Using the iPad as a tool to support literacy instruction

The purpose of this case study was to examine how iPads could be integrated into literacy instruction in a fourth-grade classroom in ways consistent with new conceptions of literacy and in ways that transform traditional literacy instruction by supporting readers in creating multimodal responses to reading. Results indicate that several features of the iPad support literacy instruction, a context in which both traditional literacy skills and new literacies must be taught. Data analysis revealed the following four themes that characterise the ways in which classroom instruction was supported by integrating iPads: (1) choosing new ways to communicate a message; (2) detailed work and revision; (3) spontaneous collaboration and (4) student interest and attention to the tasks. Results indicate that features of the iPad may provide a simplified path to integrating technology into literacy instruction.     

Reading an ethnology museum as pedagogical space: a multitext study

Ethnology museums have a troubled lineage as they are inheritors of a violent colonial legacy while being steeped in a positivist epistemology that seeks to order and categorize an otherwise disordered world. Educational research, similarly, is often predicated on realist knowledge principles as people are made objects to demonstrate their interactions to predict likely outcomes of various interventions. This article considers how an ethnology museum, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, can be used as a learning site by student teachers as they experience reading a museum. Student teachers, having considered examples of postcolonial theory, use this scholarship to think through and critically read AMNH. The inquiry into how student teachers read AMNH as a pedagogical space is reframed, however, by multitext interjections offered by participants themselves. The study, then, is oriented around two principal areas: how student teachers can read an ethnology museum critically and how multitexts may work to address representational problems inherent in social science research, such as education.     

Using iPads as a learning tool in cross-curricular collaborative initial teacher education

Mobile technologies are becoming more and more prevalent in learning environments. This means that teacher education must keep pace with the use of mobile technologies. Baran (2014) argues that the ‘greatest added value of mobile learning vis-a-vis PC learning lies in the aspects that extend classroom interaction to other locations via communication networks’. (p. 18) This article outlines a pilot study developed to support collaborative working between the English and science pre-service teachers, in which mobile technologies were used to extend students interactions outside the classroom, using iPads in authentic, fieldwork situations.     

Objects prompt authentic scientific activities among learners in a museum programme

Although the scientific disciplines conduct practical work in different ways, all consider practical work as the essential way of connecting objects and phenomena with ideas and the abstract. Accordingly, practical work is regarded as central to science education as well. We investigate a practical, object-based palaeontology programme at a natural history museum to identify how palaeontological objects prompt scientific activity among upper secondary school students. We first construct a theoretical framework based on an analysis of the programme’s palaeontological content. From this, we build our reference model, which considers the specimens used in the programme, possible palaeontological interpretations of these specimens, and the conditions inherent in the programme. We use the reference model to analyse the activities of programme participants, and illustrate how these activities are palaeontologically authentic. Finally, we discuss our findings, examining the mechanism by which the specimens prompt scientific activities. We also discuss our discipline-based approach, and how it allows us to positively identify participants’ activities as authentic. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings.     

Writing creatively in a museum: tracing lines through persons,art objects and texts

Creative writing is often thought of as an individual and solitary pursuit. This is partly owing to Romantic (and still popular) notions of creativity as residing in highly gifted individuals, but also to the widely held belief that writing is a lonely rather than a social activity. The research presented in this paper provides a unique insight into the creative process by tracing the way one poem is produced by a member of a creative writing class based on a major urban art gallery. Based on a 5‐year ethnographic study of this class, it employs interview material, field notes, photographs and creative writing as data. Using theories from both the “anthropology of writing” (Barton and Papen, 2010 ; Latour and Woolgar, 1986 ) and the “anthropology of creativity” (Ingold, 2007 ; Hallam and Ingold, 2007 ), I argue that creative writing is a relational and temporal process involving complex and multiple claims for agency. I also go on to show that when the text moves from a private to a public context, these multiple agencies are encompassed and erased under the umbrella of individual authorship.     

Science learning in a leisure setting

Most people visit a science center in order to satisfy specific leisure‐related needs; needs which may or may not actually include science learning. Falk proposed that an individual's identity‐related motivations provide a useful lens through which to understand adult free‐choice science learning in leisure settings. Over a 3‐year period the authors collected in‐depth data on a random sample of visitors to a large recently opened, hands‐on, interactive science center; collecting information on why people visited, what they did within the science center, what they knew about the subject presented upon entering and exiting, and what each individual's long‐term self‐perceptions of their own learning was. Presented is a qualitative analysis of visitor interviews collected roughly 2 years after the initial visit. Although there was evidence for a range of science learning outcomes, outcomes did appear to be strongly influenced by visitor's entering identity‐related motivations. However, the data also suggested that not only were the motivational goals of a science center visit important in determining outcomes, so too were the criteria by which visitors judged satisfaction of those goals; in particular whether goal satisfaction required external or merely internal validation. The implications for future informal science education research and practice are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:194–212, 2010     

