Student errors: how teachers diagnose them and how they respond to them

Current pedagogical discourse has established that teacher competence is a condition sine qua non for high level performance in the classroom. Nevertheless questions of conceptualising and measuring teacher competence have yet to be answered. In our study we analyse a facet of teacher competence essential to successful learning processes; namely, teacher competence when diagnosing and responding to student errors in a constructive manner. Two pilot studies investigate how students perceive "error culture" in their classrooms, and how teachers deal with learner errors during lessons. (DIPF/Orig.

Building and Executing MOOCs: A Practical Review of Glasgow's First Two MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)

No abstract available

Working collaboratively on the digital global frontier

An international online collaborative learning experience was designed and implemented in preservice teacher education classes at the University of Calgary, Canada and the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. The project was designed to give preservice teachers an opportunity to live the experience of being online collaborators investigating real world teaching issues of diversity and inclusivity. Qualitative research was conducted to examine the complexity of the online collaborative experiences of participants. Redmond and Lock’s (2006) flexible online collaborative learning framework was used to explain the design and the implementation of the project. Henri’s (1992) content analysis model for computer-mediated communication was used for the online asynchronous postings and a constant comparative method of data analysis was used in the construction of themes. From the findings, the authors propose recommendations for designing and facilitating collaborative learning on the digital global frontier

Online peer assessment: helping to facilitate learning through participation

The focus of this paper is on the combination of enquiry-based learning, information literacy and e-learning and how they are embedded in an online peer assessment exercise. What it shall present is a structure and strategy that aids student learning in the short and long-term. Ninety eight students completed a questionnaire before and after a three-week online peer assessment exercise during a first year undergraduate research and study skills module. The results demonstrate that a significant number of students valued the design of the exercise and the benefits it can have on their future learning and development. The paper concludes by suggesting that new and innovative ways of assessment are needed to keep engaging students and develop their learning in different ways

Knowledge convergence in collaborative learning

In collaborative learning the question has been raised as to how learners in small groups influence one another and converge or diverge with respect to knowledge. Knowledge convergence can be conceptualised as knowledge equivalence and as shared knowledge prior to, during, and subsequent to collaborative learning. Knowledge equivalence refers to learners becoming more similar to their learning partners with regard to the extent of their individual knowledge. Shared knowledge means that learners have knowledge on the very same concepts as their learning partners. In this article, we provide measures for assessing both, knowledge equivalence and shared knowledge

Teachers' classroom feedback: still trying to get it right

This article examines feedback traditionally given by teachers in schools. Such feedback tends to focus on children's acquisition and retrieval of externally prescribed knowledge which is then assessed against mandated tests. It suggests that, from a sociocultural learning perspective, feedback directed towards such objectives may limit children's social development. In this article, I draw on observation and interview data gathered from a group of 27 9- to 10-year olds in a UK primary school. These data illustrate the children's perceived need to conform to, rather than negotiate, the teacher's feedback comments. They highlight the children's sense that the teacher's feedback relates to school learning but not to their own interests. The article also includes alternative examples of feedback which draw on children's own inquiries and which relate to the social contexts within which, and for whom, they act. It concludes by suggesting that instead of looking for the right answer to the question of what makes teachers' feedback effective in our current classrooms, a more productive question might be how a negotiation can be opened up among teachers and learners themselves, about how teachers' feedback could support children's learning most appropriately

An Evaluation of the Prison Radio Association’s Activity Final Report Year 1 The West Midlands Prison Radio Taster Project

The Prison Radio Association (PRA) was set up in 2005 and achieved charitable status in 2006. The PRA continues to contribute to the reduction of re-offending by capitalising on the opportunity prison provides to stop people offending for good. The Association is committed to the ways in which prison radio can provide a unique and innovative way to engage offenders (regardless of age, ethnic origin, gender or faith) in education; particularly those hard to reach offenders disenfranchised by the educational system. The PRA currently works with over 40 prisons across England and Wales. In 2007, the Prison Radio Association and partners1 developed a two week taster course in radio production for delivery in six prisons across the West Midlands, entitled: the West Midlands Prison Radio Taster Project2. The objectives of this project were firstly, overall project delivery, which consisted of the recruitment of a radio trainer, developing a radio training course which embeds basic skills and the delivery of the taster courses in six prisons. The wider objectives concerned raising awareness of the potential of radio training to embed basic skills and to examine sustainability within prison service education. The findings of the external evaluation conducted by the Hallam Centre for Community Justice are presented in this report