Multi-theoretic approaches to understanding the science classroom

Multi-camera on-site video technology and post-lesson video stimulated interviews were used in a purposefully inclusive research design to generate a complex data set amenable to parallel analyses from several complementary theoretical perspectives. The symposium reports the results of parallel analyses employing positioning theory, systemic functional linguistics, distributed cognition and representational analysis of the same nine-lesson sequence in a single science classroom during the teaching of a single topic: States of Matter. Without contesting the coherence and value of a well-constructed mono-theoretic research study, the argument is made that all such studies present an inevitably partial account of a setting as complex as the science classroom: privileging some aspects and ignoring others. In this symposium, the first presentation examined the rationale for multi-theoretic research designs, highlighting the dangers of the circular amplification of those constructs predetermined by the choice of theory and outlining the intended benefits of multi-theoretic designs that offer less partial accounts of classroom practice. The second and third presentations reported the results of analyses of the same lesson sequence on the topic “states of matter” using the analytical perspectives of positioning theory and systemic functional linguistics. The final presentation reported the comparative analysis of student learning of density over the same three lessons from distributed cognition and representational perspectives. The research design promoted a form of reciprocal interrogation, where the analyses provided insights into classroom practice and the comparison of the analyses facilitated the reflexive interrogation of the selected theories, while also optimally anticipating the subsequent synthesis of the interpretive accounts generated by each analysis of the same setting for the purpose of informing instructional advocacy.

Readiness for interprofessional learning : a cross-faculty comparison between architecture and occupational therapy students

Health and wellbeing includes a need for built environments to accommodate and be inclusive of the broadest range of people and a corresponding need to ensure graduates are ready to engage in this field of interprofessional and inter-industry practise. All too often, interprofessional education in higher education is neglected with a tendency towards educational silos, particularly at a cross-faculty level. This paper reports on an initiative that embedded universal design practice education into the curricula of first year architecture and third year occupational therapy students and evaluated the impact on students’ readiness for interprofessional learning. The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) was given to students at the beginning and end of the semester during which students participated in a variety of online and face-to-face curriculum initiatives. Results showed that at the beginning of semester, occupational therapy students were significantly more positive about interprofessional learning than their architecture counterparts. Post-results showed that this trend continued but that occupational therapy students became less positive on some items after the interprofessional learning experience. This study provides insights into the interprofessional learning experiences of a group of students who have not previously been studied within the available literature.

eVALUate: an evaluation instrument for measuring students’ perceptions of their engagement and learning outcomes

In the current climate in Australian higher education, quality assurance in university teaching is a priority. In particular, the introduction of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) has refocused attention on universities’ internal student evaluation survey instruments. This paper reports the development, validation and implementation of a new unit survey instrument which prompts students to reflect on what helps their achievement of unit learning outcomes, and to report their levels of motivation, engagement and overall satisfaction with a semester‐long course or unit of study. The instrument (eVALUate) was created from precepts reported in the research literature, current practices in evaluating teaching, and sound quality assurance practices appropriate to a university outcomes‐focused education paradigm.

Educação Física e a Cultura da Prática

physical education with a discipline or field has reached the status and scope in all spheres of contemporary culture. Not by chance that issues relating to body and human movement in recent years have been the focus of studies, especially understanding of the need to reflect on new concepts in physical education. Science in the traditional sense, as a method of analysis supports the idea of scientific rigor, but is fundamental reflection. This essay seeks the interface between science and philosophy, on which discussions can take other visibilities in physical education as an activity of the culture. With interdisciplinary approaches and thinking about body movement, focus on scientific concepts and philosophical traverse historically a possible way to rethink the design physical education.

Iniciativa privada e educação pública: contribuições metodológicas para a análise de objetos de pesquisa difusos na área de política e gestão educacional

Provides elements for a reflection on methodological strategies in the face of objects of study that prove difficult to approach. Through a case study in education, seeks to show that difficulties in obtaining information and data have been overcome by using an analytical model developed. It is shown that its use allowed inferences broader and reveal hidden inconsistencies in discussions on public and private education. Intended to assist reflection on qualitative research methods for those who deal with such studies. Concludes that the current expectations of management efficiency and transfer of resources sufficient quantity and quality have not materialized with a private enterprise under public education, even if we have succeeded in building a positive image by the promoters of this action with the sectors of public opinion. Prevailing trade policy interests at the expense of the motivations declared the initiative of aid to education, and even can not be said that the initiative has resulted in a private redefined the public character of the systems affected, there is evidence that its implementation represents a unique chapter focused "education", compared to a scenario in which stand out historically mutual aid agreements of a politicaleconomic development between state and private enterprise.

