Research-practice interactions as reported in recent design studies: Still promising, still hazy

This study portrays recent research–practice connections found in 18 design research reports focusing on the creation of instructional solutions. Solutions in different stages of development varied greatly in duration, ranging from one lesson to a whole year curriculum, spanned all levels of education, many subjects (science, math, language, culture, teacher education, etc.). Close collaboration between researchers and practitioners was prominent in all of the 18 projects studied. Participants in primary and secondary education projects have quite distinct roles regarding the teaching and researching, but they design their instruction solutions often collaboratively. Nearly all projects reported on how designed solutions were anchored in research, either from literature or from in-house project data. All articles indicated that research fed (re-)design, but few specified how. Based on our findings, we call for increased research and reporting on the specific strategies employed by design research participants to facilitate the production of new theoretical understanding through design of instructional solution

Design of a recommender system for web based learning

The design of recommender systems is an ongoing research area where several researchers have devised means of incorporating intelligence in web content systems to be able to provide recommendations to learners on the basis of their learning preferences i.e. based on their learning profiles. The paper discusses the design of such a system based mapped to a content ontology and learner profiles created in the system

Technology-Enhanced Peer Review: Benefits and Implications of Providing Multiple Reviews

ABSTRACT This study analyses the impact of self and peer feedback in technology-enhanced peer review settings. The impact of receiving peer comments (“receiver” perspective) is compared to that of reaching own insights by reviewing others’ work (“giver” perspective). In this study, 38 sophomore students were randomly assigned in two conditions and engaged in peer review activity facilitated by a web-based learning environment asking them to provide multiple reviews. In the Peer Reviewed (PR) condition students both reviewed peer work and received peer comments for their own work. By contrast, in the Self Reviewed (SR) condition students provided peer reviews, but did not receive any. Instead, they were asked to perform self reviewing, before proceeding to any revisions of their work. Result showed that the two groups were comparable in all aspects, suggesting that the lack of getting peer reviews can be efficiently alleviated by other type of scaffolds such as a scripted self review process. Overall, the study provides evidence that the review “giver” perspective (as opposed to the typical “receiver” perspective) is a vital option and has noteworthy implications for the design of technological systems that aim to flexibly support more efficient peer review schemes

The affordances of technology for student teachers to shape their teacher education experience

This chapter describes a case study model to document the evolution over three semesters of a Masters course in technology and language learning for in-service teachers using a social constructivist pedagogical approach (Felix, 2002) within an ecological framework, from completely face to face (F2F) to predominantly online. The focus is on teachers’ acceptance of change in the form of integration of technology first into their learning and second into their teaching, as well as their adaptability to self-managing their learning. The design of the modified course took an experiential modeling approach in which all of the tools and processes that were taught in the course were modeled and experienced by students (teachers) during the semester. These tools include reflective and social computing tools such as chat, blogs, wikis, and e-portfolios, as well as lesson and task-templating software such as Hot Potatoes, and WebQuest and web page creation software such as Dreamweaver. Based on grounded research methods, techniques such as surveys, problem-based focus groups and short-answer responses were used to ascertain the values of the changes. Some of the information collected from these instruments is presented and compared to the reflective pieces produced by students in their blogs and the projects they created. Due to the multinational composition of the class, some commentary on intercultural perspectives on experiential pedagogy and working with social networking software is also offered

Emergency Management Training and Exercises for Transportation Agency Operations, MTI Report 09-17

Training and exercises are an important part of emergency management. Plans are developed based on threat assessment, but they are not useful unless staff members are trained on how to use the plan, and then practice that training. Exercises are also essential for ensuring that the plan is effective, and outcomes from exercises are used to improve the plan. Exercises have been an important part of gauging the preparedness of response organizations since Civil Defense days when full-scale exercises often included the community. Today there are various types of exercises that can be used to evaluate the preparedness of public agencies and communities: seminars, drills, tabletop exercises, functional exercises, facilitated exercises and full-scale exercises. Police and fire agencies have long used drills and full-scale exercises to evaluate the ability of staff to use equipment, protocols and plans. Transit and transportation agencies have seldom been included in these plans, and have little guidance for their participation in the exercises. A research plan was designed to determine whether urban transit systems are holding exercises, and whether they have the training and guidance documents that they need to be successful. The main research question was whether there was a need for a practical handbook to guide the development of transit system exercises

Teaching the dynamics of the growth of a business venture through transparent simulations

Achieving rapid and sustainable growth is essential for business ventures to succeed. This being so, future entrepreneurs need to understand and manage the dynamics of business growth. Simulation-based learning environments (SBLEs) have been proposed as effective tools to help learners improve their understanding of complex business problems. However, previous research has found that learners tend to underestimate dynamic complexity. Transparent simulations allow entrepreneurship learners to explore the dynamic complexity of business ventures while accessing the model structure and growth behaviour. Previous studies have addressed some aspects of model transparency and produced inconclusive results regarding their impact on learning effectiveness. This study explores the learning and performance effects of using transparent simulations to teach the dynamics of the growth of a business venture. One such simulation experiment used a system dynamics model that represented the development of an energy service company (ESCO) venture under varying conditions of simulator transparency. Students who were subjected to the more transparent strategy achieved higher performance and demonstrated better comprehension of the business dynamics. However, our findings indicate that the effect to be gained from making only the simulator model more visible is more limited. The structural debriefing (focused on the critical variables and relations) was determinant in improving students’ learning regarding the stocks and flows structure in the prospects pipeline. Only after participating in the behavioural debriefing (focused on the relation between model structure, patterns of actions, and system behaviour), were the students able to appreciate the dynamics of the business feedback loops. The research suggests that educators who use complex business simulations should complement model transparency with structural and behavioural debriefings.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

What do faculties specializing in brain and neural sciences think about, and how do they approach, brain-friendly teaching-learning in Iran?

Objective: to investigate the perspectives and experiences of the faculties specializing in brain and neural sciences regarding brain-friendly teaching-learning in Iran. Methods: 17 faculties from 5 universities were selected by purposive sampling (2018). In-depth semi-structured interviews with directed content analysis were used. Results: 31 sub-subcategories, 10 subcategories, and 4 categories were formed according to the “General teaching model”. “Mentorship” was a newly added category. Conclusions: A neuro-educational approach that consider the roles of the learner’s brain uniqueness, executive function facilitation, and the valence system are important to learning. Such learning can be facilitated through cognitive load considerations, repetition, deep questioning, visualization, feedback, and reflection. The contextualized, problem-oriented, social, multi-sensory, experiential, spaced learning, and brain-friendly evaluation must be considered. Mentorship is important for coaching and emotional facilitation