1) provide information how chemical reactions could be designed to be more eco-friendly; (2) deepen students' knowledge of underlying chemistry concepts; and (3) teach students to develop their scientific literacy and corresponding skills (Zuin and Mammino, 2015, vii). Clearly, green chemistry education goes beyond the objectives of Vision I and meets with the criteria of Vision II. In addition, it offers the ingredients that might contribute to Vision III education in which students acquire skills to act as responsible future citizens. Furthermore, if the socio-scientific issue is embedded in a classroom environment that scaffolds students' learning, the development of their scientific literacy will be strengthened (Presley et al., 2013). A socio-scientific issue, for example derived from the field of green chemistry, is by its nature multifaceted: conceptual, contextual and societal aspects are strongly intertwined. Students deploy both cognitive and metacognitive skills to address its complexity. In such student-centred learning environments students might perceive difficulties in connecting concepts, context and social aspects, which, in turn, might slow down their learning. Constable et al. (2019) showed that systems thinking approaches might assist students in ameliorating the challenges associated with students connecting all these aspects. However, given the fact that, in general, such learning environments provide less guidance to students, they need scaffolds to apply concepts and to connect the context to their personal lives (Broman et al., 2018). Thus, teachers might use teaching strategies that support students to recognise and understand key concepts present in a socio-scientific issue. Scaffolds help students to manage and monitor their learning process, support mutual collaboration and are intended to provide tools to stimulate students to reflect critically on their learning process as well as on their own role as future citizens.
There are many examples of teaching strategies intended to scaffold students' learning in such a way. Marks and Eilks (2009) describe a lesson series with authentic media, using newspaper articles to introduce the context and to prompt questions. In addition, they used role-play activities, in which students adopted the role of journalist to produce a news item, and panel discussions, with students in the role of chemist, engineer or environmental protection activist. Students learned chemistry with a combination of practical lab work, cooperative learning techniques and conceptual learning. Marks and Eilks (2009) found that both teachers and students appreciated the approach. Teachers and students characterised the teaching strategy as motivating, intense and relevant for their personal lives. Table 1 Characteristics of Vision I, II and III. Based on and adapted from Pilot et al. (2016, 228-229) and Sjöström et al. (2018)  Challenge to reflect on relevance and opportunities for transfer Challenge to reflect on relevance, opportunities for transfer and connection with personal life and society Assessment Focus on summative assessment Both formative and summative assessment Summative, formative and additional, alternative assessments Furthermore, Marks and Eilks (2009) suggest that the use of socio-scientific issues might induce changes in students' attitude towards chemistry in general and improves their communication skills. In addition, Barraza and Ruiz-Mallén (2017) explored and investigated the 4D-approach, a teaching strategy based on dialogue, divergent thinking, discussion and debate, intended to enforce higher cognitive skills such as critical thinking. Barraza and Ruiz-Mallén (2017) showed that the implementation of the 4D-approach in a classroom enhances students' ability to deal with controversial socio-scientific issues. Moreover, they report that the 4D-approach scaffolds students to make well-informed and balanced decisions as future citizens in a democratic society.
However, despite these examples, enhancing students' scientific literacy remains a complex endeavour. Although the criteria for selecting appropriate teaching contexts to improve students' critical scientific literacy are clear (Stolz et al., 2013), it remains challenging to implement these approaches in the classroom. In addition, Sevian et al. (2018) emphasized the need for additional studies which focus on how students' progress can be monitored and what teaching strategies might scaffold students' learning process. We argue that these rather complex learning environments might benefit from the implementation of Scrum methodology.

Scrum methodology
Scrum methodology was introduced in the mid-1990s to manage complex projects in the field of software development (Schwaber and Sutherland, 2017). Basic tenets of Scrum methodology are transparency, inspection and adaptability. The framework consists of ceremonies, artefacts and roles that contribute to visualization of progress of the project, provide information on the quality of intermediate products and help employees to adjust their work to customers' desires. The characteristics of Scrum methodology have been transferred to educational contexts, including writing courses (Pope-Ruark, 2015), courses on software engineering (Mahnic, 2010) and context-based approaches in secondary chemistry education (Vogelzang et al., 2019;. Scrum methodology is an iterative process and evokes feedback moments systematically. The teacher, in their role as product owner, introduces a social-scientific issue, e.g. on a green chemistry topic. Students are divided into groups of approximately four persons. All students commit themselves to deploy their skills (e.g. writing skills, planning skills) to the team explicitly. The product owner provides each team with a product backlog, which consists of assignments, exercises and practical work, necessary to formulate an answer to the realworld issue. Every group has the autonomy to plan their own work. Their planning is visualised on the Scrum board, which basically consists of three columns, 'to do', 'doing' and 'done'. Students write tasks on Post-Its and stick them on the Scrum board. Every lesson starts with a stand-up ceremony, in which students discuss what they will do during the lesson. When a task is completed, the accompanying Post-It is positioned in the column 'done'. The lessons of approximately two weeks form a 'sprint'. A sprint concludes with a review ceremony in which the students receive feedback on their learning progress. A review ceremony might have different forms, including a check on the quality of an intermediate product, a panel discussion or a formative assessment on concepts covered in the sprint. The review ceremony sheds light on misconceptions in an early stage and offers opportunities for students to reconsider specific concepts and for the teacher to adjust their teaching to the specific needs of their students.
A review ceremony is followed by a retrospective ceremony, in which students discuss the quality of their learning process. They discuss their mutual collaboration and formulate one point of improvement for the next sprint. After two or three sprints, students release their final product, for example, an answer to the real-world question associated with the socioscientific issue, a written advice or a final product. Depending on school policy, a summative assessment might be used to finish the entire project. Especially the review ceremony and the retrospective ceremony might scaffold students by evoking critical reflection on conceptual, contextual as well as societal aspects of the socio-scientific issue in a natural and systematic way. Together, these ceremonies intend to stimulate both a reflective attitude and an ethical awareness concerning the consequences of the solution proposed. In addition, social interactions of students, in the form of discussions and mutual feedback might shape and influence their critical scientific literacy.

This study
This study was conducted in order to conceive, implement, and assess the influence of the use of Scrum methodology in a context-based approach on Green Chemistry.
The following research questions (RQ) guided this study: RQ1. What are the effects of Scrum methodology on students' understanding of chemistry concepts involved in the Green Chemistry module?
RQ2. What are the effects of the implementation of Scrum methodology on the development of students' critical-reflexive scientific literacy?

