Beyond the middle: A report about literacy and numeracy development of target group students in the middle years of schooling: Volume 1

The report was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training to investigate the perceived efficacy of middle years programmes in all States and Territories in improving the quality of teaching, learning and student outcomes, especially in literacy and numeracy and for student members of particular target groups. These target groups included students from lower socio-economic communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, students with a language background other than English, rural and remote students, and students struggling with the transition from middle/upper primary to the junior secondary years. The project involved large scale national and international literature reviews on Australian and international middle years approaches as well as an analysis of key literacy and numeracy teaching and learning strategies being used. In the report, there is emergent evidence of the relative efficacy of a combination of explicit state policy, dedicated funding and curriculum and professional development frameworks that are focused on the improvement of classroom pedagogy in the middle years. The programs that evidenced the greatest current and potential value for target group students tended to have developed in state policy environments that encouraged a structural rather than adjunct approach to middle years innovations. The authors conclude that in order to translate the gains made into sustainable improvement of educational results in literacy and numeracy for target groups, there is a need for a second generation of middle years theorising, research, development and practice.

Health education: the role and functions of the specialist and the generalist

Education for health is a process in which all public health and medical care personnel are involved. People learn both formally (planned learning experiences) and informally (unplanned learning experiences). Since the patient, the client, the consummer and the community expect public health and medical care personnel to assist them with health and disease issues and problems, the response of the professional "educates" the customer whether the professional intends to educate or not. Therefore, it is incumbent on all public health and medical care professionals to understand their educational functions and their role in health education. It is also important that the role of the specialist in education be clear. The specialist, as to all other specialists, has an in-depth knowledge of his area of expertise, i.e., the teaching/learning process; s/he may function as a consultant to others to enhance the educational potential of their role or s/he may work with a team or with communities or groups of patients. Specific competencies and knowledge are required of the health education specialist; and there is a body of learning and social change theory which provides a frame of reference for planning, implementing and evaluating educational programs. Working with others to enhance their potential to learn and to make informed decisions about health/disease issues is the hallmark of the health education specialist.

The role of Lifelong Learning in the creation of a knowledge-based society for Europe: european policies

Link do editor: http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/role-lifelong-learning-creation-european/13314

Developing multiple - choice questions in mathematics

In this paper we wish to illustrate different perspectives used to create Multiple-Choice questions and we will show how we can improve these in the construction of math tests. As it is known, web technologies have a great influence on student’s behaviour. Based on an on-line project beginning at 2007 which has been contributing to help students on their individual work, we would like to share our experience and thoughts with colleagues who have a common concern when they have the task of constructing Multiple-Choice tests. We feel that Multiple-Choice tests play an important and a very useful supporting role in selfevaluation or self-examination of our students. Nonetheless, good Multiple–Choice Test Items are generally more complex and time-consuming to create than other types of tests. It requires a certain amount of skill. However, this skill maybe increases through study, practice and experience. This paper discusses a number of issues related to the use of Multiple-Choice questions, lists the advantages and disadvantages of this question format contrasting it with open questions. Some examples are given in this context.

Multiple-choice tests: a tool in assessing knowledge

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if Multiple-Choice Tests may be considered an interesting alternative for assessing knowledge, particularly in the Mathematics area, as opposed to the traditional methods, such as open questions exams. In this sense we illustrate some opinions of the researchers in this area. Often the perception of the people about the construction of this kind of exams is that they are easy to create. But it is not true! Construct well written tests it’s a hard work and needs writing ability from the teachers. Our proposal is analyse the construction difficulties of multiple - choice tests as well some advantages and limitations of this type of tests. We also show the frequent critics and worries, since the beginning of this objective format usage. Finally in this context some examples of Multiple-Choice Items in the Mathematics area are given, and we illustrate as how we can take advantage and improve this kind of tests.

The Role of lifelong learning in creation of a european knowledge-based society

The dominant discourse in education and training policies, at the turn of the millennium, was on lifelong learning (LLL) in the context of a knowledge-based society. As Green points (2002, pp. 611-612) several factors contribute to this global trend: The demographic change: In most advanced countries, the average age of the population is increasing, as people live longer; The effects of globalisation: Including both economic restructuring and cultural change which have impacts on the world of education; Global economic restructuring: Which causes, for example, a more intense demand for a higher order of skills; the intensified economic competition, forcing a wave of restructuring and creating enormous pressure to train and retrain the workforce In parallel, the “significance of the international division of labour cannot be underestimated for higher education”, as pointed out by Jarvis (1999, p. 250). This author goes on to argue that globalisation has exacerbated differentiation in the labour market, with the First World converting faster to a knowledge economy and a service society, while a great deal of the actual manufacturing is done elsewhere.

Nuances in the embedment of ESDCG in the Azorean curriculum

Este capítulo tem origem na conferência «A Child's World - Working Together for a Better Future», que decorreu em Aberystwyth (Wales) entre 27 e 29 de Junho de 2012.

Sustainable blended-learning in HEI: developing and implementing multi-level interventions

This chapter aims to demonstrate how PAOL - Unit for Innovation in Education, a project from ISCAP - School of Accounting and Administration of Oporto ....

Using remote experimentation in a large undergraduate course: initial findings

The use of remote labs in undergraduate courses has been reported in literature several times since the mid 90's. Nevertheless, very few articles present results about the correspondent learning gains obtained by students, and in what conditions those systems can be more efficient, thus suggesting a lack of data concerning their pedagogical effectiveness. This paper addresses such a gap by presenting some initial findings concerning the use of a remote lab (VISIR), in a large undergraduate course on Physics, with over 550 students enrolled.

