Didactic Challenges Research Articles

Teaching Human Geography Sustainability: The Concept of the Anthropocene as a Didactic Tool for Higher Education

Thesis. This critical reflection outlines the didactical challenge of teaching human geography in higher education, focusing on the concept of the Anthropocene as a tool for highlighting sustainability issues. Concepts. The critical reflection discusses the diverse knowledge production traditions, including modernist, postmodernist, and post-postmodernist approaches. It highlights the importance of understanding the ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying these frameworks, in relation to human geography, the concept of the Anthropocene and sustainability. Results and conclusion. The suggestion is a fourfold strategy for improving human geography education: emphasizing the relevance of knowledge production, understanding its impact on the student-teacher relationship, enriching teaching with epistemological discussions, and presenting the Anthropocene as a contested ontological concept rather than a predefined framework. Originality. This critical reflection offers a novel perspective on human geography higher education in how the concept of the Anthropocene can be used for didactic purposes. The paper argues that the concept of the Anthropocene can function as a didactic tool for higher and human geography education, by drawing out the human element within scientific knowledge production.

Industry 4.0 Ready: Transforming STEM Laboratory Courses – Continuous Distillation as Example

AbstractLaboratory courses are key to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs in higher education, but often lack the flexibility for distance learning and inclusiveness for all students. To address these challenges, TU Bergakademie Freiberg introduced remote laboratories not only for international degree programs and the “Disti4Study” application, which provides interactive visualization of industrial thermal separation processes. This paper focuses on the development and didactic challenges associated with the “Continuous Distillation Laboratory”. It illustrates how rethinking the technical and didactic frameworks of traditional laboratories can align with new learning objectives, such as those related to Industry 4.0, including the Internet of Things and data management.

Truth Commissions and Teacher Education in Australia and the Northern Nordics

In Australia, like in several of the Nordic countries, truth commissions (TCs) are becoming part of the political and educational landscape. These developments are related to a global phenomenon over the past 40-odd years, where states are examining their relations to minority groups and/or Indigenous people, including acknowledging historical mistreatment and addressing remaining injustices. A common aim of these processes is to spread knowledge to the broader public via institutions for education. This paper focuses on ongoing TC processes in the Australian and Nordic contexts, with a specific focus on their potential consequences for teacher education (TE). By addressing barriers and possibilities on systemic, institutional, and practical levels of TE, the paper aims to develop an understanding of (1) how new knowledge produced through TCs meets the organization of teacher training; possible ways for TE to respond to new requirements; and (2) of the pedagogical and didactical challenges that might entail. The main argument is that a closer professional dialogue is needed between scholars engaged in TCs and TEs for TE to better respond to the requirements of TCs and for TCs to better recognize conditions for organizing TE.

Some Reflections on the Environment of Reality and Modern Technologies Evolving in the Study of Law

An advanced university methodology is a response to modern general and particular didactic challenges that is conditioned by an effective and indisputable exploitation of modern methodological resources. Incorporating recent data from socio-psycho-pedagogical research, the current university methodology, in addition to classic, traditional strategies and methods, includes modern strategies and methods of teaching-learning-evaluation, but especially new ways of exploring the best-known traditional methods: the debate , heuristic conversation, problematization, case study, etc. and other methods of individual investigation and indirect exploration. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of professional thinking styles on legal teaching and training methods in law schools. In this article, we define what teaching methods are, explore new types of teaching methods, review the benefits of these methods, and offer some tips for doing so successfully. We summarize the literature and recent thinking on the role, form and practices of modern university teaching in the digital age.

INKLUZÍVNY TREND A DIDAKTICKÉ VÝZVY V EDUKÁCII ŠTUDENTOV UČITEĽSTVA

INCLUSIVE TREND AND DIDACTIC CHALLENGES IN THE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS OF TEACHING The authors present didactic challenges in connection with the inclusive trend and education reform, which require changes in the training of future teachers, educators, and teaching assistants. The teacher's intention in educating pupils should be to achieve mutual enrichment and support on the common path to knowledge. Part of the contribution is an outline of the complexity in the didactic preparation of students of teaching and a demonstration of the variety of possibilities in preparation for the chosen profession according to the statements of current students.

