International organizations,educational development,and conflict: A (world) cultural perspective

PROSPECTS - Many analyses of globalized education have directed growing attention to a problematic local-global nexus, with a particular focus on international organizations (IOs) as coercive and...     

The “How” and “What” of learning physics

Recent research on student learning in higher education has increasingly focussed on experiential aspects of how students approach their studies and what they learn from their studies. In this paper we describe the results of a study using phenomenographic research techniques, which focusses on student learning in a first year university physics course. The study, using interviews with sixteen volunteer students from the course, shows that only those students who actively sought to change their conceptions of the subject matter did so, while those who sought only to reproduce that subject matter did not.     

Push-Penny: Are you a Random Player?

Several measures of “success” for a simple game are discussed. Comparisons between players, and between a player and a simulation, can be made in several ways.     

The empirical derivation of equations for predicting subjective textual information

Parameters pertaining to information processing by human beings have, in the past, been determined by learning and memory experiments with nonsense syllables, number sequences, etc. However, in the real world we are concerned with the processing of meaningful information, not senselles texts. Therefore, the determination of subjective information directly from meaningful material becomes extremely important in the instruction-learning process.This study derives an equation for predicting the subjective textual information contained in a text of material written in the English language. Specifically, this investigation describes, by a mathematical equation, the relationship between the subjective information content of written textual material and the relative number of errors committed by a learner when asked to predict, letter by letter, the content of given textual material. This relationship shows that the subjective information of a given text for a specific learner is directly proportional to the number of wrongly guessed signs made by that learner. This is expressed mathematically by% MathType!MTEF!2!1!+- % feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn % hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr % 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9 % vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x % fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaamysaiabg2 % da9iaaiodacaGGUaGaaGymaiaabccacaWGfbaaaa!3B57! \[ I = 3.1{\rm{ }}E \] 0935 0212 VWhere: I = Information in bits E = Number of wrongly guessed signsThe application of Shannon's guessing procedure (1951) in this study permits the measurement of the subjective information of a given text for a specific learner. Unlike senseless texts, the subjective information of a meaningful text varies from learner to learner. Therefore, the derived equation permits the measurement of information in terms of a value that is dependent not only upon the inherent qualities of the subject matter, but also upon the internal state of the learner.The derived equation for the English language is then compared to an equation derived by Weltner (1967) for the German language and found to be remarkably similar.This work was, in part, supported by United States Air Force Contract F41609-71-C-0027 entitled Flying Training Research on Airborne and Ground Training Systems, and a research grant from Arizona State University.     

The innovation paradox: a selective review of the literature on action learning and innovation

This paper explores selective literatures in the two fields of action learning and innovation, and seeks insights into the processes of, and connections between, innovation, engagement and implementation. We searched the action learning articles for references to innovation, beginning with the work of Revans, who highlights the innovation paradox, which becomes a key theme of this paper. We searched the very large innovation literature for references to innovation as a learning process and as a factor in organisational learning. The paper surveys the factors said to enable innovation, and briefly outlines some inhibitors, before considering Revans’ contribution to thinking about innovation. This is followed by a consideration of developments in action learning and innovation since Revans. The findings suggest that paradox theory is a useful way of thinking about innovation, conceived of as a practical problem involving resistances and frequent failures of implementation and adoption, and also propose action learning as a means of working with and addressing paradox. A limitation of this study is its lack of empirical data. Further research could usefully interrogate examples of innovation practices and ask such questions as to why innovation remains so elusive, and how innovative capacities and capabilities can be developed and enhanced.     

Development and Use of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory

This paper describes how research into approaches to university teaching, from a relational perspective, has been used to develop an inventory to measure the key aspects of the variation in approaches to teaching. The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) is one of several that derive from the research perspective applied by Marton and colleagues in Europe (Marton, F., Hounsell, D., and Entwistle, N. (eds.) (1997). The Experience of Learning, 2nd edn., Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh) to student learning. A feature of these inventories is that they measure the response of a group to a particular context, rather than more general characteristics of individuals in that group. Studies using these inventories have consistently shown relations between students' approaches to learning and the quality of their learning outcome. The question of interest to many university teachers is whether there are relations between the way teachers approach their teaching and ways their students approach their learning. This question was answered in a study published in 1999 that used the ATI to show that teacher-focused approaches to teaching were associated with students' reproducing orientations. Subsequent research revealed that in subjects where teachers adopted more student-focused approaches to teaching, their students adopted a deeper approach to learning. Some recent research using the inventory is reviewed along with an analysis of the validity of the ATI. The current version of the inventory is reproduced in this paper.     

‘Question Moments’: A Rolling Programme of Question Opportunities in Classroom Science

This naturalistic study integrates specific ‘question moments’ into lesson plans to increase pupils’ classroom interactions. A range of tools explored students’ ideas by providing students with opportunities to ask and write questions. Their oral and written outcomes provide data on individual and group misunderstandings. Changes to the schedule of lessons were introduced to explore these questions and address disparities. Flexible lesson planning over 14 lessons across a 4-week period of high school chemistry accommodated students’ contributions and increased student participation, promoted inquiring and individualised teaching, with each teaching strategy feeding forward into the next.     

Education Under the New Modernisers: an agenda for centralisation,illiberalism and inequality?

This article surveys changes at the economic, philosophic, social and political levels to argue that a new agenda for educational policy is taking place in the western world, particularly in the UK and the USA. Driven by the needs for a high tech rather than a low wage economy, by perceived breakdown in the social fabric of society (partly as a consequence of previous New Right policies) and with an underpinning argument at the philosophic level which argues for a new orientation to the conception of the nature of moral thinking, this article argues that what is emerging is an approach to education based upon the notions of communitarianism and character education. Whilst such an approach has the potential to re‐invigorate individuals’ sense of responsibility to their communities, as well as provide a greater sense of meaning and direction to policy aims, it is argued in this article that it also has the possibility of centralising decision making, of increasing the likelihood of illiberalism towards minority beliefs and of neglecting present needs of the underprivileged. It concludes by suggesting that whilst many of these ideas originated in the USA, paradoxically they are likely to have their greatest effect in the UK