Characteristics Of Teaching Research Articles

The Nature and Quality of Algebra Instruction: Using a Content-Focused Observation Tool as a Lens for Understanding and Improving Instructional Practice

Algebra is a key course in the high school mathematics sequence. Despite its prominence, large-scale examinations of algebra instruction are rare and it is not clear whether and how instructional practices that support students’ learning of algebra content manifest in classroom instruction. Drawing on video from 108 ninth-grade algebra lessons from 5 districts recorded as part of the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project, I describe instruction using scores from a newly developed, algebra-focused observation tool to ground the description of instructional practice in the content being taught. I present the range of instructional formats and the nature and quality of algebra-focused instructional features related to the teaching of procedures and to the ways in which teachers leverage connections to support students’ algebra learning. To illustrate these descriptive results, I present case studies of 2 lessons: 1 rated typical and 1 rated high-quality. I find that although the majority of lessons in the sample follow traditional formats, specific instructional features that benefit student learning in algebra are present to a modest degree across lessons, though not often at high levels of quality. The case lessons demonstrate both glimmers of promise and missed opportunities to engage in instruction that benefits student learning of algebra. I discuss the implications of these results for improving the quality of algebra teaching and argue for the affordances of a content-focused observation tool as a lens for instructional improvement efforts.

Middle school social studies models of disciplinary argumentation instruction: a framework for encouraging writing growth

Modeling, exhibiting, and expressing the cognitive processes involved in writing has been demonstrated to be advantageous to students in terms of helping them develop their writing abilities. Research has shown that this is beneficial to the students. Demonstrating and describing the mental processes engaged during the act of writing is one of the numerous definitions that may be given for the term "modeling." Examining certain pedagogical features of teaching with models has gotten a far lower amount of attention and effort than other parts of this research. We present a paradigm for teaching thinking and writing models, which gives educators and researchers fresh insights into the modeling activity that is unique to several academic subjects. This paradigm may be applied to the teaching of thinking and writing models. This is the location of the paradigm in question. This may be completed by relying on previous English Language Arts research and using it in inquiry contexts relevant to social studies. This can be done by drawing on previous research carried out in English Language Arts. In this piece, we will discuss the instructional approach we have built for teaching writing and thinking models, and we will focus on how we use it. The investigation that was carried out in English Language Arts was utilized in the process of constructing this framework. This structure considers three pedagogical approaches:demonstrating and explaining demonstrating and cooperating with students on constructing model texts using models as a teaching tool (either a tool or a book)
 The author then examines eleven instructional strategies; all focused on enabling training across various educational contexts and methods. This leads to the next section. In order to demonstrate how two distinct educators use these practices throughout all three modes of teaching, we analyze the data gathered over three years of social studies education and collect it over three years. The information was gathered during the duration of a student's first, second, and third years of study in the social sciences. By highlighting how disciplinary thinking and processes enable writing social studies arguments with sources, our goal is to demonstrate how students can actively engage in teaching writing by using models. Our goal is to show how students can actively engage in teaching writing in various ways. We will accomplish both goals by highlighting how disciplinary thinking and processes enable writing social studies arguments with sources. In addition to this, we take into account the role that the training is supposed to play in the completion of this assignment. Finally, we highlight the framework's potential to guide the work of academics and practitioners on writing instruction in various disciplinary contexts by demonstrating how writing instruction may be applied to address disciplinary ways of thinking in social studies. This is done to highlight the potential of the framework to guide the work of academics and practitioners on writing instruction in various disciplinary contexts. This illustrates that the framework may be used in various scenarios in different fields of study. As a result, we are in a position to emphasize the framework's potential for directing the work of academics and practitioners on writing education across various disciplinary contexts.

Психолого-педагогічна характеристика учнів з помірною розумовою відсталістю як основа визначення напрямів педагогічної роботи.

