信息技术与数字电子技术教学整合的实践探索──从抛锚式教学看

抛锚式教学强调在真实情景中,借助信息技术创设的环境使学生由知识的灌输对象转变为信息加工的主体、知识意义的主动建构者;使教师由知识的传授者转变为学生主动建构意义的帮助者、促进者.运用抛锚式教学模式的原则,从两个方面探索了信息技术与数字电子技术教学整合的教学实践.     

网络教学有效互动的实现

互动是网络教学中必不可少的组成部分,对网络教育人才培养目标、学生学习质量的提高、学生的学习态度有着十分重要的意义;网络教学互动不足受计算机及网络技术的使用、学生所处的位置和学生对教师的认同感等因素的影响;网络教学有效互动构建对网络教学软硬件设备、学生交互技术使用培训、教师的专业素质提出要求,尤其是网络教育者要从师生互动和生生互动方面采取可行措施来促进有效互动的实现。     

作文教学中渗透心理教育的实践与思考

作文教学在渗透心理教育方面具有得天独厚的优势,可以通过创设期待,用目标激发学生的写作热情,通过评价培养学生的主体性,激发学生的潜能,通过鼓励学生自省,以文达情,促进完美人格的形成。     

‘You should collaborate,children’: a study of teachers’ design and facilitation of children’s collaboration around touchscreens

Touchscreens are being integrated into classrooms to support collaborative learning, yet little empirical evidence has been presented regarding how children collaborate using touchscreens in classrooms. In particular, minimal research has been directed towards how teachers can design for and guide children’s touchscreen-based collaboration. Concurrently, the Programme for International Student Assessment and other international organisations have highlighted collaboration and ICT skills as crucial competencies for mastery in the twenty-first century. Accordingly, this article presents three narrative cases from a touchscreen project in Denmark, where 41 second-grade children and three teachers from two classrooms participated. The cases are based on ethnographic field data and 150 hours of video footage of natural occurring interaction in classroom settings. The ethnographic field data and video footage are examined using a collaboration model and embodied interaction analysis. Each case presents features of the subtle processes of children’s collaboration around touchscreens and teachers’ role in designing and guiding such collaboration. Thus, this article illustrates teachers’ and children’s situated processes of integrating touchscreens for collaborative activities in their classrooms.     

A theory of instruction for introductory programming skills

ABSTRACT

Background and Context: Current introductory instruction fails to identify, structure, and sequence the many skills involved in programming.

Objective: We proposed a theory which identifies four distinct skills that novices learn incrementally. These skills are tracing, writing syntax, comprehending templates (reusable abstractions of programming knowledge), and writing code with templates. We theorized that explicit instruction of these skills decreases cognitive demand.

Method: We conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study and compared students’ exercise completion rates, error rates, ability to explain code, and engagement when learning to program. We compared material that reflects this theory to more traditional material that does not distinguish between skills.

Findings: Teaching skills incrementally resulted in improved completion rate on practice exercises, and decreased error rate and improved understanding of the post-test.

Implications: By structuring programming skills such that they can be taught explicitly and incrementally, we can inform instructional design and improve future research on understanding how novice programmers develop understanding.     

Instructional methods and languages in class: A comparison of two teaching approaches and two teaching languages in the field of intercultural learning

The article presents the results of a quasi-experimental intervention study with a 2 × 2 factorial design. We implemented a problem-based intercultural learning unit in four secondary schools (grades 9 to 12) and varied the teaching approach (analytical/affective-experiential) and the language of instruction (German/English). The learning unit covered six 45-min lessons and was conducted in nine school courses (n = 143). Five additional school courses (n = 66) served as a control group. In all experimental groups, students engaged with critical incidents. These were either analysed (analytical focus) or acted out as role plays (affective-experiential focus). In addition, students analysed film clips (analytical focus) or participated in a simulation game (affective-experiential focus). The experimental groups outperformed the control group in the post-test, which required the analysis of critical incidents. Both teaching approaches were equally effective; however, students evaluated affective-experiential learning more positively. Using a foreign language for teaching did not impair performance.     

But good strategy instructors are constructivists!

The general nature of constructivist educators' views of teaching are overviewed first, followed by analysis of good strategy instruction in constructivist terms. That good strategy instruction is scaffolded teaching is particularly emphasized. Scaffolded teacher-student interactions necessitate that students experience unique instruction that stimulates a great deal of student construction of to-be-acquired competencies. The only important difference between good strategy teaching and teaching recommended by constructivist educators is in the explicitness of instruction, with relatively greater teacher input about what is to be learned during good strategy instruction.     

Local language a medium of instruction: challenges and way forward

The paper reports on a participatory action research study conducted in six rural primary schools in Uganda in 2013 to establish why children taught in the local language had difficulties in reading and writing. Findings through interviews, focus group discussions, reviews of exercise books and lesson observations indicated that though it was easier for pupils to learn the concepts in the local language; challenges ranging from poor translation, inadequate teachers’ language proficiency, lack of instructional materials, high pupils’ enrolment, lack of administrative support and teacher-centred approach of teaching, affected pupils’ learning to read and write. Participants recommended adopting the child-centred pedagogy, incorporating instructional materials, conducting continuous assessment and recording pupils’ competencies attained in reading and writing. Teachers need to engage more in Participatory action research in order to reflect on their practices and pupils’ learning, and collaboratively decide what works best and what needs improvement in their classrooms.