Education Commons^™

Do High Ability Students Disidentify With Science? A Descriptive Study Of U. S. Ninth Graders In 2009, Lori Andersen, Jason A. Chen

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The present study describes science expectancy-value motivation classes within a nationally representative sample of students who were U.S. ninth graders in 2009. An expectancy-value model was the basis for science-specific profile indicators (self-efficacy, attainment value, utility value, interest-enjoyment value). Using exploratory latent class analysis, a four-class model was identified as the best model, based on model fit and interpretability. Although the low and typical profiles had uniform levels of indicators, the two high motivation profiles (high self-efficacy and high utility value) had mixed levels. The profile characterized by very high self-efficacy had lower values, while the profile characterized …

Syllable Circles For Pronunciation Learning And Teaching, Charlie Cullen, Keith Gardiner, John B. Whipple

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Syllable Circles is an interactive visualization representing prominence as a feature in short phrases or multi-syllable words. They were designed for Computer Aided Pronunciation Teaching as a part of English Language Teaching. This study explores the question of if and how interactive visualizations can affect English Language Learners’ awareness of prominence, or stress, in English pronunciation. The study followed seven learners and three teachers. Think-aloud protocols, notes from direct observation and interviews of two groups allowed for six streams of data. It was found that interactive visualizations of syllable circles facilitate noticing prominence. Learners and teachers believed interactive visualizations were …

Work-Related Stress: Survey Of Academic Staff In The Institutes Of Technology Sector, Aidan Kenny

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This article presents findings from a survey of professional workers in the institutes of technology sector in Ireland regarding work-related stress. The research instrument was based on a work-related stress questionnaire developed by the UK Health and Safety Executive, augmented with a specific subset of questions relevant to the Irish higher education sector. The questionnaire format was modified to enable online delivery. It was distributed to a sample population in 2014 with a response rate over 30% (n=1,131). The research provides baseline data on work-related stress levels experienced by workers in this sector. The results associate increased levels of risk …

Jewish Games For Learning: Renewing Heritage Traditions In The Digital Age, Owen Gottlieb

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Rather than a discontinuity from traditional modes of learning, new explorations of digital and strategic games in Jewish learning are markedly continuous with ancient practices. An explication of the close connections between traditional modes of Jewish learning, interpretive practice, and gaming culture can help to explain how Jews of the Digital Age can adopt and are adapting modern Games for Learning practices for contemporary purposes. The chapter opens by contextualizing a notion of Jewish Games and the field of Games for Learning. Next, the chapter explains the connections between game systems and Jewish traditions. It closes with a case study …

What Stick Figures Tell Us About Irish Politics: Creating A Critical And Collaborative Learning Space, Sharon Feeney, John Hogan, Paul Donnelly

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This paper focuses upon the interpretation of freehand drawings produced by a small sample of 220 first-year students taking an Irish politics introductory module in response to the question, ‘What is Irish Politics?’ By sidestepping cognitive verbal processing routes, through employing freehand drawing, we aim to create a critical and collaborative learning environment, where students develop their capacity for interpretation and critical self-reflection. This is because the freehand drawing technique, as part of a critical pedagogy, can generate a more critical and inclusive perspective, as visual representations permit us to comprehend the world differently, and understand how others also see …

Learning Local Immigration History In And Out Of The Museum, Jeremy Stoddard, Alan Marcus, Kurt Squire, John Martin

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In this article we utilize three case studies from the US as models for structuring historical inquiry in museum education programs focused on local immigration history. We focus on how models of practice from museums can be utilized as part of authentic history education pedagogy – in particular conducting historical inquiry with archival material and creating engaging exhibits. The three cases we draw from are the Tenement Museum (New York City), the Open House exhibit at the Minnesota History Center (St Paul, Minnesota), and a middle grades project in the Greenbush neighborhood (Madison, Wisconsin).

