38,851 research outputs found

    A summary of research in elementary school social studies (1948-1950)

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    Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

    Computer-based materials: a study of learner autonomy and strategies

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    This paper reports on a study which examines the extent to which specified cognitive, social, and metacognitive strategies, are used by language students when working with computer-based materials (CBMs), in self-study contexts outside of the language classroom; particularly in a self-access centre (SAC). Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and snap-shot observations from English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students enrolled on a summer course at a British Higher Education Institution (HEI). The data identify the frequency with which students use a SAC and the value they attach to computers for language learning. The data then examine the types of strategies students use and the extent to which learner autonomy is being fostered. The vast majority of participants were found to have positive attitudes towards computer-based material (CBMs) and language learning despite frequent use of L1, furthermore they were found to use cognitive strategies and to apply metacognitive awareness in their use of such CBMs. Students believed CBMs assisted with learning and demonstrated conscious applications of a range of strategies while learning in an electronic environment. However, the study also found that less than half the students used social strategies in the target language and this raises a number of issues

    Law Learning in Action: An Action Learning Project to Evaluate Processes and Outcomes of using Law E-learning Objects in Social Work Education

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    This document reports on a research project funded by the Social Care Institute for Excellence to evaluate the processes and outcomes (for social work students and educators) of using a suite of e-learning objects within law teaching on social work degree programmes. The e-learning objects in question were published by SCIE in 2007, and those involved in their development were keen to explore how they were being used, and what their impact might be. The research, which started in 2008 and reached completion in 2010, has tracked a group of educators in 6 universities as they have engaged in a process of collaborative capacity building, through participation in a learning set designed to support their own engagement with e-learning and to develop skills in evaluating their outcomes for students. A full list of the SCIE law e-learning objects and their associated learning outcomes is given at Appendix 1

    Foreign language learning needs in higher education: Reasons for convergence and accountability

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    Needs analysis is a relevant issue in language teaching as its final aim is to enhance the language learning process by setting realistic course objectives. This paper briefly reviews past and present approaches to the concept of “needs” and “needs analysis” in foreign language (FL) methodology with particular reference to the higher education context and the post-Bologna reform. It discusses the complex interplay of addressing target and learning FL needs by gathering data from different stakeholder groups and making use of different data collection instruments. Then, it explores current trends in needs analysis research and explains how “competences” and “profiling” have surpassed “needs” and “needs analysis” in the educational systems under the European Space of Higher Education. Last, this study addresses the implications of adopting a more critical, quality-driven approach to FL needs analysis with a view to attaining a more participatory and accountable higher education

    Innovative learning in action (ILIA) issue four: New academics engaging with action research

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    This edition of ILIA showcases four papers which were originally submitted as action research projects on the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice and Research programme. Within the programme we offer an environment where participants can explore their unique teaching situations – not to produce all-encompassing approaches to Higher Education (HE) practice but to develop an ongoing dialogue about the act of teaching. In effect, there are no generalisable ‘best’ methods of teaching because they never work as well as ‘locally produced practice in action’ (Kincheloe, 2003:15). Thus rather than providing short term ‘survival kits’ the programme offers new HE teachers a ‘frame’ for examining their own and their colleagues’ teaching alongside questioning educational purpose and values in the pursuit of pedagogical improvement. This ‘frame’ is action research which Ebbutt (1985:156) describes as: …The systematic study of attempts to change and improve educational practice by groups of participants by means of their own practical actions and by means of their own reflections upon the effects of their actions… We promote ‘practitioner-research’ or ‘teacher-research’ as a way of facilitating professional development for new HE teachers, promoting change and giving a voice to their developing personal and professional knowledge. Teachers as researchers embark upon an action orientated, iterative and collaborative process to interrogate their own practices, question their own assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs in order to better understand, influence and enrich the context of their own situations. The action researcher assumes that practitioners are knowledgeable about their own teaching situations and the fact that they are ‘in-situ’ and not at ‘arms length’ as the value-neutral, ‘scientific’ researcher is often claimed to be, does not invalidate their knowledge. Thus, practitioners are capable of analysing their own actions within a ‘reflective practitioner’ modus operandi. Action research is on-going in conception and well suited to examining the ever-changing and increasingly complex HE practice environment. Findings from action research are always subject to revision since it intrinsically acknowledges the need to constantly revisit widely diverse teaching situations and scenarios across everyday HE practice. Teaching is not predictable and constant, it always occurs in a contemporary microcosm of uncertainty. Action research provides an analytical framework for new HE teachers to begin to engage with this unpredictability on a continuing basis, that is its purpose and also its perennial challenge. The papers presented here describe how four relatively new HE teachers have begun to address the challenge of improving their practice within their locally based settings utilising the action research ‘paradigm’

    Good images, effective messages? Working with students and educators on academic practice understanding

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    Work at Northumbria University has focussed on activity that extends opportunities for students to engage directly with the skills development necessary for sound academic practice. This has included highly visual campaigns on the "Plagiarism trap", providing access to Turnitin plagiarism detection software, guides and sessions to highlight use of associated referencing tools. Sessions on a variety of topics, such as supporting study skills and reading originality reports, have been provided for students on taught, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. This provision has included students working on collaborative partners' sites and also those on research programmes. Alongside the activities with students, "designing out" approaches have been embedded in staff development within the educator community at Northumbria. Formative use of Turnitin is integrated throughout programmes and academic practice development is formally recognised within the University Learning and Teaching Strategy's focus on information literacy. This article outlines and reviews these activities in a critical institutional context and evaluates responses from a variety of students and educators to determine how effective these measures have been

    Evaluating the impact of Internet provision on students’ information‐gathering strategies

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    This paper explores the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a teaching and learning tool. In particular, it focuses on the impact of new technology on students’ learning. An investigative study was undertaken using two cohorts of students taking modules supported by WWW pages. Two modules were selected. These were taught by the same lecturer but adopted distinctly different approaches to delivering module content via the WWW. The administrative structure of both pages was similar in the delivery of basic information, lecture themes, assessment details, outline of essential reading, etc. However, the depth of the material provided in support of each lecture topic, and the styles of assessment for each module, were quite different. The study identified distinct differences in confidence in using the WWW and perceptions of its value for learning, between the two student cohorts. It is proposed that this is a reflection of the depth of material provided and the type of knowledge acquisition encouraged by the contrasting styles of the WWW pages
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