Innovative learning in action (ILIA) issue four: New academics engaging with action research

This edition of ILIA showcases four papers which were originally submitted as action research projects on the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice and Research programme. Within the programme we offer an environment where participants can explore their unique teaching situations – not to produce all-encompassing approaches to Higher Education (HE) practice but to develop an ongoing dialogue about the act of teaching. In effect, there are no generalisable ‘best’ methods of teaching because they never work as well as ‘locally produced practice in action’ (Kincheloe, 2003:15). Thus rather than providing short term ‘survival kits’ the programme offers new HE teachers a ‘frame’ for examining their own and their colleagues’ teaching alongside questioning educational purpose and values in the pursuit of pedagogical improvement. This ‘frame’ is action research which Ebbutt (1985:156) describes as: …The systematic study of attempts to change and improve educational practice by groups of participants by means of their own practical actions and by means of their own reflections upon the effects of their actions… We promote ‘practitioner-research’ or ‘teacher-research’ as a way of facilitating professional development for new HE teachers, promoting change and giving a voice to their developing personal and professional knowledge. Teachers as researchers embark upon an action orientated, iterative and collaborative process to interrogate their own practices, question their own assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs in order to better understand, influence and enrich the context of their own situations. The action researcher assumes that practitioners are knowledgeable about their own teaching situations and the fact that they are ‘in-situ’ and not at ‘arms length’ as the value-neutral, ‘scientific’ researcher is often claimed to be, does not invalidate their knowledge. Thus, practitioners are capable of analysing their own actions within a ‘reflective practitioner’ modus operandi. Action research is on-going in conception and well suited to examining the ever-changing and increasingly complex HE practice environment. Findings from action research are always subject to revision since it intrinsically acknowledges the need to constantly revisit widely diverse teaching situations and scenarios across everyday HE practice. Teaching is not predictable and constant, it always occurs in a contemporary microcosm of uncertainty. Action research provides an analytical framework for new HE teachers to begin to engage with this unpredictability on a continuing basis, that is its purpose and also its perennial challenge. The papers presented here describe how four relatively new HE teachers have begun to address the challenge of improving their practice within their locally based settings utilising the action research ‘paradigm’

Integrating Building Information Modeling and Health and Safety for Onsite Construction

Background: Health and safety (H&S) on a construction site can either make or break a contractor, if not properly managed. The usage of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for H&S on construction execution has the potential to augment practitioner understanding of their sites, and by so doing reduce the probability of accidents. This research explores BIM usage within the construction industry in relation to H&S communication. Methods: In addition to an extensive literature review, a questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information on the embedment of H&S planning with the BIM environment for site practitioners. Results: The analysis of responses indicated that BIM will enhance the current approach of H&S planning for construction site personnel. Conclusion: From the survey, toolbox talk will have to be integrated with the BIM environment, because it is the predominantly used procedure for enhancing H&S issues within construction sites. The advantage is that personnel can visually understand H&S issues as work progresses during the toolbox talk onsite

Self-Directed Learning Development in PBL

Lifelong learning is an emphasized graduate outcome for engineering professionals at the international level by the Washington Accord and at the United States national level by ABET. When a new engineer enters the profession, she will be expected to acquire new technical knowledge in order to solve a problem or create a design. Unlike her experience in college, there will not be a professor to guide this learning. The planning, execution, monitoring, and control of this learning will now fall to the new engineer. The level of the ability to succeed in this self-directed learning modality will be a function of the extent to which the lifelong learning outcome has been met. This paper studies the importance of this graduate outcome and the development of self-directed learning as the way in which the outcome is achieved. Quantitative measures are taken using the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale. Quantitative results show a statistically significant difference between the developments of self-regulated abilities by students in a two-year PBL curriculum as compared to students who did not undergo the PBL treatment

Active learning based sustainability education: a case study

The fundamental role of engineering in modern societies demands not only technically specialized engineers, but also global cultural cognizance, personal and professional ethics, together with sound transversal skills and responsiveness for sustainability issues. An enriching learning context provides engineering students with opportunities to proactively seek knowledge and technical proficiency at their unique pace, and monitor and master their own learning process. Active Learning undoubtedly enables an enriching learning context, where technical and transversal competences can be widely exercised and developed. However, when looking at the development of sustainability competences within engineering degrees, they can be: (1) straightly patterned into the curricula; (2) loosely coupled or arbitrarily schedule amongst a number of degree courses; or (3) essentially absent. This paper provides an analysis on the development of sustainability competences in the Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) programme of the University of Minho, Portugal. Supported by student report content analysis, this paper explores the widely documented IEM interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology, at University of Minho, which has been applied over a long timeframe, and denotes, at least to a certain extent, to be a suitable learning methodology for the development of technical and transversal competences for the envisaged professional profile. Fink’s Taxonomy was used in the discussion and reflection of the reports results relating to the sustainability issue

