Template-driven teacher modelling approach : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Information Science at Massey University, Palmerston North

This thesis describes the Template-driven Teacher Modeling Approach, the initial implementation of the template server and the formative evaluation on the prototype. The initiative of Template-driven teacher modeling is to integrate the template server and intelligent teacher models in Web-based education systems for course authoring. There are a number of key components in the proposed system: user interface, template server and content repository. The Template-Driven Teacher Modeling (TDTM) architecture supports the course authoring by providing higher degree of control over the generation of presentation. The collection of accumulated templates in the template repository for a teacher or a group of teachers are selected as the inputs for the inference mechanism in teacher's model to calculate the best representation of the teaching strategy, and then predict teacher intention when he or she interacts with the system. Moreover, the presentation templates are kept to support the re-use of the on-line content at the level of individual screens with the help of Template Server

PMRI and Metacognitive Scaffolding

PMRI (Pendidikan Matematika Realistik Indonesia) has been implemented in some Primary Schools in Indonesia since 2001. Sanata Dharma University (USD) in Yogyakarta is one of the four universities which founded the PMRI Movement. Sanata Dharma University tries to keep its commitment to apply and develop PMRI as one alternative to improve the quality of mathematics education in Indonesia. In the process of development, P4MRI in USD also pays attention to the results of research in various disciplines, e.g. cognitive psychology, cognitive science and neuro science. One of the weakness of mathematics teaching and learning in Indonesia is the teacher centre approach. It is used in practice by most of teachers in the classroom. Their paradigm is related to teaching paradigm. In PMRI we use the learning paradigm in practicing the idea of Freudenthal that mathematics is human activities and pupils learn mathematics based on their experiences. We ask teachers to help students improving their understanding of mathematics by familiarizing them to pose questions to themselves: what, how and why. In solving a problem, the teacher lets them freely to find out their strategy and discuss it in their small group. The teacher helps them by giving some comments on their planning of solution or some suggestions, e.g. “ do some exploration, make a table or a figure, or specialize!” Key words: PMRI, Metacognition, Metacognitive Scaffoldin

Improving Students' Proportional Thinking Using Schema-Based Instruction

This study investigated the effectiveness of an instructional program (schema-based instruction, SBI) designed to teach 7th graders how to comprehend and solve proportion problems involving ratios/rates, scale drawings, and percents. The SBI program emphasized the underlying mathematical structure of problems via schematic diagrams, focused on a 4-step procedure to support and monitor problem solving, and addressed the flexible use of alternative solution strategies based on the problem situation. Blocking by teacher at three middle schools, the authors randomly assigned the 21 classrooms to one of two conditions: SBI and control. Classroom teachers provided the instruction. Results of multilevel modeling used to test for treatment effects after accounting for pretests and other characteristics (gender, ethnicity) revealed the direct effects of SBI on mathematical problem solving at posttest. However, the improved problem solving skills were not maintained a month later when SBI was no longer in effect nor did the skills transfer to solving problems in new domain-level content

From present to future : beyond becoming a nation of readers

Includes bibliographical references (p. 13-19)The work upon which this publication was based was supported in part by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement under Cooperative Agreement No. OEG 0087-C100

De-Fragmenting Knowledge: Using Metadata for Interconnecting Courses

E-learning systems are often based on the notion of "course": an interconnected set of resources aiming at presenting material related to a particular topic. Course authors do provide external links to related material. Such external links are however "frozen" at the time of publication of the course. Metadata are useful for classifying and finding e-learning artifacts. In many cases, metadata are used by Learning Management Systems to import, export, sequence and present learning objects. The use of metadata by humans is in general limited to a search functionality, e.g. by authors who search for material that can be reused. We argue that metadata can be used to enrich the interconnection among courses, and to present to the student a richer variety of interconnected resources. We implemented a system that presents an instance of this idea

Co-Constructing Writing Knowledge: Students’ Collaborative Talk Across Contexts

Although compositionists recognize that student talk plays an important role in learning to write, there is limited understanding of how students use conversational moves to collaboratively build knowledge about writing across contexts. This article reports on a study of focus group conversations involving first-year students in a cohort program. Our analysis identified two patterns of group conversation among students: “co-telling” and “co-constructing,” with the latter leading to more complex writing knowledge. We also used Beaufort’s domains of writing knowledge to examine how co-constructing conversations supported students in abstracting knowledge beyond a single classroom context and in negotiating local constraints. Our findings suggest that co-constructing is a valuable process that invites students to do the necessary work of remaking their knowledge for local use. Ultimately, our analysis of the role of student conversation in the construction of writing knowledge contributes to our understanding of the myriad activities that surround transfer of learning

From Dreams to Reality: The Emerging Role of Law School Academic Support

This article reviews the history, rationale, development, and different program structures of Law School Academic Support Programs. It briefly summarizes learning theory and explains how ASP can implement those theories to teach academic skills. Lastly, it suggests that notwithstanding the significance of helping students develop solid academic skills, probably the most important work that ASP professionals do is to provide the non-academic support by making the human connection to students and believing in them

From Dreams to Reality: The Emerging Role of Law School Academic Support

This article reviews the history, rationale, development, and different program structures of Law School Academic Support Programs. It briefly summarizes learning theory and explains how ASP can implement those theories to teach academic skills. Lastly, it suggests that notwithstanding the significance of helping students develop solid academic skills, probably the most important work that ASP professionals do is to provide the non-academic support by making the human connection to students and believing in them