Developing a measure to understand young children’s internet cognition and cyber-safety awareness: a pilot test

Advancements in technology have increased preschool children’s access to the Internet. Very little research has been conducted to identify pre-school-aged children’s understandings of the Internet and ramifications of being ‘online’. Without an understanding of children’s thinking about the Internet, it is difficult to provide age and pedagogically appropriate cyber-safety education. This study developed and pilot-tested an interview schedule that focuses on the Internet thinking and cyber-safety awareness of Australian children aged 4–5 years. The schedule is informed by sociocultural theory, cyber-safety education research and approaches for researching with young children. The schedule shows potential to elicit children’s understandings of the Internet and cyber-safety awareness. Adjustments are required to allow more contextualised responses from children.

Renewing assessment practices: literacy teaching and learning in digital environments

Interpretations of “literacy” and approaches to literacy pedagogy and assessment are under renewal as meaning-making and learning are increasingly situated in digitized environments. While the implications of these shifts are in part technological, they are also relational, as students are increasingly positioned as interactive with participatory roles in self-knowledge and increased responsibility for their learning. However, while shifts are occurring in understandings of literacy and approaches to literacy pedagogy, the same cannot be said for the way in which assessments of digital literacies are undertaken. There is a lack of valid, reliable, and practical assessments of new literacies to inform and help students to become better prepared for study, work, and citizenship in digital environments. This article maps five characteristics of effective formative assessment in print-based classrooms with seven affordancesin digital learning and assessment to suggest an analytical framework for examining teacher and student assessment in digital environments. Drawing on data from a research project in which a team of teachers introduced a one-to-one computing program and worked to renew their literacy assessment practices, this article discusses how each of the seven affordances are enacted in the assessment practices in a years five and six primary school classroom. The findings from this research project show that educational technologies have the potential to enable new approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment that better align with the needs of twenty-first century literacy learners. The findings alsosupport approaches to formative assessment that value print and multimodality and engage students in more flexible and differentiated ways. They can enable teachers and students to be re-positioned as designers, knowledge producers, and collaborative learners. The seven affordances provide a framework that holds rich possibilities for teacher learning and planning as prompts to support reflection on formative assessment practices, critique habitual practices, and considernew opportunities.

Representing and learning in science

In this book we argue for an approach to representational work in school science learning and teaching that engages participants, is epistemologically sound, aligns with knowledge-building practices in the discipline, and draws on extensive classroom study. We review in this chapter current research agendas around student representational work in science learning, including the assumptions, rationale and research practices of these agendas. We do this (a) to clarify precisely what we see as the diversity of current mainstream thinking and practices around representational activity, and (b) to articulate what is distinctive about our own contribution, noting the traditions, influences and prior research we draw on. We begin by noting the current dominant role of image generation and analysis in much contemporary science, and its implications for science in schools.

Taming the wild elephant : yoga, cognition and emotion

Yoga tradition suggests that the nature of being is awarenes - being aware of the effects of thoughts and feelings, beliefs and emotions. Yoga Philosophy appreciates the life-effects of perception. Yoga promotes a way of being that ultimately transcends basic thoughts and wants, moving beyond, to a state of observer awareness - something the Indian sage Patanjali describes as the process of apperception, where the perceiver is aware of the act of perceiving. This paper looks at the complex relationship between an individual's wellbeing, cognitive processes and emotional life. It explores the principles of mindfulness as a vehicle for emotional balance and investigates the link between Yoga, cognition and emotion. It looks at the physiological influence of cognition and emotion and critiques Yogic philosophy alongside Western cognitive-emotive theories such as Erich Fromm's 'art of being' and the insights presented in Robert C. Solomon's various works on emotional life. This paper also explores the work of other theorists, such as; Patanjali, Aristotle, Georg Feuerstein, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Purushottama Bilimoria and others.

An Examination of the merits of a human rights-based approach to higher education teaching and learning, compared with welfare and market-based approaches.

The thesis concludes that a human rights-based approach to higher education will produce better teaching and learning outcomes than welfare state or market-based approaches. It is intended that this research might influence an improvement in policy-making, identify a ‘feasible utopia’ for higher education, and contribute to discussion about the public interest role of higher education.

Deconstructing pedagogies of professional practice and learning for police officers.

This research applied qualitative and narrative methodology to investigate police officers' professional practice and learning. Analysis of the data revealed three thematic frameworks of power-knowledge relations, practice and knowledge, and gender and (dis)embodied practice that harboured doubtful matters (aporias) and blind spots (lacunae). The potential for change and the possibility of different perspectives and new learning was evident. Paradigmatic shifts in thinking, learning and practice are needed for police officers to develop reflexive practice that is social, relational, agential, and embodied, however, limitations and constraints exist based on the strength and resilience of dominant pedagogies influenced by social, cultural, institutional and occupational practices and discourses.

New research directions in learning and cognition

Research in learning and cognition continues to extend the boundaries of possibilities for theoretical frameworks, research designs, and questions interrogated. This overview captures a snapshot of recent research for the purpose of drawing attention to new directions. It includes: types of theoretical frameworks employed to study student learning, the reciprocity of teaching and learning, and identifying underpinning conceptual understanding that can contribute to curriculum development, including a discussion paper on possible roles of algorithms. Future directions for research are then discussed. The papers in this special issue are briefly introduced in relevant sections. This paper draws attention to the increased use of multi-theoretical perspectives and what they have enabled us to learn about the complexities of teaching and learning in classrooms. It also draws attention to some of the innovative research designs and analysis techniques that have been employed to enable the answering of various research questions.

Workplace learning and flexible delivery

Workplace learning has developed as a field both of practice and of research over the past decade. The increase in interest is due in part to heightened awareness that workplace knowledge and skills contribute to enterprise and national competitiveness, but it is also due to an increased focus on the connections to be made between theory and practice as part of an education or training experience. At the same time, new learning technologies have enhanced delivery of instruction and learning materials in workplaces. This article reviews some of the conceptualizations of workplace learning and its cognitive bases. It also examines workplaces as learning environments and considers the special challenges involved in the flexible delivery of training to workplaces.

E-training or e-learning : towards a synthesis for the knowledge-era workplace

Many E-training environments and processes are based on participatory learning models in which participants share their understandings and aim to develop new insights into their workplace knowledge through discussion, questioning. mentoring and personal reflection. Knowledge production is assumed to occur through the cumulative elfect of these actions. However, equally likely outcomes include the sharing of ignorance or the development of erreneous understandings. Cognitive and social views of learning posit, however, that humans learn by thinking (not just hy interacting), and that unless this is explicitly taken into account in developing training programs. optimal leaming outcomes may not be achieved. This paper examines the importance of incorporating cognitive and social-Ieaming perspectives in E-training environments in order to maximise the potential for optimal leaming to occur. and provides suggestions for a synthesis of participatory and cognitive models.