Interactive learning in an urban environmental education online course

Online courses play an increasing role in professional development of environmental educators, yet little information is available on the interactive processes involved in online learning. We examined the relationship of three types of interactions in an urban environmental education online course – participant–participant, participant–instructor, and participant–content – to four course outcomes: participants’ motivation to learn, intent to adapt ideas and information learned through the course in their practice, actual adaptation of ideas in their practice, and development of professional networks. Content analysis was used to characterize participants’ and instructors’ weekly online posts and comments, and generalized estimation equation modeling was used to explore the relationships between interactions and outcomes. The results showed that participant–content interaction had significant positive relationships with participants’ motivation to learn, intent to adapt ideas, and adaptation of ideas. Participant–participant interaction had significant positive relationships with participants’ motivation to learn, and development of professional networks with each other. Finally, participant–instructor interaction had a significant positive relationship with participants’ development of professional networks. The results of this study can be used to improve professional development online courses for environmental educators.     

Patterns in the form of formative feedback and student response

Formative feedback currently receives attention as an effective means of increasing student learning. However, how to frame feedback to achieve the best effect is an ongoing debate. In this study we analyse a written data-set of 174 segments of teacher feedback and student response, coded using 10 emergent feedback and 14 response categories. As it is argued that feedback is a dialogue between students and teacher, links between feedback and response segments are viewed as a dialogical framework that we visualise and understand using network analysis. From this network we conclude that some ways of formulating feedback are more productive and likely to lead to types of responses that signify learning than others. We thus identify the reflection group of responses, consisting of the categories reflective response, explanation and students investigate own thinking. The feedback categories that link primarily to the reflection group are open question, wondering question and leading question, which we categorise as the questioning group of feedback. We discuss these patterns against a previously published framework, and by discussing specific examples we further our understanding of what makes feedback formative.     

University‐community engagement: exploring service‐learning options within the practicum

Since 1999, pre‐service teachers undertaking the Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) Program at the University of Western Sydney have participated in an alternate practicum called Professional Experience 3 (PE3). This practicum encourages students to engage in broader educational settings within local communities. Increasingly, a number of service‐learning opportunities have been developed, most notably, senior student tutoring programs and the involvement of students in the Plan‐It Youth project in conjunction with the Department of Education and Training (DET) and the South‐western Sydney Institute of TAFE. A focus of these programs has been to address the issues related to students at risk of leaving school early within the local South‐western Sydney community.

In this paper we discuss the benefits of these programs to the university, pre‐service‐teachers, school students and school communities, and the broader local community. Specifically, we examine service learning as a conduit for the development and maintenance of meaningful symbiotic relationships between the university and the educational community, and pre‐service teachers and the local community. Finally, we look towards the future and highlight the challenges and opportunities for service‐learning programs within the practicum.     

Objects prompt authentic scientific activities among learners in a museum programme

Although the scientific disciplines conduct practical work in different ways, all consider practical work as the essential way of connecting objects and phenomena with ideas and the abstract. Accordingly, practical work is regarded as central to science education as well. We investigate a practical, object-based palaeontology programme at a natural history museum to identify how palaeontological objects prompt scientific activity among upper secondary school students. We first construct a theoretical framework based on an analysis of the programme’s palaeontological content. From this, we build our reference model, which considers the specimens used in the programme, possible palaeontological interpretations of these specimens, and the conditions inherent in the programme. We use the reference model to analyse the activities of programme participants, and illustrate how these activities are palaeontologically authentic. Finally, we discuss our findings, examining the mechanism by which the specimens prompt scientific activities. We also discuss our discipline-based approach, and how it allows us to positively identify participants’ activities as authentic. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings.     

Modelling Experiential Knowledge Ethically: An Artefact‐Based Approach to Visually Documenting a Participatory Design Process with Young People

This article contributes to the growing debate within art and design education research about the role, legitimacy and accountability of artefacts in the creation and generation of knowledge. I present an artefact‐based approach to visually documenting and disseminating my doctoral practice‐based fieldwork that protected the anonymity of the participants whilst supporting my exploration of the situational, interactional and tacit dimensions of participation. Constructing a three‐dimensional scaled model of the fieldwork setting and using narratives from my field notes, I undertook a cyclical reflective process where I reconstructed critical moments that took place. This was used as both a tool for communicating my participatory design educational practice and for evaluating my findings with the participants. By sharing this sense‐making process, I offer an ethical means of visually documenting fieldwork when working in sensitive contexts and with vulnerable participants, setting out the dual role this design artefact played as both a producer and carrier of experiential knowledge.     

Keywords and vocabulary acquisition: Some words of caution about words of assistance

Consistent results of two experiments with relatively technical, native language vocabulary, showed that effectiveness of keyword methods depended upon whether meanings of words to be learned were abstract or concrete and whether comprehension was assessed immediately or after a delay. Keywords bearing acoustical similarities to vocabulary items whose meanings were presented as sentences consistently facilitated students’ retention of the meanings of concrete items on immediate posttests. However, in contrast to recent research on foreign language vocabulary having simpler definitions, these experiments showed that it may be difficult to use the keyword method to aid long-term retention with moderately complex. abstract, native language vocabulary. Parts of this study, which was partially supported by the Kansas State University Bureau of General Research, were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, 1980.     

A randomized controlled trial of a home-visiting intervention aimed at preventing relationship problems in depressed mothers and their infants

This study examined the effect of a mother–baby intervention on the quality of mother–child interaction, infant–mother attachment security, and infant socioemotional functioning in a group of depressed mothers with infants aged 1–12 months. A randomized controlled trial compared an experimental group ( n = 35) receiving the intervention (8–10 home visits) with a control group ( n = 36) receiving parenting support by telephone. There were assessments pre, post, and follow-up after 6 months. The intervention had positive effects on the quality of mother–infant interaction. Infants in the experimental group had higher scores for attachment security and for one aspect of socioemotional functioning, namely, competence. The intervention proved successful in preventing deterioration of the quality of mother–child interaction.     

Test Takers and the Validity of Score Interpretations

This article argues that test takers are as integral to determining validity of test scores as defining target content and conditioning inferences on test use. A principled sustained attention to how students interact with assessment opportunities is essential, as is a principled sustained evaluation of evidence confirming the validity or calling into question the inferences for individual students. Three innovative assessment systems are highlighted to illustrate where and how the developers might handle diverse test taker needs and learning characteristics. ONPAR measures challenging content using multisemiotic methods and novel item types, designing items to handle multiple profiles so they are accessible for most students. Dynamic Learning Maps has built an innovative network of learning maps, and multiple pathways designed to model how diverse students acquire knowledge. To support their assessments, the National Center and State Collaborative has built an exemplary web of educator resources such as content modules and guides in order to support differentiated learning.