Method
Context of the study A module on Green Chemistry was implemented in secondary context-based chemistry classrooms (grade 11) in The Netherlands (Jansen-Ligthelm et al., 2010). The goal of the module was that students formulate an advice in which they argue what the greenest synthesis is to produce adipic acid, a precursor for nylon polymers and a preservative (E355) for food. The module started with exercises and assignments to deepen students' knowledge of the twelve principles of Green Chemistry (Table 2) and concepts concerning reaction enthalpy and block diagrams.
The assignments and exercises were embedded in illustrative contexts, suggesting that this part of the module typically fits within Vision I, where focus is mainly on concepts. In this stage of the course students became aware of how chemical reactions can be designed eco-friendlier.
The second part of the module was designed in line with the characteristics of context-based approaches (Vision II). In this part, full focus was on the real-world question of the greenest synthesis of adipic acid. Answering the real-world question required that students used concepts connected to this context on a 'need-to-know' basis. Students were challenged to apply and transfer the twelve principles of Green Chemistry, to a new situation; i.e. to the case of adipic acid. They received two different routes to synthesize adipic acid; (1) a multistep oxidation starting from cyclohexanol and nitric acid; (2) a single step oxidation of cyclohexene with hydrogen peroxide (Fig. 1). For both routes they applied the twelve principles of Green Chemistry, that is, they calculated atom efficiencies, Environmental-factors, theoretical yields and reaction enthalpies and searched for information on toxicity for the chemicals involved (Bodner, 2015).
Subsequently students were invited to interpret their outcomes and reflect critically on the societal consequences of the synthesis routes (Vision III). They were asked to formulate a written advice in which they balance both routes and made an informed decision on the route they preferred. The assignment was: ''Within a radius of 10 kilometres of your school a new chemical plant will be built to produce adipic acid. There are two routes to produce this chemical and you will receive information on both. As junior professionals, you will provide the block council near your school with a substantiated, scientific advice which route is preferable. Feel free to add any information or arguments to underpin your final decision.'' Implementing Scrum methodology. A pre-test/post-test control condition design was used to explore the effects of the use of Scrum methodology on students' understanding of chemistry concepts and the development of students' criticalreflexive scientific literacy. In both the experimental condition and the comparison condition there was no difference with Table 2 Green Chemistry principles (Bodner, 2015) 1.
Design less hazardous chemical synthesis 4.
Design safer chemicals and products 5.
Use safer solvents and reaction conditions 6.
Increase energy efficiency 7.
Design chemicals and products to degrade after use 11.
Analyse in real time to prevent pollution 12.
Minimize the potential for accidents Fig. 1 Two synthesis routes for adipic acid.

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regard to learning objectives (rationale, affective and (meta)cognitive, Table 1). The objective of the module was to evoke critical reflection on the impact Green Chemistry can have on the environment students live in. In both the experimental and comparison condition, students prepared a written advice. Both conditions did differ with regard to how students' learning process was organised and with regard to intermediate assessments during the lessons (Table 3). Students participating in the experimental condition used the Scrum methodology framework to plan their work, and to monitor their progress on a scrum board. Their teachers reported that they executed the Scrum ceremonies as intended. During the stand-up and retrospective, according to their teachers, the students reflected on the quality of their learning process and discussed how they could improve their learning approaches. Students of the comparison condition did not receive specific scaffolds to manage their planning and monitor their progress. Just as the students of the experimental condition, they worked in groups. However, they were free to use their own strategies to plan and monitor their progress.
Another salient difference between the experimental and comparison condition is the intermediate assessment during the review ceremony. Students of the experimental condition worked in iterative sprints with a review at the end of them, in which they checked their understanding of Green Chemistry principles. The reviews had the form of formative assessments. Students made them individually and discussed their answers with team mates as well as the teacher. On request, the teacher provided additional explanations.
An overview of the differences between teaching approaches of the experimental and comparison condition is provided in Table 3. Table 3 Learning process and assessment of critical-reflexive chemistry education connected to teaching strategies used in the experimental and comparison condition Vision III: critical-reflexive chemistry education (see also right column of Table 1)

Scrum methodology (experimental condition) Comparison condition
Learning process Rationale Learning by doing. Students plan and monitor their progress systematically, using Scrum board and stand-up ceremonies.
Students are free to plan their work as they prefer.

Situation
Critical-reflection on socio-scientific issues.
Ultimate objective is to evoke critical reflection Ultimate objective is to evoke critical reflection Social setting Participating in teams, taking up relevant roles to search for appropriate and valuebased answers.
Teams are based on qualities. Students promise to deploy their personal qualities to their team.
Teams are formed by students. No external regulation. Teams are often based on personal friendships.

Control
Shared control, reflecting on the role of (chemistry) concepts in socio-scientific issues.
Shared control, students have the lead, the teacher in their role as productowner is near. Ceremonies are used to guide and monitor students' learning.
Shared control, students have the lead. The teacher is available on request and has a facilitating and stimulating role. No specific procedures were used. Cognitive Ideas are shared, welcomed and weighed by students and teacher.
Ideas are shared etc. However, not systematically evoked by Scrum methodology.
Ideas are shared etc., although not systematically evoked by the teaching strategy. Testing and reflecting of concepts on realistic contexts and tasks.
Review ceremony evokes testing and reflecting on intermediate products and concepts, explicitly.
No systematic reviews. Reflecting on learning process and progress is stimulated by the teacher and takes place on-the-fly. Leading to knowledge with proven value in various contexts.
Not specifically induced by a ceremony of Scrum methodology.
Not specifically induced by the teaching strategy. Learning to use knowledge in personal life and socio-scientific issues.
Not specifically induced by a ceremony of Scrum methodology.
Not specifically induced by the teaching strategy. Affective Valuing relevance for and critical reflection on knowledge contributing to responsible citizenship.
Not systematically. However, ceremonies such as review and retrospective might support the socio-scientific issue to evoke critical reflection.
Not systematically. The socio-scientific issue might evoke critical reflection.
Metacognitive Continuous challenge to improve on reflecting, defining problems, planning, steering both individual and collaborative learning.
Stand-up, review and retrospective challenge students to plan, reflect on and monitor their individual and collaborative learning.
Although the socio-scientific issue is intended to enforce reflection on problems and challenges students to plan and monitor their progress, systematic and planned reflection does not take place. Closing Challenge to reflect on relevance, opportunities for transfer and connection with personal life and society.
Scrum ceremonies might scaffold the socio-scientific issue and induce reflection on relevance, and promote transfer and connection with personal life and society.
No systematic scaffolding of the socioscientific issue.

Assessment
Focus on alternative assessments (although formative and summative assessment can play a role).
Formative assessments at the end of each sprint to get insight in conceptual development as well as quality of intermediate products.
In the final stage of the module students produce a written advice.
No use of formative assessments, or other assessments to check conceptual development or quality of intermediate products.
In the final stage of the module students produce a written advice.

