Implications of missed opportunities for learning and assessment in design and technology education

Supporting student learning can be difficult, especially within open-ended or loosely structured activities, often seen as valuable for promoting student autonomy in many curriculum areas and contexts. This paper reports an investigation into the experiences of three teachers who implemented design and technology education ideas in their primary school classrooms for the first time. The teachers did not capitalise upon many of the opportunities for scaffolding their students’ learning within the open-ended activities they implemented. Limitations of the teachers’ conceptual and procedural knowledge of design and technology were elements that influenced their early experiences. The study has implications for professional developers planning programs in newly introduced areas of the curriculum to support teachers in supporting learning within open-ended and loosely structured problem solving activities.     

Effects of Instruction on Verbal Interactions During Collaborative Problem Solving

During one school year, data were collected for vocational education students while they worked collaboratively on open-ended mathematics problems. In collaboration with participating teachers, instructional activities were designed with a twofold goal of modelling the process of problem solving and improving collaboration. Instructional activities were based on scaffolding instruction and included modelling problem solving, stimulating reflection, and giving feedback on the process of collaboration. These activities were gradually developed and implemented in collaboration with teachers who participated in the study. The main research question in this study was whether student collaboration while working in small groups creates a learning context where students work on open-ended problems and where instructional activities are aimed at stimulating collaborative problem solving in mathematics.To answer the research question, an experiment was undertaken in two classes in different schools. Two groups of students were videotaped while they tried to solve mathematics problems collaboratively. Observational data were analysed with a schema that was developed as part of this research. Analyses of the data showed that, in both groups, collaboration-oriented patterns increased during the school year. It is argued that the approach of gradual implementation of instructional activities that are designed in cooperation with participating teachers is effective in stimulating collaborative problem solving.     

Complex problem solving in L1 education: Senior high school students' knowledge of the language problem-solving process

The solving of reasoning problems in first language (L1) education can produce an understanding of language, and student autonomy in language problem solving, both of which are contemporary goals in senior high school education. The purpose of this study was to obtain a better understanding of senior high school students' knowledge of the language problem-solving process. Fifty-three 11th-grade high school students solved standard, comprehension, and linguistic reasoning problems. Before solving the problems, the participants had filled in open-ended questions inquiring about their knowledge regarding the effectiveness of a chosen problem-solving strategy. Content analysis of the responses indicated four categories and nine subcategories. The implications of the relatively few responses in the category of explicit knowledge of the language problem-solving process are discussed in the light of the changing needs of L1 students.     

Case analysis of children's reasoning in problem-solving process

Recognising critical reasoning and problem-solving as one of the key skills for twenty-first century citizenship, various types of problem contexts have been practiced in science classrooms to enhance students’ understandings and use of evidence-based thinking and justification. Good problems need to allow students to adapt and evaluate the effectiveness of their knowledge, reasoning and problem-solving strategies. When students are engaged in complex and open-ended problem tasks, it is assumed their reasoning and problem-solving paths become complex with creativity and evidence in order to justify their conclusion and solutions. This study investigated the levels of reasoning evident in student discourse when engaging in different types of problem-solving tasks and the role of teacher interactions on students’ reasoning. Fifteen students and a classroom teacher in a Grade 5–6 classroom participated in this study. Through case analyses, the study findings suggest that (a) there was no clear co-relation between certain structures of problem tasks and the level of reasoning in students’ problem-solving discourse, (b) students exhibited more data-based reasoning than evidence-based and rule-based justification in experiment-based problem-solving tasks, and (c) teacher intervention supported higher levels of student reasoning. Pedagogical reflections on the difficulties of constructing effective problem-solving tasks and the need for developing teacher scaffolding strategies are discussed.     

Adaptive Comparative Judgment as a Tool for Assessing Open-ended Design Problems and Model Eliciting Activities

We investigated the use of adaptive comparative judgment to evaluate the middle school student learning, engagement, and experience with the design process in an open-ended problem assigned in a technology and engineering education course. Our results indicate that the adaptive comparative judgment tool effectively facilitated the grading of the students’ products and improved the judges’ understanding of the processes the students used to arrive at their solutions. We found the reliability and validity of the tool to be acceptable and the outcomes of our study suggest that there is justification for the use of the adaptive comparative judgment method to assess student learning outcomes at multiple levels of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education.     

开放性数学应用问题解决的差异性研究

数学教育硕士、本科生解决开放性数学应用问题仍然是困难的,具有较高数学理论知识未必天然地能较好解决那些只用较低数学理论知识就能解答的数学应用问题;解决策略开放、结论开放、条件开放数学应用问题的难度逐渐显著增加,数学新课程重视数学应用教育促进了学生数学应用问题解决能力的发展;解决开放性数学应用问题的策略选择具有显著性差异,呈现数学思维的单一性、近迁移性等特征,误解信息、隐喻干扰等因素对被试的策略选择产生影响.     