手机新媒体在学生思想政治教育中的应用

手机功能的发展,尤其是移动互联技术的应用,改变了人们的生活方式和学习方式。手机新媒体以其便捷灵活的操作性能和丰富多样的展现形式得到了广泛的使用。本文从手机新媒体的特性入手,分析了手机新媒体的快速发展对学生的思想政治教育带来的机遇和挑战,并举例说明手机新媒体环境下如何开展学生思想教育。     

Using developmental evaluation as a design thinking tool for curriculum innovation in professional higher education

This paper argues for the use of ‘developmental’ evaluation as a design-based research tool for sustainable curriculum innovation in professional higher education. Professional education is multi-faceted and complex with diverse views from researchers, professional practitioners, employers and the world of politics leaving little consensus about the nature of educational ‘problems’, let alone educational ‘solutions’. Developmental evaluation is an emerging approach to evaluating innovations and/or organisations that are in a continuous state of change; it asks the evaluators to not simply appraise a final design, but to work with designers through processes of rapid reconnaissance, mapping the territory and emergent modelling. This paper provides an account of how the adoption of the dispositions and approaches of developmental evaluation increased the trustworthiness of decision-making in the design of a new post-graduate teacher education degree in Australia. The principles of developmental evaluation as a design thinking approach have application in other complex curriculum settings.     

Mobile Assisted Chinese Learning as a Foreign Language: An Overview of Publications between 2007 and 2019

This paper presents a critical overview of studies on mobile assisted language learning (MALL) in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) during the period 2007-2019. In the review, keyword and reference searches were conducted to identify and select empirical studies during the review period. Thematic and frequency analyses were employed on the data. This identified methodological trends and research outcomes in the reviewed studies. As shown in the results, most of the reviewed studies used qualitative methods to examine the effect of mobile CFL learning on formal learning in higher education settings. These studies document the positive impact that mobile technology has on CFL learning. Their attention is primarily on the use of mobile learning in Chinese vocabulary acquisition, language skill development and mobile seamless learning. Suggestions are provided for further research to support continuous mobile assisted CFL teaching and learning.     

Curriculum assessment as a direct tool in ABET outcomes assessment in a chemical engineering programme

The chemical engineering programme at the United Arab Emirates University is designed to fulfil the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) (A–K) EC2000 criteria. The Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering has established a well-defined process for outcomes assessment for the chemical engineering programme in order to ensure that its graduates achieve the programme educational objectives. Different direct and indirect tools are implemented in the assessment process. Among these tools, the greatest weight in the assessment process has been given to the curriculum (30%). The course and curriculum assessment usually plays an important role in improving the course content and quality; as it should provide considerable information on the effectiveness of an academic programme. This paper aims to discuss the methods used to assess the courses/curriculum of the chemical engineering programme as an important direct tool in the assessment process for ABET accreditation. Application of the curriculum assessment results in the continuous improvement of chemical engineering programmes is also addressed.     

The internet as a tool to learn a second language in a technical environment

Second language acquisition is a hard task for teachers, since to achieve the motivation from students to practice a language simulating a real context is very difficult. On the one hand, students are often influenced by their mother tongue and more when they are practising a second language with a partner from the same nationality. On the other, technology is part of our lives and teachers should use all the tools in order to motivate students to learn any topic. So, if we integrate technology in the methodology we use when teaching a second language and students can practise with international partners, the results can be surprising. Chats, scanning texts, games, filling forms, etc. are just some of the activities our students can do in order to improve their command of a second language and also these activities can be used by content teachers in order to complement content learning. In the present paper, we provide some examples of activities designed by collaborating with content teachers based on websites, and then we analyse the effect they produced on students. We contrast the methodology used to propose tasks based on websites and those based on texts, and finally, evaluate their effect on the motivation of students.     

Using action research as a methodological tool: understanding teachers' understanding of science

A series of questions and answers between Jennifer Nias in her role as supervisor and Steve Waters-Adams as student explores the rationale for the inclusion of action research as a methodological tool within a wider PhD study. The study explored the effect of teachers' understanding of the nature of science on their teaching. In discussing the complexities of the research, Steve Waters-Adams suggests that action research provided a powerful means of gaining access to important tacit and dialectical aspects of teachers' practice. The discussion considers the process of action research, particularly with regard to the extent that its form and purpose may be defined, the importance of collaboration and the centrality of personal commitment. Steve Waters-Adams concludes that there is scope for subject-oriented research in education to make more use of action research as a methodological tool, given that the process engages with, and exposes for scrutiny, practitioners' values, aims and motives.     

Using mid-semester course evaluation as a feedback tool for improving learning and teaching in higher education

The way in which mid-semester course evaluations are structured, administered and reported is important for generating rich and high-quality student feedback for the enhancement of learning and teaching. Mid-semester evaluations usually contain open-ended questions that trigger more elaborative feedback about what is going on in a class than that from end-of-semester evaluations with Likert scale-type questions. The anonymity of the process for students and the confidentiality of the process for instructors make the process more reflective for students and less stressful for instructors. This study describes how the mid-semester course evaluation process can be used as a feedback tool for improving the quality of teaching and learning at an institutional level. Through a longitudinal analysis of 341 mid-semester course evaluation reports, positive areas and areas of concern with respect to learning and teaching were identified, and changes in student evaluations over the years were examined meticulously to make an overall evaluation of the quality of learning and teaching at a non-profit Turkish university. This research showed that the value of mid-semester course evaluations can go beyond course-level if we use open-ended questions and are able to gather the reports together to make some comprehensive analysis at university level.     

