scholarly journals Life of a Wildflower: Reimagining Meaningful Learning Through Play-Based Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 277-287
Author(s):  
Lisa Nontell
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Meaningful Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Cover Story ◽  
Sacred Stories ◽  
Learning Through Play ◽  
First Time ◽  
Teacher Centered

The author explores tensions between teacher-centered styles of teaching and play-based approaches that invite students to be creators of their own learning. Through narrative inquiry, the author uses a metaphor of wildflowers growing in natural environments to explore a child-led process of learning through play that fosters creativity and deep thinking. Teaching Kindergarten for the first time, the author reflects on challenges of living “secret stories” in the classroom that differ from “sacred stories” of the school’s pedagogical practices, feeling a need to create a “cover story” to present her pedagogy as conforming, yet capable and successful.

The Relationship between a Business Simulator, Constructivist Practices, and Motivation toward Developing Business Intelligence Skills

10.28945/3602 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 593-609
Author(s):  
Hsun-Ming Lee ◽  
Ju Long ◽  
Lucian Visinescu
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Business Intelligence ◽  
Meaningful Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Business Simulation ◽  
Robust Learning ◽  
Perceived Difficulty ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Constructivist Practices

Developing Business Intelligence (BI) has been a top priority for enterprise executives in recent years. To meet these demands, universities need to prepare students to work with BI in enterprise settings. In this study, we considered a business simulator that offers students opportunities to apply BI and make top-management decisions in a system used by real-world professionals. The simulation-based instruction can be effective only if students are not discouraged by the difficulty of using the BI computer system and comprehending the complex BI subjects. Constructivist practices embedded in the business simulation are investigated to understand their potentials for helping the students to overcome the perceived difficulty. Consequently, it would enable instructors to more efficiently use the simulator by providing insights on its pedagogical practices. Our findings showed that the constructivist practices such as collaboration and subject integration positively influence active learning and meaningful learning respectively. In turn, both active learning and meaningful learning positively influence business intelligence motivational behavior. These findings can be further used to develop a robust learning environment in BI classes.

Re-Purposing MOOCs and OER for Academic Credit in the UK Using a Flexible Work Based Learning Program at an English University

2016 ◽  
pp. 121-143
Author(s):  
Jon Talbot
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Flexible Work ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

The rapid development of open educational resources (OER) and massive open online courses (MOOCs) has resulted for the first time in high quality higher education learning materials being freely available to anyone in the world who has access to the internet. While the emphasis in the literature is principally upon such matters as technology and cost pressures, rather less attention has been paid to ways in which pedagogical practices can be adapted to address these changes. This chapter reports on a UK university where innovative pedagogical practices have developed over a twenty-year period, which enables such adaptation. The development of a flexible work based learning framework enables the exploitation of these developments for the benefit of learners, tutors, and the university. The case study also highlights the importance of quality assurance and cost as key to competitive advantage in an increasingly globalised context.

scholarly journals The meaning of meaningful learning in mathematics in upper-primary education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Polman ◽  
Lisette Hornstra ◽  
Monique Volman
Keyword(s):  
Primary Education ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Mathematics Learning ◽  
Meaningful Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
Stimulated Recall ◽  
Educational Concept ◽  
Depth Study

Abstract One of the ways in which schools try to improve students’ motivation is through making learning meaningful for students. The concept of meaningful learning, however, has been defined in various ways in the literature. This small-scale in-depth study focused on meaningful learning in mathematics in upper-primary education. We investigated what teachers, according to their own views, undertake to make mathematics learning meaningful for their students. Two interviews (one stimulated recall) were conducted with five fifth-grade teachers from five Dutch primary schools that differed in terms of their schools’ educational concept. Teachers’ beliefs about the meaning of meaningful learning varied from students being able to understand what is learned to connecting with students’ daily experiences. Teachers also differed in their self-reported pedagogical practices aimed at meaningful learning. They used different types of context, including activating prior knowledge, connecting to students’ personal worlds, showing the value beyond school, goal setting for/with students, creating a context that is future-oriented, referring to the personal world of the teacher, applying the learning content in school, and creating cross-curricular context. Practices to foster and support meaningful learning included collaboration and dialogue, working independently and experiential learning. This study provides suggestions for embedding meaningful elements in the mathematics learning environment to stimulate students’ learning motivation.

scholarly journals Connection Over Correction: Engaging Students in Conversational Commitments for Effective Communication Across Difference and Difficulty

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sandoval
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Teaching Philosophy ◽  
Classroom Engagement ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Teacher Centered ◽  
Authentic Teaching

