Cross-curricular skills development in final-year dissertation by active and collaborative methodologies

European Frame for Higher Education has led universities to adapt their teaching schemes. Degrees must train students in competences including specific and cross-curricular skills. Nevertheless, there are important limitations to follow skill improvement through the consecutive academic years. Final-year dissertation (FYD) offers the opportunity to assess these aspects so linked to the professional requirements. The experience reported here offers an alternative methodology for the FYD in order to reinforce cross-curricular skills and substitute the classic final evaluation schemes. A new protocol for the FYD was defined and tested in the Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics, with the participation of students and lecturers from different disciplines. The new methodology included collaborative activities that required students active implication and participation. New cross-curricular skills not considered before were included and evaluated in a continuous way: analysis and critical attitude, as well as team working. Obtained data revealed an improvement over cross-curricular skills. Student–student cooperation resulted in significant contributions to enhance FYD quality. The new methodology was satisfactorily valued by students. The main keys for the successful implementation of this protocol were the followings: encouragement of teachers and students, coordination, information and communication technologies, and clear guidelines.     

Assessing young children's social concept development

A number of questions regarding the nature of social concept development in young children were investigated in this study. In an earlier study, a social concept picture-sorting task was developed to obtain normative data on young children's social concept development. For this replication study, a larger more heterogeneous sample was used consisting of 64 kindergarten and 65 first grade public school students from lower to upper middle-class socioeconomic levels. Profile analysis was used to compare grades, sex, and racial groups. All three variables had a significant impact on performance. Significant differences in difficulty were found among the nine concepts measured. Three of the most difficult concepts (family-not family, those who protect us, and past-present) are commonly included in early childhood curriculum. These results suggest that the level of concept development needs to be considered in planning social studies curriculum and instruction for young children.     

Developing team skills through a collaborative writing assignment

Employers want students who are able to work effectively as members of a team, and expect universities to develop this ability in their graduates. This paper proposes a framework for a collaborative writing assignment that specifically develops students’ ability to work in teams. The framework has been tested using two iterations of an action research project, with this paper focusing on the second iteration. The paper provides detailed information on how the framework was implemented, and then reports on the students’ perceptions of their learning about teamwork.     

Quality of Australian childcare and children's social skills

This study investigated the relationships and interactions between childcare quality (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Revised edition [ECERS‐R]/Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Extension [ECERS‐E]) and children's social skills (SSRS) in different sociodemographic areas within one Australian city. Multiple regression analysis revealed that some subscales of ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E (language–reasoning, programme structure, space and furnishings, parents and staff, literacy, mathematics, science and environment) predicted the level of children's social skills and the frequency of problem behaviour, with positive and negative effects. Interestingly, although total scores for ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E were not significant predictors of social skills scores, interaction between total ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E scores was a significant predictor. With some qualifications the study provides evidence that both the childcare centre's neighbourhood and the quality of childcare provision are related to children's social skills. The interaction between social/emotional and academic aspects of quality suggests that we need to consider synergistic dimensions in quality in order to optimally enhance social skills in children.     

Applying tangible story avatars to enhance children's collaborative storytelling

Software avatars are increasingly applied to support children's collaborative storytelling because avatars may serve as a transparent shield or as embodied agents to facilitate creativity in children. However, when using avatars, it is not easy for children to practise and refine their speaking skills by narrating their stories to an audience. The programming difficulties involved in that process tend to distract attention away from the collaborative storytelling activity itself. This study therefore proposes an interaction model featuring tangible story avatars (TSAs) that can serve as a platform to scaffold collaborative story creation, revision and narrative. A 9‐week study with 16 children aged 8 years was conducted to evaluate the interaction model with the TSAs. The results suggest that the TSAs may play three primary roles in facilitating collaborative storytelling: as a tool for developing confidence, as a tool for reflective story development and as a group artefact. Researchers and educators may find it valuable to consider these three roles in designing the TSAs in support of collaborative storytelling in similar contexts.     

