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The non-formal education consists in the expression of personal interests through the voluntary participation of the young person in activities that are of interest or attract him directly in order either to spend free time in a constructive manner, or to develop personality or to grasp special talents in - an institutionalized framework. Attention is the process that ensures the active orientation of the body to the message selection, the anticipatory reception and executory adjustment, as well as the intermittent focusing. In general, in the educational instructive process, attention is monitored by direct observation of students. A neurofeedback device (mini-electroencephalograph) has been used in our study to measure attention, a Neurosky device called MindWave Mobile 2 designed to record the electrical impulses emanating from different brain areas (areas G for ground and A1/FP1 of the 1020 system - on standardized placement of electrodes on the head for EEG measurements). With the help of the device and its related software, the level of attention has been recorded from several students over multiple lessons for Logic Games subject, first using a classical teaching method, and then using predominantly didactic play, the transmission of learning contents in interdisciplinary ways through computer-assisted instruction or using musical background. The MindWave Mobile 2 headset connects wireless to computer through Bluetooth and, using the built-in electrode, raw EEG power spectrum is analyzed and an integer value per second in interval 0 and 100 is delivered for attention. Distraction, lack of focus, or anxiety can reduce the level attention. To facilitate further input data analysis, we considered the following reference intervals: - under 40 = lack of concentration; - between 40-60 = diffuse attention; - between 60-80 = state of concentration; - between 80-100 = state of maximum concentration. To complete the experiment, we counted, analyzed, and compared the total number of minutes with different levels of attention within each lesson type - classical and computer-assisted instruction - per student, and the resulted data was illustrated in a graph. As a result, it was observed that the average level of attention was increased on the use of assisted training. Through this device, the teacher will know exactly what each student's intellectual effort curve is, when, how, and how much to intervene to resuscitate students' interest in the lesson.
Abstract: The non-formal education consists in the expression of personal interests through the voluntary participation of the young person in activities that are of interest or attract him directly in order either to spend free time in a constructive manner, or to develop personality or to grasp special talents in - an institutionalized framework. Attention is the process that ensures the active orientation of the body to the message selection, the anticipatory reception and executory adjustment, as well as the intermittent focusing. In general, in the educational instructive process, attention is monitored by direct observation of students. A neurofeedback device (mini-electroencephalograph) has been used in our study to measure attention, a Neurosky device called MindWave Mobile 2 designed to record the electrical impulses emanating from different brain areas (areas G for ground and A1/FP1 of the 1020 system - on standardized placement of electrodes on the head for EEG measurements). With the help of the device and its related software, the level of attention has been recorded from several students over multiple lessons for Logic Games subject, first using a classical teaching method, and then using predominantly didactic play, the transmission of learning contents in interdisciplinary ways through computer-assisted instruction or using musical background. The MindWave Mobile 2 headset connects wireless to computer through Bluetooth and, using the built-in electrode, raw EEG power spectrum is analyzed and an integer value per second in interval 0 and 100 is delivered for attention. Distraction, lack of focus, or anxiety can reduce the level attention. To facilitate further input data analysis, we considered the following reference intervals: - under 40 = lack of concentration; - between 40-60 = diffuse attention; - between 60-80 = state of concentration; - between 80-100 = state of maximum concentration. To complete the experiment, we counted, analyzed, and compared the total number of minutes with different levels of attention within each lesson type - classical and computer-assisted instruction - per student, and the resulted data was illustrated in a graph. As a result, it was observed that the average level of attention was increased on the use of assisted training. Through this device, the teacher will know exactly what each student's intellectual effort curve is, when, how, and how much to intervene to resuscitate students' interest in the lesson.
Keywords: automatic attention measurement; neurofeedback device; nonformal education; assisted training vs. classical training comparison; logic games.
I.AN OVERVIEW OF THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTENTION AND ITS MAIN PURPOSE THAT IT HAS IN THE EDUCATIONAL FIELD
Considered on a large scale, education represents the level of instruction of a nation. It represents the engine of evolution for the entire society. A higher level of instruction should be the highest desideratum of each individual, if he wants to compete successfully with the imminent challenges of the future.
