The Space Between Shared Understandings of the Teaching of Grammar in English and French to Year 7 Learners: Student Teachers Working Collaboratively

In this article, we describe a small scale research project in which an English and a French student teacher on our Postgraduate Certificate of Education course work collaboratively to develop their personal knowledge and understanding of grammar and its role in teaching both subjects to 11 year old learners in an English comprehensive school. The project begins with university-based discussions about the role of grammar in language learning as expressed in a number of government documents and professional journals and continues in school with lesson observation by students of experienced teachers and of each other. Ways in which the cross-language focus beneficially influenced their classroom practice are suggested. The article concludes with the discussion of a number of issues about planning for language development and teaching about language across the curriculum which arise from the project and makes some modest proposals for a way forward within government policy which remains separatist

Eco-sustainable Campus Initiatives: A Web Content Analysis

Though many prominent universities in the world have been implementing the sustainability programs for many years, few universities in Indonesia are just start taking the initiative to develop eco-campus, sustainable campus or green campus. In this current state, the Indonesian universities are still lack of practical framework to guide their sustainability programs. While some articles offer conceptual or practical sustainability frameworks, the actual campus sustainability practices are not much explored. This paper fills the gap by investigating the actual campus sustainability practices from some major universities in the world. The findings shows that campus sustainability initiative is commonly implemented with an integrated approach covering environmental management, green building, public participation, teaching and research. In addition, the initiative is guided by a high level sustainability policy/plan, and the presence of dedicated organizational unit to manage sustainability program. Furthermore, the investigation of the Indonesian university shows that only four of ten sites have a dedicated a sub-domain web site for the sustainability initiative, the real activities are still minimum, and the absence of a dedicated organizational unit. The findings could help Indonesian universities in their sustainability endeavor

Exploring the Integration of Disability Awareness into Tertiary Teaching and Learning Activities

A desire to have every student attending our University be aware of, and reflect on, disability in their studies and future careers, initiated our project to explore how to enhance disability awareness within all our University’s papers. In this project we systematically reviewed pertinent literature and ran an action research workshop for staff. Strategies to enhance disability awareness identified in the literature and workshop were presented and verified at an interactive conference presentation. Embedding disability awareness into curricula is challenging; staff considered themselves powerless to bring about change in their departments, but thought that one way to do so would be by modelling inclusive behaviour and by introducing subtle inclusive practices into papers taught. The identified strategies may be of use to others contemplating similar curricular modifications

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education)

Integration of computer technology into the medical curriculum: The King's experience

King's College London has developed a new curriculum which prepares students to deliver a high‐quality clinical service. A variety of active‐learning techniques are utilized to produce a deep approach to learning with an emphasis on vocational needs in the domains of knowledge, attitudes and skills. Integration of academic and clinical studies, as recommended by the General Medical Council (GMC), poses a number of difficulties, particularly in terms of communication between disparate geographical sites. The new curriculum aims to take advantage of computer technology to supplement and enhance traditional methods of learning and to ensure that students are competent in a defined range of skills. To aid integration, all students joining the new course are offered notebook computers and enhanced access to desktop computers, both with facilities to link to the main network This allows students to use multimedia material incorporated into the new curriculum and to access online services from remote locations. This paper reviews the integration of such computer technology into the new medical curriculum at King's

Sustainable eLearning in a Changing Landscape: A Scoping Study (SeLScope)

The report begins by exploring the concept of sustainable e-learning - defining it and establishing its characteristics in the context of Higher Education. To ensure a sound and systematic process, the review is informed by a five-phase methodological framework for scoping reviews by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). Examples and perspectives on the concept of sustainable e-learning are summarised and key factors impacting on sustainability are abstracted. highlights potential gaps and suggests directions for further research on the topic

Leadership for Transforming High Schools

Explores the unique tasks and challenges faced by education leaders in the face of stricter accountability reforms associated with the federal No Child Left Behind legislation and associated state-level education policy initiatives