Using The Interactive Graphic Syllabus In The Teaching Of Economics

Syllabus is essentially a concise outline of a course of study, and conventionally a text document. In the past few decades, however, two novel variations of syllabus have emerged, namely “the Graphic Syllabus” and “the Interactive Syllabus”. Each of these two variations of syllabus has its own special advantages. The present paper argues that there could be devised a new combined version of the two mentioned variations, called “the Interactive Graphic Syllabus”, which can potentially bring us the advantages of both at the same time. Specifically, using a well-designed Interactive Graphic syllabus can bring about many advantages such as clarifying complex relationships; causing a better retention; needing less cognitive energy for interpretation; helping instructors identify any snags in their course organization; capability of being integrated easily into a course management system; appealing to many of learning styles and engaging students with different learning styles. In addition to the introduction of the notion of the Interactive Graphic Syllabus, in order to put this idea into action in the context of economics, the present paper takes advantage of the visual “big picture” of intermediate macroeconomics that has already been proposed by Moosavian (2016a). The present paper describes a web-page that contains a web-based interactive graphic of the aforementioned macroeconomics visual “big picture”. It is argued that this graphic can be used as a cyber-resource to technologically support the above-mentioned visual “big picture”, which comprises twenty-seven interrelated macroeconomic diagrams, and gives some details on the types of their relationships. Furthermore, it provides numerous internet links to other relevant instructional resources offered by well-known universities, allowing the students to somehow zoom in the macroeconomics “big picture”. Moreover, this web-page provides roughly one hundred links to short instructional videos. More interestingly, it responds interactively, if one hovers over a particular diagram, by highlighting the routes through which the final macroeconomic general equilibrium is affected by any change in that particular diagram. The interactive graphic went online on 10/30/2015 at the URL http://zeytoonnejad.com/macrobigpic.aspx and is still under minor modification.

Accommodating Different Learning Styles in the Teaching of Economics: with Emphasis on Fleming and Mills’s Sensory-based Learning Style Typology

Students prefer to learn in different ways. These learning preferences are commonly known as learning styles. This variety in learning styles among students suggests that instructors should teach their course materials in different ways to cater to different learning styles. In addition, according to (Nilson 2010), when our society is concerned with fairness and equality, teaching to different styles is a main facet of equity. This paper focuses on Fleming and Mill’s VARK model (1992) to describe students’ different learning styles and explain why and in what ways economics instructors can accommodate different learning styles in their teaching. More specifically, the present paper aims to examine different learning styles and introduce teaching tools for accommodating different learning styles in the context of teaching economics. In addition to identifying learning-style-specific teaching instruments for the teaching of economics, the paper provides some prominent examples of each in the literature of economic education. Finally, considering recent advancements and availability of various technologies, existing evidence, general growing consensus on the issue, and many other reasons mentioned throughout the paper, it is argued and suggested that it makes more sense to take a multimodal approach to the teaching of economics

Understanding of Three Dimensional Diagrams

As a policy matter a child should be admitted in class – I after attaining the age of year 5, but in our social setup that is rarely followed. That is why, the students of year – 8 were traced from class II, III and IV of 121 Government Primary /Primary Sections of Government Middle Schools of 15 Tehsils of Five Districts from Southern Punjab. In all, 7212 students were involved in the study. Major objective of the study was to find out the age category at which the students of year 8 understand three dimensional diagrams to minimum and maximum extent. Present age was calculated by subtracting physical age of each student as recorded in the admission register from the date of test administration. It was found that only 1240 (17.18%) of the total students were of year-8, sorted out 1.0% (24) students from class II, 20% (485) of class III, and 30.18% (731) of class IV. A standardized non-verbal test and a perception test were administered to achieve the objectives. After piloting the tool, there were 42 items comprising upon 15 rectangular, 20 hexagonal, and seven diagrams from real daily life. The results highlighted that maximum average scores were found for the age category of 8 year, 2 months and 15 days and minimum average scores in the first category of age for the sampled students. Keywords: 3-D Diagrams, Perception, Primary Education, Understandin

Science and non-science teachers’ interpretation of physics diagrammes

This paper discusses teachers’ interpretations of physics diagrammes. The study based on 55 science and non-science teachers, where a qualitative approach was adopted. First, 12 fundamental physics diagrammes were revealed to the teachers, who were asked to think aloud about them. Science teachers and non-science teachers gave similar answers. It has been observed that only the science teacher cohort extended their explanations. When interpreting the diagrammes, the participants in both groups did not notice certain elements that it was expected they would see. The result of this study can inform how teachers interpret physics diagrammes. This paper contributes to the growing interest in international literature as well as national literature regarding the use of diagrammes for teacher training, because interpreting diagrammes is a comprehensive process, which contains certain elements, such as lines, arrows, curves, colour, and objects with boundaries.Keywords: diagrammes; physics learning; physics teaching; science educatio

É possível ensinar a genética para alunos cegos?

