A taxonomy of emotion and cognition for student reflection: introducing emo-cog

ABSTRACT

Reflective practice can support student learning by enabling praxis: the bridging of the theory of the classroom with the students’ learning experience. Students’ written reflections are the most common mode for practising and documenting reflection. Available typologies for coding the level of student written reflections focus on the cognitive domain. The coding of student reflection data from four locations (Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong and South Korea; n?=?760) revealed that the focus on the cognitive domain could not capture the role and contribution of the affective domain of reflection for learning. This study conceptualises and presents our new two-domain emo-cog taxonomy, together with empirical evidence to substantiate a new way of thinking about reflection for learning. Emo-cog identifies multiple levels of affective responses along with traditional cognitive reflections. Emotions are found to make a significant contribution to student reflections. Learning is clearly a matter of head and heart.     

Spiritual Conversation as Religiously Educative

This article proposes spiritual conversation as a religiously educative activity. Revelation as the relational activity of speaking–listening between the human and the divine in daily life, and education as an activity to show someone how to live and die, are key concepts for this study. This work includes a study of narrative at the heart of spiritual conversation. By uncovering the two contrasting processes of religious education, namely teaching religion and teaching how to be religious, this work identifies the contexts in which these processes may take place. This article explores spiritual conversation in two settings: Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and biomedicine.     

Teacher educators as curriculum developers: exploration of a professional role

Teacher educators arguably fulfil several roles in their professional context: they can be seen as role models or teachers of teachers, and have additionally been characterised as researchers, mentors, gatekeepers, brokers, and curriculum developers. To address a perceived gap in the literature on the latter role, a quantitative and qualitative exploratory study into educators’ own perceptions of their role as curriculum developers was conducted at a large teacher education department in the Netherlands. Seventy-five educators completed a digital questionnaire. Their responses reveal that the participants generally consider themselves to be curriculum developers, are aware of the responsibilities this professional role entails, and can pinpoint concrete practices in which the role becomes visible. The findings furthermore suggest that educators have been prepared for and develop professionally in this role in a variety of ways, mostly through informal learning with their colleagues at the workplace. Based on these findings, recommendations are made to inform educational practice, policy, and research.     

Spectrum Approach to Mentoring: an evidence-based approach to mentoring for academics working in higher education

Anecdotal and empirical evidence indicates that mentoring can be a successful strategy for supporting professional learning, yet limited literature exists on approaches to mentoring designed specifically for academics working in higher education. The aim of this study was to create an approach to mentoring tailored to the needs of academics and underpinned by evidence from the literature. Participatory action research was chosen as the methodology for the project as this enabled a process of inquiry to be embedded within academic practice. The outcome was the development of the Spectrum Approach to Mentoring (SAM). This three-step approach is goal orientated, and encompasses mentoring relationships that may be ongoing and sustained over time through to those that are short-term and aligned with a particular task or focus. SAM provides a suite of resources that can be used by academics to promote valuable opportunities for professional learning through the initiation of mentoring relationships.     

Stimulus nonequivalences in go/no-go avoidance discriminations: Sensory,drive, and response factors

Previous work with rats showed slower active avoidance (AA) and passive avoidance (PA) learning in a light-go/noise-light no-go task (L⁺NL^?) than in a noise-go/light-noise no-go task (N⁺LN^?), independently of noise intensity and of presence or absence of AA pretraining. Experiment I compared these two tasks and the corresponding discriminations with a compound AA and a simple PA signal. The latter were learned at a faster rate, with only negligible differences between the two types of stimulus arrangements (NL⁺L^? vs LN⁺N^?). Experiment II investigated the acquisition and reversal of four go/no-go tasks with a simple AA signal, with either a simple or a compound no-go signal and asymmetrical reinforcement, i.e., with an extinction instead of a PA contingency during the presentation of no-go signals. As in previous experiments with symmetrical reinforcement, the groups with a simple no-go signal (L⁺N^?, N⁺L^?) acquired AA with little or no generalization to the other stimulus. In reversal, however, the L⁺N^? group (formerly N⁺L^?) responded to the no-go signal much more frequently than the other (N⁺L^?, formerly L⁺N^?). Both the L⁺NL^? and the N⁺LN^? groups gave a large number of responses to the extinction signal, but the differences between the two groups were at least as large as in previous work with a PA contingency. These data show that perceptual or attentional phenomena cannot explain stimulus nonequivalences in situations with a compound no-go signal. Furthermore, the similar nonequivalences found in situations with and without differential fear conditioning (AA-extinction tests vs AA-PA tests) leads to complex, highly speculative models concerning possible interactions between response and drive-modulating properties of various stimuli.     

