Studying the classroom implementation of tasks: High-level mathematical tasks embedded in ‘real-life’ contexts

Mathematical tasks embedded in real-life contexts have received increased attention by educators, in part due to the considerable levels of student engagement often triggered by their motivational features. Nevertheless, it is often challenging for teachers to implement high-level (i.e., cognitively demanding), real-life tasks in ways that exploit their motivational features without overshadowing the mathematics involved. This paper proposes an analytic framework for describing and explaining the classroom implementation of different kinds of tasks, and uses this framework to analyse a classroom episode where a secondary teacher implemented with low fidelity a high-level, real-life mathematical task. Implications for research are discussed.     

Das MeDoc-System – ein elektronischer Publikations- und Nachweisdienst für die Informatik

Zusammenfassung.   Ziele des MeDoc-Projektes waren die Konzeption, prototypische Entwicklung und Erprobung volltextbasierter Informations- und Publikationsdienste für die Informatik, um den Informationsaustausch und die Literaturversorgung in der Wissenschaft effektiver gestalten zu k?nnen. Dazu wurde im Rahmen des Projektes ein internet-basiertes System entwickelt, in dem Informatik & Fachinformation im Volltext gespeichert, recherchiert, abgerufen und gelesen werden kann und das die Suche nach Informatik-Literatur in heterogenen, verteilten Informationsquellen im Internet unterstützt. Das Informationsangebot ist dabei teilweise kostenpflichtig. In diesem Artikel werden Ziele, Funktionalit?t und Architektur des MeDoc-Systems beschrieben. Eingegangen am 19. Januar 1998 / Angenommen am 27. April 1998     

Comparing all-author and first-author co-citation analyses of information science

Although it is generally understood that different citation counting methods can produce quite different author rankings, and although “optimal” author co-citation counting methods have been identified theoretically, studies that compare author co-citation counting methods in author co-citation analysis (ACA) studies are still rare. The present study applies strict all-author-based ACA to the Information Science (IS) field, in that all authors of all cited references in a classic IS dataset are counted, and in that even the diagonal values of the co-citation matrix are computed in their theoretically optimal form. Using Scopus instead of SSCI as the data source, we find that results from a theoretically optimal all-author ACA appear to be excellent in practice, too, although in a field like IS where co-authorship levels are relatively low, its advantages over classic first-author ACA appear considerably smaller than in the more highly collaborative ones targeted before. Nevertheless, we do find some differences between the two approaches, in that first-author ACA appears to favor theorists who presumably tend to work alone, while all-author ACA appears to paint a somewhat more recent picture of the field, and to pick out some collaborative author clusters.     

School Adoption by School-University Partnerships – an example from Germany

The partnership model ‘School Adoption’ was developed in Norway as a part of teacher education and in the meantime, is being implemented in several European countries as an internship concept. The core element is the so-called ‘adoption week’, during which student teachers teach all the lessons at a school, while the teachers attend a professional development course. University teacher educators work intensively together with student teachers and teachers. The student teachers who participate in the School Adoption experience their future professional field under increasingly real conditions and also in its entire complexity. How the complex internship is processed cognitively by student teachers, has not yet been examined. This study at the German University of Flensburg, is designed to evaluate student teachers’ concerns and stress experiences, and determine which factors are relevant for being able to deal with the high level of complexity. Content analyses show that student teachers’ biggest concerns are classroom management and recognition as a teacher, as well as an increase in the workload. The findings also indicate that internship settings with a high level of complexity, can be perceived as a positive challenge in the context of sufficiently structured preparation and support.     

BODIES R US: Ethical Views on the Commercialization of the Dead in Medical Education and Research

With the ongoing and expanding use of willed bodies in medical education and research, there has been a concomitant rise in the need for willed bodies and an increase in the means of supplying these bodies. A relatively recent development to enlarge this supply has been the growth of for- profit willed body companies (“body brokers”) in the United States. These companies advertise for donors, cover all cremation and other fees for the donor, distribute the bodies or body parts nationally and internationally, and charge their users for access to the body or body parts. In doing so, they generate substantial profits. This review examines the historical development of willed body programs, the legal and economic aspects of willed body programs, and then provides an ethical framework for the use of willed bodies. The ethical principles described include detailed informed consent from the donors, comprehensive and transparent information about the process from the body donation organizations, and societal input on the proper and legal handling of willed bodies. Based on the ethical principles outlined, it is recommended that there be no commercialization or commodification of willed bodies, and that programs that use willed bodies should not generate profit.     

Does an Audiovisual Dissection Manual Improve Medical Students' Learning in the Gross Anatomy Dissection Course?

The gross anatomy dissection course is considered to be one of the most important subjects in medical school. Advancing technology facilitates the production of e-learning material that can improve the learning of topographic anatomy during the course. The purpose of this study was to examine a locally produced audiovisual dissection manual's effects on performance in dissection, formal knowledge gained, motivation, emotions, learning behavior, and learning efficiency of the medical students. The results, combined with the total effort put into the production of the manual, should support decisions on further implementation of this kind of audiovisual e-learning resource into the university's curriculum. First-year medical students (n = 279) were randomly divided into three groups for two weeks within the regular dissection course hours during the dissection of the anterior and posterior triangles of the neck. Two groups received an audiovisual dissection manual (n = 96) or an improved written manual (n = 94) as an intervention, the control group (n = 89) received the standard dissection manual. After dissection, each student filled out tests and surveys and their dissections were evaluated. The audiovisual dissection manual did not have any significant positive effects on the examined parameters. The effects of the audiovisual dissection manual on the medical students' learning experience, as observed in this study, did not support further curriculum implementation of this kind of e-learning resource. This study can serve as an orientation for further evaluation and design of e-learning resources for the gross anatomy dissection course.     

Professional knowledge affects action-related skills: The development of preservice physics teachers' explaining skills during a field experience

Professional knowledge is an important source of science teachers' actions in the classroom (e.g., personal professional content knowledge [pedagogical content knowledge, PCK] is the source of enacted PCK in the refined consensus model [RCM] for PCK). However, the evidence for this claim is ambiguous at best. This study applied a cross-lagged panel design to examine the relationship between professional knowledge and actions in one particular instructional situation: explaining physics. Pre- and post a field experience (one semester), 47 preservice physics teachers from four different universities were tested for their content knowledge (CK), PCK, pedagogical knowledge (PK), and action-related skills in explaining physics. The study showed that joint professional knowledge (the weighted sum of CK, PCK, and PK scores) at the beginning of the field experience impacted the development of explaining skills during the field experience (β = .38**). We interpret this as a particular relationship between professional knowledge and science teachers' action-related skills (enacted PCK): professional knowledge is necessary for the development of explaining skills. That is evidence that personal PCK affects enacted PCK. In addition, field experiences are often supposed to bridge the theory-practice gap by transforming professional knowledge into instructional practice. Our results suggest that for field experiences to be effective, preservice teachers should start with profound professional knowledge.