Direct instruction as a pedagogical tool in religious education

Recent advances in the cognitive sciences along with theoretical perspectives from a Vygotskian learning paradigm are used to provide a justification for direct instruction in religious education. Direct instruction is not seen as the end of the learning process but one way in which students can be equipped to engage in more complex learning tasks which both challenge and engage them. To be pedagogically effective, direct instruction must be part of a wider teaching strategy and be based on a number of key principles, such as coherence, signalling and recognition of prior learning. The paper argues that direct instruction is especially relevant when dealing with conceptually difficult material. In addition, it also has a place when working with students who lack strong content knowledge.     

Using web blogs as a tool to encourage pre-class reading, post-class reflections and collaboration in higher education

This paper reports on the students＇ experiments of using blogs to encourage themselves to do pre-class reading assignment and reflections after class. The sample in the study included five ESL （English as a Second Language） graduate students in a course of teaching methods, and 90 software engineering students in an undergraduate information technology program. Results indicated that there was a positive attitude towards the use of blogs for pre-class preparation and post-class reflections. However, considering the successful experience, it is important to consider the class size, students＇ educational level, and the type of reading assignment.     

Development of a virtual tool for learning basic organisation and planning in rural engineering projects

This paper presents a virtual lab for the contents of an Engineering project, for designing an agro-industrial building, which is also useful for a range of different transversal courses in Engineering sciences. The aims of this tool are to analyse the most important contents of a project-document (calculation, regulations, drawings and budgets), as well as their relationship with the activities which make up the work and the schedule. The design criteria we considered were: its online applications and their compatibility with Moodle; the inclusion of different learning approaches, such as exploratory learning and inquiry-based learning; its interactivity, and the use of multimedia elements for visualisation and direct analysis on material common to Engineering subjects. The students’ perceptions of the improvements brought by the virtual lab were analysed statistically through a series of questions over two academic years. The results of the questionnaires suggested that most of those who had used the e-learning tool valued positively its overall suitability for reaching the objectives in their subject as well as the way it improved the working methodology. The practical knowledge acquired by the students was also highly valued. In addition, the lack of constraints commonly related to field trips (expenses, time and complexity) illustrates the utility of self-access learning tools in key transversal disciplines such as Engineering projects.     

Ecological footprinting: its potential as a tool for change in preservice teacher education

Environmental and sustainability issues pose challenges for society. Although education is seen as being a contributor to addressing sustainability, teacher education has been slow to act in preparing future teachers to teach sustainability. Recent Australian curriculum documents nominate sustainability as one of three cross-curriculum priorities. In one Australian university course, an Ecological Footprint Calculator tool has been employed to challenge preservice early childhood teachers to consider the sustainability of their lifestyles as a means for engaging them in learning and teaching for sustainability. Students enrolled in an integrated arts and humanities subject voluntarily engaged with the online calculator and shared their findings on an electronic discussion forum. These postings then became the basis of qualitative analysis and discussion. Data categories included reactions and reflections on reasons for the ‘heaviness’ of their footprints, student reactions leading to actions to reduce their footprints, reflections on the implications of the footprint results for future teaching, reactions that considered the need for societal change, and reflections on the integration of sustainability with the visual arts. The power of the tool’s application to stimulate interest in sustainability and education for sustainability more broadly in teacher education is explored.     

Student laboratory presentations as a learning tool in anatomy education

Previous studies have shown that anatomy students who complete oral laboratory presentations believe they understand the material better and retain it longer than they otherwise would if they only took examinations on the material; however, we have found no studies that empirically test such outcomes. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of oral presentations through comparisons with other methods of assessment, most notably, examination performance. Specifically, we tested whether students (n = 256) performed better on examination questions on topics covered by their oral presentations than on other topics. Each student completed two graded, 12‐minute laboratory presentations on two different assigned topics during the course and took three examinations, each of which covered a third of the course material. Examination questions were characterized by type (memorization, pathway, analytical, spatial). A two‐way repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that students performed better on topics covered by their presentations than on topics not covered by their presentations (P < 0.005), regardless of presentation grade (P > 0.05) and question type (P > 0.05). These results demonstrate empirically that oral presentations are an effective learning tool. Anat Sci Educ 2: 260–264, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

论教育公平是促进社会和谐的关键

和谐社会的构建内在地要求各种经济、政治和文化利益在全体社会成员之间合理而平等地分配。而教育公平则为每一位社会成员在社会博弈中提供了实现利益均等的机会。目前,由于经济水平、区域差距等原因,我国教育还存在某些不公平现象,这势必影响和谐社会的构建。因此,积极推动教育公平,才能达到社会和谐的战略目标。