Education Commons^™

A Critical Exploration Of The Rhetoric Of Equity Belied By Practice In Postgraduate Teacher Education, Roisin Donnelly

Articles

This paper presents the initial results of an investigation into the current awareness and perceptions of equity issues amongst academic staff working on a postgraduate learning and teaching course for teachers in tertiary education in the Republic of Ireland. The study is set in the contemporary landscape of discourses around equality, egalitarianism and equity in education generally. The Irish White Paper on Adult Education Learning for Life (2000) recommends that adult education should be underpinned by three core principles, one of which is to promote equality of access, participation and outcome for participants in adult education, with pro-active strategies to …

Making High School Grades Meaningful, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Most teachers base students' grades on more than one factor. The difficulty is figuring out how to weight and combine the different pieces that go into the final mark. Mr. Guskey suggests a system that not only avoids those problems but gives a better overall picture of a student's performance than the traditional single letter grade.

Clarifying The Role Of Self-Efficacy And Metacognition As Indicators Of Learning: Construct Development And Test, Trevor T. Moores, Jerry Cha-Jan Chang, Deborah K. Smith

Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology Faculty Publications

We propose extending our understanding of self-efficacy by comparing self-efficacy with a related construct called metacognition. Metacognition involves the monitoring and control of one's thought processes and is often related, as is self-efficacy, to performance on a task. We develop an instrument that attempts to measure both self-efficacy and metacognition with respect to one's performance on a test covering declarative and procedural knowledge (knowing that, and knowing how) of DFDs and ERDs. With data collected from a sample of 124 students, we use partial least squares (PLS) to show that self-efficacy and metacognition are distinct yet related constructs. While self-efficacy …

Dewey's Epistemology: An Argument For Warranted Assertions, Knowing, And Meaningful Classroom Practice, Deron R. Boyles

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

In an effort to navigate the treacherous path between professionalism and social relevancy, this essay takes up an area of professional philosophy - epistemology - with the intention of reclaiming the integrative role John Dewey held for philosophy and classroom practice. Deron Boyles asserts that epistemology can and should represent an area of inquiry that is relevant and useful for philosophy of education, especially as it develops classroom practices that foster inquiry. He specifically seeks to revive Dewey’s conception of warranted assertibility in an effort to show the value of fallibilist epistemology in practical and social teaching and learning contexts. …

Case Studies Of Good Practice In The Assessment Of Student Learning In Higher Education, Roisin Donnelly

Books/Book Chapters

There are two modules on the certificate programme. Module one is entitled ‘Learning and Teaching in Higher Education’. The aim of this module is to provide teachers in higher education with a wide range of practical learning and teaching methods, including the use of relevant learning technologies that will help their students learn more effectively. They will gain solid background knowledge in recognised theories and national and international best practices in learning and teaching in higher education so that they understand the reasons for choosing certain teaching strategies.

The Tutor’S Role As Academic Developer In Blended Problem-Based Learning In Higher Education, Roisin Donnelly

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter is written from the perspective of an academic developer engaged in blending e-learning and problem-based learning as a means of delivery of professional development for academic staff in higher education. There is undoubtedly a wider range of e-learning technologies that are available for use with the more traditional teaching and learning / instructional strategies, but the challenge faced by today’s academic developers is the development of e-learning technologies to support constructivism and social constructivism in learning approaches amongst the academic staff with whom they work, so that this is, in turn, is carried forward into their own classrooms …

The Use Of "Real" English In Language Learning: Making Authentic Ns Speech Accessible Through A Novel Digital Slow-Down Tool, Marty Meinardi

Doctoral

This project is concerned with the design of English as a Second Language (ESL) courseware for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). It arises out of the Enterprise Ireland funded DITCALL (Digital Interactive Toolkit for Computer Assisted Language learning) project. The focus of the research for this courseware is on using authentic video and audio material that is as natural and true to life as possible and providing adequate, pedagogically efficient and visually pleasing lesson material that will prepare prospective students for the environment in Dublin. The thesis centres around the validity of using authentic spoken Native Speaker (NS) English, and …

Visions For Literacy Learning: The Quest For Meaningful Use Of Computer-Based Technology In Reading And Writing Experiences, Lisa K. Kervin, Jessica Mantei

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Design-Based Research And The Learning Designer, Deidre Seeto, Janice A. Herrington

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The role of the learning designer has expanded from the commonly known activities of an instructional designer to incorporate a range of new roles, largely prompted by new technologies. In this paper, we articulate an approach that further extends the role of the learning designer to encompass evaluation and design-based research, in collaboration with the subject matter expert. Such collaboration is professionally enhancing for both parties, and adds to the sum of knowledge on the effective design of learning environments, by documenting and disseminating the learning design process.