Participants
The module described above was implemented in eight classes, taught by five teachers with at least ten years of teaching experience. Of these classes two teachers (both male, four classes) used Scrum methodology as teaching strategy, forming the experimental condition. The comparison condition was formed by three teachers (two females, four classes), who implemented the module with their regular teaching style (see Table 3). The research was carried out following the guidelines for research ethics and integrity of Leiden University. All students and their teachers were informed about the aim of the study, which was to gather information on how they learn the principles of Green Chemistry and to improve classroom teaching. They were told that their participation was voluntary and that they had the opportunity to opt out at any stage of the study. Students received information that their answers were anonymised and therefore could not influence their grades. Students and teachers were informed that with participation they provided their consent to use their responses for research purposes. In total 198 students, distributed over 54 groups of three or four persons, participated. In the experimental condition 25 groups (99 students, 44 females) participated and the comparison condition consisted of 29 groups (99 students, 56 females). The participating teachers worked at different school from all over The Netherlands. They were familiar with both teachercentred learning environments and context-based, studentcentred learning environments. They responded to an email invitation, written by the first author, and distributed by teacher trainers of several teacher education institutions. They voluntarily choose whether they participated in the experimental or in the comparison condition. Teachers participating in the experimental condition participated in a professional development program (five sessions of four hours) over a period of nine months in which they studied the ceremonies, roles and artefacts of Scrum methodology, shared and discussed their experiences during the implementation of the framework in their chemistry lessons.

Data and instruments
During the study three types of data were gathered: (1) a test on students' previous knowledge of Green Chemistry principles; (2) a group task on the application of these principles to answer RQ1, and (3) a joint group advice on the greenest synthesis of adipic acid. These advices were used to answer RQ2.
Students' previous knowledge. At the start of the module, all students individually completed twelve open questions about the twelve principles of Green Chemistry. For instance, students were asked to define the Green Chemistry term 'E-factor' and to calculate the atom-efficiency as well as the energy-enthalpy of different reactions. Maximum scores on the 12 open questions varied from 1 to 3 (Appendix A). Overall maximum score was 23. Scores of individual group members were combined to an average group score and converted in a percentage (23 points = 100%). The average scores of the experimental and the comparison condition did not differ significantly (F(1, 52) = 0.093, p = 0.762), suggesting that students in these conditions are comparable with regard to their prior knowledge. The answers of 15 students (12.6%, 300 items) were checked by a second rater, and resulted in an inter reliability score of Cohen's kappa k = 0.925 (p o 0.001), 95% CI (0.980, 0.987), suggesting a good reliability between the raters. Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 6.
Students' understanding of chemistry concepts involved in the Green Chemistry module. All student groups were asked to apply the twelve principles of Green Chemistry to the two different synthesis routes of adipic acid. All student groups planned and monitored their work themselves and released a joint report in which they answered items about the two synthesis routes. The 40 items included a variety of calculations (atom efficiency, E-factor, reaction enthalpy), development of block diagrams, toxicity of chemicals as well as on reusability of the chemicals involved (Appendix A). The maximum scores per item varied from 1 to 3 points. The overall maximum score was 46 points. The average scores were converted in a percentage (46 points = 100%). The answers of 6 groups (11%, 240 items) were checked by a second rater, resulting in an inter reliability score, of Cohen's kappa k = 0.854 (p o 0.001), 95% CI (0.944, 0.966), and showed a good reliability between the raters. Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 6.
Students' critical science literacy. The last source of data was formed by the written advices, which were used to measure students' critical-reflexive scientific literacy. All 54 groups were required to release their final product, i.e. their written advice, in which they provided a balanced response to the greenest synthesis of adipic acid. Two characteristic excerpts of the written advices, translated from Dutch, are presented in Appendix B. The complexity of the written advices was analysed with the SOLO-taxonomy, originally developed by Biggs and Collis (1982). Their Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) has been used extensively in a variety of disciplines (Stewart, 2012), including mathematics and chemistry to analyse students' responses (Tomperi and Aksela, 2014). It comprises five levels of understanding: (1) pre-structural, (2) unistructural, (3) multistructural, (4) relational and (5) extended abstract. In Table 4 an overview of different SOLO-levels is presented, including sublevels, corresponding scores and examples of verbs.
In the pre-structural level, there is little evidence of learning. The student did not approach the socio-scientific issue on Green Chemistry appropriately. At the unistructural level, the student focused on one relevant aspect without making connections to other aspects. At the multi-structural level, students' writings comprised several relevant aspects without making connections between them. This level can be characterised as quantitative in nature, which means that the amount of details and the number of aspects mentioned, increased. When students used two or three Green Chemistry principles their advice was characterised as multi-structural (low) and thus rewarded with only 2 points. Groups that used all twelve principles received 4 points. These advices were characterised as multi-structural (high), containing many related aspects, however without making connections between the principles.

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At the relational level, students treated the different aspects of the socio-scientific issue as an integrated whole. This level can be characterised as qualitative (Tomperi and Aksela, 2014). In their advices they showed that conceptual, contextual as well as societal aspects of the Green Chemistry principles are closely connected and mutually related. Advices at the relational level had a minimum score of 5 points. Scores of 6 or 7 points were assigned to advices in which students made respectively several or many connections between the Green Chemistry principles. At the extended abstract level, students are supposed to conceptualise the previous integrated whole on a higher level of abstraction. Their writings go beyond the requirements of the assessment and comprise a critical reflection on the socioscientific issue from multiple perspectives, including a personal perspective. At this level, students generalize, create and transfer ideas to new contexts. Obviously, the extended abstract level is strongly connected to students' critical scientific literacy. All advices were scored independently by two raters. Further details with regard to the SOLO-scores are provided in Table 5.
Data in the matrix reveal the instances where rater 2 (dis)agreed with the score assigned to an advice by rater 1. The scores are ordinal data; therefore, Cohen's kappa was calculated. The interrater reliability measure was found to be k = 0.773 ( p o 0.001), 95% CI (0.971, 0.990), suggesting that the scores assigned by the raters have substantial reliability. Therefore, the scores of rater 1 and rater 2 were used to calculate a mean score for all separate 54 advices. Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 7.

Data analyses
To answer the first research question analysis of covariance were carried out with the experimental and comparison condition as factor, the pre-test scores as covariate and the knowledge test scores at the group level as dependent variable. To answer the second research question analysis of variance were performed at the group level with experimental and comparison condition as factor and the quality of group advises indicated by their SOLO levels as dependent variable.

Students' understanding of chemistry concepts involved in the Green Chemistry module
Students participating in the experimental condition outperformed students of the comparison condition. Analysis of data revealed a large effect-size (see Cohen, 1988), suggesting that the implementation of Scrum methodology enhances students' understanding of Green Chemistry concepts: (F(1, 52) = 11.912, p o 0.002, Z 2 = 0.189). Pre-test scores were used as covariate. Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 6.