Exploring doctorate holders’ perceptions of the non-academic labour market and reputational problems they relate to their employment

Doctoral employment outside universities has been increasing, as universities cannot employ all doctorate holders. Nevertheless, it has been argued that the shift from doctoral programs to the non-academic labour market has been limited. In this qualitative study, more than 800 verbal answers given by doctorate holders to a pair of open-ended questions were content-analysed to explore doctorate holders’ perceptions of the non-academic labour market and the reputational problems they relate to their employment. The study identifies four reputational problems which doctorate holders relate to their employment: the oversupply problem, the overeducation problem, the consistency problem and the communication problem. By identifying potential reputational problems on the doctorate holders level, this research contributes novel information in terms of both theory development and practitioner insights.

     

Open-ended problem solving in school chemistry: A preliminary investigation

This paper uses a new set of 14 open-ended problems, designed for 14-17-year-old pupils studying chemistry, to attempt to gain some initial insights into the ways pupils solve open-ended chemistry problems. The emphasis is on how concepts and linkages between concepts influence success in solving such open-ended problems. Pupils worked in groups of three attempting to solve the problems and were encouraged to talk freely, to make notes of their progress, and to note their agreed answers. Evaluation sheets were also completed individually by the pupils after each problem. By studying the interactions between pupils by means of written materials, observation and audiotapes, it was possible to build up a picture of the way the pupils approached the problems and to explore some of the reasons for difficulties they experienced. In the light of the evidence, it is suggested that creating the links between 'islands' of knowledge is an important skill in solving open-ended problems and that this skill is not easily achieved by pupils at these ages. The notion that problem solving is a generic skill which can be taught is questioned.     

From “wiggly structures” to “unshaky towers”: problem framing,solution finding,and negotiation of courses of actions during a civil engineering unit for elementary students

The present study was designed to investigate problem- and solution-related activity of elementary students in ill-defined and open-ended settings. One Grade 4/5 class of 28 students engaged in the activities of the “Engineering for Children: Structures” curriculum, designed as a vehicle for introducing science concepts, providing ill-defined problem solving contexts, and fostering positive attitudes towards science and technology. Data included video recordings, ethnographic field notes, student produced artefacts (projects and engineering logbooks), and interviews with teachers and observers. These data supported the notion of problems, solutions, and courses of actions as entities with flexible ontologies. In the course of their negotiations, students demonstrated an uncanny competence to frame and reframe problems and solutions and to decide courses of actions of different complexities in spite of the ambiguous nature of (arte)facts, plans, and language. A case study approach was chosen as the literary device to report these general findings. The discussion focuses on the inevitably ambiguous nature of (arte)facts, plans, and language and the associated notion of “interpretive flexibility.” Suggestions are provided for teachers on how to deal with interpretive flexibility without seeking recourse to the didactic approaches of direct teaching. But what happens when problems and solutions are negotiable, when there are no longer isolated problems which one tries to solve but problems which maintain complex linkages with ensembles of other problems and diverse constraints, or when problems and solutions are simultaneously invented? (Lestel, 1989, p. 692, my translation)     

Focus on the Representation of Problem Types in Intended Curriculum: A Comparison of Selected Mathematics Textbooks from Mainland China and the United States

This study compared how selected mathematics textbooks from Mainland China and the United States at the lower secondary grade level represent various types of problems for classroom teaching and learning. The examination of problems was carried out based on the classifications of problem types established in the study, including routine problems versus non-routine problems, open-ended problems versus close-ended problems, traditional problems versus non-traditional problems, and application problems versus non-application problems, among others. Both the similarities and differences in the representation of problems in the selected textbooks were analyzed. The results were used to explore the possible influences of those textbooks on students’ different performances in mathematics, as revealed in cross-national comparisons. Discussions about how to improve the representation of problems in mathematics textbooks were provided at the end of the study.     

Design principles for addressing wicked problems through boundary crossing in higher professional education

To an increasing extent, society requires professionals to cross boundaries in order to deal with wicked problems. However, little is known about how interventions in higher professional education (HPE) foster learning through boundary crossing in the context of addressing wicked problems. Drawing upon the three-dimension model of wickedness by Head and Akkerman and Bakker’s model of the dialogical learning mechanisms of boundary crossing, this study aims to generate conjectures for design principles for the design of educational practices that will foster students’ skills for addressing wicked problems through boundary crossing. This study applied a multiple case study design addressing six existing practices in HPE. The research questions were: (1) What characteristics of wicked problems are present in the selected educational practices? (2) How does the boundary crossing take place in the selected educational practices? (3) How is student learning during boundary crossing fostered in the context of dealing with the characteristics of wicked problems? Data were derived from document study, semi-structured interviews, and observations. The study conjectures that learning experiences at boundaries in the open-ended, joint effort of addressing wicked problems should be fostered and elicited by balancing and leveraging constructive tension and by making use of boundary objects and brokers.     