O uso de modelos tridimensionais é uma estratégia que facilita ensinar temas considerados difíceis para muitos professores no ensino médio, mesmo para classes que não têm alunos com necessidades educacionais especiais. Tivemos como objetivo, portanto, desenvolver um modelo tátil que auxiliasse na compreensão da estrutura do DNA e de sua replicação. Para tanto, adaptamos os passos descritos por Miotto para a construção de modelos táteis. O resultado foi a construção da matriz e das estruturas básicas da molécula de DNA, em papelão coberto com diferentes texturas. As placas de acetato em alto relevo foram preparadas após a aprovação por um aluno cego, que informou que a escala e as texturas escolhidas possibilitaram a identificação da estrutura como um todo e de suas partes, que foram testadas e aprovadas por alunos cegos na sala de recursos de uma Escola Pública Estadual.Palavras-chave: Construtivismo. Linguagem da ciência e da sala de aula. Ensino de ciências. Educação especial. Genética.Teaching genetics to blind-students – is it possible?AbstractThe use of three-dimensional models is a strategy that facilitates teaching contents considered difficult for many high school teachers even in classes that do not have students with special educational needs. Our objective was to develop a tactile model that helps the understanding of the DNA structure and its replication. To achieve this, we adapted the steps proposed by Miotto for the production of tactile models. As a result, we constructed the matrix of the basic structures of the DNA molecule in cardboard covered with different textures. After approval by a blind student, who reported that the scale and textures chosen allowed identification of the structure as a whole and its parts, we prepared the high relief acetate plates. These were tested and approved by blind students in the “resource class” of a State Public School.Keywords: Constructivism. Science and classrooms language. Science education. Special education. Genetics

Old Habits: Sister Bernadette and the Potential Revival of Sentence Diagramming in Written Legal Advocacy

Given the rise of e-filing and of software that makes it easier than ever to create images and insert them into documents, the nearly lost art of sentence diagramming may be due for a revival in written legal advocacy. This article posits that while sentence diagrams can indeed, in a limited set of cases, add to the persuasive force of a statutory-interpretation argument, the diagrams themselves are less compelling than attorneys may believe them to be, and diagrams cannot elucidate all types of interpretive issues. Like an analogy, a sentence diagram can illustrate an argument aptly — or ineptly — and counsel’s ability to come up with an illustrative analogy or a diagram is no guarantee that the illustrated argument has merit. This article first explains the nature of sentence diagrams and then discusses their potential utility in briefs. It then describes two cases where the inclusion of diagrams in briefs was less useful, or even counterproductive. In closing, it offers some concrete advice to attorneys on the use of sentence diagrams in written legal advocacy

When do diagrams enhance learning? A framework for designing relevant representations

Although many studies demonstrate large learning gains when instruction includes diagrams, diagrams do not always lead to improved outcomes. How can instructional designers know whether a given diagram will enhance learning? We have developed a framework of three factors that influence the effectiveness of a diagram in a particular learning situation: the learning objective, the design of the visual representation and the cognitive processing of the learner . In a randomized - design study conducted in a college chemistry class, we found that instruction that included diagrams created with this framework led to enhanced performance on open - ended transfer items compared to traditional instruction, particularly for low - performing students. We propose that a concept - based cognitive theory of multimedia learning that includes a conceptual working memory component may explain why the efficacy of diagrams depends heavily on the prior knowledge of the learner as well a s the conceptual information available in the representation</p

EU accession and Poland's external trade policy

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Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in STEM Disciplines

This volume collects the ideas and insights discussed at a novel conference, the Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in STEM Disciplines Conference, which was held September 27-28, 2012 at Washington University in St. Louis. With funding from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the conference was hosted by Washington University’s Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE), a center established in 2011. Available for download as a PDF. Titles of individual chapters can be found at http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/circle_book/.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/books/1009/thumbnail.jp

The role of chunking and schemas in learning and drawing

Learning by drawing raises questions related to the organization and internal processing involved during graphical production. This thesis explores how and to what extent, spatial and semantic information influences learning through drawings. It investigates the roles of chunking and schemas in learning through drawings by manipulating the spatial and semantic content of the presented stimuli, which participants reproduced using different methods over repeated sessions. Over three experiments with adult participants, multiple measures were used, including: pause durations between drawn elements, numbers of reproduced objects, error rates, sequences of element production, and transitions among chunk patterns. The first exploratory study investigated the effects of chunking in the drawing of a complex abstract diagram. Five participants reproduced a single stimulus in four types of tasks, which involved delayed recall, tracing, copying and immediate recall across 10 sessions. It was found that participants learned the diagram surprisingly quickly. They used chunking in order to aid the learning processes. This effect was most obvious in the delayed recall task and least so in the tracing. The analysis of the participants' sequence of chunk production revealed that they used a spatial schema to organise the chunks. This appears to explain their rapid learning. The second study investigated the effects of semantic and spatial schemas in learning. Twelve participants drew four types of stimuli (i.e. no-structure, semantic, spatial and spatial-semantic) across six sessions. Learning was easiest in the presence of both spatial and semantic coding, followed by semantic coding alone. By contrast, it was most difficult when the stimuli had neither semantic nor spatial information. Contrary to the predictions, the spatial stimulus was far worse to learn than the semantic. The third study manipulated the strength of the spatial and semantic information in the stimulus to investigate the effects on learning of the weak and strong organisation of information in the two types of schemas. Twelve participants performed four drawings (i.e. strong-semantic, weak-semantic, strong-spatial, weak-spatial) in four sessions. In line with the hypothesis, the findings revealed that the strong semantic stimulus is a better type of stimulus for learning than the weak semantic one. The opposite applies, however, to the strong and weak spatial stimuli. A detailed analysis of the performance of these two stimuli showed that the weak stimulus had evoked a stronger schema than the strong stimulus, which reveals that spatial properties may contribute to the strength of a schema. The concluding results of these studies proposed that even purely diagrammatic stimuli are likely to be encoded semantically, as well as spatially. Furthermore, learning based on spatial coding alone may be difficult to achieve, in contrast to learning based on semantic coding alone. The combined spatial and semantic coding, however, facilitates learning better than either coding alone. These findings suggest key features that need to be considered for diagrammatic presentations used for learning in scientific and technical domains