Towards a framework for aligning learning outcomes,academic literacies and assessment criteria

Although Australian students spend three or more years studying they can seem quite unaware of any of the expected learning outcomes of their course. They are often single unit focused, paying most attention to individual assessment items thus not developing a holistic view of their course. This paper presents a theoretical framework to support staff and students to recognise, scaffold and achieve learning outcomes and academic skills at unit level and to recognise how these contribute to course and graduate learning outcomes, within the boundaries of Australian university and professional accreditation requirements. A case study is described that demonstrates the manual implementation of the framework. The complex nature of the implementation suggests that a software solution is required to ease the process and ensure the resulting mapping will have some longevity by being maintainable.     

Understanding the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and technology use in education: a systematic review of qualitative evidence

This review was designed to further our understanding of the link between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their educational uses of technology. The synthesis of qualitative findings integrates the available evidence about this relationship with the ultimate goal being to facilitate the integration of technology in education. A meta-aggregative approach was utilized to analyze the results of the 14 selected studies. The findings are reported in terms of five synthesis statements, describing (1) the bi-directional relationship between pedagogical beliefs and technology use, (2) teachers’ beliefs as perceived barriers, (3) the association between specific beliefs with types of technology use, (4) the role of beliefs in professional development, and (5) the importance of the school context. By interpreting the results of the review, recommendations are provided for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers focusing on pre- and in-service teacher technology training.     

Enhancing pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK): a mixed-method study

Educational technology research and development - The main aim of this two-step mixed-method study was to explore the effectiveness of the strategies used to prepare pre-service teachers for...     

Lessons learned from a decade implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in resource poor settings: The World Starts With Me

Today, more than half of the world population is under the age of 25 years and one in four is under age 18. The urgency of expanding access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) notably for children and young people in Africa and Asia is greater than ever before. However, many challenges to the implementation and delivery of CSE in resource poor settings have been identified in the literature. CSE’s effectiveness could be strongly improved if these challenges were better met. This paper aims to contribute to those much-needed improvements by sharing lessons learned from a decade of implementation of one particular CSE programme, The World Starts With Me, among various populations in 11 low income countries in Africa and Asia. The aims, content, reach and effectiveness of the programme are described. Next, the challenges for implementation and delivery at student, teacher, school and context level are discussed with reference to the wider knowledge base in this area. Finally, suggestions are provided for ways forward including the increased sensitivity of programmes for normative and practical barriers to sexual health, further advancement towards gender transformativity, a far-reaching expansion of comprehensive forms of teacher training and coaching, and a serious stepping-up of multilevel ‘whole school’ approaches.     

Enhancing Part-time Teaching in Higher Education: a Challenge for Institutional Policy and Practice

Higher education in the UK has seen a steady increase in the numbers of part‐time teachers, yet the way in which they are inducted into teaching and the utilisation of their expertise are under‐researched. This qualitative study of 33 part‐time teachers from several universities suggests that their involvement in higher education should be considered from a fresh perspective, which differs from approaches to the enhancement of university teaching that rely upon simply educating individual teachers to do better by requiring their attendance at formally provided courses and events. While these approaches have their place, modern research on professional learning is increasingly pointing to the view that professional formation is an ecological process that is insufficiently served by the formal provision of learning opportunities. The ecological perspective, which emphasises the part played by the everyday workplace in professional formation, provides a challenge to leaders and managers regarding the development and implementation of institutional policy and practice.     

Reconciling beliefs and practices in teaching and learning

Current teaching and learning methods reveal marked differences between how students approach learning and how instructors approach teaching. Little attention has been paid to understanding these differences and their implications for designing successful learning environments. The purpose of the paper is to introduce a framework for understanding and reconciling perspectives on teaching and learning success. First, we examine perspectives on learning success. Next, we compare and contrast beliefs and practices associated with teaching and learning. Finally, we introduce a model for reconciling teaching and learning beliefs and practices, and discuss implications for future research and practice.     

Can middle‐school science textbooks help students learn important ideas? Findings from project 2061's curriculum evaluation study: Life science

The transfer of matter and energy from one organism to another and between organisms and their physical setting is a fundamental concept in life science. Not surprisingly, this concept is common to the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993 ), the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996 ), and most state frameworks and likely to appear in any middle‐school science curriculum material. Nonetheless, while topics such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration have been taught for many years, research on student learning indicates that students have difficulties learning these ideas. In this study, nine middle‐school curriculum materials—both widely used and newly developed—were examined in detail for their support of student learning ideas concerning matter and energy transformations in ecosystems specified in the national standards documents. The analysis procedure used in this study was previously developed and field tested by Project 2061 of the AAAS on a variety of curriculum materials. According to our findings, currently available curriculum materials provide little support for the attainment of the key ideas chosen for this study. In general, these materials do not take into account students' prior knowledge, lack representations to clarify abstract ideas, and are deficient in phenomena that can be explained by the key ideas and hence can make them plausible. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications of this study to curriculum development, teaching, and science education research based on shortcomings in today's curricula. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 538–568, 2004     

Psychological foundations of instructional design for emerging computer-based instructional technologies: Part II

Although considerable research has been published concerning learning and cognition in general, little impact has been reported on the design of computer-based instruction (CBI). In addition, CBI designs have been influenced negatively by technocentric perspectives, where technological capabilities dictate lesson activities, rather than a more reflective view on the relationship among learner, learning task and performance requirements, and the selective use of media capabilities. Attempts to extrapolate the relevance of non-CBI research and theory to advance a comprehensive and integrated view of the design of CBI have been rare. An integrated meta-model derived from both CBI and non-CBI research and theory is presented in this article.     

Challenging White Jesus: Race and the Undergraduate Bible Classroom

Abstract

In this article, we offer analysis of and propose means of resistance to White Jesus in undergraduate Bible survey courses. White Jesus functions as a proxy for the operation of white normativity in contexts of religious education. Research on a cohort of first-year undergraduate students demonstrates the durability of race as a factor in students’ experiences and outcomes in required Bible courses. After interpreting these findings in light of literature on race, biblical studies, and higher education, we suggest strategic pedagogical interventions that instructors can employ to resist white normativity.