Students' critical science literacy
Data analysis of the SOLO-scores of both the experimental and the comparison condition revealed that the advices of all 54  Biggs et al. (1982)   groups had a score between 2 and 7 and therefore fit within the SOLO-levels, multi-structural and relational (Table 7). None of the advices was characterised as pre-structural, unistructural or extended abstract. However, 70% of the groups using Scrummethodology delivered an advice on the relational level, whereas only 41.5% of the comparison condition produced an advice on this level (Table 7). Obviously, the groups participating in the experimental condition outperformed groups of the comparison condition. ANOVA-analysis revealed a medium effect-size: (F(1, 52) = 4.427, p o 0.05, Z 2 = 0.080) ( Table 7).

Discussion
In this study, effects of the use of Scrum methodology were examined on understanding of concepts connected to Green Chemistry education and the quality of written advices concerning the greenest synthesis of adipic acid.

Impact on students' understanding of concepts
The results reveal benefits of Scrum methodology for students' conceptual understanding. It provided scaffolds for students participating in teams, using a realistic real-life context, in which they were challenged to discuss, monitor and improve their learning (see Vision II, Table 1). Inherently, the ceremonies in general, and the review in the form of a formative assessment at the end of a sprint in particular, promoted mutual feedback and enforced students to reflect on their understanding of the concepts involved. Consequently, both teacher and students might be confronted with misconceptions in an early stage, increasing the probability that teacher and students discuss these issues together. Ideas and questions were shared and welcomed. Obviously, the features of Scrum methodology contribute to a classroom climate in which students reflect on chemistry concepts, which, in turn, might explain the increased student learning achievements. The findings align with educational research on the implementation of formative assessments in the classroom, which, in general, suggest an increase in conceptual understanding and learning outcomes (Wiliam et al., 2004).

Impact on students' critical scientific literacy
In general, advices developed in Scrum classes were more elaborated than advices composed by students of the comparison condition. It seemed that the Scrum ceremonies, roles and artefacts guided students through their learning process and enforced them to discuss and reflect on the Green Chemistry principles. Moreover, approximately 70% of the student groups using Scrum methodology reached a relational level, whereas the majority of the comparison condition (455%) remained at the multi-structural level. This can be understood as a clear indication that the implementation of Scrum methodology scaffolds students in their process to become scientific literate. However, none of the 54 groups reached the extended abstract level. None of them connected the issue to other actual, societal issues or to their personal lives. This might be explained in various ways. The students were unfamiliar with this kind of written assessments and were not used to go beyond its requirements to formulate their own personal opinion. The student assignment focused on principles of Green Chemistry (E-factor, atom-efficiency etc.) and their mutual relations. It might be that an extra phrase, e.g. Describe how the principles of Green Chemistry might affect your personal life or Describe whether the Green Chemistry module influences your personal choices with regard to sustainability issues, would have increased the chance that students would have reflected critically on the principles of Green Chemistry and connect them to other societal issues or to their personal lives (Vision III); (Sjöström et al., 2018). Nevertheless, it seems that alternative assessments, such as these written advices, contribute to encourage students to think about and reflect on the impact of chemistry on society as well as their personal circumstances. Students are stimulated to explore the concepts and context, and, moreover, they are invited to add and reflect on their own ideas. In addition, the SOLO-taxonomy provides an appropriate working tool to obtain a representation of students' critical thinking (Vision III). Furthermore, the results suggest that the features of Scrum methodology scaffolds students to organise their learning process and enforce them to converge their thinking to answer the real-world question. However, the implementation of Scrum methodology is not the only factor that impacts the development of students' critical scientific literacy. Other important factors include the role of the teacher and the classroom climate (Boss and Larmer, 2018). A teacher who is able to create a classroom climate in which students work collaboratively on a shared objective, increases the opportunities to enhance students' critical scientific literacy. Although all teachers in the experimental condition and the comparison condition were experienced teachers, it is impossible to exclude a teacher effect. Admittedly, even when there is a positive classroom climate, a context-based learning  environment remains rather complex, and the results seem to suggest that Scrum methodology benefits students when they work together on a rather complex real-world issue.

Limitations and directions for future research
There are some limitations in the study that should be taken into account. First, students participating in the experimental condition were unfamiliar with Scrum methodology. As a consequence, they needed some time to become accustomed to the ceremonies, roles and artefacts. Therefore, the differences between the experimental and comparison condition might be underestimated. Secondly, the number of participating teachers, in both the experimental and comparison condition, is confined. This limits the generalizability of the results. A replication of this study with more teachers, and, in addition, with a larger sample size of students who are familiar with Scrum methodology might shed light on the generalizability of the results.

Conclusions
Findings suggest that the implementation of Scrum methodology might scaffold students' learning in at least three ways. First, it enhances students' conceptual understanding (Vision I). Secondly, its ceremonies, roles and artefacts scaffold students when they collaboratively work on rather complex real-world questions. Scrum invites to think critically, to provide feedback to each other (Vision II) and scaffolds students to apply the concepts in new contexts. Scrum methodology as framework might strengthen the shift to student-centred learning environments, because it might decrease feelings of overwhelmingness among students. Thirdly, in combination with a challenging socio-scientific issue that evokes interest and discussion, it reinforces their communication and collaboration skills and helps them to take responsibility in their socio-cultural environment, promotes participation in a democratic society, and appreciates skills and talents of other citizens (Vision III). It is worthwhile to perform additional research to explore whether the potential benefits of frameworks such as Scrum methodology and probably other agile project management frameworks work in other cultures and with other subjects.

Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest to declare.
2. Provide equations for all reaction steps of synthesis route 1 as well as for route 2 (7 points).
3. Calculate the atom economy for synthesis route 1 and synthesis route 2 (7 points).
4. Calculate the E-factor for synthesis route 1 and route 2. Take into account the reaction yields as provided in the description of the module (6 points).
5. Distinguish potential waste-products and discuss their impact on the E-factor (for both route 1 & route 2) (5 points).
6. Discuss the hazardousness of all substances involved in route 1 and route 2 (4 points).
7. Calculate the reaction enthalpy for route 1 and route 2. Use heats of formation as provided in the module (7 points).
Appendix B: two characteristic excerpts extracted from the written advices SOLO level (sub-level) Score Examples from the written advices of students Explanation Multistructural (high) 4 Finally, they wrote: We advise route 2 for several reasons. It does not use solvents, there are fewer steps, and a catalyst is used. Chemicals are less hazardous. Although that the atom efficiency is lower, when we combine our findings, we think that route 2 is eco-friendlier.
For both synthesis routes group 17 used the 12 principles. They described their opinion for all the 12 aspects. Therefore, their advice could be rated with at least 4 points. However, they made some calculations errors (e.g. atom efficiency was miscalculated). For all principles, they combined data for both routes. However, they made no connections between different principles. They did not reach the relational level. In addition, sometimes their argumentation was incomplete or wrong. Both raters awarded this advice with 4 points. Relational (high) 7 The final score of route 1 is À7, whereas route 2 scores +9. Obviously, synthesis route 2 is preferable. This route Group 3 compared the two synthesis routes by awarding points (++/+/0/À/ÀÀ) to all twelve principles.
has fewer reaction steps, uses less harmful chemicals, waste products are biodegradable and its chemistry is overall less hazardous. In addition, route 1 is more expensive. It comprises corrosive chemicals and therefore there is a need for stainless reactors. On the other hand, route 2 is still in its infancy.
A lot of research is necessary whether there are alternatives in the form of cheaper and/or reusable chemicals. Route 2 can only gain, and therefore we choose route 2: synthesis of adipic acid from cyclohexene with hydrogen peroxide.
They explained their argumentations carefully, including correct calculations and to-the-point descriptions. This group compared both synthesis routes and applied their data to new situations (e.g. corrosive chemicals require expensive stainless reactors). They critically reflected on the preferred route and suggested some alternatives. They did not connect their advice to their personal lives or other societal issues. Both raters awarded this advice with 7 points.