Guidelines for cybersecurity education campaigns

In our technology- and information-infused world, cyberspace is an integral part of modern-day society. As the number of active cyberspace users increases, so too does the chances of a cyber threat finding a vulnerable target increase. All cyber users who are exposed to cyber risks need to be educated about cyber security. Human beings play a key role in the implementation and governing of an entire cybersecurity and cybersafety solution. The effectiveness of any cybersecurity and cybersafety solutions in a societal or individual context is dependent on the human beings involved in the process. If these human beings are either unaware or not knowledgeable about their roles in the security solution they become the weak link in these cybersecurity solutions. It is essential that all users be educated to combat any threats. Children are a particularly vulnerable subgroup within society. They are digital natives and make use of ICT, and online services with increasing frequency, but this does not mean they are knowledgeable about or behaving securely in their cyber activities. Children will be exposed to cyberspace throughout their lifetimes. Therefore, cybersecurity and cybersafety should be taught to children as a life-skill. There is a lack of well-known, comprehensive cybersecurity and cybersafety educational campaigns which target school children. Most existing information security and cybersecurity education campaigns limit their scope. Literature reports mainly on education campaigns focused on primary businesses, government agencies and tertiary education institutions. Additionally, most guidance for the design and implementation of security and safety campaigns: are for an organisational context, only target organisational users, and mostly provide high-level design recommendations. This thesis addressed the lack of guidance for designing and implementing cybersecurity and cybersafety educational campaigns suited to school learners as a target audience. The thesis aimed to offer guidance for designing and implementing education campaigns that educate school learners about cybersecurity and cybersafety. This was done through the implementation of an action research process over a five-year period. The action research process involved cybersecurity and cybersafety educational interventions at multiple schools. A total of 18 actionable guidelines were derived from this research to guide the design and implementation of cybersecurity and cybersafety education campaigns which aim to educate school children

Assessment practices and their impact on home economics education in Ireland

This study was prompted by an interest in the extent to which the aims of home economics education in Ireland are being served by the assessment carried out at a national level. This interest led to an empirical investigation of key stakeholders’ perceptions of the validity of home economics assessment and a critical evaluation of its impact on teaching and learning. The data collection primarily comprised interviews with a selection of teachers and other key people such as students, teacher educators and professional home economists; and a complementary analysis of curriculum and design of Junior and Leaving Certificate home economics assessments during the period 2005-2014. The analysis of interview data combined with the curriculum and assessment analyses revealed the compounding impact and washback effect of home economics assessments on student learning experience and outcomes. This impact was reflected in several areas of the findings including an evident satisfaction among the respondents with junior cycle assessment, due to the perceived appropriateness of the assessment design and operational arrangements, and dissatisfaction with curriculum and assessment arrangements at senior cycle as they were considered to be inappropriate and negatively impacting on the quality of learning achieved. The respondents candidly pointed to what they considered to be an acceptance by some teachers of unethical behaviour around the completion of journal tasks. The respondents indicated that summative assessment practices are commonly used in home economics classrooms and the findings strongly suggest that external examinations are influencing teaching methods by demanding a test-oriented pedagogy to enable students to achieve certificate points. The technical analysis of the Junior and Leaving Certificate examination questions confirmed that these external assessments predominantly promote lower-order learning and there are clear indications of a washback effect on the quality of learning achieved. There is a view that the subject's position in the curriculum is weakened due to a lack of coherence around practice, as well as a lack of advocacy and leadership in the field. There was little evidence of the impact of home economics education and many of the interviewees merely 'hoped' that home economics made a difference in the lives of students. The study also showed that there are profiling, identity and teacher agency issues impacting upon the home economics profession. While not immediately generalisable to all home economics teachers or settings in schools, this study nonetheless implies that if the views and practices of the respondents were to be replicated across the whole of the home economics education community, it would not be safe to view national assessment results as a valid indicator of learning and achievement standards in the subject. There are grounds in this work to argue that the subject's values and purposes are not supported by existing curriculum, pedagogy and assessment arrangements

Communication skills in higher education vs the labor market: different perceptions and valuations

