Combining verbal and visual cueing: Fostering learning pictorial content by coordinating verbal explanations with different types of visual cueing

Instructional Science - Multimedia learning scenarios in which a picture is the main focus often use combinations of verbal and visual cueing. Based on models of picture processing and multimedia...     

Enhancing aid effectiveness in education through a sector-wide approach in Cambodia

Since 2001 the government of Cambodia has striven to advance policy-led education reform based on a sector-wide approach. This paper critically reviews the status and progress of Cambodia’s education reform from the perspective of the aid’s effectiveness. The paper looks at the performance of the sector reform in the three priority areas highlighted in the Accra Agenda of Action on Aid Effectiveness: (a) strengthening country ownership; (b) building more effective and inclusive partnership; and (c) delivering and accounting for development results. The study finds that while substantial progress was made in the development of essential components of an effective sector programme, further consolidation and refinements are necessary in several priority areas in order to bring about tangible improvements in education outcomes. The study provides concrete policy recommendations to further enhance the effectiveness of aid to Cambodia’s education sector.     

Enhancing participation in primary school and class councils through visual communication

In the context of citizenship education, many UK primary schools have recently set up school councils. Previous research has overlooked the importance of exploring communicative practices specific to school councils and the implications for children's participation. This paper draws on an action‐orientated research project with teachers in three Norfolk primary schools, which began with ethnographic observation of school and class council meetings. By developing alternative visual strategies for facilitating communication in meetings (based on a methodology known as PRA), teachers were able to encourage involvement by more children and enable them to have a greater voice in decision‐making. We argue that the common focus on adult procedures in school councils puts the emphasis on teaching children about their future role as citizens and can limit children's ownership of decision‐making processes. The alternative is to create contexts in which children have a sense of the democratic purposes of their school council in the here and now, by providing children with means (such as the visual strategies) that are consistent with those purposes and prioritizing action as an end.     

Anxiety and cueing in a visual concept learning task

This study investigated the relationship of two anxiety measures to performance on a visual concept acquisition task. Criterial information was embedded at two levels for the noncued treatment group and made salient by color cues for the cued treatment group. Two-way analyses of variance were used and indicated a significant interaction between cueing treatment andState-Trait Anxiety Inventory (stai) anxiety scores for the heavily embedded figures. Further research is suggested utilizing different populations and cueing techniques. The addition of cues is suggested for deeply embedded criterial information for use with high-anxiety students.     

增进教学督导实效性的几点思考

本文针对当前教学督导的现状,从教学督导的重要性入手,简要分析了传统教学督导的作用及其局限,并在此基础上提出要通过优化督导模式,健全和完善教学督导执行机制来进一步增进教学督导的实效性,以期为教学督导的实际改革提供一些借鉴。     

Automatic attention cueing through eye movement in 2-year-old children with autism

Automatic attention cueing by perceived changes in gaze direction was studied in 2-year-old children with autism and typically developing (TD) controls using a visual attention cueing paradigm. In Experiments 1 and 2 the cue consisted of an eye movement (Eyes) and a nonbiological movement (SimEyes), respectively. The results suggest that visual attention in children with autism and their TD counterparts is cued by perceived eye movement. Thus, although in naturalistic situations toddlers with autism do not follow the gaze of others, they are sensitive to directional cues inherent in eye movement. Cue-specific differences in performance related to the level of engagement and cue-processing time may suggest reliance on different underlying strategies for gaze processing in autism.     

Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment

Two lines of thinking are becoming increasingly important in higher educational practice. The first derives from constructivist learning theory, and the second from the instructional design literature. Constructivism comprises a family of theories but all have in common the centrality of the learner's activities in creating meaning. These and related ideas have important implications for teaching and assessment. Instructional designers for their part have emphasised alignment between the objectives of a course or unit and the targets for assessing student performance. Constructive alignment represents a marriage of the two thrusts, constructivism being used as a framework to guide decision-making at all stages in instructional design: in deriving curriculum objectives in terms of performances that represent a suitably high cognitive level, in deciding teaching/learning activities judged to elicit those performances, and to assess and summatively report student performance. The performances of understanding nominated in the objectives are thus used to systematically align the teaching methods and the assessment. The process is illustrated with reference to a professional development unit in educational psychology for teachers, but the model may be generalized to most units or programs in higher education.     

Effects of a writing-to-learn tutorial programme in a higher education setting: An interactive qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Many higher education students embark on a study of accounting under the misconception that accounting requires a high level of proficiency in manipulating data and being good with numbers, while believing that linguistic competence, especially as it relates to writing, is of less importance. This article reports on a study that examined 15 managerial accounting and financial management (MAFM) students’ experiences of an 18-week writing intensive tutorial programme, based on writing-to-learn principles. Interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) informed the research design and data analysis. Following IQA protocols, nine affinities (themes) were generated. An account of how students’ experiences of a specific affinity, namely, written tasks, influenced their understanding of MAFM concepts is presented. The findings suggest that introducing writing-to-learn assignments contributed positively to students’ learning and understanding of MAFM concepts. This finding has implications for higher education pedagogy especially as it relates to the teaching of the accounting discipline.     

互动模式下的大学英语写作教学实效性研究

英语写作能力是衡量大学生英语综合水平和语言应用能力的指标,但对于我国的英语教师来说,也是长久以来的难题,在传统的英语教学模式中,很少单独开设英语写作课,所以英语写作课一直处于低效费时状态。为了切实提高学生英语写作能力,本文从互动教学模式的诠释,互动式写作教学类型,英语写作教学现状调查,英语互动式写作教学课堂实际应用等方面对互动模式下大学英语写作教学实效性进行深入探讨,得出采用教学模式的转变可以调动同学们写作的积极性,对英语写作能力的提高有很好的效果。     

Enhancing teaching effectiveness by using the Six-Sigma DMAIC model

As the competition increases in higher education, how to improve teaching quality to promote educational performance becomes a significant issue. Many higher educational institutions (HEIs) make efforts to establish a feedback system to monitor and reflect the outcomes of teaching evaluations. This study aimed to describe the use of the Six-Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control) procedures and the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) method to implement a feedback system step by step. The study proposed some useful instruments to illustrate how evaluations of teaching can be simple and objective by using a questionnaire, how to detect the disadvantages on teaching, and the decision strategy to prioritise disadvantages that are in need of corrective action. HEIs may use these instruments to establish an effective feedback system.     

Increasing preschool effectiveness: Enhancing the language abilities of 3- and 4-year-old children through planned sociodramatic play

The results of this study support the idea that participation in sociodramatic play builds the language competence of young children and give added credence to the position that play is a vital part of good preschool programs. Specifically, the study tested the hypothesis that 3- and 4-year-old children from a variety of backgrounds who were enrolled in a preschool program with planned Sociodramatic play opportunities and play tutoring would demonstrate greater than expected language development. Results showed that boys demonstrated significantly greater than expected growth on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) after 3 months of participation in enriched Sociodramatic play with play tutoring.     

Enhancing student achievement through computer-generated homework

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of interactive computer-generated homework on student achievement. Of two sections of Physical Science I, one received homework via the computer; the other received printed, equivalent homework assignments. The results of this study indicate that the use of drill-and-practice computer homework minimizes differences among students with a corresponding decrease in the correlation between posttest scores and entry-level combined ACT science and mathematics scores. The results also support the basic assumption of mastery learning that appropriate instruction will decrease the relationship between aptitude and achievement.     