Identifying Authentic Mobile Learning In Teacher Education: A Design-Based Approach, Anthony J. Herrington, Janice A. Herrington

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The adoption of mobile technologies in higher education has been variable and inconsistent across the sector. Little is known about how people learn best from mobile devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants and portable digital audio players, and yet these are the technologies of choice of a generation of young adults who are proficient and competent in their use. This paper describes a project to explore, implement and document pedagogies that go beyond the use of mobile technologies for information delivery and communication. It describes a design-based approach to researching the use of mobile devices as cognitive tools …

Transfer Of Online Professional Learning To Teachers' Classroom Practice: An Analysis Of Eight Cases, Anthony J. Herrington, Janice A. Herrington, Garry Hoban, Doug Reid

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Professional learning is an important process in enabling teachers to update their pedagogical knowledge and practices. The use of online technologies to support professional learning has a number of benefits in terms of flexibility and scalability. However, it is not clear how well the approach impacts on teachers’ classroom practices. This paper outlines a research study conducted on behalf of a state-based Department of Education to evaluate the transfer of professional learning from online modules about the integration of ICT to the practices of K-12 classroom teachers.

A Technology-Enhanced Multiliteracies Learning Design For Geography Education, Lori Lockyer, Barry Harper

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Educators are being challenged to prepare students to effectively participate in our increasingly globalised society. Contemporary views of pedagogy suggest supporting learners by providing scaffolds for their engagement in real world tasks - tasks that provide opportunities to both explore and apply their learning through multi-modal expressions' within their diverse contexts. This article describes a project that draws upon the emerging views of multiliteracies in the design of a K-12 education excursion program. The multiliteracies learning design developed for .the program is applied to specific discipline-focused learning objectives and implemented within a technology-enhanced environment, which provides learners with access to …

The Use Of A Visual Learning Design Representation To Document And Communicate Teaching Ideas, Shirley Agostinho

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

A learning design is a representation of teaching and learning practice documented in some notational form so that it can serve as a model or template adaptable by a teacher to suit his/her context. This paper presents a work-in-progress of a research study that is examining how a learning design representation developed in an Australian federally funded project known as the Learning Designs project (www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au) is being used. Eleven participants were interviewed to investigate how they are using the learning design representation and how such a representation could be improved. Preliminary findings indicate that the visual characteristic of this learning …

Cross-Cultural Online Communication: Making Connections Through Project-Based Learning, Mike Keppell, Morris Jong, Harold Tsang, Susan J. Bennett, Lori Lockyer

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines a project that encourages cross-cultural communication among teachereducation students through online discussion and project-based learning. An authentic case was presented to eleven students (divided into two groups) who volunteered to participate in the project over one semester. The case focussed on the development of a website by the two groups which would provide information to local Hong Kong students visiting the University of Wollongong on an intensive English immersion programme. The students were encouraged to seek advice from their HKIEd mentor and UOW advisor via synchronous and asynchronous communication tools available in the Blackboard Learning Management System. …

Nsw High School Students Construction Of Democratic Citizenship Through Language Learning: A Case Study Of Japanese Language Learning Experience, Yuko Ramzan

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This study reports on the perceptions of five high school students in NSW who have been studying Japanese language since their primary schooling. The study examines how the students construct their self and others within their Japanese language classes and how the classes contribute to citizenship education. The discussion, based on data derived from in-depth and semi-structured interviews is focused on perceptions of language learning, interculturality and citizenship education. The results suggest that language learning contributes to the students’ construction of interculturality, which in turn provides a focus for meting the students’ needs for citizenship education.

Scaffolding Learners In Authentic, Problem-Based E-Learning Environments: The Geography Challenge, Janice A. Herrington, Gwyn J. Brickell

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The affordances of online learning technologies have enabled more widespread development of learning environments that facilitate the exploration and solving of complex and realistic problems. In this paper, we describe the design of a real world geography problem, embedded within a web environment that is facilitated by an onsite excursion for data collection. The learning environment has been designed to deliberately address known problems associated with the problem solving approach, specifically in regard to three issues, and uses scaffolding prompts and supports embedded within the environment to facilitate student learning. The paper describes the theoretical foundations for the approach, the …

Aboriginal Students And The Western Australian Literacy And Numeracy Assessment, Sean Gorman

Research outputs pre 2011

Since the introduction of standardised testing in Western Australia with the Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (WALNA) it has become quite evident that Indigenous students' performance is well below that of non-Indigenous students.

As WALNA is now very much a part of the pedagogical landscape steps must be taken to ensure that those students who are not reaching the benchmark scores or the MSE requirements do progress...

Inst5280 - Blogs, Wikis, New Media For Learning, Spring 2006, David Wiley

Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences - OCW

Innovation continues to occur on the internet at an extremely lively pace. What was once the realm of email, FTP, Gopher, and the Web is barely recognizable a mere 10 years later. Keeping up with the speed of innovation and maintaining a familiarity with the most recent tools and capabilities is handy in some professions and absolutely critical in others. This course is designed to help you understand and effectively use a variety of "web 2.0" technologies including blogs, RSS, wikis, social bookmarking tools, photo sharing tools, mapping tools, audio and video podcasts, and screencasts.