Communication skills are considered increasingly important by higher education institutions, but also by employers as they influence better professional perfor-mance. The literature review recommends a necessary and desirable alignment of the communicational aspect of academic curricula with work needs, so that graduates have professional success. The objective of this research is to know how communicational skills are seen and valued in higher education, specifically in a Portuguese Polytechnic Accounting and Business School. For this purpose, undergraduate and Masters students who integrate courses or approaches related to communicational skills are surveyed. Coordinators of some of these courses (who are also professors) are consulted too. The methodology adopted is the case study and the data collection techniques are questionnaires applied to a sample of students and interviews carried out with the Coordinators of some of afore-mentioned courses. According to a self-assessment carried out by students, it was concluded that their average communication performance is very good, which is not in line with the literature review. As for the existence of training, within the scope of communication skills, course coordinators and most students consider that these should be taught in higher education. In the opinion of the course di-rectors, there is an alignment between the skills taught in the courses and those that are required in the job market, an opinion that a not very expressive majority of students also share, although an overwhelming majority of students consider that this should be done. Course coordinators and students suggest motivating, practical and work-related pedagogical approaches for greater development of the skills in analysis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Integrated adaptive skills program model (IASP)

Integrated Adaptive Skills Program Model (IASP) is designed to offer supportive services to disabled students seeking to integrate into a local after-school program. IASP Model focuses on teaching adaptive skills to disabled students that would prepare them to be fully included into an after-school program with their same age peers. The program offers support, training, and consultation to the students and staff involved in the program. A variety of research-methods and assessment screening tools are used to determine eligibility and program implementation. The IASP Model was piloted during the 2011-2012 school year, in California, United States, but due to limited local and state funds the program could not continue. Students with disabilities deserve to be involved in the community and should not be excluded based on funds. Teaching and educating others on how to integrate students with disabilities into programs will minimize and/or eliminate exclusion of participating in recreation programs within residing communities.https://scholar.dominican.edu/books/1179/thumbnail.jp

The Experiences of Female High School Students and Interest in STEM: Factors Leading to the Selection of an Engineering or Computer Science Major

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy, and enables the next generation of innovators, which leads to new products and processes that sustain our economy (Hossain & Robinson, 2012). We have been hearing the warnings for several years, that there simply are not enough young scientists entering into the STEM professional pathways to replace all of the retiring professionals (Brown, Brown, Reardon, & Merrill, 2011; Harsh, Maltese, & Tai, 2012; Heilbronner, 2011; Scott, 2012). The problem is not necessarily due to a lack of STEM skills and concept proficiency. There also appears to be a lack of interest in these fields. Recent evidence suggests that many of the most proficient students, especially minority students and women, have been gravitating away from science and engineering toward other professions. (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2010). The purpose of this qualitative research study was an attempt to determine how high schools can best prepare and encourage young women for a career in engineering or computer science. This was accomplished by interviewing a pool of 21 women, 5 recent high school graduates planning to major in STEM, 5 college students who had completed at least one full year of coursework in an engineering or computer science major and 11 professional women who had been employed as an engineer or computer scientist for at least one full year. These women were asked to share the high school courses, activities, and experiences that best prepared them to pursue an engineering or computer science major. Five central themes emerged from this study; coursework in physics and calculus, promotion of STEM camps and clubs, teacher encouragement of STEM capabilities and careers, problem solving, critical thinking and confidence building activities in the classroom, and allowing students the opportunity to fail and ask questions in a safe environment. These themes may be implemented by any instructor, in any course, who wishes to provide students with the means to success in their quest for a STEM career

Child Obesity and Nutrition Promotion Intervention

Childhood obesity continues to be a global problem, with several regions showing increasing rates and others having one in every three children overweight despite an apparent halt or downward trend. Children are exposed to nutritional, social, and obesogenic environmental risks from different settings, and this affects their lifelong health. There is a consensus that high-quality multifaceted smart and cost-effective interventions enable children to grow with a healthy set of habits that have lifelong benefits to their wellbeing. The literature has shown that dietary approaches play key roles in improving children’s health, not only on a nutritional level but also in diet quality and patterns. An association between the nutritional strategy and other lifestyle components promotes a more comprehensive approach and should be envisioned in intervention studies. This Special Issue entitled “Child Obesity and Nutrition Promotion Intervention” combines original research manuscripts or reviews of the scientific literature concerning classic or innovative approaches to tackle this public health issue. It presents several nutritional interventions alongside lifestyle health factors, and outcome indicators of effectiveness and sustainability from traditional to ground-breaking methods to exploit both qualitative and quantitative approaches in tackling child obesity