Using Action Research to Enhance Teaching and Learning at the University of Technology, Jamaica

2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
NANCY A. GEORGE ◽  
MICHAEL CRAVEN ◽  
CLAUDETTE WILLIAMS-MYERS ◽  
PAULINE BONNICK
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan Noor Hazlina Wan Jusoh ◽  
Suraya Ahmad

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the use of iMindMap software as an interactive tool in the teaching and learning method and also to be able to consider iMindMap as an alternative instrument in achieving the ultimate learning outcome. Design/methodology/approach Out of 268 students of the management accounting at the University of Technology MARA (Terengganu), 97 students have participated in this survey to evaluate the effectiveness of iMindMap in teaching and learning. Findings Results indicate that the majority of the students acknowledged that iMindMap is more attractive than conventional teaching methods and found that iMindMap shows clearly how the points are all associated and linked together. Students could find that learning is an exciting experience and were able to visualize the whole course content remarkably via iMindMap. Originality/value This study presents an alternative instrument, which is innovative and interactive in teaching and learning, especially for accounting students where the students’ technology acceptance could also be viewed.


Author(s):  
Gabriele I.E. Strohschen

This chapter corroborates competence-based and social-situational educational practices with the principles of Blended Shore Education (BSE) and Metagogy. These two theorems emerged from several action research projects that engaged Chicago community members, university students, and educators from around the world. The principles, tenets, and descriptions of applied instructional methods in the context of civic and social engagement projects demonstrate how teaching and learning praxes and curricula and program design can be achieved by and with the learners, by the university, and by the community stakeholders to result in relevant and meaningful education models in higher education.


Author(s):  
Jiří Kropáč ◽  
Štefan Chudý

Queries, activities and those sufficient solutions of teaching and learning situations are daily bread of the teaching profession. Thus, in learning of future teachers exist possibilities how to influence the progress of the teachers’ identity construction with self-creative and critical tools which are connected to the complexity of the personality. However, action research helps to deeply understand techniques which are behind the line of the traditional point of view and helps to understand the situations from the pragmatic way of natural learning in the process of preparation at the university. The research aim is focused on the support of integration of the action research as a tool for the teachers’ preparation in the good practice of the university environment. Mixed research methods are based on the narrative corpus which consists of the coded interviews and specific tasks connected to the educational preparation. Results reflect the current various ways of developing future teachers and their impact on future teachers‘ identities.  


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Abdool Haq Mahomed Bhorat

The innovative application of an online educational portal in everyday teaching and learning is proposed to meet the needs of the new generation of students entering Universities of Technology (UoTs). The setting is against a background of educationally under-prepared but multimedia-literate students, and the university vision of integrating eLearning into the curriculum. The emergence of the Academic Commons Attribution has facilitated the channelling of free-to-use/open source educational information through the dedicated artefact. The investigation combined the challenges of artefact design with the necessity of authenticating subject content so that it was geared to the needs of the students in the Photography Programme. This study highlights the importance of managing knowledge so that it can be passed down to current and future generations in ways which keep pace with their exponential development of digital expertise. This research was carried out within Bhaskar’s critical realist philosophy, which argues that there is a real world which exists independently of one’s perception of it. It must be stressed that the artefact contained in the multimedia portal did not follow a linear, logical development but was a process of transformational iterative change, very similar to the developmental consistency described by Bhaskar. Bhaskar’s philosophical overview was complemented by Archer’s morphogenetic approach. The latter showed that the application of technology in teaching and learning is not just about use of “better tools” but signals a shift in social structure. The main technical challenge was for the researcher to standardise the multimedia resources so that they could be used on most personal computers, with the option of downloading short tutorials on mobile phones for later use. The resulting multimedia portal provides strong support in guiding inexperienced students and novice academics to choose resources appropriate to both the Photography curriculum and rapidly changing Industry requirements. The portal can also reduce the number of time consuming searches on various themes or topics, as it directs users to specific hyperlinked online resources in any given syllabus item. The curated educational portal is, therefore, currently being introduced as an enhancement to the traditional teaching and learning methods hitherto used in the Photography Programme. While the traditional methods have the strong humanist leanings essential for personal development, they are not geared to tackle the cutting edge technological advances required by industry. Moreover, in promoting the Durban University of Technology (DUT) as a centre using cutting-edge multimedia tuition, the portal might better establish influences with Industry (one of the core functions of a UoT) as well as attract international academics and students. The end result is to offer a blended learning model of tertiary programme delivery which is supported by the literature as currently being one of the most effective options.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adewale Magaji ◽  
Ana Cabral ◽  
Andrew Lambirth ◽  
Roger McDonald ◽  
Ashley Brett ◽  
...  

Action research promotes teaching and learning as it may allow teachers to explore areas of their practices that require improvement. The purpose of this case study is to highlight the steps involved in carrying out action research and any challenges that teachers may encounter in this learning process. This study was developed as a professional development course from 2015 to 2019 attended by more than 150 teachers from early years, primary and secondary schools in London and Kent in the last 4 years. The teachers were registered as students at the University of Greenwich and supported by a university team of researchers. The study identified five steps of the development of teacher-led action research and highlighted the challenges for each step. The steps included defining the field of action; planning; action; evaluation and reflection/(re)planning. This led to the development of an innovative model for the facilitation of action research and collaboration between the university team and participants. The model is used as a framework to enhance the development of teacher-led research in schools.Keywords: action research, teacher-led research, models, collaboration


