Interactive Robotics Using the Internet

We report on a project currently under way within the department of Computer Science at the University of Reading exploiting networking and multimedia technology to provide a shared robotics laboratory on the Internet. The laboratory is for use by our own students and students at other Higher Education (HE) institutions in the UK. We present a mobile robot system we have developed to support teaching, and we describe how the Internet is being used to provide and control access to the robot. A case study is presented illustrating the use of the mobile robot in student project work. The key goal of the work we are pursuing is the provision of robots as networked resources similar to other computing resources, in this way making them accessible to many more students than would otherwise be able to gain access to this advanced technology.     

Science Teachers’ Perceived Benefits of an Out‐of‐school Enrichment Programme: Identity needs and university affordances

Science enrichment programmes housed outside traditional school settings offer unique opportunities to access and use authentic scientific tools and practices, especially for urban students whose school science experiences often lack resources. Yet opportunities to access these tools and practices are realized only when science teachers value them sufficiently to take advantage of them. This study examines how eight urban secondary science teachers evaluated a specific out‐of‐school science enrichment programme—a one‐year partnership with a local university science outreach centre, which culminated in a half‐day laboratory experience for their students. Teachers’ perceptions were captured through interviews and surveys. Findings indicate that these teachers came to identify and value many of the potential benefits for out‐of‐school enrichment programmes reported in the literature as well as some additional ones. The teachers’ also showed a shift over time with respect to their perceptions of the value of the out‐of‐school experience, moving from an initial focus on increasing test scores toward a greater appreciation for its impact on students’ motivation and identity development. The study offers insight into secondary science students’ and teachers’ identity needs, and what universities can offer to address them.     

The impact of higher education on lifelong learning

The UK’s National Adult Learning Survey has emphasised that graduates are more likely than other groups of people to engage in further learning and to be motivated by the intrinsic nature of the subject matter. However, beyond this we know relatively little about the learning of graduates as a specific group. In particular, we know very little about how experiences of higher education affect attitudes towards learning in the years after graduation. To start to redress this gap, this paper draws on in‐depth interviews with 90 graduates from six different UK higher education institutions, five years after they completed their first degree. It argues that, in the case of many of these young adults, the influence of higher education on further learning was exerted at three levels in relation to: the process of learning; the construction of learner identities; and understandings of the relationship between learning and the wider world.     

Emotion in online college classrooms: examining the influence of perceived teacher communication behaviour on students’ emotional experiences

This research focused on teacher communication behaviour as an influential factor in students’ educational experiences. This study examined students’ perceptions of emotion (involving teachers’ emotional support, students’ emotional work and students’ positive emotional valence toward class and teacher) as influenced by a variety of predicting variables: perceptions of teacher affinity-seeking as well as teachers’ positive behaviour alteration techniques, verbal immediacy and teacher online presence (involving the three factors of instructional design, organisation facilitating discourse and direct instruction). Relying on survey data collected from undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines enrolled in course offerings at a large public university, quantitative analysis examined relationships among existing factors previously studied in educational and communication research. Although this study uncovered multiple significant relationships between variables in the data set, students’ perceptions of their teachers’ verbal immediacy and presence in their instructional design were found to be most predictive relative to students’ emotions in online classrooms. Ultimately this project addresses and emphasises the need to more fully examine students’ emotions and related social experiences with virtual teachers and course content in higher education.     

VERBAL JUSTIFICATION—IS IT A PROOF? SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS

According to reform documents, teachers are expected to teach proofs and proving in school mathematics. Research results indicate that high school students prefer verbal proofs to other formats. We found it interesting and important to examine the position of secondary school teachers with regard to verbal proofs. Fifty high school teachers were asked to prove various elementary number theory statements, to write correct and incorrect proofs that students may use, and to evaluate given justifications to statements from elementary number theory. While all the participants provided correct proofs to the statements, our findings indicate that teachers are not aware of students’ preference for verbal justifications. Also, about half of the teachers rejected correct verbal justifications. They claimed that these justifications lacked generality and are mere examples.     

Depersonalization or cynicism, efficacy or inefficacy: what are the dimensions of teacher burnout?

This article seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate on the dimensionality of the burnout syndrome. Specifically, its aims are: (1) to investigate the role of efficacy beliefs using negatively worded inefficacy items instead of positive ones and (2) to establish whether depersonalization and cynicism can be considered two different dimensions of the teacher burnout syndrome. The results show that, compared with efficacy beliefs, inefficacy beliefs relate more strongly to the other burnout dimensions considered by the study (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and cynicism). Moreover, using partial disaggregation method, a better fit is found for the four-factor model with separate depersonalization and cynicism dimensions than for the three-factor model in which depersonalization and cynicism are collapsed into one factor. The article concludes that future research on teacher burnout should: (1) use the inefficacy scale as the “third dimension” of burnout, rather than the efficacy scale, and (2) include the cynicism and depersonalization constructs.     

The effects of team training on team outcomes: A meta‐analysis

A meta‐analysis was conducted to determine relationships between team training and team effectiveness. Results from the 21 studies provided evidence that training is positively related to team effectiveness and effectiveness in five outcome categories: affective, cognitive, subjective task‐based skill, objective task‐based skill, and teamwork skill.     

章鱼花园

我想潜到海里,躲在章鱼花园的绿阴下。"我和爸爸在起居室听着甲壳虫乐队的黑胶唱片播放《章鱼花园》这首歌。那时我大概只有六岁。那句歌词让我感到困惑。"海里怎么会有绿阴呢?"我问爸爸",海水下面并没有阴凉和日晒的区别啊!""