1,720,969 research outputs found
Developing a technology-based learning environment to improve the teaching of high school mathematics in South Africa
Full text linkIn this developmental study, the main objective was to develop a technology-based learning environment to improve the teaching of high school mathematics in South Africa. The basis for this was the few students who perform well in Grade 12 mathematics and as a result qualify for university entrance for professional qualifications. Before thinking about solutions, the study asked the following, (a) What are the attitudes of teachers about technology in general (affinity to technology)? (b) How likely were teachers to search for mathematical apps and incorporate these in their teaching? and (c) What are teachers’ views about the utility of mathematical apps in their classrooms?
Participants were 22 Grade 12 mathematics teachers. Their ages ranged between 23 years and 53 years (M = 41.6 years; SD = 10.1). In addition, their teaching experience ranged between 4 years and 18 years (M = 11.9 years; SD = 4.6). The teachers initially completed an Affinity for Technology Questionnaire (ATQ). The ATQ is an instrument that is use to determine people who like or dislike technology. Following the completion of the ATQ, the teachers attended three workshops meant to expose them to teaching with technology, specifically, teaching mathematics using apps. At the end of the workshops, the teachers responded to one-on-one interviews where questions related to their experiences in the workshops.
The results revealed that on the main, the teachers had negative attitudes toward technology. While most rated themselves as technophobic. On the one-on-one interviews, the teachers’ responses fell into three groups, namely, the fear of failure, the early adopters, as well as the wait and see group. In fact, the responses of most of the teachers complemented the quantitative findings in that they confirmed negative attitudes toward technology. The analysed data and the results were extremely useful in advocating for teaching with technology in South African schools. As a result, the researcher proposed a new module and a study guide for teaching with technology in the School of Education at TUT. In fact the study recommended that both pre- and in-service teachers should be trained to utilise technology in their classrooms. The study provides a business canvas that outlines the gains, risk and mitigation plans. The limitations of the study are also indicated including a personal reflection in undertaking the study
Factors associated with high school learners' poor performance: a spotlight on mathematics and physical science
Full text linkThis study, using a non-experimental, exploratory and descriptive method, established learners' and educators' views about factors that contribute to poor performance in mathematics and physical science. Participants were purposefully selected from seven schools with poor pass rates in District 3 of Tshwane North. Focused group interviews with ten Grade 11 learners from each school were used as a means to collect data. In addition, one-on-one semistructured interviews were conducted with ten educators from the participating schools. Results indicated that two factors were identifiable. The first identified to have a direct influence related to teaching strategies, content knowledge, motivation, laboratory use, and non-completion of the syllabus in a year. The second factor, associated with indirect influences, was attributed to the role played by parents in their children's education, and general language usage together with its understanding in the two subjects. Recommendations as well as suggestions for further research aimed at addressing the identified factors are advanced. South African Journal of Education Vol. 26(2) 2006: 253–26
Impact of Technology-engagement Teaching Strategy with the Aid of Clickers on Student's Learning Style
No full textAbstractThe challenges in this study were the lack of student participation and interaction, lack of understanding student learning styles’ lack of immediate feedback on student learning throughout the lesson, insufficient time for regular formative assessment and low pass rate. The purpose of the study was to develop and integrate a technology-engagement teaching strategy (TETS) with the aid of clickers by classifying the learning styles of students in Mathematics I. To establish the changes in participants’ academic performance, clicker continuous assessments conducted. The results showed that the useful implementation of TETS with the aid of clickers improved students’ academic performance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Technology-engagement teaching strategy using personal response systems on student’s approaches to learning to increase the mathematics pass rate.
No full textAim/Purpose
The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether the effectiveness of the Technology-engagement Teaching Strategy using personal response sys-tems with student’s approaches to learning will increase the pass rate in the mathematics course
Background
The challenge in this study was to develop the learning activities that accommodate individual differences and diversity in learning. Furthermore, Studies investigating students’ approaches to learning have mostly done this in a face-to-face learning environment as opposed to incorporate exploration thereof when integrating educational technology.
Methodology
A mixed method approach was used. The basis of using this method was a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches which gives a clearer understanding of research problems than either approach alone. Participants were 240 students registered for Mathematics II at a study University of Technology in South Africa. Purposeful, convenience and simple random sampling were used to select the participants.
Contribution
No study that has investigated the utility of personal response systems with students’ approaches to learning is currently available as observed by the re-searcher. In this case, the combination of the two variables in this study makes it unique and therefore important in contributing to the body of knowledge focusing on the role of technology in pedagogy.
Approach the same Technology-engagement Teaching Strategy was used for students following Surface Approaches. The Technology-engagement Teaching Strategy was developed in such a manner to accommodate students following different approaches. The personal response system continuous assessments, as well as the semester test, revealed the improvement in academic performance as well as the increase in mathematics pass rates. It was also found that using personal response system enhances students’ mathematical communication skills and helps to develop the skills needed to write and read mathematical proofs.
Recommendations for Practitioners
It is recommended that academics take into consideration the students approaches to learning in their teaching practices. It is crucial that lecturers take advantage of technology to enhance their teaching practices and decrease the fear of the unknown and open up to new innovations in teaching.
Recommendations for Researchers
It is recommended that the use of personal response systems should be explored in different mathematics settings (different lectures and universities). Such an exploration according to the researcher will be useful in endorsing what has been reported in this paper.
Impact on Society
The results revealed that the Strategic Approach was the most dominant among the participants in this study. The results also showed the improvement in students’ academic performance as well as the number of students who passed increased.
Future Research
A further research study could be conducted with students in a different discipline where poor academic performance is experienced
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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
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