Design Of Teaching Activities Research Articles

CoCAR: An online synchronous training model for empowering ICT capacity of teachers of Chinese as a foreign language

<span>In response to the need to cultivate pre-service Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers' information and communication technology (ICT) competency in online synchronous environments, this research adopted a three-stage cyclical model named </span><em>cooperation-based cognition, action, and reflection</em><span> (CoCAR). The model was implemented in an 18-week program to prepare pre-service CFL teachers for online synchronous teaching. A qualitative approach was adopted to analyse the collected data. The results demonstrate that the CoCAR model benefits the pedagogical growth of the pre-service CFL teachers, and helps them to make progress in online synchronous teaching activity design and tool usage. The proposed model also creates a positive climate for technological and pedagogic knowledge to overcome some common problems in conventional teacher training programs. The CoCAR model, which emphasises cognition, action, and reflection, is considered suitable for the training of online synchronous teaching skills among CFL teachers, and can be applied to general training programs to enhance the ICT capacity of teachers.</span>

History, Applications, and Philosophy in Mathematics Education: HAPh—A Use of Primary Sources

The article first investigates the basis for designing teaching activities dealing with aspects of history, applications, and philosophy of mathematics in unison by discussing and analyzing the different ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of including these three dimensions in mathematics education. Based on the observation that a use of history, applications, and philosophy as a ‘goal’ is best realized through a modules approach, the article goes on to discuss how to actually design such teaching modules. It is argued that a use of primary original sources through a so-called guided reading along with a use of student essay assignments, which are suitable for bringing out relevant meta-issues of mathematics, is a sensible way of realizing a design encompassing the three dimensions. Two concrete teaching modules on aspects of the history, applications, and philosophy of mathematics—HAPh-modules—are outlined and the mathematical cases of these, graph theory and Boolean algebra, are described. Excerpts of student groups’ essays from actual implementations of these modules are displayed as illustrative examples of the possible effect such HAPh-modules may have on students’ development of an awareness regarding history, applications, and philosophy in relation to mathematics as a (scientific) discipline.

Examining Pre-Service Physics Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) with Web 2.0 Through Designing Teaching Activities

Emerging technologies require teachers to develop their PCK with technology. The aim of this study is to investigate the development of physics student teachers' PCK with technology through designing teaching activities with web 2.0 tools. Data were gathered through a survey of open-ended questions and teaching activities designed by student teachers. Participants were 20 fourth grade prospective physics student teachers who took the course, “Technology-Assisted Physics Teaching”, in the spring term of 2011. The course consisted of 14 three-hour lectures and laboratories about using web 2.0 technologies in teaching physics. Information about web 2.0 technologies was provided and student teachers were asked to design activities as pairs and share and discuss them with other groups, under the guidance of the lecturer. Data from the survey were analysed using inductive content analysis and student teachers' products were analysed using criteria of assessing ICT-TPCK. Findings revealed that most of the participants selected groups and blogs as platforms for sharing and discussing. Only six participants proposed wikis for students to establish wikis as dissemination of their work. Student teachers declared some advantages of web 2.0 technologies: their usage in and out of school, students' active participation in learning process, opportunity to share information and ideas and collaboration. They also stressed that these tools supports student-centric learning activities and students take the responsibility of their own learning. However, it is concluded that student teachers did not have a clear idea or methodology how to integrate web 2.0 technologies into teaching physics.

TEACHING FOR STATISTICAL LITERACY: UTILISING AFFORDANCES IN REAL-WORLD DATA

It is widely held that context is important in teaching mathematics and statistics. Consideration of context is central to statistical thinking, and any teaching of statistics must incorporate this aspect. Indeed, it has been advocated that real-world data sets can motivate the learning of statistical principles. It is not, however, a straightforward task to take a real-world example and incorporate it into a lesson that will teach important statistical principles. This paper considers issues involved in using real data to exemplify statistical ideas and examines pre-service teachers’ attempts to design teaching activities using such data. Pre-service teachers were supplied with a topical data set and asked to plan lessons that would teach some key statistical idea to year 6 students. The lessons were analysed using a hierarchy for teaching statistical literacy, and great variation was found in the level of statistical thinking demanded in the planned lessons. Teachers who had completed a preliminary activity helping them to think carefully about what might be taught from real data in general produced lessons with stronger statistical content. A key requirement for having lessons with deep consideration of statistical ideas is to identify the actual affordances for teaching contained within a data set; the planning process then benefits from explicit attention to making that content evident in the teaching activities.

Using user-centered design approach in course design

User-centered design approach is a contemporary design approach which actively involves users at every stage of the design process for the development of more effective, efficient and safe products. This paper is based on a case study that attempts to adapt this approach into course design in order to increase the effectiveness of teaching, and the learnability and success of university students. The paper discusses the phases of the designing process including analysis of student needs, limitations and expectancies in the teaching process, designing teaching activities, and assessment of students about courses designed with respect to user-centered design approach

Engaging with Historical Source Work

Although primary source work is a major component of undergraduate history degrees in many countries, the topic of how best to support this work has been relatively unexplored. This article addresses the pedagogical support of primary source work by reviewing relevant literature to identify the challenges undergraduates face in interpreting sources, and examining how in two courses carefully articulated course design and supportive teaching activities assisted students to meet these challenges. This fine-grained examination of the courses is framed within a socio-cultural account of learning. The findings show how a skilful drawing of students into the interpretive/discursive practices of source analysis was associated with an epistemological reframing of historical knowledge and dialogical forms of teaching that helped the students to take forward a dialectical engagement with sources. The benefits of an ‘integrated’ approach to source work that fosters students’ affective and intellectual engagement with historical interpretive practices are highlighted.