1,692 research outputs found

    A case study exploring the effects of using an integrative STEM curriculum on eighth grade students’ performance and engagement in the mathematics classroom

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    To address the need to improve student achievement in STEM disciplines, effort has been made to develop a new of tools for STEM education (Bybee, 2013). The Robotics and Engineering Design Curriculum (REDC) provides students an opportunity to develop systems thinking abilities while integrating science and mathematics concepts. Using an exploratory case study approach within a situated cognition framework, this study examines the effects of using REDC on 54 eighth grade students’ performance and engagement during 5-week integrative STEM instruction in the mathematics and science class. Situational factors that contribute to students’ success in learning STEM concepts are also examined. This study employed mixed-methods techniques. The quantitative data collected included pre/post achievement tests and pre/post motivation and engagement scale (MES) surveys. Quantitative data analysis included reliability analyses and paired sample t-tests. The results of the reliability analyses for the achievement test and MES survey report acceptable Cronbach’s alpha (.843 and .787, respectively). Qualitative data collected included semi-structured interviews, field notes and student artifacts (engineering notebook and printed prototypes). Qualitative data analysis used coding procedures suggested by Saldana (2012) where patterns were identified and grouped to allow the emergence of themes. Collectively, the data was triangulated to support six emerging themes. The emerging themes regarding the effect of using the curriculum are as follows: (1) the developing anthropomorphic relationship with the robot enhances engagement, (2) engagement is impacted by purposeful and intentional physical action, and (3) purposeful collaboration promotes engagement through the construction of meaning and interaction. Three themes emerged identifying factors that contribute to success: (1) learning environment must have transformative learning potential, (2) learning experiences underpinned by design thinking contribute to success and (3) contextual relevance is enhanced when students have the freedom to their design learning journey. This study addresses the need for research into the implementation of 3-D design and manufacturing in the middle school classroom. Bybee, R. W. (2013). The case for STEM education: Challenges and opportunities. National Science Teachers Association. Saldaña, J. (2012). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (No. 14). Los Angeles, Ca: Sage

    Skills gap assessment to enhance the delivery of technical and vocational education: A case study of electrical installation graduates in Ogun and Kaduna states of Nigeria

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    Nigeria requires an efficient and a capable skilled workforce to manage the construction industry. The workforce comprises the engineers, technicians and the craftsmen from Nigerian universities, polytechnics and technical colleges. The importance of the skilled workforce cannot be overemphasized as it contributes immensely to the social and economic development of the country. The continuous growth in and expansion of this industry in Nigeria have led to exponential growth in positions that require certain technical skills. However, finding workers with the requisite skills remains a major challenge for employers in Nigeria. Employers have expressed concerns about the lack of adequately trained technical college graduates and feel that educational institutions under Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) are not producing graduates with skills that match the needs of industry. The aim of this research is to create a measuring and mapping framework to address the construction skills gap through improved technical and vocational education with reference to the challenges inherent in the Nigerian electrical installation education programme.The pragmatist philosophy and sequential exploratory mixed method were adopted in order to fulfil the research aim and objectives. During the early stages of the study, data were collected through focus group discussion with the electrical zonal education officers, electrical installation instructors and electrical installation heads of departments of technical colleges both in Kaduna state in Northern Nigeria and Ogun State in Southern Nigeria. Locales in northern and southern Nigeria were considered, due to previously reported educational disparity between the northern and southern parts of Nigeria in the extant literature.Their views were sought through six focus group discussions for the qualitative phase of the study. For the quantitative phase, a questionnaire survey was administered to electrical installation contractors.The key findings from the study indicated that the technical college institutions in Ogun and Kaduna states in Nigeria, faced problems with regards to their role in the provision of knowledge and skills. The study identified that skills gap exists among the skilled workforce in soft skills which comprises of thinking ability, reading skills, written communication skills, leadership skills, negotiation skills, time management skills and core skills for learning. Gaps were found in curriculum as it was out of date. Additionally, there is a lack of facilities and equipment needed for teaching and learning. The gap that exists could be addressed and improved by training and retraining the skilled workforce, introducing apprenticeship training and to make sure that the electrical installation programme curriculum is reviewed, with a view to make training more relevant to the needs of the construction industry.The findings of the study were used to develop a framework which was validated via a survey which indicated that the framework is valuable and suitable for use in practice since the research shows that most of the respondents accepted the research findings and recommendations for success.This research offers recommendations that will assist the industry, schools and public at large in resolving issues on skills gap assessment in Nigeria

    The case of prospective teachers’ integration of coding-robotics practices into science teaching with STEM approach

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    The aim of this study is to determine the level of integration of teacher candidates’ acquisitions in course of “Coding and Robotics in Primary School” into the science teaching; and to explore teacher candidates’ opinions on coding-robotics and the usage of them in lessons. For this purpose, a case study with 11 junior prospective primary school teachers was conducted in 2017-18 education year. After the participants took “Coding and robotics in primary school” at fall semester, they were asked to make STEM-based teaching by using robotic applications in the scope of the course of “Science and Technology Teaching II”. Participants’ teaching was rated with rubrics prepared by the researchers, and their lesson plans were analyzed through document analysis. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to take the opinions of the participants on usage of robotics. The results showed that prospective teachers were mainly able to integrate robotics to the STEM-based science teaching. Additionally, prospective teachers suggested that robotics should be integrated to all courses, especially science, and that this would contribute to the problem solving and algorithmic thinking skills of the students. © 2020, Ankara University. All rights reserved

