Do Computers Enhance or Detract from Student Learning?

Research in Higher Education - Does becoming familiar with computer and information technology during college add to or detract from making progress toward other desirable outcomes of college?...     

Les structures de l'apprentissage en Roumanie: unite et diversite

Résumé L'analyse porte sur les structures de l'apprentissage du niveau préuniversitaire. Le concept de learning est près dans son acception large, incluant non seulement l'assimilation des connaissances, mais aussi de savoir faire et des attitudes; on analyse donc l'apprentissage en matière d'éducation intellectuelle, mais aussi d'éducation morale, esthétique et physique ou sportive. L'auteur fait des considérations sur la philosophie du Report to the Club of Rome,No Limits to Learning (Rapport au Club de Rome,On ne finit pas d'apprendre). On examine trois catégories de structures de l'apprentissage: formelle, non-formelle, informelle; on indique aussi d'autres possibilités de grouper les structures et on parle de l'apprentissage pour la société et l'apprentissage pour soi-même. On présente diverses modalités d'articuler les structures de l'apprentissage en faisant la distinction entre modalités utilisées au niveau de l'école et modalités étudiées par la recherche. On termine avec des conclusions et suggestions parmi lesquelles celles adressées à l'Unesco: a. une table-ronde internationale sur l'évolution désirable de l'apprentissage; b. l'organisation d'un réseau d'écoles expérimentales pour présenter les structures désirables de l'apprentissage aux éducateurs, aux chercheurs et aux décideurs.

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This analysis concerns structures of learning at the pre-university level. The concept of learning is used in a wide sense, including the assimilation not only of knowledge but also of know-how and attitudes. That is to say, learning has been analysed as intellectual — but also as moral, aesthetic and physical or sports — education. The author comments on the philosophy underlying the Report to the Club of Rome,No Limits to Learning. Three categories of learning structure are examined: formal, nonformal and informal. Other possibilities of grouping the structures are also indicated, including learning for society and learning for oneself. Various modalities of their articulation are presented, a distinction being made between those appropriate to school-level and those for scholarly research. Among the final conclusions and suggestions are two addressed to Unesco: a. an international round-table conference on the desirable evolution of learning; and b. the organisation of a network of experimental schools to present the desirable learning structures to educators, researchers and decision-makers.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Analyse bezieht sich auf die Lernstrukturen auf dem Vor-Universitätsniveau. Das Konzept des Lernens ist weit gefaßt. Es umschließt sowohl die Assimilation von Wissen als auch von Know-how und Einstellungen. Lernen wird daher als intellektuelle Bildung, aber auch als moralische, aesthetische und körperliche oder sportliche Erziehung analysiert. Der Autor kommentiert die Philosophie, die dem Report to the Club of Rome,No Limits to Learning (Bericht an den Club of Rome,Das menschliche Dilemma) zugrundeliegt. Drei Kategorien von Lernstrukturen werden untersucht: formales, nicht-formales und informales Lernen. Auch andere Möglichkeiten, die Strukturen zu kategorisieren, werden aufgezeigt, wie z.B. lernen für die Gesellschaft, und lernen für sich selbst. Verschiedene Modalitäten für die Artikulation von Lernstrukturen werden vorgestellt, wobei eine Unterscheidung gemacht wird zwischen Modalitäten für den Schulgebrauch und wissenschaftlichen Modalitäten für die Forschung. Der Artikel endet mit Schlußfolgerungen und Vorschlägen, darunter zwei an Unesco gerichtete: a. eine internationale Konferenz über die wünschenswerte Entwicklung des Lernens; und b. Organisation eines Netzes von experimentellen Schulen, um Pädagogen, Forschern und entscheidenden Persönlichkeiten die gewünschten Lernstrukturen vorzustellen.

     

Tracking the serial advantage in the naming rate of multiple over isolated stimulus displays

Reading and Writing - The serial advantage, defined as the gain in naming rate in the serial over the discrete task of the same content, was examined between grades and types of content in English...     

Alignment of developments in higher education

This study builds upon the concept of alignment within the curriculum(due to Biggs) and suggests, in the context of two current examples, anintegrated methodology for effectively aligned development activitieswithin universities. Higher Education institutions face importantchallenges. Firstly, quality enhancement of the curriculum is now aninstitutional concern, if not a priority, in the face of governmentalpressure and in a competitive environment. It is no longer a matter ofindividual endeavour. Secondly, we now have a basic pedagogy for adultlearning, and should put that into practice systematically. And thirdly,staff are now faced with the demand to commit themselves to professionaldevelopment, and to determine what that means in terms of theirparticular profession. This paper considers these challenges, andrelates them to the argument for an integrated methodology forinstitutional, staff and curriculum development, which aligns theseactivities rather more effectively than hitherto. At the same time, itadvocates a logical model for curriculum development, as a complementarytool of alignment for student-centred curriculum development.Theargument is illustrated by recent work in the Open University in the UKand in the Universidade de Aveiro in Portugal.     

Markers of cognitive change during the transition to conventional literacy

In the present study I applied theoretical reasoning concerning transitional knowledge to a problem in literacy development. The impetus for the study was the idea that there are times in early literacy development when asynchronous relationships obtain between children's knowledges and strategies about reading (comprehension modality) and their knowledges and strategies about writing (production modality). Integrating their reading and writing knowledges and strategies into more comprehensive and flexible literacy knowledges and strategies is problematic for children during these developmental periods. Yet such an integration is necessary for the acquisition of conventional literacy, which is defined here as being able to write and to read back stretches of extended discourse that are also readable to literate adults with some knowledge of invented spelling. Two asynchronous ormixed-level relationships between the sophistication of children's narrative compositions and their readings of those compositions were hypothesized as indices of transitional knowledge or knowledge reorganization. These relationships consisted of writing behaviors and products that seemed much more sophisticated than children's readings of them belied, and vice-versa. A longitudinal data set composed of 46 children each of whom composed six stories over a two-year period was examined using these indices to select children presumed to be in transition and then to analyze the developmental patterns exhibited by these children. Detecting children who are in transition from emergent to conventional literacy has critical implications for classroom research and instruction. These implications are discussed.     

Appropriation, Appreciation, Accommodation: Indigenous Wisdoms and Knowledges in Higher Education

This paper focuses on differences between the underlying principles of Western science and the knowledges and wisdoms of Indigenous peoples in such places as Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. It notes changing phases in the approaches to Indigenous Wisdoms and knowledges, and highlights the shifts from appropriation to appreciation and then accommodation. Nevertheless, major tensions remain, both within and between Western science and Indigenous knowledges and appreciations. This creates challenges for institutions of higher education, as well as for other bodies.