Studying Students' Learning Processes Used During Physics Teaching Sequence About Gas With Networks of Ideas and Their Domain of Applicability

International audienceIn literature, several processes have been suggested to describe conceptual changes being undertaken. However, a few parts of studies analyse in great detail which students' learning processes are involved in physics classes during teaching, and how they are used. Following a socio-constructivist approach using tools coming from discourse analysis, we suggest studying three processes of students' learning: (1)establishing links between ideas, (2)increasing or (3)decreasing the domain of applicability of ideas. Our database consists of video data and written worksheets of 2 students at the upper secondary school level (grade 10 [15-year-old students]) during a one-month teaching sequence about gas. Based on semiotic resources contained in oral and written language, we reconstruct in great detail all the ideas about gas expressed by both students during the entire teaching sequence. Our analysis deals with (a) how learning processes are identified based on the ideas expressed by students and (b) how the three learning processes are used by the two students during teaching. Our results show that during the teaching sequence: (1) the emergence of the networks of three ideas is supported by networks of two ideas expressed previously by students, (2) both students express more networks of two ideas than networks of three ideas, (3) The process 'increasing the domain of applicability' of an idea or a network of ideas is very often involved and (4) the process 'decreasing the domain of applicability' of an idea or network of ideas is rarely used by them

Designing for learning : online social networks as a classroom environment

This paper deploys notions of emergence, connections, and designs for learning to conceptualize high school students’ interactions when using online social media as a learning environment. It makes links to chaos and complexity theories and to fractal patterns as it reports on a part of the first author’s action research study, conducted while she was a teacher working in an Australian public high school and completing her PhD. The study investigates the use of a Ning online social network as a learning environment shared by seven classes, and it examines students’ reactions and online activity while using a range of social media and Web 2.0 tools.The authors use Graham Nuthall’s (2007) “lens on learning” to explore the social processes and culture of this shared online classroom. The paper uses his extensive body of research and analyses of classroom learning processes to conceptualize and analyze data throughout the action research cycle. It discusses the pedagogical implications that arise from the use of social media and, in so doing, challenges traditional models of teaching and learning

Principal led school improvement and teacher capacity building in the Barwon South Network : final report, May 2013

