About Learning Discrete Mathematics at Bulgarian School

The present work is dedicated to the learning discrete mathematics at Bulgarian school. A review of syllabuses and standards has been made. A project of learning discrete mathematics elements from first to twelve class is proposed.

Dialogic education:reflections from an accounting course

Our paper aims to contribute to the growing body of literature that has suggested that tertiary accounting education should not simply transfer technical/functional/vocational accounting knowledge. This literature suggests that a more critical accounting educational content complemented by a more dialogical teaching approach is more appropriate. Our paper provides further reflections on just such a course and the challenges that this raises. Specifically, it comments on learner resistance and engagement, syllabus design, delivery and assessment methods. In addition, this paper introduces the role that theory, secondary research and debates have played in this course. The value of this type of course, in terms of developing and transforming the learners is discussed.

Estratégia de capacitação pedagógica do residente: uma perspectiva para melhoria do ensino na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Studies have shown that resident informally plays the role of teacher. It is estimated that up to 25% of the residents of the time is devoted to teaching, mainly contributing as a facilitator, however, almost the entire medical residency programs in Brazil did not offer teacher training during residency education. This paper aims to introduce educational content initiation to teaching as part of the training of resident physician inserted in residency program of the University Hospital Onofre Lopes (HUOL). It is an exploratory, descriptive and prospective study in HUOL the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Three steps were developed: preparation and planning of a pedagogic course, associated with a motivating technical content (basic and advanced life support); second stage, testing of pedagogical model for medical students; and finally, replication to residents. The interventions were made two practice stations life support with performance evaluation in practical activity through OSPE (Objective Structured Practical Examination). The techniques presented teachings were one-minute preceptor and feedback. Data collection was conducted through a structured evaluation form during the life support stations and at the end of the course, and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the feedback and one minute preceptor were considered important for teaching and learning for more than 85% of participants. The feedback from evaluators practices stations added information about the performance and were held appreciatively way, according to 100% of the participants. Positive aspects highlighted by the participants were related to educational content, especially the participants of the first intervention. The time of the lectures of motivating technical content was the most repeated negative. Based on the good acceptance of pedagogical contents, this pioneer teacher training strategy was included in the formal residency program in Cardiology of our institution. It is considered therefore that the educational training model with motivating technical content was feasible and had a good evaluation and acceptance by most participants in both interventions. Thus, we believe that the educational content can be inserted in the formal curriculum of medical residency of other programs at HUOL through the training model developed in this study.

Estratégia de capacitação pedagógica do residente: uma perspectiva para melhoria do ensino na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Studies have shown that resident informally plays the role of teacher. It is estimated that up to 25% of the residents of the time is devoted to teaching, mainly contributing as a facilitator, however, almost the entire medical residency programs in Brazil did not offer teacher training during residency education. This paper aims to introduce educational content initiation to teaching as part of the training of resident physician inserted in residency program of the University Hospital Onofre Lopes (HUOL). It is an exploratory, descriptive and prospective study in HUOL the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Three steps were developed: preparation and planning of a pedagogic course, associated with a motivating technical content (basic and advanced life support); second stage, testing of pedagogical model for medical students; and finally, replication to residents. The interventions were made two practice stations life support with performance evaluation in practical activity through OSPE (Objective Structured Practical Examination). The techniques presented teachings were one-minute preceptor and feedback. Data collection was conducted through a structured evaluation form during the life support stations and at the end of the course, and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the feedback and one minute preceptor were considered important for teaching and learning for more than 85% of participants. The feedback from evaluators practices stations added information about the performance and were held appreciatively way, according to 100% of the participants. Positive aspects highlighted by the participants were related to educational content, especially the participants of the first intervention. The time of the lectures of motivating technical content was the most repeated negative. Based on the good acceptance of pedagogical contents, this pioneer teacher training strategy was included in the formal residency program in Cardiology of our institution. It is considered therefore that the educational training model with motivating technical content was feasible and had a good evaluation and acceptance by most participants in both interventions. Thus, we believe that the educational content can be inserted in the formal curriculum of medical residency of other programs at HUOL through the training model developed in this study.

