Evaluating the use of ICT in engineering education

This paper is based on an evaluation of a mixed mode course called Learning Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations from the Web. The authors discuss the impact of information communication technology (ICT) on the provision of tertiary education and cite the course as an example of how it can be used at the subject level. The course employed ICT in a number of different ways. The introductory part of the course was held in a specifically designed video-conferencing facility that had a range of ICT capabilities. The design of the room is critiqued as is the use that was made of it. Throughout the paper the authors emphasize the point that ICT is a powerful tool for teaching and learning but failure to plan, deliver and assess ICT-based courses on sound pedagogical grounds merely means that poor teaching and learning practices are disseminated more widely and more quickly. On the basis of our evaluation we propose a simple set of questions that can be used to evaluate the best use of ICT in engineering education.     

Botany and environmental education in elementary school in Brazil: articulating knowledge,values, and procedures

Abstract

The increasing urbanization and alienation from nature reduce children’s opportunities to interact with plants and challenge teachers to devise educational practices that contribute to learning botany. This study presents the results of activities developed in a Brazilian school through explorations, drawings, dried and pressed specimens, and semi-structured interviews. The data were evaluated using mixed methods analysis. Leaves were the structure that was most frequently drawn by 1st- and 2nd-year students, followed by stems. Among students in their 3rd, 4th, and 5th years, more emphasis was on flowers and their detailed morphological structures. The 1st- and 2nd-year students included non-living elements and the surrounding environment in their drawings, whereas the older students focused on the plant itself. These particularities point to methods of teaching botany in context and link students’ specific knowledge to values and practices that contribute to an environmental education that aims to minimize the utilitarian view of nature and move towards a view of human beings as integrated and interdependent with other living and non-living elements.     

Process of internationalization of business schools in Latin America: the case of EAESP/FGV,Brazil

This article analyzes the theoretical and practical aspects of the academic internationalization process, through the main events and pathways developed over the 60 years of the EAESP/FGV, the São Paulo Business School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil). A survey was conducted of former directors, coordinators of the main international programs and all school faculty (266 professors) about their training and international activities. EAESP/FGV has developed a diverse and consolidated international career, surpassing the activities related to teaching and student mobility. However, there are some opportunities to deepen internationalization as a strategic brand of the institution.     

Linguistic identity and career decision-making difficulties among French-speaking Canadian students living in an Anglo-dominant context

Career decision-making difficulties (CDMD) are often faced by students entering their final year of high school, and can further complicate when a student belongs to a minority group, such as a linguistic minority (Francophone) within an Anglo-dominant society (Ontario, Canada). The current study aimed to examine CDMD in 984 Franco-Ontarian grade 12 students attending French-language secondary schools. Findings, obtained through the comparison of four linguistic identity groups, revealed that students self-identifying as predominantly Francophone tended to report the least CDMD. Results are discussed in terms of future research and implications.     

The Effect of Enrolling in Minority Serving Institutions on Earnings Compared to Non-minority Serving Institutions: A College Scorecard Analysis

Research in Higher Education - As policymakers along with students and families demand information related to the return on investment in postsecondary education, it is critical to empirically...     

Observaciones-experimentación: ¿pero cómo aprenden los alumnos?

RESUMEN

En la enseñanza actual existe un desfase entre lo que el profesor dice y lo que el alumno comprende. Es preciso inventar pedagogías posibles que respondan a la necesidad del niño y a los objetivos de la educación científica. El autor propone la siguiente ecuación: Liberación—Estructuración, donde el maestro debe ampliar el estrecho campo de la experiencia del niño y ayudarle a reestructurar sus representaciones erróneas. De algunas experiencias analizadas se constata que la utilización del método científico pasa primero por una toma de conciencia de las operaciones (que pasan de realizarse directamente sobre los objetos a ser operaciones abstractas) y después aparece el razonamiento. Se describen algunos obstáculos epistemológicos. Para terminar, el autor detalla los niveles sucesivos de aparición de la actitud científica y los niveles de utilización del operante experimental.     

Detecting Local Item Dependence in Polytomous Adaptive Data

A rapidly expanding arena for item response theory (IRT) is in attitudinal and health‐outcomes survey applications, often with polytomous items. In particular, there is interest in computer adaptive testing (CAT). Meeting model assumptions is necessary to realize the benefits of IRT in this setting, however. Although initial investigations of local item dependence have been studied both for polytomous items in fixed‐form settings and for dichotomous items in CAT settings, there have been no publications applying local item dependence detection methodology to polytomous items in CAT despite its central importance to these applications. The current research uses a simulation study to investigate the extension of widely used pairwise statistics, Yen's Q₃ Statistic and Pearson's Statistic X², in this context. The simulation design and results are contextualized throughout with a real item bank of this type from the Patient‐Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS).     

Affordances and Constraints of Using the Socio-Political Debate for Authentic Summative Assessment

This article reports from an empirical study on the affordances and constraints for using staged socio-political debates for authentic summative assessment of scientific literacy. The article focuses on conditions for student participation and what purposes emerge in student interaction in a socio-political debate. As part of the research project, a socio-political debate was designed for assessing student competences of scientific literacy in classroom practices. The debate centred on a fictive case about a lake where a decline in the yield of fish had been established. The students were assigned the task of participating in the debate from appointed roles as different stakeholders. Data were collected with video recordings of the enacted student debates. Student participation was analysed with the theoretical framework of communities of practice. The results show that multiple conflicting purposes of the socio-political debate as an assessment task emerged. The emergent purposes were (1) putting scientific knowledge on display versus staying true to one's role, (2) putting scientific knowledge on display versus expressing social responsibility, (3) putting scientific knowledge on display versus winning the debate, and (4) using sources tactically versus using sources critically. As these purposes emerged in classroom practice, tensions between different ways of enacting participation in the debates became manifest. Based on these findings, this article discusses the affordances and constraints for using a socio-political debate for classroom-based assessment of scientific literacy and argumentation in terms of validity, reliability and affordability.