Alternative approaches to staff development in adult literacy : analysis of a study circle support group.

Although the need for staff development in adult literacy is no longer questioned, there is still an open debate regarding how to design effective approaches, how to coordinate the relationship between research and practice, and how to define the knowledge base that constitutes adult literacy education. This study examines these issues from the perspective of community-based literacy programs where literacy is defined by functions and uses in the social context of actual communities rather than in terms of discrete reading and writing skills. The vehicle for collecting information was a study circle support group comprised of practitioners from a community-based literacy program in Massachusetts. The purpose of this study is to identify guiding principles for designing staff development for community-based literacy programs through analyzing how practitioners identify important issues and articulate theory within their own descriptions and analysis of daily practice. Staff development principles were identified through analyzing the study circle process in terms of how the group defined its task, used different forms of talk, approached the use of expert texts and dealt with changing constraints of time. Findings reveal that practitioners need a forum to define their own staff development task and discuss how to blend theory and strategies with expectations, input and abilities of students inside a changing learning environment. When practitioners discuss their practice, they combine many forms of talk including story telling, hypothesis forming, self-observation, problem solving, strategy analysis, meaning making and topic discussion. This multi-faceted way of talking results in a rich, contextualized analysis of real-life problems that is different from the generalized theories and skills of traditional staff development. The following guidelines resulted from this study. Staff development should (1) build theory from practice, (2) focus on problem posing and solving, (3) be based on authentic experience, (4) be embedded in the social context of actual programs, (5) be on-going and flexible to incorporate emerging issues, (6) have program development as its goal, (7) be connected to a larger system that is working for structural change

Knowledge Construction Process in an Open Learning System Among Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Practitioners

Assessment is a method to determine the level of learning and the process of documenting knowledge, attitudes, skills and beliefs. Through this literacy assessment, instructor will have an opportunity to apply relevant strategies, principles, methods and procedures that are considered relevant during the learning and teaching process. However, most of us familiar with information and communication technology (ICT) based modes of delivery but less familiar with the needs and challenges face in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate whether the process of knowledge construction in an open learning system can assist TVET practitioners in performing tasks that needed to be completed as an important element in assessment in one of their class subject. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is based on the pedagogical process of observation where these TVET practitioners will learn progressively through active group interaction. The study was conducted on 61 TVET practitioners and 2 instructors from two classes that were taught using an open learning system environment through Moodle in their learning and teaching process. This study used a quantitative design approach and supported by quantitative and qualitative data. The results of this study indicated that the process of knowledge construction in this open learning system has helped TVET practitioners to perform well in tasks that needed to be completed for their subject. The effort through this open learning system has also encouraged TVET practitioners to build a meaningful knowledge in a consistent method. The instructor need to encourage all TVET practitioners to complete the tasks in the form of problem solving methods, analyse, predict and encourage them to explore further to justify their answers

Теоретичні основи технології проблемного навчання студентів у закладах вищої освіти

