Academics’ perceptions of the challenges and barriers to implementing research-based experiences for undergraduates

How can universities ensure that strategic aims to integrate research and teaching through engaging students in research-based experiences be effectively realised within institutions? This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative study exploring academics’ perceptions of the challenges and barriers to implementing undergraduate research. Academics were asked about perceived constraints and enablements, how they defined undergraduate research, the forms of undergraduate research used, and they were encouraged to provide examples. Perceived constraints included particular institutional policies and structures, academics’ mindsets and lack of skills and questions of time and money. It was found that different definitions of undergraduate research lead to different practices and varying opportunities for further development. This paper presents different forms of engagement in undergraduate research allied to these different definitions and it draws on interviewees’ ideas about what has been enabling in their context to suggest possible strategies for institutions to move forward.     

What do you mean by learning lab?

Education and Information Technologies - Digital and innovation competencies are nowadays highly required for students and faculty members in higher education institutions. We therefore need...     

Science Trainee Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge and its Influence on Physics Teaching

This study examined Malaysian science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of selected physics concepts. The two components of PCK investigated were (i) knowledge of students' understanding, conceptions and misconceptions of topics, and (ii) knowledge of strategies and representations for teaching particular topics. The participants were 12 trainee teachers from various academic science backgrounds attending a one-year postgraduate teacher-training course. They were interviewed on selected basic concepts in physics that are found in the Malaysian Integrated Science curriculum for lower secondary level. The findings showed that trainee teachers' PCK for promoting conceptual understanding is limited. They lacked the ability to transform their understanding of basic concepts in physics required to teach lower secondary school science pupils. The trainees' level of content knowledge affected their awareness of pupils' likely misconceptions. Consequently, the trainees were unable to employ the appropriate teaching strategies required to explain the scientific ideas. This study provides some pedagogical implications for the training of science teachers.     

Cognitive-operative model of intelligent learning systems behavior

In this paper behavior during the teaching–learning process is modeled by means of a fuzzy cognitive map. The elements used to model such behavior are part of a generic didactic model, which emphasizes the use of cognitive and operative strategies as part of the student–tutor interaction. Examples of possible initial scenarios for the teaching–learning process are developed, along with the results provided by the model.     

Common WISC-III examiner errors: Evidence from graduate students in training

Sixty WISC-III protocols, administered by graduate students in training, were examined to obtain preliminary data on the frequency and types of administration and scoring errors that examinees commit. Results were compared with previous studies that have evaluated examiner errors on the Wechsler scales. In general, the present results were consistent with those of previous studies that have illustrated that a large number of scoring errors are committed by graduate students as well as by other professional groups. The majority of errors committed by participants in this study were general errors. That is, errors were not specific to a particular subtest. The five most frequent errors included failure to query, failure to record responses verbatim, reporting Full Scale IQ incorrectly, reporting Verbal IQ incorrectly, and adding individual subtest scores incorrectly. However, the traditional difficult to score Verbal subtests were not as troublesome for examiners in this study as they were for examiners in previous studies. In addition, significant decreases in the mean number of errors per protocol and in the number of most frequently occurring errors per protocol were noted. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ethnography in charting paths toward personal and social liberation: using my Latina cultural intuition

Drawing on a Chicana feminist epistemology, the author, a Latina immigrant, presents how she used her cultural intuition to engage in a two-year ethnography with Latino immigrant families. She argues that for her engaging in ethnography with her “own community” is an endeavor that calls to the fore her homegrown epistemologies and her positioning as a Latina immigrant. The themes of doing ethnography en familia, using collective remembering and sense-making, and developing a libratory pedagogy point to an ethnography that strays from traditional, presumed “objective” data sources. Further, she argues that in these contexts of ethnography she was able to reclaim and integrate her various knowledges and identities toward a potential process of liberation.     

PRInK: Environmental virtual interactive based education and learning model for STEM motivation

Education and Information Technologies - Pollution from quarry activities has a substantial environmental impact on many countries. This issue should be addressed accordingly as its impact may...