Loughborough University Library: Open Journals
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Involving students in sharing and clarifying learning intentions related to 21st century skills in primary design and technology education
Full text linkDesign and Technology Education is an excellent vehicle for the development of the so-called 21st-Century skills, such as creativity, critical thinking and cooperation. However, the development of these skills through design projects does not yet reach its full potential. Formative assessment is able to support the learning of 21st-Century skills. In a case study a teacher shares and clarifies the goal of divergent thinking with her class of 11- and 12-year old’s using a newly developed interactive approach. Small drawings were made collectively to visualize the skill. Half-way during the brainstorm session, students were asked to assess their brainstorm results and divergent thinking skills in a collective reflection. The results show that the interactive visual approach led students to understand how to be successful in divergent thinking. They collectively developed expressions to talk about how sound divergent thinking looks and this enabled them to diagnose strengths and weaknesses in divergent thinking. All interviewed students reported an improvement in divergent thinking after the collective reflection. This indicates that active involvement of students in clarifying learning intentions enables the development of relevant feedback. Although this result was only achieved in one class with one particular teacher, it underlines the value of the interactive visualization tool. Furthermore, it shows that the formative assessment strategy of sharing, clarifying and understanding learning intentions and success criteria related to 21st century skills in the context of real-life design projects supports self-evaluation and feedback uptake
Young Children’s Representational Structures of Robots’ Behaviors
Full text linkDespite the fact that the sophisticated technologies are a substantial component of children’s everyday environment, of the space within which they act, play and learn - the world of complex technological systems (their characteristics, and the knowledge and skills involved in operating, designing and programming them) is almost ignored in the preschool and elementary school curriculum.
The study reported in this paper is part of a research plan embedded in the implementation of a comprehensive curriculum aiming to support the development of technological thinking in kindergartens, including knowledge and skills in areas such as design, the artifacts in our material culture, smart artifacts and robotic systems, or programming.
This particular study aimed to address young children’s (aged 5-8) perception of the adaptive behavior of a robot and the representational-structures (or functioning schemes) they adopt to think about how its behaviors are generated and controlled. When children think about the robot’s behavior, they may adopt different perspectives that translate into different representational structures, (e.g., one-time episodic representation; a script that can became a reusable routine; a universal representation such as a rule of behavior).
The findings evidence the high ability of young children engaged in programming to think in terms of abstract rules and to use these for programming and designing a robot’s behavior
The amazing library race
Full text linkIn this time of disinformation and misinformation, libraries remain a reliable source of truthful and factual information. As they fervently support the agenda of lifelong learning, libraries recognise that there are various influences that redefine the process of student learning. Admittedly, librarians need to be more creative in motivating post-millennial students to help them fully develop their Media and Information Literacy (MIL) skills.
This paper explores how games are adopted and utilised by academic libraries as an interactive approach to entice students to learn essential MIL competencies. It shows how games can be a viable tool not only to deliver information literacy (IL) instruction in a collaborative learning environment but to also effectively engage and attract students to use the library resources and services. While the use of games is not novel, the way it is delivered and re-purposed to meet MIL competencies is vital for today’s young generation of learners. This report demonstrates how two academic libraries in the Philippines and Kazakhstan were able to embed MIL skills through a library race challenge. Furthermore, this paper discusses the practical steps undertaken in the preparation of the game as well as the observations made during and after the activity was conducted. From this, other libraries may gain insights and best practices on how to leverage this method to further champion MIL in their own communities
Developing information literacy skills in elementary students using the web-based Inquiry Strategies for the Information Society of the Twenty-First Century (ISIS-21)
Full text linkThis study was undertaken to learn about the impact of using the web-based Inquiry Strategies for the Information Society of the Twenty-First Century (ISIS-21), software developed by the authors, to improve the information literacy (IL) skills of late elementary students (10-12 years). Using a series of multi-media and learning strategies design principles, ISIS-21 was designed to be used in late elementary classrooms given the gap in children’s IL skills and the increasing importance for individuals to be critical consumers of information, particularly when using Internet-based environments. An exploratory, two-phase field trial was conducted in English schools in a central province of Canada. In both phases the research design was a one-group, pretest-posttest where data were collected from 150 students at the baseline and after the use of ISIS-21 for completion of an inquiry project. Teacher self-reports were also collected. The results were encouraging as we were able to establish the feasibility and importance of using ISIS-21 in classrooms to promote the development of IL skills in late elementary students
Critical Thinking in Problem Exploration in Design and Technology Design Project
Full text linkThe current study aimed to identify and clarify students’ critical thinking processes in problem exploration. The current study will adopt the definitions of critical thinking conceptualized by Paul and Elder and, at the same time, attempt to apply the concept of elements of reasoning and intellectual standards to achieve the objectives of this study. By using questions to deconstruct the elements of reasoning when exploring problems, the intellectual standards for reasoning in problem exploration can be articulated. Using a qualitative approach to conduct a collective case study, 15 design journals completed by students in the upper secondary Express course in Singa Secondary School are used as objects of study. The primary source of data is collected via the documentations in the design journals. Using intellectual standards for reasoning in problem exploration to interpret the documentations in the design journals, students’ quality of reasoning can be observed and consolidated. Based on the findings, the following conclusion can be presented. Firstly, to achieve depth, accuracy and unbiased understanding of the problem, students need to research on information and data from different sources to triangulate the problem. Secondly, it is necessary for students to acquire necessary background knowledge in order to conceptualize problems accurate and clearly. Thirdly, the development of intellectual standards for reasoning relevant to the design process in D&T may be a potentially useful strategy for teachers to explicitly develop critical thinking skills in D&T
How to teach digital reading?
Full text linkThis paper offers a discussion of the knowledge, skills, and awareness involved in digital reading. Reading, in this paper, is used in the broader sense to include deriving meaning from media on a digital screen. This paper synthesises key ideas from existing studies and presents a taxonomy for the teaching of digital reading. The taxonomy includes the development of: 1) the knowledge of linear and deep reading strategies; 2) basic and critical information skills; and 3) a multimodal semiotic awareness. The goal of this paper is to unpack the specific knowledge and skills for digital reading which will support educators, including classroom teachers and librarians, on the aspects to pay attention to as students engage in digital reading. This paper argues that, in addition to equipping students with the knowledge of reading strategies and information skills, an awareness of how the various semiotic modes make meaning is fundamental to effective digital reading
Book Review of Whitworth, A. 2020. Mapping information landscapes: New methods for exploring the development and teaching of information literacy
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FRAMING CRAFT AND PERFORMANCE IN HYBRID PUPPETRY WORKSHOPS
Full text linkPrototyping Puppets combines craft and performance in a puppet making STEM workshop for informal learning. We report on its final evaluation in two events (n=10 and n=13) to show how the design addressed black boxing of technology through a craft-centric approach and successfully engaged different student populations through an educational framing that included performance practice. The informal learning workshops are aimed at 5th grade level students and cover CSTA and NCSS learning objectives. First, the problem space is laid out and the approach of the project introduced. Second, the design realization is briefly covered. Third, the final evaluation of the design in two workshop conditions is presented using qualitative as well as quantitative data. Students showed self-perceived increases particularly in their attitudes toward technology. These results are discussed before we report on the adaptation of the workshop for different conditions to illustrate the flexibility of the basic set up
