Assessing dialogic argumentation in online environments to relate structure,grounds, and conceptual quality

The national science standards, along with prominent researchers, call for increased focus on scientific argumentation in the classroom. Over the past decade, researchers have developed sophisticated online science learning environments to support these opportunities for scientific argumentation. Assessing the quality of dialogic argumentation, however, has proven challenging. Existing analytic frameworks assess dialogic argumentation in terms of the nature of students' discourse, formal argumentation structure, interactions, and epistemic forms of reasoning. Few frameworks, however, connect these assessments to conceptual quality. We present an analytic framework for assessing argumentation in online science learning environments that relates levels of opposition with discourse moves, use of grounds, and conceptual quality. We then apply the proposed framework to students' dialogic argumentation within a representative online science learning environment to investigate the framework's potential affordances as well as to assess issues of reliability and appropriateness. The results suggest that the framework offers significant affordances and that it also offers high interrater reliability for trained coders. The applicability of the framework for offline contexts and future extensions of the framework are discussed in light of these results. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 293–321, 2008     

Professional socialization and contemporary career attitudes of three faculty generations

As one aspect of a study of individual and organizational conditions contributing to faculty vitality, career socialization experiences and current career attitudes of three faculty generations were compared for two groups of tenured university faculty members. The first group was a representative sample drawn from the fields of the humanities, biological sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences. The second was a selected sample of faculty from the same areas who had been identified by judges as highly active in teaching, research, and service. The analyses focus on differences in the professional socialization experiences and career attitudes of the two groups that appear to be indicative of career success. Within these groups the generational trends are also examined.Presented at the 23rd Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Toronto, May 1983.     

Panel discussion

The question “Is Creativity a Plausible Educational Goal?” is central to any discussion of creativity from an educational vantage point. In the period from the 1960s until now, it has been more or less taken for granted that creativity is a realistic goal of education. However, there is a variety of issues which this presupposition can cause to arise. One is the issue of the early identification of “creative” individuals independent of their ever creating anything. Another is the question of fostering creativity as opposed to the fostering of actual creation. The strategies range from the early identification of the creative and “leaving them alone” to the refusal to make the identification and the fostering of creativity in Everyman. Others deny that there is any way of either identifying creativity or of fostering it. Virtually all these positions are represented in the following panel discussion.     

Medical student attitudes to the autopsy and its utility in medical education: A brief qualitative study at one UK medical school

Attending postmortems enables students to learn anatomy and pathology within a clinical context, provides insights into effects of treatment and introduces the reality that patients die. Rates of clinical autopsies have declined and medical schools have cut obligatory autopsy sessions from their curricula making it difficult to assess medical student perceptions of, and attitudes towards, the educational value of autopsy. Our aim was to investigate these perceptions by designing a brief qualitative study comprising nominal technique and focus group discussions with Cambridge Graduate Course students, all of whom had attended autopsies. Three general themes emerged from the focus group discussions: the value of autopsy as a teaching tool and ways the experience could be improved, the initial impact of the mortuary and the autopsy itself, and the “emerging patient”—an emotional continuum running from cadaver to autopsy subject and living patient. Educational benefits of autopsy‐based teaching included greater understanding of anatomy and physiology, greater appreciation of the role of other health care professionals and an enhanced appreciation of psycho‐social aspects of medical practice. Students suggested improvements for ameliorating the difficult emotional consequences of attendance. We conclude that autopsy‐based teaching represents a low‐cost teaching technique which is highly valued by students and has application to many diverse medical specialties and skills. However, careful preparation and organization of sessions is required to maximize potential educational benefits and reduce any negative emotional impact. Anat Sci Educ 7: 87–96. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Outreach marketing may be a successful strategy for NHS libraries

This dissertation study investigates the ways that NHS libraries are currently marketing their services within their organisation and was submitted as part of the MA Library and Information Management at the University of Sheffield in 2019. This paper presents the findings from twelve semi‐structured interviews carried out with NHS library managers in the East of England to identify the most and least successful methods, and in comparison with that which is currently in the general marketing literature. The study found that outreach marketing was the most effective and that librarians are currently conducting marketing to the best of their ability, but they lack time and funding to be able to make the most of their promotional campaigns. F.J.     

Lights,camera, active! appreciation of active learning predicts positive attitudes towards lecture capture

Higher Education - Much has been written about instructor attitudes towards lecture capture, particularly concerning political issues such as opt-out policies and the use of recordings by...     

The International Education Index: A global approach to education policy analysis,performance and sustainable development

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world struggled to address growing educational inequalities and fulfil the commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities and changed how education functions, moving to online and hybrid methods. The challenges in global education highlighted and worsened by the pandemic make it necessary to re-evaluate education systems and the policies in place to support access, quality and equal opportunity. This article focuses on analysing education policies at a national level. It tests a pilot policy analysis tool, the International Education Index (IEI), developed as a starting point to begin this reconsideration and create an accessible and comprehensive way to evaluate national education systems to inform decision-making and policies in the new context. This research uses Ireland and Northern Ireland to test the IEI pilot tool. The IEI consists of 54 questions across nine indicators, including institutional frameworks, education strategies, digital skills and infrastructure, twenty-first century skills, access to basic social services, adherence to international standards, legal frameworks, data gathering and availability and international partnerships. Countries can score 108 points to be categorised as having developed, emerging or nascent national education systems. Ireland scored 94 and Northern Ireland 81, indicating that they have developed national education systems.     

Learning by viewing versus learning by doing: Evidence‐based guidelines for principled learning environments

A learner‐centered approach is a central feature of instruction based on a constructivist learning model. However, there is some confusion regarding the requirement for behavioral activity as a prerequisite for a learner‐centered environment. We offer evidence in this article that some types of behavioral activity can interfere with cognitive learning processes. We recommend that instructional professionals focus on cognitive activity and summarize evidence‐based methods that support appropriate cognitive activity in behaviorally passive and active learning environments.     

Substantial Integration of Typical Educational Games Into Extended Curricula

Much research focuses on what might be possible with digital games in the classroom. This study focuses on what is currently probable and typical. It uses a controlled quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes for students of 13 teachers in 10 diverse urban, suburban, and rural schools. The teachers integrated a set of 55 typical educational games into their curricula on Jacksonian democracy. Teachers reported strong engagement benefits for the game condition and a strong interest in using games of this type in the future in their surveys and interviews. Each teacher taught at least one classroom with the games and at least one classroom without the games. When the one teacher who reported a failed implementation was dropped from the analysis, the results showed significantly higher gains for the game condition in terms of multiple-choice factual outcomes, open-response factual outcomes, evidentiary depth, and student engagement outcomes. When the failed implementation was included, the game condition demonstrated improved scores for all outcomes, but only student engagement and evidentiary depth remained significant. Moderator analyses highlighted the role of teacher experience and student engagement in the efficacy of the game condition, indicating that game instruction was particularly beneficial for special education students.