Understanding the use of affinity spaces in public education through action research

Includes bibliographical references.2016 Summer.The new Common Core State Standards demand rigorous academic outcomes of public school students. Teachers of English Language Arts has been both strained and invigorated by these demands in recent years, and educational research, particularly on the use of technology for advancing literacy, has proposed some innovative solutions. This qualitative study will compare the implementation of two forms of ELA curricula, one based in recent literature and the other based in traditional instruction, for the purpose of measuring which is capable of better academic outcomes. I will use an action research design to carry out this study. My primary research question is: How does implementing affinity spaces in my 9th-grade ELA class compare to implementing my usual instruction with respect to student improvement on CCSS achievement targets? The outcomes of the study led me to conclude that my implementation of an affinity space curriculum, which is based in recent educational research, achieves better academic outcomes than my usual instruction, which is based in traditional teaching practices

Not Another Boring Resident Didactic Conference

BackgroundThe Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that residency programs in emergency medicine plan at least 5 hours of didactic experiences per week. Instructional methods should include smallâ group techniques, problemâ based learning, or computerâ based instruction. Despite recommendations from the ACGME, many programsâ conference didactics continue to include primarily lectureâ based instruction.MethodsThe authors describe instructional methods that promote active learning and may be superior to traditional lectureâ based education.ResultsThese methods include varying instructional methods, caseâ based learning, teamâ based learning and the flipped classroom, audience response systems, simulation, â wars,â oral boards, escape rooms and scavenger hunts, expert panel discussions, debates, clinical pathologic cases, and leaderboards. The authors discuss how these methods can be implemented to make emergency medicine didactic conferences more varied and interactive for learners.ConclusionsWhile there is minimal research on the efficacy of these methods in graduate medical education, many have shown to improvement engagement of learners and to be effective in undergraduate medical education. Further research will be needed to determine if longâ term learning outcomes can be improved with these strategies.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154330/1/aet210367_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154330/2/aet210367.pd

Mobile Learning Application with Cloud Computing

This project focuses on the development of M-Learning and Performance Tracking System at university level. The system provides mobility for the University students to do revision through the exercises and perform immediate tracking and analysis on the results. The project also served as a channel for students to access the latest information and news in the industry. The core problems that I had identified before I initiate this project are the immobility and limited features of current learning system which might causing the ineffective of learning among the university student. The inconvenience of the current system also included the trouble in checking their academic performance constantly from time to time. The primary goal of this research is to investigate the acceptability of the university students of m-learning, designing m-learning features that would help students to improve their academic performance, and develop the system which is able to cater the needs and meet the expectation of the students and lecturers. The methodology adapted in this project is phased development methodology that breaks the projects into 3 stages which are development of quizzes, development of performance tracking and last stage is the library function. The process involved planning, analysis, design, and last but not least implementation. As the result at the end of the project, the result found that the project is feasible with high acceptance level from the university students who believe that mobile learning is useful in learning. However more improvement has to be made on the project especially on the performance tracking method. For future development suggestions, we can adopt several methods in knowledge management in performance tracking to provide more accurate suggestions for the students. Cross platform can be achieved by adapting the HTML5 technology into the development. Cloud computing is important for the development of smartphone program with limited memory and capacity ability

The Roundtable of Scientific Communication: From Classroom to Course Creation, Back to Classroom and Beyond

This research encompasses many aspects of chemical education research including curriculum and pedagogical changes to the freshman and sophomore courses. Curriculum changes included the addition of recitations to the general chemistry and organic chemistry lectures and the creation of four new classes, CHEM 1001, 1002, 3091, and 3092. The addition of recitations was not limited to but was focused on improving DFW rates for these courses. CHEM 3091 and 3092 are chemistry internship and undergraduate teaching assistant classes. These courses were necessary to offer outside internship opportunities and training for undergraduate teaching assistants, respectively. CHEM 1001 and 1002 are chemistry classes for nonscience majors. These courses were created to attempt to increase the number of nonscience major students choosing chemistry to complete their science requirement. CHEM 1001 and 1002 were courses not offered at any other university and required that the course materials and textbooks for these classes to be created from scratch without any foundation from other courses. An unforeseen consequence of the creation of these courses was the need to improve scientific communication between scientists and non-scientists and even scientist and scientist. Pedagogical work included a video intensive lecture style (VILS) for disseminating the material in the newly created CHEM 1001 and 1002 courses. For general chemistry and organic chemistry lecture, the major change was the addition of required recitation sessions for these courses. Further pedagogical changes to the organic lecture included introduction of video lectures, implementation of active learning in the lecture and graded, online homework

Teacher competence development – a European perspective

This chapter provides an European perspectives on teacher competence development