Learning Of Content Knowledge Research Articles

Political Science Instructional Technology Best Practices in 21st Century Classrooms/Lecture Halls: Blending Theoretical Frameworks of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge with Applied Interactivity

Political Science Deans, Chairs, Professors and Instructors have a unique challenge in applying 21st Century instructional design, methodology and management for the effective use of technology in the classroom and/or lecture hall. By combining theoretical approaches to learning content knowledge of Political Science, pedagogy, androgogy, and technological integration (Shulman, 1986; Mishra, Punya, 2009), professorial instruction may impact learner cognitive retention and subsequent achievement. The basis of this framework is the understanding that instruction in 21st century colleges and universities requires more technological content knowledge while blending pedagogical content approaches. This research will explain highly complex activities and methodologies that draws on many kinds of knowledge based instruction and learning. New and emerging technologies such as computers, laptops, iPads, apps, software applications, interactive whiteboards and more have changed the landscape of the classroom/lecture hall. Subsequently, the research will provide best practices adjoining the conceptual application of research based instructional redelivery using the Interactive Whiteboard, Mind Tools, and Learning Management Systems. Technology serves as a purposeful supplement to instruction and therefore the need for continued professional development in colleges and universities is essential to sustaining relevant interactivity such as Interface Interactions, Cognitive Interactions and Socio-cognitive Interactions. In summary, this research will analyze and explain the blended theories behind the frameworks; provide examples of instructional approaches based upon Political Science and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge frameworks, and illustrate the methodological best practices applied by research based application.

Evaluation as a Collaborative Activity to Learn Content Knowledge in a Graduate Course

Teaching graduate students to conduct evaluations is typically relegated to evaluation methods courses. This approach misses an opportunity for students to collaboratively use evaluation skills to explore content. This article examines a graduate course, Issues in Adult Basic Education, in which students learned evaluation methods concurrently with the course’s core content. Students and the professor collaboratively conducted an evaluation of professional development among adult basic education (ABE) providers exploring the following question: How is professional development conducted for ABE faculty, and how might it differ between community-based organizations and community and technical colleges? Based on the findings, students generated a report, which they shared with evaluation participants at local community and technical colleges and community-based organizations. The experiences described in this article suggest the applicability of this approach—infusing evaluation work into a content course—to graduate courses in other disciplines.

Learning to teach: pedagogical content knowledge in adventure-based learning

Background: Many alternative curricular models exist in physical education to better meet the needs of students than the multi-activity team sports curriculum that dominates in the USA. These alternative curricular models typically require different content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical CK (PCK) to implement successfully. One of the complexities of learning to teach these models for pre-service teachers (PTs) is understanding the different CK and PCK required which is compounded by their personal lack of experience of the model.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the PCK enacted by PTs learning to teach an alternative curricular model (adventure-based learning [ABL]) in urban middle schools.Research design: Qualitative methods were used to explore how the PTs demonstrated their PCK while teaching an ABL unit to urban middle school students. The study took place at a major university and in three middle schools in a large urban school district in Midwestern USA.Participants: Thirteen PTs enrolled in the secondary methods course and associated internship agreed to participate in this study. The PTs (five males and eight females) ranged in age from 21 to 26 years and all self-identified as white.Data collection and data analysis: Three methods of data collection were employed in this study: interviews, daily reflections called critical friends, and stimulated recall reflection of teaching an ABL lesson. Data were analyzed using constant comparison. Trustworthiness was established through triangulation of the data using multiple data sources, peer debriefing, member checking, and negative case analysis.Findings: Four themes represented the PTs' demonstration of PCK when learning to teach ABL in urban middle schools. The themes were (a) trusting the sequence, (b) knowing your students, (c) facilitate don't dictate, and (d) processing the experience. The findings provide further insight into the demonstration of PTs' PCK in secondary physical education, and specifically relative to teaching ABL in urban middle schools. To better equip PTs to be able to teach using these models, we recommend the following: (a) they have the opportunity to ‘live the curriculum' in their PETE programme, (b) developing the PTs' specific CK and student-centered pedagogical knowledge for specific alternative curricular models is imperative in developing the PCK for such model, (c) developing PTs' knowledge of students relative to the complexities of learning to teach each specific model, (d) observing an expert teach the model to K-12 students, and (e) recognizing that learning to teach these models is a developmental process and providing the PTs with an emotionally safe and caring space to explore teaching such models is crucial.

