Education Commons^™

From Telematics To Web-Based: The Progression Of Distance Education In Newfoundland And Labrador, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Introduction: The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is located on the east coast of Canada. The province, which has both an island and mainland portions with a total area of 505 066 square kilometres, has a population of approximately 550 000 people. With about 60% of the population living within a 150-kilometre radius of the capital region, the remainder of the province is sparsely populated. The majority of the roughly 300 schools are located in these rural communities. Approximately one-third of which have been determined as necessarily existent (ie, when a school is located so far from another school that …

Learning Styles: A Focus Upon E-Learning Practices And Pedagogy And Their Implications For Designing E-Learning For Secondary School Students In Newfoundland And Labrador, Morris Cooze, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

With the increase of online learning in the K-12 environment, research must turn to specific studies focused upon this level. One area of investigation surrounds the development of online course content and individualised student learning styles. This review found that although there is a vast body of research concerning online learning in the post-secondary environment, this is not true for K-12 education. Recent studies have begun the discussion for secondary school students as online learning becomes more prevalent and accepted as a means of learning. The lessons that these studies bring forward may be of particular interest to instructional designers …

First Experiences With Object Lessons In Nineteenth-Century Brazil: Origins Of A Progressive Pedagogy For The Brazilian Primary School, Karl M. Lorenz, Ariclê Vechia

Education Faculty Publications

This paper describes the methodology of Object Teaching and relates how its appearance in Brazil was a transnational phenomenon that achieved its maximum articulation in 1886 with Rui Barbosa’s translation of Norman Calkins’ Primary Object Lessons. It begins with an overview of primary school teaching in Brazil in the second half of the 19th century, followed by discussion of Barbosa’s ideas on promoting change in the schools. Central to the exposition are the ideas contained in a report that Barbosa submitted to the National Assembly in 1882, in which he proposed a new organization of primary school education, suggestions for …

A Multiple Measures Model For Documenting Teacher And Program Effectiveness, Jonelle Pool, Divonna M. Stebick, Judith Brough

Education Faculty Publications

One of the most difficult challenges facing teacher educators is evaluating the knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary for professional growth and responsibility for teaching. Currently two viewpoints for preparing highly qualified teachers seem to be influencing policy. One view represented by Darling-Hammond’s research (1999), suggests that regulation of teacher education, state licensing, professional accountability, and compensation are important factors for strengthening teacher quality. A second view, offered by Chester Finn from research completed by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (cited in Berry, Hoke, and Hirsch, 2004), emphasizes less prescriptive paths such as alternative certification practices and aptitude testing to attract …

Design Of Web-Based Courses For Secondary Students, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

This article reports the initial findings of a study that investigated design characteristics of a Web-based distance education programme for rural secondary school students who were unable to access a full range of courses at their school. Discovering the characteristics perceived to be important by course developers and teachers of Web-based courses along with the perceptions of the secondary students themselves was central in this study, which was guided by the research question: What characteristics do developers, teachers, and students perceive as important for an effectively designed Web-based course for secondary school students?

This study was the initial portion of …

Picking Battles, Finding Joy: Creating Community In The "Uncontrolled" Classroom, Kerri Ullucci

Education Faculty Publications

Every educator has a handful of students who perpetually push his or her buttons. The challenge of creating a strong, nurturing classroom community is especially difficult if you are an urban school teacher. Not because children in an urban area are inherently more wild or difficult to teach. Rather, there is a mythology about how to best "control" urban children that infects many city schools. This article discusses ways to control classrooms in urban schools and contains the following sections: (1) The Carrot and the Stick--Behaviorism in the Urban Classroom; (2) The "Uncontrolled" Urban Class; (3) Classroom Mantras; (4) I …

Interpreting Lived Experience Through Writing Online In A Graduate Seminar, Mary Clare Courtland, John Novak, Gail Lafleur, Ken Mcclelland, Steve Sider, Joan Shaw

Education Faculty Publications

Participants in an online doctoral seminar participated in the use of a writing strategy to explore the sociocultural contexts of their lived experience. Creating literary texts in three forms was an effective strategy in mediating participants’ understanding. Each form provided a new lens through which to interpret experience. Participants functioned as an interpretive community. The final papers, autobiographical narratives, illuminated the complex relations among prediscursive experience, reflection on experience, distancing, and the iterative transformational quality of time. The online format embodied a virtual interpretive location which allowed participants to revisit texts and postings over time.

Des participants dans un cours …

Perceptions Of Effective Web-Based Design For Secondary School Students: A Narrative Analysis Of Previously Collected Data, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

In this article, I present the findings of a study on the perception of course developers and electronic teachers on the characteristics of effective web-based design for secondary school students. Through interviews, the perceptions of these participants on the use of various web-based components, how to incorporate sound instructional strategies into the web-based material, and the effectiveness of both the asynchronous web-based content and the synchronous delivery of that content are investigated in a virtual high school context.

Methods For Marine Ecosystems Research Through The Use Of Pdas With Preservice Teachers, Antoinette P. Bruciati, Maria Lizano-Dimare

Education Faculty Publications

Science teachers are charged with the task of providing students in grades K-12 with opportunities that will enable them to make sense of science and develop habits of mind. One goal of science education is to prepare well-rounded citizens who are scientifically literate. Through inquiry-based learning, students formulate questions, perform investigations, and construct new understandings.

It is important for preservice science teachers to be introduced to current techniques, discoveries, and debates in the field of science. The use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) can provide K-12 students with increased opportunities for exploring and learning through scientific investigations. In order for …

A Reforma Do Ensino De Ciências No Ensino Secundário Brasileiro Nas Décadas De 1960 E 1970 [Science Education Reform In Brazilian Secondary Schools In The 1960s And 1970s], Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

Na segunda metade do século dezoito, foi transplantado para o Brasil um paradigma que focalizava no processo da investigação científico no ensino das Ciências Naturais na escola secundária. O paradigma teve origem nos Estados Unidos em resposta às criticas internas referentes ao ensino secundário e aos acontecimentos internacionais. Inicialmente sustentado por subvenções estrangeiras, e mais tarde patrocinado pelo ministério da Educação, um movimento surgiu no Brasil que objetivava a produção e divulgação de materiais didáticos que incorporassem os princípios desse paradigma. Este trabalho descreve a trajetória do paradigma e do movimento reformista do ensino de Ciências, desde sua origem nos …

The Challenge Of Inner-City Education, Lois Libby

Education Faculty Publications

There are two Connecticuts described in public education circles: One Connecticut includes a set of school systems that are suburban, educating primarily white and/or Asian students. The other set of Connecticut schools systems is urban, comprised primarily of students of color, and of low socio-economic status. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on the latter set of schools, provide some history of their development, look at the indicators of poor progress in more detail, review options of ameliorating the urban school systems, including assessments of state efforts so far, and offer some perspectives and conclusions.