What do faculties specializing in brain and neural sciences think about, and how do they approach, brain-friendly teaching-learning in Iran?

Objective: to investigate the perspectives and experiences of the faculties specializing in brain and neural sciences regarding brain-friendly teaching-learning in Iran. Methods: 17 faculties from 5 universities were selected by purposive sampling (2018). In-depth semi-structured interviews with directed content analysis were used. Results: 31 sub-subcategories, 10 subcategories, and 4 categories were formed according to the “General teaching model”. “Mentorship” was a newly added category. Conclusions: A neuro-educational approach that consider the roles of the learner’s brain uniqueness, executive function facilitation, and the valence system are important to learning. Such learning can be facilitated through cognitive load considerations, repetition, deep questioning, visualization, feedback, and reflection. The contextualized, problem-oriented, social, multi-sensory, experiential, spaced learning, and brain-friendly evaluation must be considered. Mentorship is important for coaching and emotional facilitation

A Novel Multimodal Approach for Studying the Dynamics of Curiosity in Small Group Learning

Curiosity is a vital metacognitive skill in educational contexts, leading to creativity, and a love of learning. And while many school systems increasingly undercut curiosity by teaching to the test, teachers are increasingly interested in how to evoke curiosity in their students to prepare them for a world in which lifelong learning and reskilling will be more and more important. One aspect of curiosity that has received little attention, however, is the role of peers in eliciting curiosity. We present what we believe to be the first theoretical framework that articulates an integrated socio-cognitive account of curiosity that ties observable behaviors in peers to underlying curiosity states. We make a bipartite distinction between individual and interpersonal functions that contribute to curiosity, and multimodal behaviors that fulfill these functions. We validate the proposed framework by leveraging a longitudinal latent variable modeling approach. Findings confirm a positive predictive relationship between the latent variables of individual and interpersonal functions and curiosity, with the interpersonal functions exercising a comparatively stronger influence. Prominent behavioral realizations of these functions are also discovered in a data-driven manner. We instantiate the proposed theoretical framework in a set of strategies and tactics that can be incorporated into learning technologies to indicate, evoke, and scaffold curiosity. This work is a step towards designing learning technologies that can recognize and evoke moment-by-moment curiosity during learning in social contexts and towards a more complete multimodal learning analytics. The underlying rationale is applicable more generally for developing computer support for other metacognitive and socio-emotional skills.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1704.0748

What do faculties specializing in brain and neural sciences think about, and how do they approach, brain-friendly teaching-learning in Iran?

Objective: to investigate the perspectives and experiences of the faculties specializing in brain and neural sciences regarding brain-friendly teaching-learning in Iran. Methods: 17 faculties from 5 universities were selected by purposive sampling (2018). In-depth semi-structured interviews with directed content analysis were used. Results: 31 sub-subcategories, 10 subcategories, and 4 categories were formed according to the “General teaching model”. “Mentorship” was a newly added category. Conclusions: A neuro-educational approach that consider the roles of the learner’s brain uniqueness, executive function facilitation, and the valence system are important to learning. Such learning can be facilitated through cognitive load considerations, repetition, deep questioning, visualization, feedback, and reflection. The contextualized, problem-oriented, social, multi-sensory, experiential, spaced learning, and brain-friendly evaluation must be considered. Mentorship is important for coaching and emotional facilitation

AI in Learning: Designing the Future

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is predicted to radically change teaching and learning in both schools and industry causing radical disruption of work. AI can support well-being initiatives and lifelong learning but educational institutions and companies need to take the changing technology into account. Moving towards AI supported by digital tools requires a dramatic shift in the concept of learning, expertise and the businesses built off of it. Based on the latest research on AI and how it is changing learning and education, this book will focus on the enormous opportunities to expand educational settings with AI for learning in and beyond the traditional classroom. This open access book also introduces ethical challenges related to learning and education, while connecting human learning and machine learning. This book will be of use to a variety of readers, including researchers, AI users, companies and policy makers

Wearable Technology: Opportunities and Challenges for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Developing Countries

The higher education landscape in developing countries is faced with many challenges, one of which is high faculty to student ratio. An obvious implication of this is compromise on the quality of classroom engagement. The distractions caused by the not conducive learning space and instructors’ inability to elucidate correct feedbacks from students usually lead to poor learning outcomes. Feedback mechanisms that are unobtrusive and efficient in processing large data in real-time are needful to measure quality learning experience in such large classroom settings. With the latest impact of penetration and adoption of internet and mobile technologies in most developing counties, wearable technology is a feasible solution to manage and monitor classroom involvement; as real time student feedback can be integrated in the design and delivery of instruction in and out of the classroom. In this paper, we present state of the art of wearable technology and explored the opportunities of wearable technology in the higher education. Specifically, we presented scenarios in which wearable technology can be employed to understand and analyze physiological signals and emotional responses from learners in real-time; the end result of which would increase the quality of classroom engagement, inspire new pedagogy, drive new trends in peer-to-peer collaborations, and increase the learning outcomes. Moreover, we identified some challenges that may hinder this development such as: inconclusive user studies of wearable technology in developing countries and inadequate infrastructure. Finally, we make appropriate recommendations on how these challenges can be surmounte

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe

Developing Resilient Agency in Learning: The Internal Structure of Learning Power

Understanding students’ learning dispositions has been a focus for research in education for many years. A range of alternative approaches to conceptualising and measuring this broad construct have been developed. Traditional psychometric measures aim to produce scales that satisfy the requirements for research, however such measures have an additional use - to provide formative feedback to the learner. In this paper we re-analyse 15 years of data derived from the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory. We explore patterns and relationships within its practical measures and generate a more robust, parsimonious measurement model, strengthening its research attributes and its practical value. We show how the constructs included in the model link to relevant research and how it serves to integrate a number of ideas which have hitherto been treated as separate. The new model suggests a view of learning that is an embodied and relational process through which we regulate the flow of energy and information over time in order to achieve a particular purpose. Learning dispositions reflect the ways in which we develop resilient agency in learning by regulating this flow of energy and information in order to engage with challenge, risk and uncertainty and to adapt and change positively