BBC Education: the effectiveness and evaluation of educational broadcasting

BBC Education provides educational broadcasts for people of all ages‐‐ for young children, for pupils and for students in educational institutions including the Open University, as well as for adult learners in more informal groups and for those who are listening or viewing at home. All these broadcasts are supported by printed materials of various kinds and, in many cases, by back‐up services such as telephone referral facilities. BBC Education's services are provided as part of the BBC's public service remit. This paper outlines the contextual factors which BBC Education seeks to take into account and the research measures it takes to ensure the continued relevance of its output.     

Measuring the perceived quality of an AR-based learning application: a multidimensional model

Augmented reality (AR) technologies could enhance learning in several ways. The quality of an AR-based educational platform is a combination of key features that manifests in usability, usefulness, and enjoyment for the learner. In this paper, we present a multidimensional model to measure the quality of an AR-based application as perceived by students. The model is specified by a second-order factor (perceived quality) and three dimensions: ergonomic quality, learning quality, and hedonic quality. The purpose of this model is to embody previous research into a coherent framework for the evaluation of AR-based educational platforms and to provide guidance for researchers and practitioners. The model was empirically validated on a Chemistry learning scenario and the results confirm the importance of both the learning and hedonic quality.     

Evaluation of a mobile information system in context

The motivation for this work has been to provide relevant information to the right situation for mobile phone users. We have iteratively developed applications for travellers and tourists to provide a general travel guide with local tourist information. This used a combination of wireless tag technology and information from content service providers. The paper presents our evaluation methodology and how we used it to develop the applications.     

Moral reasoning patterns and influential factors in the context of environmental problems

This study investigated pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) moral reasoning patterns and the factors underlying these reasoning patterns. Local and non-local environmental dilemmas were used to examine moral reasoning patterns. An explanatory design was used with the collection and analysis of quantitative data, which was subsequently refined using qualitative interview data. For the quantitative part of the study, PSTs were asked to comment on four local and non-local environmental dilemmas (i.e. deforestation, e-waste, oil spills, and global warming). The responses were categorized as ecocentric, anthropocentric, or non-environmental reasoning. The findings showed that the participants’ moral reasoning focused on both ecocentric and anthropocentric perspectives, with a few displaying non-environmental reasoning. Concern for environmental problems was related to perceptions of whether the issue was directly related to nature, and was independent of whether the issues were local or non-local. The Moral Decision Making Interview protocol was used in the qualitative part of the study. Analysis revealed that the participants’ moral decisions were based on their resolutions in situational context and their concerns showed variations in their moral reasoning due to different factors like, effect on human life, formal principles, notion of rights, moral emotions, potential harm to others, and popular culture.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PREDICT–OBSERVE–EXPLAIN TECHNIQUE IN PROBING STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING ABOUT ACID–BASE CHEMISTRY: A CASE FOR THE CONCEPTS OF pH, pOH, AND STRENGTH

The present study describes high school students’ conceptions about acids and bases in terms of pH, pOH, microscopic level, strength, and concentration. A total of 27 high school students participated in the study. The data was collected using 3 POE tasks and a semi-structured interview. The data analysis demonstrated that most of the students had poor understanding related to a drawing of weak and strong acids. In addition, the findings revealed that the POE’s were effective in terms of gathering students’ predictions and reasons for the prediction of outcomes in an open-ended format. The POE tasks also revealed that some of the students had misconceptions regarding pH and pOH. The students believed that pH was a measurement of the acidity, while pOH was a measurement of the basicity. The findings obtained have certain implications for the secondary chemistry program.     

Teachers' perceptions regarding school principals' coaching skills

The purpose of this study was to find out teachers' perceptions about school principals' coaching skills. The study was carried out within qualitative research methods. The study group included 76 teachers in Elazig and 73 teachers in Kahramanmara? provinces of Turkey. All the data were processed using Nvivo 9 software. The results indicate that teachers' perceptions about their principals' coaching skills do not differ according to the age, marital status, sex and education status variables. The teachers think that their principals are successful at some coaching skills such as being experienced and knowledgeable, being an effective listener and setting achievable targets. Principals fail to show empathy, communicate effectively, praise, give feedback, motivate and have effective inquiry coaching skills. According to teachers' opinions, being a role model, showing empathy, praising, effectively communicating and motivating are important coaching skills that they would show if they were to sit in the principal chair.     

The Nature and Role of Thought Experiments in Solving Conceptual Physics Problems

This study describes the possible variations of thought experiments in terms of their nature, purpose, and reasoning resources adopted during the solution of conceptual physics problems. A phenomenographic research approach was adopted for this study. Three groups of participants with varying levels of physics knowledge—low, medium, and high level—were selected in order to capture potential variations. Five participants were selected within each level group and the study was conducted with fifteen participants in total. Think aloud and retrospective questioning strategies were used throughout the individually conducted problem solving sessions to capture variations in the participants’ thinking processes. The analysis of the data showed that thought experiments were actively used cognitive tools by participants from all there levels while working on the problems. Four different thought experiment structures were observed and categorized as limiting case, extreme case, simple case, and familiar case. It was also observed that participants conducted thought experiments for different purposes such as prediction, proof, and explanation. The reasoning resources behind the thought experiment processes were classified in terms of observed facts, intuitive principles, and scientific concepts. The results of the analysis suggested that thought experiments used as a creative reasoning tool for scientists can also be a productive tool for students. It was argued that instructional practices enriched with thought experiments and related practices not only reveal hidden elements of students’ reasoning but also provide students opportunities to advance their inquiry skills through thought experimentation processes.     

Structure of fractional spaces generated by second order difference operators

A second order difference operator with nonlocal boundary conditions is considered. The positivity of this operator in Banach spaces is proved. Moreover, the structure of the fractional spaces generated by this operator is investigated. Furthermore, the positivity of this operator in Hölder spaces is proved.