In light of a national reckoning with racism in the U.S., many instructors are assessing their own pedagogical practices with regard to handling these topics in their classrooms. In developing my authentic teaching philosophy over the course of 18 years, I have adapted many practices I used in my prior career in dispute resolution. To clarify, I center classroom engagement around what Hart (2007) describes as “a pedagogy of interiority.” Classroom engagement focuses on connection rather than correction as we help students develop their “authentic inner potentials” (p. 2). I regularly challenge myself to invite students to develop their authentic personal selves via contemplation and reflexivity. In doing so, we move from a teacher-centered focus to a student-centered one derived from a relational partnership with them. By focusing on connection rather than correction, we create an environment of curiosity, compassion, and intensive reflection where students come to know themselves and their strengths in ways that extend beyond the classroom. This essay highlights how students co-create conversational commitments coupled with a rapid debrief process that moves my students forward together toward shared mindfulness in thought and behavior.

Dancing Krishna in the suburbs: Kinaesthetics in the South Asian American diaspora

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthi Devarajan
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Basic Step ◽  
Dance Teacher ◽  
South Asian American ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Sacred Stories ◽  
Cognitive Knowledge ◽  
Classical Indian Dance

This article explores kinaesthesia as a central aspect of religious pedagogy in a transnational Hindu community, through ethnographic observation of American practitioners of Bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance).1 The Natyanjali School of Dance (Andover, Massachusetts, United States) is a small, multigenerational community, comprised of dance teacher Jeyanthi Ghatraju, a group of South Indian first-generation immigrant IT professionals, and their American-born children. Through Bharatanatyam, pedagogical practices of physical training, repetition and constructions of body comportment, students learn South Asian languages, culture and Hindu religious narratives. Additionally, they absorb practices of social organization and moral knowledge through interactions with their teacher, elders and peers. Although studies of kinaesthesia attend to the physical body and its faculties of movement, sense, socialization and cognitive knowledge, the processes by which kinaesthetics inform the construction of religious experience, value, belief and identity remain relatively unexplored. This article examines the construction of Hindu and Indian identity, personal religiosity and morality, through the kinaesthetic pedagogies of basic step (adavu) repetition, the embodied and discursive pedagogies of dramatic gestural narration of sacred stories (natya), and the interpretive and devotional conjuring of expression (abhinaya) inherent in Bharatanatyam.

scholarly journals Can Microplastic Pollution Change Important Aquatic Bacterial Communities?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Evans Seeley ◽  
Bongkeun Song ◽  
Robert C. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Nutrient Cycling ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Marine Sediments ◽  
Nitrogen Cycle ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Coastal Sediments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Nutrient Cycles ◽  
First Time

Scientists have discovered that microplastics are polluting many environments worldwide, including our oceans and coastlines. Some of these plastics will make their way into a particularly important environment—coastal sediments, or the layer of mud below the water. This sediment is home to diverse bacterial life, which plays a key role in nutrient cycles of the ecosystem. These bacteria are critical for healthy environments, but are also easily affected by environmental pollution. Unfortunately, little is known about how the bacteria respond to microplastic pollution. We studied the effects of different microplastics on bacteria living in marine sediments, as well as the subsequent impacts on nutrient cycling. We found, for the first time, that different microplastics can significantly alter these bacterial communities and the nitrogen cycle, which should be studied further to understand lasting impacts on our natural environments.

scholarly journals Effects of Caudal Autotomy on the Locomotor Performance of Micrablepharus Atticolus (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naiane Arantes Silva ◽  
Gabriel Henrique O. Caetano ◽  
Pedro Henrique Campelo ◽  
Vitor Hugo Gomes Lacerda Cavalcante ◽  
Leandro Braga Godinho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environments ◽  
Locomotor Performance ◽  
Lizard Species ◽  
Long Tail ◽  
Sprint Speed ◽  
Behavioral Traits ◽  
Improve Model ◽  
Caudal Autotomy ◽  
First Time

Caudal autotomy is a dramatic adaptation used by many lizard species to evade predators. Most studies to date indicate that caudal autotomy impairs lizard locomotor performance. Surprisingly, some species bearing the longest tails show negligible impacts of caudal autotomy on sprint speed. Part of this variation has been attributed to lineage effects. For the first time, we model the effects of caudal autotomy on the locomotor performance of a gymnophthalmid lizard, Micrablepharus atticolus, characterized by a long and bright blue tail. To improve model accuracy, we incorporated the effects of several covariates. We found that body temperature, pregnancy, mass, collection site, and the length of the regenerated portion of the tail were the most important predictors of locomotor performance in Micrablepharus atticolus. However, sprint speed was unaffected by tail loss. Apparently, the long tail of M. atticolus is more useful when using undulation amidst the leaf litter and not when using quadrupedal locomotion on a flat surface. Our findings highlight the intricate relationships among physiological, morphological, and behavioral traits. We suggest that future studies about the impacts of caudal autotomy among long-tailed lizards should consider the role of different microhabitats/substrates on locomotor performance, using laboratory conditions that closely mimic their natural environments.

