Studies on educational reconstruction of chaos theory

The studies presented here comprise a project on the educational significance of chaos theory. Or to put it in a nutshell, we attempt to analyse critically whether the core ideas of chaos theory (as, for instance, limited predictability of chaotic systems despite deterministic laws governing them) are worth teaching and learning and furthermore we follow up the question of accessibility of these ideas for students. Subject matter structure clarification (i.e., construction of the mentioned key ideas) analyses of educational significance on the basis of widely accepted aims of teaching science, empirical studies on students' learning processes, and finally, development and evaluation of pilot instructional modules are closely interrelated. To put it into our terminology, the studies are embedded in a Model of Educational Reconstruction which may be seen as an approach to curriculum development that, on the one hand, takes into account the major insights provided by the constructivist view of the past two decades resting, on the other hand, on the tradition of German pedagogical theories on framing educational issues.     

The crowd in mind and crowded minds: an experimental investigation of crowding effects on students’ views regarding tuition fees in Germany

In higher education, just amounts of tuition fees are often a topic of heated debate among different groups such as students, university teachers, administrative staff, and policymakers. We investigated whether unpleasant situations that students often experience at university due to social crowding can affect students’ views on the justified amount of tuition fees at universities. We report two experiments on whether conditions that lead to experienced crowding in higher education can affect how students cognitively deal with a given topic. Experiment 1 (N = 80) showed that the mere cognitive activation of crowdedness in text stories about situations related to student activities influenced prospective students’ estimates of what are justified university tuition fees. In Experiment 2 (N = 72), student participants wrote an essay on tuition fees in a small versus large room in groups of three versus six persons. Here, results showed that students together with relatively many others in a small room estimated higher tuition fees to be justified than participants in all other experimental conditions. We discuss the implications of the present findings for the configuration of classes in higher education.     

Assessment,Control, and Autonomy: Macroscopic Perspectives

Assessments such as ranking exercises arguably level the playing field for stakeholders. Quality assurance may remain a challenge for consumers, but ‘public’ assessments do provide a nominal element of independence or autonomy. This article outlines, from a German perspective, the way in which research assessments are frequently subject to influence from a variety of sources. It offers some developmental perspectives on assessment as an organic work‐in‐progress for the scientific and research community.     

Gezählte Kompetenz

Der Beitrag diskutiert die Bedeutung von Zitationsanalysen als Instrumente zur Bewertung und Qualit?tssicherung von Forschungshandeln. Bisher ist der Aussagewert empirisch gestützter Zitationsindizes sehr begrenzt, weil Zitationen lediglich als Belege von Sichtbarkeit, Akzeptanz und Einfluss wissenschaftlicher Leistungen angesehen werden. Stattdessen wird hier nun vorgeschlagen, intertextuelle Relationen als Dokumente epistemischer Aktivit?t selbst zu begreifen. Nach dieser Deutung sind Zitate dann nicht l?nger nur pellets of recognition, sondern verzeichnen zugleich immer auch Inszenierungsversuche und F?lle erfolgreicher Performanz der Leistung eines Forschers. In diesem Sinne sind sie als pellets of understanding zu verstehen, die der Forschungsinnovation dienen k?nnen. Ausgehend von dieser überlegung diskutiert der Beitrag Rahmenbedingungen einer Theorie des wissenschaftlichen Zitats und problematisiert den m?glichen Ertrag eines solchen Ansatzes für die Erziehungswissenschaft, weshalb abschlie?end vorgeschlagen wird, Zitationsdichte als Indiz für den Ausdifferenzierungsgrad spezifischer Forschungszusammenh?nge zu begreifen, zitationelle Einzelfallanalysen anzustrengen, um die Qualit?t und Güte spezifischer Forschungsbeitr?ge dieser Disziplin zu prüfen und so die empirischen Befunde traditioneller Zitationsindizes zu erg?nzen.     

Teacher in a problem-based learning environment – Jack of all trades?

Problem-based learning (PBL) is one among several approaches to active learning. Being a teacher in a PBL environment can, however, be a challenge because of the need to support students’ learning within a broad ‘landscape of learning’. In this article we will analyse the landscape of learning by use of the study activity model (SAM) developed by the Danish University Colleges, with the aim of investigating to which extent this may lead to explication and clarification concerning the challenges faced by teachers in a PBL environment. In the case study, the SAM is applied to the first semester of an engineering programme at Aalborg University, a university setting where the PBL approach to teaching and learning is dominant. The results of the analysis are presented and discussed, and the conclusion is that the model, in spite of some shortcomings, is useful in clarifying the role of the teacher in a PBL environment.     