Перспективные направления дидактических исследований в России

The article presents the findings of the study undertaken as part of the project for the Russian Foundation for Basic Research — Promising Areas of Didactic Research in Russia. The authors discuss social and cultural issues in didactics, such as instability and non-standard living and professional conditions, the dynamism of the professional arena, unexpected intricacy of job responsibilities, and others. The study reveals how the research area has expanded beyond the discovery of common patterns in schooling and higher education to include preschool, postgraduate, corporate, domestic, and senior citizen education, as well as tutoring. It raises new didactic challenges related to the digital transformation of education and describes changes in the methodological regulation of didactic research using V.S. Styopin’s typology of scientific rationality, which encompasses classical, non-classical, and post-nonclassical kinds.
 The authors present a review of didactic research in higher education based on the integration of competency and value-semantic methods that focus on the search and application of perso­nal meanings in both education and subsequent activities. They also discuss the specific features of adult education practices as well as the challenges they pose to didactics, including changes in subjects of education, multi-agency in the educational process, multiple ‘integration points,’ ‘non-cognitive’ types of experience, a shift in the teacher’s position, and the coherence and complexity of didactic theory.

Civic Education and Democratic Identity in Contemporary Germany: Pedagogical Principles and Didactic Challenges in Times of Right-Wing Populism

ABSTRACT The article assesses the role of civic education in contexts of heightened political polarisation, especially with a focus on right-wing populism. By drawing on the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany, we argue that civic education is an indispensible building block in redeeming the famous Böckenförde dictum in modern pluralist democracies. We outline several key principles and challenges civic education has to address in order to foster a ‘thin’ notion of democratic identity – or ‘constitutional patriotism’ as outlined by Dolf Sternberger and Jürgen Habermas. Against this background, we discuss how neutral civic education can, may and should be. Finally, we conclude by formulating an appeal towards more attitude instead of restraint vis-à-vis right-wing populist positions.

4. Didactic Challenges in Teaching Violin Skills, at the Level of Beginner Pupils

Abstract The supporting idea of this work is to facilitate the acquisition and education of some violinist skills at the level of beginner pupils, using their little musical “creations”. The experimental study was implemented by the practicing students, within the activities of the “Pedagogical Practice” discipline.

Legal categories employed in resolving intercultural issues in education (analysis of responses to citizens' appeals by the ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan)

The internationalization of education is among the current trends in the field of higher and professional education in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Teaching in an intercultural classroom is undoubtedly appealing with its pedagogical novelty. At the same time, it reveals a number of new didactical challenges. Teachers face new issues concerning the optimal balance between different linguistic and cultural rights in the educational process entailing foreign students. From a conceptual point of view, knowing how to resolve these issues is one of the elements of intercultural communicative competence, which the authoritative author Darla Deardorff claims that university teachers should possess. Thus, the purpose of the article is to identify and analyze which key legal categories the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan resorts to when answering citizens' addresses about how intercultural conflicts should be resolved in the educational process. This article contributes to a theoretical understanding of intercultural communicative competence by clarifying the national context of those legal categories which are employed for resolving intercultural issues in education in Kazakhstan. Although the analysis relates to compulsory and professional education, its undisputed novelty is in working with primary data recovered from the full-text responses of the national ministry to citizens' questions. Analyzing fifteen full-text answers to citizens’ addresses by virtue of the method of qualitative content analysis, we were able to identify several key legal categories that are used in resolving intercultural issues in education. The explanation of findings shows a partial correspondence with modern theories of human rights in the intercultural educational environment. Key words: intercultural communicative competence; diversity in education; linguistic, cultural and religious rights in education; equality and non-discrimination