    Cognitive apprenticeship in vocational students mathematical decision making skills

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    Exploring the decision-making abilities of undergraduate students, including students from vocational education backgrounds, is the main priority in the achievement of mathematics learning in general and in Calculus courses particularly. Decision-making processes require cognitive guidance through activities describing in detail the systematic steps of each process. It is implicitly said as part of a cognitive apprenticeship procedure. There are claims that students with a vocational education background can develop their academic and practical potential more through a cognitive apprenticeship model. In addition, using video as visual media learning allows students to sharpen their skills. Therefore, the study aims to explore the distinction in achievement and improvement of mathematical decision-making skills between undergraduate students who learn with a Video-assisted Cognitive Apprenticeship approach (CAV), and they are who receive Cognitive Apprenticeship learning (CA) with conventional learning. A quantitative study with the Static-Group Pretest-Posttest Design was employed as a methodology in the research. Based on the research stage, there are differences in achievement and improvement of student decision-making skills with a review of the type of vocational school between undergraduate students

    Factors Affecting Construction of Science Discourse in the Context of an Extracurricular Science and Technology Project

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    Doing and learning science are social activities that require certain language, activities, and values. Both constitute what Gee (2005) calls Discourses. The language of learning science varies with the learning context (Lemke, 2001,1990). Science for All Americans (AAAS, 1990) and Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 2000) endorse inquiry science learning. In the United States, most science learning is teacher-centered; inquiry science learning is rare (NRC, 2000). This study focused on 12 high school students from two suburban high schools, their three faculty mentors, and two engineering mentors during an extracurricular robotics activity with FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). FRC employed student-centered inquiry focus to teach science principles integrating technology. Research questions were (a) How do science teachers and their students enact Discourses as they teach and learn science? and (b) How does the pedagogical approach of a learning activity facilitate the Discourses that are enacted by students and teachers as they learn and teach science? Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study examined participants’ language during robotic activities to determine how language used in learning science shaped the learning and vice versa. Data sources included video-recordings of participant language and semi-structured interviews with study participants. Transcribed recordings were coded initially using Gee’s (2005) linguistic Building Tasks as a priori codes. CDA was applied to code transcripts, to construct Discourses enacted by the participants, and to determine how context facilitated their enactment. Findings indicated that, for the students, FRC facilitated elements of Science Discourse. Wild About Robotics (W.A.R.) team became, through FRC, part of a community similar to scientists’ community that promoted knowledge and sound practices, disseminated information, supported research and development and encouraged interaction of its members. The public school science classroom in the U.S. is inimical to inquiry learning because of practices and policies associated with the epistemological stance that spawned the standards and/or testing movement and No Child Left Behind (Baez & Boyles, 2009). The findings of this study provided concrete ideas to accommodate the recommendations by NRC (1996) and NSES (2000) for creating contexts that might lead to inquiry science learning for meaningful student engagement

    Seymour Papert's Mindstorms:The powerful ideas that lie behind Logo

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    Development of Workforce Skills: Student Perceptions of Mentoring in FIRST Robotics

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    In today’s global economy, new workforce competencies are needed for success at both individual and societal levels. The new workforce skills extend beyond basic reading, writing, and arithmetic to include higher order processes such as critical thinking and problem solving. Technical job opportunities have grown by approximately 17%, yet the United States continues to decline in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Further, U.S. students earn average or below average test scores when compared to other developed countries. Researchers cite the need to incorporate the learning of workplace skills into secondary education curriculum, and advocates call for new teaching methodology and contextual experiences to enhance learning. A popular and expanding method for teaching students is the use of technical mentors to develop workforce skills. Education studies demonstrate learning is a social activity, and mentors can play a vital role in understanding and learning skills. The FIRST Robotics program relies heavily on mentor expertise for student instruction. This study uses FIRST Robotics teams as a population to investigate student perception of the effectiveness of mentors on the development of workforce skills. Findings show students perceive mentors have a positive effect on the development of workforce skills, and, furthermore, students’ perceptions of mentors impact student learning

    In Search of Perfect Pedagogy…

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    It is only in relatively recent times that we have accepted that teachers and their teaching vary. The ancient public schools set the tone and when state schooling began in 1870 it was generally accepted that any shortcomings in learning were the fault of the pupil. School reports to parents, dunces’ caps, corrections and flog-ging were among the devices that put any blame on the pupil. But that some teach-ers enjoyed more success than others was always obvious, as was the fact that some leaners learned more. The search for effective pedagogy has fascinated for different reasons: scientific, professional, political and pragmatic. This paper explores some of the complexity of, and influences upon, pedagogy in English schools. It examines some examples of pedagogic development, the apparent random development over time and the ways the teaching profession responds. The paper concludes with a call to greater professional influence and proposals for building and capitalising upon expertise
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