У спеціальній психолого-педагогічній науці та практиці найбільша увага приділяється найчисельнішій категорії осіб з інтелектуальними порушеннями – особам з легкою розумовою відсталістю. На сучасному етапі поширення в Україні світової тенденції гуманістичного ставлення суспільства до осіб з особливими потребами, можливості навчання таких дітей у різноманітних освітніх установах, актуальною стала й проблема особливостей педагогічного процесу щодо дітей з помірною розумовою відсталістю.У статті наведені результати теоретичного дослідження, спрямованого на визначення напрямів педагогічної роботи з огляду на психолого-педагогічну характеристику осіб з помірною розумовою відсталістю – на особливості розвитку пізнавальної та особистісної сфер, спілкування, практичної діяльності та самообслуговування, на відповідні особливості та можливості педагогічного впливу. При цьому визначено, що спеціально організованиий педагогічний процес має здійснюватися передусім у плані виховання, розвитку й сприяння їхній соціально-побутовій адаптації та базуватися переважно на тренуванні.

A novel filter–wrapper hybrid greedy ensemble approach optimized using the genetic algorithm to reduce the dimensionality of high-dimensional biomedical datasets

The predictive accuracy of high-dimensional biomedical datasets is often dwindled by many irrelevant and redundant molecular disease diagnosis features. Dimensionality reduction aims at finding a feature subspace that preserves the predictive accuracy while eliminating noise and curtailing the high computational cost of training. The applicability of a particular feature selection technique is heavily reliant on the ability of that technique to match the problem structure and to capture the inherent patterns in the data. In this paper, we propose a novel filter–wrapper hybrid ensemble feature selection approach based on the weighted occurrence frequency and the penalty scheme, to obtain the most discriminative and instructive feature subspace. The proposed approach engenders an optimal feature subspace by greedily combining the feature subspaces obtained from various predetermined base feature selection techniques. Furthermore, the base feature subspaces are penalized based on specific performance dependent penalty parameters. We leverage effective heuristic search strategies including the greedy parameter-wise optimization and the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize the subspace ensembling process. The effectiveness, robustness, and flexibility of the proposed hybrid greedy ensemble approach in comparison with the base feature selection techniques, and prolific filter and state-of-the-art wrapper methods are justified by empirical analysis on three distinct high-dimensional biomedical datasets. Experimental validation revealed that the proposed greedy approach, when optimized using GA, outperformed the selected base feature selection techniques by 4.17%–15.14% in terms of the prediction accuracy.

Articulation Practices in Designing Teacher Training Courses: Perspectives and Differentiations in Complicated, Rephrased Patterns of Truth and Functionality

This paper delves into the process of developing and providing educational training courses to teachers. In this respect, issues of adaptive policies are analysed based on the underlying system necessities. The selective correlations conducive to structuring converging fields among the social, political and cultural domains are also defined. Developmental operations about the sub-sampling of training models are clarified in such a way so as to highlight an educational policy on teachers' training in the form of a symbolic universe characterised by the educational domain interdependence and confined autonomy. The paper focuses on the constructed status of truth to meet teachers' needs. An obsessive quest for degrees and certification is prevailing, while teachers’ personal time is being shrunk by the imposed “demands”. The issue of domineering educational training packages is emphasized, as they cannot be considered educational discourse regardless of their technical or pedagogical features. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.6. 10

Acmeological Approach as a Factor of Professional and Pedagogical Selfrealization of Students of a High Educational Institution at Studying of Foreign Languages

In the article the authors discover historical and pedagogical aspect of training in foreign languages and pay attention to requirement of revision of conceptual and methodical bases. Through a prism of psychology and pedagogical features of understanding and perception of the person by the person in the conditions of educational and informative process. The authors prove expediency of acmeological approach when training foreign languages. Consecutive and purposeful realization in educational process of higher education institution of the revealed psychology and pedagogical conditions provides effective formation of an acmeological orientation of the identity of students that is the most important result of realization of acmeological approach in a system of vocational training.Within the research framework, the approbation of the model of acmeological approach in vocational education was carried out, using the example of teaching foreign language to students of the Tyumen Industrial University.

Психолого-педагогические особенности организации самостоятельной работы студентов-психологов в образовательной среде «Moodle»

Psychological and pedagogical features of the organization of independent work of students-psychologists in the educational environment the description of the electronic educational environment Moodle for the organization of independent work of students-psychologists. The features of the independent work, requirements for the design of electronic environments.Description the results of the evaluation of students of different types of tasks for independent work from the standpoint of interest and efficiency for the final certification. The conclusions about the feasibility of using specific types of tasks for independent work in the electronic environment.