Ultra-Orthodox Telelearning During COVID-19: Parent, Teacher, and Principal Perspectives on Its Effectiveness

Aim/Purpose: This study addresses telephone learning channels during the coronavirus period in the ultra-Orthodox sector in Israel. The purpose of the study is to examine the effectiveness of the online and recorded telephone channels and the way they were perceived by the student’s parents and educators. Background: The ultra-orthodox society’s lack of use of online means has created many distant learning challenges for learners and educators. Methodology: The study combines quantitative and qualitative methods based on a comprehensive survey of parents of elementary school-aged children (N=395) and semistructured interviews (N=45) with parents, principals, and teachers in ultra-Orthodox schools. Contribution: The study describes a unique learning system in a unique population group, which does not use online means, from various points of view in the educational system. Findings: The results of the study indicate that parent attitudes toward telephonic learning – synchronous and asynchronous – are critical and that evaluations of its effectiveness are negative and ineffective. This evaluation stems from a variety of challenges faced by the learners: technical challenges related to the problematic infrastructure and terminal accessibility issues; didactic challenges related to adapting the learning style to the character of the students and their age; challenges arising from the characteristics of the medium: the lack of a visual dimension, its function as a one-way channel, and the lack of potential for effective interactivity; and the need for parental involvement and spatial challenges resulting from the crowded and limited learning space at home. Recommendations for Practitioners: Based on the research results, and in order to meet the challenges of a future pandemic or similarly disruptive crisis, telelearning spaces must be improved significantly. Recommendation for Researchers: The results can be used to examine how other unique communities, especially those that avoid the use of online means, are managing distance learning in a crisis. Impact on Society: It was found that telephone learning in ultra-Orthodox society during COVID-19 failed to realize the learning potential inherent in this channel for a number of reasons discussed in the article and failed to create the learning conditions necessary for telephone learning to succeed, as demonstrated in previous studies. Future Research: In a similarly disruptive crisis, future research should see whether or how telelearning spaces have improved or whether other learning methods have been adopted by the ultra-orthodox public.

NARRATIVE MEDICINE AS INTERDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE

Abstract When dealing with patients who talk about their illnesses, medical doctors need to interpret the stories they hear. Also, they need to make sense of their own experiences regarding their medical encounters. Narrative and its analysis plays a central role in such processes that require empathy and self-reflection. The interdisciplinary practice of teaching medical students concepts and theories from literary studies as well as discussing literary texts with them can expand their scientific medical understanding. This paper explores the concept of narrative in the context of geriatric medical humanities and narrative medicine, looking at how narrative competence translates into medical practice. Presenting findings from a seminar on Narrative medicine at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, it also addresses some methodological and didactic challenges of this interdisciplinary approach.

Eleven Reasons for Adaptation of Swedish Parenting Programs.

While questions about adaptation and fidelity are of great concern in many implementation projects, less attention has been paid to reasons for adaptations that remain when evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are used in clinical and community settings. This study aims to explore reasons for adaptations that can arise when using parenting programs in a community setting. Seventeen individual interviews with providers were conducted and analyzed thematically, resulting in 11 reasons for adaptations organized into four separate areas: characteristics of group leaders (supplementary skills and knowledge, preferred ways of working), characteristics of families (problem complexity, diverse or limited educational experience, non-parenting needs for support, colliding value systems), group incidents (criticism and challenges, excessive questions or discussions), and didactic challenges (lack of focus or engagement, limitations of the material, language differences). The study shows that factors triggering adaptation and fidelity decisions continuously reappear in the provision of parenting programs in community settings. Knowledge about reasons for adaptation can be used to inform decision-making during implementation planning, as well as the sustainment of implemented interventions.

