An analysis of right-and left-brain thinkers and certain styles of learning

Includes bibliographical references

A Framework and an Instructional Design Model for the Development of Students\u27 Computational and Algorithmic Thinking

The authors herein, describe their efforts towards designing technology-enhanced instruction for teaching Computational and Algorithmic Thinking. This study examined students’ development of Computational and Algorithmic Thinking, by utilizing the framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and the instructional design model of Technology Mapping. Different technological tools were used for both groups of participants; the experimental and the control group. In particular, the experimental group used educational robotics and the control group used a 3D interactive programming environment. Both groups were 8th graders coming from different secondary education schools in Cyprus. A pre-post test research design was adopted in each classroom intervention. To check whether the interventions facilitated students’ development and understanding of Computational and Algorithmic Thinking concepts and competencies, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was then conducted. According to the results, the framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and the approach of Technology Mapping, which guided the design of the instructional intervention were effective in terms of fostering students’ development and understanding of Computational and Algorithmic Thinking competencies and concepts, respectively

Preparing Nursing Students to Respond to Disasters: Faculty Perspectives

This mixed methods study explored emergency preparedness and disaster response in the concept-based learning curriculum adopted by the Alabama Community College System (ACCS) in 2016. The concept-based curriculum employs active learning in lieu of the traditional lecture-style teaching methods. This study addressed the problem that educators may be unfamiliar with this content and are unsure how to present this material to students. The purpose of this study was to gain insight on teaching methodologies, to better prepare nursing students on this content. Kolb’s 1984 Experiential Learning Theory was the framework that parallels closely with this curriculum. Kolb emphasizes four stages that are essential for experiential learning to be successful: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. The online survey included 76 nurse educators from the ACCS. Survey questions were based on the variables of teaching methodologies, nurse preparedness, attitudes and barriers. The results concluded that collaboration is the preferred method of teaching. Continuing education opportunities on this content are also needed. The semi-structured interviews included five nurse directors in the ACCS. The interviews indicated simulation was the preferred method of directors to prepare students in this content. Continuing education was a need expressed. This study revealed that nurse educators and directors want more education on this content. A future follow-up study would be beneficial to include educators and students to measure learning outcomes

Facilitating Classroom Economics Experiments with an Emerging Technology: The Case of Clickers

The authors discuss how they used the audience response system (ARS) to facilitate pit market trading in an applied microeconomics class and report the efficacy of the approach. Using the ARS to facilitate active learning by engaging students in economics experiments has pedagogical advantages over both the labor-intensive approach of pencil-and-paper and the capital-intensive route of relying on networked or on-line computer labs which oftentimes preclude or restrict face-to-face student interactions. Thus, the new method of conducting experiments represents an added advantage on top of such conventional functions as taking attendance and administering quizzes of this increasingly popular classroom technology.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Agribusiness Capstone Courses Design: Objectives and Strategies

This paper discusses the benefits of using strategic management principles as the cornerstone for building the agribusiness capstone experience. The necessity for agribusiness firms to create and implement strategies that build a sustainable competitive advantage in turn necessitates the development of strategic management skills in the leaders/managers of the future. As such, the objectives of a capstone course lean heavily toward the integrative development of strategic decision-making competence. This has a number of implications for the capstone professor in terms of course content, pedagogies, and subsequent measurement of student performance.Agribusiness, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Adaptive Behavioral Outcomes: Assurance Of Learning And Assessment

Business schools are currently being criticized for lacking relevance to the applied working environment in which students are supposed to be prepared to make immediate contributions and reasoned independent decisions in a fluidly changing market (Haskell and Beliveau, 2010, and Michlitsch and Sidle, 2002). While technical skills (accounting, marketing, finance, etc.) have comprised the core of traditional course subject matter, today’s businesses also need graduates who arrive to work possessing integrative skills such as adaptable decision-making in changing competitive environments. Teaching and assessing integrative adaptive behavioral outcomes is both a break from the norm and a challenge to those tasked with developing assessment standards and rubrics. Discussing the demand for developing and assessing adaptive learning skills in business schools is the easy part. Incorporating the development of these non-technical skills into curricula or programs of learning requires one to identify specific skills that require adaptive improvement, design specific pedagogy to develop the skills, and longitudinally measure student performance. In reality, many business curricula lack learning environments where integrative non-technical skills such as longitudinal adaptive behavior can be isolated and programmed for improvement. This manuscript identifies an experiential inductive-based teaching method that has been extended to account for longitudinal variation in adaptive behavior-based learning. It describes a holistic course pedagogy that builds on traditional theoretical knowledge, but then requires students to actively apply that knowledge using interdisciplinary decision-making that receives ongoing competitive market feedback. An assessment rubric is also suggested for linking to important AACSB Assurance-of-Learning objectives targeted at measuring behavioral-based outcomes related to applied adaptive decision-making behavior. Finally, methods are suggested in which adaptive behavioral outcomes can be integrated into other forms of more traditional pedagogy

Evaluation of Student Perceived Self-Efficacy With the Implementation of a Problem-Based Learning Module

To facilitate the graduation of competent registered nurses, healthcare educators must create learning environments that foster content expertise, problem solving, collaboration, and refined learning skills. Although countless teaching strategies are in existence today, problem-based learning (PBL) has revealed noteworthy potential in healthcare education. In PBL, complex, reality-based problems are used as motivation for students to identify salient concepts, gather data, and ultimately work through posed problems. Considerable evidence supports the use of PBL as a method to promote learning, though examining knowledge alone cannot always assess actual behavioral performance. To ascertain the likelihood learned concepts would be utilized in practice, we can evaluate perceived self- efficacy. According to Bandura, self-efficacy is the degree to which an individual believes that a behavior can be successfully performed to produce a desired outcome. Information learned provides a foundation for performance to transpire, but in the absence of self-efficacy performance may not even be attempted. This study examined the relationship between PBL and perceived self-efficacy. Using a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group design, self-efficacy was measured using Schwarzer and Jerusalem\u27s General Self-Efficacy Scale. The study found that the perceived self-efficacy of undergraduate nursing students who participated in a PBL skills laboratory module were significantly higher than their counterparts who studied the same topic in a class not employing PBL

Facilitating Classroom Economics Experiments with an Emerging Technology: The Case of Clickers

The audience response system (ARS) has increasingly been used to engage students by eliciting and analyzing responses to questions posed by instructors. The authors discuss how they used the system to facilitate pit market trading in a microeconomics class, report the efficacy of the approach and provide suggestions extending the use of ARS to other experiments. Using the ARS to facilitate active learning by engaging students in economics experiments has pedagogical advantages over both the labor-intensive approach of pencil-and-paper and the capital-intensive route of relying on networked or on-line computer labs which oftentimes preclude or restrict face-to-face student interactions. Thus, the new method represents an added advantage on top of such conventional functions as taking attendance and administering quizzes of this increasingly popular classroom technology.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,