A arquitetura patrimonial através dos jogos digitais

O presente artigo pretende ressaltar o potencial dos jogos digitais como instrumento de assimilação do conhecimento em arquitetura patrimonial, através da pesquisa Patrimônio arquitetônico, design e educação: desenvolvimento de Sistemas Interativos Lúdicos (jogos educativos em meio digital). Nesta pesquisa foram desenvolvidos jogos digitais a partir do levantamento das características arquitetônicas dos edifícios de relevância histórica e cultural da cidade de São Carlos. Através da interação e exploração da interface digital pelo usuário, a apropriação do conhecimento ocorre de uma forma lúdica e criativa. Por meio da manipulação desses jogos, os alunos, cidadãos e visitantes podem aproximar-se da educação patrimonial adquirindo consciência histórica e aprendendo a valorizar as origens da cidade e a arquitetura do município. Ressalta-se a importância das metodologias que permitem viabilizar o desenvolvimento dos jogos eletrônicos (desenho e linguagem de programação) e que se apresentam como importantes ferramentas de representação da arquitetura. Por fim, destaca-se a importância da educação patrimonial para a formação do cidadão e preservação do patrimônio cultural.

Mobile Games for Learning

Today, pupils at the age of 15 have spent their entire life surrounded by and interacting with diverse forms of computers. It is a routine part of their day-to-day life and by now computer-literacy is common at very early age. Over the past five years, technology for teens has become predominantly mobile and ubiquitous within every aspect of their lives. To them, being online is an implicitness. In Germany, 88% of youth aged between 12-19 years own a smartphone and about 20% use the Internet via tablets. Meanwhile, more and more young learners bring their devices into the classroom and pupils increasingly demand for innovative and motivating learning scenarios that strongly respond to their habits of using media. With this development, a shift of paradigm is slowly under way with regard to the use of mobile technology in education. By now, a large body of literature exists, that reports concepts, use-cases and practical studies for effectively using technology in education. Within this field, a steadily growing body of research has developed that especially examines the use of digital games as instructional strategy. The core concern of this thesis is the design of mobile games for learning. The conditions and requirements that are vital in order to make mobile games suitable and effective for learning environments are investigated. The base for exploration is the pattern approach as an established form of templates that provide solutions for recurrent problems. Building on this acknowledged form of exchanging and re-using knowledge, patterns for game design are used to classify the many gameplay rules and mechanisms in existence. This research draws upon pattern descriptions to analyze learning game concepts and to abstract possible relationships between gameplay patterns and learning outcomes. The linkages that surface are the starting bases for a series of game design concepts and their implementations are subsequently evaluated with regard to learning outcomes. The findings and resulting knowledge from this research is made accessible by way of implications and recommendations for future design decisions.

The illness experiences of patients and their family members living with congestive heart failure

Purpose. To investigate and understand the illness experiences of patients and their family members living with congestive heart failure (CHF). ^ Design. Focused ethnographic design. ^ Setting. One outpatient cardiology clinic, two outpatient heart failure clinics, and informants' homes in a large metropolitan city located in southeast Texas. ^ Sample. A purposeful sampling technique was used to select a sample of 28 informants. The following somewhat overlapping, sampling strategies were used to implement the purposeful method: criterion; typical case; operational construct; maximum variation; atypical case; opportunistic; and confirming and disconfirming case sampling. ^ Methods. Naturalistic inquiry consisted of data collected from observations, participant observations, and interviews. Open-ended semi-structured illness narrative interviews included questions designed to elicit informant's explanatory models of the illness, which served as a synthesizing framework for the analysis. A thematic analysis process was conducted through domain analysis and construction of data into themes and sub-themes. Credibility was enhanced through informant verification and a process of peer debriefing. ^ Findings. Thematic analysis revealed that patients and their family members living with CHF experience a process of disruption, incoherence, and reconciling. Reconciling emerged as the salient experience described by informants. Sub-themes of reconciling that emerged from the analysis included: struggling; participating in partnerships; finding purpose and meaning in the illness experience; and surrendering. ^ Conclusions. Understanding the experiences described in this study allows for a better understanding of living with CHF in everyday life. Findings from this study suggest that the experience of living with CHF entails more than the medical story can tell. It is important for nurses and other providers to understand the experiences of this population in order to develop appropriate treatment plans in a successful practitioner-patient partnership. ^

The illness narratives of Hispanic American women with coronary heart disease (CHD): An ethnographic approach

Purpose. To provide a descriptive representation of the illness narratives described by Hispanic American women with CHD. ^ Design. Focused ethnographic design. ^ Setting. One outpatient general medicine clinic, one nurse-managed health promotion clinic, and informants' homes in a large metropolitan city located in southeast Texas. ^ Sample. Purposeful sampling from two different sites resulted in 17 interviews being conducted with 14 informants. ^ Method. Focused ethnographic techniques were employed in the designation of participants for the study, data collection, analysis and re-presentation. Audiotaped interviews and fieldwork were transcribed verbatim and analyzed through an iterative process of data reduction, data display, drawing conclusions and verification. ^ Findings. The developing conceptual framework that emerged from the data is labeled after the overarching experience described by informants, the experience of Embodied Exhaustion. Embodied Exhaustion, as described in this study, refers to an ongoing, dynamic, indeterminate experience of mind-body exhaustion resulting from a complex constellation of biologic, psychological and social distresses occurring over the life course. The experience consists of three categories: Taking Care of Others, Wearing Down and Hurting Hearts. Two stabilizing forces were identified: Collective Self and Believing in God. ^ Conclusions. The findings of this study emphasize the importance of framing all research, theory and practice targeting Hispanic women with CHD within a sociocentric paradigm. Nursing is challenged to provide care that extends beyond the physical body of the patient to include the social context of illness, especially the family. ^

