A pilot study on e-learning in small online discussion groups and experimental design in biology

This pilot study focuses on assessing the effectiveness of discussion in small online student groups. More effective learning may be promoted through properly designed discussion tasks. These can be effective learning tools to promote creativity, student-student and student-teacher interactions, as well as promoting understanding for the learner. A two-week online course was designed for Advanced level biology students aimed at establishing an online learning community to encourage discussion of experimental procedures in small groups of 5–9 students. The study was carried out during a 2-week slot in 2016 and in 2017 with 28 and 38 students respectively. Results based on average scores for the various assigned activities were positive. Most students appreciated acquiring skills when using discussion forums. Students mentioned difficulties with meeting deadlines and the technology. The course needs some tweaking to facilitate further students’ participation.peer-reviewe

Critical attitude and conceptual development in physics : what connections?

In a changing world, several competences are universally advocated as educational objectives. One of the expected benefits of this choice is transferability across domains, as in the case of critical thinking. But developing various competences in this way may entail some limitations on other planes – for instance, in relation to disciplinary conceptual knowledge. The question arises of the possible links between development of a critical attitude and conceptual progress in a given domain. To document this question, I present a series of investigations involving future physics teachers at the end of their formation. Reporting their evolution during in-depth interviews on various topics in physics, I focus on the extent to which they critiqued incomplete or incoherent explanations. The findings are discussed in terms of ‘intellectual dynamics’ – that is, differences in the co-evolution of their conceptual understanding and critical attitude. In this context, the most frequently observed intellectual dynamics was ‘delayed critique’: waiting to reach a certain threshold of conceptual comprehension beyond mere logical necessity before expressing a critique of a given text. I will discuss the process by which the transition from critical passivity to the liberation of critical attitude is triggered in this population, discussing how we might help future teachers (and students more generally) to reduce the duration and effects of their critical passivity when they struggle to master the domain in question. I will argue that much more can be learned from students’ responses to an educational setting if analysis of their comments is not confined exclusively to conceptual aspects but attends more to the possible interconnections between conceptual and metacognitive-critical-affective awareness.peer-reviewe

The Eurovision Song Contest within formal educational learning contexts : a critical multimodal interpretation of possible inter-disciplinary connections

The Eurovision Song Contest [ESC] is often viewed by many as pure entertainment followed annually by millions around the globe and by over 95% of the Maltese population. This paper aims to move on to deeper levels and to discuss how the songs of this popular cult can be viewed as interdisciplinary resources which eventually serve as effective pedagogical tools within formal educational contexts and classrooms. Adopting a socio-semiotic multimodal approach, an original multimodal framework1 is presented through which Eurovision songs are analysed before they are connected to these educational contexts to serve as pedagogical tools. Referring to a socio-constructivist epistemology, a practical example taken from the ongoing ‘Learning through the Eurovision: a multimodal research project’2 is discussed where these songs are viewed as inter-disciplinary tools made up of socio-semiotic elements which, when viewed as connected, can facilitate learning and teaching.peer-reviewe

The private-state interface : a social network analysis of the board of directors of Malta Enterprise and its predecessors

Historically, the boards of the Industrial Development Commission (pre- Independence), the Malta Development Corporation (1967–2004), and Malta Enterprise (2004–present) have always included representatives of private enterprise. The Malta Enterprise Act (2003) requires the minister responsible for the corporation to appoint persons (amongst others) who appear to the minister to have experience and show ability in matters relating to (amongst others) industry, trade, finance and organizations of employers. Almost identical provisions may be found in the Malta Development Corporation Act (1967). Such organizations play an important role in economic development, mainly through policy and practice. They also provide an ‘interface’ between private enterprise and the state, between private interests and the public interest. This paper proposes a Social Network Analysis (SNA) of the board of directors of Malta Enterprise and its predecessors, including that of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Industries. Further data could also be gathered, especially from employers’ and workers’ associations, private entities such as Banks, or directorships of private enterprises, particularly those who had formed partnerships with other noted entrepreneurs who were on the boards of the studied entities.peer-reviewe

Changing the image of the University of Malta Library : new roles, challenges, and services

Up to a few years ago, the Library was perceived as a study place with books, a simple on-line catalogue and access to electronic databases. With the implementation of an integrated discovery tool, investing in a vast number of online resources and pushing forward the concept of open access publishing, the Library has become a central hub of dynamic research for the academic community, connecting with students at different stages of their courses, academics, and support staff. It strives to keep up with current trends and emerging technologies to ensure that users’ needs and expectations are catered for. In May 2012, the Library set up an Outreach Department to establish and maintain an on-going partnership with faculties and students, attend to queries about the Library, and implement marketing strategies to promote new services and resources made available to users. This paper provides an insight of how the Library’s role has changed during the past 5 years and what challenges are being faced in a rapid changing and dynamic information landscape.peer-reviewe

The connection between literature and aesthetics : is it problematic?

Most literary critics are reluctant to accept the relevance of aesthetics to literature. This paper aims to show how aesthetics can be related to literature in terms of values, among other concepts. The aesthetic experience and the aesthetic value of literature have long been discussed resulting in many divergent theories from philosophers in general and aestheticians in particular. This paper revisits Peter Lamarque’s objections to the connection between aesthetics and literature and argues for and against these objections, referring to accounts written by several philosophers, amongst whom Monroe C. Beardsley, Robert Stecker, Noël Carroll, and Kendall Walton. I claim that the connection between aesthetics and literature is possible if a literary genre is transformed into an experience which is mostly subjective, and generates aesthetic values which, on the other hand, are more objective and universal. As Lamarque claims, literary critics seem to emphasize more the instrumental values of literature than its more purely intrinsic values. Moreover, they keep away as much as possible from value judgments of any kind. All this seems to separate literature from aesthetics. There are common factors, however, such as aesthetic pleasure and aesthetic vocabulary, which are used by both aestheticians and literary critics, proving that literature holds a strong place in contemporary aesthetics. Most aestheticians regard literature, especially poetry, as one of the arts. However, the most common issues that philosophers write about are the cognitive and ethical values of literature. Such debates lack the literary and hence the aesthetic aspect of literature. It is not so obvious that when philosophers write about literature, they are really engaged in aesthetics. This paper focuses on whether the concept of aesthetics of literature really connects aesthetics to literature and, more precisely, on which criteria make literary works suitable for aesthetic evaluation? The key to these questions lies in the aesthetic experience of pleasure.peer-reviewe

Disconnection at the limit : posthumanism, deconstruction and non-philosophy

Speculative posthumanism (SP) conceives posthumans as agents made inhuman by a technological disconnection or ‘withdrawal’ from human social systems (The disconnection thesis – DT). DT understands becoming nonhuman in terms of agential independence. An artefact like a robot is a ‘wide human’ so long as it depends on its human-related functions to exist. But what is an agent? SP forecloses a purely conceptual response to this question because it rejects transcendental accounts of subjectivity founded in human experience or social practice (Unbounded Posthumanism – UP). UP renders this question illegitimate because it denies there is any theory of agency that could apply to all agents. Not only does DT not tell us what posthumans are like, it has no criteria for determining when disconnection occurs. It follows that understanding the posthuman (if possible) must proceed without criteria. The content of unbounded posthumanism is produced by disconnection rather than by the schematic theoretical content of DT. I will argue that this implies an intimate relationship between the understanding and practice in posthumanism that allows us to draw fertile analogies between UP and two other ‘philosophies of the limit’ Derrida’s Deconstruction and Laruelle’s Non-Philosophy.peer-reviewe