261,329 research outputs found

    Both ways strong: using digital games to engage Aboriginal learners

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    Engaging Aboriginal learners in the school curriculum can be quite a challenge given issues of cultural and linguistic differences. Even more so, these differences can be expanded when the students are in their adolescence. Creating learning environments that engage learners, while providing deep learning opportunities, is one of the biggest challenges for teachers in remote communities. This paper reports on a reform initiative that centred on the use of a digital game, Guitar Heroes, in a remote Aboriginal school. It was found that the digital media provided teachers with opportunities for new learning spaces and resulted in additional unintended learning outcomes

    IMPROVING STUDY HABITS USING A BEHAVIOUR CHANGE FRAMEWORK INCORPORATING SOCIAL MOTIVATION AND GAMIFICATION

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    Students entering into their first year of university studies are subject to a jarring difference between the learning experiences of high school and university. High schools typically take a very structured approach to teaching whereas university expects students to take ownership of their learning. This dramatic shift often means students are not adequately prepared to form positive study habits on their own, or existing habits are likely to break down. Further complicating this issue is the rising popularity of video games and social networking amongst students. These two areas provide fun and engaging experiences for their users where traditional learning environments struggle to do so. In this research-in-progress paper, we propose a framework that can be used by instructors to improve learning environments so that their students are better engaged and encouraged to form positive study habits. The framework utilises a hybrid of the Transtheoretical model of behaviour change (TTM) and the SNAP model of motivation. Social networking and gamification are used as triggers that enable the process to occur. It is envisaged that this research will lead to instructors creating more effective learning environments with less effort, and making academic learning a more enjoyable pursuit for students

    Knowing Place: Examining the Integration of Place-Based Learning in K-12 Formal Education

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    This study examines place-based education and its potential for engaging students and creating more socially-just learning environments that prepare students to think critically and participate in building a better future for themselves and the communities in which they live. It was initiated to contribute to a growing body of research on how place-based education philosophies and processes contribute to facilitating high-quality learning experiences that are socially and ecologically just, as well as to inform improved teaching practice and policy within our public education institutions in order to ensure that classroom environments, instructional methods, and learning content are reflective of and responsive to the diverse worldviews and experiences of all students. To explore this focus, I used a semi-structured interview format to gain the perspectives of five teacher participants, all residing in Saskatchewan, who use place-based philosophies and methods. I focused on participants’ perspectives of the benefits, processes, barriers, and possibilities for broad incorporation of place-based education in order to determine how place-based learning can be integrated into K-12 formal education. I transcribed interviews verbatim and used inductive coding to organize data into themes. My findings indicate that the teacher participants view place-based education as offering many significant benefits to students, their communities, and themselves, as educators. They believe that, in addition to creating engaging, motivating, and student-centered environments that promote high standards of student growth and learning, place-based education contributes to healthier and more socially and environmentally just classrooms and communities. Despite some barriers associated with facilitating place-based education, such as financial constraints, time limitations, and other institutional norms and structures imposed upon K-12 classrooms, every participant noted a fervent belief in the possibilities and benefits of the broad incorporation of place-based learning within K-12 formal education. They described examples of how place-based education can be taken up in every classroom as a means to engage all students in meaningful learning to an end of healthier students who imagine and work to realize not only their own potential, but also that of the communities in which they live. The results of this study contribute to the body of research on place-based education, much of which focuses on rationales for its implementation, by detailing specific guidelines and processes for its effective facilitation. The results offer practical considerations for educators and education policy-makers who wish to adopt and advocate for place-based education philosophies and praxes

    J Sch Health

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    BACKGROUNDWhile it is a national priority to support the health and education of students, these sectors must better align, integrate, and collaborate to achieve this priority. This article summarizes the literature on the connection between health and academic achievement using the Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child (WSCC) framework as a way to address health-related barriers to learning.METHODSA literature review was conducted on the association between student health and academic achievement.RESULTSMost of the evidence examined the association between student health behaviors and academic achievement, with physical activity having the most published studies and consistent findings. The evidence supports the need for school health services by demonstrating the association between chronic conditions and decreased achievement. Safe and positive school environments were associated with improved health behaviors and achievement. Engaging families and community members in schools also had a positive effect on students' health and achievement.CONCLUSIONSSchools can improve the health and learning of students by supporting opportunities to learn about and practice healthy behaviors, providing school health services, creating safe and positive school environments, and engaging families and community. This evidence supports WSCC as a potential framework for achieving national educational and health goals.26440816PMC460677

