Back to the future for KM: the case for sensible organisation

Knowledge Management Research & Practice - There are many times in our brave new web-based world that we seem to have lost the art of making common sense decisions and judgements. The current...     

Blurring the boundaries: connecting research,practice and professional learning

Educational researchers can incorporate benefits for themselves and teacher participants by planning for interactions between research, practice and teachers’ professional learning from the outset of a project. However, the dual role of a researcher as a professional learning partner has rarely been explicated and theorised in studies of teacher–researcher relationships. The study described in this paper occurred in the context of early childhood education. The notion of a critical friend was extended and validated as a useful theorisation of the relationship. Four ways that I acted as a critical friend are described. The expertise, roles, boundaries and hybridity of a co‐constructed approach to research are discussed. The importance of a researcher as critical friend having research and theoretical knowledge to shift teacher knowledge and practice is argued. Implications for teacher–researcher partnerships in terms of strengthening coherence between research, practice and professional learning are suggested.     

Widening the Lens to Teach Character Education Alongside Standards Curriculum

This article challenges policymakers, school leaders, and teachers to implement wide-scale and systematic teaching of character education in every classroom. In support of the idea that student character development should be a priority in all classes, I explain that youth need “decision-filters” to negotiate life's challenges. Further, the article illustrates how character education can be taught through various courses. Several state-level academic standards are analyzed to (1) identify cognitive instructional emphases and (2) determine relevant affective teachings for character instruction. As I explain, the teaching of character education can be integrated naturally with and taught alongside any state's standards-based curriculum. Rather than adding a new course to an already overloaded school curriculum, character education should be integrated with other subject areas and routinely taught through all classes and by all teachers.     

Bringing a dialogue between Buddhist multilogicality and evolutionary science into the science classroom

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In the context of the science versus creationism debate, Elizabeth Watts thoughtfully explores Buddhism as a model of compatibility between science and...     

Guardianship of Frail Elders: Student-Supported Process for Legislative Change

Legislative change, ethical dilemmas, and client management issues were all faced by social work students in a recent effort to impact guardianship in the State of Texas. Since the mid-1990s, Texas had been without a statewide system to provide guardianship services. In 2004 a group of social work students, law students, faculty, guardianship professionals, and judges from across Texas came together to create new laws and solve the significant gaps in services. Guardianship is at once a legal and social issue. It is mandated by the courts but generally managed by social workers. In this paper, the authors offer a model for student involvement that both changed the laws in this state and offers significant hands-on education in both research and community organization.     

FACTORS IMPLICATED IN HIGH MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT

The most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (2009) mathematical literacy results provide evidence that in Western English-speaking countries, including Australia, the gender gap in achievement appears to be widening in favour of males. In the study reported in this article, the aim was to explore the effects of gender, school type (a measure of socioeconomic background), school learning setting and geographic location on mathematics performance amongst the highest achievers (top 2 %) in the grade 12 Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) mathematics subjects based on results reported in a metropolitan newspaper. The analyses revealed that over the period 2007–2009, males, students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and those attending metropolitan schools predominated amongst the highest achievers in all three VCE mathematics subjects. Students in single-sex settings, particularly males, were also over-represented. For each factor, the dominance was more pronounced as the level of difficulty of the mathematics subject increased.     

Using the Jigsaw Method to Teach Abdominal Anatomy

This study evaluates a cooperative learning approach for teaching anatomy to health science students incorporating small group and peer instruction based on the jigsaw method first described in the 1970's. Fifty-three volunteers participated in abdominal anatomy workshops. Students were given time to become an “expert” in one of four segments of the topic (sub-topics) by allocating groups to work-stations with learning resources: axial computerized tomography (CT) of abdominal structures, axial CT of abdominal blood vessels, angiograms and venograms of abdominal blood vessels and structures located within abdominal quadrants. In the second part of workshop, students were redistributed into “jigsaw” learning groups with at least one “expert” at each workstation. The “jigsaw” learning groups then circulated between workstations learning all sub-topics with the “expert” teaching others in their group. To assess abdominal anatomy knowledge, students completed a quiz pre- and post- workshop. Students increased their knowledge with significant improvements in quiz scores irrespective of prior exposure to lectures or practical classes related to the workshop topic. The evidence for long-term retention of knowledge, assessed by comparing end-semester examination performance of workshop participants with workshop nonparticipants, was less convincing. Workshop participants rated the jigsaw workshop highly for both educational value and enjoyment and felt the teaching approach would improve their course performance. The jigsaw method improved anatomy knowledge in the short-term by engaging students in group work and peer-led learning, with minimal supervision required. Reported outcomes suggest that cooperative learning approaches can lead to gains in student performance and motivation to learn. Anat Sci Educ 00: 000–000. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.