VISIR deployment in undergraduate engineering practices

Practical sessions are the backbone of qualification in engineering education. It leads to a better understanding and allows mastering scientific concepts and theories. The lack of the availability of practical sessions at many universities and institutions owing to the cost and the unavailability of instructors the most of the time caused a significant decline in experimentation in engineering education over the last decades. Recently, with the progress of computer-based learning, remote laboratories have been proven to be the best alternative to the traditional ones, regarding to its low cost and ubiquity. Some universities have already started to deploy remote labs in their practical sessions. This contribution compiles diverse experiences based on the deployment of the remote laboratory, Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR), on the practices of undergraduate engineering grades at various universities within the VISIR community. It aims to show the impact of its usage on engineering education concerning the assessments of students and teachers as well.

Work-in-progress on a thin IEEE1451.0 - architecture to implement reconfigurable Weblab infrastructures

Institutions have been creating their own specific weblab infrastructures. Usually, they use distinct software and hardware architectures comprehending instruments and modules (I&M) able to be parameterized but difficult to be shared. These aspects are impairing their widespread in education, since collaboration between institutions, in developing and sharing resources, is still low. To handle both aspects, this paper proposes the adoption of the IEEE1451.0 Std. with FPGA technology for creating reconfigurable weblab infrastructures. It is suggested the adoption of an IEEE1451.0 infrastructure with compatible instruments, described in Hardware Description Languages (HDL), to be reconfigured in FPGA-based boards. Besides an overview of the IEEE1451.0 Std., this paper presents a solution currently under development which seeks to enable the reconfiguration and the remote control of weblab infrastructures using a set of IEEE1451.0 HTTP commands.

From cheating to teaching: a path for conversion of illegal gambling machines

Video poker machines, a former symbol of fraud and gambling in Brazil, are now being converted into computer-based educational tools for Brazilian public primary schools and also for governmental and non-governmental institutions dealing with communities of poverty and social exclusion, in an attempt to reduce poverty risks (decrease money spent on gambling) and promote social inclusion (increase access and motivation to education). Thousands of illegal gambling machines are seized by federal authorities, in Brazil, every year, and usually destroyed at the end of the criminal apprehension process. This paper describes a project developed by the University of Southern Santa Catarina, Brazil, responsible for the conversion process of gambling machines, and the social inclusion opportunities derived from it. All project members worked on a volunteer basis, seeking to promote social inclusion of Brazilian young boys and girls, namely through digital inclusion. So far, the project has been able to convert over 200 gambling machines and install them in over 40 public primary schools, thus directly benefiting more than 12,000 schoolchildren. The initial motivation behind this project was technology based, however the different options arising from the conversion process of the gambling machines have also motivated a rather innovative and unique experience in allowing schoolchildren and young people with special (educational) needs to access to computer-based pedagogical applications. The availability of these converted machines also helps to place Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the very daily educational environment of these children and youngsters, thus serving social and cultural inclusion aspects, by establishing a dialogue with the community and their technological expectations, and also directly contributing to their digital literacy.

Interactive whiteboards in Portuguese primary schools: the teachers' view

Focusing on the use of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) in primary schools in Oeiras municipality, this article presents primary teachers’ views, from their experience, on the implementation of this innovation as a resource for the teaching and learning processes. IWBs have been recently launched in the framework of a major program aiming the technological modernization of Portuguese schools, in order to promote the use of ICT in teaching and learning, as well as in school management. Findings show that teachers are enthusiastic about Interactive White Boards because they really believe their pupils learn better and in a more joyful way. However, they draw attention to the need of training in order to fully exploit the potential of this resourc

Introducing numerical analysis tools in engineering: a Scilab user case in electronics course

Software tools in education became popular since the widespread of personal computers. Engineering courses lead the way in this development and these tools became almost a standard. Engineering graduates are familiar with numerical analysis tools but also with simulators (e.g. electronic circuits), computer assisted design tools and others, depending on the degree. One of the main problems with these tools is when and how to start use them so that they can be beneficial to students and not mere substitutes for potentially difficult calculations or design. In this paper a software tool to be used by first year students in electronics/electricity courses is presented. The growing acknowledgement and acceptance of open source software lead to the choice of an open source software tool – Scilab, which is a numerical analysis tool – to develop a toolbox. The toolbox was developed to be used as standalone or integrated in an e-learning platform. The e-learning platform used was Moodle. The first approach was to assess the mathematical skills necessary to solve all the problems related to electronics and electricity courses. Analysing the existing circuit simulators software tools, it is clear that even though they are very helpful by showing the end result they are not so effective in the process of the students studying and self learning since they show results but not intermediate steps which are crucial in problems that involve derivatives or integrals. Also, they are not very effective in obtaining graphical results that could be used to elaborate reports and for an overall better comprehension of the results. The developed tool was based on the numerical analysis software Scilab and is a toolbox that gives their users the opportunity to obtain the end results of a circuit analysis but also the expressions obtained when derivative and integrals calculations, plot signals, obtain vector diagrams, etc. The toolbox runs entirely in the Moodle web platform and provides the same results as the standalone application. The students can use the toolbox through the web platform (in computers where they don't have installation privileges) or in their personal computers by installing both the Scilab software and the toolbox. This approach was designed for first year students from all engineering degrees that have electronics/electricity courses in their curricula.