extfieldsofstudy: Psychology Medicine

s2fieldsofstudy: Education Medicine

text:
Introduction of interactive teaching for undergraduate students in community medicine

Background: There is lack of interest in the subject of community medicine among undergraduate MBBS students leading to poor understanding of community problems and drastic fall in preventive, promotive component of health care. Aim: To evaluate effectiveness of interactive teaching learning (ITL) over traditional teaching learning (TTL) methods in creating interest in the subject. Objectives: 1. To identify the need of interactive teaching among students. 2. To know the perception of students towards it.3. To know the views and opinion of faculties towards it. Materials and Methods: An interventional study at NRIIMS, Vishakhapatnam. After need assessment survey, under graduate MBBS students were randomly allocated to study (A) and control groups (B). 2 topics were taught using ITL 1& 2 in group A and TTL in group B. After a washout period of 15 days, 2 other topics were taught using ITL3 & 4 in group B and TTL in group A, which was followed by assessment. Feedback from students and faculties were taken at the end of session. Results: 82% of students felt significant need of interaction in classroom. There was an increase in performance of students in the intervention group in terms of better scores (>75% score) which was found to be statistical significant in all the four sessions (P value are 0.0230, 0.0058, 0.0075, 0.0034 for TPS, BS, CBS, PTP respectively). Students were satisfied, so as the faculties with the implementation of ITL module. Conclusions: Student performance was increased. Overall satisfaction was good among students and faculties.

traditional TL methods in creating interest in the subject community medicine and effective learning.

Objectives of the study
• To identify the need of interactive teaching among the undergraduate students in community medicine • To know the perception of students toward it • To know the views and opinion of faculties toward the implementation of ITL methods. The needs assessment survey had questions regarding sociodemographic information, perception toward the subject, difficulty in learning the concepts of community medicine compared to other parallel subjects (ophthalmology and ENT) in a scale of 1-5, where 1 is very easy and 5 is very difficult, reason of missing community medicine classes, and need of the intervention.
Similarly, feedback questionnaire also had questions on sociodemographic information, detail information about the session content, duration, organization, its future implication, satisfaction of students, and perception of students toward the effect of interactive teaching sessions in Likert scale.
An in-depth interview was done with involved faculties to know their perception toward the intervention and implementation process.
After the needs assessment survey, an ITL module was developed including choosing topics, allocating teachers, interactive T/L methods, time, and assessment questionnaire for each topic.
Consent was obtained and both students and teachers were sensitized. Students were randomly allocated to study and control groups. Two different topics (analytical study and experimental study) were taught using two ITL methods (think-pair-share and buzz sessions) in the intervention group (A) and TTL method (PowerPoint) in another group (B). After a washout period of 15 days, the crossover of groups was done to reduce students' bias, where two different topics (antenatal care and childcare with integrated management of neonatal & childhood illnesses (IMNCI)) were taught using two ITL methods (CBL and pass the problem) in the intervention group (B) and TTL method (PPT) in other group (A). Each session was followed by the assessment multiple choice questions and short answer question (MCQs and SAQ) of both the groups to compare the results [ Figure 1]. To decrease the subjective bias, the teachers were also crossed over after each session. Feedback of students and in-depth interview of the faculty was done at the end of all the sessions.

Intervention (Interactive T/L methods) Think-pair-share
Students share and compare possible answers to a question with a partner before addressing the larger class. [7] Study group A students divided into seven pairs and gave individual subtopics to discuss (cohort and case-control study: concept of study and types, steps, relative risk, attributable risk, odds ratio with some problems, advantages, and disadvantages). After that, each pair shared their answers in the large group which was facilitated and compiled by the teacher 1.

Buzz session
First used by Dr. Donald Phillips, it can be applied whenever a large assembly of people is divided into small groups (usually of no less than three and no more than eight) which, for a limited time and simultaneously, discuss separate problems or various phases of a given problem. If possible, recorders from each of the groups report their findings to the reassembled large group. [8] In our study, the study group students were divided into four subgroups: two groups having three students each and the other two groups having four students each. Then, subtopics were given to individual group for discussion (steps in randomized controlled trial, phases of clinical drug trail, non-RCT, association, and causation). Teacher 2 was facilitating the discussion by visiting each table. At the end, all the group leaders shared their summary of discussion moderated by teacher.

Case based learning
Using clinical cases to aid teaching has been termed as CBL. It links theory to practice, through the application of knowledge to the cases, using inquiry-based learning methods (Thistlewaite et al.). [9] An antenatal case scenario was given for discussion to study group B (four subgroups each 2 topics were taught using ITL 1 & 2 in group A and TTL in group B. After a washout period of 15 days, 2 other topics were taught using ITL 3 & 4 in group B and TTL in group A, which was followed by assessment of both groups to compare the results. To decrease the subjective bias the teachers were also crossed over after each session. having three or four students) (28 weeks of gestation having anemia and bilateral pitting edema). Students discussed the case given with different leads (1 -raised blood pressure, blurring of vision, and headache; 2 -high blood sugar and excessive weight gain; 3 -history previous abortions, present s/s of vaginal spotting, and abdominal cramping; and 4 -persistent nausea and vomiting throughout the antenatal period which has increased recently with signs & symptoms (s/s) of dehydration and fainting) in groups and presented the case. Teacher 1 facilitated the presentation afterward discussing the issues related to it and the management of the given case in different scenarios.

Pass the problem
Divide students into groups. Give the first group a case or a problem and ask them to identify (and write down) the first step in solving the problem or analyzing the case (3 min). Pass the problem on to the next group and have them identify the next step. Continue until all groups have contributed. [7] Group B students were divided into four subgroups each having three or four students. Four different case scenarios were given related to childcare as per IMNCI. Each subgroup had to solve part of the problem given (assessment, classification, management, advise/counseling, and follow-up as per IMNCI) by passing the problem. At the end, the teacher interacted with all discussing the detail of cases.