Experiences Of Computer Science Curriculum Design: A Phenomenological Study, Art Sloan, Brian Bowe

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This paper presents a qualitative study of twelve computer science lecturers’ experiences of curriculum design of several degree programmes during a time of transition from year-long to semesterised courses, due to institutional policy change. The background to the study is outlined, as are the reasons for choosing the research methodology. The main findings are presented and the implications of the study described. The methodology chosen was hermeneutic phenomenology. The data were the texts of interview transcripts of the twelve participant lecturers. The experiences that emerged from analysis of the data grouped naturally in identifiable and presentable themes and these themes …

A Review Of Personalised E-Learning: Towards Supporting Learner Diversity, Eileen O'Donnell, Seamus Lawless, Mary Sharp, Vincent Wade

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The realisation of personalised e-learning to suit an individual learner’s diverse learning needs is a concept which has been explored for decades, at great expense, but is still not achievable by non-technical authors. This research reviews the area of personalised e-learning and notes some of the technological challenges which developers may encounter in creating authoring tools for personalised e-learning and some of the pedagogical challenges which authors may encounter when creating personalised e-learning activities to enhance the learning experience of their students. At present educators who wish to create personalised e-learning activities require the assistance of technical experts who are …

Profiles Of The Sources Of Science Self-Efficacy, Jason A. Chen, Ellen L. Usher

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The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the latent profiles that arise from middle and high school students’ (N = 1225) reported exposure to information from the four hypothesized sources of self-efficacy; (b) the relationships between these latent profiles and science self-efficacy and science achievement; and (c) the differences in latent profiles as a function of implicit theory of science ability, gender, and grade level. Results revealed that a four-class solution fit the data the best. Results support past findings indicating that mastery experiences are a powerful source of self-efficacy. Furthermore, there seemed to be an additive benefit …

Dit-Topcon Internship Experience, Audrey Martin, Abigail Iversen

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The Technological University Dublin (DIT: http://www.dit.ie/) is one of the largest Higher Education Institutes in Ireland, with 20,000 students registered and over 2000 members of staff. It has been providing technological higher education for over one hundred and twenty years encompassing the full spectrum of Third Level programmes. During that time the Institute's alumni have played important roles in technical and scientific innovation, economic and social development and culture and education both in Ireland and internationally.

The CEO of Topcon Positioning Systems Inc., Ray O’Connor is a DIT School of Surveying alumnus and in October 2013 Ray visited his …

Thinking Outside The Box: Promoting Learning Through Emotional And Social Skills Development, Aiden Carthy, Sinead Mcgilloway

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The European Qualifications Framework provides a useful insight into the kinds of outcomes and abiliti es that are promotedacross the EU. However, beyond arguably vague references to concepts such as ‘integrity’ and ‘autonomy’, this frameworkmakes no reference to the development of students’social and emotional competencies. Based on initial research findings inan Irish context, and when considered against the backdrop of a convincing literature on the importance of emotionalintelligence in academic attainment, there would appear to be considerable scope to modify this framework in order to accommodate more specific reference to the development of emotional and social skills. This paper addresses …

An Exploration Of The Effects On Programme Design And Development Effected By Educational Leadership In Reaction To Societal And Economic Factors In Ireland, Roisin Donnelly, Nuala Harding

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It has affected many countries around the world, and Irish higher education has not found itself immune from undergoing a period of significant change, powered by a number of factors: economic, political, and technological. While these trends are global in their scope, and profound in their impact, the pace of change in the Irish economy since 2007-08 in particular has required institutions and their educational leaders to encourage the emergence of programmes which can respond to the current national needs. In periods of rapid change such as this, educational leaders by necessity tend to focus on short-term strategy and transition …

Values Informing Professional Practice In Academic Professional Development, Roisin Donnelly

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While a significant body of work on the practice of academic development exists, research on academic developers (those charged with supporting the education of academic staff in higher education) as professionals is limited, and few have explored the profession from the perspective of academic developers themselves [22]. Specifically, this reflective report begins to address the question of how best to prepare and support current and future academic developers for their ambiguous and complex roles and their need to function within the changing environment of higher education institutions. Since embarking on a role in an Irish Higher Education Institution in 1999 …

Lttc Resource Pack On Academic Writing & Referencing, Roisin Donnelly, Marian Fitzmaurice

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Trends In Basic Mathematical Competencies Of Beginning Undergraduates In Ireland, 2003–2013, Fiona Faulkner, Paraic Treacy

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Deficiencies in beginning undergraduate students’ basic mathematical skills has been an issue of concern in higher education, particularly in the past 15 years. This issue has been tracked and analysed in a number of universities in Ireland and internationally through student scores recorded in mathematics diagnostic tests. Students beginning their science-based and technology-based undergraduate courses in the University of Limerick have had their basic mathematics skills tested without any prior warning through a 40 question diagnostic test during their initial service mathematics lecture since 1998. Data gathered through this diagnostic test have been recorded in a database kept at the …