What motivates enrolment in programming MOOCs?

Learners who enrol in massive open online courses (MOOCs) have different backgrounds and tend to have different motivations than learners in traditional courses. Based on value-expectancy theory, an instrument was developed to measure motivation for enrolling in a programming MOOC. A study with 1229 adult participants in Estonian-language programming course “About Programming” was conducted to validate the instrument. Results of confirmatory factor analysis validated the 7-factor scale named factors influencing enrolment in MOOC (FIEM). FIEM comprises three factors of expectancies, three factors of values and one factor of social influence. The highest and lowest rated motivational factors influencing enrolment in programming MOOC are discussed in the paper. Interest in and expectations for the course, personal suitability of distance learning and suitability for family and work are the highest-rated motivational factors for those who enrol in MOOC. Usefulness related to own children, social influence and usefulness to related to certification were the lowest rated. The results of this study can be useful for designers of programming MOOCs and the developed scale might be used in future studies.     

Adolescents' and Parents' Evaluations of Helping Versus Fulfilling Personal Desires in Family Situations

A sample of 118 predominantly European American families with early and middle adolescents ( M _ages= 12.32 and 15.18 years) and 1 parent evaluated hypothetical conflicts between adolescents' and parents' requests for assistance versus the other's personal desires. Evaluations differed by level of need, but in low-need situations, adolescents viewed teens as more obligated to help parents than did parents, whereas parents rated it as more permissible for teens to satisfy personal desires than did teenagers. Justifications for helping focused on concern for others, role responsibilities, and among parents, psychological reasons. Middle adolescents reasoned about role responsibilities more and viewed satisfying personal desires as less selfish than did early adolescents, but satisfying personal desires was seen as more selfish by parents of middle than early adolescents. Implications for adolescent–parent relationships are discussed.     

Redefinition of gestational diabetes mellitus: implications for laboratory practice in Croatia

An increasing prevalence of gestational diabetes has become a very challenging task in prenatal care worldwide. International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) has recently issued recommendations on the diagnosis and classification of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy. These recommendations, the first to provide harmonised, evidence-based criteria for the diagnosis and classification of diabetes in pregnancy, are currently being discussed and accepted worldwide by the relevant authorities. As the acceptance of the proposed criteria has major implications for both clinical and laboratory settings, a concerted action towards necessary changes in practice has to be carefully planned and adjusted to national health-care specificities.IADPSG criteria have been strongly advocated by the Croatian Perinatology Society, resulting in a new strategy for the detection and diagnosis of hyperglycaemic disorders in pregnancy.To address the respective laboratory requirements, in April 2012, the Croatian Chamber of Medical Biochemists appointed a Working Group to provide a standardised procedure for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes, applicable to all laboratories involved in prenatal care, in both primary and specialised health-care facilities.In this paper we discuss key laboratory-related issues regarding succesful implementation of the IADPSG criteria in Croatia.     

Ultrasound and cadaveric prosections as methods for teaching cardiac anatomy: a comparative study

This study compared the efficacy of two cardiac anatomy teaching modalities, ultrasound imaging and cadaveric prosections, for learning cardiac gross anatomy. One hundred and eight first-year medical students participated. Two weeks prior to the teaching intervention, students completed a pretest to assess their prior knowledge and to ensure that groups were equally randomized. Students, divided into pre-existing teaching groups, were assigned to one of two conditions; "cadaver" or "ultrasound." Those in the cadaver group received teaching on the heart using prosections, whereas the ultrasound group received teaching using live ultrasound images of the heart. Immediately after teaching, students sat a post-test. Both teaching modalities increased students' test scores by similar amounts but no significant difference was found between the two conditions, suggesting that both prosections and ultrasound are equally effective methods for teaching gross anatomy of the heart. Our data support the inclusion of either cadaveric teaching or living anatomy using ultrasound within the undergraduate anatomy curriculum, and further work is needed to compare the additive effect of the two modalities.