Visualising learning design to foster and support good practice and creativity

Applying Bandura's social learning theory, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for analysing the effect of MUD playing on users' self efficacy. Three types of self efficacy – computer self efficacy (CSE), social self efficacy (SSE) and generalized self efficacy (GSE) – are introduced. A possible hypothesis – successful performance, vicarious experience, hearing positive verbal persuasion and massive exposure during MUD playing will raise the CSE, SSE, and GSE of users – is suggested. Finally, a theoretical model explaining the relationship between self efficacy and MUD activities is proposed.

Applicant la théorie de l'apprentissage de Bandura cet article propose un cadre théorique pour analyser les effets de MUD jouant sur l'efficacité personnelle de l'utilisateur. 3 types de celles-ci - computer self-efficiency (CSE) social self efficacy (SSE) et generalisé self-efficiency (GSE) - sont introduits et une hypothèse possible. Les résultats réussis, expérience substituée, écoute de la persuasion verbalement et l'exposition massive au jeu de MUD augmentera le CSE, SSE et GSE des utilisateurs est suggéreé. Finalement un modèle théoritique expliquant le rapport entre l'efficacité personnelle et les activités de MUD est proposé. NDLR. Beaucoup de termes sont introduisable en francais et ont dû être maintenus en anglais.

(MUD: multi-user domain, multi-user dungeon, oder multi-user dimension; eine (virtuelle) Umgebung, in der mehrere Menschen (Spieler) gleichzeitig eingeloggt sein können, um miteinander zu agieren (Rollenspiele).?/?Efficacy: wörtl.: Wirksamkeit - Der Übersetzer). Unter Anwendung von Banduras Sozialer Lerntheorie wird in diesem Beitrag ein theoretischer Rahmen vorgestellt, mit dessen Hilfe man die Wirkung des MUD-Spielens auf das Selbstvertrauen der Teilnehmer analysieren kann. Es werden drei Arten dieses Selbstvertrauens eingeführt - Computer self efficacy (CSE), Social self efficacy (SSE) und Generalized self Efficacy (GSE). Die Hypothese ist, dass durch die erfolgreiche Durchführung Ersatzerfahrungen, das Hören positiver verbaler Bestätigung und das massives Ausgeliefertsein während des MUD-Spielens das Selbstbewußtsein (CSE, SSE und GSE) des Spielers erhöht wird. Zum Schluss wird ein theoretisches Modell zur Beziehung zwischen Selbstvertrauen und MUD-Aktivitäten vorgestellt.     

The Integrating and Segregating Effects of School Choice

We evaluate the integrating and segregating effects of three distinct school choice programs in San Diego. We go beyond the traditional question of racial integration and examine the integration of students by test scores, parental education levels, and language status. In addition to measuring the net integrative effects of school choice, we also examine the underlying motives behind student participation in school choice programs and the limiting influence of supply-side constraints. Two of the programs that we consider are rooted in 1970s integration-based reforms that provide public transportation for program participants. The third program is a state-mandated, open-enrollment program that requires participants to find their own transportation to and from their choice schools. We find that the two programs with underlying integrative objectives do indeed integrate the district, but the open-enrollment program segregates the district along most dimensions. Provision of busing and geographic preferences appear to be important factors in promoting integration.     

La representación del conocimiento en la memoria

RESUMEN

El conocimiento se organiza en la memoria en forma de esquemas, estructuras de datos que representan los conceptos genéricos. Estos esquemas tienen variables, pueden encajarse uno dentro de otro, varían en sus niveles de abstracción y representan un conocimiento asociado a conceptos. Son las unidades clave de los procesos de comprensión, almacenamiento y recuperación de la información. También son necesarios para establecer inferencias, como predictores de estímulos no observados, y en el razonamiento analógico. El conocimiento subyacente para la realización de acciones lo constituyen los esquemas de acción, que son subesquemas de un esquema más complejo. Existen dos mecanismos para producir y modificar esquemas: la especialización y la generalización, y ambos pueden ser considerados como tipos de aprendizaje. Los procesos de búsqueda y activación de un esquema pueden ser conducidos por datos, o conducidos conceptualmente.     

