Implementation of the flipped classroom and its longitudinal impact on improving academic performance

Educational technology research and development - The objective has been to know the impact of the flipped classroom methodology on the academic performance of students during their training...     

Errors of programming and ownership of the robot concept made by trainee kindergarten teachers during an induction training

Education and Information Technologies - Computational thinking in the educational environment has awaken a rising interest, having been included as part of the curricula from the very beginnings...     

Technologies in the education of children and teenagers with autism: evaluation and classification of apps by work areas

Education and Information Technologies - Mobile apps represent a resource with great potential for encouraging the development of many skills, given the high number of apps available and the quick...     

Assessing the Epistemic Analysis Competence of Prospective Primary School Teachers on Proportionality Tasks

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - Solving problems by different methods, identifying the knowledge put at stake in each case, and stating variants of the problems are...     

On the relation between the degree of internationalization of cited and citing publications: A field level analysis,including and excluding self-citations

The growing complexity of scientific challenges demands increasingly intense research collaboration, both domestic and international. The resulting trend affects not only the modes of producing new knowledge, but also the way it is disseminated within scientific communities. This paper analyses the relationship between the “degree of internationalization” of a country’s scientific production and that of the relevant citing publications. The empirical analysis is based on 2010-2012 Italian publications. Findings show: i) the probability of being cited increases with the degree of internationalization of the research team; ii) totally domestic research teams tend to cite to a greater extent totally domestic publications; iii) vice versa, publications resulting from international collaborations tend to be more cited by totally foreign publications rather than by publications including domestic authors. These results emerge both at overall and at discipline level. Findings might inform research policies geared towards internationalization.     

An evolving Learning Management System for new educational environments using 2.0 tools

The tools used in learning processes are in a continuous state of flux. One of the most significant changes is the application of Information and Communications technologies (ICTs) to educational contexts. This provides new possible ways to carry out learning activities, new learning services, the possibility to use new kinds of contents and activities, etc. However, ICTs have not provided as many advantages as they were supposed to, so changes are necessary. In this context, a new set of tools, Web 2.0, offers a new way to understand the Web, in which the user is the centre. Further, users can cooperate in order to define contents. This concept is also applied in technology-mediated learning but there are important problems when one tries to integrate such tools and concepts with existing systems. This paper explores the integration of these tools in traditional learning environments, the various possibilities and their advantages and drawbacks. After that, an interoperability scenario is described and two experiences are presented to show how 2.0 tools can be integrated in learning activities, and its effect in educational process.     

Research results of two personal learning environments experiments in a higher education institution

This paper focuses on institutionally powered personal learning environments (iPLEs). The concept of the iPLE can be seen as a way universities can incorporate learner-centred approach into the architecture of their technology-enhanced learning environments. The aim of this paper is to pose that there are other ways to learn complementary to virtual learning environments, such as using distributed Web 2.0 tools from personal learning environments (PLEs). With that aim in mind, this paper presents an exploratory study with two different iPLE configurations, analyses how they modify the learning–teaching process, and reports their perceived usefulness from the students' point of view. These two case studies were carried out by a research group of educational technology from a Spanish university in graduate and postgraduate courses. As reported by other case studies, the results revealed that students use the environment basically in the academic context and this usage is conceived as another time and effort requiring task. This fact can be observed in the low level iPLEs customization. The overall conclusions we can extract are, on the one hand, that the new environment to integrate informal and formal learning should be flexible and adaptable to the student's needs and preferences and, on the other hand, that academic tools might someday become personal tools.     

Fine Motor Control is Related to Cognitive Control in Adolescents with Down Syndrome

The connection between human cognitive development and motor functioning has been systematically examined in many typical and atypical populations; however, only a few studies focus on people with Down syndrome (DS). Twelve adolescents with DS participated and their cognitive control, measured by the Corsi-Block tapping test (e.g., visual working memory), the Auditory Memory span test (e.g., verbal working memory) and the Tower of London test (e.g., cognitive planning), and motor control, measured by the Purdue Pegboard (e.g., fine motor control), were measured in this study. Results indicate that if people with DS have better performance in fine manual dexterity, they will have better performance in cognitive planning and verbal working memory abilities. The co-activation hypothesis of the prefrontal area and the cerebellum may support this positive relationship. Hence, it is suggested people with DS will obtain benefits in cognitive control by participating in further motor intervention.     

Comadres among Us: The Power of Artists as Informal Mentors for Women of Color in Academe

In this article, we, colegas/colleagues of color, explore the ways in which the literary and artistic contributions of Gloria Anzaldúa, Octavia Butler, and Frida Kahlo have inspired, nurtured, and profoundly influenced our personal and professional lives as academics. We underscore the importance of mentoring for women of color in academe and educational leadership, particularly the psychosocial functions associated with informal mentoring. Further, we discuss how the lives and contributions of our “mentors” impacted our scholarly journeys, framed by third-wave and decolonial woman-of-color-feminism. In this article, we offer an alternative consideration for women of color in search of suitable mentors, concludes by sharing the lessons we learned from the artists. Thinking about mentoring from the position of alterity adds to the general mentoring discourse and serves to inspire women to consider alternatives when seeking mentorship to reach academic and professional goals.     

Von der Lehrerausbildung in den Beruf – Fachbezogenes Wissen als Voraussetzung für Wahrnehmung,Interpretation und Handeln im Unterricht

The transition from teacher training into the teaching profession is seen to be key in the biography of a teacher. Yet there is a lack of enquiry into the development of the content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) held by teachers at the end of their education, and into the significance of this knowledge for situational and behavioural cognition. On the basis of data from the international comparative study TEDS-M 2008 and the Germany-based 2012 follow-up, this contribution investigates the knowledge and skills development of teachers during the transition from teacher training to the teaching profession in a four-year longitudinal study with n = 171 mathematics teachers. Three test formats (paper-and-pencil, video-vignettes and speed tests) are used to examine various indicators for teacher expertise. In addition to the analysis of changes in mathematical CK and PCK levels, path analysis is used to determine the extent to which this knowledge functions as a predictor for the perception and interpretation of classroom situations, the decision-making in these situations, and the quick identification of student mistakes. The results show only small changes in the group mean (for MCK there is a small loss, whereas MPCK remains constant), but high fluctuation (i. e. weak correlation) in the MPCK ranking between the two measurement occasions, pointing to differential learning effects gained from teaching practice. There are also significant differences in predictability: MCK is important for the speed indicators of teacher expertise; MCK and MPCK for the perception and interpretation of situations, and for the generation of action strategies. These findings can on the one hand help to facilitate the evaluation of beginning teachers’ need for support and, on the other hand, they indicate the necessity for the early integration of practice-based elements into teacher training programmes with the aim of developing PCK and related skills.