In the article the peculiarities of problem-based learning as a technology are determined, its characteristics and potential in the educational process of the higher educational establishments are defined. Thus, problem-based learning is an approach to professional education that stresses the use of real-life problems as a stimulus for learning, which is considered contextually valid, in the sense that the problems are taken from professional practice. As a result, students acquire knowledge organized around these problems being involved with reality; learn social and communicative skills in genuine discourse, which explains the rationale behind their actions. The definition of the problem-based learning technology has been clarified. Problem-based learning technology is a learning process implementation procedure, determined by the problem situation, which defines accordingly the integrated ways of organizing problem-based teaching and problem-based learning at all stages of problem-solving as well as autonomous levels, the purpose of which is to master certain problem-solving methods at the level of skills and abilities of mental activity. It has been explored that the origin of the problem-based learning is obliged to the development of the theory of teaching methods, and its didactic characteristic reflects the structure and function of the evolving education methods. Therefore, the detailed arguments for revealing theoretical basis of the system of problem-solving methods have been advanced, including the principles on which they are founded. The following basic principles have been selected: goal-oriented, situation-based and problem-solving learning, binary approach, theory and practice relationship, consciousness and intelligibility, active engagement, autonomy, and emotionality.The theoretical foundations of the problem-based learning technology are revealed. Among those foundations there is a theory of thinking development patterns, theory of teaching and learning methods, problem situation, problem-based learning environment, subject-object-subject interaction between participants of the educational process, interdisciplinary education content. The most challenging aspects of the future research in this area will concern the study of ways to efficiently combine problem-solving methods and to organize the educational process by the «problem scenario».У статті з’ясовано особливості проблемного навчання як технології, визначено її характеристики та потенціал в освітньому процесі вищого навчального закладу. Уточнено сутність поняття технології проблемного навчання. Технологія проблемного навчання – це техніка реалізації навчального процесу, детермінованого проблемною ситуацією, яка визначає відповідно інтегровані способи організації проблемного викладання та проблемного учіння на всіх її етапах розв’язання та рівнях проблемності, метою якої є оволодіння певними способами розв’язання проблем на рівні умінь і навичок мисленнєвої діяльності. Виявлено теоретичні основи технології проблемного навчання, серед яких такі як: теорія закономірності розвитку мислення; теорія методів навчання; проблемна ситуація; проблемне навчальне середовище; суб’єкт-об’єкт-суб’єктна взаємодія між учасниками навчального процесу; зміст освіти міждисциплінарного характеру

Adopting Value Creating Pedagogy and Problem Based Learning in Secondary Schools in Kenya

Value Creating Pedagogy (VCP) promotes well-being and support for social justice and practices connected with the happiness of both the individual and the society. Effective adoption of VCP promotes educational ideals oriented in dignity and empowerment of all individuals in school and in society. Adherence to principles of VCP through Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach creates a meaningful platform for addressing challenges in schools through creative thinking which in turn encourages exploring processes where students are free to voice opinions in an inclusive learning environment. Through VCP, students individually and collaboratively assume responsibility for generating learning issues, uphold respect of individuality, build bonds of lasting relationship and oppose violence. In instances where VCP is implemented appropriately, attitudes towards learning improve and students learn to solve complex and authentic issues independently. By so doing students acquire spontaneous happiness and knowledge to solve new problems as well as competence in confronting emerging issues arising from school and in society. Conversely, in Kenya, examination focus of education system is a deterrent to development of values and ethics required for survival in society. On the other hand, the challenge for many teachers in adopting VCP is in making transition from knowledge provider to facilitator of learning. As a result, development of problem solving skills such as independent learning, critical thinking and decision making become disillusioned. This study explored adoption of value creating pedagogy and problem based learning as a strategy for creating value added education in public secondary schools in Nairobi County. A survey design was adopted with a target population of 80 schools where information was sourced from 40 teachers and 40 students through purposive sampling and simple random technique. Data were collected using an interview schedule and a questionnaire. The study found inconsistencies in the way schools implemented PBL in regard to increasing student knowledge and skills in problem solving. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education should introduce a national policy on VCP and PBL as pedagogical approaches across all curricular that can be adopted to develop relevant and engaging values connected to achievement of Vision 2030

Fusing Automatically Extracted Annotations for the Semantic Web

This research focuses on the problem of semantic data fusion. Although various solutions have been developed in the research communities focusing on databases and formal logic, the choice of an appropriate algorithm is non-trivial because the performance of each algorithm and its optimal configuration parameters depend on the type of data, to which the algorithm is applied. In order to be reusable, the fusion system must be able to select appropriate techniques and use them in combination. Moreover, because of the varying reliability of data sources and algorithms performing fusion subtasks, uncertainty is an inherent feature of semantically annotated data and has to be taken into account by the fusion system. Finally, the issue of schema heterogeneity can have a negative impact on the fusion performance. To address these issues, we propose KnoFuss: an architecture for Semantic Web data integration based on the principles of problem-solving methods. Algorithms dealing with different fusion subtasks are represented as components of a modular architecture, and their capabilities are described formally. This allows the architecture to select appropriate methods and configure them depending on the processed data. In order to handle uncertainty, we propose a novel algorithm based on the Dempster-Shafer belief propagation. KnoFuss employs this algorithm to reason about uncertain data and method results in order to refine the fused knowledge base. Tests show that these solutions lead to improved fusion performance. Finally, we addressed the problem of data fusion in the presence of schema heterogeneity. We extended the KnoFuss framework to exploit results of automatic schema alignment tools and proposed our own schema matching algorithm aimed at facilitating data fusion in the Linked Data environment. We conducted experiments with this approach and obtained a substantial improvement in performance in comparison with public data repositories