Dyadic executive function effects in children's collaborative hypermedia learning

The current study investigated the extent to which executive functions (EF) affect how prior knowledge predicts hypermedia learning outcomes in primary school children. Learning outcomes were: individual knowledge and transfer, and dyadic assignment quality. Eighty-seven same-sex dyads participated in a hypermedia WebQuest assignment about the heart and living a healthy lifestyle. EF measures were action control and attention control. Dyadic analyses were performed using actor-partner interdependence models with dyads distinguished by EF. Analyses showed that one's own pre-test predicted one's own and partner's post-test for both higher and lower EF dyad members. Furthermore, for dyad members with relative higher EF only, their own and partner's pre-test predicted transfer. Finally, the lower action control dyad member's pre-test and the higher attention control dyad member's pre-test predicted assignment quality. These results show the importance of EF and prior knowledge for deeper conceptual understanding in a collaborative learning setting.     

The impact of collaborative online reading on summarizing skills

The aim of this study was to determine whether, as a result of collaborative-online reading of a chapter from a book of an academic nature, the quality of the collaborative summary that the readers would write would be higher than that written by readers who would both read the same chapter and write a summary in a face-to-face setting. In this study we examined the difference between the summaries written by participants from two groups, each group was divided into subgroups of 3 participants who had read collaboratively a chapter of a book, and collaborated on writing a summary. The participants of the experimental group read the chapter as it appeared in a website for collaborative reading built especially for this study and the participants were asked to summarize the chapter on a shared online digital document. The participants of the control group were asked to read the chapter face-to-face and to collaboratively summarize it in hand writing. The quality of the summaries was evaluated with a tool developed by Rivard (2001). This tool was developed to measure the quality of the summaries. In our study the main and secondary ideas that were supposed to be included in the participants’ summaries were identified by three literature teachers using ten different criteria and the summaries were analyzed by two other judges based on these criteria. The findings indicated that there were significant differences in the majority of the writing indicators being measured with the tool. The findings indicated that collaborative-online reading and writing produce a summary of a higher quality than one read and hand written collaboratively face-to-face.     

Teaching collaborative skills with a group leader computer tutor

This paper discusses how a group leader computer tutor may aid students in learning collaborative skills in a co-operative learning environment. However, students need to learn collaborative skills and practice using them. The group leader computer tutor discussed in this paper is designed on the principles of co-operative learning, intelligent tutoring systems and computer-supported collaborative work within an intelligent collaborative learning system (ICLS). The group leader aims to facilitate group work on the task level and to teach students how to use collaborative skills in the discussion level as students work on networked computers in the Jigsaw method of co-operative learning. The ICLS and its group leader were used by two classes at a liberal arts university. Qualitative research shows that the students' co-operative attitudes changed and academic achievement improved from pre- to post-treatment. Students, especially, used the communication skill of openness in comment type discussions. The students enjoyed working collaboratively through the ICLS and their teachers thought that the experience was valuable for them.     

Assessing and developing critical-thinking skills in higher education

Generic skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication are essential for students' success in higher education and their careers. This article presents findings from an international study of students' (n ≈ 120,000) generic skills from six countries using a performance-based assessment. Results indicate that higher education students, on average, gain generic skills between entry and exit. However, learning gain is less marked than could be expected and varies significantly among country samples. Various background variables such as gender, ethnicity, parental level of education, and primary language are also explored. The authors conclude that it is feasible to reliably and validly measure generic skills in a cross-cultural context and that assessment of these skills is an essential component of best practices in higher education.     

Assessing participation skills: online discussions with peers

Many tertiary-level courses assess students’ participation in tutorial or online discussions. However, in educational and pedagogical research literature, criteria for assessing students’ skills in engaging with peers remain unclear. This article describes an online assignment with a set of participation criteria and a method for assessing the quality of students’ interactions with peers. The assignment focuses on students’ ability to utilise their critical thinking skills while engaging with peers on a particular topic. This includes abilities such as responding to criticism, justifying one’s view and contributing to discussion. While the assignment is designed for a critical thinking course in a philosophy curriculum, the method and participation criteria may be adapted for assessment in other discipline areas.     