Dealing with Global Issues in Religious Education. Didactical Impulses from the Discourse in German-Speaking Countries

This article points out central didactical challenges in dealing with worldwide issues in religious education and outlines first perspectives for an answer. It primarily refers to the research discourse on Global Education in the German-speaking context. The hermeneutically conceived study demonstrates three basic challenges. First, the relationship between the normativity of global guiding principles and the right of students to form their own judgments must be balanced. Second, it seems necessary to include critical problem analyses from the Global South. The third challenge is to find ways to support young people in thinking and acting under conditions of global complexity.

La théorie du Językowy Obraz Świata (Image Linguistique du Monde) : du monde universitaire polonais au contexte académique français

The paper proposes to link French (or Francophone) and Polish university didactics, in a context where their linguistic and cultural roots differ. The reflexion is based on the articulation of two theories: an object-theory (the Językowy Obraz Świata), which is borrowed from the field of polonistics, and an instrument-theory, (Perelman’s New Rhetoric). The didactic challenge is to propose a neo-rhetorical platform where prior agreements on concepts and theories are negotiated in order to finally raise students’ awareness of the problem of transfers of concepts and theories in the context of philological studies. These agreements must be made first within the same scientific community (Polish community), then between scientific communities representing different cultures (Polish and French communities).

Bible Didactics and Social Inequality? Critical Considerations on the Interconnection of Religious Education and Heterogeneous Settings

This paper deals with the question, to what extent, in the German context, have biblical didactic implications and systemic requirements in religious education led to social inequality in heterogeneous classrooms. Based on four different case studies in elementary, middle, and vocational schools, an empirical insight is provided that sheds exploratory and descriptive light on the construction of reality in the context of biblical learning. The analysis clearly shows that physical as well as socialization-related limitations, structural and systemic conditions in the German school system, and also strangeness and existential irrelevance, are obvious barriers that prevent students in heterogeneous settings from accessing biblical learning. In the synopsis, with theological–pedagogical implications as well as didactical challenges, it becomes clear how necessary difference-sensitive Bible didactics in the context of heterogeneity and social inequality is. Finally, based on the empirical evidence of the analyzed case studies and the theoretical framings, concrete expectations for biblical learning in religious education, in relation to heterogeneity and social inequality, are highlighted.

Peningkatan Kemampuan Berpikir Kritis Mahasiswa dalam Kerangka Lesson Study Melalui Model Pembelajaran Berbasis Masalah

Lesson Study is considered effective to be used to improve the quality of learning. Lesson Study implementation can be assisted by the application of problem-based learning model (PBL). Through PBL students' critical thinking skills can be improved. The purpose of the research in this article is to increase students' critical thinking skills within the framework of Lesson Study through a problem-based learning model. The method used in this research is a qualitative-quantitative method with the type of action research. Qualitative data were obtained from observation sheets, while quantitative data were obtained from student learning outcomes. The success of research based on qualitative data if 80% of the implementation of learning is in accordance with the learning scenario, while the success of quantitative data is obtained if at least 65% of students get good grades. Based on the results of the research, 80% of learning activities are in accordance with the learning scenario, while students who score in a good category are 71.42%, which means more than 65%. From the learning process, several findings were obtained. The findings are: (1) the didactic challenge is a mandatory thing that must be presented in the implementation of learning; (2) didactic challenges must be contextual; (3) problem-based learning improves students' critical thinking skills.

Using machine learning to find cloud‐base height: a didactic challenge

This is an example of the training data used to learn how to predict lowest cloud-base height using a neural network. The Illustration shows 1300 columns that form part of a training data array. Each column consists of 280 rows, comprising 70 rows each of standardised temperature, humidity and pressure and 70 rows indicating the location of lowest cloud base in binary format. To benefit those wishing to begin exploring machine learning in an atmospheric science context, we provide a dataset and some example code, which can be used to train a neural network to predict the height of cloud base given profiles of temperature, humidity and pressure.