Results
A needs assessment survey was conducted out of 33 defaulter students, of which 28 students participated. Forty percent were male and 60% were female. Only 38% of the students were following standard books. None of them like to read community medicine books and the main reason being (65%) not able to understand the content followed by other reasons such as subject being boring (20%) and full of imagination/ stories (11%).
Out of 28, majority (24) of the students stated that they usually miss the community medicine classes once or twice a month mainly attributed to factors such as less engagement in class (100%), followed by noninteresting lectures (91.6%), preferring self-study (91.6%), and difficulty in understanding the subject (83%). Apart from that some other personal, classroom factors, peer pressure, faster pace, too much stuff, and monotonous lectures were few important factors affecting the attendance as mentioned by the students.
Eighty percent of the students were facing difficulty in understanding the content in community medicine and having the view of TTL methods being not sufficient for learning community medicine concepts. Similarly, 84% of the students felt the need of interesting TLMs for engagement in class and 92% opined for the requirement of more interaction in community medicine classes.
Rating the difficulty level of learning the concepts of community medicine compared to other subjects (ophthalmology and ENT) of 3 rd -year professional MBBS in a scale of 1-5 showed that 90% felt that community medicine is very difficult compared to others [ Table 1].
The feedback responses were collected from all students who participated and attended all the ITL sessions (28) and analyzed with the use of appropriate statistics. The data showed that 60% of the students were female whereas 40% were male and 58% were day scholars whereas 42% were hostelites. Around 86% of the students were not aware of the ITL methods before.
The present study revealed that 92.86%, 50%, and 75% of the students were satisfied with the appropriateness of content, adequacy of duration, and planning and implementation of ITL module among the students, respectively. Around 92% of the students were overall satisfied with the introduction of ITL sessions in community medicine classes [ Table 2].
Similarly, feedback data of students also revealed that ITL methods were successful in increasing the interaction (78.57%) and communication (71.43%) among students along with interest (57.14%) and understanding (67.85%) of the contents in community medicine. Around 67.86% of the students found it helpful for examinations. Students had a 50:50 view toward ITL methods being a part of curriculum [ Figure 2]. It was observed that 94% of the students wanted to attend other ITL sessions in the future apart from the four used in the module. Among four various ITL methods used in the project, pass the problem (67.86%) was found to be the most enjoyed and liked one among students, followed by buzz session (BS), think pair & share (TPS), and CBL based on the ratings of ITL methods in a scale of 1-10, where 1 is least and 10 is best.
In student performance analysis after introducing ITL sessions (TPS, BS, CBL, and PTP [pass the problem]), it was revealed that 39.29%, 32.14%, 35.72%, and 50% of the students scored >75% in the intervention group compared to only 14.28%, 3.58%, 7.14%, and 21.42% in the other group where traditional teaching was carried out [ Figure 3].
The association between ITL session and scoring >75% in assessment was found to be statistically significant in all the four sessions (P = 0.0230, 0.0058, 0.0075, and 0.0034 for TPS, BS, CBL, and PTP, respectively) analyzed using Pearson's Chi-square test assuming normal distribution.
The in-depth interview of faculties revealed that there was an increased teacher-student interaction, student-student

dIscussIon
The attention span of a medical student was found to be optimal till 20 min following which it rapidly faded off. [10] To improve the classic lecture, interactivity between participants is a must. This promotes active learning, heightens attention and motivation, gives feedback to the teacher and student, and increases satisfaction for both. [11] To improve the classical didactic lecture, numerous methodologies have been devised. Multimedia has been incorporated in lectures to convey information. Although this has enabled more content to be placed intuitively, an inappropriate usage of the presentation tool can make the students paradoxically more inattentive. [12] Active involvement students who are actively involved in the learning activity will learn more than students who are passive recipients of knowledge (Butler, 1992, andFeden, 1994).
Increased attention and motivation enhance memory. Increased arousal and motivation are the essential ingredients for learning (Frederick, 1986, andFoley andSmilansky, 1980).
The present study showed that 86% of the students and 28% of the faculties were not aware of the ITL methods. It could be due to the lack of practice of ITL methods in old curriculum which has been revised in new competency based medical education (CBME) curriculum which encompasses the use of various ITL methods. [13] Increased attendance of 7%-10% was observed after each ITL session although it was not mandatory. However, attendance is always an issue in normal lectures of community medicine. Similar facts were observed in another study where traditional lecturing has been criticized for not being able to hold students' (or learners') attention throughout teaching sessions and has been associated with relatively low grades and reduced attendance rates. [14] It was observed that majority of the students satisfied with ITL module in terms of increased interaction and improved communication, interest in the subject, and understanding of the content. The same findings were observed in a study where interactive teaching promotes a higher level of thinking which includes analysis and synthesis of material, application to other situations, and evaluation of the material presented. [5] Around 67.86% of the students found it useful for future examinations although 25% were not sure about it and 7.14% disagree with the statement. It could be due to their apprehension toward examination, attitude toward the subject, and lack of knowledge on different ITL methods. Several challenges may arise during attempts to shift the teaching/ learning method from traditional lecturing to a more interactive learning style. Challenges can be related to the organization, resources, staff, and/or the students. [15] There was a 50:50 view on ITL being a part of routine lectures. This is attributed to the habit of traditional one-way communication, lack of enough time and resources along with  ITL1 TTL1 ITL2 TTL2 ITL3 TTL3 ITL4 TTL4 AASSESSMENT SCORE <75% >75% Figure 3: Comparison of assessment scores between intervention and control groups which showed significantly more number of students of the interactive teaching group scored >75% in assessment than the control group (P < 0.05) analyzed using Pearson's Chi-square test assuming normal distribution existing resistance to change, and attitude of finishing up rather than conceptualizing.
The fear of losing control and the fear of not covering all the materials along with time constraint prevent a teacher from giving ITL sessions. [6] It is true that a "number of facts" need to be reduced in order for a lecture to become interactive; we also know that if we present too much information, students will retain less (McKeachie, 1994;Newble and Cannon, 1994;and Russell et al., 1984).
Ninety-four percent of the students wanted to attend other similar ITL sessions in the future. Among various ITL methods adopted for the project, pass the problem was found to be the most enjoyed and liked one among students and faculties. Similar findings were highlighted in a study which stated that the main strategy of modern education should focus on the students' independent activity, the organization of self-learning environments, and experimental and practical training, and interactive teaching which contribute to the complex competences of future specialists. [16] In student performance analysis, it was found that the association between ITL session and scoring >75% in postassessment was statistically significant in all the four sessions. Similar findings encountered in a study where it was observed that true interactivity, both in the interface and in the presentation methodology, will further enhance learning and knowledge retention among students. [17] An in-depth interview with the faculties showed a positive response toward ITL although time, resources, lot of planning, fear of losing control, and not finishing the content in time were the big concerns for all. Likewise, certain specific obstacles are associated with the use of interactive learning including limited class time, a possible increase in preparation time, the potential difficulty of using active learning in large classes, and a lack of needed materials, equipment, or resources. [18] conclusIon Less favorable attitude and interest in the subject of community medicine were identified by the needs assessment survey. After introducing the interactive teaching module, student performance was increased in terms of knowledge, interaction, attendance, and engagement in class. Overall satisfaction was good among students and faculties. Based on the findings of the study, the author would like to recommend the introduction of ITL methods in regular classes of undergraduate medical education curriculum.

