Perspectives on pedagogical change: instructor and student experiences of a newly implemented undergraduate engineering dynamics curriculum*

Engineering education has been slow to adopt research-based educational innovations. Few prior works on such adoption have investigated the combined classroom experiences of instructors and students when such innovations are being implemented. Therefore, this work focuses on the lived experiences of an instructor and her students when adopting an active, blended, and collaborative learning environment, known as Freeform, in a second-year dynamics course. Weekly reflections from the instructor were processed alongside student interviews using Thematic Analysis to discern prominent themes in their perspectives for comparison and discussion. The results indicate that the instructor navigated internal tensions between her previous instructional preferences and the philosophy and resources of Freeform. Similarly, students had to adapt to this new philosophy and suite of resources that were uncommon for their institution. Ultimately, this work highlights the contextual natures of teaching and learning, and how situational factors can influence educational innovation.     

School English,literature and the knowledge-base question

This article takes up questions about knowledge and the school curriculum with respect to literary studies within subject English. Its intention is to focus on literary studies in English from the context of current waves of curriculum reform, rather than as part of the conversations primarily within the field of English, to raise questions about the knowledge agenda, and the knowledge-base agenda for teaching and teacher education. The selection of texts and form of study of literature within the English curriculum has long been an area of controversy. Without assuming a particular position on knowledge in this area, this article shows that important questions of what knowledge-base teachers are expected to bring to their work are elided both in current regulations and debates, and in research on ‘good teaching’ in this area. If ‘literary studies’ (as a discipline or university major) is itself an unstable and changing field, what kind of knowledge does a good English teacher bring to their work? This paper takes up these questions in the context of the Australian Curriculum and standards for teacher registration, but it also points to the way these issues about knowledge are of broader relevance for researchers and teacher education.     

Matters of Form: Questions of Race,Identity, Design,and the U.S. Census

This case examines how functionalist approaches manifest culturally based on users’ contexts. The authors conduct a critical visual semiotic analysis of the race and Hispanic origin questions on the 2010 U.S. Census form, demonstrating how incongruities in design potentially harm people. This demonstrates a need for adding critical analyses to design and research and it refocuses the Society for Technical Communication’s value of promoting the public good on to design and documentation in order to fight injustice.     

Constructing collective memory for (de)colonisation: Taiwanese images in history textbooks, 1950–1987

ABSTRACT

History curriculum and textbooks, as a key mechanism of constructing collective memory, play a critical role in shaping national, social, and cultural imaginations of the young. This paper analyses history textbooks in Taiwan during the martial law period (1950–1987) to explore narratives about Taiwan and examines the ways in which those narratives as collective memory created particular images of Taiwan. The analysis indicates that history textbooks delineated two threads of narrative, one is a Sinicisation narrative, namely Chinese colonisation, and the other is Chinese restoration narrative. The Sinicisation narrative constructed particular collective memory about Taiwan being of Chinese descent and an inheritor of Chinese culture, lost and restored by China after World War II. In the narrative of restoration, Taiwan was imagined as reborn to be the model child of Chinese descent that was obligated to emancipate all Chinese compatriots from Communism and to ultimately realise the goal of Chinese reunification. These narratives served for emancipating Taiwan from Japanese colonisation and constructed particular collective memory that Sinicised Taiwan for Chinese restoration. The image of Taiwan as Chinese descent, identified with Chinese culture, has endured to the present and continue to shape imaginations and discourses about Taiwan in the present.     

Participatory creativities: developing a research design for children’s pastoral encounters with the natural world

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the author discusses the interrelationship between creativity, children’s experiences of the natural world and pastoral education. Based on a research design developed whilst undertaking a professional doctorate in education (EdD), and grounded in a theoretical framework of children’s rights, the author explores the creative uncertainties of collaboratively researching children’s educational experiences with nature. The paper considers the ways in which the research design supports a pastoral care agenda, whilst encouraging the emergence of ‘creative artefacts’, alongside the extent to which the focus of the research, encounters with the natural world, might be deemed pastorally minded in its own right. The children who have participated in the research then draw the paper to a close, sharing what their involvement in the project has meant to them. Images and excerpts of children’s own creative reflections are offered as illustration of the powerful confluence of the Creative and the Pastoral.     

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.     

Effects of different sequences of examples and problems on motivation and learning

Recent research has shown that example study only (EE) and example-problem pairs (EP) were more effective (i.e., higher test performance) and efficient (i.e., attained with less effort invested in learning and/or test tasks) than problem-example pairs (PE) and problem solving only (PP). We conducted two experiments to investigate how different example and problem-solving sequences would affect motivational (i.e., self-efficacy, perceived competence, and topic interest) and cognitive (i.e., effectiveness and efficiency) aspects of learning. In Experiment 1, 124 technical students learned a mathematical task with the help of EEEE, EPEP, PEPE, or PPPP and then completed a posttest. Students in the EEEE Condition showed higher posttest performance, self-efficacy, and perceived competence, attained with less effort investment, than students in the EPEP and PPPP Condition. Surprisingly, there were no differences between the EPEP and PEPE Condition on any of the outcome measures. We hypothesized that, because the tasks were relevant for technical students, starting with a problem might not have negatively affected their motivation. Therefore, we replicated the experiment with a different sample of 81 teacher training students. Experiment 2 showed an efficiency benefit of EEEE over EPEP, PEPE, and PPPP. However, only EEEE resulted in greater posttest performance, self-efficacy, and perceived competence than PPPP. We again did not find any differences between the EPEP and PEPE Condition. These results suggest that, at least when short training phases are used, studying examples (only) is more preferable than problem solving only for learning. Moreover, this study showed that example study (only) also enhances motivational aspects of learning whereas problem solving only does not positively affect students’ motivation at all.     

地方课程政策供给与学校课程改革——基于京、沪、浙三地近年来义务教育课程政策分析的思考

我国新世纪以来的基础教育课程政策赋予了学校一定的课程开发权,但整体来看效果不尽如人意。而近年来京、沪、浙等地在课程政策方面进行了一些探索,推动了学校层面的课程改革,涌现出了一批有影响的课程改革先进学校。他们调整地方课程计划、协调课程运行、改革评价方式、扩大学校的课程权限,协同建设学校课程资源等,为学校课程改革提供了空间支持、权力支持、资源支持、能力支持和方向引领。这表明地方课程管理的政策供给是制约学校课程改革的重要因素。地方课程政策推动学校课程改革,要赋予学校课程建设的权力和空间,对学校课程权限的规定要具体、明确,要规范地方的课程管理行为。应制定和颁布国家课程管理指南、地方课程管理指南和学校课程管理指南。     

高职计算机课程教学中学生创新能力的培养研究

在高职计算机课程教学中,培养学生的创新能力非常重要,能够增强学生对工作岗位的适应性。但目前高职计算机课程教学中存在诸多不足,影响了对学生创新能力的培养。因此,有必要采取改进措施,从多个方面入手,改革教学方式方法,如创设趣味情境,激发学生创新热情;设计开放任务,促进学生创新思考;组织创意大赛,培养学生创新能力;鼓励质疑探究,发展学生创新思维。只有这样,才能有效培养学生的创新能力,提升高职计算机课程教学效果。     

化工设计课程的教学改革与实践

化工设计是化学工程与工艺专业的最具综合性的课程,能体现复杂工程问题中的基础理论运用能力。通过教学改革,在夯实课程基础及完善课程内容的基础上,通过改善化工设计课程的教学方法,提高授课教师水平,进而在不同层面提升了学生的设计能力和工程思维能力,以达到满足新时代经济社会对人才质量要求的目的。