Developing an audiovisual notebook as a self‐learning tool in histology: Perceptions of teachers and students

Videos can be used as didactic tools for self‐learning under several circumstances, including those cases in which students are responsible for the development of this resource as an audiovisual notebook. We compared students' and teachers' perceptions regarding the main features that an audiovisual notebook should include. Four questionnaires with items about information, images, text and music, and filmmaking were used to investigate students' (n = 115) and teachers' perceptions (n = 28) regarding the development of a video focused on a histological technique. The results show that both students and teachers significantly prioritize informative components, images and filmmaking more than text and music. The scores were significantly higher for teachers than for students for all four components analyzed. The highest scores were given to items related to practical and medically oriented elements, and the lowest values were given to theoretical and complementary elements. For most items, there were no differences between genders. A strong positive correlation was found between the scores given to each item by teachers and students. These results show that both students' and teachers' perceptions tend to coincide for most items, and suggest that audiovisual notebooks developed by students would emphasize the same items as those perceived by teachers to be the most relevant. Further, these findings suggest that the use of video as an audiovisual learning notebook would not only preserve the curricular objectives but would also offer the advantages of self‐learning processes. Anat Sci Educ 7: 209–218. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Thoughts on Engineering Education

The writer recently spent a year as Visiting Professor of mechanical engineering at Lehigh University, Bethehem, Pa. As a result of this visit and incidental visits to other Universities and laboratories in the U. S. A. and England, some thoughts on engineering education are here set down. First, comparisons are drawn between American and British engineerinig schools, and then analyses of the curricula in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering are made in order to discover the common content. From this emerges a fairly generally accepted common core which may be used as a yardstick or norm and as a starting point for any revision. Interesting educational trends are evident, both in curricula and physical equipment. These are reviewed and suggestions as to the future are made.     

Making sound decisions: A framework for judging the worth of your data

In our daily lives, we encounter decision points on a continuous basis. To maximize the likelihood of successful decisions, organizational members must draw on relevant, reliable, valid, and complete data. Sometimes copious data are available, but an overabundance can make it difficult to judge the worth of the data. This article presents a data evaluation framework that provides guidance for decision makers to evaluate and determine the potential effectiveness of the data they will use to inform their decisions.     

Impact on student teachers' conception of learning and teaching from studying a course in educational psychology

This study investigates changes in the conceptions of learning and teaching among undergraduate student teachers. A qualitative content analysis of essays using metaphors to describe learning and teaching written by 256 students at the beginning and end of an educational psychology course was used as the main research procedure. It was found that there was an increase in the share of students that see learning and teaching from a cognitive-constructivist perspective and a decrease in the share that see learning and teaching from a behaviourist perspective by the end of the course. In addition, the study revealed that the coherence in the nature of the metaphors describing learning and teaching increased by the end of the course. However, there was practically no increase in the number of essays describing learning from a socio-constructivist perspective, a fact that points to a need to pay more attention to the manifestations of learning in different communities of students, that is, to a relevant knowledge that teachers need in their everyday work.     

Teacher Appraisal,Professional Development and School Improvement: a case study

The paper argues that in respect of the day‐to‐day work activities required in being a headteacher, and in the work relationships involved in running schools, the occupational culture of headship has changed fundamentally. Using the accounts of 20 headteachers, interviewed in respect of their career histories in 1990 and followed up by means of a postal questionnaire in 1992, the paper illustrates the changes experienced and identified by this group of heads. It is argued that a new headteacher is required; that aspects of educational leadership have diminished dramatically in the work culture of headship.     

The Integration of Environmental Education into Two Elementary Preservice Science Methods Courses: A Content-Based and a Method-Based Approach

To examine the notion of environmental education (EE) as context for integrating the elementary curricula, we engaged in a multi-case study analysis (Yin 2009) of two preservice elementary science methods courses that utilized an experiential reflective approach—case one (University A) through a science content focus (i.e., sustainability) and case two (University B) through a method focus (i.e., problem-based learning). We examined preservice teachers’ understandings of EE, their ideas to incorporate EE into their future teaching, and their conceptions of EE as a context for integration. Results indicate that both foci (content and method) were successful in building EE content, helping preservice teachers to envision EE in their future classrooms, and promoting EE as a context for integrating their instruction. Based on these results, we offer recommendations for the incorporation of EE as a context for integration into the elementary science methods course.     

Is There a Need for Transcendental Arguments in Discourse Ethics?

In this essay, James Scott Johnston examines Jürgen Habermas's transcendental justification of his discourse theory of morality. According to Johnston, the application of Habermas's theory to educational issues often assumes that this justification is a cogent one. However, if the theory is to provide reasoned and appropriate guidance for educators, the justification of discourse ethics requires closer examination. Johnston argues that Habermas's so‐called “weak” transcendental approach is in fact unsustainable because it fails to reconcile two conflicting schools of philosophical thought: Kant's transcendental idealism and George Herbert Mead's social pragmatism. Johnston concludes that a more plausible justification of the discourse ethical project can be achieved by rejecting Habermas's Kantianism and appealing solely to Mead's social pragmatic conception of rationality.     

Does a Sentiment-Based Ethics of Caring Improve upon a Principles-Based One? The problem of impartial morality

My task in this paper is to demonstrate, contra Nel Noddings, that Kantian ethics does not have an expectation of treating those closest to one the same as one would a stranger. In fact, Kantian ethics has what I would consider a robust statement of how it is that those around us come to figure prominently in the development of one's ethics. To push the point even further, I argue that Kantian ethics has an even stronger claim to treating those closest to oneself as imperative than Noddings and sentiment-based ethical theory in general, proposes.     

Teachers’ perspectives of lower secondary school students in streamed classes – A Western Australian case study

Streaming in secondary schools is not beneficial for improving student outcomes of education with vast amounts of educational research indicating that it does not improve academic results and increases inequity. Yet teachers often prefer working in streamed classes, and research shows that teachers mediate the effects of streaming on students. This study sought to add to the understanding of teachers’ role in student learning by investigating how teachers conceptualise the students in streamed classes. A qualitative case study approach was used, where 18 teachers were interviewed in-depth to create narrative examples, three of which are presented here. These narratives summarise the research findings that teachers saw students in high and low streams as having homogenous characteristics according to five dichotomous categories: approach to learning, attitude to learning, learning style, autonomy and background. Students in mixed-ability classes were viewed along these same continua, but as more heterogeneous groups. Furthermore, these views of students had direct implications for how teachers planned for learning and the expectations that they held of their students. The discussion links streaming research with teacher expectation research, suggesting that teachers of streamed classes in this secondary school hold specific whole-class ideas that affect student learning. The article concludes with recommendations for further inquiry that links these two important fields of educational research.