In a comparative light, formal education is a social imperative, organized in a compulsory and institutionalized manner, carried out on well-defined segments of time, which begins at first with the acquisition of reading and writing skills, to be completed later with a consolidated construction from simple to complex of a general culture background, acquired on different levels of knowledge, during while the non-formal education consists in the manifestation of personal interests through the voluntary participation of the young person in activities that interest him or attract him directly in order either to spend free time in a constructive manner either to develop their personality or to improve their own special talents within an institutionalized framework. Usually non-formal education does not make literacy but works on the cultural background of the student (built within formal education), enhancing the general knowledge of the young man in his areas of interest, at the same time with the development of motivation, will, self-control and self-confidence (things that mass education does not have the time to emphasize).
Ensuring effective feedback remains extremely important for both formal and non-formal education, with the exception that in the first case the evaluation is a regulator for both the teacher and the student, while in the case of non-formal education, the student is much less concerned about the evaluation, because he is working with maximum pleasure inside of those activities, but evaluation becomes essential for a teacher who needs to know each pupil's personality very well, but also the mechanisms of his thinking, to know precisely when and how to intervene in order to guide its volitional and affective levers with maximum discretion in order to sustain its effort and engagement at a highest level, so that he does not abandon the activities of the circles he is attending, burying this way his talent in oblivion.
Learning is the widening of the background of behavioural experience by increasing the information thesaurus, eliminating redundancy and widening the availability inventory to meet environmental demands. Learning leads to behavioural changes in personality by capitalizing on the ability to acquire knowledge, skills, strategies and cognitive attitudes. At a cognitive level, the accent in-depth learning falls into memorizing activities, focusing also on information processing and information retrieval, intellectual activities on abstraction, inference, activities of putting into relationship, hypothesis building, verification and interpretation of results.
In the non-formal environment, learning is done directly in the classroom within the lesson, without giving the child homework just for the purpose of not diminishing the free time that he should spend in order to play. To optimize the learning process, the teacher must frequently appeal to the child's attention and his emotions during the lesson, in order to involve or attract affective memory to the forefront of learning. In this context, paying attention for as long as possible contributes significantly to the achievement of this goal. The learning process must be maximized to compensate for the lost benefit by exercising skills, equally aware of the fact that virtuosity cannot be achieved without a long practice.
By studying logical games in non-formal education, it is intended to develop positive thinking, critical spirit, ingenuity, perspicacity, speed of response, convergent thinking (focused on applying a standard method of solving and searching for a solution) but also of divergent thinking (oriented in different directions, towards a great diversity of solutions from which the optimal solution must be found).
From a psycho-pedagogical point of view the attention is the process that ensures the active orientation of the body towards the selection of messages, the anticipatory reception and executory adjustment, as well as the intermittent focusing. Attention may be voluntary or spontaneous. Practical experience has shown that spontaneous attention can also be trained. The intention of paying attention turns into the attitude of paying attention by attaching a learning system, designed to restructure the selection strategy into the dynamics of attention.
In educational research, a controversial problem remains the possibility of measuring educational reality, because the measurement of a psychic feature is not a simple and easy operation.
The purpose of this scientific approach is to analyse how the use of assisted training can help to optimize the educational process and to develop logical thinking at children's by increasing the level of attention in the lessons taught at the Logical Games discipline in non-formal education.
The stage of knowledge from which we have started to explore this subject is tangentially argued in the specialized bibliography. There are a few theoretical approaches about what non-formal education represents, but also studies from the psychological perspective of what means the attention [2], [1], [9]. We have identified some studies that add value either to attention by bringing it to the forefront in ways that rely on eye detection [4] either to the use of music to stimulate creativity [8], [3], [6] in the educational act.
1.1Classical training versus assisted training
Skills training requires the presence of material supports for exercising the actions. Therefore, in education, there is a diversity of "pedagogical instruments" called educational means or educational resources. These are the sets of objects, devices and mechanisms actually selected from reality, altered or made to contribute to the effective development of didactic activity in order to achieve pedagogical objectives. Classical training implies from the perspective of our study the use of traditional educational means. Although we are in the digital age, the schools generally practice in a larger proportion the classical training model compared to the modern one (computer-aided), failing this way to keep up the step with technological and information explosion of our days. The way these educational means are integrated into the didactic strategies depends to a large extent on didactic-methodological and technical competences of the teaching staff. Among the many functions that educational means fulfil, our study highlighted the function of assessing school performance by using assisted training with a major role in diminishing subjectivity in the evaluation act.
