Writing to learn writing skills – a case study

The paper describes a case study in which the main objective is to understand how engineering students can improve their writing skills, regarding spelling and syntax, when taught specifically on these issues. The methodology Writing To Learn is applied in two courses and, making use of the written texts, the students’ writing skills are assessed and evaluated. In one course, writing skills are taught and assessed and in the other they are only assessed. The comparison allows conclusions on the success of teaching writing skills, the influence of text styles and the differences between basic and advanced writing skills. It was found that writing skills were successfully taught, particularly with regard to basic writing skills. Advanced writing errors are twice as common as basic writing errors. Schematic writing styles favour a reduced number of writing errors.     

PGDnet: a new problem‐solving virtual learning environment

The purpose of this paper was to provide information about the virtual learning environment known as PGDnet (the Spanish acronym for Plataforma de Gestión Docente or Educational Management Platform in English), which was developed by the innovative education group at the Technical University of Madrid known as “Nuevas metodologías docentes en ingeniería mecánica y fabricación” (New Teaching Methodologies in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing). This tool has been created on an ad hoc basis to cover specific teaching requirements for some engineering courses, which would be difficult to implement on general educational platforms such as Moodle or Blackboard. PGDnet was essentially created as an online engineering problem‐solving tool. These exercises are checked and corrected automatically, providing students with their final and partial scores, and with the solutions to these various sections. A stochastic programming model selects different exercises each time that an activity is performed and attaches the tables, graphs, figures and annexes that are needed for their resolution in each case. As is common with these types of tools, PGDnet provides effective management of publication and delivery dates for the proposed work, and contains records and databases, which allow the stored information to be processed. Its main features include ease of use, reliability and great versatility as a specific tool in the area of technical university education.     

Dissemination of public health information: key tools utilised by the NECOBELAC network in Europe and Latin America

Background: Open Access (OA) to scientific information is an important step forward in communication patterns, yet we still need to reinforce OA principles to promote a cultural change of traditional publishing practices. The advantages of free access to scientific information are even more evident in public health where knowledge is directly associated with human wellbeing. Objectives: An OA ‘consolidation’ initiative in public health is presented to show how the involvement of people and institutions is fundamental to create awareness on OA and promote a cultural change. This initiative is developed within the project NEtwork of COllaboration Between Europe and Latin American Caribbean countries (NECOBELAC), financed by the European Commission. Methods: Three actions are envisaged: Capacity building through a flexible and sustainable training programme on scientific writing and OA publishing; creation of training tools based on semantic web technologies; development of a network of supporting institutions. Results: In 2010–2011, 23 training initiatives were performed involving 856 participants from 15 countries; topic maps on scientific publication and OA were produced; 195 institutions are included in the network. Conclusions: Cultural change in scientific dissemination practices is a long process requiring a flexible approach and strong commitment by all stakeholders.     

Relational engagement: Proportional reasoning with bilingual Latino/a students

In this paper, we explored how engagement developed over time during a proportional reasoning unit for a group of US bilingual Latino/a students, with particular attention to aspects of social and cultural activity that supported students’ engagement. Our findings suggest that student mathematical engagement developed primarily as a relational process characterized by students’ social relations across time, their understandings about their relationships with mathematics, and the important relations emerging across proportional reasoning ideas.     

Teachers' self-esteem and self-efficacy

A web-based questionnaire was sent to all elementary and middle school teachers in Iceland. The population list, with e-mail addresses, was obtained from the teaching union. The teachers were asked to indicate their major, as well as their experience in teaching Icelandic as classroom teachers or subject teachers. They then rated their competence in teaching Icelandic on a scale from 1–10. Responses were received from 1033 elementary and middle school teachers. Of all teachers, 83.9% had taught Icelandic as classroom teachers and 37.3% had taught Icelandic as subject teachers. All teachers rated their competence as high. Statistically, Icelandic majors and older teachers were significantly more efficacious than others in teaching Icelandic. Those with the lowest competence ratings in teaching Icelandic were sports and home studies majors. However, teachers from all majors had taught Icelandic as classroom teachers, and a significant number of them had taught Icelandic as a subject.     

