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Social Learning and Project-Based Learning at University: Complexity and non-linear approaches to cognitive diversity and diverse levels of physics learners
Get PDFSince Piaget’s proposals about cognitive learning and constructivism (Piaget, 1976), active methodologies were proposed (Johnson et al., 1984) with two main trends appearing: participative systems in learning and education (Moench, 1986), and cooperative structures (Johnson et al., 1984; Kagan, 1989). At the time, a counteractive theory of motivation appeared, emerging an organismic theory called Theory of Autodetermination (TAD), which proposed that students and learners strive for self-regulated learning and self-determination in their goals and learning-process (Deci & Ryan, 1985).
Currently, active methodologies and teamwork are frequently used in science education (de Los Rios et al., 2010; Jo, 2011; Lipson et al., 2007; Torio, 2019), as well as cooperative learning (Lipson et al., 2007; Torio, 2019). However, in this case, our context was a highly diverse classroom, in cognitive styles, and also in levels of prior knowledge in the subject-matter, with some students on the spectrum of high functioning neurodiversity (Grandin, & Duffy, 2008). 67 students participated in a participatory-action-research (PAR), where the teacher was a conductor towards task-oriented, self-regulated and cooperative-collaborative PALS (peer-assisted) learning.
Social learning and cooperative learning was mainly implemented for practical-technical classes, and for the completion of a project-based learning (PBL) long term project (full-term), but it was also subsequently implemented into theory classes, forming a complex system consisting of two systems, one multi-nodal of small groups PBL and Kagan's structures, and one one-node complex system. Being a mixed system, the outcomes were expected to be nonlinear enriched learning, and a wider scope of application of the information, which was mainly generated by the students, with the teacher as a lecturer (at first), becoming a leader for a while; and a challenger and a promoter finally (and all the time for some students). The behavior of the system(s) was interesting from a qualitative point of view. But the outcomes exceeded the expectations.
REFERENCES
de Los Rios, I., Cazorla, A., Díaz-Puente, J. M., & Yagüe, J. L. (2010). Project–based learning in engineering higher education: two decades of teaching competences in real environments. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 1368-1378.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press.
Grandin, T., & Duffy, K. (2008). Developing talents: Careers for individuals with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism, AAPC Publishing, Shawnee Mission, Kansas.
Jo, I. H. (2011). Effects of role division, interaction, and shared mental model on team performance in project-based learning environment. Asia Pacific Education Review, 12(2), 301-310.
Johnson, D., Johnson, R., Holubec, E., & Roy, P. (1984). Circles of Learning, ASCD, Washington, DC.
Kagan, S. (1989). The structural approach to cooperative learning. Educational Leadership, 47(4), 12-15.
Lipson, A., Epstein, A. W., Bras, R., & Hodges, K. (2007). Students’ perceptions of Terrascope, a project-based freshman learning community. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(4), 349-364.
Moench, T. T. (1986). The Participative Learning System. Journal of College Science Teaching, 15(5), 437-439.
Piaget, J. (1976). Piaget’s Theory. In: Inhelder, B., Chipman, H.H. and Zwingmann, C., Eds., Piaget and His School, Springer Study Edition, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Torío, H. (2019). Teaching as coaching: Experiences with a video-based flipped classroom combined with project-based approach in technology and physics higher education. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 9(3), 404-419
Novel ways to utilise quiz tools
Get PDFAll learning management systems have a quiz tool. We know that when students are actively engaged with learning activities, their learning gains improve. In this workshop, we will look at how the quiz tool can be utilised to increase the cognitive engagement of students in different components of online courses: lectures, labs and tutorials, and assessment.
Lectures can be set up with short videos interspersed with questions in which students practice solving problems related to the theory presented in these videos. Students can then receive targeted feedback and solutions to scaffold them through this learning. Online labs can make use of simulations embedded in a quiz or present data (which can be randomised) for students to analyse. Tutorials can encourage students to try a question before presenting the answer.