Educational Stakeholders’ Independent Evaluation of an Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Adaptive Learning System Using Bayesian Network Predictive Simulations

Artificial intelligence-enabled adaptive learning systems (AI-ALS) are increasingly being deployed in education to enhance the learning needs of students. However, educational stakeholders are required by policy-makers to conduct an independent evaluation of the AI-ALS using a small sample size in a pilot study, before that AI-ALS can be approved for large-scale deployment. Beyond simply believing in the information provided by the AI-ALS supplier, there arises a need for educational stakeholders to independently understand the motif of the pedagogical characteristics that underlie the AI-ALS. Laudable efforts were made by researchers to engender frameworks for the evaluation of AI-ALS. Nevertheless, those highly technical techniques often require advanced mathematical knowledge or computer programming skills. There remains a dearth in the extant literature for a more intuitive way for educational stakeholders—rather than computer scientists—to carry out the independent evaluation of an AI-ALS to understand how it could provide opportunities to educe the problem-solving abilities of the students so that they can successfully learn the subject matter. This paper proffers an approach for educational stakeholders to employ Bayesian networks to simulate predictive hypothetical scenarios with controllable parameters to better inform them about the suitability of the AI-ALS for the students.

Making sense of making: critical issues in the integration of maker education into schools

ABSTRACTThis article considers growing calls for the integration of so-called ‘maker technologies’ and associated ‘maker’ practices into schools and other formal education settings. Moving on from the largely celebratory literature in this area, the article seeks to further explore the tensions between the educational potential of maker technology and the realities of its use in school and classroom contexts. In particular, the article focuses on fundamental – but so far little acknowledged – tensions surrounding the social, cultural, political contexts of maker education, alongside the epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of maker technologies as tools for learning. It is concluded that maker education must not be seen as a ready fit with formal schooling. Instead, teachers and schools are likely to require sustained support to make the most of maker technologies within the demands and constraints of contemporary school contexts.

Supporting self-regulated learning and personalization using ePortfolios: a semantic approach based on learning paths

In the area of e-learning, there are new challenges to be overcome. One of them is to allow students self-regulation of their learning. Within this self-regulation process, students and teachers use technological tools to carry out their tasks. In general, these tools do not consider pedagogical aspects. Emerging approaches propose the use of electronic portfolios and semantic technologies to provide pedagogical characteristics that make tools more user-friendly for both teachers and students. This paper presents a conceptual model of an intelligent system to support self-regulated learning. This model is based on semantic technologies and uses the concepts of learning paths and student e-portfolios. For learning path generation, the system considers the different learning levels that a student should achieve and metrics that measure student progress. In this way, it proposes a learning path with the intention that the student achieves as highest learning level as possible.

Exploring the pedagogical features of integrating essential competencies of scientific inquiry in classroom teaching

ABSTRACTBackground: As inquiry-based instruction is not universally implemented in science classrooms, it is crucial to introduce instructional strategies through the use of contextualized learning activities to allow students with different background knowledge and abilities to learn the essential competencies of scientific inquiry and promote their emotional perception and engagement.Purpose: This study explores how essential scientific competencies of inquiry can be integrated into classroom teaching practices and investigates both typical and gifted secondary students’ emotional perception and engagement in learning activities.Sample: A case teacher along with 226 typical and 18 gifted students from a suburban secondary school at Taiwan participated in this study.Design and methods: After attending twelve 3-hour professional development workshops that focused on scientific inquiry teaching, the case teacher voluntarily developed and elaborated her own teaching activities through the discussions and feedback that she received from workshop participants and science educators. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through activity worksheet, questionnaire, video camera, and tape recorders. Frequency distribution, Mann-Whitney U test, and discourse analysis were used for data analyses.Results: Case teacher’s teaching activities provide contextual investigations that allow students to practice making hypotheses, planning investigations, and presenting and evaluating findings. Students’ learning outcomes reveal that typical students can engage in inquiry-based learning with positive emotional perception as well as gifted students regardless of their ability level. Both gifted and typical students’ positive emotional perception of and active engagement in learning provide fresh insight into feasible instructions for teachers who are interested in inquiry-based teaching but have little available time to implement such instructions into their classrooms.Conclusions: The results of our work begin to address the critical issues of inquiry-based teaching by providing an exemplary teaching unit encompassing essential scientific competencies

