Development of a Virtual Three-Dimensional Assessment Scenario for Anatomical Education

In anatomical education three-dimensional (3D) visualization technology allows for active and stereoscopic exploration of anatomy and can easily be adopted into medical curricula along with traditional 3D teaching methods. However, most often knowledge is still assessed with two-dimensional (2D) paper-and-pencil tests. To address the growing misalignment between learning and assessment, this viewpoint commentary highlights the development of a virtual 3D assessment scenario and perspectives from students and teachers on the use of this assessment tool: a 10-minute session of anatomical knowledge assessment with real-time interaction between assessor and examinee, both wearing a HoloLens and sharing the same stereoscopic 3D augmented reality model. Additionally, recommendations for future directions, including implementation, validation, logistic challenges, and cost-effectiveness, are provided. Continued collaboration between developers, researchers, teachers, and students is critical to advancing these processes.     

Learning in tasks that incorporate natural versus unnatural mappings: An example using aircraft instrument comprehension

Mappings between the structure and function of a system or device affect the formation of accurate mental models. This study investigated the performance effect of a more natural cognitive mapping between instruments and aircraft on an aircraft instrument comprehension (AIC) task. Treatments for the experimental groups were identical except that aircraft instrument displays were modified slightly to incorporate natural and unnatural mappings between structure and function. Students who received natural mappings during instruction performed significantly better than those who received the standard treatment containing an unnatural mapping. Questionnaire responses confirmed the difficulty of interpreting the standard treatment. The results suggest that instruction for the AIC and similar tasks should be expanded to take into account learners' mental models and perhaps to encourage mapping strategies.     

The effect of neighborhood racial composition on black and white attitudes

The impact of the racial composition of neighborhoods, rather than race per se, is examined in this study. The sample includes 1027 families with children attending 5 of the 11 former school districts in New Castle County, Delaware. Questionnaires were sent to these families in the spring of 1978, prior to school desegregation, and again in the spring of 1979, at the end of the first year of desegregation. Scales were developed to measure attitudinal variables for both parents and students. These included racial attitudes, attitudes toward school desegregation, and attitudes about education. Results show that attitudes both before and after desegregation varied according to the neighborhood racial composition. Thus it is important in future studies of racial attitudes to examine neighborhood racial characteristics as well as the race of the individual.This research has been supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Division of Social Sciences.     

Study orchestration and learning outcome: evidence of association over time among disadvantaged students

This study explores, for the first time, the study orchestrations of (mostly Black) engineering students who enter an academic support programme in their first year at university at an educational disadvantage by virtue of their exposure to an inferior, racially determined school education.The empirical manifestation, and the stability over time, of their study orchestrations is described, and the association between their study orchestrations and learning outcome is investigated.It is concluded that the manifestation of individual study orchestrations of these particular educationally disadvantaged engineering students, as well as the association between their study orchestrations and their learning outcomes, is essentially similar to that of other students; academic success is associated with theoretically desirable study orchestrations - particularly when these are manifested early on in the programme since they remain essentially stable over time. Where changes do occur over time they are generally of a theoretically desirable nature and, to a lesser extent, where theoretically undesirable changes occur they appear to be associated with a decline in academic achievement.The implications of these conclusions for academic support programmes and for future research are discussed in so far as they impinge on admissions procedures, the identification of potentially at risk students early on in the academic year and explicit provisions of intervention mechanisms to assist such students.     

Toward theories of partnership praxis: an analysis of interpretive framing in literature on students as partners in teaching and learning

ABSTRACT

A body of literature on students as partners (SaP) in higher education has emerged over the last decade that documents, shares, and evaluates SaP approaches. As is typical in emerging fields of inquiry, scholars differ regarding how they see the relationship between the developments in SaP practices and the theoretical explanations that guide, illuminate, and situate such practices. In this article we explore the relationship between theory and practice in SaP work through an analysis of interpretive framing employed in scholarship of SaP in teaching and learning in higher education. Through a conceptual review of selected publications, we describe three ways of framing partnership that represent distinct but related analytical approaches: building on concepts; drawing on constructs; and imagining through metaphors. We both affirm the expansive and creative theorising in scholarship of SaP in university teaching and learning and encourage further deliberate use and thoughtful development of interpretive framings that take seriously the disruptive ethos and messy human relational processes of partnership. We argue that these developmental processes move us toward formulating theories of partnership praxis.     

School accountability and teacher stress: international evidence from the OECD TALIS study

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Accountability—the monitoring and use of student performance data to make judgements about school and teacher effectiveness—is...