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (01) ◽  
pp. 017-021
Author(s):  
J. Falcão ◽  
A. Sandes ◽  
B. Rodrigues ◽  
I. Nascimento ◽  
P. Schwingel ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: The neuroanatomy discipline is seen by students as one of the most complex and difficult of the basic cycle in health courses. This is taught with lectures and practical classes, where in the last one, the use is made of corpse parts. However, the use of this type of material has been decreasing making it professors and monitors search for new alternatives. One of these alternatives is the manufacture and the use of neuroanatomical models that assist and facilitate the understanding of practical teaching and learning. The study aims to manufacture neuroanatomical models alternative for the practical Neuroanatomy classes. Materials and Methods: The study is an action research, exploratory, descriptive, where were made neuroanatomical models in the Human Anatomy Laboratory at the University of Pernambuco, Petrolina, with cheap materials in order to improve learning in practical teaching. The confections of these models were made with polystyrene, biscuit dough, string, colored acrylic paint, ink colored oil, rubberized, cardboard and plaster bandages. Results: Were made ten neuroanatomical parts that corresponding to the spinal cord, reticular formation and the dermatomes of the limbs. Conclusion: It was observed that the manufacturing of these models is necessary for conducting practical classes being possible elaborate them with quality at low cost, being an alternative in front of real difficulties in obtaining corpse parts and being a strong tool in the teaching and learning of the Neuroanatomy discipline. But regardless of the alternatives utilized, the confection of models will never replace the use of corpse parts.


Author(s):  
Simona Laurian Fitzgerald ◽  
Carmen Popa ◽  
Carlton Fitzgerald ◽  
Adina Vesa

In this action research study, the researchers worked collaboratively to integrate curriculum in four ways: 1. Professors engaged students in an interdisciplinary project, 2. Students performed a real-world task, 3. Students worked in small cooperative learning groups, and 4. Students engaged in helping young students experience a positive holiday season. The purpose of this study was to review how these integrative principles effected the preservice teachers academically, socially, and emotionally. Two cohorts of preservice teachers were enrolled in the same three courses during this study. One cohort of physical therapy (PT) majors were enrolled in a course developed to assist PT professionals with their communication skills, understanding of basic psychology, and special needs principles. The preservice teachers were learning how to teach: (a) penmanship, (b) letter writing, and, (c) promotive small group social skills for their future students. Seventy-nine students (54 pre-ervice teachers and 25 physical therapy students) participated in this action research project by engaging in a Santa writing experience. Young students in four schools wrote letters to Santa, and the university student participants responded to the letters of young students. Four professors collaborated in this project. The teachers included: a language and didactics professor, a curriculum professor, a writing (penmanship) professor, and an adjunct professor working with first year physical therapy students. Results of the study indicated that students: 1. found the process to be more difficult than they first thought; 2. appreciated the opportunity to help young students celebrate their holiday dreams; 3. felt they learned more deeply the goals of their classes; and 4. were proud to help young people enjoy their holidays. This process was fairly complex and, in spite of that complexity, the majority of students found the experience worthwhile from a teaching and learning perspective and from an existential perspective.


Author(s):  
Yannik Tolsdorf ◽  
Silvija Markic

The Participatory Action Research (PAR) model developed by Eilks and Ralle is very well known in science education. Over the years, many teaching and learning materials have been developed and implemented in German secondary schools using this method. The success of the model encouraged us to adapt it to the university level in order to develop university chemistry education courses. However, to do this, we encountered and conquered some challenges. The present paper is based on an advanced model of Participatory Action Research for developing university chemistry teacher training. For an advanced model, the focus is strongly on the extended development team, which contains people who were not part of the original team. The role of the students also changes. The ideas we used to further develop the model and implement it in practice will be described and discussed below.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-254
Author(s):  
Lalu Mahsar

This study examines the improvement of student speaking skill through content-based students’ English speaking skill. More specificly, this study : (1) finding to what extent content-based instruction improved the students’ speaking skill; and (2) to describe the teaching and learning situation when content-based instruction was applied in the speaking class. This study applied action research technique to conduct the research which is consisted of two cycles, with four meetings in each cycle; while each cycle consists planning, action, observation, and reflection. The research was conducted at Poltekpar Lombok Praya; the subjects of the research were the university students of second grade in the Academic year of 2018-2019. This study reveals that the teaching using CBI was effective in two aspects: (1) in improving students’ speaking ability: students’ speaking level increased; students could answer the teacher’s questions; students could fluently communicate with their friends by using correct grammatical forms and appropriate vocabulary with good pronunciation; the use of mother tongue was reduced; (2) in improving class situation: the atmosphere in the whole class became alive; students enjoyed the speaking activities; there were many chances for students to practice their speaking skill; students had great motivation to learn speaking; speaking became easy and fun to the students. This study futher showed that CBI was effective and beneficial to improve the students’ speaking competency and the classroom situation.


Author(s):  
Ha Phung

Vocabulary plays an important role in English teaching and learning because it can stimulate students’ participation and help students improve their skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. This study was conducted to determine how vocabulary is presented and what factors affect students' motivation in learning vocabulary lesson and thus, suggest some ways of improving the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning at the University of Technology (TNU), Thai Nguyen, Viet Nam. The data was collected by using two research instruments, including questionnaires and interviews. The results showed that both lecturers and students found a lot of benefits from using techniques in presenting vocabulary such as visual aids and verbal means. However, there were some difficulties teaching and learning new words at TNU. The research is also believed to be a reliable source of reference for teachers to enhance the effectiveness of using techniques of presenting vocabulary. Hopefully, it will be the springboard for many further studies in the future in the same research field.


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