Integrating Information Technology: competency recommendations by teachers for teacher training

ABSTRACT

A challenge for teacher training education lies in keeping courses up to date. This paper provides a view of the top ten IT competencies required of pre‐service teachers, as perceived by practising teachers in USA schools. This paper reports findings from 215 teachers in Colorado public schools. A complimentary view of reasons that teachers have for not using new media in instruction indicates that convenient access to hardware and software are significant issues and recommends re‐examination of traditional teacher training and practise.     

MAGIS: mobile augmented-reality games for instructional support

ABSTRACT

We present Mobile Augmented-Reality Games for Instructional Support (MAGIS), a framework for the development of mobile augmented-reality (AR) games for education. The framework supports off-the-shelf, state-of-the-art technologies that enable AR tracking and rendering on consumer-level mobile devices, and integrates these technologies with content-generation tools that simplify the development of educational AR games, especially those that extensively use narrative-based game design and player-location tracking such as location-based historical or museum adventure games. We use Igpaw: Intramuros, a proof-of-concept game developed using MAGIS, to help describe the current state of the framework and to show its efficacy for implementing outdoor location-based educational games, and we briefly outline future development plans to improve MAGIS’ AR support (especially those involving indoor scenarios) as well as to improve the instructional design and authoring phases of AR applications written using this framework.     

Do the effects of computer-assisted practice differ for children with reading disabilities with and without IQ-achievement discrepancy?

This study was designed to assess whether the effects of computer-assisted practice on visual word recognition differed for children with reading disabilities (RD) with or without aptitude-achievement discrepancy. A sample of 73 Spanish children with low reading performance was selected using the discrepancy method, based on a standard score comparison (i.e., the difference between IQ and achievement standard scores). The sample was classified into three groups: (1) a group of 14 children with dyslexia (age M = 103.85 months; SD = 8.45) who received computer-based reading practice; (2) a group of 31 "garden-variety" (GV) poor readers (age M = 107.06 months; SD = 6.75) who received the same type of instruction; and (3) a group of 28 children with low reading performance (age M = 103.33 months; SD = 9.04) who did not receive computer-assisted practice. Children were pre- and posttested in word recognition, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and visual and phonological tasks. The results indicated that both computer-assisted intervention groups showed improved word recognition compared to the control group. Nevertheless, children with dyslexia had more difficulties than GV poor readers during computer-based word reading under conditions that required extensive phonological computation, because their performance was more affected by low-frequency words and long words. In conclusion, we did not find empirical evidence in favor of the IQ-achievement discrepancy definition of reading disability, because IQ did not differentially predict treatment outcomes.     

Going to action? A literature review on educational proposals in formal Environmental Education

The current state of the planet’s environmental deterioration calls for formal educational contexts to implement effective environmental proposals which nurture action competence. The aim of this paper is to examine the educational proposals in formal contexts that have been published in the two research journals of greatest impact on Environmental Education during the period 2008–2013, and to analyse how they contribute to the development of action competence. Special attention is paid to research (i) based on real participation by students; (ii) promotes reflection on the complexity of environmental issues; (iii) facilitates critical thinking; (iv) encourages autonomous and responsible decision-making and (v) involves communities. Our results show that these approaches can help improve the development of action-focused environmental education and bring to light a series of challenges for future research.     

School–University–Community Pathways to Higher Education: Teacher Perceptions,School Culture and Partnership Building

This article provides a snapshot in time of teacher perceptions, school culture, and partnership building. We delineate how teachers perceive our partnership’s purpose and its role in transforming school culture. Second, we describe how teachers express the life expectations they have and the possibilities they hope for their students and the families involved with the partnership. Finally, we outline our thoughts on moving forward with building partnership, continuing to transform school culture, and collaborating with teachers. In conclusion, we discuss the role that partnership building can have on creating pathways to higher education for students in communities of color.     

