Sensors,programming and devices in Art Education sessions. One case in the context of primary education / Sensores,programación y dispositivos en sesiones de Educación Artística. Un caso en el contexto de Educación Primaria

The pedagogical integration of computing is interesting in educational contexts based on the contributions of Seymour Papert and Wing’s concept of computational thinking. Integrating arts in education can lead to the design of activities using Scratch combined with devices. The main goal is to evaluate the integration of computational thinking in art education making use of technological resources, sensor cards and minicomputers, with a student-centred pedagogical approach. This research assesses the results of a control group of 35 students and an experimental group of 109 students in four different schools, using Mann-Whitney’s U-test for independent samples assessing ‘Active Learning’, ‘computational concepts’ and ‘fun’ scales. Applying data triangulation, and consistent with design-based research, the results of interviews and focus groups reinforced the results obtained in the aforementioned test, providing validity to the study. There are advantages regarding student interest, motivation and commitment related to programming technologies in art and education, particularly pedagogical sessions with music. Handling devices, sensors and Raspberry Pi provides participating students with a factor of commitment and enthusiasm, with significant improvements. Working with coding and devices brings an additional advantage in the development of computational thinking and digital competence. The results show an increase in creativity and artistic competence related to the ability to create music from the activities and technological resources described in the technological intervention.     

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.     

Teachers’ enactments of curriculum: Fidelity to Procedure versus Fidelity to Goal for scientific argumentation

Fidelity of implementation (FOI) has received attention in calls for funding and research; however, there are numerous ways of conceptualising and measuring this construct. We argue that this conceptualisation is important for recent reform efforts focused on science practices. Consequently, we explored FOI in the context of the enactment of a middle-school curriculum focused on one particular science practice, argumentation. We coded videos of five teachers’ enactments of argumentation lessons using two different fidelity coding schemes. First, Fidelity to Procedure targeted teachers’ adherence to the order and types of procedures. Second, Fidelity to Goal examined teachers’ adherence to the overarching argumentation goals. This analysis resulted in case studies that illustrate distinct patterns in the teachers’ curriculum enactments. One case in particular, Ms Newbury, received a low score for Fidelity to Procedure, but a high score for Fidelity to Goal. She altered procedures to provide her students, all of whom were English Language Learners, with different linguistic supports, but maintained the overarching argumentation goals. Consequently, we argue that FOI for goals may better capture whether teachers’ enactments are supporting students in the science practices. Furthermore, the results suggest the importance of educative curriculum including rationales for the curricular goals.     

FísicActiva: applying active learning strategies to a large engineering lecture

This paper presents and analyses the results obtained by applying Active Learning techniques in overcrowded Physics lectures at the University of the Republic, Uruguay. The course referred to is Physics 1, the first Physics course that all students of the Faculty of Engineering take in their first semester for all the Engineering-related careers. Qualitative and quantitative data corresponding to three semesters are shown and discussed, indicating that the students that attended these lectures outperformed the students that followed the course in the traditional way: the pass rates increased, whereas the failure rates decreased. The students highly valued this methodology, in particular, the interactive and relaxed dynamics, highlighting the concern of professors to answer questions by means of new questions so as to promote reasoning. The results obtained point to a work path that deserves to be deepened and extended to other Engineering courses.     

The pedagogical benefits of enacting positive psychology practices through a student–faculty partnership approach to academic development

Academic development that supports the enactment of positive psychology practices through student–faculty pedagogical partnership can increase faculty confidence and capacity in their first year in a new institution. When student partners practice affirmation and encouragement of strengths-based growth, processes of faculty acclimation and self-authoring can be accelerated. This article presents a student–faculty pedagogical partnership program and positive psychology practices that focus on faculty strengths and capacities as the foundation for reinforcing and revising existing pedagogical strategies and for sustaining energy for continued development. It combines collaborative autoethnographic and comparative case study approaches to investigate the pedagogical benefits of these practices.     

The Hispanic Experience in Physical Education Teacher Education Programs: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of Hispanic faculty involved in physical education teacher education programs at predominantly White colleges and universities in the United States. The study was positioned in the theoretical framework of organizational socialization. Participants were Hispanic (n = 6) faculty from various kinesiology-based programs in tenure-track positions at institutions of higher education in the United States. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and transcribed, triangulated, and analyzed with constant comparative procedures. We uncovered the following themes: (a) underrepresented, (b) socialized, and (c) cultured and determined. The study’s findings magnify the need for faculty and administrators to heighten their awareness and implement strategies to improve the organizational socialization of Hispanic faculty, particularly at predominantly White doctoral-granting colleges and universities. This means, for instance, identifying strategies to recruit, prepare, retain, and mentor Hispanic faculty at such institutions.     

Discussion of competences at university level: review of the competency profile of social educators / Discusión de competencias en el ámbito universitario: revisión del perfil del educador social

Training in competences helps university students develop in a comprehensive way that is oriented towards working in their chosen profession. The profession focused on in this study is that of social educator. Degree programmes related to this profession are relatively new and their implementation is also open to variation. As a result of this, a review of the competency profile of the profession is considered necessary. The study presented here aims to validate the competences of this profession by means of expert judgement. The panel of experts assesses the relevance and clarity of each element, as well as giving their opinions on them. The contributions provided result in a set of qualitative and quantitative data whose analysis helps to redefine a profile comprising 23 competences distributed across two dimensions: basic competences (14) and professional competences (9).     

Apprehending Mathematical Structure: A Case Study of Coming to Understand a Commutative Ring

Abstract algebra courses tend to take one of two pedagogical routes: from examples of mathematics structures through definitions to general theorems, or directly from definitions to general theorems. The former route seems to be based on the implicit pedagogical intention that students will use their understanding of particular examples of an algebraic structure to get a sense of those properties which form the basis of the fundamental definitions. We will explain the transition from examples to abstract algebra as a series of shifts of attention and in this paper we will use a case study to examine the initial shift, which we will call apprehending a structure, and examine how one student came to apprehend the structure of the commutative ring Z₉₉.