The Impact of High School Science Teachers’ Beliefs,Curricular Enactments and Experience on Student Learning During an Inquiry-based Urban Ecology Curriculum

Inquiry-based curricula are an essential tool for reforming science education yet the role of the teacher is often overlooked in terms of the impact of the curriculum on student achievement. Our research focuses on 22 teachers’ use of a year-long high school urban ecology curriculum and how teachers’ self-efficacy, instructional practices, curricular enactments and previous experience impacted student learning. Data sources included teacher belief surveys, teacher enactment surveys, a student multiple-choice assessment focused on defining and identifying science concepts and a student open-ended assessment focused on scientific inquiry. Results from the two hierarchical linear models indicate that there was significant variation between teachers in terms of student achievement. For the multiple-choice assessment, teachers who spent a larger percentage of time on group work and a smaller percentage of time lecturing had greater student learning. For the open-ended assessment, teachers who reported a higher frequency of students engaging in argument and sharing ideas had greater student learning while teachers who adapted the curriculum more had lower student learning. These results suggest the importance of supporting the active role of students in instruction, emphasising argumentation, and considering the types of adaptations teachers make to curriculum.     

Undergraduate investigations in mathematics

This article is a report on work done in developing open-ended investigations as a component in an undergraduate mathematics degree course. The context and organisation of the work is described, and sources of fruitful problems are discussed, along with issues of supervision and assessment. An important part of the article is an account of some particular student's investigations, with a report on student attitudes.Faculty of Mathematical Studies University of Southampton     

Reflecting Socially on Social Issues in a Social Studies Methods Course

The purpose of this study was to investigate how student teaching experiences impact the sense of teaching efficacy and feelings of preparedness of pre-service teachers in a nearly and elementary teacher education program (EC-6). The study used an action research, mixed-methods design. Seventy-one pre-service teachers at a large public university in the southwest completed surveys about their preparedness to teach and teaching efficacy pre and post the student teaching semester. Findings indicate that pre-service teachers’ perceptions of preparedness and sense of teaching efficacy both increased significantly (p < .5) from pre-student teaching to post-student teaching. In addition, three themes emerged from the answers to open-ended questions on learning components of student teaching experiences: opportunity for hands-on teaching, the opportunity to observe experienced teachers, and the relationship with their cooperating teacher.     

对我国商业银行代销开放式基金问题的思考

开放式基金是我国目前一种新的投资方式,商业银行作为开放式基金的代销机构,为我国开放式基金发展开辟了有效途径。然而在成功代销的背后仍存在许多问题,如商业银行代销开放式基金时存在的信息披露不充分、大量赎回、基金市场不规范等,为此,应加强信息披露、不断创新、加强与证券业合作、建立良好的售后服务体系等。     

The Role of Beliefs and Motivational Variables in Enhancing Word Problem Solving

A Word Problem Enrichment programme (WPE) has been found to increase student word problem solving performance when facing non-routine and application problems. However, it is unknown if the WPE has an impact on student beliefs about word problem solving and how the WPE works for students with different motivation in learning mathematics. This study investigated the impact of the WPE on student beliefs about word problem solving by using Latent Profile Analysis and Structural Equation Modelling to analyse relations among the different cognitive, motivation, and belief factors. A total of 170 fourth- and sixth-grade students from elementary schools participated. Results showed that the effects of WPE are various depending on students’ initial motivation level. The impacts of the WPE on student beliefs were found only in students with a low initial motivation level, while its impacts on student problem-solving performance were found only in students with a high initial motivation level.     

THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING PROBLEM SOLVING ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND RETENTION

A study of the effects of explicitly teaching a problem‐solving strategy on problem‐solving ability, course average, course success, and student retention is reported. Two classes of microeconomics principles were involved in a quasi‐experiment. The experimental class was explicitly taught the problem‐solving strategy and this strategy was then used to solve microeconomic problems in class. The control class was assigned, solved, and discussed the same problems without being taught the problem‐solving strategy. Multiple regression and analysis of variance show that while teaching problem solving did not significantly affect course average, student success in passing the course or problem solving ability, it did result in significantly higher student retention. Results indicate that teaching problem solving only affects those students with low problem solving abilities who would have dropped out of class, and that teaching this strategy helps them remain in the class and succeed.