Limitations
The limitation of the study was the small sample size and the inclusion of only four ITL methods.

Financial support and sponsorship
There was no financial support from institute.

Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.


s2fieldsofstudy: Education Linguistics

text:
The Application of Vlog in Task-Based Language Learning

Computer and internet technology brought about innovative changes of students life especially their leisure time after class. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to explore learners’ participation of blog-based language learning in their independent learning in order to suggest a motivated and collaborative environment to communicate. The data for this study were collected through questionnaires and interviews and most importantly, the learners’ participation record of tutor blog from 30 second year students in Beijing Wuzi University in China. The questionnaire is designed to analysis learners’ computer literacy and their attitude towards vlog as an independent language learning too while they are doing the assigned tasks by teachers. The tutor blog experimental survey is to collect data which reflect learners’ participation status when they are told to do so after class. The overall findings of the survey show that the majority of respondents have a positive understanding about vlog-based language learning. Students are willing to finish their tasks and enjoys the sense of achievements. But some of them are less motivated in participating and publishing their ideas in the tutor vlog community, regardless of computer literacy levels. The followed interview shows that this is partly because they are lack of language awareness and communicative skills since they emerged so long in the traditional education system which takes teachers as the only source of knowledge.

Introduction
By allowing for instant publishing and creating a space for dialogue between writer and audience, vlogs are generating interest in education especially in the second language (L2) acquisition. These features derive some of the attentions of Language professionals, however are by now still new to most EFL teachers. Chinese government has allocated more resources to develop computer literacy and issued policies to encourage teachers at each level make use of computer and internet in their teaching practice. Chinese EFL professionals started to look computer and internet as a means to solve the problem of L2 communicating by providing students an authentic and cooperative language environment through internet. But the challenge for EFL practitioner to decide how to apply the use of Information Technology (IT) especially web resources into the existing lesson planning, curriculum to facilitate learning. This paper is to analyse the application of vlog into independent language learning after class. The main purpose lies on Chinese learners' attitude and participation of vlog-based language learning in their L2 self-study under Chinese context.

Definition of Vlog
vlogs, short for wevlogs, are essentially easily created webpages which are pre-formatted for posting time-stamped writing, pictures, audio files and or video files. vlogs are something very different from a regular webpage since lots of text and very few of the typical webpage decorations and advertisings. But what exactly is a vlog? As the following picture suggests, vlog is very different from from a website, email or online discussion, which bears more personal diary features.
There are so many versions of definitions of vlog. According to Campbell [1] A wevlog (or 'vlog') can be thought of as an online journal that an individual can continuously update with his or her own words, ideas, and thoughts through software that enables one to easily do so. This definition equally states several keywords about vlog, such as on-line, update, ideas and thoughts, easily, which are generally accepted features of vlog.
The similar description was given by Richardson who claims, In the most general sense; a vlog is an easily created, easily updateable website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet connection [2].
With regard to the definition given by Richardson, he put the emphasis on the word 'easily', he takes 'easy to share resources and ideas with a web audience' as the indication of how powerful the vlogs are.
The other definitions of vlog exert the emphasis from the features to the functionalities. The general online consensus appears to be that a wevlog is a website that is updated regularly and organised chronologically according to date, and in reverse order from most recent entry backwards [3].

History of Vlog
Web vlogging started around 1993 as a forum for the National Center for Supercomputering Applications (NCSA) [3]. Since the enthusiast Jorn Barger decided to rename his 'website', the name 'wevlog' came into use, which is a combination of 'web' and 'vlog'. Since 'vlog' means diary, so wevlog refers to websites that are continuously being updated. And soon after that the name was abbreviated as 'vlog'.
At the early stage back to 2001, vlog is a tool such as Metafilter.org [2], which enables thousands of members post funny or interesting links to a page, and where other people could leave comments about those links just as easily. As the development of vlogs, different vlog providers added more distinctive functions to improve the communication through vlogs which are far more than just publishing personal ideas.

The Features of Vlog for Language Learning
Since vlogging really began to grow at the turn of the millennium, the numbers of vlogs and the range of topics they touch on seems to have become infinite, and their popularity and accessibility for users of the Internet make them an exciting application for language teachers as they are largely writing-based, and have great capability to support images, audio, and video. An important part of vlogging is linking to other vlogs and commenting on vlogs. Both of these qualities make blogging not only a personal endeavour but also a social endeavour, thus placing vlogs within the group of social networking applications of the internet. vlogs comprise a series of applications as the second generation of web applications.
The features could be various from one vlog provider to another and the EFL-friendly features could be concluded as followings:

Low Cost
This feature makes vlogs an effective language learning tool since the almost zero cost largely encourages students for their participation. The unique nature of low cost have not only affected how students can publish and distribute their work to a wider audience but also how they see themselves as authors.

Easy to Set up
Vlogs can be set up either by a teacher or a student, often at no cost, on a vlogging service. vlogs can be set up for individual students, for a group of students, or for an entire class. The burgeoning interest in vlogging has aroused the interest of ESL/EFL teachers who see vlogging as a simple and low cost way of giving students access to publishing and distributing their writing on the Internet, as a method of providing them with the experience of writing in a digital format, and as a means of discussing issues related to their classroom work and their lives [4].

Permission-free
Vlogs have what is called an open architecture, meaning that they can be viewed, if so desired, by anyone who can access to the Internet. This openness is unlike other forms of asynchronous technologies such as WebCT, which cannot be viewed unless specific permission is given. These types of on-line discussions have been referred to as "gated communities".
Bearing those distinctive features, vlog is considered works well as an independent learning tool. According to Bloch [4], the convenience in setting up vlogs has raised intriguing possibilities for language learning classrooms, to create the first native form of discourse on the Internet.

