A study of effective evaluation models and practices for technology supported physical learning spaces (JELS)

The aim of the JELS project was to identify and review the tools, methods and frameworks used to evaluate technology supported or enhanced physical learning spaces. A key objective was to develop the sector knowledgebase on innovation and emerging practice in the evaluation of learning spaces, identifying innovative methods and approaches beyond traditional post-occupancy evaluations and surveys that have dominated this area to date. The intention was that the frameworks and guidelines discovered or developed from this study could inform all stages of the process of implementing a technology supported physical learning space. The study was primarily targeted at the UK HE sector and the FE sector where appropriate, and ran from September 2008 to March 2009

IT on teaching and learning process of visually impaired students

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An Effective School Improvement Framework: Using the National School Improvement Tool

This occasional paper of the Centre for Education Policy and Practice outlines how the National School Improvement Tool, developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER ) in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment is being used in Australian schools. The Tool is grounded in international research, and its nine domains focus schools on whole school improvement in teaching and learning. ACER’s school improvement team conducts reviews and training for reviewers across Australia, and report on several themes or success factors which emerge from the consultants’ reflections

Learning for Teaching: Building Professional Knowledge on a National Scale

This paper takes a large-scale social perspective in describing a national project in Australia that was premised on local school communities working together and contributing ideas for the benefit of their students, and potentially, the whole country. The project was intended to improve schools’ capacity for educating boys, and in the long-term, the learning outcomes of under-performing boys, using evidence-based and action research methods. It was supported by the web spaces and tools of the National Quality Schooling Framework and Think.com. This paper emphasises the structures and processes teachers engaged in while building knowledge through their daily work, where the resulting ideas became the property of the whole community. Analyses focus on the extent to which an underlying social structure for knowledge building developed in various parts of the nation during the project, making it possible to characterize a process for innovations in education with commitment to continual idea improvement. Résumé Le présent article adopte une perspective sociale à grande échelle pour décrire un projet national en Australie fondé sur la collaboration des communautés scolaires locales et leur contribution d’idées au bénéfice de leurs élèves et, éventuellement, de l’ensemble du pays. Le projet avait pour but de rendre les écoles plus aptes à éduquer les garçons et, à long terme, d’améliorer les résultats d’apprentissage des garçons qui sous-performent à l’aide de méthodes de recherche-action fondées sur des données probantes. Il a bénéficié du soutien des espaces et des outils Web du National Quality Schooling Framework et de Think.com. Le présent article met l’accent sur les structures et les processus que les enseignants ont utilisés dans leur travail quotidien pour la coélaboration de connaissances; les idées qui en ont résulté sont par la suite devenues la propriété de l’ensemble de la communauté. Les analyses portent principalement sur la mesure dans laquelle une structure sociale sous-jacente de coélaboration des connaissances s’est développée en différents endroits de la nation au cours du projet, ce qui rend possible la caractérisation d’un processus d’innovation en éducation avec un engagement envers l’amélioration continue

Towards knowledge building: reflecting on teachers' roles and professional learning in communities of practice

© 2003 Dr. Elizabeth Anne Hartnell-YoungThis study was undertaken in conjunction with the Successful Integration of Learning Technologies (SILT) Project in Victorian state schools, and its purpose was to identify the forms of teachers’ professional practice that enhance knowledge building, in order to inform teacher development policy and pre-service education. Knowledge building is based on a constructivist approach to learning and teaching, and this, in conjunction with the spread of learning technologies, is said to have greatly changed the role of the teacher in the classroom: from the expert dispensing knowledge to the facilitator of student learning. (For complete abstract open document

‘My grandfather is dead’: narratives of culture and curriculum

Curriculum, the term used to denote a course of study, has been understood in recent years as a documented program developed by experts and managed by an education authority. In many cases this has resulted in a focus on the experience and the goals of dominant cultures, so that minority groups do not feel well-represented in th