Current Issues in Education (E-Journal, Arizona State University)
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The Social Dimension of Distance Learning by Interactive Television: A Qualitative Study
Get PDFThis qualitative study examined instructorsâ and studentsâ perceptions of social relationship in distance learning. Interview and observational data were collected and analyzed to generate theories. Factors influencing a sense of distance were analyzed. Findings revealed greater difficulty establishing a social relationship in interactive television environments than in face-to-face environments. Both instructors and students found it more important to build a personal connection between them. Instructorsâ preference for course delivery and building rapport with students was to travel and teach at the remote sites. The study implies that faculty and administrators should seriously consider, in their decision-making, both the gains and losses of interactive television as a delivery format
Developing Technology Competencies in a College of Education
Get PDFColleges of education across the country are implementing initiatives to promote new and more effective teaching methods grounded in information technology and the improvement of teaching skills of graduate and undergraduate students in professional education programs. The goals for participating faculty members are to integrate information technology competencies into not only the content of the courses that they teach, but also into their instructional methods of teaching. An initiative grounded in existing coursework, extant resources, and prior experience is described in this article. Working from a state-accepted list of basic and advanced instructional technology competencies, a course-by-competency matrix was articulated to support the development of instructional technology competencies among faculty and students. Faculty and student development activities to infuse technology into teaching, using existing resources and facilities, were designed, field-tested, and evaluated. The activities were modified for use in subsequent semesters as vehicles for building or extending competencies of undergraduate and graduate students preparing for professional positions as teachers, administrators, and counselors. To support continued implementation and improvement, practical, hands-on experiences were supervised by information technology specialists, knowledgeable faculty members, and graduate students with demonstrated competence. A team of professionals with expertise in instructional technology monitors all faculty and student development activities. The effort provides a comprehensive, practical model for addressing the growing need for altering instructional methods to accommodate technology innovations for school personnel in meaningful ways
Effective Thinking: An Active-Learning Course in Critical Thinking
Get PDFThis article describes a college course in critical thinking. Offered in the Psychology Department at Arizona State University, this active-learning course provides instruction in how to apply principles of (scientific) methodological reasoning and optimum decision making to problems faced in everyday-life situations. Students learn to evaluate statistical and scientific evidence, clarify personal and societal values, and anticipate the consequences of their actions in dealing with personally significant issues. Crime and punishment, societal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, alcohol abuse, and racial stereotypes comprise a partial list of topics addressed in the class. Using Internet links to recorded classroom discussions archived on the World Wide Web, the article provides qualitative support for a three-level model of critical thinking. This model attempts to account for the progression of methodological reasoning skills and related dispositions that takes place over the course of the semester
Comedy Hour: Using Audio Files of Joke Recitations to Improve Elementary Students' Fluency
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to measure changes in fluency components in three struggling readers. Intervention strategies were implemented over a span of four weeks in a second grade classroom. Strategies included teacher modeling, self-rehearsal, and audiotape analysis. Automaticity and prosody in initial audio recordings of joke recitations were compared to the final readings of the same jokes. Progress was also monitored by students’ engagement in a class-wide weekly performance to present their jokes to peers. Results of this study indicated an increase in automaticity and prosody as well as an increase in confidence in oral reading.
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Cultural Collision in Urban Schools
Get PDFYoung African Americans face several critical issues such as dire economic circumstances, peer pressure, random violence, and feelings of alienation from the cultural mainstream in America. Black popular culture for these youth creates a value system born out of these same issues. This analysis will address the influence of Black popular culture on African American urban youth and its subsequent intersection with the culture found in secondary schools (cultural collision). Black popular culture will be examined through the use of two components: hip-hop culture and television media. Current literature as related to the topics discussed will be used to make recommendations
Playing With Science: An Investigation of Young Children's Science Conceptions and Misconceptions
Get PDFThe purpose of this research was to investigate the conceptions and misconceptions of young children (ages 3 â 8) related to science concepts, skills, and phenomena. These conceptions and misconceptions were investigated within the framework of the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards for Pre-Kindergarten and the Pennsylvania Standards for Kindergarten as developed and published by the Pennsylvania Department of Education in 2005. In addition, the National Science Education Standards also served as a foundation for our research. Findings reveal the most common conceptions related to matter, magnetism, density, and air. Extrapolations from this research can be used by pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators to implement experiences in the classroom that assist in developing and refining young childrenâs understandings of scientific concepts, skills, and phenomena
The Effects of Background Music on Learning Disabled Elementary School Studentsâ Performance in Writing
Get PDFThis study investigated effects of background music on writing performance of nine 6th grade students at one suburban public elementary school in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. A quantitative A-B-A design was utilized, and results from graded writing prompts with and without background music over 21 weeks were compared. Group Mean gain was higher in the music (treatment) phase than in the final phase (returning to baseline), indicating that background music improved writing ability of learning disabled students overall. Scores dropped instantly and markedly in the first weeks that music was added and removed, indicating that consistency in routine may be more essential to academic performance for learning disabled students than the presence or absence of background music
Enacting Culture in Gaming: A Video Gamer's Literacy Experiences and Practices
Get PDFVideo games are growing as a subject for scholarly analysis (Gee, 2003; Selfe & Hawisher 2004; Selfe & Hawisher 2004, 2007): This discussion argues that video games are another simulacra for postmodern cultural critique. Video games do cultural work by allowing gamers to play out socially constructed hopes and fears. As cultural products mediated by overarching values, video games enact the culture from which they come and to which they are marketed, including features of individualism, militarization, and perseverance. Following Brian Streetâs (2003) ideological model of literacy, this analysis of a particular gamerâs literacy practices found them heavily influenced by contemporary culture: Video game environments require gamers to read dynamic semiotic systems (Gee, 2003) that position them to be cultural critics on the one hand and learners acquiring new literacy practices on the other. âBrent,â a creative writer, creates fictional worlds in his writing that reinscribe common video game narratives, an intertextuality reinforcing how literacy is never learned in a vacuum outside of cultural influences. Acquiring literacy skills via gaming involves socio-political immersion in and interaction with media reflecting the surrounding dominant cultural ideology
Academic Achievement for Fifth-Grade Students in Elementary and Intermediate School Settings: Grade Span Configurations
Get PDFFew researchers have addressed student achievement outcomes as a function of grade configurations for older elementary-aged students. Thus, this study was designed to determine differences between studentsâ Grade 5 reading and mathematics achievement in elementary schools (Kâ5) as compared to intermediate schools (Grade 5, 5â6) for 5 academic years. Using archival statewide data, researchers used a rigorous five-step distance-based formula to match elementary schools to intermediate schools on four demographic/school characteristic variables. Students in K-5 settings attained statistically significantly higher levels of reading and mathematics achievement than did their counterparts, with moderate mean effect sizes of 0.37 and 0.47
The Effect of Computer Supported Problem Based Learning on Students' Approaches to Learning
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of computer supported problem based learning on studentsâ approaches to learning. The research was conducted as a pre-test and post-test one-grouped design used to achieve the objectives of the study. The experimental process of study lasted 5 weeks and was carried out on 78 university students. The Scale of Approaches to Learning was used as the data collection instrument, which was developed by researcher. The collected data were analyzed by paired simple t-test. According to the results, it can be stated that problem based learning has a significant effect on adopting a predominantly deep approach to learning by students