The university student experience of face-to-face and online discussions: coherence, reflection and meaning

This paper reports on an investigation into learning through discussions by undergraduate social work students. Second‐year students studying psychology for social work experienced discussions began with face‐to‐face tutorials, and then continued for some time after online. This study used closed‐ended questionnaires to investigate what students thought they were learning through discussions (their concepts), and how they engaged in the discussions face‐to‐face and online (their approaches). Significant associations were found among students’ concepts of discussions, approaches and levels of achievement. The results suggest that students who do not understand how discussions can help them to interrogate, reflect on and revise their ideas tended not to approach either face‐to‐face or online discussions in ways likely to improve their understanding or their levels of achievement. This type of insight is critical for teacher/designers wishing to create university experiences in which discussion is used to promote learning

System for determining the angle of impact of an object on a structure

A method for determining the angle of impact of an object on a thin-walled structure which determines the angle of impact through analysis of the acoustic waves which result when an object impacts a structure is presented. Transducers are placed on and in the surface of the structure which sense the wave caused in the structure by impact. The waves are recorded and saved for analysis. For source motion normal to the surface, the antisymmetric mode has a large amplitude while that of the symmetric mode is very small. As the source angle increases with respect to the surface normal, the symmetric mode amplitude increases while the antisymmetric mode amplitude decreases. Thus, the angle of impact is determined by measuring the relative amplitudes of these two lowest order modes

Just how different are they? Learning physics in the wake of the NSW HSC syllabus changeover

In February 2001 we began research into the different ways incoming first year students experience their studies in physics. We designed a survey instrument to measure the 2001 cohort of students’ approaches to learning, their ideas about the nature of the subject, their perspectives on the learning environment at university and their performance on assessment. Interrelations between these different factors form a broad picture of student learning and groups of students with distinct patterns of experience have been identified. In 2002 we are repeating this study with the aim of examining any qualitative or quantitative changes in these patterns of experience that coincide with the changeover to the new NSW Higher School Certificate syllabus. An understanding of our students’ experiences will provide the necessary background to review our own tertiary physics courses and tune them to meet the needs of future students

Observatório ambiental: Implantação da política municipal de resíduos sólidos em Foz do Iguaçu.

El proyecto presentado propone monitorear la implantación de la política municipal de gestión integrada de residuos sólidos (PMRS) de la ciudad de Foz do Iguaçu. La finalidad de la observación es informar, mediar y capacitar a la comunidad de Foz do Iguaçu. Como la política municipal de residuos sólidos aún no ha sido efectuada en su totalidad y aún existen cosas que se pueden mejorar, el proyecto sigue construyendo modelos de evaluación de los ciclos de política pública: definición de una agenda, identificación de alternativas, evaluación y selección de las opciones, análisis y términos de implementación. Este proyecto trabajo en régimen colaborativo con el observatorio ambiental: articulación social

Exploring the Variation in First Year Undergraduates\u27 Induction into Their Academic Disciplines

This study explored qualitative variation in first year undergraduates’ induction into the discipline in four dimensions: (1) induction into disciplinary knowledge, (2) induction into disciplinary research, (3) integration of learning from different courses, and (4) induction into disciplinary skills. Data were drawn from focus groups with students from different disciplines at a university in Hong Kong. Phenomenographic analysis identified four categories about induction into disciplinary knowledge and disciplinary research, and three categories regarding integration of learning. The categories were described in terms of the referential (aspects of the dimension discerned by students) and structural components (how students explained the aspects). A comparison of the categories revealed a hierarchical relationship among them. Content analysis showed cognitive skills, professional skills and study skills to be the important disciplinary skills for the students. Students’ varying conceptions of problem-solving and critical thinking skills implied qualitative differences in understanding about the nature of disciplinary problems

Evaluating the New Technologies: A student learning focused perspective

There has been a growing impact of the new technologies on the processes and outcomes of teaching and learning. The developments are occurring faster than they can be properly evaluated. Much of the evaluation that is being conducted has been from the teacher's perspective, focussing on: learning gains by students on tests produced by teachers; and improvements in the productivity of teaching and learning (Alexander and McKenzie, 1998). There has been little research or evaluation focussing on the students' experiences of using the technology - a student rather than teacher focused perspective. This paper will address the issue of evaluation of the new technologies from a student learning perspective. In doing so, it will outline the characteristics of the evaluative research being conducted in university science education from this student learning perspective, show examples of research and evaluation from that perspective, and outline some strategies for the future evaluation of the new technologies in teaching and learning. In passing it will summarise the theory and research underlying the development of the CEQ

Pilgrimage events for the Hungarian Germans / Danube Swabians in the North of the archbishopric of Freiburg after World War II: Walldürn and the "Paulusheim" near Bruchsal

This essay seeks to consider a particular form of spirituality: the pilgrimage events of the “Danube Swabians” shortly after their arrival in South-West Germany following the Second World War. In terms of the time span, the focus will be on the years 1946-1949 – a phase during which the future forms of government had not yet been constituted in Central Europe.The essay wishes to reflect on two key aspects, namely that (a) these early events afford a tangibly Hungarian spiritual aspect, and (b) entirely practical, functional aspects also came into effect at these events. The essay expands on contemporary theories, which are currently the subject of international debate, with an evaluation of new archive materials

Constraints for symmetry breaking in graph representation

Many complex combinatorial problems arising from a range of scientific applications (such as computer networks, mathematical chemistry and bioinformatics) involve searching for an undirected graph satisfying a given property. Since for any possible solution there can be a large number of isomorphic representations, these problems can quickly become intractable. One way to mitigate this problem is to eliminate as many isomorphic copies as possible by breaking symmetry during search - i.e. by introducing constraints that ensure that at least one representative graph is generated for each equivalence class, but not the entire class. The goal is to generate as few members of each class as possible - ideally exactly one: the symmetry break is said to be complete in this case. In this paper we introduce novel, effective and compact, symmetry breaking constraints for undirected graph search. While incomplete, these prove highly beneficial in pruning the search for a graph. We illustrate the application of symmetry breaking in graph representation to resolve several open instances in extremal graph theory. We also illustrate the application of our approach to graph edge coloring problems which exhibit additional symmetries due to the fact that the colors of the edges in any solution can be permuted