Discussion Across Borders: Benefits for Collaborative Learning

Online learning is facilitated by various forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC). In higher education, CMC presents an opportunity to expand the learning community, even across national borders. This paper reports on two cycles of action research into the use of online discussion forums to enable groups of students from different countries to collaborate with each other in achieving learning outcomes specific to each group. The research data was obtained from questionnaires and focus groups with students and analysis of the content of the online discussion. The discussion was focused on the evaluation of prototype learning systems, produced by one group of students and evaluated by groups from two institutions in different countries, each of which had different, yet reciprocal, objectives to achieve from participating in the activity. The findings highlight the potential complexity of such an asymmetric collaborative activity, but indicate several advantages to students when the activity forms a distinct part of the pedagogical framework of their modules. For tutors planning similar trans-national collaborations, guidance points are offered that incorporate the findings from the research. Discussion par delÀ les frontières: les bénéfices de l’apprentissage coopératif. L’apprentissage en ligne est facilité par des formes variées de communication par ordinateurs (computer mediated communication CMC) Dans l’enseignement supérieur la CMC fournit l’occasion d’élarger la communauté d’apprentissage, même par delÀ les frontières. Dans cet article nous faisons rapport sur 2 cycles de recherche – action dans l’utilisation de forums de discussion en ligne pour donner la possibilité À des groupes d’étudiants de différents pays de callaborer l’un avec l’autre en réussiant des résultats d’apprentissage spécifiques À chaque groupe. Nos résultats de recherche ont été obtenues

À partir de questionnaires et de groupes choisis d’étudiants et de l’analyse de contenu des discussions en ligne. La discussion

était centrée sur l’évaluation de systèmes d’apprentissage prototypes produits par un groupe d’étudiants et évalués par des groupes de deux institutions dans des pays différents, chacun d’eux ayant des objectifs différents, et cependant réciproques, pour les réaliser par la participation à l’activité. Les résultats mettent en valeur la complexité potentielle d’une telle activité asymétrique coopérative, mais mentionnent divers avantages pour les étudiants lorsque l’activité forme une partie distincte du

cadre pédagogique de leurs modules. Tous les tuteurs qui font des plans de telles collaborations transnationales, nous proposons des conseils et des lignes directrices qui incorporent les résultats de notre recherche. Besprechungen über Grenzen hinweg: Hilfen für Gemeinschaftliches Lernen. Online-Learning wird durch verschiedene Formen computergestützter Kommunikation (CMC: computer mediated

communication) erleichtert. Im Bereich der höheren Bildung können durch CMC die Lerngemeinschaften ausgeweitet werden, selbst über nationale Grenzen hinaus. Mit diesem Beitrag berichten wir über zwei Zyklen von Wirkungsforschung in der Nutzung von Online-Diskussionsforen zur Ermöglichung von Zusammenarbeit zwischen Studentengruppen aus

verschiedenen Ländern durch Benutzung von Arbeitsergebnissen der anderen Gruppen. Die Daten für unsere Ergebnisse haben wir über Fragebogen und studentische Focus-Gruppen sowie durch Analyse des Inhalts der Online-Diskussion erhalten. Die Diskussion war auf die Auswertung von Muster-Lehrsystemen konzentriert, die von einer Studentengruppe produziert

und von Gruppen zweier Institutionen aus verschiedenen Ländern evaluiert. Jede Gruppe hatte unterschiedliche, sogar entgegengesetzte Aufgaben durch Teilnahme an der Aktion zu erfüllen. Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen die potentielle Komplexität einer solchen asymmetrischen Zusammenarbeit, weisen aber auf verschiedene Vorteile für Studenten hin, wenn die Aktivität einen deutlic hen Teil des pädagogisc hen Rasters ihrer Module dar stellt. Für Tutoren, die ähnlic he über nationale Zusammenarbeiten planen, stellen wir gerne Leitfäden mit den Ergebnissen unserer Forschung zur Verfügung.     

Identity,Narrative and Practitioner Research: A Lacanian perspective

This paper sets out to show how some theoretical concepts derived from Lacanian psychoanalysis might be put to work in the business of reflective practitioner research in education. It seeks to offer a more sophisticated, reflexively produced account of researcher identity built out of the narrative generated within a research enquiry. It illustrates, with reference to examples of writing from a specific research project, carried out within the context of a higher degree, how one teacher-researcher has used the concepts in forging a more productive understanding of her own evolving identity as a researcher through a process predicated on developing her own professional functioning. Shifting perspectives are provided on what the researcher wants from the enquiry as the researcher herself unfolds and analyses the successive phases of her narrative.     