How would they choose? Online student preferences for advance course information

Information technology (IT) has become a common component in the process of designing and delivering distance-learning courses of study. Many researchers have addressed the technical and pedagogical issues surrounding IT-enabled or IT-enhanced distance-learning systems. However, studies of the management of the student's learning experience as it is influenced by the emerging virtual organization would assist practitioners and researchers as they seek to understand the important challenges of current practice in distance-learning systems. This paper reports on the operation of a one-window approach to serving students, using the organizational structure and technological innovation of a call centre. Before the call centre was established, it was hypothesized that the call-centre approach would be well suited to routine tasks of supporting student learning. In practice, it was found that most student inquiries were indeed in the category of routine tasks and that only a small proportion of student inquiries could be categorised as uncertain events that required the specialised knowledge of the professor or other academic expert. Implications for the management of other distance learning systems are considered.     

Olympiad Studies: Competitions Provide Alternatives to Developing Talents That Serve National Interests

Competitions are used by many teachers at the grassroots level to develop the talents of their gifted students. Each year the top Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics Olympiad students are identified and assembled into national teams that compete against teams from around the world. This article summarizes findings from the American Olympiad study. Our investigators analyzed data from 345 adult Olympians and found that 52% earned doctorates, and these individuals pursued careers in technical areas that benefit the nation. So far these Olympians have published 8,629 publications, and many of the Olympians have assumed positions in universities or research institutions that contribute to the productivity of the United States. Their success supports competitions as a viable alternative for developing the talents of the gifted.     

Differential Influences of Family Processes for Scientifically Talented Individuals' Academic Achievement Along Developmental Stages

Differential influences of various family processes for students of science talent and students in general education from Grades 4 to 12 and Science Olympians in Korea were examined by administering Korean Inventory of Parental Influence. Korean Science Olympians were additionally interviewed about their family and school experiences. Family processes were perceived more frequently or more strongly by scientifically talented students and younger students than general-education students and older students, respectively. Supportive and conducive family processes were maintained even in the high-school period in the families of scientifically talented students, whereas they decreased as students in general education get older. Father's involvement emerged as the most influential predictor of mathematics and science achievement, whereas press for intellectual development was a significant predictor for grade-point average (GPA). Parents may need to maintain the conducive and supportive family processes even for their high-school children in order to nurture their talents in mathematics and science.     

Early Neglect Is Associated With Alterations in White Matter Integrity and Cognitive Functioning

Cognitive deficits have been reported in children who experienced early neglect, especially children raised in institutionalized settings. Previous research suggests that early neglect may differentially affect the directional organization of white matter in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This may be one mechanism to explain cognitive deficits associated with neglect. To test this idea, properties of white matter and neurocognitive performance were assessed in children who suffered early neglect and those raised in typical environments (n = 63, M_age = 11.75 years). As predicted, prefrontal white matter microstructure was affected, consistent with more diffuse organization, in children that suffered early neglect and this was related to neurocognitive deficits. Such findings underscore how early adversity may affect the PFC and explain cognitive deficits associated with neglect.     

Teaching Students to Infer Meaning Through Material Culture

Social studies students can learn to glean historical information from the study of material culture through active engagement as curators. Teachers can guide students through a pre-survey of helpful reading materials and then through selecting items of personal significance to them: creating labels that objectively describe the chosen items as to origin, composition, background, and provenance; exchanging the created sets of file cards; examining the cards received in the exchange; inferring factual information about the owner of the selected items; and sharing deductions with the class. From this exercise, students will have a chance to learn how historians, anthropologists, and other social scientists use critical thinking in their work, how much can be learned from material culture, and how missteps can result from overtheorizing.     

The Teaching of Tragedy: Narrative and education

Abstract

The plague narrates the stories of a group of men whose lives interconnect around the experience of exile during the event of a plague. This article selects and summarizes themes from each of their stories. The purpose of these selections is to present an interpretation of Camus’ narratives that can be juxtaposed to an analysis, overleaf, of the educational nature of narratives, and in particular of the event of the tragedy. This article then maps out the narrative of the town and of seven men. It may be read alone as a reading of Camus’ novel with rich, yet unmapped, contributions to thinking about education, or it may be read concurrently with its analytical partner through which the meaning of Camus’ work is traced onto a contemporary tragedy and a city’s educational responses.