Small Reviews (About the Event of Thought and the Crisis of Subject)

The following text is a response to the publication of the journal in the rubric “Philosophy and history of science”. This text is called “Small Reviews”. Why? First of all, because the author has not set the task of a comprehensive analysis of publications. The text focuses on the pedagogical pragmatics of the peer-reviewed articles. In D.G. Ryndin’s article the author was attracted by that part, where the pedagogical practice of M.K. Mamardashvili was analyzed. Assessing the article of D.G. Ryndin as a whole positively, the reviewer believes that the author failed to convincingly show the poetics of philosophical speech and the fundamental relationship between the content and form of philosophizing and adduces her arguments for such an assessment. In the article devoted to the epistemological crisis of the subject, the reviewer has found many sources for pedagogical reflection and formulated them in the form of several provisions that should obviously be guided by each teacher. The reviewer believes that if the authors gave due consideration to the pedagogical theory and pedagogical characteristics of the subject, they would have enriched the their ideas about the crisis of education, its causes and consequences.

Quality and Cost Matter: Students’ Perceptions of Open versus Non-Open Texts through a Single-Blind Review

Although prior research has examined student perceptions of open materials, research investigating students’ perceptions of open versus copyright-restricted textbooks through a direct, experimental approach is lacking. To better understand how students perceive open textbooks outside the context of the classroom, we examined students’ perceptions of unfamiliar open and non-open (copyright-restricted) psychology textbooks. Forty-four introductory psychology students reviewed chapters from two open textbooks and two traditional/copyrightrestricted textbooks and then ranked the textbooks from most to least favourite. Students rated each chapter on several quality measures, including layout structure, visual appeal, ease of reading, and instructional features. Next, bibliographical information and cost were revealed, and students re-ranked the textbooks accordingly. Before knowing the bibliographic information and cost, students were more likely to prefer the two traditional textbooks. There after, they were more likely to select the open texts. Students often referred to textbook price as a determining factor for their change.

Identifying SDC-Causing Instructions Based on Random Forests Algorithm

Silent Data Corruptions (SDCs) is a serious reliability issue in many domains of computer system. The identification and protection of the program instructions that cause SDCs is one of the research hotspots in computer reliability field at present. A lot of solutions have already been proposed to solve this problem. However, many of them are hard to be applied widely due to time-consuming and expensive costs. This paper proposes an intelligent approach named SDCPredictor to identify the instructions that cause SDCs. SDCPredictor identifies SDC-causing Instructions depending on analyzing the static and dynamic features of instructions rather than fault injections. The experimental results demonstrate that SDCPredictor is highly accurate in predicting the SDCs proneness. It can achieve higher fault coverage than previous similar techniques in a moderate time cost.

Analytical study on a moving boundary problem of semispherical centripetal seepage flow of Bingham fluid with threshold pressure gradient

