Comparative effects of ability and presentation mode in computer-assisted instruction and programed instruction

Summary The duration of the current experiment was admittedly quite short—30 minutes to an hour of learning time. A longer program may have produced more pronounced differences. Sixty-four students including 32 high and low ability males and females were randomly assigned to programed instruction and computer-assisted instruction programs on the topic of Significant Figures. The results indicated that the students using programed instruction performed significantly better than those using CAI. This difference was attributed primarily to the very poor performance by the low ability students in the CAI group. There was also a significant ability effect. The posttest and retention test results, as well as number of errors in the actual learning sequence, indicated there was a trait by treatment interaction which was interpreted primarily as a very poor performance by low ability students on CAI, with almost equal performance by high and low ability students utilizing programed instruction. The data would not support such explanations as the use of recognition responses or the inability to achieve any particular concepts in the program for the performance of low ability students on the CRT-oriented CAI. Further research is suggested. The work reported herein was sponsored by the Florida State University Computer-Assisted Instruction Center and the Office of Naval Research under Grant No. N00014-68-A-0494.     

Talent development of high performance coaches in team sports in Ireland

Background: Coaches are central to the development of the expert performer and similarly to continued lifelong participation in sport. Coaches are uniquely positioned to deliver specific technical and tactical instruction and mentoring programmes that support the psychological and social development of athletes in a challenging, goal-oriented and motivational environment. The current study aimed to qualitatively investigate current coach learning sources and coaches’ educational backgrounds in team sports in Ireland. Methods: Coaches from five team sports in Ireland were asked to complete an online questionnaire. Subsequently male coaches (n?=?19) from five team sports who completed the questionnaire and met the inclusion criteria were invited to attend a follow-up semi-structured interview. Inclusion criteria for coaches were that they possess at least 10 years’ experience coaching their sport and were coaching more than 4 hours per week. Results/Discussion: Formal coach education does not meet the needs of high performance coaches who rely more on self-directed learning and coaching experience as their main sources of CPD. Although prior playing experience at a high level is both valuable and desirable, there are concerns about fast-tracking of ex-players into high performance coaching roles. Conclusions: Preferred sources of education and the best learning environment for coaches of team sports in Ireland are more informal than formal. Further research is needed to examine how this learning is applied in a practical manner by examining coaching behaviours and the impact it has on the athlete development process.     

Retrieving possibilities: confronting a forgetfulness and deformation of teaching/learning methodology

This paper draws on data collected in a one‐year research project focusing on elucidating theory/practice relations in learning to teach. As a teacher educator I grapple with the nature and role of teaching methodology. The notion of method, with its implied order and certainty, is confronted alongside prospective teachers throughout their coursework and student‐teaching experiences. Reflexivity is considered essential to this research process, providing a means to address the interface between the empirical data collected alongside student‐teachers and its interpretations. In this regard I draw on the historical writings of Dewey (1904 Dewey J (1904) The relation of theory and practice in education in: C. A. McMurry (Ed.) The relation of theory to practice in the education of teachers: the third yearbook of the National Society for the Scientific Study of Education (Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press) 9 30  [Google Scholar], 1910 Dewey J (1910) How we think (Boston, MA, Heath) [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1938 Dewey J (1938) Experience and education (New York, Collier Books) [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Bakhtin (1990 Bakhtin MM (1990) Art and answerability (Austin, TX, University of Texas Press)  [Google Scholar], 1993 Bakhtin MM (1993) Toward a philosophy of the act (Austin, TX, University of Texas Press)  [Google Scholar]), found to provide insights into theory/practice relations. Through Dewey's thinking, bearings are retrieved that reorient teaching/learning methodology toward neglected needs and opportunities in learning to teach. Through Bakhtin's early aesthetic essays, a language is retrieved that addresses forgotten assumptions central to reformulating teaching methodology. This paper pursues the necessary character of a teacher preparation course fostering a mode of method that is radically different from the technical one. It is a mode of method that attends to the voices of prospective teachers in schools confronting the nature of learners and learning, teachers and teaching. It is a mode of method that reminds all involved in the schooling process of the power of teaching/learning restored to its participatory and complex nature.     

A complexity analysis of organizational culture,leadership and engagement: integration,differentiation and fragmentation

ABSTRACT

The predictive utility of previous studies of organizational culture has been limited by an over-emphasis on the integration perspective. Much less attention has been his been paid to subcultural differentiation and fragmentation. This case study bridges that divide by employing methods of cultural analysis designed to explore the relationship between organizational culture, the culture of leadership, and employee engagement in an academic institution through the lens of integration, differentiation and fragmentation. Adopting a complexity approach to cultural analysis as a theoretical framework, methodological innovations utilizing survey data and quantitative inferential statistics establish the predictive utility of organizational culture with respect to three dimensions of engagement: vigor, dedication and absorption. Analyses based on cultural uniformity, subcultural variation and ambiguity were found to illuminate different aspects of the culture of leadership and engagement, differentiated by employee status and years of service. Results of the differentiation and fragmentation analyses yield insights masked by the integration approach: Analysis of cultural differentiation revealed dedication and absorption were more affected by cultural and leadership dynamics than vigor, while analysis of cultural fragmentation uncovered minority perspectives on bullying, leader accountability and employee misbehavior that represent important targets for improvement masked in the analysis of organizational culture as a whole.     

In Search of Aesthetic Space: Delaying Intentionality in Teaching/Learning Situations

Aesthetic considerations are qualitative, personal, and value laden and do not fit well into existing educational frameworks. Yet, I think greater aesthetic awarness is a pragmatic and philosophical necessity missing in much schooling. An aesthetic context calls for a rethinking and revaluing of what is educationally important. This paper explores such possibilities along with the concrete implications of taking aesthetic considerations seriously, within a school setting. Opened in September, 1997, the Creative Arts Centre, Milton Williams School, Calgary Board of Education, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has chosen to value the creating process, primary to the arts, within the school curriculum as a whole. It seems an ideal situation in which to pursue connections between curriculum theory, practice, and the aesthetic.