Designing and Implementing a Qualitative Evaluation Protocol for Non-Credit Life Long Learning Programs 1

This study was undertaken to determine whether an evaluation model employing multiple methods of data collection and analysis might yield more useful information for improving lifelong learning courses than existing models. Major findings included: (1) learning satisfaction appears to be dependent on the instructional environment adults may be most comfortable with and; (2) the confidence gained in using computers, rather than skills acquisition, was the greatest benefit students derived from their participation. Findings from this study suggest the value of mixed methods evaluation designs for generating information that is useful for improving lifelong learning courses. Findings also suggest the need for much more research in this domain of inquiry

Literature Discussions as Mangles of Practice: Sociological Theories of Emergence and/in Dialogic Learning Events

In this report, we argue that some of the most productive and edifying kinds of literature discussions among certain ages/grade levels may be best understood as “mangles of practice” (Pickering, 1995).  Mangles of practice involve the coalescence of planned and contingent forces, and they produce emergent or self-organizing transformations of ongoing social activities, as well as unpredictable outcomes or products.  Indeed, the discussions we studied had these characteristics.  They often involved both planned and contingent actions and reactions by individual, social, cultural, and material agents and agencies.  As such, they were emergent phenomena about which we could seldom predict what precise collections, collisions, and collusions of actions and reactions would occur within them or what the effects of these collections, collisions, and collusions would be.  In spite of (or more likely because of) their unpredictability, these discussions were extremely dynamic knowledge-producing activities.  Given this social fact, we think our findings contribute significantly to understanding the lineaments and potentials of dialogic pedagogy, which deepens students’ learning and development.  More specifically, when teachers successfully prompt and engage students in more robustly dialogic talk that promotes text-to-life connections, life-to text connections, linkages to non-school knowledge (like that of popular culture), etc., then students often reap a wide variety of benefits with respect to their abilities to engage in genuine inquiry, to reason and argue for particular interpretations, to evaluate complex human actions and decisions, and to develop principled social, cultural, and moral equipment for living their own lives.</p

User Evaluation of Neonatology Ward Design: An Application of Focus Group and Semantic Differential

[EN] Objective: The object of this article is to identify the set of affective and emotional factors behind users assessments of a space in a neonatology unit and to propose design guidelines based on these. Background: The importance of the neonatology service and the variety of users place great demands on the space at all levels. Despite the repercussions, the emotional aspects of the environment have received less attention. Methods: To avoid incurring limitations in the user mental scheme, this study uses two complementary methodologies: focus group and semantic differential. The (qualitative) focus group methodology provides exploratory information and concepts. The (quantitative) semantic differential methodology then uses these concepts to extract the conceptual structures that users employ in their assessment of the space. Of the total 175 subjects, 31 took part in focus groups and 144 in semantic differential. Results: Five independent concepts were identified: privacy, functionality and professional nature, spaciousness, lighting, and cleanliness. In relation to the importance of the overall positive assessment of the space, the perception of privacy and sensations of dominance and pleasure are fundamental. Six relevant design aspects were also identified: provide spacious surroundings, facilitate sufficient separation between the different posts or cots, use different colors from those usually found in health-care centers, as some aversion was found to white and especially green, design areas with childhood themes, use warm artificial light, and choose user-friendly equipment. Conclusions: Results provide design recommendations of interest and show the possibilities offered by combining both systems to analyze user response.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain (Project TIN2013-45736-R).Higuera-Trujillo, JL.; Montañana I Aviñó, A.; Llinares Millán, MDC. (2017). User Evaluation of Neonatology Ward Design: An Application of Focus Group and Semantic Differential. HERD Health Environments Research & Design Journal. 10(2):23-48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1937586716641275S234810

Literature Discussions as Mangles of Practice: Sociological Theories of Emergence and/in Dialogic Learning Events