Seguridad en prácticas de andinismo : formación docente en Educación Física

El Profesorado de Educación Física con Orientación en Actividades Regionales en Montaña de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue. (En adelante PEF-CRUB-UNCo) es el único en el país que posee una trayectoria con más de 20 años de formación de profesores de Educación Física con orientación. Fue a través de un trabajo dinámico y continuo a lo largo de los años que se fueron definiendo qué contenidos teórico-prácticos eran los apropiados para la Educación Física (Palacio, López, Schneider, 2011). Se observan coincidencias con las experiencias realizadas en otros Países como España y Alemania en los que las actividades de escalada forman parte de la Formación Docente y de la currícula educativa (Saez Padilla, Gimenez, Fuentes Guerra 2005; Arribas Cubero 2008; Winter, 2000). Se determinó en paralelo con otros autores (Hepp, Güllich y Heidorn, 2001) que los contenidos relacionados con Trekking y Escalada son apropiados para desarrollar en un profesorado de estas características. Una preocupación permanente que desafía a la actividad como contenido educativo es el manejo de las condiciones de seguridad. En el presente trabajo se explicarán las condiciones de Seguridad que a lo largo de los años desde la experiencia, la interrogación permanente, la consulta de bibliografía especializada y las acciones realizadas en la formación docente han sido recopiladas.

Seguridad en prácticas de andinismo : formación docente en Educación Física

El Profesorado de Educación Física con Orientación en Actividades Regionales en Montaña de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue. (En adelante PEF-CRUB-UNCo) es el único en el país que posee una trayectoria con más de 20 años de formación de profesores de Educación Física con orientación. Fue a través de un trabajo dinámico y continuo a lo largo de los años que se fueron definiendo qué contenidos teórico-prácticos eran los apropiados para la Educación Física (Palacio, López, Schneider, 2011). Se observan coincidencias con las experiencias realizadas en otros Países como España y Alemania en los que las actividades de escalada forman parte de la Formación Docente y de la currícula educativa (Saez Padilla, Gimenez, Fuentes Guerra 2005; Arribas Cubero 2008; Winter, 2000). Se determinó en paralelo con otros autores (Hepp, Güllich y Heidorn, 2001) que los contenidos relacionados con Trekking y Escalada son apropiados para desarrollar en un profesorado de estas características. Una preocupación permanente que desafía a la actividad como contenido educativo es el manejo de las condiciones de seguridad. En el presente trabajo se explicarán las condiciones de Seguridad que a lo largo de los años desde la experiencia, la interrogación permanente, la consulta de bibliografía especializada y las acciones realizadas en la formación docente han sido recopiladas.

Applying standards to systematize learning analytics in serious games

Learning Analytics is an emerging field focused on analyzing learners’ interactions with educational content. One of the key open issues in learning analytics is the standardization of the data collected. This is a particularly challenging issue in serious games, which generate a diverse range of data. This paper reviews the current state of learning analytics, data standards and serious games, studying how serious games are tracking the interactions from their players and the metrics that can be distilled from them. Based on this review, we propose an interaction model that establishes a basis for applying Learning Analytics into serious games. This paper then analyzes the current standards and specifications used in the field. Finally, it presents an implementation of the model with one of the most promising specifications: Experience API (xAPI). The Experience API relies on Communities of Practice developing profiles that cover different use cases in specific domains. This paper presents the Serious Games xAPI Profile: a profile developed to align with the most common use cases in the serious games domain. The profile is applied to a case study (a demo game), which explores the technical practicalities of standardizing data acquisition in serious games. In summary, the paper presents a new interaction model to track serious games and their implementation with the xAPI specification.

Frank-Michael Kuhlemann: Modernisierung und Disziplinierung. Sozialgeschichte des preußischen Volksschulwesens 1794-1872. (Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft. Bd. 96.) Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1992 [Rezension]

Rezension von: Frank-Michael Kuhlemann: Modernisierung und Disziplinierung. Sozialgeschichte des preußischen Volksschulwesens 1794-1872. (Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft. Bd. 96.) Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1992. 468 S.

