scholarly journals Mathematical and Experimental Science Education from the School Garden: A Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Practice

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Lidón Monferrer ◽  
Gil Lorenzo-Valentín ◽  
María Santágueda-Villanueva
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
School Gardens ◽  
Science Content ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Recommendations For Practice ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

The much-needed interest in promoting a healthy lifestyle among school-age students has found a context for development: school gardens. There are numerous studies where using gardens as a teaching–learning context also improves students’ performance in the experimental sciences. In this study, we proposed another interest that sets it apart and adds motivation: combining curricular mathematics with experimental science content in this context. The search for possible studies in the scientific literature has gave rise to the review presented herein. From this review, we obtained 21 studies, from which we extracted a series of categories: whether research was undertaken and with which tools; which curricular contents were covered and the impact produced; the ages of the participants and duration of the project; and, finally, whether the garden was cultivated. The main conclusion of this search was the lack of a clear line of research linking school gardens, the experimental sciences, and mathematics, in addition to the scant presence of studies framed in this context. For that reason, we send a call to action to the scientific community encouraging the interdisciplinarity of the two aforementioned subjects within the context of school gardens.

Preservice Music Teacher Identity Construction Through Metaphor

2020 ◽  
pp. 105708372098227
Author(s):  
Cynthia L. Wagoner
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Context Learning ◽  
Instrumental Methods ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Authentic Context

I investigated how preservice instrumental music teachers understand and describe their teacher identity through the use of metaphor in a one-semester instrumental methods course emphasizing authentic context learning. Twenty-five third-year instrumental methods course music education students created a personal metaphor to explore their professional identity construction. Preservice teacher metaphors were revisited throughout the semester, while students participated in an authentic context learning experience in an urban instrumental music classroom. Data sources included student artifacts, informal interviews, and observation/field notes. The impact of teaching within an authentic learning context appears to enrich the ways in which preservice teachers are able to articulate details of their metaphor descriptions. Through their reflections across the semester, preservice teachers demonstrated how personal metaphors were used to restructure their understandings of teacher identity and capture some of the complexities of becoming teachers.

scholarly journals Bridging the gap: blending spatial skills instruction into a technology teacher preparation programme

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diarmaid Lane ◽  
Sheryl Sorby
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Future Research ◽  
First Year ◽  
Spatial Skills ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Technology Teacher ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn recent years, there has been a surge in research in spatial thinking across the international community. We now know that spatial skills are malleable and that they are linked to success across multiple disciplines, most notably Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). While spatial skills have been examined by cognitive scientists in laboratory environments for decades, current research is examining how these skills can be developed in field-based environments. In this paper, we present findings from a study within a Technology Teacher preparation programme where we examined first-year students’ spatial skills on entry to university. We explain why it was necessary to embed a spatial skills intervention into Year 1 of the programme and we describe the impact that this had on students’ spatial scores and on academic performance. The findings from our study highlight a consistent gender gap in spatial scores at the start of the first-year with female students entering the Technology Teacher preparation programme at a lower base level than male students. We describe how we integrated spatial development activities into an existing course and how an improvement in spatial scores and overall course performance was observed. The paper concludes by discussing the long-term sustainability of integrating spatial interventions within teacher preparation programmes while also highlighting the importance of future research to examine spatial skills as a fundamental component of technological capability.

Accuracy development in L2 writing: Exploring the potential of computer-assisted unfocused indirect corrective feedback in an online EFL course

ReCALL ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Cédric Brudermann ◽  
Muriel Grosbois ◽  
Cédric Sarré
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Mathematics Students ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Writing Accuracy ◽  
Data Yield ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Error Types

Abstract In a previous study (Sarré, Grosbois & Brudermann, 2019), we explored the effects of various corrective feedback (CF) strategies on interlanguage development for the online component of a blended English as a foreign language (EFL) course we had designed and implemented. Our results showed that unfocused indirect CF (feedback on all error types through the provision of metalinguistic comments on the nature of the errors made) combined with extra computer-mediated micro-tasks was the most efficient CF type to foster writing accuracy development in our context. Following up on this study, this paper further explores the effects of this specific CF type on learners’ written accuracy development in an online EFL course designed for freshmen STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students. In the online course under study, this specific CF type was experimented with different cohorts of STEM learners (N = 1,150) over a five-year period (from 2014 to 2019) and was computer-assisted: CF provision online by a human tutor was combined with predetermined CF comments. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of this specific CF strategy on error types. In this respect, the data yield encouraging results in terms of writing accuracy development when learners benefit from this computer-assisted specific CF. This study thus helps to gain a better understanding of the role that CF plays in shaping students’ revision processes and could inform language (teacher) education regarding the use of digital tools for the development of foreign language accuracy and the issues related to online CF provision.