It is well known that the Non-Newtonian Bingham fluid flow in porous media does not obey the conventional linear Darcy’s law due to the yield stress for the Bingham fluid: There exists a threshold pressure gradient, which means that the seepage flow only happens when the threshold pressure gradient is overcome. The principle of non-Darcy seepage flow with the threshold pressure gradient is also applicable into the situation of the fluid flow in the low-permeable porous media. Here, a nonlinear moving-boundary mathematical model is built for the semispherical centripetal non-Darcy seepage flow with the threshold pressure gradient in a three-dimensional infinite heavy oil reservoir with the type of Bingham fluid; wherein the moving boundary conditions are incorporated for describing the effect of the threshold pressure gradient. In consideration of the strong nonlinearity of the model, the similarity transformation method is applied into obtaining the exact analytical solution of the model. In order to keep full self-similarity for the model, the inner boundary condition is set as variable flow rate that increases linearly with the time. As a result, an exact analytical solution for the nonlinear moving-boundary mathematical model of semispherical centripetal non-Darcy seepage flow with the threshold pressure gradient is obtained. The existence and the uniqueness of the exact analytical solution are also strictly proved. It is also theoretically proved that as the threshold pressure gradient tends to zero, the exact analytical solution can be reduced to that of a mathematical model of semispherical centripetal Darcy’s seepage flow. The presented exact analytical solution can be used for strictly verifying the validity of the numerical methods for solving the three-dimensional moving boundary models of non-Darcy seepage flow with the threshold pressure gradient in the actual engineering problems. From the exact analytical solution, it is also revealed that when the threshold pressure gradient exists, the spatial pressure distribution exhibits an instructive feature of compact support; as the threshold pressure gradient tends to zero, the sensitivity of its effect on the transient distance of the moving boundary and the transient pressure will grow, which reveals the difficulty in accurately determining the position of the moving boundary by the numerical methods and the serious uncertainty problem in the interpretation of the threshold pressure gradient by the pressure transient analysis method in engineering as the threshold pressure gradient is rather small. Through the comparison of the two different exact analytical solutions that corresponds to the two different models with and without incorporating the moving boundary conditions for describing the effect of the threshold pressure gradient, it is demonstrated that when the moving boundary conditions are not incorporated in the modeling, the effect of the threshold pressure gradient on the spatial pressure distribution, the transient pressure and the productivity index can be overestimated largely. Therefore, it is very necessary to incorporate the moving boundary conditions in the modeling of non-Darcy seepage flow with the threshold pressure gradient. The study in the paper definitely provides solid theoretical basis of fluid mechanics for the relevant engineering applications in the development of heavy oil reservoirs and low-permeable reservoirs in petroleum engineering and in the development of water resources in low-permeable formations in hydraulic engineering.

USAGE OF RHYTHM IN PSYCHOCORRECTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNGER SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY IN THE CONTEXT OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Introduction: the article deals with one of psychocorrective work direction with younger schoolchildren who have developmental delay and inclusively taught at comprehensive schools. Because of psychological and pedagogical features these children are in the majority of pupils who don’t cope with traditional school curriculum requirements. For systematic and successful education any child needs potential neurobiological readiness of brain systems and subsystems that provides the development of higher mental functions necessary for schooling. The results of neuropsychological investigations demonstrate that children with developmental delay are characterized by partiality of brain systems damage with failing of separate cortical and subcortical functions and larger integrity of higher regulatory processes. The most vulnerable subcortical brain system of physically disabled children is thalamo-hypothalamic complex. Its dysfunction appears both in neurological symptoms (neurometabolic endocrine syndrome, thermoregulatory and vegetovascular dysfunction, carbohydrate metabolism disorder) and psychological problems (developmental delay, absence of orientation to adult speaking as a behavior regulator, retardation in eye-mindedness and visual active thinking formation). It is recognized that hypothalamic structures mature rhythmically. Rhythmical stimulus, coming from environment are very important for them. Understanding the laws of brain process formation we can help develop child’s brain, using external rhythms in the psychocorrective support program for younger schoolchildren with developmental delay. The method of rhythms can be used in motor sphere correction of younger schoolchildren with developmental delay. Within the context of our investigation rhythm, using in folklore is considered as a condition of motor functions development of younger schoolchildren with developmental delay. Motor correction creates a necessary basis for normal higher mental functions operation, increases total power of verbal and nonverbal thinking processes, contributes to overcoming of behavior stereotypes, produces a base for motor providing of speech and language mechanism, form skills to control own behavior, assists in coping with muscle and body tension. In such a way motor correction creates a prerequisite for full psychical processes participating in reading, writing and mathematics acquisition. Results: the article deals with the results of investigation of motor functions of younger schoolchildren with developmental delay that inclusively taught at comprehensive schools. The supplied results are before and after psychocorrective work with the using of rhythm. The measurements for result comparison are kinesthetic and dynamic praxis investigation, reciprocal movements coordination. Diagnostic tasks combined traditional psychological techniques and neuropsychological tests. After sets of samples an own system of scoring was given. Each system took into account character, degree of severity and amount of introduced mistakes. Ball scoring was determined at the base of a scale: three balls – high level of samples making (motions are carrying out correctly, fast, clear), two balls – middle level (motions are carrying out correctly, consequentially, but reaction is delayed, specularity is existed), one ball – low level (needed hands position is choosing on the basis of samples, movements are very slow, specularity, echopraxia and perseveration are existed). As a result of investigation it was found that before psychocorrective work an average ball of all samples of motion block carrying out by schoolchildren with developmental delay was 1,41 point. While examining the position of reciprocal movements coordination (slow rate, disrupted evenness, modeling of both hands) very low characteristics (1,28 point) were found. After the corrective education an average ball of all samples of motion block carrying out by schoolchildren with developmental delay was 2,33. Discussion and Conclusions: the article deals with the structure of psychocorrective work on the development of motion sphere of younger schoolchildren with developmental delay. It includes numerous motion exercises on the development of general and articulate movements, finger exercises, exercises with eponymous and heteronymous cooperation of hands, legs, eye and tong. All the exercises contribute greatly to the reciprocal coordination formation. Every exercise is carried out under the clear rhythm of folklore texts. Folklore texts kept external rhythm to constantly repeated children motions and contributed to the general rhythm of brain structure. Poetical material with clear rhythmical structure had good influence on the children’s feeling. It generated poignant interest and positive emotions, didn’t stress during plural repetition, formed motivation for lessons, decreased emotional tension, contributed to the general activity. Rhythm and switching permitted children to learn how to simultaneously listen, remember and perform motions. These skills were successfully used by children during educational activity, when it was necessary to perform some actions simultaneously, for example, to write, to reflect rules, to remember sentences and etc. So rhythm of motions contributes to the development of subcortical structures of children’s brain, help adapt younger schoolchildren to the learning environment according to the curriculum.