Other advantages of the quiz tool include the ease with which participation can be tracked; automatic marking, which can reduce marking loads while giving effective feedback; and randomising variables for students, which make it easier to track cases of academic misconduct.
In this workshop, the examples given will use the STACK question type in Moodle. This question type allows for multi-part questions with randomised variables, carry-on marking, and algebraic answers. On other learning management systems, other question types can be utilised in a similar way, such as Mobius and Numbas.
Participants will be encouraged to share how they have used the quiz tool or seen it used.
Intended Audience: University Educator
Using instructional videos to improve physics education
Get PDFInstructional videos are widely popular on platforms like YouTube. Students watch them for various purposes, including to prepare for exams, to repeat topics they did not understand, or simply for entertainment. However, there is a lot of evidence from recent studies that just watching an instructional video often fails. If they are not embedded in ongoing cognitive activities and designed poorly, they can even do more harm than good for learning physics. The workshop offers learning opportunities for analyzing the quality of instructional videos and for applying guidelines on how to deal with instructional videos in physics education. The main principle is simple: instructional videos are certainly not teaching – but they could become a part of well-designed instruction if teachers use them cautiously.
Intended Audience: University and Secondary School Educator
simKAP: simulation framework for kidney allocation process with decision making models
No full textBackground: Organ shortage is a major barrier in transplantation and rules guarding organ allocation decisions should be robust, transparent, ethical and fair. Whilst numerous allocation strategies have been proposed, it is often unrealistic to evaluate all of them in real-life settings. Hence, the capability of conducting simulations prior to deployment is important. Aims: We aim to develop a flexible simulation framework for the Kidney Allocation Process (simKAP) that considers both the dynamic changes of the candidate waiting lists and a joint decision making process between the candidates and clinicians for deceased donor kidney transplantation. Methods: There are three main phases in simKAP: (i) generating a list of transplant candidates with a dynamic Poisson process; (ii) defining the allocation rules; and (iii) modelling donor kidney acceptance that reflects a joint decision-making process. We evaluate our framework using both descriptive and quantitative measurements for allocation characteristics.Results: Our findings indicate that the complete model with dynamic waiting-list modelling and shared decision making on organ acceptance shows the best agreement between actual and simulated data in almost all scenarios. Additionally, we demonstrate the flexibility and capacity of simKAP to deliver a quality assessment framework for allocation design by generating hypothetical risk-based allocation strategies.Conclusions: To our knowledge, simKAP is the first kidney transplant allocation simulation process that provides end-to-end modelling from the arrival of recipients to the shared decision making. The importance of simKAP lies in its ability for policymakers in any transplant community to evaluate any proposed allocation algorithm using in-silico simulation
National roll-out of the Goal-directed Medication review Electronic Decision Support System (G-MEDSS)© in practice
No full textBackground: The Goal-directed Medication review Electronic Decision Support System (G-MEDSS)© provides guidance for clinicians conducting medication reviews, to tailor care to meet their patients’ goals. G-MEDSS consists of The Goals of Care Management Tool (GCMT), The Drug Burden Index (DBI) Calculator©, and the revised Patients’ Attitudes Towards Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire. Aims: To describe the 1) users of G-MEDSS; 2) clinical settings where G-MEDSS was used; and 3) patients for whom G-MEDSS was used; during this implementation study.Methods: Prospective cross-sectional evaluation. Clinicians were invited to register and use G-MEDSS within their clinical practice settings. De-identified data about the users and their patients were collected through the website and descriptively analysed.Results: During the roll-out 129 participants(115 pharmacists and 14 medical practitioners) registered to use G-MEDSS, with most participants from NSW(n=35, 27%). These participants used G-MEDSS for 95 patients (mean age(SD) 76.8(11.3)), during medication reviews in the home (n=60,63%) and residential care (n=27, 28%). Participants used the GCMT, the DBI Calculator and rPATD for n=28(29%), n=90(95%), and n=23(24%) of patients, respectively. The most common goal reported by patients was “optimising quality of life” (n=23, 36.5%). The mean(SD) DBI score for patients was 1.41(1.1) and the proportion of patients who said that they would be willing to have a medication deprescribed if their doctor recommended it was 82.6%(n=19).Conclusions: G-MEDSS, predominately The DBI Calculator, is being used within clinical practice primarily by pharmacists to support medication review in the home. Further qualitative studies will determine the barriers and enablers to wider use