Validating a model of effective teaching behaviour and student engagement: perspectives from Spanish students

Research consistently shows that teaching behaviour is a highly-important indicator of learning environments. Based on a teacher effectiveness model with six observable teaching behaviour domains (safe learning climate, efficient classroom management, clarity of instruction, activating teaching, teaching–learning strategies, and differentiation), the present paper examines the psychometric quality of the My Teacher questionnaire for capturing student perceptions of teaching behaviour in the Spanish secondary-education context. Additionally, this study validated the model of teaching behaviour and student engagement and its relevance in Spain. 7114 students of 410 teachers attending 56 public and private Spanish schools constituted the sample. The six teaching behavioural dimensions model were confirmed in the Spanish context. Regarding student academic engagement, the presence of two domains (behavioural and emotional engagement) were confirmed. Furthermore, results of a multiple-group structural equation modeling path analysis, examining the relationship between teaching behaviour and student engagement across different teaching experiences, revealed differential effects of teaching behaviour influences on students’ engagement. The percentage of explained variance was larger for emotional engagement than for behavioural engagement. Furthermore, teachers’ teaching experience explained differences in the relationship between perceived teaching behaviour and engagement. Two domains (learning climate and activating teaching) appeared to be the two most-important teaching domains for students’ behavioural engagement while, for emotional engagement, the most important domains for student engagement were learning climate and teaching learning strategies.

     

Teaching databases in compliance with the European dimension of higher education: Best practices for better competences

The Convergence process in which European Union (EU) universities are at present involved supposes that these institutions not only have to re-structure their degree programmes, but also their teaching and learning methodologies. We study the impact of this EU process on Database teaching, comparing the practices of three different European universities and using the Convergence goals as criteria. In our discussion, we identify which aspects in each university are closer to the Convergence goals, and which are likely to help in achieving these goals.     

An Analysis of the Word Naming Errors of Normal Readers and Reading Disabled Children in Spanish

In the current research the performance of children with and without reading disabilities was compared on a single word naming task. An analysis was carried out of the frequency and form of naming errors produced by the groups when naming real words and nonwords in a transparent orthography such as Spanish. A sample of 132 (45 normal readers, 87 reading disabled) Spanish children aged 9–10 years were selected, and an experiment was carried out to investigate if students with reading disabilities would have particular difficulties in naming words under conditions that require extensive phonological computation. While the children were performing the naming task, we recorded what they read to subsequently analyse the form, as well as the frequency, of naming errors as a function of lexicality, word frequency, word length and positional frequency of syllables. Disabled readers made more errors in nonwords, low frequency words and long nonwords. The findings support the hypothesis that poor phonological skills are a characteristic of reading disabled children.     

Using educational placement in third grade to select and validate a preschool screening measure

The early detection of children with mild learning problems remains a problem. New screening tests are being developed that will be more effective in identifying children who fall into this “difficult to identify” group. This study examined the predictive validity of one potential screening test. The scores of 268 children on each task of a nine‐task preschool cognitive battery were evaluated in terms of the accuracy with which they predicted the classification of those same children into regular education (n = 254) or special education (n = 14) 4 years later when the children were in third grade. A classification accuracy level of 79% was achieved for the exceptional children, and a classification level of 70% for the normally achieving children. Racial/ethnic status, testing language, and socioeconomic status all impacted the children's screening performance. Lower screening scores and a greater proportion of the sample with scores below the cut were associated with minority status, not being tested in English, and lower socioeconomic status. Preschool testing in Spanish or both English and Spanish was associated with poorer achievement 4 years later. Many of the children not in special education, but with a screening score below 13, had serious academic problems in third grade that were reflected in their low percentile scores on one or more subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 565–582, 2003.     

Classroom environment in the implementation of an innovative curriculum project in science education

A curriculum project can be positively or negatively influenced by the environment of the classroom in which it is implemented. Analysis of the perceptions of students, teachers, and external observers has allowed us to study the influence of classroom environment in the implementation of an innovative project in science education. The main conclusions indicate that even though the global evaluation is positive, more so among teachers than among students, there are differences between the perceptions of the participants, probably due to differences in interests and needs. Moreover, in the classroom environment, the teacher and the actual dynamic and spatial organization are of great importance, and it can be difficult to maintain interest or to achieve a satisfactory evaluation on the part of those students whose academic performance is lowest. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 655–671, 1998.