Drama Grammatik: Dramapädagogische Ansätze für den Grammatikunterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache

This dissertation introduces and evaluates dramagrammar, a new concept for the teaching and learning of foreign language grammar. Grammar, traditionally taught in a predominantly cognitive, abstract mode, often fails to capture the minds of foreign language learners, who are then unable to integrate this grammatical knowledge into their use of the foreign language in a meaningful way. The consequences of this approach are manifested at university level in German departments in England and Ireland, where the outcomes are unconvincing at best, abysmal at worst. Language teaching research suggests that interaction plays an important role in foreign language acquisition. Recent studies also stress the significance of grammatical knowledge in the learning process. Dramagrammar combines both interactive negotiation of meaning and explicit grammar instruction in a holistic approach, taking up the concept of drama in foreign language education and applying it to the teaching and learning of grammar. Techniques from dramatic art forms allow grammar to be experienced not only cognitively but also in social, emotional, and bodily-kinaesthetic ways. Dramagrammar lessons confront the learner with fictitious situations in which grammar is experienced 'hands-on'. Learners have to use grammatical structures in a variety of contexts, reflect upon their use, and then enlarge and enrich the dramatic situations with their newly acquired or more finely nuanced knowledge. The initial hypothesis of this dissertation is that the drammagrammar approach is beneficial to the acquisition of foreign language grammar. This hypothesis is corroborated by research findings from language teaching pedagogy and drama in education. It is further confirmed by empirical data gained from specifically designed dramagrammar modules that have been put into practice in German departments at the University of Leicester (England), the University Colleges Cork and Dublin (Ireland), the University of Bologna (Italy), as well as the Goethe-Institute Bratislava (Slovenia). The data suggests that drammagrammar has positive effects on both understanding of and attitudes towards grammar.

Teaching yoga to seniors: essential considerations to enhance safety and reduce risk in a uniquely vulnerable age group.

BACKGROUND: Seniors age 65 and older represent the fastest-growing sector of the population and, like many Americans, are increasingly drawn to yoga. This presents both an extraordinary opportunity and a serious challenge for yoga instructors who must be both a resource and guardians of safety for this uniquely vulnerable group. A typical class of seniors is likely to represent the most diverse mix of abilities of any age group. While some may be exceedingly healthy, most fit the profile of the average older adult in America, 80% of whom have at least one chronic health condition and 50% of whom have at least two. OBJECTIVES: This article discusses the Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors program, offered since 2007 at Duke Integrative Medicine to fill a critical need to help yoga instructors work safely and effectively with the increasing number of older adults coming to yoga classes, and explores three areas that pose the greatest risk of compromise to older adult students: sedentary lifestyle, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis. To provide a skillful framework for teaching yoga to seniors, we have developed specific Principles of Practice that integrate the knowledge gained from Western medicine with yogic teachings.

Teaching neuraxial anesthesia techniques for obstetric care in a Ghanaian referral hospital: achievements and obstacles.

Anesthesia providers in low-income countries may infrequently provide regional anesthesia techniques for obstetrics due to insufficient training and supplies, limited manpower, and a lack of perceived need. In 2007, Kybele, Inc. began a 5-year collaboration in Ghana to improve obstetric anesthesia services. A program was designed to teach spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery and spinal labor analgesia at Ridge Regional Hospital, Accra, the second largest obstetric unit in Ghana. The use of spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery increased significantly from 6% in 2006 to 89% in 2009. By 2012, >90% of cesarean deliveries were conducted with spinal anesthesia, despite a doubling of the number performed. A trial of spinal labor analgesia was assessed in a small cohort of parturients with minimal complications; however, protocol deviations were observed. Although subsequent efforts to provide spinal analgesia in the labor ward were hampered by anesthesia provider shortages, spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery proved to be practical and sustainable.

TEACHING AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MUSIC IDSTORY WITH MODERN EDITIONS OF PERIOD MUSIC FOR FULL CONCERT BAND

This dissertation explores a method of teaching the history of Civil War music and musicians through modern full-band editions of original brass band music. In the study of music history the period of the Civil War is rarely discussed, or at best, mentioned only if a student takes a specific course on the history of bands and happens to look deeply into the background of some of the early band pioneers such as Patrick Gilmore, who served in the Union Army as a bandmaster. The history of the musicians, bands, and music performed during the Civil War deserves study to provide a way for students and audiences to learn this history. This project includes lesson plans that can be used with the arrangements of the period music as well as select published music that is also representative of the period. Included with the historical information are four arrangements of original brass band music now scored for full concert band. Each arrangement includes a section scored for brass only with optional brass band parts. Historical information is provided on the Civil War period bands and how each side used them, on the composers of the music, and also on the individual compositions. The historical information can be used to supplement the lesson plans to teach the history, as well as for program notes for audiences. The research involved locating information on both Union and Confederate bands available in books, other dissertations, articles, and interviews with Civil War music historians. The original brass band music is scored for full band. This method will allow teachers and conductors to highlight this period of wind band history and to share it with both students and audiences. Included with this project are photos and video footage taken during a visit with the 1st Brigade Band of Watertown, Wisconsin, an historical organization dedicated to recreating the music and performances of an actual Civil War era band.

TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THE BEST CHORAL REPERTOIRE FROM THE GREAT COMPOSERS: MASTERWORKS AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE, FREE ACCESS FROM THE CHORAL PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARY

Studying the choral works of the great composers of the past is always a worthy endeavor. For those aspiring to create an excellent high school choral program, it is critical to a student's musical foundation and heritage. Choral educators who teach high school are often bombarded with the most recently published new choral works, when they have a trove of excellent pieces right at their fingertips through websites like the Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL), all available at no cost. This project will explore the pedagogical reasons why this canon of public domain choral music should be taught at the high school level. A thorough guide to CPDL and an anthology of 200 works available on CPDL will provide the conductor with resources for programming this music. Though choral music in the public domain is free to all, publishers still publish this music and adhere copyright claims. This can create mistrust of legitimate editions on CPDL; why are they available at no cost when publishers are claiming copyright on similar editions? These issues will be thoroughly discussed in this project. For any given work on CPDL, there may be multiple editions available on the site. Choosing the right edition requires knowledge about basic editorial principles, especially for works written during the Renaissance period. A detailed discussion of these principles will provide the conductor with the tools needed to choose the best edition for his or her ensemble.

The role of questioning at university teaching : some thoughts from the agricultural and environmenal sciences perspectives

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Analyzing and selecting tasks for mathematics teaching: a heuristic

In planning units and lessons every day, teachers face the problem of designing a sequence of activities to promote learning. In particular, they are expected to foster the development of learning goals in their students. Based on the idea of learning path of a task, we describe a heuristic procedure to enable teachers to characterize a learning goal in terms of its cognitive requirements and to analyze and select tasks based on this characterization. We then present an example of how a group of future teachers used this heuristic in a preservice teachers training course and discuss its contributions and constraints.

An analysis of human behaviour during aircraft evacuation situations using the AASK v3.0 database

The Aircraft Accident Statistics and Knowledge (AASK) database is a repository of survivor accounts from aviation accidents. Its main purpose is to store observational and anecdotal data from the actual interviews of the occupants involved in aircraft accidents. The database has wide application to aviation safety analysis, being a source of factual data regarding the evacuation process. It is also key to the development of aircraft evacuation models such as airEXODUS, where insight into how people actually behave during evacuation from survivable aircraft crashes is required. This paper describes recent developments with the database leading to the development of AASK v3.0. These include significantly increasing the number of passenger accounts in the database, the introduction of cabin crew accounts, the introduction of fatality information, improved functionality through the seat plan viewer utility and improved ease of access to the database via the internet. In addition, the paper demonstrates the use of the database by investigating a number of important issues associated with aircraft evacuation. These include issues associated with social bonding and evacuation, the relationship between the number of crew and evacuation efficiency, frequency of exit/slide failures in accidents and exploring possible relationships between seating location and chances of survival. Finally, the passenger behavioural trends described in analysis undertaken with the earlier database are confirmed with the wider data set.

Teaching, learning and assessment in MSc. Databases units at University of Greenwich

In this paper we look at ways of delivering and assessing learning on database units offered on higher degree programmes (MSc) in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Greenwich. Of critical importance is the teaching methods employed for verbal disposition, practical laboratory exercises and a careful evaluation of assessment methods and assessment tools in view of the fact that databases involve not only database design but also use of practical tools, such as database management systems (DBMSs) software, human designers, database administrators (DBA) and end users. Our goal is to clearly identify potential key success factors in delivering and assessing learning in both practical and theoretical aspects of database course units.

A case study in the teaching of HCI

This poster describes a "real world" example of the teaching of Human-Computer Interaction at the final level of a Computer Science degree. It highlights many of the problems of the ever expanding HCI domain and the consequential issues of what to teach and why. The poster describes the conception and development of a new HCI course, its historical background, the justification for decisions made, lessons learnt from its implementation, and questions arising from its implementation that are yet to be addressed. For example, should HCI be taught as a course in its own right or as a component of another course? At what level is the teaching of HCI appropriate, and how is teaching influenced by industry? It considers suitable learning pedagogies as well as the demands and the contribution of industry. The experiences presented will no doubt be familiar to many HCI educators. Whilst the poster raises more questions than it answers, the resolution of some questions will hopefully be achieved by the workshop.

A survey of teaching and assessment methods employed in UK higher education programmes for HCI course

A survey of teaching and assessment methods employed in UK Higher Education programmes for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) courses was conducted in April 2003. The findings from this survey are presented, and conclusions drawn.