Deep Learning for Automated Detection of Cellular Profiles in Whole-slide Immunohistochemical Images
No full textBackground: Routine examination of complete histological slides at cellular or subcellular resolution poses an insurmountable challenge for human observers. However, the availability of such high-resolution data on the distribution of proteins in tissues, e.g., obtained through immunohistochemical staining procedures, is highly desirable. Based on our previous work that established PathoFusion, we have explored different deep learning models, e.g., a bifocal convolutional neural network (BCNN), a residual network (ResNet), and ensemble methods for the automated detection of cells of interest that are immunoreactive for specific markers in brain tumour biopsies. Aims: The work aims to explore the capability of deep learning models to identify pathological changes at cellular resolution and to detect immunolabelled cells of interest.Methods: A total of 50,741 patches of size 64×64 and 128 x 128 pixels were extracted from 36 whole-slide immunohistochemical images based on two types of expert-annotated coordinates indicating the presence of cells of interest and containing regions lacking such cells. We explored the effectiveness of the BCNN and its subnet structure [1] as well as state-of-the-art ResNet-50 [2] convolutional and ensemble methods, respectively. Using the PathoFusion framework, we converted the detection signals into corresponding heatmaps denoting the distribution of cells of interest in whole-slide images. Results: Our preliminary experimental results demonstrate that the built-in model (BCNN) of the PathoFusion framework achieved consistent results compared with ResNet-50 in terms of accuracy (~97%) and F1-score (0.97), while the subnet structure achieved slightly lower performance. When ResNet-50 was ensembled with the subnet through model averaging, the performance was improved, i.e., some detection noise was removed. Quantitative comparisons and whole-slide cross-modality analyses are still being studied. Conclusions Our preliminary experiments indicate that PathoFusion is suitable for the autonomous detection of cellular and perhaps subcellular structures. Recent state-of-the-art deep learning strategies will be investigated to improve PathoFusion further in order to allow working in different microscopy and other image analysis scenarios.
Designing prototype devices to engage participation in the creation of wearable health technologies
No full textBackground: In this presentation we discuss two examples of how designers use high-fidelity prototypes throughout the design and development of wearable technologies for hearing loss (hearing aid and cochlear implant technologies). These carefully designed and considered prototypes enabled co-design with participants and interdisciplinary teams in a generative way throughout the design and development processes. Aims: Through the work we aimed to create high quality, aesthetically refined hearing technologies in a collaborative way, with technology users and interdisciplinary teams. The projects drew from a wide range of approaches to involve technology users throughout development, one particularly effective approach was by leveraging the ‘power of prototypes’. Methods: The projects draw on a mixture of product-focused design, participatory processes (co-design and user centred design), action research and ethnography.Results: Through our research we found that the use of high fidelity prototypes as generative artefacts in the design of wearable health technologies had an outsized impact on improving final outcomes. These artefacts are part of the design process, yet bringing them into participatory engagements has a defined impact on collaborators and future users. Conclusions: Use of high fidelity additive manufactured prototypes at all stages of design and development has a positive impact on the ability for technology consumers to participate in technology development processes. The prototypes: provoke feedback and engagement; enable participants to speculate on future uses and forms; and scaffold collaboration across interdisciplinary teams
Getting it right:: The everyday experience of pentecostalism and spiritualism in a northeast Brazilian town
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