Key Challenges of On-Line Education in Multi-Cultural Context

In meeting the ever-growing educational needs of culturally diverse student populations, universities and colleges still seek to maintain high quality standards, both for in situ and on line education. Despite the latter's reportedly high effectiveness potential, online degree courses tend to have low students' persistence and satisfaction rates. In this pape, r we examine the role that students' and instructors' national cultures play in the way individuals learn at a distance. We argue that students' individual culture dimensions may prove influential in achieving overall learning outcomes. The key complexities for students involve understanding the instructor's role in a socio-constructivist approach, adapting online collaborative learning and acquiring academic skills. These can become crucial barriers to effective online learning. No less a challenge is presented by online distance education for instructors. Academic institutions' managements have high expectations in terms of utilizing up-to-date teaching techniques, enhancing competitive edge and maximizing cost-effectiveness. Thus, the teaching staff is expected to play an increasingly essential role in the new environment. We conclude that instructors have to develop strategies to motivate, support and counsel students with the aim of facilitating the students' on-line learning experience. This implies that teaching staff have to acquire new skills and competences vital for multicultural online education. Robert Kennedy College, whose experience is reflected in this paper, shares much of the issues of other institutions aiming to utilize distance online learning, but has the advantage that it was set up from the start as an online institution. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Academic Resilience and Achievement

This study uses narrative analysis to understand the ways in which Mexican university faculty members used their self-motivational resources to persist in an instructional technology training program within adverse work conditions. The methodology included interviews and participant observation. Findings suggest that faculty’s academic resilience was based on faculty’s self-definition as permanent learners and innovators, the perception of instruction as a field of reflection-in-action and systematization, and the caring instructional approach used by training instructors

Mathematically gifted and talented learners: Theory and practice

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 40(2), 213-228, 2009, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207390802566907.There is growing recognition of the special needs of mathematically gifted learners. This article reviews policy developments and current research and theory on giftedness in mathematics. It includes a discussion of the nature of mathematical ability as well as the factors that make up giftedness in mathematics. The article is set in the context of current developments in Mathematics Education and Gifted Education in the UK and their implications for Science and Technology. It argues that early identification and appropriate provision for younger mathematically promising pupils capitalizes on an intellectual resource which could provide future mathematicans as well as specialists in Science or Technology. Drawing on a Vygotskian framework, it is suggested that the mathematically gifted require appropriate cognitive challenges as well as attitudinally and motivationally enhancing experiences. In the second half of this article we report on an initiative in which we worked with teachers to identify mathematically gifted pupils and to provide effective enrichment support for them, in a number of London Local Authorities. A number of significant issues are raised relating to the identification of mathematical talent, enrichment provision for students and teachers’ professional development

Broadening the Scope and Increasing the Usefulness of Learning Analytics: The Case for Assessment Analytics

This paper argues that the role that assessment could play within a learning analytics strategy is both significant and, as yet, underdeveloped and underexplored. It proposes that assessment analytics has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the field of learning and academic analytics by both broadening its scope and increasing its usefulness. In doing so it considers issues of operationalization and then moves on to define what we might understand as assessment analytics

Factors that affect motivation towards english language acquisition in seventh grade students of a public elementary school in Parral

Tesis (Magíster en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera)The research presents the results of the identification and analysis of factors that characterize the motivation for the English Foreign Language Acquisition of seventh year students who belong to a Public Elementary school of Parral, seventh region, Maule in Chile. To investigate the factors that influence students’ motivation a mixed method research was carried out. The data was collected and analysed through qualitative approach and organized and presented in a quantitative manner represented by graphics. The information was compiled by two previously validated instruments, which consisted of a questionnaire for the teachers of the different subjects of the class and the psychosocial team who works with the students. A personal interview was applied to each student. Two major conclusions were obtained from the results of the analysis of the data collection; firstly students present a lack of motivation towards the subject of English as a Foreign Language as a product of the sociocultural environment in which they are immersed, secondly learners are exposed to language learning from puberty and not from the beginning of their first learning stages as postulates the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH).La investigación presenta los resultados de la identificación y análisis de los factores que caracterizan la motivación hacia la adquisición del inglés como lengua extranjera de alumnos de séptimo año básico pertenecientes a un colegio básico y público de la comuna de Parral, séptima región del Maule en Chile. Para investigar los factores que inciden en la motivación de los estudiantes se utilizó un enfoque mixto tanto cualitativo para la recolección y análisis de los datos y cuantitativo para la organización y presentación de la información representada en gráficos. La obtención de la información se hizo mediante dos instrumentos previamente validados, los cuales consistieron en un cuestionario para los profesores de los diferentes sectores de aprendizaje del curso y para el equipo sicosocial que trabaja con los estudiantes. Una entrevista personal fue aplicada a cada alumno. Dos grandes conclusiones se obtuvieron del resultado del análisis de la recolección de datos; la primera es la falta de motivación de los alumnos hacia la asignatura de inglés como lengua extranjera producto del entorno sociocultural en el cual están inmersos y la segunda es que los alumnos son expuestos al aprendizaje de la lengua desde el inicio de la pubertad y no desde sus primeras etapas de aprendizaje como postula la hipótesis del período crítico

Teacher design teams as a strategy for professional development : the role of the facilitator

The goal of the current study was to explore the role and importance of the facilitator in Teacher Design Teams. The study took place in the context of a pre-service teacher education institution in Belgium, where teacher design teams were set up to facilitate the professional development of teacher educators. The findings from focus group discussions with team members and semi-structured interviews with facilitators confirm that the perceived importance of a facilitator depends on several factors, such as team characteristics and the design phase. Moreover, we found that a facilitator can fulfil three roles in a dynamic way: 1) providing logistic support, 2) scaffolding the design process and 3) monitoring the design process. The discussion centers on how these results can be used to support facilitators for successful Teacher Design Teams

Synchronous communication technologies for language learning: Promise and challenges in research and pedagogy

We propose a definition of synchronous communication based on joint attention, noting that in certain mediated communication settings joint attention is a matter of perception rather than determinable fact. The most salient properties of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) are real-time pressure to communicate and a greater degree of social presence relative to asynchronous communication. These properties underlie the benefits and challenges of SCMC for language learning, which we discuss under three headings: (1) SCMC as learning tool; (2) SCMC as target competence; and (3) SCMC as setting for learner dialogue, intracultural and intercultural. We survey research themes in SCMC and preview the contributions of the Special Issue. Finally, we identify questions for future research

Motivational Aspects of Teacher Collaboration

The mutual dependency of teacher collaboration and motivation has emerged as a promising research field. This article now sets out to systematically review peer-reviewed articles on the interconnection of these concepts. It looks at main findings, identifies ambiguities and contradictions in the constructs and highlights their contested nature. It is shown that many studies use different theoretical approaches and conceptual operationalizations. This leads to inconsistent empirical findings. In addition, teacher collaboration is often perceived as a threat to teacher autonomy. This is surprising considering that both teacher collaboration and teacher autonomy positively affect teacher motivation according to many empirical findings