scholarly journals Non-indigenous terrestrial flatworms in Torrevieja (Alicante): presence of Bipalium cf. kewense Mosely, 1878 (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Geoplanidae)

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
Pujol Juan Antonio ◽  
Ubero-Pascal Nicolás
Keyword(s):  
Alien Species ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Potential Risk ◽  
Invasive Alien Species ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Observation Area ◽  
First Time ◽  
Península Ibérica

Se cita por primera vez en la provincia de Alicante (península ibérica) la especie de planaria terrestre exótica Bipalium cf. kewense Moseley, 1878. Con esta presencia aumenta el área de distribución de la especie en la Comunidad Valenciana, siendo la más meridional. Dado que la especie está considerada en esta comunidad autónoma como especie exótica invasora, se valora el riesgo potencial de colonización de ambientes naturales limítrofes a la zona de observación (jardín privado en zona urbanizada). The non-indigenous terrestrial flatworm Bipalium cf. kewense Moseley, 1878 is reported in Alicante province (Iberian Peninsula) for the first time. This occurrence is the most meridional from the Comunidad Valenciana, enlarging its distribution in this area. As the species is considered an invasive alien species in this region, the potential risk of colonizing natural environments closer to the observation area is evaluated.

Fostering valuable learning experiences by transforming current teaching practices: practical pedagogical approaches from online practitioners

2020 ◽  
Vol 121 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 443-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Chiyoko Itow
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Meaningful Learning ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brick And Mortar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to share lessons learned and tools developed that teachers can use to build pedagogically sound online courses. Transitioning to online instruction is not learning to teach all over again, and it does not have to feel that way either. Through the lens of three common questions new online teachers ask, the principal of a university-run online high school offers practical advice for transforming current pedagogical practices into effective online teaching. This transformation is structured with an innovative “multi-level” approach to assessment. This structure helps organize the transformation, letting teachers focus on building and/or maintaining crucial relationships and meaningful learning experiences with their students. Design/methodology/approach An innovative assessment lens structures the transformation of practices from brick-and-mortar to online settings, clearing the opacity of the online teaching context so that teachers can return their focus building relationships and meaningful learning experiences with their students. Findings The paper offers immediately-implementable strategies for designing online courses that facilitate relationship building, meet curricular goals, and are pedagogically sound. Practical implications Teachers can adapt the tools, resources, and advice included in this paper to fit their unique teaching needs as they move to online teaching contexts. Originality/value This paper uses the pedagogical model and assessment lens developed by the university-run high school and its principal to offer unique, practically implementable strategies for transitioning from brick-and-mortar to online teaching in this tumultuous time.

The Paint Pots, Kootenay National Park, Canada — a natural acid spring analogue for Mars

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Grasby ◽  
Barry C. Richards ◽  
Christine E. Sharp ◽  
Allyson L. Brady ◽  
Gareth M. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
National Park ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Ore Deposit ◽  
Acid Mine ◽  
Candidate Division ◽  
Spring System ◽  
First Time

The Paint Pots are a natural Fe–SO4 acid spring system along the Kicking Horse Rim, a major geological feature that has controlled fluid flow and mineralization over geologic time. The very low pH (∼3) and extremely high trace metal concentrations of the springs are anomalous and greatly exceed health limits (Zn = 35.8 mg/L, Pb = 0.461 mg/L, As = 82.7 ppb). Sulphur isotopes (δ34S and δ18O in sulphate equal to +11.4 and –12.1 ‰, respectively) are consistent with sulphide oxidation. Mass balance calculations indicate that the springs must have derived their acidity and metal content from natural weathering of a pyrite-rich ore deposit in the vicinity. Several ore deposit types occur along the Kicking Horse Rim, with the Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) style being the most consistent with the source of the spring waters. At the spring outlet, Fe-rich waters oxidize, forming large cone features of Fe–O precipitates, predominantly goethite. A diverse microbial community has been identified in the site that is distinct from those found at acid mine drainage sites. At one site, there was a high proportion of the bacterial candidate division WPS-2, the first time that this group has been detected as the predominant phylum in a community. Compared with anthropogenically influenced acid mine drainage sites that have been studied to date as Mars analogues, the unique uncultured organisms found in the Paint Pots provide a distinct analogue site that can offer insights into the diversity of extremophilic organisms in more natural environments.

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