Developing reading comprehension through collaborative learning

The present study explores the development and promotion of reading comprehension in primary school students, in the context of the implementation of an educational programme called ‘Learning Together’ (LT). The programme, which centred on collaborative learning activities, was designed to promote oral and written communication in primary school Mexican children. Analyses revealed that children who participated in the LT programme, in comparison with students in a control condition, produced higher‐quality written summaries of texts they had read, both when working in teams and when working individually. This suggests that the LT participants appropriated and transferred the text comprehension strategies promoted, so that they could apply these strategies effectively not only in collaborative contexts but also independently, that is, in a self‐regulated and autonomous fashion. The theoretical and practical implications of the work are discussed in relation to understanding and promoting oracy and literacy processes in primary school students.     

Children’s Models about Colours in Nahuatl-Speaking Communities

This paper presents the development and structure of indigenous children’s ideas about mixing colours as well as their ideas about each colour, derived from their traditions. The children were interviewed both at school and outside it, and an educational proposal was implemented. Ideas expressed in the school context were analysed using the partial possible model, which states that the inferences and explanations used to describe a subject consist of constricting ideas, rules of correspondence, and a set of phenomenological inferences about processes. After identifying these components in the children’s ideas, we developed models to describe their conceptions about mixing colours. We employed a different approach to analyse children’s ideas related to their cultural context. The results showed that children change from a conception that focuses on colours as entities that do not change and as properties of objects (model 1) to the idea that colour represents a quality of substances or objects that can be modified by mixing colours (model 2). Cultural context analysis showed that stories are independent from one another and that they are not connected to colour mixing processes, only to the actions of colour on people. We concluded that students generate independent constructions between school and cultural knowledge.     

Are teachers’ approaches to teaching responsive to individual student variation? A two-level structural equation modeling

In the framework of teacher’s approaches to teaching, this study investigates the relationship between student-related variables (i.e., study time, class absence, domain knowledge, and homework completion), students’ approaches to learning, and teachers’ approaches to teaching using structural equation modeling (SEM) with two independent data samples. The participants were 61 biology teachers and their corresponding 1,518 high school students (12th grade). The first sample was used to fit the model, and the second sample was used to analyze the consistency of the data derived from the first sample. Using a two-level SEM analysis, we established whether the effects found at the individual level varied significantly at class level. The students’ approaches to learning were related to the teachers’ approaches to teaching as a function of the hypotheses established in the model, although the effect size was smaller than expected. However, approximately 48 % of the variance of the surface approach and 46 % of the deep approach sat at class level. At the individual level, the results of this study suggest that students’ approaches to learning significantly explain their teachers’ approaches to teaching and, thus, constitute important contextual variables. At the class level, the way students learn appears to be closely associated with class-related variables. Our data stresses the importance of promoting educational opportunities (e.g., school-based courses) for teachers to reflect upon the teaching methodologies used in class.     

Professional role and identity of Icelandic preschool teachers: effects of stakeholders’ views

In this article, we explore the reality of Icelandic preschool teachers who are, as in most other countries, predominantly female. The gendered nature of the role and the current identity adopted by preschool teachers appear to impact on their perceived status and professionalism. In this process, stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE), as well as the preschool teachers themselves, play important parts. The question that underlies the paper is: ‘How do the views of preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE affect the preschool teachers’ professional identity?’ The data used to answer the question are from focus group research carried out with preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE in one community in Iceland. These stakeholders, besides preschool teachers and staff within the preschools, were parents, professionals at the municipal preschool office and politicians. The theoretical perspective informing the methodology of the research was ‘symbolic interactionism’ and the concept of ‘democratic professionalism’ was used as an aspirational framework to analyse the data. The findings reveal connections between the ideology relating to the preschool teachers’ educational role, their limited leadership and the gendered views of stakeholders. At the end of the paper, implications and recommendations for preschool teachers are suggested.