Enhancing parent-child relationship through dialogic reading

Dialogic reading (DR) has been identified as an effective strategy for enhancing children’s literacy skills in Western and Asian contexts. Given that storytelling is a shared experience between adults and children, parent–child relationships is hypothesised to be enhanced by DR. Despite this possibility, there has been no systematic attempt to examine the possible impacts of DR on the parent–child relationship. This study bridges this gap in the literature by studying the relationship between adults and children before and after training in the practice of dialogic reading techniques. Forty-eight Cantonese-speaking parents with children aged between 3 and 12 were recruited from schools. They were assessed prior to and after undergoing a four-hour dialogic reading training programme with a two-hour follow-up session using the Parent–Child Relationship Inventory. The results of this study suggest that DR has considerable potential for improving parent–child relationships. The findings are discussed in relation to the situation of Chinese learners in the Hong Kong context.     

Enhancing research through academic staff development

Abstract

In the past few years, research has been an increasingly important focus of academic staff development, but there is little documentation of this new area of development. The purpose of this paper is to describe the evolution over four years of a programme to develop research skills. The experience of planning and implementing this programme illustrates how changes in higher education and university priorities (such as amalgamations of institutions, increased pressures on staff, increased competition between institutions for funding, and universities’ growing corporatization) have interacted with staff development objectives to shape changes in the programme's purpose, format, mode of participation, and planning approach. A collaborative approach to planning is seen to be appropriate in the current climate, maximizing sensitivity to the distinctive needs of the various faculties, departments or schools. Current scholarly discussion is recognized as providing support for a move toward collaboration and context‐sensitivity.     

The use and effectiveness of interactive progressive drawing in anatomy education

Anatomical relationships are challenging concepts for first‐year medical students. The use of progressive drawing, where an image is created from a blank template, has long been utilized for outlining anatomical relationships and continuity from one region to another, and has shown positive outcomes for student learning. More recently, computerized progressive drawing has been introduced; however, challenges, including issues with visual clarity, have been described. In this study, 17 computerized screencasts of drawings covering neurovasculature of the limbs, abdomen, pelvis, head, and neck were created and provided to first‐year medical students at Morehouse School of Medicine. An animated method for drawing was utilized to increase visual clarity. Surveys were provided to 181 first‐year medical students to collect feedback about these screencasts. Sixty percent (n = 108) of students completed at least one survey. Respondents rated all 17 screencasts with a minimum of 4.7/5 for helpfulness in learning the material for course examinations. A majority of students (77.8%) reported viewing the screencasts more than once on at least one survey, and students reported varying methods for utilizing the screencasts. A majority of students provided positive feedback relating to technical quality. Some significant differences in course performance were seen based on screencast usage. The positive responses from students indicate that this is a useful method in medical education. Anat Sci Educ 11: 445–460. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Enhancing the contribution of visual methods to inclusive education

This paper examines the use of visual methods in studies of inclusive education. Visual methods have been applied to/with pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in the past but the application has tended to be outside rather than inside schools. We argue that understanding contextual reflexivity is important if visual methods are to be successfully adapted to meet the needs of inclusive research. A case study is used to provide an insight into the strengths, weaknesses and difficulties of mixed method visual research. The final section of the paper explores potential applications, strategies and techniques for including visual methods in inclusivity research.     

Enhancing scientific discovery learning through metacognitive support

Using a virtual physics lab, we analyzed the impact of metacognitive support on simulation-based scientific discovery learning (SDL). The dependent variables for learning outcome were the immediate conceptual knowledge gain and the retained conceptual knowledge three weeks later. Additional dependent variables were the actual use of a domain-specific cognitive strategy, motivation, emotions, and cognitive load. To contrast the effects of metacognitive support with possible effects of goal specificity, the experimental study followed a 2 × 2 design with a sample of N = 129 ninth grade students and with metacognitive support (yes vs. no) and learning goals (specific vs. nonspecific) as factors. The results showed positive effects of metacognitive support on learning outcome, on actual cognitive strategy use, and on learning emotions. No interaction effect of metacognitive support and goal specificity on learning outcome was observed.