Teaching simulation on collaborative learning, ability groups and mixed-ability groups

In this research, a teaching simulation model is built where the understanding status, knowledge structure, and collaborative effect of each learner are integrated by using a doubly structural network model. The purpose of the model is to analyse the actual conditions of understanding of learners regarding instructions given in classrooms. The influence of teaching strategies on learning effects is analysed in the model. Moreover, the influence of the seating arrangement of learners on collaborative learning effects and ability groups are discussed. As a result of the simulation, the following points were found: (1) the learning effects depend on the difference in teaching strategies, (2) a teaching strategy where learning skills, material structure, and collaborative learning are integrated is the most effective, (3) the seating arrangement affects collaborative learning, and (4) ability groups have adverse effects on learners in collaborative learning

Getting inside the creative voucher: The Platform 7 experience

As with the others in this collection this chapter explores the experience of using a creative voucher. However, here we take a different perspective by reflecting on the process rather than outcomes. In this chapter we view the voucher - and the policy of vouchers - as part of a wider process that may, or may not, engender knowledge exchange; which in turn may, or may not, be incorporated into a final product or process. Connectivity and time are necessary, but not sufficient, to explain knowledge exchange. The argument, as illustrated by the chapter, is that the other processes (intended and unintended) that surround (or constitute) the voucher need to be included in what we might call the ‘voucher experience’. This experience is where and when a relationship, knowledge and understanding are created; the situational dimension may in turn constitute which knowledge is coded useful by participants. This situated and contextual work is not peripheral or of secondary importance: it is central. Accordingly, we want to stress that people as well as cultural products were involved in this voucher, and it is the human interaction that we stress rather than products, or disembodied and decontextualised knowledge

Evaluation of the 20,000 days campaign

The aim of Counties Manuaku District Health Board (CMDHB) 20,000 Days Campaign was to give back to the community 20,000 healthy and well days to avoid predicted growth in hospital bed days. After tracking the difference between projected demand and actual use, at the end of the Campaign on 1st July 2013, CMDHB reported that 23,060 bed days were given back to the people of Counties Manukau. This evaluation report explains how using the Institute of Healthcare Improvement Breakthrough Series the Campaign was run with the expectation that small immediate changes to practical problems (in this case the work of 13 Collaborative teams), will accumulate into large effects (a reduction of 20,000 bed days against predicted bed days use by July 2013). The evaluation found the Campaign did save bed days, though attributing causality was always going to be difficult, and overall the Campaign was very successful in keeping the energy and motivation of participants

Loosing it: Knowledge Management in Tourism Development Projects

Knowledge management and the development of the destination’s capacity of the intellectual skills needed to use tourism as an effective tool in the search for regeneration and development are central themes explored within this paper. The authors have lived and worked with the problems inherent in short term funding of special projects designed to achieve or facilitate tourism development. We have witnessed with growing sadness the results – and the lack of them – as funding cycles end and staff with experience move away. Development processes require multi-stakeholder involvement at all levels, bringing together governments, NGOs, residents, industry and professionals in a partnership that determines the amount and kind of tourism that a community wants (Sirakaya et al., 2001). Planners need to provide knowledge sharing mechanisms to residents, visitors, industry and other stakeholders in order to raise public and political awareness. We note an absence of literature relating to the capacity of communities to learn from short-term funded projects that inherently are destined to provide a strategic blueprint for destination development and in most cases regeneration through community-based tourism action.Knowledge management, sharing and embedding, community tourism

Toward Explaining the Transformative Power of Talk About, Around, and for Writing

This article provides an initial approach for capturing moments of talk about, around, and for writing to explain why writing groups and writing conferences are so often considered “transformative” for the people involved. After describing the widespread and yet disparate transformations so often attributed to collaborative writing talk, I introduce applied conversation analysis (CA) as a method for getting at what is often difficult to identify, document, and explain: the intricacies of moments that underlie, if not directly account for, transformations. At the core of this article, I present a case study of a writer, Susan, and tutor, Kim, and analyze their talk and embodied interactions around writing. In particular, two sequences of their talk—the first an example of “troubles telling,” or attending to a reported trouble (Jefferson, 1981, 1984, 1988) and the second an enactment of humor that names asymmetrical power relations (Holmes, 2000)—illustrate the ways in which building affiliative relationships might allow for naming and poking fun at, if not restructuring, power relations. Further, self-reports from interview data indicate how the occasions of talk between Susan and Kim mark shifts in thinking about themselves, their writing, and their commitments—shifts that can be attributed to their relational, affiliative interactions and that provide supporting evidence for the transformative power of collaborative writing talk