In context of assisted education, computers become basic tools for training, objectified in software programs and languages that can build up databases or educational software.
The computer assisted learning method capitalizes on the following teaching:
- Organization of information according to the requirements of the adaptive program to the capacities of each student;
- Cognitive challenge of the pupil through didactic sequences and questions aimed at finding gaps, problems, or situations-problem;
- Solving the didactic tasks presented previously by reactivating or acquiring the necessary information from the level of the technological resources activated by the computer;
- Ensuring (self) evaluation of pupils' results by mediating existing self-regulatory resources at the computer level;
- Making recapitulative summaries after passing themes, study modules, lessons, lessons groups, subchapters, chapters, or school disciplines;
- Providing additional exercises to stimulate student creativity.
In addition to these obvious informative and formative valences, modern computer resources significantly increase the attractiveness of the educational process. Today, technological competence is a primary competence in the exercise of the majority of professions.
II.AUTOMATIC ATTENTION MEASUREMENT
Generally, in the educational instructive process, classical attention is being monitored through direct observation of teachable / students. However, in the context in which attention is impalpable, immaterial and difficult to observe, it is a legitimate question raised up regarding of how can it be attention measured, controlled and amplified in the lesson so as to contribute significantly to the optimization of the instructive-educational process?
In order to get some quantifiable data in our study, we used to monitor the results of attention, a unique tool called MindWave Mobile 2 provided by NeuroSky, a mini-electroencephalograph designed to record the electrical impulses emanating from different brain areas. With their help and specialized software, we took over, processed and measured the electrical impulses emitted by the brain during the instructive-educational activity. This biosensor can analyse broadband waves (for example, delta, theta, alpha, beta, etc.) to illustrate the degree of user involvement in the activity they perform according to the classification in table 1.
At any time, the brain emits all or most of the different types of brainwaves. However, there is usually a dominant frequency, or one that is much stronger and predominant than the others. As a result, mental states are usually described in terms of dominant frequency.
2.1Neurofeedback device
A neurofeedback device called MindWave Mobile 2 was used. This is illustrated in Figure 1 and is a mini-electroencephalograph headset designed to record electrical impulses emanating from different brain areas according to the standardized system 1020 for EEG measurements, which is also illustrated in (figure 2).
As can be seen from the picture, the MindWave Mobile 2 helmet has two sensors positioned according to the standard 1020 in the G positions on the forehead or FP1 and A1 positioned at the left ear. The headset is connected to the computer via a Bluetooth connection and, based on the built-in electrode, sends information about the user's level of attention through specialized software. The value indicating the intensity of a user's attention level varies between thresholds differentiated in value ranges from 0 to 100. The information flow of these values occurs once per second. Distracted attention, stray thoughts, lack of focus, or anxiety can reduce levels of attention control.
2.2Experiment description
The general plan that followed the entire research was to follow some steps and objectives that we will detail in the following.
As part of this practical and applicative research process, aimed at optimizing the educational instructive process in non-formal education, we tried to verify during our experiment the following working hypothesis: Can assisted training in learning content used in logic games discipline in non-formal education, to contribute decisively to the development of logical thinking, by increasing the students' attention with the aim of learning the lesson to a great extent in the classroom?
Therefore, it was necessary to pursue several objectives in order to determine the value of truth or false of the previously formulated hypothesis, namely:
O1 - Determine the dynamics of attention in the lesson in correlation with the involvement or the dose of effort made by the student in the course of the activity.
O2 - Establish individual school performance (indirect, implicit evaluation) based on the attention and the curve of intellectual effort.
O3 - Identifying the role of attention in the development of logical thinking.
The variables identified on the basis of this experiment are:
* independent = computer-assisted learning in learning content;
* dependent = developing logical thinking by increasing attention within the lesson;
* intermediate = individual bio-psycho-social potential of pupils.