DESIGN OF ADMINISTRATIVE COMPETENCES OF THE HEAD OF THE PRESCHOOL EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Introduction: the current trends of development of preschool education connected with definition of compliance of real results of activity of the preschool educational organization to requirements of FGOS TO initiate development of the effective quality system of preschool education as key direction it modernization. Materials and methods: the methodology of article is based on theoretical studying of a problem of quality of preschool education. The research is conducted on the basis of the methods of the analysis and generalization which allowed to select key provisions of the studied problem and to offer the complex of administrative competences of the head of the preschool educational organization providing creation of a quality management system. Results: disclosing psychology and pedagogical characteristics of the concept "quality of preschool education" authors emphasize that this category is investigated in terms of the actual compliance of conditions, the organization, ways of estimation of properties and results of education, educational and educational process to necessary requirements of the standard. Development of model criteria for evaluation of quality of preschool education remains the debatable problem demanding the further development in the conditions of variability. The dynamism of characteristics of quality of preschool education causes construction and development of a quality management system in the conditions of the preschool educational organization. Development and deployment of a similar system places great demands on administrative competence of the head which is considered by authors as a complex of valuable and motivational, analitiko-design, organizational and performing, communication and activity, reflexive and estimated competences. Components and indicators of achievement of the offered competences are allocated. The innovative component of administrative activity and development of the individual-based program of increase in level of administrative competences are considered by significant conditions of design of development of administrative competences of the head of the preschool educational organization. Discussion and Conclusions: the considered theoretical provisions characterizing problems and the prospects of improvement of quality of preschool education supplement a technique of preschool education as initial step of a system of continuous education of the personality. The prospect of further researches assumes design of a quality management system of the preschool educational organization on the basis of the actual level of formation of administrative competences of the head and individual trajectories of their improvement.