    Using Henry Fayol’s Principles for Better Classroom Management

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    Classroom is a place surrounded by four walls and a roof which is used by the teacher to impart knowledge to the students. It is a shelter for educational activities; an environment for acquiring knowledge in a formal manner. It provides a context for learning and includes not only the physical space and furnishings, but also the inherent atmosphere, learners’ emotions and the social dynamics attached to learning. Management of the classroom environment hence, becomes an important aspect in this backdrop. The objective of effective teaching is often achieved through proper classroom management, i.e., by incorporating predetermined and predefined goals and engaging students through group-activities to achieve them. Classroom management being an important element of teaching thus, necessitates the absence of disruptions and disturbances, providing room for better learnable outcomes. It is an understandable fact, however, that the classroom conflicts cannot be eliminated completely; but minimized. Author in this paper has implemented Fayol’s principles in an attempt to manage the classroom more efficiently by minimizing conflict situations and thereby creating more comfortable educational environments. It is argued that these principles can be of a great help to the students in coping with the classroom difficulties arising chiefly out of peer-competition and other extraneous pressures. Keywords: classroom, management, disruptive behaviour and classroom management

    Leading for Learning Sourcebook: Concepts and Examples

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    Provides a detailed discussion of ideas and methods that educators can use to enhance leadership in learning. Offers examples of leaders using the ideas and tools for assessment, planning, and teaching. Includes four annotated longitudinal cases

    School Climate: Practices for Implementation and Sustainability

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    The National School Climate Center (NSCC) School Climate Practice Briefs -- Practices for Implementation and Sustainability -- present the latest in research and best practice for effective school climate reform from leading experts. The 11 issues selected to be included in this set of Practice Briefs are based on NSCC's decade-long work with the entire academic community -- teachers, staff, school-based mental health professionals, students and parents -- to improve a climate for learning.These School Climate Briefs for Implementation and Sustainability focus on both the "what?" - what are the foundational standards, research and measurements of school climate; and the "so what?" - what practices individuals, schools and communities can employ to measure and improve school climate for maximum impacts. We encourage a review of the entire set of Briefs as they demonstrate how school climate aligns with current opportunities and challenges schools face to ensure quality, safe, equitable and engaging environments for students and adults

    Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences

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    Part of the Volume on Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth.Youth today are often criticized for their lack of civic participation and involvement in political life. Technology has been blamed, amongst many other causes, for fostering social isolation and youth's retreat into a private world disconnected from their communities. However, current research is beginning to indicate that these might be inaccurate perceptions. The Internet has provided new opportunities to create communities that extend beyond geographic boundaries, to engage in civic and volunteering activities across local and national frontiers, to learn about political life, and to experience the challenges of democratic participation. How do we leverage youth's interest in new technologies by developing technology-based educational programs to promote civic engagement? This chapter explores this question by proposing socio-technical design elements to be considered when developing technology-rich experiences. It presents a typology to guide the design of Internet-based interventions, taking into account both the affordances of the technology and the educational approach to the use of the technology. It also presents a pilot experience in a northeastern university that offered a pre-orientation program in which incoming freshman designed a three-dimensional virtual campus of the future and developed new policies and programs to strengthen the relationship between college campus and neighbor communities

    Primary and lower secondary students’ learning agency and social support

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    Making initiatives and having ownership over one’s learning is a key for applying and creating knowledge, acquiring new abilities, actively steering one’s life and the engaging in change in society. Understanding the preconditions for such learning should be in the core of designing learning environments and the primary interest of frontline learning research. This study focuses on exploring students’ sense of their learning agency in studying and the role of teacher and peer support in cultivating it. We examined how primary (grades 1-6) and lower secondary school students (grades 7-9) perceive their learning agency (LA), its relationship with the experienced teacher and peer support in studying. Also, differences between the girls and boys, and schools located in low and high SES neighborhoods was examined. We assessed the structure and level of learning agency by using a new measurement and explorative structural equation modeling (ESEM). Results show that learning agency consists of interdependent elements of motivation to learn, self-efficacy beliefs about learning and strategies for learning in meaning making, problem solving and scaffolding in studying. The experienced learning agency was related to social support experienced in several ways. Also differences in learning agency and social support in terms of grade level, gender and SES were detected. Results indicate that meaning making especially calls for intentional support from teachers in lower secondary grades and that girls and boys have partly different support needs in terms of cultivating strong sense of learning agency

    Updating the art history curriculum: incorporating virtual and augmented reality technologies to improve interactivity and engagement

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    Master's Project (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017This project investigates how the art history curricula in higher education can borrow from and incorporate emerging technologies currently being used in art museums. Many art museums are using augmented reality and virtual reality technologies to transform their visitors' experiences into experiences that are interactive and engaging. Art museums have historically offered static visitor experiences, which have been mirrored in the study of art. This project explores the current state of the art history classroom in higher education, which is historically a teacher-centered learning environment and the learning effects of that environment. The project then looks at how art museums are creating visitor-centered learning environments; specifically looking at how they are using reality technologies (virtual and augmented) to transition into digitally interactive learning environments that support various learning theories. Lastly, the project examines the learning benefits of such tools to see what could (and should) be implemented into the art history curricula at the higher education level and provides a sample section of a curriculum demonstrating what that implementation could look like. Art and art history are a crucial part of our culture and being able to successfully engage with it and learn from it enables the spread of our culture through digital means and of digital culture
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