In this report, we argue that some of the most productive and edifying kinds of literature discussions among certain ages/grade levels may be best understood as “mangles of practice” (Pickering, 1995).  Mangles of practice involve the coalescence of planned and contingent forces, and they produce emergent or self-organizing transformations of ongoing social activities, as well as unpredictable outcomes or products.  Indeed, the discussions we studied had these characteristics.  They often involved both planned and contingent actions and reactions by individual, social, cultural, and material agents and agencies.  As such, they were emergent phenomena about which we could seldom predict what precise collections, collisions, and collusions of actions and reactions would occur within them or what the effects of these collections, collisions, and collusions would be.  In spite of (or more likely because of) their unpredictability, these discussions were extremely dynamic knowledge-producing activities.  Given this social fact, we think our findings contribute significantly to understanding the lineaments and potentials of dialogic pedagogy, which deepens students’ learning and development.  More specifically, when teachers successfully prompt and engage students in more robustly dialogic talk that promotes text-to-life connections, life-to text connections, linkages to non-school knowledge (like that of popular culture), etc., then students often reap a wide variety of benefits with respect to their abilities to engage in genuine inquiry, to reason and argue for particular interpretations, to evaluate complex human actions and decisions, and to develop principled social, cultural, and moral equipment for living their own lives

Tropes are for kids: Young children's developing understanding and use of narrative, scientific, and poetic written discourse genres.

In this dissertation I investigated young children's developing understanding of three written discourse genres (stories, science reports, and poems) in relation to their involvement with texts that represented these genres, as well as the cultures, social organization, and instructional practices of their classrooms. Children from one intact kindergarten, first-, and second-grade classroom were engaged in a variety of text-production tasks and interviews. Year-long ethnographies were conducted in all three classrooms. Children's parents were asked to keep records of their children's literacy activities at home for four months. Children at all grade levels demonstrated a considerable amount of knowledge of the textural, structural, and functional dimensions of all three genres. However, they exhibited much more knowledge about stories than either science reports or poems. Additionally, older children demonstrated much more knowledge of these latter two genres than younger children. All children were considerably better at producing tokens of particular genres than they were at engaging in explicit metadiscourse about these genres. Nevertheless, there were significant increases across the grades in children's use of relevant metadiscourse. Patterns of development and learning were closely related to children's experiences with different discourse genres and their participation within different kinds of literacy events and practices. Children were engaged in reading narrative texts much more often than scientific or poetic texts. Teachers engaged in metadiscourse about narratives much more often than metadiscourse about scientific texts or poems. There were differences in the cultures, social organization, and instructional practices of the three classrooms that seemed closely related to differences in children's genre knowledge and how they used that knowledge. These findings suggest that learning different discourse genres involves a complex interplay of cognitive and discourse development, engagement with specific texts types, and participation within particular social, cultural, and pedagogical formations. Thus, the findings suggest the desirability of constructing language arts curricula that engage children in reading and writing many different kinds of texts within quasi-authentic discipline-based classroom activities.Ph.D.EducationLanguage artsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129198/2/9409724.pd

Dimitriadis, Greg, and George Kamberelis, Theory for Education. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Presents sketches of the intellectual contributions of 23 twentieth century theorists (mostly outside of eduction) whose work have had implications for education; de Saussure, Bourdieu, Derrida, Foucoult, Freire, Vygotsky, and others

Kamberelis, George, and Greg Dimitriadis, On Qualitative Inquiry: Approaches to Language and Literacy Research. New York: Teachers College Press, 2005.

Provides a conceptualization of four possible stances (chronotypes) toward inquiry that take into account variations in epistemological assumptions; illustrated in the field of language and literacy research

Roles of Affect and Imagination in Reading and Responding to Literature: Perspectives and Possibilities for English Classrooms

In this essay, we argue that to engage in critical readings of literary texts, in ways that are also ethical and compassionate, requires readers to enter emotionally and imaginatively into the complex, textual worlds of others as they are portrayed in stories. In this regard, we discuss both past and recent work of scholars whose insights we believe are useful for rethinking and deepening what it means to read and respond to creative narratives with “one’s heart as well as with one’s mind.” Given the popularity in recent years of teaching literary theory, and embracing the power of “critical” reading in English classrooms, the value of personal and emotional ways of reading has been increasingly understated. We thus call for the kind of engaged humanities reform we believe is ultimately crucial to democratic forms of community rooted in a general concern for the value of the lives of others