Providing psychosocial support to special needs children: A case of orphans and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe

The AIDS pandemic has orphaned hundreds of thousands of children worldwide and most of these are in sub-Saharan Africa. Being orphaned by AIDS creates peculiar circumstances which may affect the children's ability to benefit from regular education. The impact of vulnerability on children's well-being has been documented by UNAIDS, UNICEF and by other organizations and writers. This study sought to ascertain the effectiveness of implementing psychosocial support (PSS) among children who are orphaned by AIDS in improving their schooling outcomes. A total of 20 children with ages ranging from 10 to14 years, attending four different primary schools located in the rural wards of Mberengwa district of Zimbabwe were involved in this study. All the children showed signs of emotional need and they were lagging behind in their academic work. Psychosocial support was provided to these children over a period of eight months resulting in improvements in several areas, including schoolwork during and after the intervention period.     

The Institutionalization of Service-Learning at the Independent Colleges and Universities of the Gulf Coast Region

Service-learning is a high-impact educational practice that benefits the community, the university, and students (Jacoby, 2015). It also represents an educational practice that specifically supports the integration of Christian thought and action within Christian institutions (Schaffer, 2004). The purpose of the study was to determine the level of service-learning institutionalization within the faith-based, faith-affiliated, and secular institutions of the Gulf Coast Region of the United States. Utilizing an electronic version of Furco's (2009 Furco, A. (2009). Self-assessment rubric for the institutionalization of service-learning in higher education (rev. ed). Minneapolis, MN: International Center for Research on Community Engagement. [Google Scholar]) Self-Assessment Rubric for the Institutionalization of Service-Learning in Higher Education, chief academic officers at independent colleges and universities of the Gulf Coast region provided their respective institution's current stage of development on the institutionalization continuum. The majority of administrators reported scores indicative of development at the midpoint of the continuum, the Quality Building Stage. The presence of a university philosophy and mission was the most developed dimension, and community partner involvement was the least developed. This study provides data-driven, researched-based recommendations regarding the institutionalization of service-learning for Christian colleges and universities.     

Developing and Piloting a Baselining Tool for Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC) in Welsh Higher Education

Mainstreaming Education for Sustainable Development in higher education is vital if graduates are to possess the abilities, skills, and knowledge needed to tackle the sustainability issues of the future. In this article we explain the development and piloting of a baselining tool, the Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Development Framework, developed with support from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. We draw comparisons with the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System Program, developed by the North American Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The resulting framework offers consistency with existing Welsh Government strategic documentation, builds on increasing momentum, and has relevance across the higher education sector globally.     

Assessing approaches to learning with nonparametric multidimensional scaling

This article reports on a trace-based assessment of approaches to learning used by middle school aged children who interacted with NASA Mars Mission science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) games in Whyville, an online game environment with 8 million registered young learners. The learning objectives of two games included awareness and knowledge of NASA missions, developing knowledge and skills of measurement and scaling, applying measurement for planetary comparisons in the solar system. Trace data from 1361 interactions were analysed with nonparametric multidimensional scaling methods, which permitted visual examination and statistical validation, and provided an example and proof of concept for the multidimensional scaling approach to analysis of time-based behavioural data from a game or simulation. Differences in approach to learning were found illustrating the potential value of the methodology to curriculum and game-based learning designers as well as other creators of online STEM content for pre-college youth. The theoretical framework of the method and analysis makes use of the Epistemic Network Analysis toolkit as a post hoc data exploration platform, and the discussion centres on issues of semantic interpretation of interaction end-states and the application of evidence centred design in post hoc analysis.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Educational game play has been demonstrated to positively affect learning performance and learning persistence.
• Trace-based assessment from digital learning environments can focus on learning outcomes and processes drawn from user behaviour and contextual data.
• Existing approaches used in learning analytics do not (fully) meet criteria commonly used in psychometrics or for different forms of validity in assessment, even though some consider learning analytics a form of assessment in the broadest sense.
• Frameworks of knowledge representation in trace-based research often include concepts from cognitive psychology, education and cognitive science.

What this paper adds

• To assess skills-in-action, stronger connections of learning analytics with educational measurement can include parametric and nonparametric statistics integrated with theory-driven modelling and semantic network analysis approaches widening the basis for inferences, validity, meaning and understanding from digital traces.
• An expanded methodological foundation is offered for analysis in which nonparametric multidimensional scaling, multimodal analysis, epistemic network analysis and evidence-centred design are combined.

Implications for practice and policy

• The new foundations are suggested as a principled, theory-driven, embedded data collection and analysis framework that provides structure for reverse engineering of semantics as well as pre-planning frameworks that support creative freedom in the processes of creation of digital learning environments.