Lo‐tech tools as episteme: rethinking student engagement in the writing process and beyond

In this paper, five teacher‐scholars describe pedagogical inquiry into the use of ‘lo‐tech’ tools and what we discovered about the affordances of these tools. These include but are not limited to technologies like sticky notes that help students to organize written thoughts and physically move them around, crayons that allow students to highlight, trace, and categorize different types of thoughts on their paper, and index cards that they can use in a variety of interactive ways for their own writing and to write collaboratively. We found that the use of lo‐tech tools complemented our work with digital technology, engaging the kinesthetic learners in our classrooms and encouraging a spirit of play in students and teachers alike. We also discuss how teachers can encourage the use of lo‐tech tools epistemologically to help students process information, create knowledge, and to come to their own understandings or demonstrate understandings of course content ‐ with no product in mind other than knowledge‐making

Count me in! Gender and ethnic minority attainment in school science

There is no single 'solution' to the 'problem' of under-achievement in school science by certain groups. Such under-achievement is strongly connected to the ways that society views the members of these groups. It is not enough for schools to be isolated islands of good practice; they need to help students critically reflect on the world inside and outside of school, and then equip students with the necessary tools to deal with this world. A number of strategies are suggested for use in schools to help pupils and students from groups which often underachieve to get more from their science lessons

Identification of generic errors for effective formative feedback in energy studies thematic area of mechanical engineering

The paper describes the findings from a CETL funded project for the identification of generic errors made by undergraduate students within the thematic area of energy studies in an accredited Mechanical Engineering programme. The idea came from the author’s own experience of teaching in the above thematic area when he observed that the mistakes and errors that the students usually make have some recurrence. Also, the mistakes committed within this subject area are very much theme focused. A systematic qualitative investigation was carried out on the student works available within module boxes. Usually the number of student works kept in a module box is square root of n, where n represents the total number of scripts in a cohort. Four different modules spread over three academic levels (Levels 3,4,5) and for three academic years were available and considered for data collection. Altogether the number of student works that were available was 185. The methodology involved the standard qualitative categorisation approach where the scripts were scrutinised and re-scrutinised in an attempt to identify the commonality of mistakes. After several trials along with critical analysis of the tutor feedback on each individual script, it was possible to identify nine generic errors and mistakes. The frequencies were then counted and data presented in percentages. Interestingly, the findings from this study have later been compared with errors found in examination scripts (of one energy study module) in later years and a broad similarity has been found. Based on such observation, the author regularly uses the findings to remind students of the generic errors and mistakes and highlights the various ways in which they can be minimsed. The feedback from students has been found to be very positive. The results also highlight that similar templates can be produced for other thematic areas of learning such as ‘design’ or ‘mechanics’ within engineering disciplines. Students will greatly benefit from such an in-house list which may serve as a feed-forward template in their future years in the university and beyond