Enthusing and inspiring with reusable kinaesthetic activities

We describe the experiences of three University projects that use a style of physical, non-computer based activity to enthuse and teach school students computer science concepts. We show that this kind of activity is effective as an outreach and teaching resource even when reused across different age/ability ranges, in lecture and workshop formats and for delivery by different people. We introduce the concept of a Reusable Outreach Object (ROO) that extends Reusable Learning Objects. and argue for a community effort in developing a repository of such objects

An Investigation of Teachers\u27 Beliefs and Practices Regarding a Quality Preschool Classroom

This research study surveyed preschool teachers and aids at one public PK-5th grade elementary school. The administered survey included questions informed by both the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) and Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Additional data collected consisted of classroom observations of current preschool teachers at work during a 25-35-minute time period. The research lasted one month and consisted of multiple components including surveys and observations. The data from the study suggests that preschool teachers and aids possessed a mastery of knowledge surrounding factors important for quality early childhood classrooms. Specifically, the teachers and aids excelled in their physical environment, classroom environment, and instructional supports. The presence of these classroom factors were more evident through utilization of the observation protocol instrument, than with the survey, as these factors were implemented in the classroom. The data within this study suggests that the teachers met the standards outlined within ECERS and CLASS

Hearing the student voice : promoting and encouraging the effective use of the student voice to enhance professional development in learning, teaching and assessment within higher education

This is an ESCalate development project led by Fiona Campbell of Napier University that was completed in 2007. The Hearing the Student Voice project aimed to promote and encourage the use of the student voice to enhance the effectiveness of academic professional development and ultimately the learning experience of students. Students can have a powerful impact on academic professional development aimed at enhancing learning, teaching and assessment practice. By providing qualitative insights about the nature of their learning experience, students can bring both valid and valuable viewpoints and motivate staff who are engaged by the students' perspective and often admire their perspicacity. This report records the progress and achievements of the Hearing the Student Voice project, funded by ESCalate to promote and encourage the use of the student voice to enhance the effectiveness of academic professional development in learning, teaching and assessment practice and ultimately the learning experience of students. The report has been written by the team representing the four universities who collaborated on the projec

Integrating Alternative Teaching & Learning Methods to Enhance the Standard Power Point Lecture

The traditional PowerPoint lecture format was enhanced by the ‘flipped classroom’ approach in a teaching session involving mathematical equations on a microbiology module in the School of Applied Sciences. A screencast was constructed which contained much of the theory contained in the original lecture. Feedback on student learning gained from the screencast was identified during the experimental teaching session via voting pads. Seven out of nine questions were answered well (over 85% of students giving the correct answer). When answers were largely incorrect, explanations and further background information was given, followed by a repolling, which resulted in a much higher proportion of correct answers (over 80%). The time saved by using a screencast was utilised by including an animation using ‘Videoscribe’, which demonstrated how the equation linked to laboratory procedures, a game which explored one aspect of the equation, and tutorial questions to consolidate learning. On the whole, tutorial questions were answered confidently, indicating that the animation and game were useful in enhancing student learning

From classroom tutor to hypertext adviser: An evaluation

This paper describes a three‐year experiment to investigate the possibility of making economies by replacing practical laboratory sessions with courseware while attempting to ensure that the quality of the student learning experience did not suffer. Pathology labs are a central component of the first‐year medical undergraduate curriculum at Southampton. Activities in these labs had been carefully designed and they were supervised by lab demonstrators who were subject domain experts. The labs were successful in the eyes of both staff and students but were expensive to conduct, in terms of equipment and staffing. Year by year evaluation of the introduction of courseware revealed that there was no measurable difference in student performance as a result of introducing the courseware, but that students were unhappy about the loss of interaction with the demonstrators. The final outcome of this experiment was a courseware replacement for six labs which included a software online hypertext adviser. The contribution of this work is that it adds to the body of empirical evidence in support of the importance of maintaining dialogue with students when introducing courseware, and it presents an example of how this interaction might be achieved in software

An investigation into students' perceptions of group assignments

The collection of student feedback is a central strategy to monitor the effectiveness of teaching and learning at educational institutions (Meyer, 2010). This paper analyses the feedback and findings from a recent questionnaire survey of students' experience and perceptions of group work at the University of Bedfordshire at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The main objective of this study is to raise practical issues that teachers need to consider in designing and carrying out group assessments. This is aimed at overcoming the drawbacks, while amplifying the benefits, of group work, and improving students' engagement and performance in this type of assessment

Inviting students to determine for themselves what it means to write across the disciplines

Situated in the literature on threshold concepts and transfer of prior knowledge in WAC/WID and composition studies, with particular emphasis on the scholarship of writing across difference, our article explores the possibility of re-envisioning the role of the composition classroom within the broader literacy ecology of colleges and universities largely comprised of students from socioeconomically and ethno- linguistically underrepresented communities. We recount the pilot of a composi- tion course prompting students to examine their own prior and other literacy values and practices, then transfer that growing meta-awareness to the critical acquisition of academic discourse. Our analysis of students’ self-assessment memos reveals that students apply certain threshold concepts to acquire critical agency as academic writ- ers, and in a manner consistent with Guerra’s concept of transcultural repositioning. We further consider the role collective rubric development plays as a critical incident facilitating transcultural repositioning