Promoting Andean children's learning of science through cultural and digital tools

Conference Theme: To see the world and a grain of sand: Learning across levels of space, time, and scaleIn Peru, there is a large achievement gap in rural schools. In order to overcome this problem, the study aims to design environments that enhance science learning through the integration of ICT with cultural artifacts, respecting the Andean culture and empower rural children to pursue lifelong learning. This investigation employs the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework, and the Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology using an iterative process of design, implementation and evaluation of the innovative practice.published_or_final_versio

Becoming a literacy teacher : from teacher preparation through the first two years of literacy teaching / by Laurie Elizabeth Leslie.

"Preparing teachers to teach literacy effectively is a lengthy and complex process. It begins long before students are accepted into preservice education programs and continues throughout their careers. This three-year longitudinal study investigated how elementary teachers implement literacy programs, the success/challenges they face in doing so, the strengths of their preservice preparation and inservice support and recommendations for improving preservice preparation and inservice support for literacy teaching. Year 1 participants included three literacy instructors teaching elementary language arts methods and 10 student teachers. Participants in Years 2 and 3 were literacy teachers (five in Year 2, four in Year 3) teaching grades ranging from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 6. The data indicated that preparation for teaching literacy needs to be expanded to target the more diverse range of scenarios in which novice literacy teachers find themselves versus the 'ideal, or 'assumed' scenarios, which may or may not exist. As well, the data suggested a need for Faculties of Education to support seamless learning by collaborating with school partners such that preservice in-class and in-field and in service teaching experiences are consistent. The frameworks put in place by Faculties of Education to support student teachers and associates during in-field placements, as well as the establishment and nurturing of partnerships, have potential to support seamless learning in and beyond the preservice year."--abstract

Concept Mapping Strategy For Academic Writing Tutorial In Open And Distant Learning Higher Institution

Universitas Terbuka (UT) an open and distant higher education institution of Indonesia conducts the in-service teacher education program. In order to complete the program, the students – mostly teachers - have to submit the final academic paper. In fact, most of the UT students have difficulty to write this academic paper. UT offers an academic writing course to solve this writing program. Most of the student view academic writing still as a difficult assignment. Most of the students view academic writing as a difficult assignment to complete. UT has to find an appropriate instructional strategy that can facilitate student to write the academic writing assignment. One of the instructional strategy that can be selected to solve the academic writing problems is concept mapping. The aim of this study is to elaborate the implementation of concept map as an instructional strategy to facilitate the open and distance learning students io complete academic writing assignments. A design based research was applied to measure the effectiveness of using concept mapping strategy in helping students to gain academic writing skills. The steps of research and development model from Borg, Gall and Gall which consist of instructional design and development phases were implemented in this study. The result of this study indicated that students were facilitated and enjoyed the process of academic writing used the concept map strategy