Assessing pre-service teachers’ skills for analyzing teaching

This study investigated the learning-from-practice skills that pre-service teachers possess when they enter teacher preparation programs in the United States. Two subskills were hypothesized to represent, at least in part, what is required to learn from practice: (1) the ability to collect evidence about students’ learning in order to analyze the effects of instruction, and (2) the ability to use the analysis to revise the instruction. Because it seems likely that different teaching situations and contexts reveal these learning-from-practice skills in different ways and to different degrees, this study examined the skills that pre-service teachers exhibited under two experimental conditions. Thirty pre-service teachers were asked to analyze the effects of a videotaped mathematics lesson on student learning, to support their analysis with evidence, and to use their analysis to revise the lesson. Based on the results, it appears that many entry level pre-service teachers can carry out a cause-effect type of analysis of the relationships between specific instructional strategies and students’ learning, and can use this analysis to make productive revisions to the instruction. However, prospective teachers’ ability to collect evidence that supports their analysis appears to be less developed. In addition, the type of analysis that prospective teachers carried out about the effects of instruction on students’ learning differed dramatically across the two experimental task conditions.Preparation of this article was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant #0083429 to the Mid-Atlantic Center for Teaching and Learning Mathematics). The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Thanks to James Hiebert for his comments on earlier drafts of the paper.     

Supporting students to develop collaborative learning skills in technology-based environments

The paper focuses on the question of how to advance collaboration through the Web and support lifelong learning. First, the theoretical framework and architecture of a new web‐based tool, the ‘IQ Team’, is introduced. IQ Team is an interactive online assessment and support system to learn social skills needed in cooperative work, and belongs in an interactive online assessing and tutoring system, ‘IQ Form’, developed for the Finnish Virtual University. IQ Team has three main elements: (1) interactive self‐evaluation test banks, (2) online tutoring sets and (3) learning diaries. In the creation of IQ Team, the validation process was conducted with two samples (n = 259 and n = 275). The online students’ social skills in different groups were explored, and the feedback data from different user groups were analysed. The online students scored high values for social skills, and no differences were discerned between university, Open University and technical students. The qualitative data (n = 35) were collected in order to get users’ feedback of the tool. The qualitative data consisted of interviews, open‐ended questions and online discussions. The users of IQ Team reflected that the tool benefited them to become aware of their group work skills and developed their collaborative learning skills. IQ Team provides a powerful tool for online instruction and communication in higher education and in the Open University to promote joint‐regulated learning.     

Assessing preschool number sense: skills demonstrated by children prior to school entry

Components of early number sense, as identified in two Delphi studies and in the number sense literature related to mathematics difficulties, were assessed for 176 children in preschools and childcare centres across one local government area in Sydney, Australia, using tasks or modifications of tasks reported in the number sense literature. In addition, the children’s receptive vocabulary was measured using The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (third edition) and math reasoning was measured using Woodcock‐Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Although the children demonstrated a broad range of skills, there were no significant differences between children attending childcare and preschools for any of the measures. However, boys performed significantly better than girls in quantitative concepts and girls performed better than boys in subitising. In discussing the data, a comparison is made of the skills demonstrated by children and skills that were highlighted in the two Delphi studies and in the early number sense literature as being essential components of number sense prior to school entry. Implications for kindergarten mathematics curricula and approaches to the teaching of early number skills are discussed.     

Parent involvement in school and Chinese American children's academic skills

The authors examined the concurrent associations of school-based parent involvement (PI), family sociocultural factors, and children's academic skills in a sample of 258 Chinese American children (5–9 years old) in immigrant families. Parents reported their American and Chinese orientations and family socioeconomic status (SES). Parents and teachers rated parents' school-based involvement, and children's English reading and mathematics calculation skills were assessed with standardized tests. Results of path analysis indicated that, controlling for SES, parents' American orientation was positively associated with their self-reported PI. Although parent- and teacher-reported PI were positively correlated with each other, only teacher-reported PI was positively associated with children's English reading. These findings support the benefits of school-based PI for Chinese immigrant children's English reading achievement. Results also highlight the need to consider differences between teachers' and parents' perceptions of PI in developing culturally sensitive interventions to encourage immigrant parents' school involvement.