Learning mechanisms in multidisciplinary teamwork with real customers and open-ended problems

Recently, there has been a trend towards adding a multidisciplinary or multicultural element to traditional monodisciplinary project courses in computing and engineering. In this article, we examine the implications of multidisciplinarity for students' learning experiences during a one-semester project course for real customers. We use a qualitative research approach and base our analysis on students' learning reports on three instances of a project course titled Multidisciplinary working life project. The main contribution of this article is the unified theoretical picture of the learning mechanisms stemming from multidisciplinarity. Our main conclusions are that (1) students generally have a positive view of multidisciplinarity; (2) multidisciplinary teams enable students to better identify their own expertise, which leads to increased occupational identity; and (3) learning experiences are not fixed, as team spirit and student attitude play an important role in how students react to challenging situations arising from introduction of the multidisciplinarity.     

Successful design of learning solutions being situation aware

Education is increasingly enhanced by technology, and at the same time, the rapid pace of technology innovation and growing demand of consumers introduces challenges for providers of technological learning solutions. This paper investigates Finnish small and medium size companies who either develop or deliver technological solutions for education. Twelve companies were interviewed in order to capture the entrepreneurial narratives of successful design of learning solutions. Data was analyzed based on a conceptual framework. The framework draws on the situation awareness concept, meaning that we seek to answer the question how the participant enterprises examine relevant elements in their environment with regard to their development process. The results show that all the mature companies included in the study have well balanced situation awareness, but amongst the incubating and accelerating enterprises, balanced profiles are rare.     

The Learning Intensive: Examining the Counseling Skills Acquisition between Hybrid Instructional Formats

International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling - Traditionally, counselor education instruction has taken place in the face-to-face format. However, with the shift toward online learning,...     

For the oppressed teacher: stay real!

This article addresses teachers’ challenges in relation to other stakeholders, in light of funding policies and evaluation mechanisms. In particular, a condition where pressures toward high pass rates or ‘throughput’ in the degree system provide a good negotiation position for students with little learning orientation as to their aspirations after credit units is considered. This condition is intensi?ed by the fact that the mere completion goals of non-learning-oriented students align with the collective goals of administration (university), given the throughput-based funding policies. A teacher willing to honorably exercise the profession is, then, ‘squeezed in between.’ Daily teaching endures by the incorporation of the wrong kind of ?exibility, which undermines the education system. This problematic pattern is reviewed, and a remedy proposed by drawing on Freire and considering a recent theorization by Sutton on the position of an academic under a neoliberalist condition.     

“Performance,Resistance, Caring: Racialized gender identity in African American boys”

This study illuminates the meaning making world of 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th grade African American boys in a community based after-school program. Employing participant observation, questionnaire and interviews, the work captures the manifestations of their definitions of gender and racial constructions, including maleness, masculinity, “Blackness,” as well as the intersections of race and gender- racialized gender identity. Their voice revealed the implications of those constructs on schooling along with their sense of the raced and gendered nature of their school experiences. Their sense of identity emerged as multiple, shifting and produced, yet also reflected the presence and desire for a self apart from external constructions.     

University Teachers as Developers of Technology-Enhanced Teaching—Do Beliefs Matter?

Previous research has identified a well-established link between teachers' beliefs and the practical implications of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Until recently, there have been few studies of teachers' beliefs regarding their own role as developers of TEL in higher education. In this study, 18 university teachers' reflective writings on their role as developers of TEL were analyzed. All the teachers had developed their teaching methods for the instructional use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The findings of qualitative thematic analysis indicated four divergent teachers' roles: (1) active developers, (2) adaptive developers, (3) cautious developers, and (4) reluctant developers. These findings can be used to train teachers in educational change. (Keywords: Teacher beliefs, teacher roles, teaching development, technology-enhanced learning, university teaching, higher education)     

The effect of a new prelaboratory procedure on students' achievement in chemistry

The primary purpose of this study was to develop an alternative model, the Prelaboratory Preparation Period (PLPP), to be used to introduce freshman level students to weekly laboratories and to evaluate student academic achievement as the result of attending the Prelaboratory Preparation Period. The sample was composed of 233 students taking introductory chemistry at Auburn University. The data were collected over a four quarter period of time. A posttest-only control group design with five experimental and three control groups was used to investigate the effect of the Prelaboratory Preparation Period. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to determine if significant differences existed between academic achievement of the experimental and control groups. Results of the analysis indicated that a significant difference (α = 0.05) in academic performance existed between the two groups. It was concluded that the Prelaboratory Preparation Period increased the academic achievement of students enrolled in an introductory chemistry course.