A Qualitative Study of the Assistive Technology Decision-Making Process in Four Pennsylvania School Districts

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the Assistive Technology decision making process at four regional school districts in Pennsylvania. A qualitative case study research method involving the triangulation of data sources was implemented to collect and analyze data. Through an analysis of the data, three major topics emerged that will be addressed in the body of this paper: (a) the procedure for determining assistive technology needs and the dynamics of the decision-making process, b) the cohesiveness of Special Education and General Education programs, and c) major concerns that impact the delivery of assistive technology services.

Age-related macular degeneration patients' awareness of nutritional factors

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of visual impairment in older adults in the United Kingdom. This study sought to characterise AMD patients who seek the services of the Macular Society, and determine the level and source of their dietary knowledge. A questionnaire was designed, validated, and administered to 158 participants. The questions covered demographic data and knowledge of nutrition and supplementation. The mean age of participants was 79 years; 61% of them were female, and 27% were registered visually impaired. Only 55% of the participants thought diet was important for eye health, 63% felt that they had not received enough information about AMD. The participants reported that their information mainly came from non-professional support groups. Most participants identified healthy food, but could not say why, and were not able to identify carotenoid rich foods. The results of the study will inform design of education and dissemination methods regarding dietary information. © The Author(s) 2014.

A docência na educação infantil: representações sociais dos professores cursistas do proinfantil do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte sobre o trabalho docente

The overall objective of this research is to identify and analyze social representations of (the) teachers(the) Ranciere the Initial Training Program for Teachers in Office in Early Childhood Education - PROINFANTIL - UFRN/MEC on the teaching work, seeking to identify their constituent elements and understand the dynamics of your organization. We assume that these teachers work fundamentally, in the institutions of Early Childhood Education, with knowledge of common sense and related cultural inherent to be/do professor in the design of education guardian/giving handouts to ensure the physical integrity of children, causing a rift between the caring and educating. From this general objective, we elected as specific objectives: identify the social, economic and cultural backgrounds of these (the) teachers (sa); identify what is teaching work for them (the) as well as identify which the psychosocial implications driven by RS on teaching work that point to tensions between the training and the exercise teacher as activity profissional.Como theoretical foundation we opted for Social Representations Theory of Moscovici (2003), Jodelet (2001); Specificities of the teaching Work in Early Childhood Education: Kramer (2002; 2006); OliveiraFormosinho (2007); Zilma de Oliveira (2007), Teacher Training: Ramalho, Nunez and Galthier (2003) and Tardif and Lessard (2008), content Analysis: Bardin (2004). As methodological procedure, we chose the Central Nucleus theory, developed by Jean Claude Abric (2000). Contributed to the scope of this objective the 171 teachers (the) that concluded the Proinfantil NBs to participate of TALP with justifications. The corpus arising from evocations around the words suggested by Carlos Chagas Foundation: give classrooms, teacher, pupil and added the word Child Education, were subjected to a treatment with the aid of the EVOC software (2000), identifying the central nucleus. The results indicate the words more evoked and significant: Planning, child care, educating, and play. Indicating that for these (the) teachers (the) the teaching work in Early Childhood Education must have a systematic pedagogical to educate children. These words correspond to the specificity of being/doing teaching in Early Childhood Education. However, the data shows that it is a job with different characteristics of the teaching work in other stages of education

Caixa dos estímulos para o ensino pré-escolar

Dissertação de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Design de Comunicação, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitectura.

O designer interventivo

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Design de Comunicação, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitectura.

Characterising the Australian engineering workforce and engineering graduate occupational outcomes using national census data

The purpose of undergraduate engineering education is to develop graduates who are capable of commencing professional engineering practice. Professional education should equip graduates with the skills, knowledge and attitudes required for their initial professional practice. It should also enable the capacity to continue the professional development required to refresh knowledge and skills as the graduates mature and the nature of professional engineering work develops. However, it is true that many graduates from professional engineering programs, either immediately or at some later time, pursue a career outside of professional engineering. The reasons for this are widely speculated upon, and are no doubt complex. In this regard, the professional engineering workforce, the undergraduate engineering education system, the links between them, and the occupational outcomes for engineering graduates in Australia are similar to many other developed nations. Using the latest Australian national census data we present a detailed analysis of the makeup of the professional engineering workforce and the occupational outcomes for graduates of undergraduate engineering programs in Australia. The data show that the Australian professional engineering workforce is comprised of people with a wide range of educational qualifications, and, even immediately post-graduation, many Australian engineering graduates pursue non-engineering occupations. This analysis presents important findings for those designing undergraduate engineering curricula that seek to equip students for the best employment outcomes, given the nature of the professional engineering work environment, and the short- and long-term occupations that engineering graduates actually pursue in Australia.