Date
4-26-2024
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Carol Gillespie
Keywords
cognitive architecture, cognitive disengagement, extraneous cognitive load, germane cognitive load, intrinsic cognitive load, signaling, virtual learning
Disciplines
Education
Recommended Citation
Gerrels, Mandira M., "Leveraging Signaling to Prevent Cognitive Disengagement in Virtual Middle School Students: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5445.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5445
Abstract
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of middle school students leveraging signaling to combat cognitive disengagement in virtual learning. The theories guiding this study were Sweller’s cognitive load theory and Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning as they explain the relationship between learning capacity and optimizing the online learning process through signaling. These theories set the foundation for the following central research question: what are the lived experiences of virtual middle school students during cognitive disengagement and signaling? After thoroughly investigating previous research within the literature review, this transcendental phenomenological study followed Moustakas’ framework. After receiving IRB approval from Liberty University, the parent company (Orion) and Rigel virtual school, a sample of middle school students were polled from a well-established upper Midwest American virtual school. Data was collected using a triangulation of three distinct methods: individual interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups. The targeted participatory group of 15 scholars provided diverse backgrounds and perspectives. The data was analyzed using Saldaña’s coding method. Trustworthiness and ethical implementation have been extensively considered. The culmination of the shared lived experiences of the 15 participants resulted in three themes: student empowerment through virtual learning, cognitive threshold processing, and virtual learning strategies. Additionally, there were six corresponding subthemes: freedom to learn, student driven, metacognition, the rogue brain, augmenting modalities with multimedia approaches, and effective signaling for virtual learning.