Social and Dimensional Comparisons in the Formation of German Students’ Language Self-Concepts

Abstract

This study extended the internal/external reference model to multiple languages including students’ language of instruction, first foreign language, and second foreign language. We examined whether social and dimensional comparisons play similar roles in the formation of students’ self-concept related to different languages and whether dimensional comparisons result in contrast or assimilation effects. All students had German as the language of instruction and English as the first foreign language. Students were divided into a subsample (N?=?487) learning French as a second foreign language and a subsample (N?=?481) learning Latin. Invariance tests demonstrated that the achievement–self-concept relations were similar across the subsamples, but interesting group differences became apparent when analyzing the French and Latin subsamples separately.     

Children's Moral Motive Strength and Temperamental Inhibition Reduce Their Immoral Behavior in Real Moral Conflicts

This study is concerned with the prediction of interindividual differences in children's immoral behavior in real moral conflicts by moral motive strength (appropriate attribution of moral emotions to story characters), temperamental inhibition, and ego control. Children were tempted to cheat at age 6 when they felt unobserved, or to contend for a scarce resource in peer triads at age 7. Moral motive strength and inhibition, but not ego control, predicted low cheating and low nonverbal rivalry to a similar extent. Extreme group analyses of children low or high in both traits showed that cheating/noncheating could be predicted with a hit rate above 90%. Nonverbal rivalry in a group increased exponentially with the number of low-moral uninhibited children in the group, a finding replicated within the same sample. Discussion focuses on the influence of moral motive strength, temperamental inhibition, ego control, and their interaction on the reduction of immoral behavior.     

Model-based testing with UML applied to a roaming algorithm for Bluetooth devices

In late 2001,the Object Management Group issued a Request for Proposal to develop a testing profile for UML2.0. In June 2003,the work on the UML 2.0 Testing Profile was finally adopted by the OMG. Since March 2004,it has become an official standard of the OMG. The UML 2.0 Testing Profile provides support for UML based model-driven testing. This paper introduces a methodology on how to use the testing profile in order to modify and extend an existing UML design model for test issues. The application of the methodology will be explained by applying it to an existing UML Model for a Bluetooth device.     

Project Work in the Paperless School: A Case Study in a Swedish Upper Secondary Class

This paper reports of how ICT and a computer rich environment is used in a an upper secondary Swedish school to change traditional teacher and pupil work. A teacher and his classes were followed during one week. Observations, field notes, spontaneous conversations and formal interviews with the teacher and some pupils were made. Teachers' and pupils' work is affected in many ways. Some of the traditional teacher's work is here left to the pupils. In spite of the pedagogical intention to promote cooperation, the technology seems to strengthen individual work. ICT also seems to lead to the dissolution of boundaries between home and work place, working time and leisure time. The pupils' task to search for information on the Internet and transform it into personal knowledge is not an easy one. Discussion or evaluation of sources and origin of texts found on the Internet seems to be negligent.     

The Benefits of an Augmented Reality Magic Mirror System for Integrated Radiology Teaching in Gross Anatomy

Early exposure to radiological cross-section images during introductory anatomy and dissection courses increases students’ understanding of both anatomy and radiology. Novel technologies such as augmented reality (AR) offer unique advantages for an interactive and hands-on integration with the student at the center of the learning experience. In this article, the benefits of a previously proposed AR Magic Mirror system are compared to the Anatomage, a virtual dissection table as a system for combined anatomy and radiology teaching during a two-semester gross anatomy course with 749 first-year medical students, as well as a follow-up elective course with 72 students. During the former, students worked with both systems in dedicated tutorial sessions which accompanied the anatomy lectures and provided survey-based feedback. In the elective course, participants were assigned to three groups and underwent a self-directed learning session using either Anatomage, Magic Mirror, or traditional radiology atlases. A pre- and posttest design with multiple choice questions revealed significant improvements in test scores between the two tests for both the Magic Mirror and the group using radiology atlases, while no significant differences in test scores were recorded for the Anatomage group. Furthermore, especially students with low mental rotation test (MRT) scores benefited from the Magic Mirror and Anatomage and achieved significantly higher posttest scores compared to students with a low MRT score in the theory group. Overall, the results provide supporting evidence that the Magic Mirror system achieves comparable results in terms of learning outcome to established anatomy learning tools such as Anatomage and radiology atlases.