The period of interest for this report is the beginning of 2011 to the end of 2012. The period commenced when the Regional Network Leader of the Barwon South Network of schools in the Barwon South Region of the Department of Education and Early Childhood contacted the School of Education at Deakin University, Waurn Ponds Campus Geelong. The Regional Network Leader outlined a desire to engage with Deakin University to research a short-term-cycle model of school improvement to be implemented in the region. While the model was expected to be taken on by all schools in the region the research was limited to the 23 schools in the Barwon South Network with four schools to be investigated more closely for each of two years (2001 & 2012) – eight focus schools in total. Many positive outcomes flowed from the implementation of short-term-cycle school improvement plans and their associated practices but there was wide variation in the nature and degrees of success and of the perception of the process. The research team asked the following questions of the data:1. What aspects of the School Improvement Plan (SIP) approach were important for initiating and supporting worthwhile change?2. What might we take from this, to provide guidance on how best to support change in teaching and learning processes in schools?The School Improvement Plan (SIP) worked in a range of ways. At one level it was strongly focused on school leadership, and a need to improve principals’ capacity to initiate worthwhile teaching and learning processes in their schools. Underlying this intent, one might think an assumption is operation is that the leadership process involves top down decision-making and a willingness to hold staff accountable for the quality of their practice. The second strong focus was on the translation into practice and the consequent effect on student learning, involving an emphasis on data and evidence led practice. Hence, along with the leadership focus there was a demand for the process of school improvement to reach down into students and classrooms. Thus, the SIP process inevitably involved a chain of decision-making by which student learning quality drove the intervention, and teachers responsible for this had a common view. The model therefore should not be seen as an intervention only on the principal, but rather on the school decision-making system and focus. Even though it was the principal receiving the SIP planning template, and reporting to the network, the reporting was required to include description of the operation of the school processes, of classroom processes, and of student learning. This of course placed significant constraints on principals, which may help explain the variation in responses and outcomes described above.The findings from this study are based on multiple data sources: analysis of both open and closed survey questions which all teachers in the 23 schools in the network were invited to complete; interviews with principals, teachers and leaders in the eight case study schools; some interviews with students in the case study schools; and interviews with leaders who worked in the regional network office; and field notes from network meetings including the celebrations days. Celebrations days occurred each school term when groups of principals came together to share and celebrate the improvements and processes happening in their schools. Many of the themes emerging from the analysis of the different data sources were similar or overlapping, providing some confidence in the evidence-base for the findings. The study, conducted over two years of data collection and analysis, has demonstrated a range of positive outcomes in at the case study schools relating to school communication and collaboration processes, professional learning of principals, leadership teams and classroom teachers. There was evidence in the survey responses and field notes from ‘celebration days’ that these outcomes were also represented in other schools in the network. The key points of change concerned the leadership processes of planning for improvement, and the rigorous attention to student data in framing teaching and learning processes. This latter point of change had the effect of basing SIP processes on a platform of evidence-based change. The research uncovered considerable anecdotal and observational evidence of improvements in student learning, in teacher accounts in interview, and presentations of student work. Interviews with students, although not as representative as the team would have liked, showed evidence of student awareness of learning goals, a key driver in the SIP improvement model. It was, however, not possible over this timescale to collect objective comparative evidence of enhanced learning outcomes. A number of features of the short-term-cycle SIP were identified that supported positive change across the network. These were: 1) the support structures represented by the network leader and support personnel within schools, 2) the nature of the SIP model – focusing strongly on change leadership but within a collaborative structure that combined top-down and bottom-up elements, 3) the focus on data-led planning and implementation that helped drill down to explicit elements of classroom practice, and 4) the accountability regimes represented by network leader presence, and the celebration days in which principals became effectively accountable to their peers. We found that in the second year of the project, momentum was lost in the case study schools, as the network was dismantled. This raised issues also for the conduct of research in situations of systemic change. Alongside the finding of evidence of positive outcomes in the case study schools overall, was the finding that the SIP processes and outcomes varied considerably across schools. A number of contextual factors were identified that led to this variation, including school histories of reform, principal management style, and school size and structure that made the short-term-cycle model unmanageable. In some cases there was overt resistance to the SIP model, at least in some part, and this led to an element of performativity in which the language of the SIP was conscripted to other purposes. The study found that even with functioning schools the SIP was understood differently and the processes performed differently, raising the question of whether in the study we are dealing with one SIP or many. The final take home message from the research is that schools are complex institutions, and models of school improvement need to involve both strong principled features, and flexibility in local application, if all schools’ interests in improving teaching and learning processes and outcomes are to be served

Year Four Annual Report: Activities, Findings and Evaluators\u27 Reports

The National Center for Engineering and Technology Education is a collaborative network of scholars with backgrounds in technology education, engineering, and related fields. Our mission is to build capacity in technology education and to improve the understanding of the learning and teaching of high school students and teachers as they apply engineering design processes to technological problems

Year Six Annual Report: Activities, Findings and Evaluators\u27 Reports

The National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) is a collaborative network of scholars with backgrounds in technology education, engineering, and related fields. Our mission is to build capacity in technology education and to improve the understanding of the learning and teaching of high school students and teachers as they apply engineering design processes to technological problems

Teacher Perceptions of PSInet as a Computer Teleconferencing Network for the Improvement of Science and Mathematics Education

x, 138 leaves. Advisor: Jack A. GerlovichThis is a descriptive study of two small groups of educators in Iowa during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 school years. The researcher examined the use of People Sharing Information network (PSInet) by "new user" educators. PSInet is an asynchronous teleconferencing network that provides modifiable conferencing and private messaging to network users. The participants were surveyed using "Likert-type" survey questions and discussion questions to determine ease of setting up computer hardware, learning to use the software and network, applicability to the teaching/learning processes, and difficulties encountered by the "new user" educators. Analysis of responses suggests teachers are more apt to promote student use than self use, are more likely to use telecommunication via PSInet to communicate locally than long distances, and are more likely to communicate within their own school system than with sources outside the system. Results suggest asynchronous teleconferencing using PSInet is easy to set up and use, and is applicable to those teaching/learning projects that could benefit by sharing data gathered in several different locations, and projects requiring collaboration among individuals geographically remote to one another. Indications are PSInet provides accessibility to near or distant colleagues and other professionals with ease. Problems associated with applying PSInet to the teaching/learning process seem to be related to educator time constraints and adapting the structure of teaching/learning processes to make use of the technology