Представления студентов вуза о дистанционном обучении в период пандемии Covid-19

Introduction. The ongoing pandemic has made computer-mediated learning in higher education ubiquitous, often posing organizational, methodological, psychological and didactic challenges to teachers and students. The current research investigates perceptions of computer-mediated and on-campus learning during the pandemic among students in various years of study. Materials and Methods. The research was conducted at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia in February 2021. The participants were 81 students in all years of study enrolled on psychology degree programs which were originally “on-campus” programs. The research was conducted by means of a two-part questionnaire which was administered using Google Docs. In the first part, participants were asked to rate, based on their personal experience, computer-mediated and on-campus learning in terms of effectiveness, resource intensity and consideration of the student’s individual differences using a 5-point Likert scale. They were also asked to indicate their preferred mode of education. In the second part, participants were asked to rate their personal experience with computer-mediated learning based on a number of criteria. These criteria were content-related (quality of theoretical and practical training), social (feeling as part of the department, the university, the psychological community; degree of social inclusion/isolation; access to aid from the teachers) and organizational (comfort with the organization of the learning process, ability to self-organize). Results. The results showed that students in different years of study are guided by different criteria of computer-mediated learning effectiveness. Specifically, students in the 3rd and 4th years of study significantly more often rate computer-mediated learning (compared to on-campus learning) as more effective (p < 0.01) and providing a better quality of theoretical training. In contrast, students in the 1st and 2nd years of study significantly more often think that it is only on-campus learning that can ensure a more high-quality theoretical training (p < 0.01). Senior students’ assessment of their learning effectiveness correlates with the availability of up-to-date information about events at the university, the access to aid from the teachers, and the consistency of the knowledge gained (p < 0.05). Conclusion. These results can be used to organize psychological and pedagogical support of the educational process in order to prevent the socio-psychological maladaptation of students in various years of study in the course of computer-mediated learning.

Cultures that collide: an ethnographic study of the introduction of a palliative care consultation team on acute wards

BackgroundAcute care and palliative care (PC) are described as different incompatible organisational care cultures. Few studies have observed the actual meeting between these two cultures. In this paper we report part of ethnographic results from an intervention study where a palliative care consultation team (PCCT) used an integrative bedside education approach, trying to embed PC principles and interventions into daily practice in acute wards.PurposeTo study the meeting and interaction of two different care cultures, palliative care and curative acute wards, when a PCCT introduces consulting services to acute wards regarding end-of-life palliative care, focusing on the differences between the cultures.MethodsAn ethnographic study design was used, including observations, interviews and diary entries. A PCCT visited acute care wards during 1 year. The analysis was inspired by Spradleys ethnography.ResultsThree themes were found: 1) Anticipations meets reality; 2) Valuation of time and prioritising; and 3) The content and creation of palliative care.ConclusionThere are many differences in values, and the way PC are provided in the acute care wards compared to what a PCCT expects. The didactic challenges are many and the PC require effort.

Teaching geographies of the far-right in Germany – conceptualising hate and fear as didactic challenges

ABSTRACT The focus of this paper is the affective dimension of far-right discourses which we consider challenges for teaching. The rise of the far-right in many parts of the world has led to a growing body of work in the social sciences. However, as the topic has become the subject of academic scrutiny its controversial nature also demands a debate on teaching strategies and principles. Drawing on two courses on the political geography of the far-right taught at two German universities, we propose paying special attention to the affective potentials of far-right discourses and taking a normative anti-fascist approach to facilitate critical thinking, solidarity, and empathy in the classroom. Additionally, we also urge educators to pay close attention to emotions students might experience when analysing and discussing the far-right. This paper situates the case studies within the context of far-right mobilisations in Germany and describes the challenges of developing the syllabus and the teaching strategies. It concludes with data from a survey amongst students who attended the courses on the perception and emotional reaction towards the far-right showing that students are affected and potentially frustrated given the current success of the far-right but also see the need for counter action.