Web-Based Undergraduate Medical Education in a Virtual Learning Environment Using an Original Pedagogical Approach: an Observational Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT Background Asynchronous Web-based Medical Education in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) has grown steadily because of its many advantages. Various configurations and instructional methods are presently available. The existing proposals are poorly structured and/or not very effectively used for teaching diagnostic skills to undergraduate medical students in Brazil. A robust instructional method with positive pedagogical characteristics is needed. Thus, we have proposed a pedagogically-structured method for VLEs that includes a motivating initial reading (Medical Chronicle – MC), and a knowledge building program, using real cases coupled with audiovisual resources (Diagnostic Workshop – DW). We aimed to verify its acceptance, as well as the efficacy of the MC/DW method in improving the diagnostic ability of medical students, in the long term. Methods An opinion survey, two MC/DW materials and two Knowledge and Diagnostic Skills (KDS) questionnaires on stroke and epilepsy were developed, and two medical student groups were followed up in this 2013 longitudinal observational study. The students answered a KDS1, and attended a traditional lecture on one of the topics. They also accessed a VLE to apply the MC/DW method on stroke or epilepsy. We applied the same questionnaire (KDS2 and KDS3, respectively), one month and 5-6 months after the KDS1. We analyzed the mean KDS1 score of all the students, and the mean pairwise of those who accessed and those who did not access the VLEs during these three stages. An opinion survey was applied, and the results were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Results 87 students participated in the study, but six were excluded as they did not answer the questionnaires. The KDS1 general mean score was 1.59 (SD0.71). We found that 66 students (81.5%) accessed the VLE, showing a significant improvement in diagnostic skills in the KDS2 (mean5.65, p<0.05) and KDS3 (mean 4.57, p<0.05), with non-significant variations for those who did not access it. The MC was considered at least good for 62 students (94%), with 52 students (78.8%) finding that a checklist was sufficient to clear up all their DW doubts. Conclusions The MC/DW method in VLE proved to be effective for improving the diagnostic capability of the undergraduate medical students in the long term, and it was well accepted by the students. It presents several positive pedagogical characteristics and can be replicated.

Collaborative System Architecture for Developing Digital Electronic Games

Educational electronic games have been gaining lots of space inside classrooms because of their contribution to the learning and motivation of the students. However, the development process of a game is complex and, normally, involves many people with different profiles, making it impossible for the teachers to develop games according to their pedagogical needs. Even though the existence of technical barriers, the teacher’s involvement in this process is fundamental, since they are the ones that have the expertise on the pedagogical components of the process. Through a collaborative process, it is possible to merge all needed elements for the development of educational electronic games, since it allows mutual help among the participants. Furthermore providing individual learning to each collaborator, through the exchange of ideas and experience gain throughout the project development. This article has the objective of creating a community for collaborative development, that includes the pedagogical features on the development of educational electronic games. For this we will present a collaborative system model, based on the roots of the 3C collaboration model: communication, coordination and cooperation.

Językowo-komunikacyjne cechy poleceń w wybranych materiałach dydaktycznych do nauki języka polskiego jako obcego

Za punkt wyjścia przyjmuje się w artykule postulaty badawcze zaprezentowane ponad 20 lat temu przez Annę Burzyńską (1998) w publikacji poświęconej poleceniom dydaktycznym. Rozwój językoznawstwa oraz zmiany w glottodydaktyce, jakie dokonały się w tym czasie, są ważnymi przesłankami, które uzasadniają podjęcie tej tematyki na nowo. W części pierwszej niniejszego artykułu, teoretyczno-deskrypcyjnej, polecenie zostało poddane eksplikacji pragmatycznej (jako akt mowy) i charakterystyce komunikacyjnej (w sytuacji urzędowej i w sytuacji dydaktycznej). W części drugiej przedstawiono wyniki analizy wybranych podręczników i zeszytów ćwiczeń do nauki języka polskiego jako obcego na poziomie podstawowym i średnio zaawansowanym pod kątem zawartych w nich poleceń. Obie części służą jako podstawa do sformułowania wniosków końcowych. Zasadnicza konkluzja, jaką formułuje się w artykule, brzmi: tzw. polecenia dydaktyczne w podręcznikach i zeszytach ćwiczeń są aktami mowy potencjalnymi, aktualizowanymi każdorazowo w konkretnej sytuacji dydaktycznej, a szablonowość i schematyzm nie są ich wadami, lecz cechami pożądanymi; dotyczą bowiem strony formalnej poleceń oraz nazw powtarzalnych czynności, które pomagają kształcić podstawowe umiejętności, oryginalne natomiast są (powinny być) obiekty owych czynności (zawartość ćwiczeń i zadań, teksty itp.).