Citizenship discourses: production and curriculum

This paper explores citizenship discourses empirically through upper secondary school student’s understandings, as these emerge in and through their everyday experiences. Drawing on a post-structuralist theorisation inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, a discourse analysis of data from interviews with students is carried out. This analysis characterises three discourses of the active citizen – a knowledgeable citizen, a responsive and holistic citizen, and a self-responsible ‘free’ citizen. The analysis raises questions over the implications of contemporary efforts for the intensification of standardising forces through citizenship education. It also stresses the notion that engaging students actively does always also involve discourses other than those stressed through the curriculum, which nurtures the body and nerve of democracy itself.     

Development and evaluation of an e-learning course for deaf and hard of hearing based on the advanced Adapted Pedagogical Index method

Web-based and adapted e-learning materials provide alternative methods of learning to those used in a traditional classroom. Within the study described in this article, deaf and hard of hearing people used an adaptive e-learning environment to improve their computer literacy. This environment included streaming video with sign language interpreter video and subtitles. The courses were based on the learning management system Moodle, which also includes sign language streaming videos and subtitles. A different approach is required when adapting e-learning courses for the deaf and hard of hearing: new guidelines must be developed concerning the loading and display of video material. This is shown in the example of the e-learning course, ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence). The usability of the e-learning course is analyzed and confirmed using two methods: first, the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI) evaluation method, and second, the Adapted Pedagogical Index (AdaPI), which was developed as part of this study, and gives an index to measure the pedagogical effectiveness of e-learning courses adapted for people with disabilities. With 116 participants, of whom 22 are deaf or hard of hearing, the e-learning course for the target group has been found suitable and appropriate according to both evaluation methods.     

Sind Modelle der Item-Response-Theorie (IRT) das „Mittel der Wahl“ für die Modellierung von Kompetenzen?

Item response theory (IRT) models can be subsumed under the larger class of statistical models with latent variables. IRT models are increasingly used for the scaling of the responses derived from standardized assessments of competencies. The paper summarizes the strengths of IRT in contrast to more traditional techniques as well as in contrast to alternative models with latent variables (e. g. structural equation modeling). Subsequently, specific limitations of IRT and cases where other methods might be preferable are lined out.     

Task Characteristics and Learning Potentials—Empirical Results of Three Diary Studies on Workplace Learning

Most learning in the workplace occurs while pursuing working rather than learning goals. The studies at hand aimed to identify task characteristics that foster learning in the workplace. Task characteristics are supposed to exert a major effect on the learning potential. However, the fact that learning is more often than not a rather unconscious by-product of working poses methodological challenges because respondents might not be capable of accurately recalling daily work experiences. Diaries were applied in order to bring measurement closer to the processes. Three diary studies were conducted in the field of office work within vocational education and training, with trainees requested to record particular work tasks several times a day. Each diary record, i.e., each work task, required a rating of ten standardized items relating to task characteristics including the perceived learning potential of the present task. Eighteen trainees aiming to become retail salespersons recorded 488 work tasks, 10 trainees aiming to become bank clerks recorded 1,113 work tasks, and 20 trainees aiming to become industrial clerks recorded 573 work tasks. The aim of these studies was to explain the variance in the perceived learning potentials from further task characteristics using regression analyses. The extent of the explained variance ranged from 46.6 % in study 1 to 77.8 % in study 3. Interestingness, novelty, assistance from others, and feedback turned out to be the best predictors, whereas scope of action even showed negative influences. Practical implications for workplace learning as well as methodological recommendations for using diary methods in the workplace are discussed.     

Taking the Library to the Users: Satellite Reference at the University of Mississippi

ABSTRACT

It is no secret that the nature of reference is changing. Users no longer have to go to the library to find the resources needed for their research. The library is becoming a place to study more than a place to do research. Business students at the University of Mississippi are no different. With nice computer labs, a big building, and atriums for relaxing, there was little need for them to leave the School of Business Administration. How do you reach users who won't come to the library? You take the library to them. In 2004, the business librarian at J.D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi began offering satellite or on-site reference to the School of Business Administration. Three years later the program is still running and considered a success—not only as a way to provide reference to a user group but also as a form of marketing and outreach for the library.     

Experience Field for the Development of the Senses: Hugo Kükelhaus' Phenomenology of Consciousness

This article (re)introduces the pedagogy of the German artist Hugo Kükelhaus (1900–84) whose interest in the psycho‐physiological substratum of learning led to theoretically and experimentally accomplished investigations of the conscious experience. Kükelhaus' most well‐known infant toy productions of the 1930s, the Allbedeut, and the ‘Experience Field for the Senses’ of the 1960s serve here as illustrations of the significance of his ideas to contemporary theories of intelligence; educational technology; and the design of learning environments. I examine some of the issues surrounding the conceptualization, realization and critical reception of these inventions. The article concludes that Kükelhaus' approach to the apparent contradiction of the sensuous idea offers practical and philosophical directions for the development of integrative, heuristic and archetypal tools and learning environments.     

Modellierung und kartographische Visualisierung von Geodaten mit XML-basierten Sprachen

Mit den XML-basierten Sprachen GML, XSLT und SVG lassen sich Geodaten nicht nur anwendungsorientiert modellieren, sondern auch karten?hnlich visualisieren. In dieser Fallstudie zeigen wir das, indem wir realistische Geodatenbest?nde der Landesvermessungs?mter zun?chst mit der Geography Markup Language (GML) nachmodellieren. So mit GML strukturierte Daten werden dann mit der Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformation (XSLT) auf Elemente der Sprache Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) abgebildet. Dabei wird der Prozess der kartografischen Visualisierung durch XSLT-Konstrukte modelliert und auch gleichzeitig implementiert. Als Ergebnis erhalten wir Grafiken, die den entsprechenden Karten der Landes?mter zumindest nicht un?hnlich sind.