Primary Teachers' and Students' Understanding of School Situated Design in Canada and England

Research in Science Education - How do teachers in primary schools translate curriculum requirements for teaching design, within technology frameworks, in their primary classrooms? We call...     

Development of a competency model and tailored assessment method for high school science teachers utilizing a flipped learning approach

Many professional development programs aim to improve student outcomes by enhancing teacher competencies. Effective evaluation of these programs requires a clear delineation of the competencies to be gained. A competency model was developed to evaluate the impact of a teacher professional program that aimed to improve teachers’ ability to effectively implement technologically engaged modules in a flipped classroom setting. Competencies were identified via participatory evaluation techniques and assessments were aligned to the competencies. The competency of teachers in the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for creation and delivery of effective flipped lessons can be tracked using a radar graph to guide tailored professional development.

     

Teacher adaptation to flexible learning environments

Learning Environments Research - Teaching practices respond to the prompts, resources and inherent potential of a school’s physical, social and cultural landscape. This study involved how...     

Parent empowerment for family literacy: a European initiative

The article describes the genesis of, rationale for and running of the Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy Project (PEFaL), a European‐Union funded six‐nation family literacy initiative that took place between 2001 and 2004. Whilst a number of features of the project are typical of family literacy programmes, some aspects of PEFaL are identifiably distinctive. These include the multicultural, trans‐cultural and linguistic dimensions, and an innovative attempt to encourage parent and child participants to communicate with each other across countries by email and the Internet. These features and some of the project outcomes are discussed and prospects for follow‐on activities are examined.     

Employability pathways for young adults: lived experiences of learners and practitioners in Youth Guarantee programmes

ABSTRACT

Until today, thousands of young adults still dropout of school with no or low qualifications and experience difficulties in entering the labour market. The European Commission offers funding and opportunities for young adults to enter employability enhancing training, often organised under its flagship initiative ‘The Youth Guarantee’. The aim of these programmes is to make young adults a work, training or educational offer within four months of their start into this initiative.

In this paper, we critically explore the concept of employability and focus on the roles of both the young adults undergoing training interventions, but also of practitioners whose work is ideally embedded within the local context of the labour market and the economy. We were interested in the participation experiences by both groups to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of these programmes. Evidence from interviews demonstrated that learners and practitioners were generally satisfied with the interventions, although individualised support was preferred over group-based activities. Working with stakeholders was strongly recommended for this target group who tends to experience cumulative disadvantages. Long-term follow-up of participants’ destinations will provide better evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes.     

Cooperative learning in computer-based instruction

High equipment and materials costs, limited access to computers for instruction in many schools, and the success of cooperative learning strategies in traditional classroom instruction have prompted researchers to examine the potential of cooperative computer-based instruction (CBI). In this article, recent research on cooperative CBI is reviewed and findings related to achievement, patterns of study, social interchange, motivation, and gender are discussed. In addition, guidelines on the implementation of cooperative CBI that have been gleaned from the literature are presented.This paper was prepared with partial support from MECC/University of Minnesota Center for Study of Educational Technology, and presented at the AECT Annual Convention, January 31–February 4, 1990, Anaheim, CA.     

The fog of online learning

The authors recognized a close similarity between practices used in online genealogy research and those common in online education. Uses of a popular online database service were examined within a peer instruction community dedicated to researching a family history topic. Three community subgroups were divided into leaders, who base their work on external sources, and followers who copy the leaders’ conclusions. The accuracy and error levels of the 21 family trees produced by these researchers were calculated in relation to data obtained from offline archives. The trees created in the online process all contained flawed details and invalid conclusions due to practices similar to those of massive open online courses. The inconsistent reliability of the online approaches is discussed in terms of the ‘fog’ that descends upon knowledge when facts are distorted by academic jargon, disciplinary trends, and institutional priorities, and which increases with its transmission to others by non-experts.     

The Use of the Five-Factor Model of Personality as a Therapeutic Tool in Career Counseling

Many clients requesting assistance in Career Centers are mismatched with their career due to issues of occupational choice. In addition, personality conflicts with co-workers, lack of interpersonal skills, and the individual's personality characteristics can affect vocational success. Theories of personality are incorporated into several theories of vocational choice and development (i.e., Holland, Roe) resulting in some attention to personality. Likewise, client personality can affect the career counselor's ability to intervene effectively to assist the client in making effective career choices and decisions. More direct attention to the impact of personality on an individual's career and vocational success can enable the Career Center to increase the effectiveness of their interventions. This paper will discuss the methods for increasing the effectiveness of career counseling through the use of the Five-Factor Model of Personality into our therapeutic work with clients.