The Visual Arts as a Canvas for Teaching Computer Programming

We explore the relationships between the construction of a work of art and the crafting of a computer program in Java and suggest that the structure of paintings and drawings may be used to teach the fundamental concepts of computer programming. This movement "from Art to Science", using art to drive computing, complements the common use of computing to inform art. We report on initial experiences using this approach with undergraduate and postgraduate students. An embryonic theory of the correspondence between art and computing is presented and a methodology proposed to develop this project further.

Teaching down or learning up

Résumé : L'élément important que cette thèse sous-tend est que l'enseignement efficace n'est pas seulement constitué de techniques et de méthodologie, mais plutôt d'attitude et d'approche envers l'enseignement. Ceci ne veut pas nécessairement dire que plusieurs méthodes d'enseignement reçues dans un cours avec l'intention d'optimaliser les mécanismes de transmission et d'assimilation de la matière sont inappropriées. Cependant, l'absence de ce que nous pourrions définir comme un ton pédagogique est essentiel, c'est-à-dire, qu'une attitude positive à la productivité autant vis-à-vis de la matière à transmettre que vis-à-vis de l'individu impliqué dans "l'acte" de réception versus la découverte, aura davantage de succès. Toute autre méthode sera complètement inefficace, inaccessible, voire même inutile. D'emblée, dans l'hypothèse de départ, l'argument principal présente une attitude générale d'enseignement à divers échelons ; soit au niveau secondaire ou collégial qui est inappropriée, incomplète ou négative. En d'autres mots, cette approche thérapeutise l'éducation. Dans l'exercice de cette approche, l'enseignant ou l'enseignante adopte plutôt le rôle d'un thérapeute que celui d'un éducateur. De ce fait, le professeur en situation a une approche plutôt de thérapeute que celle de maître-précepteur et que la matière présentée est souvent diluée, et réduite à des niveaux d'apprentissage accompagnés de carences notoires et d'échecs académiques. Les attentes d'une performance dans le milieu académique sont souvent des plus modestes. Cette même tendance d'une éducation à la baisse est évidente aussi dans le processus d'évaluation. Il est certain que dans les disciplines non scientifiques, l'évaluation formative a grandement suivi l'évaluation normative conduisant le précepteur, tour à tour, dans une évaluation dormative dans laquelle l'effort et l'intention remplacent les aptitudes et les habilitées réelles. Si l'approche pédagogique est vraiment l'élément crucial de l'éducation, il Importe que l'approche générale influence le climat de l'éducation contemporaine, de fait, devienne un palliatif contre-productif souvent réhabilitant. De plus, cette pseudo-thérapie d'où d'écoule une attitude exigeante envers l'enseignant et l'apprenant dont le fondement est la reconnaissance des impératifs culturels qui en sont le reflet et le corps doit-être affirmé et transposé dans la réalité. Cette dernière comprend des attentes très poussées en ce qui concerne la performance en classe et aussi le respect de la matière qui contient la présentation routinière et fondamentale; renouveau intense du processus d'évaluation qui fournira des standards communs et des objectifs externes dans l'évaluation du travail de l'étudiant. Cette connaissance et domestication empirique que nous présente Vygotsky dans un climat contemporain qu'il a expliqué ces termes comme "des zones de développement proximales" basées sur la doctrine suivante que le bon apprentissage précède le développement et que conséquemment s'ensuit une pédagogie d'apprentissage plutôt qu'une pédagogie centrée sur l'apprenant. L'application significative de ces derniers principes ou de ces épistémologiques s'imbriquent dans une situation d'apprentissage ascentionnel dont la structure est détaillée et considérée par différentes perspectives de la recherche qui suit.||Abstract : The central tenet of this thesis is that effective teaching is not only and perhaps not primarily a matter of technique and methodology but of attitude and approach. This is not to say that diverse methods of classroom instruction intended to optimize the mechanics of transmission and the assimilation of data are inappropriate but that in the absence of what we might denominate as a certain pedagogical tone. that is, a productive attitude toward both the material to be conveyed and the individuel engaged in the 'act' of reception-and-discovery, even the most powerful methods will be differentially unavailing or, at best, inefficient. Given this initial assumption, the argument proceeds that the general attitude toward instruction currently in place at the secondary echelons, that is, on the high school and college levels, may be popularly represented as a 'teaching down' approach, in other words, as one which seeks to therapeuticize education. In practice this means that the teacher tends to manifest in situ more as a therapist than as a preceptor, that the material to be presented is frequently diluted or scaled down to perceived levels of cognitive (dis)ability (as is also the case with the rate of instruction), and that performance expectations in the current pedagogical milieu are commonly quite modest. The same downward trend is evident in assessment protocols as well. Certainly in the nonscientific disciplines, normative evaluation has been widely succeeded by formative evaluation, leading in turn to a peculiar kind of dormative evaluation in which intangibles such as effort and intention may deputize for realized ability. If pedagogical approach is indeed the crucial element in instruction, and if the general approach that pervades the contemporary climate of instruction is indeed counter-productively remedial or rehabilitory, that is, therapeutic, then it should follow that a more demanding attitude toward teaching and learning founded on the recognition of the culturel imperative which teaching both reflects and embodies needs to be re-affirmed and translated into practice. This latter would entail the maintenance of high expectations with regard to classroom performance, a respect for the material which precludes its routine mitigation or debasement, a renewed insistance on grading protocols that provide an external, 'objective' or communal standard against which the student's work can be measured, the empirical acknowledgment or domestication of what Vygotsky has termed "the zone of proximal development," based on the doctrine that good learning proceeds in advance of development, and conséquently, a learning-centered rather than learner-centered pedagogy. The meaningful application of this latter set of principles or epistemological gradients comprises the 'learning up' situation whose structure is excunined in some détail and considered from various perspectives in the ensuing.