FACILITATING SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE TRANSLATION IN INNOVATION NETWORKS

In this paper we present a two year long interpretative case study based on a Living Lab project. The case study is used to in retrospect investigate cognitive and social translation in a doubly distributed innovation network. By identifying and empirically exemplify how translations occurred, we present insights of how to support cognitive and social translations in these kind of networks. Using the concepts from Yoo et al. (2009) we explore the research question: how can cognitive and social translation be supported in Living Labs? Based on the findings we conclude that Living Labs can support heterogeneous set of actors and knowledge resources by supporting cognitive translation with techniques such as scenarios, mock-ups and prototypes. By working with an iterative process the involved actors can be supported to materialize prior and new knowledge which can be translated between different communities of actors. By setting up and providing a common ground a trading zone can be established supporting the social translations within the network by offering a space where negotiation of interests and alignment of perspectives can be facilitated

Leading Ways: Preliminary Research on LEF Leadership for the Public Education Network

In the early 1980s, public schools, particularly in urban areas, were struggling with changing demographics and a need for greater community commitment to public education. Small independent community-based organizations, called local education funds (LEFs), were first established at this time by community leaders to bridge the gap between communities and their schools. Twenty years later, the Public Education Network (PEN), the national organization of more than 70 of the country's LEFs, is championing LEFs' unique contributions to educational reform and planning new methods to continue to support their work. One important aspect of PEN's efforts is the development of a research agenda around LEF leadership and effectiveness.The Urban Institute has supported the emerging research on LEF leadership in several ways. First, in 2001, researchers administered and analyzed results of a survey of all current LEF executive directors. The results provided a snapshot of leadership characteristics and attitudes. Second, in 2002, researchers reviewed existing literature on LEFs and nonprofit leadership and interviewed several individuals about the founding of LEFs. Third, also in 2002, researchers conducted 60-to 90-minute telephone interviews with 10 founding directors of early LEFs.This report describes efforts by the Urban Institute and PEN to better understand and describe leadership in LEFs. The research conducted to date reveals the following common features of LEF leadership:LEF leaders create a space for sustained collaboration in communities. Founders, in particular, see their work as establishing unique and lasting forums in their communities.LEF leadership fits well in an adaptive leadership framework, in which the director educates him or herself about community values and exposes issues that must be resolved through collaborative action. Adaptive leaders mobilize others around a community consensus rather than dictate a solution. In the case of LEFs, developing key relationships contributes to successful leadership.These relationships involve community members, principals, government officials, local businesses, and other stakeholders. Because LEFs are meant to provide a permanent venue for collaboration, these relationships are not only instrumental but also ends in themselves.Although LEF leaders are extremely invested in their communities in terms of socioeconomic status and race, they are not typically representative of the communities their LEFs serve. This gap in constituency and representation leads to uncertainty about whether LEFs effectively engage all segments of the community in their work. More inclusive leadership, then, is an issue worth exploring.LEF leadership appears to involve making strategic choices in an environment of constraints. With limited human and financial resources, LEFs must attempt to achieve their goals through a complex interaction with their communities and schools. Key stages in LEF development include the shift to greater community engagement and systemic reform. However, not all LEFs follow the same developmental pattern

Final report of work-with-IT: the JISC study into evolution of working practices

Technology is increasingly being used to underpin business processes across teaching and learning, research, knowledge exchange and business support activities in both HE and FE. The introduction of technology has a significant impact on the working practices of staff, often requiring them to work in a radically different way. Change in any situation can be unsettling and problematic and, where not effectively managed, can lead to poor service or functionality and disenfranchised staff. These issues can have a direct impact on institutional effectiveness, reputation and the resulting student experience. The Work-with-IT project, based at the University of Strathclyde, sought to examine changes to working practices across HE and FE, the impact on staff roles and relationships and the new skills sets that are required to meet these changes