Adults who learn differently: Help through a volunteer literacy program

In adult literacy programs today, well-intentioned but inadequately prepared volunteer tutors are being matched with learning disabled adult students without the benefit of receiving training from experts in the field of language/learning disabilities. The collaboration of adult literacy providers and learning specialists is obviously the most resourceful, yet most untried, solution to a problem that is plaguing volunteer-based programs across the country: meeting the needs of learning disabled adults. One adult literacy program—READ/San Diego of the San Diego Public Library—recognized that its volunteer tutors needed training in special instructional methods to teach adults who evidence learning disabilities. Accordingly, the program’s administrator obtained the services of specialists to develop a learning disabilities tutor-training module. This article (1) presents an overview of preservice volunteer training at READ/San Diego; (2) discusses informal assessment procedures that help identify possible language/learning disabilities in adults and provide valuable information for instructional planning; and (3) describes selected multisensory teaching techniques designed especially for adults who “learn differently.”     

Higher order conditioning of a taste aversion

Two groups of rats each received 5 drops of NaCl solution from a dropper placed directly inside the mouth. The experimental group was then injected with lithium chloride to establish a conditioned taste aversion. The control group was injected 24 h later. After a recovery day the above procedures were repeated. On the next day both groups received 5 drops of a saccharin solution followed immediately by 5 drops of the NaCl solution. Subsequent preference tests established that the experimental group had learned an aversion to the saccharin solution as a result of its pairing with the NaCl solution which had previously been associated with poisoning. These results demonstrate that higher order conditioning of a taste aversion can be established using tastes as both the first-order stimulus and the second-order stimulus.     

Problematising the ‘Career Academic’ in UK construction and engineering education: does the system want what the system gets?

‘Career Academics’ are principally research-led, entering academia with limited or no industrial or practical experience. UK Higher Education Institutions welcome them for their potential to attain research grant funding and publish world-leading journal papers, ultimately enhancing institutional reputation. This polemical paper problematises the Career Academic around three areas: their institutional appeal; their impact on the student experience, team dynamics and broader academic functions; and current strategic policy to employ them. We also argue that recent UK Government teaching-focused initiatives will not address needs to employ practical academics, or ‘Pracademics’ in predominantly vocational Construction and Engineering Education. We generate questions for policy-makers, institutions and those implementing strategy. We argue that research is key, but partial rebalancing will achieve a diverse academic skill base to achieve contextualised construction and engineering education. In wider European contexts, the paper resonates with issues of academic ‘drift’ and provides reflection for others on the UK context.     

Towards adaptive open learning environments: Evaluating the precision of identifying learning styles by tracking learners’ behaviours

Open learning represents a new form of online learning where courses are provided freely online for large numbers of learners. MOOCs are examples of this form of learning. The authors see an opportunity for personalising open learning environments by adapting to learners’ learning styles and providing adaptive support to meet individual learner needs and preferences. Identifying learning styles of learners in open learning environments is crucial to providing adaptive support. Learning styles refer to the manner in which learners receive and perceive information. In the literature, a number of learning style models have been proposed. The Felder and Silverman Learning Styles Model (FSLSM) has been selected as the most appropriate model for open learning. In previous studies two approaches have been used to automatically identify learning styles based on the FSLSM. These approaches are known as the data-driven method and the literature-based method. In the literature, the literature-based method has been shown to be more accurate in identifying learning styles. This method relies on tracking learners’ interactions with the provided learning objects based on a set of pre-determined patterns that help in inferring learning styles. The patterns are monitored based on pre-identified threshold values. This paper aims to apply the literature-based method to open learning environments and introduce the optimal patterns and threshold values for identifying learning styles based on the FSLSM. To achieve this aim, a study was conducted whereby a prototype that simulates the open learning environment was developed and piloted on an undergraduate IT course so that learner behaviour could be tracked and data could be collected. Next, different sets of threshold values from the literature were considered along with some updated threshold values considering the context of open learning environments, and the precision of identifying learning styles was calculated. Eighty-three students participated in the study and used the developed prototype. Precision results from different threshold values presented in the literature along with customised threshold values for this study are reported and analysed in this paper. It is shown that threshold values derived from literature and customised to suit open learning environments provide a high level of accuracy in identifying learning styles. The paper presents the first study of its kind in evaluating threshold values and precision in identifying learning styles based on the FSLSM in open learning environments. The results are promising and indicate that the proposed methodology is efficient in detecting learning styles in open learning environments and useful for developing an adaptive framework.     

Using the Internet in teaching: the views of practitioners (A survey of the views of secondary school teachers in Sheffield, UK)

A questionnaire was generated from the results of a series of interviews at The City School one of the 27 state secondary schools in Sheffield. In October 2002, it was sent out to 499 Heads of Department at the remaining 26 state secondary schools. Responses were received from 188 teachers, ranging in age from 24 to 60 years old. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gain information about teachers’ views of the Internet and its usefulness as an educational tool. Nearly 85% of teachers acquired their Internet skills informally (self‐taught, learned from friends/colleagues, etc), rather than on a taught course. Despite this, most of the respondents were confident of their ability to use the Internet, with the most confident users being young teachers of technical subjects. However, there was a widespread perception (particularly amongst women teachers) that students are more competent users of the Internet than are teachers. Older teachers were more likely to feel under pressure to use the Internet than their younger colleagues. Only about a third of teachers agreed with the statement “I often use the Internet with classes.” Responses varied significantly according to school and subject. There was strong support, however, for the suggestion that the Internet is a valuable source of learning and teaching materials.     

Can virtual environments enhance the learning of historical chronology?

Historical time and chronological sequence are usually conveyed to pupils via the presentation of semantic information on printed worksheets, events being rote-memorised according to date. We explored the use of virtual environments in which successive historical events were depicted as “places” in time–space, encountered sequentially in a fly-through. Testing was via “Which came first, X or Y?” questions and picture-ordering. University undergraduates experiencing the history of an imaginary planet performed better after a VE than after viewing a “washing line” of sequential images, or captions alone, especially for items in intermediate list positions. However, secondary children 11–14 years remembered no more about successive events in feudal England when they were presented virtually compared with either paper picture or 2-D computer graphic conditions. Primary children 7–9 years learned more about historical sequence after studying a series of paper images, compared with either VE or computer graphic conditions, remembering more in early/intermediate list positions. Reasons for the discrepant results are discussed and future possible uses of VEs in the teaching of chronology assessed.