The Relationship Between Grade 11 Students’ Achievement in Trigonometric Functions and Their Teachers’ Content Knowledge

The study investigates the relationship between grade 11 students’ achievement in trigonometric functions and their teachers ‘content knowledge of trigonometric functions. The aim was to know if students’ poor achievement in trigonometric functions was as a result of teachers’ lack of content knowledge of the topic. All participants wrote the same cognitive test that was aligned with the relevant curriculum. Pearson product moment index showed a statistically significant relationship between student achievement and teacher content knowledge and linear regression analysis indicated that 76.8 % of the variation in the student achievement is explained by teacher content knowledge. The study affirms the importance of teacher content knowledge in student learning. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n4p443

Competency 3. Identify and perform appropriate learning activities to guide personal and professional development

The process of selecting learning resources requires an understanding of how one is able to take in new information, sometimes referred to as a learning style or preference1; the type of learning content (knowledge, skills, reasoning, behavioral or attitudinal change, or growth) and what instructional methods best address that type of learning content (Table 3)2; awareness of available resources3; skills in seeking those resources3; and consideration of the appropriateness of the selected resource to achieve the intended outcome.

Tennessee Valley Authority EnergyRight Solutions for Higher Education Intern Program at Maryville College

Among the ways students in higher education prepare for the ever-changing fields of energy efficiency analysis and workplace sustainabil ity, few experiences match the strong learning outcomes found when students work alongside professional organizations currently engaged in finding sustainable energy solutions. The Ten nessee Valley Authority (TVA) EnergyRight Solutions for Higher Education® (ERSHE) Intern Program is such an experience. TVA ERSHE has hired students as interns from four East Tennessee colleges or universities to participate in the program. The schools are expected to focus on generating real energy savings and promoting campus awareness of energy efficiency and renewable energy through student/staff-focused projects that the interns propose, research, and implement. Staff from TVA, the nation’s larg est public utility, and consultants from Willdan Energy Solutions, working with campus faculty sponsors, train and communicate with the interns. Program benefits include tangible campus energy savings, student professional career and team-building skills training, along with learning of content knowledge in the field of sustainable energy auditing. Student communication with energy industry professionals, writing and submission of progress reports and project updates, and development of energy project scopes of work all develop individual skill-building in such areas including, but not limited to, data analysis and interpretation, collaborative communication, and self-assessment towards meeting goals to succeed in an energy-related career. One college’s student intern cohort, representative of diverse majors including design, environmental studies, business and management, and biochemistry, exhibited strong collaborative team work, and utilized their wider educational experiences to help inform them of the energy issues on their campus and provide holistic, productive solutions to a variety of campus and workplace energy problems.

A Proposed Architectural Model for an Automatic Adaptive E-Learning System Based on Users Learning Style

It has been established through literature that, if an e-learning system could adapt to learning characteristics of learners, it will increase learning performance and content knowledge acquisition of learners. This paper is a basic research work for knowledge that lay down a foundation for application and implementation. We reviewed trends in adaptive e-learning system development, make an expository on learning-style models towards learners’ learning character and propose an Architectural model of Automatic Adaptive E-learning System (AAeLS) based on learning-style concept/models. The concept it to model an e-learning system that will automatically adapt to learning preference of users’, the system learn about users’ learning style while the user learn the material content of the system; thus the learning process in two ways, the system is learning when the user is learning. We recommend further work on implementation and testing of the model, in an applied research.

An EAP curriculum design of a content and language integrated learning program for hospitality students in Taiwan

Although there are many pedagogical approaches to teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP), most share the objective of preparing second language (L2) learners to engage academic study. This paper reports the findings of a case study that explores the approach to the development and features of a content-and-language integrated learning (CLIL) program at a hospitality university in Taiwan. The study describes the theoretical basis of the program and its relation to background and study rationale. Additionally, program development and implementation processes are described. The data were collected during an academic year with a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods including pre- and post- tests, a student questionnaire, field notes, and semi-structured interviews. The research results show that students in the higher performance group (HP) and the lower performance group (LP) have different opinions regarding selected materials, assigned homework to content knowledge learning, English instruction to content knowledge learning, and difficulties with the written tests. The research results are also consistent with previous studies. Practical implications for theory, practice, and future research are also discussed.