Development and evaluation of a web-based learning system based on learning object design and generative learning to improve higher-order thinking skills and learning

This research aims to design, develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a Webbased learning system prototype called Generative Object Oriented Design (GOOD) learning system. Result from the preliminary study conducted showed most of the students were at lower order thinking skills (LOTS) compared to higher order thinking skills (HOTS) based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Based on such concern, GOOD learning system was designed and developed based on learning object design and generative learning to improve HOTS and learning. A conceptual model design of GOOD learning system, called Generative Learning Object Organizer and Thinking Tasks (GLOOTT) model, has been proposed from the theoretical framework of this research. The topic selected for this research was Computer System (CS) which focused on the hardware concepts from the first year Diploma of Computer Science subjects. GOOD learning system acts as a mindtool to improve HOTS and learning in CS. A pre-experimental research design of one group pretest and posttest was used in this research. The samples of this research were 30 students and 12 lecturers. Data was collected from the pretest, posttest, portfolio, interview and Web-based learning system evaluation form. The paired-samples T test analysis was used to analyze the achievement of the pretest and posttest and the result showed that there was significance difference between the mean scores of pretest and posttest at the significant level a = 0.05 (p=0.000). In addition, the paired-samples T test analysis of the cognitive operations from Bloom’s Taxonomy showed that there was significance difference for each of the cognitive operation of the students before and after using GOOD learning system. Results from the study showed improvement of HOTS and learning among the students. Besides, analysis of portfolio showed that the students engaged HOTS during the use of the system. Most of the students and lecturers gave positive comments about the effectiveness of the system in improving HOTS and learning in CS. From the findings in this research, GOOD learning system has the potential to improve students’ HOTS and learning

Design thinking support: information systems versus reasoning

Numerous attempts have been made to conceive and implement appropriate information systems to support architectural designers in their creative design thinking processes. These information systems aim at providing support in very diverse ways: enabling designers to make diverse kinds of visual representations of a design, enabling them to make complex calculations and simulations which take into account numerous relevant parameters in the design context, providing them with loads of information and knowledge from all over the world, and so forth. Notwithstanding the continued efforts to develop these information systems, they still fail to provide essential support in the core creative activities of architectural designers. In order to understand why an appropriately effective support from information systems is so hard to realize, we started to look into the nature of design thinking and on how reasoning processes are at play in this design thinking. This investigation suggests that creative designing rests on a cyclic combination of abductive, deductive and inductive reasoning processes. Because traditional information systems typically target only one of these reasoning processes at a time, this could explain the limited applicability and usefulness of these systems. As research in information technology is increasingly targeting the combination of these reasoning modes, improvements may be within reach for design thinking support by information systems

The TRIZ-CBR synergy: A knowledge based innovation process

Today innovation is recognised as the main driving force in the market. This complex process involves several intangible dimensions, such as creativity, knowledge and social interactions among others. Creativity is the starting point of the process, and knowledge is the force that transforms and materialises creativity in new products, services and processes. In this paper a synergy that aims to assists the innovation process is presented. The synergy combines several concepts and tools of the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) and the case-based reasoning (CBR) process. The main objective of this synergy is to support creative engineering design and problem solving. This synergy is based on the strong link between knowledge and action. In this link, TRIZ offers several concepts and tools to facilitate concept creation and to solve problems, and the CBR process offers a framework capable of storing and reusing knowledge with the aim of accelerating the innovation process