What Makes A Technology Appropriate?, Barrett Hazeltine

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A Company Town, Daniel Peltz, Sheridan Coleman

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Matafunctional/Metafictional Objects, Paolo Cardini

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Urban Eden, Anne Tate

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Design For Transitions - From And To What?, Cameron Tonkinwise

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The Challenges Of Beginning A Scholarly Debate In The 21st Century, Jo Guldi

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Critical Design And The Critical Social Sciences, Damian White

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On Creative Dialectics, Ian Gonsher

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Postgraduate Researchers Who Teach: How Can National Policy And The Structured Phd Centralise This Forgotten Tribe And Celebrate Their Skills In Tackling Some Of The Current Challenges In Irish Higher Education?, Barry Ryan

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Some of the current challenges faced by Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) include financial constraints imposed by the economic downturn, the requirement to ‘teach more with less’, and the use of the knowledge based economy to drive economic stabilisation and recovery. HEIs have adopted a number of approaches to address these drivers of change including centralising the postgraduate research student who teaches. The role of these postgraduate research students is one that is not often highlighted within the fabric of the HEI; however, these transient researchers play two key roles: full-time researchers and novice educators. Centralising and celebrating the research skills …

Maximizing The Impact Of Digital Supports In Mathematics Learning Support In Higher Education – An Overview Of The 9th Annual Imlsn Workshop, Cormac Breen, Anthony Cronin

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In this article we give a short description of the 9th Annual Workshop of the Irish Mathematics Learning Support Network (IMLSN). The workshop theme was ‘Maximizing the impact of digital supports in Mathematics Learning Support in Higher Education’. We briefly describe the Irish Mathematics Learning Support Network (IMLSN) and outline the factors that motivated this workshop theme. We will also discuss the presentations, some of the issues that were raised during the workshop and we close with some brief conclusions on this very successful event.

Mind Mapping: Overcoming Problems Of Writer Identity And Convention For Academic Writing By Student Collaboration, Carmel O'Reilly

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This article will consider Mind Mapping as an eLearning tool for the enhancement of learning and assessment within the discipline of academic writing. Building on research which relates to the use of Mind Mapping by students of English as a foreign language (EFL), this article will reflect specifically on students taking a module in Applied Writing on a Mature Access Foundation Programme (MAFP), at Institution X. It goes on to explore existing research in order to highlight two key problems student writers have in common: firstly, writer identity and the affective domain of writing and second, the conventions of academic …

Using Rhetoric To Manage Campus Crisis: An Historical Study Of College Presidents' Speeches, 1960-1964, Eddie R. Cole

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Student protests and other forms of campus conflict are prominent in higher education; however, little is known about the manner in which college presidents have historically responded to these protests and conflicts. Focused on North Carolina in the 1960s, a decade notable for student protests on college campuses, this article identifies three approaches used by college presidents in their public speeches to manage campus conflict. This research examines the speeches of college presidents in North Carolina, where the first mass protests of the decade occurred during the student movement for civil rights starting in 1960 until 1964 when the Civil …

Moving Up Or Moving On: A Gendered Perspective Of Mid-Level University Leaders, Regina L. Garzell Mitchell, Pamela L. Eddy

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Student Attitudes To An Online, Peer-Instruction, Revision Aid In Science Education, Barry Ryan, Aaron Mac Raighne, Morag Casey, Robert Howard

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Peer instruction has been shown to have a positive effect on students’ engagement and learning. However, many of the techniques designed to incorporate peer instruction into the student experience are very heavy on resources. PeerWise is a free, low-maintenance, web-tool designed to allow peer instruction between students within a large class group. Students can write, answer and discuss Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) based on their work in-class.

In this study, we introduce PeerWise to a wide and varied cohort of science students (N=509) across different disciplines, undergraduate years, levels (certificate to honours degree) and institutes. The attitudes of the students …

'Experiential Education Through The Vis Moot' And 'Building On The Bergsten Legacy: The Vis Moot As A Platform For Legal Education', Ronald A. Brand

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Recent discussions of experiential education have at times considered the role of moot opportunities in legal education. Many, if not most, moot courts and related activities have been designed primarily as competitions. One moot, the Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, is different in that it was designed, and has been consistently administered, as a tool for educating future lawyers. That education has included both skills training of the highest order and the development of a doctrinal understanding of important international legal instruments, especially those created and administered by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). This pair …