Designing e-assessment activities appropriate to learner's competency levels: Hybrid pedagogical framework and authoring tool

Education and Information Technologies - E-Assessment, which is a key element in the instructional design process, plays a major role in supporting and enhancing learning. However, the current...     

Destabilising equilibriums: harnessing the power of disruption in participatory action research

ABSTRACT

This article draws on insights gained from three projects described as participatory action research (PAR) undertaken in the UK. What binds them together is that each project coordinator raised the issue of the under-representation of opportunities for disruption in the possible trajectory to knowledge democracy.

PAR places a relational process at the centre of the research practice. It brings together people with varied knowledges, perspectives and experiences and aspires to be a non-hierarchical, relational, collaborative endeavour. This challenges the traditional hierarchical hegemony of the external expert in research situations. Bringing people together does not, however, equate to shared agency, authentic participation and knowledge democracy. For different knowledges to be created previous knowledges need to be disrupted.The argument raised in this paper is that a neglected element of PAR has been the deliberate intent to nurture disruption within communicative spaces in relationally based engagements. It is posited that the disruption of beliefs and assumptions that underpin local actions, is an important enabler of other voices and knowledges being recognised and acted upon. The three projects described reveal how and why the harnessing of power through disruption contributes to creating a functional knowledge democracy for more radical change.     

The effect of self-management empowerment model on the sense of coherence among elderly patients with cardiovascular disease

Abstract

To correct poor quality of life due to the elderly’s limitations and cardiovascular disorders requires the identification of supporting resources, adaptation, and enhancement of the sense of coherence. While having the little evidence available, this clinical trial was performed on 96 elderly people with cardiovascular disease. The goal was to determine the effect of education based on a self-management empowerment model on the sense of coherence. The results indicate the effect of a five-step educational intervention on a total sense of coherence score in the experimental group and on its dimensions. The results can provide a framework to design nursing education for the empowerment of the elderly.     

Understanding everyday life information seeking behavior in the context of coping with daily hassles: A grounded theory study of female students

Studying everyday life information seeking (ELIS) in a variety of contexts contributes to its conceptual development. The primary goal of this study was to understand ELIS in the context of female university students' coping with daily hassles. To identify the dimensions and determinants of ELIS, and to fill this current gap in the literature, a grounded theory study was conducted using Flick's stages of episodic interviewing with 21 Iranian female first-year university students. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed through open, axial and selective coding. The findings showed that ELIS in coping with daily hassles is a multidimensional phenomenon that is affected by individuals' characteristics and sociocultural norms and values. Three main categories emerged as determinants of ELIS, namely normative status of the daily hassles, normative status of the information resources, and the individual's characteristics. Two main categories emerged as dimensions of ELIS which were type and strategy of action. Results of this study can contribute to the conceptual development of ELIS and may indicate how and in what circumstances ELIS dimensions emerge. The findings can also be used as a basis for developing information and intervention services in the context of coping with daily hassles.     

Rapid,one-step fabrication and loading of nanoscale 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine liposomes in a simple,double flow-focusing microfluidic device

Liposomes are currently well-established as biocompatible delivery vehicles for numerous compounds. However, conventional manufacturing tends to rely on time-consuming processes, costly equipment, unstable reaction parameters, and numerous pre- and post-processing steps. Herein, we demonstrate a microscope-slide-sized alternative: a double flow-focusing microfluidic geometry capable of sub-hour synthesis and controlled loading of tunable liposomes. Using phospholipid 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine as the bilayer constituent, the effect of varying the dissolved lipid concentration and flow rate ratio on synthesized liposome diameters was investigated and the encapsulation of fluorescent hydrophobic drug model ergost-5,7,9(11),22-tetraen-3β-ol was performed to ascertain the potential of this device as a loading platform.     

Reasons for demotivation across years of study: voices from Iranian English major students

Language learning failure is often directly related to demotivation. The purpose of this study is to examine the process of demotivation and identify its sources within four years of an undergraduate degree programme. To this end, based on the complex dynamic systems perspective of the dynamic systems theories (DSTs), the demotivation test battery was developed and administered to 308 English major students. The results identified three salient demotivating constructs: (1) Institution related, (2) Significant others related and (3) Self-related, from among which the Institution related was the most influential and progressive through years. While MANOVA results confirmed the same pattern, it revealed stronger impact for the 3rd- and 4th-year students. In sum, the present findings provide support for the DSTs and indicate that the wider social context and prevailing discourses of the society are in constant interaction with the functions and attitudes of the others existing within that context.     

Sense of Power Among Older People in Iran

Power is a resource for living that is present in all individuals, and has a positively uplifting effect on one's quality of life. In a grounded theory approach, we searched for factors influencing the sense of power, which exist in elders' interactions in their environment. These factors were awareness of personal changes, coping, role taking, perceived satisfaction, independence, and being in control. Self-management was at the core of all these factors. Educational interventions by health care professionals based on the elders' needs for empowerment comprise a major part of wellness approaches.     

Preservice mathematics teachers’ beliefs about peer feedback,perceptions of their peer feedback message,and emotions as predictors of peer feedback accuracy and comprehension of the learning task

Peer feedback is increasingly used to train assessment skills in teacher-training programs. However, studies investigating the roles of peer feedback providers’ beliefs about peer feedback provision, their perceptions of their peer feedback message and their experienced emotions are still limited. This study aimed to explore how peer feedback accuracy and providers’ comprehension of the learning task were related to these characteristics. Analysis of peer feedback provided by 53 preservice mathematics teachers revealed that peer feedback accuracy was predicted by cognitive-verification, cognitive elaboration and self-efficacy types of peer feedback. Providers’ perceptions of their peer feedback message and anxiety also predicted peer feedback accuracy. No evidence was found that peer feedback related beliefs and perceptions predicted providers’ comprehension of the learning task.