Determining curricular coverage of student contributions to an online discourse environment: Using latent semantic analysis to construct differential term clouds

This paper presents a new approach to mapping student contributions to curriculum guidelines through the use of Latent Semantic Analysis and information visualization techniques. A new information visualization technique - differential term clouds - is introduced as a means to make clear changes in semantic fields over time

An investigation into the impact of an integrated curriculum on learning in the primary school

This thesis investigates cross curricular models (integrated curricula) and explores claims by advocates of such models that they enhance learning. A Case Study describes a primary school’s journey in developing its curriculum and pedagogy and highlights the questions that were asked and which relate to the theoretical accounts of knowledge and integrating curricula outlined in the study. It traces the origins of cross curricular studies to Dewey and the pragmatist view of knowledge and in the UK to the Plowden Report (1967). Exploring some cross curricular models, it indicates that they may do little to enhance learning as links between subjects can be spurious with the focus often on developing skills rather than knowledge, skills and understanding due to the constructivist origins on which these models have been based. Links between curriculum and pedagogy are investigated and it is suggested that developing a deeper understanding of knowledge and its concepts demands a more active approach to learning. Questioning the absence of any theory of knowledge by many modern curriculum designers, it also explores the social realist approach to knowledge which justifies bringing knowledge back into the school curriculum. It claims that the complex connections between subjects at a conceptual level make integration possible and will demand a more active learning process resulting in a deeper understanding of knowledge. Skills are developed through the logical demands and modes of enquiry of the school subjects and not through skills based models in which they are taught context free. A comparison is made between a cross curricular topic through a traditional approach and an approach through a conceptual lens which involves a deeper study of the individual subjects, brings a sharper focus to the study and allows generalisations to be made

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

The Making of Knowledge-Makers in Composition: A Distant Reading of Dissertations

Combining qualitative coding with original algorithmic and quantitative analyses, this project aggregates and visualizes metadata from 2,711 recent doctoral dissertations in Composition/Rhetoric, completed between 2001 and 2010 (inclusive), in order to establish an empirical baseline of what new and established scholars in Composition/Rhetoric agree upon as acceptable research in the field. I find that both subject matter and methodologies largely collocate within a small number of clusters, but not without cross-over among these clusters, and I call for increased dialogue among schools focusing on these different methods and subjects. Chapter 1, \u27Disciplinary Anxiety and the Composition of Composition,\u27 reviews the history of Composition/Rhetoric\u27s search for a shared research paradigm, including its potential rejection of that goal. Following Derek Mueller (2009), I argue for \u27distant reading\u27 (Moretti), through metadata visualization, as a means of keeping abreast of research trends that would be unmanageable through direct reading alone. Chapter 2, \u27From Dissertations to Data: My Exhibits and My Methods,\u27 explains how I obtained, selected, and prepared the 2,711 documents that go into my subsequent analysis. Chapter 3, \u27Mapping the Methods of Composition/Rhetoric Dissertations: A \u27Landscape Plotted and Pieced,\u27 \u27 takes up the question of whether the field has divided along methodological lines, as Stephen North (1987) predicted. After identifying methods used in dissertations based on their abstracts, I describe correlations between dissertation methods and the graduate schools where they are most frequently employed. Most dissertations used more than one method. I demonstrate that, while aggregable and empirical methods have not disappeared, few schools focus on them; dialectical and text-hermeneutic methods are far more common across the board. Chapter 4, \u27Tapping the Topics: What We Study When We Study Writing in Writing Studies,\u27 turns from methods to content. Drawing on a computer-generated topic model of the full text of 1,754 dissertations, I provide evidence both for high-level clustering of topics and for large numbers of dissertations that cut across these clusters. The most common dissertation topics in this sample address the teaching of writing and, in a largely separate cluster, theories of meaning-making. In Chapter 5, \u27Toward a View From Everywhere: \u27Disciplined Interdisciplinarity\u27 and Distant Reading,\u27 I reflect on the benefits and limitations of the methods I have used, and suggest directions for future study. Although it is generally clear to doctoral students preparing to begin dissertation work that they have a number of methods to choose from, and a number of ways to construct and usefully constrain their subject matter, Composition/Rhetoric as a field has not generally speaking kept good track of trends across institutions, with the result that individual dissertation-writers do not know whether a particular method or subject they are considering is common or quirky, cutting-edge or passé. By offering a recent, zoomed-out view beyond the vantage point of any one program, these analyses provide a shared map of where Composition/Rhetoric doctoral research has been, so that researchers, thesis committees, and curriculum-planners can make more informed local decisions about where their research should go next

Digital Humanities and Libraries and Archives in Religious Studies

How are digital humanists drawing on libraries and archives to advance research in the field of religious studies and theology? How can librarians and archivists make their collections accessible in return? This volume showcases the perspectives of faculty, librarians, archivists, and allied cultural heritage professionals who are drawing on primary and secondary sources in innovative ways to create digital humanities projects in the field

Problem space of modern society: philosophical-communicative and pedagogical interpretations. Part II

This collective monograph offers the description of philosophical bases of definition of communicative competence and pedagogical conditions for the formation of communication skills. The authors of individual chapters have chosen such point of view for the topic which they considered as the most important and specific for their field of study using the methods of logical and semantic analysis of concepts, the method of reflection, textual reconstruction and comparative analysis. The theoretical and applied problems of modern society are investigated in the context of philosophical, communicative and pedagogical interpretations