Methodology
Since vlogs as self-study tools are examined in this paper, the main research is carried out in learning behaviour analysis after class. As a college teacher, writer will choose her own university to carry out the case study. Thirty second-year students in this university will participate the one-month program. The program will be guided by the following steps:

Questionnaire
The questionnaire will be designed to collect some detailed information of the participants' and their general level of computer literacy. The information is collected to analyse the parameters such as age and major of the learners, to what extent, would influence their attitude towards BBLL. And most importantly, learners' computer literacy accounts for positive attitude toward BBLL and high participation.

The Experimental Design
Period: the study is planned to be finished within 1 month. with 30 second-year college students (non-English major) Build up a learning community between teacher and learners through the tutor vlog. Teacher should be the founder of this community by set up her own language teaching vlog. In this vlog different tasks are set to encourage learners' participation. Learners can publish their ideas and comments by resolving the pre-set tasks in this task-based language learning environment. This can act as an online focal point for the class [1], where the teacher assign tasks, analyse and comment on learners' responses, guide them for self-study, and highlight student successes to encourage them for participation. Therefore, the impact of those motivating factors such as task-based language learning will be examined in the findings discussion.
Sign up: Students will need to sign up for their own vlog accounts. Since the vlogs will be available for public viewing, pseudonyms or nicknames are encouraged to use when signing up. After signing up for the tutor vlog, learners will consider them as a part of the community.
Assign tasks and guide student use their vlogs efficiently. After the creation of a centralized, tutor wevlog with links to all student sites. Lead students to post their videos (teacher set as assignments) on their vlogs and then up-date them frequently, at the same time, encourage them to read friends' vlogs and respond afterward. These activities will contribute a lot to build a vlogs community to communicate effectively.
Analysis of the participation. Use the record of tutor vlog's visitors to analyse the participation of the learners in the experiment.

Interview
The investigation will hold after releasing the questionnaires and finishing the experimental survey. The interviewee should be chosen from different groups of learners which has typical reason for non-participating. Compare to the questionnaire, the interview is a more detailed informative analyse, aims to elicit the influential factors which stop learners from participating.

The Analysis of Task-based Language Learning
The table 1 is a comparison table between task-based topics and material-based topics.
To ascertain any difference in the response of the topics between the two groups, the average number of comments and number of commentors were compared. The average number of comments in the task-based topic group is 18 while the number of comments in the other group is 13.6. And the average number of commentors is 14.7 Vs 11.1. The number of comments and commentors in task-based group are considerably higher than the material-based group. The comparison of the two groups indicated that learners prefer to express their ideas based on the motivation of tasks. That is to say, the task-based learning materials attract more attention from learners. The desire to solving problem is a big motivation for learners to publish their opinion and exchange ideas.

Interviews Analysis
Some students think highly of the new style of learning and teaching while the others give sharply negative opinion. In order to discover the reasons which stop learners from participating, the interview put more efforts on the sources of the negative points from the students. Therefore, the focus has been moved to the teaching method of state schools and universities. Teachers give more than enough emphasis on the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary without giving sufficient direction on the application.
When it comes to the vlog as a learning tool, students think highly of the function offered by vlog providers that the real identities are not necessary, nick name can be used instead, which is the so called 'multiple identities' of users. The digital identities -electronic representations of individuals' help introduce them to each other and control the amount of information transferred. In its broadest sense, the multiple identities are crucial for building and maintaining trust relationships in the community.
The comments given by the students is valuable for analysing the vlog application in language learning, but some of these comments do not go much beyond simple surface-level explanations. Their perspectives showed few instances of deeper understanding of the impact that computer may have on their own educational culture.

The Attitude of Learners Towards Vlog-Based Language Community
According to the situation of the increasing popularity of technology in society, Chinese second language learners would be attracted to vlogs. In other words they have a positive attitude of using vlogs in language learning generally. The above hypothesis was supported by the results of questionnaire and interviews. The evidences can be listed as follows: 1) According to the responses to Question No 4 and No 16 in the questionnaire, Chinese students have some experience of computer and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The participants are at the beginning of their 20s and grown up with computer as part of their lives. They have a good command of computer literacy with ability to handle the online operation smoothly. Also indicated that Chinese learners are generally positive in working with computers in various activities such as writing texts, using the Internet as it was shown from their answer in the interviews. 2) Other questions in the questionnaire all indicate a positive attitude to BBLL. 2 of 3 participants think highly of BBLL as it is a good way to improve the reading, writing skills and critical thinking. And as shown by questions, even those who are 'Not interested' in BBLL still hold that it can be beneficial for language learning.
3) The positive attitude was also confirmed by the teachers involved in the sessions where the data was collected. The convergent quantitative and qualitative data of the study indicated that learners are interested in vlog but some of them are frustrated in their attempts to learn more from CALL. [5,6]

Vlog Community and Task-Based Language Teaching
Task-based learning is advantageous to the student because it is more student-centered in this survey. Although the teacher may present language in the instruction of the tasks, the students are free to use what they want. This allows them to use all the language they know, rather than a single construct. Furthermore, as the tasks are supposed to be familiar to the students, students are more likely to be engaged, which may further motivate them in their language learning. The task-driven process offers students more encourage and motivation to use the language they have learned. This point consists with Breen's [7] idea as language tasks can be viewed as a range of work plans, from simple to complex, with the overall purpose of facilitating language learning. The statement of Ellis addressed the same opinion as language points may easily be forgotten after the first encounter; however, if it is subsequently retrieved during a task, then the memory will be strengthened [8,15].
The results of this survey indicate that this task-based language learning strategy seems more likely to suitable to the advanced language learners. Task-based language learning works well in this experimental survey indicates the same findings as Swanson. There have been criticisms that task-based learning is not appropriate as the foundation of a class for beginners [8].
Others claim that students are only exposed to certain forms of language, and are being neglected of others, such as discussion or debate. Teachers may want to keep these in mind when designing a task-based learning lesson plan. In this experimental survey, the design of the tasks is mainly based on the direction of Ellis as his classification of focused and unfocused tasks. The tasks are used to elicit a particular linguistic feature or to centre on language as task content. As Ellis addressed that the design of a task is seen as potentially determining the kind of language use and opportunities for learning that arise [9].

Conclusion
In this study, BBLL can be summarized as a rich, useful and interesting resource that provides students a opportunity to communicate with others to polish their target language skills outside the classroom.
Since this study is carried out during the learners' self-study after class. So the learners' autonomy is fairly stressed. This study offers an indication with the interdependence of teachers and learner autonomy. It is impossible for the Chinese EFL learners move towards autonomic and language aware without any direction and support, while vlog seems to provide an excellent medium for independent learning in this age of information [10,11].
The results indicated that vlog can be an interesting and communicative tool outside the classroom; however, computer technology is not a panacea [12,13]. It is still early to reach final findings as vlog-based environment helps greatly in encouraging learners' autonomy, further studies needs to be done. Because of the growing use of computers and mobile phones, more and more questions are asked about the effectiveness of this approach to teaching and learning.