1,720,955 research outputs found
First year student teachers' perceptions of their constructivist classroom learning environments in accounting 1 and implications for teacher educators
Get PDFPublished ThesisThis mixed methods study was carried out at Central University of Technology, Free State, Welkom Campus. Its aim was to investigate the perceptions of first year student teachers about their constructivist classroom learning environments in Accounting 1 and implications of such perceptions for teacher educators. The ultimate goal was to develop strategies to improve and enhance a positive constructivist classroom learning environment. The study is grounded in constructivism and viewed the learning environment from the socio-ecological approach paradigm. The population was all the first year Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) Accounting students. Convenience sampling was used to select a study sample of 112 students. Data was collected using a questionnaire called the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). The CLES was adopted and adapted for use in this study as it had already been tested for reliability and validity by its developers. Students’ responses of their perceptions were measured on a 5 point Likert-type scale in seven categories. Semi-structured interviews were used to supplement questionnaire data. The quantitative data revealed positive perceptions of students in aspects regarding learning to speak out, learning to communicate, an interest in accounting and teacher support in Accounting. The study further revealed that students were not satisfied with some aspects in the learning to learn category. Although they were partially satisfied with the learning about the world and learning about accounting aspects, the qualitative findings showed that more needed to be done to improve their satisfaction and create positive perceptions. It was revealed that the students remained alienated and marginalized from the designing and planning of their academic activities and the overall classroom instruction.
The findings pointed to the need for teaching staff to move away from standardized lectures to customized instruction which acknowledges that every student in the classroom has different needs and abilities. The study recommends that lecturers should strive towards promoting constructivist learning environments in their classrooms where constructivist ideas and principles are encouraged. To this effect, they need to be equipped with the necessary skills and competencies to create social constructivist classrooms and learning environments
The Learning Experiences Of First Year Accounting Student Teachers And Implications On Curriculum Implementation
Get PDFThesisThis study explored the learning experiences of first year accounting student teachers and the implications such learning experiences have on curriculum implementation. The researcher sought to explore these learning experiences and the realities in the learning environment from a student perspective. To this effect, grounded in the theoretical assumptions of multiple intelligences and social constructivism, a sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used to answer the research questions and satisfy the research objectives. The population was all the first year B.Ed. accounting student teachers. Purposive sampling was used for the quantitative strand of the study while random sampling was used for the qualitative part. Data was collected using a Multiple Intelligence and Constructivist Learning Questionnaire which was specifically developed by the researcher for the study.
Guided by relevant literature, the sections of the questionnaire comprised of analytical intelligence, practical intelligence, creative intelligence, guided instruction and social constructivism. It had a total of eighty-six items which students had to rate between a scale of one and seven. For the correlational part of the quantitative strand, twenty-seven hypotheses were formulated for the Pearson correlation coefficient and t-tests. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data on the students’ scores on the extent to which they encountered learning activities which appealed to the constructs of multiple intelligences. Inferential statistics were used to analyse data on the relationship between age, gender and multiple intelligences, guided instruction and social constructivism and between multiple intelligences, guided instruction and social constructivism.
Descriptive statistics revealed that students moderately experienced learning activities which promoted analytical intelligence while they always experienced those which promoted practical intelligence. Creative intelligence was the most neglected one in the learning activities. Inferential statistics revealed no relationship between gender, age and multiple intelligences, guided instruction and social constructivism. However, a strong positive relationship was established between multiple intelligences, guided instruction and social constructivism. The quantitative findings were used to formulate 19 questions for the focus group interviews in the qualitative part of the study. These questions were also justified by relevant literature. The qualitative verdicts and the phenomenological voices of the students concurred with the quantitative diagnosis. The findings establish and reaffirm the need to adopt social constructivist teaching approaches which are not only pedagogically compatible with the assumptions of multiple intelligences, but also stimulate and promote the development of all the cognitive levels of students as epitomised by the revised Bloom taxonomy.
The study has produced compelling empirical evidence to argue that in comparative terms student centred approaches are more appealing to both multiple intelligences and the revised Bloom taxonomy. The study convincingly established that student centred approaches do not only provide students with meaningful learning experiences, but also develop, enhance and promote their multiple intelligences and sustainable academic and cognitive development. Social constructivist teaching approaches have been established as pedagogically effective enough to galvanise students to participate in the teaching and learning process, take collective ownership of their learning progress and that of their classmates and to demonstrate enough intrinsic motivation in pursuit of academic objectives.
Informed by the study findings and the pedagogical ramifications of social constructivism, the theory of multiple intelligences and the instructional imperatives of the revised Bloom taxonomy, the study developed a model called the Curriculum Implementation and Attainment of Learning Objectives Model. The model is an embodiment and illustration of curriculum implementation which is anchored on a mirage of social constructivist learning perspectives towards the realisation of multiple intelligences and the cognitive learning objectives enshrined in the revised Bloom taxonomy
Exploring Social Justice Issues That Inform the 21st-Century Curriculum in Higher Education: Lecturers’ Voices and Experiences
Get PDFHigher education systems across the globe have adopted policies to provide a curriculum which is underpinned by the fundamental values of equality, inclusivity, and diversity. However, owing to lack of transformation and the practical implementation of these policies, higher education is still significantly entrenched in Eurocentric epistemologies which expose students to a learning environment which does not represent their social identities. This has led to the intensification of discourses on decolonisation epistemologies. At the centre of these decolonisation epistemologies is their advocacy for the recognition of indigenous epistemologies and ontologies in the learning environment. Of importance to these discourses is social justice issues that influence the 21st-century curriculum. Guided by the Critical Theory of Education, this study explored social justice issues that inform the 21st-century curriculum from a lecturers’ perspective. Data was collected from thirty-two purposefully selected lecturers from all universities in South Africa using a questionnaire with a Likert scale. The findings demonstrate that academic imperialism, language equity, equality, inclusivity, and diversity are the major issues of social justice that influence the 21st-century curriculum. To promote these social justice issues, this study advocates for radical transformation in language policies and pedagogical practices in higher education. The study further calls for the practical dismantling of the current dispensation in higher education which perpetuates social injustice and inequality. Educational policies need to respond purposefully to calls to decolonise the 21st-century curriculum holistically and create an education system which works for every student on these social justice issues
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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