Teaching / learning process through the case method in the law degree

This project in teaching innovation and improvement aims to disseminate the case method as one of the most innovative educational instruments inteaching of Law in general, and specifically with regard to Family and Inheritance Law. The methodology used ensures learning through a legal conflict, which must be resolved by the students themselves from different viewpoints as legal agents. This is an activity in teaching innovation, in which students become the protagonists. Participation is voluntary, and the main aim is student motivation. The subject's aim is for students to learn public speaking skills fundamental to the profession while familiarising themselves with judicial practice. Theteacher sets up a legal conflict in order for students to resolve the dispute as legal agents with divergent viewpoints - in other words, as judges, attorneys, lawyers and so on. The project seeks alternatives to traditional teaching methods and is an innovative teaching method aimed at professionally training future lawyers as well as being a model that involves students more in their own learning.

Beliefs, Teaching Practice and Proposals for the Attention of Cultural Diversity: the Case of a Costa Rican Teaching and Three Nicaraguans Infants

This article presents data from a research that studied a teacher belief regarding three Nicaraguan students. Specifically, presents findings related to teaching practice and its relation to diverse education proposals. It includes an analysis of four subcategories: daily dynamic of a teacher who works with infants of another culture, students’ assessment in the classroom, discipline strategies to children, and diverse beliefs and proposals. The data shows that, in the classroom, the teacher does not demonstrate different treatment to Nicaraguan and Costa Rican children, suggesting that equal treatment is the strategy per se used by the teacher to solve the issue of cultural diversity in the classroom. On the other hand, discipline is assumed by the teacher with scolding criteria, using a loud tone of voice and aggressive vocabulary.

“Constructive Paranoia” Applied to Education (The Case of English Language Teaching)

This paper analyzes the concept of constructive paranoia stated by journalist and author Andrés Oppenheimer to promote development in Latin America. Based on that concept, this paper discusses the effectiveness of current English Language Teaching, particularly, as well as what should be done in order to obtain better results. As a conclusion, a re-structure of approach, curriculum and methodology in teaching the language is proposed.