From research question to scientific publication: educational innovation with university students / De la pregunta de investigación a la publicación científica: innovación educativa con el alumnado universitario

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the expectations, evaluations and opinions expressed by students taking the course Models of Planning and Educational Research (Social Education Degree, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville), obtained at the beginning and end of a teaching process supported by the continued use of class sessions, semi-virtual sessions, group work, guided individual study and tutorials. This experience has been developed within the institutional framework of the call for educational projects aimed at designing and implementing new teaching and assessment methods, primarily focused on competence-based training, convened by the Vice President for Teaching and European Convergence. The data collection and evaluation of the teaching innovation was carried out in two phases: the first with an assembly or initial discussion of expectations at the beginning of the course, and a final assessment with a questionnaire at the end of the experience.     

Portfolios and assessment in teacher education in Norway: a theory‐based discussion of different models in two sites

Two teacher institutions in Norway involved in a new ICT‐supported portfolio project provide data for our study. In this paper we present a model of analysis for portfolio processes based on sociocultural perspectives of learning and assessment and describe and discuss differences and similarities of the portfolio models in these institutions in relation to our model of analysis. We also highlight areas for improvement; among them the importance of building reflection, self‐assessment and feedback into portfolio assignments and processes in such a way that it becomes part of what is documented. This will strengthen the formative assessment aspect of portfolios. The summative assessment practices are strongly influenced by exam traditions in both institutions. Digital portfolios provide new learning opportunities that are not yet fully utilized. By way of conclusion we explore some critical aspects of portfolios in teacher education in light of Wenger's social theory of learning, focusing on the concepts participation, reification and identity formation.     

Spielen Studienschwerpunkte wirklich eine Rolle?

Due to a comparatively weak curricular structure in education faculties, student teachers may determine their study experiences and learning processes largely by themselves, by selecting their own priorities within educational foundation studies. This paper focused on the relationship between individually-chosen educational specializations, self-perceived competence in these chosen fields, and the measured educational knowledge. The study among teacher education graduates in the German state North Rhine-Westphalia showed that the individually chosen priorities within educational courses varied greatly; however, a focus on topics like classroom teaching, learning and development, and creating school environments was discernable. Results revealed that graduates with certain courses of specializations showed a significant higher level of knowledge in self-report in according areas. However, there were only small significant correlations between the self-reported competencies and the educational knowledge measured by the test. The results of the standardized test of educational knowledge indicated that the graduates in fact achieved better test results in their prioritized fields of studies. This suggests that individual course selection in educational foundations does have an effect on subsequent educational knowledge.     

Frame Intensity Effects of Television News Stories About a High-Visibility Protest Issue

This study investigated the effects of the intensity of the protest paradigm frame in news stories about social protests. In contrast to previous research, this experiment examined framing effects in the context of a highly visible and familiar issue. The intensity of the application of the protest paradigm frame and its attendant signifying elements and framing devices were manipulated in television news stories about pro-choice and pro-life protests. Specifically, the high-intensity protest paradigm frame conditions were more critical of the protesters. We tested six hypotheses regarding whether this greater frame intensity would lead viewers to be more negative toward the protesters. Results showed significant main effects of frame intensity for some dependent measures but not others. The findings offer more evidence of framing effects but also suggest limitations on their influence.     

Noun phrases in interactive query expansion and document ranking

The paper presents several techniques for selecting noun phrases for interactive query expansion following pseudo-relevance feedback and a new phrase-based document ranking method. A combined syntactico-statistical method was used for the selection of phrases for query expansion. Several statistical measures of phrase selection were evaluated. Experiments were also conducted studying the effectiveness of noun phrases in document ranking. One of the major problems in phrase-based document retrieval is weighting of overlapping and non-contiguous word sequences in documents. The paper presents a new method of phrase weighting, which addressed this problem, and its evaluation on the TREC dataset.     

Graphemes as Motor Units in the Acquisition of Writing Skills

This study examined whether the graphemic structure of words modulates the timing of handwriting production during the acquisition of writing skills. This is particularly important during the acquisition period because phonological recoding skills are determinant in the elaboration of orthographic representations. First graders wrote seven-letter bi-syllabic words on a digitiser. We measured movement duration and fluency and evaluated reading performance. In Experiment 1, the words varied in number of graphemes and grapheme structure. In Experiment 2, the words varied in graphemic structure but the number of graphemes was held constant. The results revealed that the children wrote the first syllable of the words grapheme-by-grapheme, irrespective of the number of letters that composed them. They prepared the movement to produce the first grapheme before starting to write. The following graphemes were processed on-line. They then prepared the movement to write the second syllable. The progressive decrease of duration and dysfluency values towards the end of the word indicates that the children prepared the entire syllable in advance. Movement time and dysfluency measures presented very similar patterns in the two experiments. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between reading performance and handwriting measures. The grapheme and syllable structure of the words therefore modulates the timing of motor production during handwriting acquisition. Once the children have learned the phonological recoding rules, they apply them systematically, irrespectively of the size of the graphemes they have to write.