Multivoicedness as a tool for expanding school leaders’ understandings and practices for school-based professional development

This article presents findings from the implementation of a pilot study of a professional development model, Schools Inquiring and Learning with Peers (SILP) in Chile. SILP includes a network learning setting involving a cluster of three schools supported by university partners that conduct peer reviews and a school learning setting involving school teams in conversations to mobilise new leadership for learning practices. The notions of joint practice development and multivoicedness in professional conversations are the essence of these processes. Data produced through the review process, understood as voices, enabled participants to incorporate the perspectives, conceptual horizon, and intentions of administrators, students, and teachers who need to collaborate for teaching to produce learning. Across schools we observed common learning as well as important differences. These differences show that by taking an active role in making sense of their participation in a professional development programme, learners achieve outcomes that may be much more meaningful than what program designers prescribed. As facilitators we learned with participants about their specific contexts, expanding the affordances they and we envisioned for the use of new tools that became available through their participation in SILP

Student Behaviour Analysis To Detect Learning Styles Using Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes, And K-Nearest Neighbor Method In Moodle Learning Management System

A learning management system (LMS) manages online learning and facilitates inter- action in the teaching and learning processes. Teachers can use LMS to determine student activities or interactions with their courses. Everyone learns uniquely. It is necessary to understand their learning style to apply it in students’ learning activi- ties. One factor contributing to learning success is the use of an appropriate learning style, which allows the information received to be appropriately conveyed and clearly understood. As a result, we require a mechanism to identify learning styles. This study develops a learning style detection system based on learning behavior at the LMS of Christian Vocational School Petra Surabaya for the subject of Network System Administration using the Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes, and K-Nearest Neigh- bor. The results of the study showed that the Decision Tree method could better detect and predict learning styles, namely using the 80:20 train split test, which obtained an accuracy of 0.96 process time of 0.000998 seconds, while the K-Fold 10 Cross-Validation test obtained an accuracy of 0.98 and a processing time of 0.04033 seconds

LITERACY AND LEARNING ACROSS PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL SPACES: A CASE STUDY IN A BLENDED PRIMARY CLASSROOM

In light of technological innovations, schools are increasingly adopting digital tools and promoting online spaces for learning. Consequently, the shape of teaching and learning is shifting beyond the physical classroom. Drawing on sociocultural theory, distributed cognition and a networked learning framework, this case study explores how a blended approach shapes teachers’ practices and students’ learning and literacy processes. The study was situated in a Year Six classroom in an Australian technology-rich independent school. Data was collected during the 2013 school year and included: 1) observations; 2) 125 hours of classroom video-recordings; 3) a collection of digital artefacts designed by the students; 4) interviews with teachers and students; 5) a student survey regarding technology integration in the classroom; 6) entry logs posted by participants on the Edmodo social network site. Multiple approaches to data analysis were used in order to answer the study’s research questions, including: networked learning analysis, thematic analysis, situated discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis and a quantitative descriptive analysis. The findings suggest that blended learning spaces support teachers’ distributed orchestration of classroom activities across tools and resources while also leveraging students’ engagement in reciprocal teaching as well as self-driven and collaborative learning. Digital technologies open space for new ways of communication, interaction and learning in the classroom, yet such affordances are dependent upon teacher’s facilitation and expertise. In addition, an interactive pattern of literacy practices was evident in the classroom, where processes of authorship, readership, production, audience, and consumption were established between students. Finally, alignment between teachers’ beliefs and the perceived value of technology was a key factor for technology integration in the classroom

Year Seven Annual Report: Activities, Findings and Evaluators\u27 Reports

The National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) is a collaborative network of scholars with backgrounds in technology education, engineering, and related fields. Our mission is to build capacity in technology education and to improve the understanding of the learning and teaching of high school students and teachers as they apply engineering design processes to technological problems. This year’s accomplishments include: completion of doctoral dissertations and post-doctoral research; continuation of research program; exploration of a strategic alliance of engineering and technology education groups in major doctoral-degree-granting universities; development of a caucus on high school engineering design challenges; and ongoing dissemination efforts