scholarly journals The impact of huts on physiological stress: a refinement in post-transport housing of male guineapigs (Cavia porcellus)

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry L Walters ◽  
Cristobal Jose Torres-Urbano ◽  
Lee Chichester ◽  
Robert E Rose
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Cortisol Concentration ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Housing Environment ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
Animal Use ◽  
Acclimatization Period ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Ideal

The ideal animal model would contribute no confounding variables in experimental science. Variables affect experimental design resulting in increased animal use or repeated studies. We demonstrated a simple refinement which may reduce the number of animals used experimentally while simultaneously improving animal welfare. The objective of this study was to determine if the presence of a hut was an impact on physiological stress levels, as determined by faecal cortisol concentration, during a routine four-day acclimatization period of newly received male Hartley-Outbred guineapigs. We hypothesized that those animals provided with huts would have decreased physiological stress compared with animals not provided with huts. We examined this effect within both paired and single-housed animals. A between-subjects one-way analysis of variance revealed that pair-housed animals with a hut had significantly lower faecal cortisol concentration than pair-housed animals without a hut and the presence and absence of a hut had no significant impact on faecal cortisol concentration in single-housed animals. These findings show that presence of a hut is beneficial in reducing physiological stress when pair housing male guineapigs and does not appear to have an impact when single housing male guineapigs. In addition, we have shown that faecal cortisol, and therefore physiological stress, is still increasing on study day 4 suggesting a longer acclimatization period is necessary. A simple refinement in housing environment and acclimatization time can both reduce the number of animals used experimentally and improve animal welfare.

Impact of quality management systems on teaching-learning processes

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco José Fernández Cruz ◽  
Inmaculada Egido Gálvez ◽  
Rafael Carballo Santaolalla
Keyword(s):  
Quality Management ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Quality Management Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Quality management systems are being used more frequently in educational institutions, although their application has generated a certain amount of disagreement among education experts, who have at times questioned their suitability and usefulness for improving schools. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by providing additional knowledge on the effects in educational institutions of implementing quality management systems. Specifically, this study investigates teachers’ and managers’ perception of the impact that quality management systems have on one essential dimension of schools, the teaching–learning processes, with impact being understood as sustained medium- and long-term organisational change. Design/methodology/approach The responses were analysed and classified into a set of sub-dimensions linked to quality management processes in a total of 29 Spanish primary and secondary education schools that have used such systems for at least three years. Findings The results showed that, according to the respondents, the following sub-dimensions were improving as a result of implementing quality management plans: teaching and learning processes, the analysis of student results, tutoring, consideration of attitudes and values and assessment processes. Conversely, quality management systems did not seem to have a clear impact on the teaching methodologies used by teachers or on family involvement in student learning. In fact, the perceived impact in these sub-dimensions varied among teachers of public and private schools as well as when comparing different regional autonomous communities. Originality/value As the main objective of a school is to guarantee student learning, one of the essential purposes of school quality assurance systems is to perform all the activities aimed at ensuring high levels of student performance.

scholarly journals Evaluating undergraduate research conferences as vehicles for novice researcher development