How word decoding skill impacts text memory: The centrality deficit and how domain knowledge can compensate

We examined text memory in children with word reading deficits to determine how these difficulties impact representations of text meaning. We show that even though children with poor word decoding recall more central than peripheral information, they show a significantly bigger deficit relative to controls on central than on peripheral information. We call this the centrality deficit and argue that it is the consequence of insufficient cognitive resources for connecting ideas together due to these children’s resources being diverted from comprehension to word decoding. We investigated a possible compensatory mechanism for making these connections. Because a text representation is a synthesis of text information and a reader’s prior knowledge, we hypothesized that having knowledge of the passage topic might reduce or eliminate the centrality deficit. Our results support this knowledge compensation hypothesis: The centrality deficit was evident when poor readers did not have prior knowledge, but was eliminated when they did. This presents an exciting avenue to pursue for possible remediation of reading comprehension in children with word identification difficulties.     

Risks and Risk-Based Regulation in Higher Education Institutions

Tertiary Education and Management - Risk-based regulation is a relatively new mode of governance. Not only does it offer a way of controlling institutions from the outside but it also provides the...     

Within- and between-subjects partial reinforcement effects with an autoshaped response using Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Animals exposed to schedules of partial reinforcement are typically more resistant to extinction than are animals trained with continuous reinforcement. This is the partial reinforcement effect (PRE). Animals experienced with both partial and continuous schedules are often more persistent on the continuous schedule, yielding a reversed PRE. Both conventional and reversed PREs have been elusive with classical conditioning paradigms. The present experiment attempted to demonstrate between- and within-subject PREs using 50% and 100% autoshaping schedules. Presence or absence of a PRE depended on the behavioral measures used. Marked terminal group differences in acquisition produced a between-subjects PRE with absolute response levels but not with rate-of-change measures. Within subjects, only choice trial comparisons were sensitive enough to differentiate the two schedules. Acquisition data were inconsistent with most of the classical conditioning PRE literature, but consistent with results reported in the autoshaping literature. These discrepancies may reflect the operant-classical interaction in autoshaping.     

Predicting school violence: A comparison of violent and nonviolent male students on attitudes toward violence,exposure level to violence,and PTSD symptomatology

This preliminary study examined the relationship of use of violence to exposure to violence, attitudes toward violence, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in 45 adolescent male perpetrators of school violence and 45 nonviolent control participants from inner‐city schools. Participants completed the Exposure to Violence Questionnaire, Attitudes Towards Violence Scale, Checklist of Children's Distress Symptoms, and Use of Violence Scale. The perpetrator and control groups differed in use of violence, exposure to violence, and PTSD symptomatology. Use of violence demonstrated a unique relationship with attitudes toward violence, PTSD, and exposure to violence for the perpetrator sample, with the relationship between exposure to and use of violence remaining significant after controlling for attitudes and PTSD. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 591–598, 2006.     

Teaching Single-Case Evaluation to Graduate Social Work Students: A Replication

A course teaching graduate social work students to use an evidence-based model and to evaluate their own practice was replicated and evaluated. Students conducted a project in which they reviewed published research to achieve a clinical goal, applied quantitative measures for ongoing assessment, implemented evidence-based interventions, and evaluated effects of their interventions with single-case designs. More than half of the students conducted self-improvement projects monitored with self-report measures, with widely varied goals and interventions. Approximately 48% of the projects showed statistically significant improvements, and an additional 10% showed statistically nonsignificant gains, suggesting the benefits of this instructional format.     

‘Tough love and tears’: learning doctoral writing in the sciences

Contemporary changes to the doctorate mean student researchers are likely to be expected to write differently, write more and more often, and yet, despite a growing interest in doctoral education, we still know relatively little about the teaching and learning practices of students and supervisors vis-a-vis doctoral writing. This paper draws from a research study into the writing experiences of higher degree students and their supervisors in one science, health and technology-based university Faculty. The study used surveys, interviews and focus groups to collect information from students and supervisors about their experiences of doctoral writing and their perceptions about its development. By attending to the writing-related pedagogical practices of supervisors, this article explores how doctoral writing can be the stage for the playing out of tensions over changing roles and identities aggravated by contemporary pressures on doctoral education.