We randomly selected a single experimental sample consisting of two groups of 12 pupils, each of which was studied during a school year. The activity was pursued within the lessons within the circle by using predominantly assisted training to transmit the content of learning, as well as recording the values of the intervals of attention for each pupil, based on the systematic observation of student behaviours as an alternative method used in non-formal education.
The above mentioned device was used, namely MindWave Mobile 2 as an investigative tool used as a workflow in the flow of attention monitoring to test the validity of the hypothesis.
The experiment scheme had to go through several steps to achieve the goals. Thus, at first, classical observation of pupils' behaviours was carried out without the use of assisted training in the lessons associated with the pre-test stage. It then followed a certain amount of time, passing some lesson sequences, in which about 50% of the study modules were allocated to the predominant use of the musical play [3], [8], but also to the transmission of learning contents interdisciplinary way through computer-assisted training. As a result, the attention paid by the students to the two experimental groups was monitored using MindWave Mobile 2, while the information flows provided by the software associated with this device were automatically recorded in the database. At the end, the classical observation of pupils' behaviours was made without using this helmet from NeuroSky this time. The lessons were also based on a knowledge transfer using computer-assisted training, a post-test phase.
During the experiment, each learner was recorded the fluctuations of attention for different stages of the lesson. Since we only had one headset to record attention, we had to choose each one randomly each experimental student in each group, while avoiding redundancies, until full coverage of the number of students in the two experimental groups.
2.3 Using the neurofeedback device to measure attention
Using the whole arsenal of experimental research as a tool of work, I tried in the groups of students under study to use these sensors to monitor students' attention during several lessons, designed to assist the teacher in the evaluation process. To facilitate the analysis of input data, we considered the following reference intervals illustrated in (Table 2):
To complete the experiment, we accounted for the total of focusing minutes in the lesson per pupil, and we collected these data that we grouped and illustrated in the graphs in figure 3 and figure 4:
Based on the statistical data recorded in the two graphs, we can point out that the use of assisted training, logic games, interdisciplinary content delivery, the use of a musical background in lessons contributes significantly to increasing student concentration for a much longer period great time.
III.CONCLUSIONS
After a preliminary overview of the two forms of education that were the subject of our study, aiming to objectively highlight the particularities of non-formal education reflected in parallel with the formal one, but also after highlighting both the benefits of using assisted training in non-formal education and in the teaching of logical games, we can highlight the final results of this experiment from a comparative analysis perspective. These results were centralized, analysed and then presented in the form of the graph illustrated in (Figure 5), on the basis of which some conclusions could then be synthesized.
By extrapolating from these sets of results that we have obtained for the 24 students of the two experimental groups, we can assume by generalization that assisted training used in non-formal education will produce similar results regardless of which group of students apply this procedure.
Based on the data recorded during this experimental research addressed in this paper, we can safely say that the three research objectives have been successfully completed, illustrating that the hypothesis is confirmed. Based on this argument, we can strongly support the fact that assisted training used in non-formal education (learning the content of learning) and teaching logical games as a discipline contributes significantly to the development of logical thinking, by increasing the students' attention to learning lessons in a great deal in the classroom. These working tools perfectly adapt to the non-formal activities, where the emphasis falls on a relaxed, relaxed teaching style that will pleasantly attract the student in his choice of leisure. In conclusion, we can make the following comparative analysis between the pro and contra arguments observed over time regarding the use of assisted training summarized in (table 3):
On the basis of our experiment, we could say that the value of attention in the lessons should be reconsidered as meaningful and capitalized on its entire formative potential, not just as a static moment at the beginning of the lesson as is usually done, but reactivated whenever or it is needed. In addition, many understand carefully a state of utmost silence at the time. But the fact that it is quiet cannot assure us in any way that the student is focused on what he has to do. Practical experience has shown us that surprisingly the noise in the lesson is good if it is constructive and directed as it triggers the creative energies of the child, developing his beliefs and self-confidence. Experimentally, we found that doing lessons on a relaxing musical background put in the background increases in time the distributional attention and implicitly the pupil's school performance, which is becoming more and more able to concentrate to the maximum, taking abstraction of everything that's going on around him. Nothing disturbs or diverts his attention, managing to keep his power of concentration much longer.
Reference Text and Citations
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