CERVIXCHECK: A SPIRITUALLY-BASED SMS TEXT MESSAGING PILOT INTERVENTION TO INCREASE CERVICAL CANCER AWARENESS AND PAP TEST SCREENING INTENTION AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN

African American women account for a disproportionate burden of cervical cancer incidence and mortality rate when compared to non-Hispanic White women. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable types of cancer, and women can be screened for it with a routine Pap test. Given that religion occupies an essential place in African American lives, framing health messages with important spiritual themes and delivering them through a popular communication delivery channel may allow for a more culturally-relevant and accessible technology-based approach to promoting cervical cancer educational content to African American women. Using community-engaged research as a framework, the purpose of this multiple methods study was to develop, pilot test, and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of a spiritually-based SMS text messaging intervention to increase cervical cancer awareness and Pap test screening intention among African American women. The study recruited church-attending African American women ages 21-65 and was conducted in three phases. Phases 1 and 2 consisted of a series of focus group discussions (n=15), cognitive response interviews (n=8), and initial usability testing that were conducted to inform the intervention development and modifications. Phase 3 utilized a non-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design to pilot test the 16-day text messaging intervention (n=52). Of the individuals enrolled, forty-six completed the posttest (retention rate=88%). Findings provided evidence for the early feasibility, high acceptability, and some initial efficacy of the CervixCheck intervention. There were significant pre-post increases observed for knowledge about cervical cancer and the Pap test (p = .001) and subjective norms (p = .006). Additionally, results post-intervention revealed that 83% of participants reported being either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the program and 85% found the text messages either “useful” or “very useful”. 85% of the participants also indicated that they would “likely” or “very likely” share the information they learned from the intervention with the women around them, with 39% indicating that they had already shared some of the information they received with others they knew. A spiritually-based SMS text messaging intervention could be a culturally appropriate and cost-effective method of promoting cervical cancer early detection information to African American women.

Usability in mLearning

As higher education students access educational content using a variety of mobile devices, the question then arises: Does the content across different mobile devices vary in terms of usability? Does usability determine a user’s willingness to engage in mobile learning? Hence, it is necessary to investigate the usability of the learning applications and the mobile devices used to access these applications. This paper outlines results from a pilot study conducted at a large Australian University. The study highlights the importance of usability across different mobile devices whilst accessing educational content. This research lays the foundation for a future study that will broaden the investigation to extend from usability for mLearning to usability for mLearning.

The pedagogic prosthetic: Augmented learning as content-in-motion in hybrid educational spheres

This article draws on the design and implementation of three mobile learning projects introduced by Flanagan in 2011, 2012 and 2014 engaging a total of 206 participants. The latest of these projects is highlighted in this article. Two other projects provide additional examples of innovative strategies to engage mobile and cloud systems describing how electronic and mobile technology can help facilitate teaching and learning, assessment for learning and assessment as learning, and support communities of practice. The second section explains the theoretical premise supporting the implementation of technology and promulgates a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. The third section discusses mobility, both in terms of the exploration of wearable technology in the prototypes developed as a result of the projects, and the affordances of mobility within pedagogy. Finally the quantitative and qualitative methods in place to evaluate m-learning are explained.

Content structure discovery in educational videos using shared structures in the hierarchical hidden Markov models

In this paper, we present an application of the hierarchical HMM for structure discovery in educational videos. The HHMM has recently been extended to accommodate the concept of shared structure, ie: a state might multiply inherit from more than one parents. Utilising the expressiveness of this model, we concentrate on a specific class of video -educational videos - in which the hierarchy of semantic units is simpler and clearly defined in terms of topics and its subunits. We model the hierarchy of topical structures by an HHMM and demonstrate the usefulness of the model in detecting topic transitions.

On the extraction of thematic and dramatic functions of content in educational videos

In this paper, we propose novel computational models for the extraction of high level expressive constructs related to, namely thematic and dramatic functions of the content shown in educational and training videos. Drawing on the existing knowledge of film theory, and media production rules and conventions used by the filmmakers. we hypothesize key aesthetic elements contributing to convey these functions of the content. Computational models to extract them are then formulated and their performance evaluated on a set of ten educational and training videos is presented.

Directory of content specialists of the national research centers & regional educational laboratories.

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