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Kneale ◽  
Andrew Edwards-Jones ◽  
Helen Walkington ◽  
Jennifer Hill
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Conference ◽  
Researcher Development ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to focus on the undergraduate research conference as its sphere of study and investigate the impact of significance of participation and socialisation in such activities on student attitudes and professional development. Using situated learning to theoretically position the undergraduate research conference as an authentic learning context, connection is also made with the concept of graduate attributes. Design/methodology/approach The Vitae (2014) Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is used to provide a template for charting the experiences and development of undergraduate students as researchers. This can be applied to short-term activities and programmes and to long-term career plans. The insights from 90 undergraduate students participating in three national undergraduate research conferences were obtained through interviews, and thematically analysed to map the students’ skills development against the RDF criteria. Findings Three main aspects of undergraduate research conference participation were considered particularly important by the students: the value of paper presentations, the value of poster presentations and the value of the overall conference experience. Within these themes, participants identified a wide range of skills and attributes they felt they had developed as a result of either preparing for or participating in the conferences. The majority of these skills and attributes could be mapped against the different domains of the RDF, using a public engagement lens for comparing actual with expected developmental areas. Research limitations/implications This research helps undergraduate research conference organisers construct programme content and form it in such a way that students’ skill development can be maximised prior to, and during, the course of an event. Learning developers can also use these findings to help understand the support needs of students preparing to deliver papers at such conferences. So far, little empirical research has examined students’ skills development within the undergraduate research conference arena. Originality/value The outcomes of this study show the diversity of the skills that students developed and the value of the conference format for offering networking practice and enhancing the communication skills which employers value.

The Work-Life Balancing Act

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Dhruva Pathak ◽  
Vijayakumar Bharathi S. ◽  
Padma Mala E.
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Work Productivity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Future Research ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Professional Attitude ◽  
Work From Home ◽  
The Impact

The study investigated the impact of mandatory work from home due COVID-19 on personal and professional lives of people with different demographics. Statistical analysis of an online survey data (N=237) reveals that the impact on personal life dimensions—healthy lifestyle, family bonding, and physical stress—does not differ across people within different demographics. However, impact on emotional well-being is sensitive to gender and industry groups. Family size is also an important demographic factor impacted upon personal life dimensions. Professional dimensions related to work productivity and adopting new ways of working does not differ across demographics except for occupational role. Dimensions related to new skill development and change in professional attitude does differ across occupational roles. The study concludes by stating future research directions for mandatory work from home situation, and prescription to post-COVID-19 strategies for organizations.

scholarly journals 9th International Conference on University Teaching and Innovation (CIDUI): Learning and teaching innovation impacts

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
CIDUI Organising Comittee ◽  
Beatriz Amante ◽  
María Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Teaching Innovation ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
International Conference ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Year 2000 ◽  
The Impact

The Organising Committee of the 9th International Conference on University Teaching and Innovation (CIDUI) wishes to thank the Editorial Board of the Journal of Technology and Science Education (JOTSE) for publishing this special issue.Since the year 2000, a new CIDUI conference has been held every two years. Today, it is a well-established event that provides an opportunity to share advances and innovation in the field of higher education.Like the previous editions, this one was also committed to fostering an especially participatory working dynamic and to promoting different points of view. The programmed debates were complemented by contributions from recognised specialists regarding the main topic of the conference: Learning and teaching innovation impacts. In relation to this general subject, papers were specifically focused on one of the four thematic axes proposed for this edition:Analysis of the impact on university teaching and learningNew training scenesProfessional DevelopmentInnovative methodologies in teaching – learning processesThe present special issue of the Journal of Technology and Science Education - JOTSE consists of eleven papers. 

The effect of body-movement teaching, learning motivation and performance

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Sugahara ◽  
Hisayo Sugao ◽  
Steven Dellaportas ◽  
Takahiro Masaoka
Keyword(s):  
Body Movement ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experimental Group

Purpose This research applies a quasi-experimental research method to investigate the impact of an innovative resource titled “Accounting Exercise” (teaching intervention using physical movement and lyrics) on learning motivation and performance on a group of students enrolled in a first-year undergraduate accounting course in Japan. Design/methodology/approach Five classes were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (two classes) or a control group (three classes). In the experimental group, 90 students participated in a 15-min “Accounting Exercise” at the commencement of lectures over three consecutive weeks. The remaining 133 students assigned to the control group did not participate in the Accounting Exercise. Findings The findings indicate that the Accounting Exercise provided stimuli in maintaining students’ learning motivation. This finding is important for entry-level students where learning motivation has the potential to influence students’ future decisions on major areas of study and career choices. Originality/value This finding is important for entry-level students where future career options are decided. This effect is also believed to contribute to reducing the declining numbers of students in accounting majors.

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