The chimera of the competency-based approach to teaching mathematics: a study of carpentry purchases for home projects

Educational Studies in Mathematics - The competency-based approach conceives mathematics as a necessary tool for dealing with daily-life tasks. Many studies have focused on examining the low math...     

Students' privacy concerns in learning analytics: Model development

Understanding students' privacy concerns is an essential first step toward effective privacy-enhancing practices in learning analytics (LA). In this study, we develop and validate a model to explore the students' privacy concerns (SPICE) regarding LA practice in higher education. The SPICE model considers privacy concerns as a central construct between two antecedents—perceived privacy risk and perceived privacy control, and two outcomes—trusting beliefs and non-self-disclosure behaviours. To validate the model, data through an online survey were collected, and 132 students from three Swedish universities participated in the study. Partial least square results show that the model accounts for high variance in privacy concerns, trusting beliefs, and non-self-disclosure behaviours. They also illustrate that students' perceived privacy risk is a firm predictor of their privacy concerns. The students' privacy concerns and perceived privacy risk were found to affect their non-self-disclosure behaviours. Finally, the results show that the students' perceptions of privacy control and privacy risks determine their trusting beliefs. The study results contribute to understand the relationships between students' privacy concerns, trust and non-self-disclosure behaviours in the LA context. A set of relevant implications for LA systems' design and privacy-enhancing practices' development in higher education is offered.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Addressing students' privacy is critical for large-scale learning analytics (LA) implementation.
• Understanding students' privacy concerns is an essential first step to developing effective privacy-enhancing practices in LA.
• Several conceptual, not empirically validated frameworks focus on ethics and privacy in LA.

What this paper adds

• The paper offers a validated model to explore the nature of students' privacy concerns in LA in higher education.
• It provides an enhanced theoretical understanding of the relationship between privacy concerns, trust and self-disclosure behaviour in the LA context of higher education.
• It offers a set of relevant implications for LA researchers and practitioners.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Students' perceptions of privacy risks and privacy control are antecedents of students' privacy concerns, trust in the higher education institution and the willingness to share personal information.
• Enhancing students' perceptions of privacy control and reducing perceptions of privacy risks are essential for LA adoption and success.
• Contextual factors that may influence students' privacy concerns should be considered.

     

Planning as action research

Planning contains so much more than the written plan. Early in 2000, an invitation came from the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN), to people experienced in action research who might want to help plan and present an action research event for elementary school science teachers in Venezuela, South America, in Autumn 2000. This article analyses the outcomes from planning and enacting the resulting workshop to show how planning can be the subject of action research. It goes on to show how planning and teaching interact in a multifaceted way towards technical, practical and emancipatory ends. Planning and teaching are best seen as conversation, a conversation that is both synchronous and asynchronous.     

Cognitive attainment in online learning environments: matching cognitive and technological presence

To know whether students' achievements are the result of online interaction and not just a consequence of individual differences themselves, it seems essential to link the cognitive results to the students' online behavior (technological presence). In technological presence, interaction is based on the degree in which the online student senses the availability of, and connectedness with, other students, the teacher, and the context. Cognitive presence as a part of the interaction process of teaching and learning reflects the level of accomplishment in online learning environments (cognitive attainment). The purpose of this article is to show some evidence of the mutual influence of the students' technological behaviors and the students' cognitive factors in online learning environments – including teacher and instructional design factors. Two thousand one-hundred thirty written computer-mediated communications from 88 participants in four prototypical online learning activities have been analyzed for this purpose. The analysis shows the influence of technological presence on the quality of learning results of the online knowledge construction process. The conclusions point out the importance of considering technological presence as a new and complementary type of presence as it provides relevant information for instructional and technological design.     

The Scottish educational crisis of 2000: an analysis of the policy process of unification

The ‘exam results debacle’ of August 2000 provoked a crisis of confidence in Scottish education and appeared to reveal widespread discontent with the current Higher Still reform of post-16 education. For a time the political future of the reform seemed to hang in the balance. This is surprising because the reform incorporated the views of the consensus that emerged from the Howie debates of the early 1990s, and its development involved consultation on a wide scale. Subsequent debates blamed the leadership style of those, especially the Inspectorate, who steered the reform process; some commentators invoked Humes' (1986) analysis of the ‘leadership class’ of Scottish education. This paper argues that a full explanation must take account of Higher Still's character as a flexible, unified system. Compared with other types of reform, the introduction of a flexible unified system tends to involve more conflict between educational interests, and a policy process that is relatively centralized, ‘top-down’ and linear. An analysis of this process must take account of horizontal as well as vertical lines of conflict in education, and of the political weaknesses which prevented the leadership from articulating clear principles and priorities as a basis for conflict resolution. The paper concludes that Humes' analysis should be complemented by McPherson and Raab's (1988) account of Scottish educational policy-making as the interplay of pluralist and corporatist forces.     

Teacher-as-researcher: theory-into-practice

This introductory article establishes the foundation for a special issue of the American Annals of the Deaf on teacher action research. The authors first introduce the definition of the teacher-as-researcher model, formally known as teacher action research. Four elements of teacher action research are discussed in detail: cyclical, systematic, reflective, and collaborative. Next, the history of teacher action research is discussed. Subsequently, the multi-paradigmatic and multimethodological nature of teacher action research is proposed. Finally, as a means of guiding readers, the scope of the special issue is described. The introduction concludes with the suggestion that in-service and preservice teachers integrate theory into practice and engage in systematic inquiry into their own practice to develop the mindset necessary to cope with the pedagogical challenges they face on a daily basis.     

What is your prediction? Teaching the metacognitive skill of prediction to a class of sixth- and seventh-grade students who are deaf

The development of the metacognitive skill of prediction in deaf students in a middle school social studies classroom was explored in an action research study (Riel, 2006). After observation of this group of learners and assessment of current skills, a unit was developed that integrated the teaching of prediction into their study of the American Revolution. It was found that these students were already using some metacognitive skills in their social studies class, but through direct instruction they were able to make more and better predictions related to the content being studied. The study demonstrates how the social studies curriculum provided an opportunity for students to learn and implement metacognitive skills that helped them to understand the cause-and-effect relationships in history and eventually to become more active readers during a reading task.     

Recycling Piaget: Posthumanism and making children’s knowledge matter

A growing body of research incorporates children’s perspectives into the research process. If we are to take children’s perspectives seriously in education research, research methodologies must be capable of addressing issues that matter to children. This article engages in a theoretical discussion that considers how a posthuman research methodology can support such an effort. Piaget’s early and lesser known qualitative studies on children’s conception of the world are re-read along with Karen Barad’s posthuman theory, using Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity. Through a plastic reading of Piaget and Barad, I consider how a posthuman theoretical framework might contribute to research seeking to access children’s perspectives. Before concluding, I reflect on some ethical concerns regarding posthuman research in education.