An EAP curriculum design of a content and language integrated learning program for hospitality students in Taiwan

Although there are many pedagogical approaches to teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP), most share the objective of preparing second language (L2) learners to engage academic study. This paper reports the findings of a case study that explores the approach to the development and features of a content-and-language integrated learning (CLIL) program at a hospitality university in Taiwan. The study describes the theoretical basis of the program and its relation to background and study rationale. Additionally, program development and implementation processes are described. The data were collected during an academic year with a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods including pre- and post- tests, a student questionnaire, field notes, and semi-structured interviews. The research results show that students in the higher performance group (HP) and the lower performance group (LP) have different opinions regarding selected materials, assigned homework to content knowledge learning, English instruction to content knowledge learning, and difficulties with the written tests. The research results are also consistent with previous studies. Practical implications for theory, practice, and future research are also discussed.

Scaffolding Informal Learning in Science Museums: How Much Is Too Much?

This research follows on a previous study that investigated how digitally augmented devices and knowledge building could enhance learning in a science museum. In this study, we were interested in understanding which combination of scaffolds could be used in conjunction with the unique characteristics of informal participation to increase conceptual and cognitive outcomes. Three hundred seven students from nine middle schools participated in the study. Six scaffolds were used in various combinations. The first was the digital augmentation. The next five were adaptations of knowledge-building scaffolds. Results demonstrated that digital augmentations, posted questions, and participation in collaborative groups may be the optimal design for improving conceptual learning (content knowledge) while preserving informal participation behaviors. However, our results also showed that obtaining deeper cognitive gains such as ability to theorize only occurred in the most highly scaffolded condition in which students demonstrated much decreased informal participation behaviors. We discuss the implications of our results with respect to the broader research on improving learning in informal science learning environments.

A Universally Designed for Learning (UDL) Infused Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Practitioners' Model Essential for Teacher Preparation in the 21st Century

This article challenges educational computing researchers and teacher educators to consider a merger between universal design for learning and technological pedagogical content knowledge to create a practitioners' model to prepare teachers to graduate with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to teach the full spectrum of learners. Presently, these models are being developed on parallel tracks because of the existing bifurcated system of general (regular) and special education. The two models together would create a cohesive, comprehensive, theoretical model for the preparation of 21st century teachers.

Content-Based English Education in China: Students’ Experiences and Perspectives

This study explores undergraduate students’ experiences and perceptions of the content-based EFL instruction at a northwestern Chinese university. It is one of the first empirical studies of content-based EFL in China. Through a three-part open-ended questionnaire administered with 34 undergraduate students majoring in finance, the study reveals overwhelming support for this approach to EFL. Participants believed that learning English and content knowledge simultaneously was helpful and that the spread of English in China can benefit the nation and its people. The findings also indicate that some participants were critical of the approach, stating that it is “shallow content teaching” and suggesting that subject matter content be taught in Chinese. The participants praised their original English texts and expressed their preference for student-centered learning.

Media-Savvy Scientific Literacy: Developing Critical Evaluation Skills by Investigating Scientific Claims

Students must learn content knowledge and develop scientific literacy skills to evaluate and use scientific information in real-world situations. Recognizing the accessibility of scientific information to the average citizen, we developed an instructional approach to help students learn how to judge the quality of claims. We describe a project-based applied learning (PAL) approach that utilizes engaging questions about biological issues relevant to students. Working through these projects, students are challenged to evaluate sources of information and communicate their understanding of scientific claims. We discuss challenges that students encounter and offer suggestions for enacting this approach in a general-education college classroom.

A washback study on e-portfolio assessment in an English as a Foreign Language teacher preparation program

Washback refers to both positive and negative influences of testing on teaching and learning. While washback studies abound in the literature, most of them deal with high-stakes, standardized tests or large-scale entrance examinations. Scant efforts have been made to uncover washback effects in alternative assessments. This study implemented an e-portfolio project as an alternative assessment technique in a language teacher preparation content course and explored the positive and negative washback effects that e-portfolio assessments produced on learning. Eighteen English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers in a graduate course of a Master's program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages participated in this assessment project. Data were collected through multiple instruments, including interviews, observations, document analysis, and reflective journals. The findings suggest that e-portfolio assessments generate positive washback effects on learning, including building a community of practice, facilitating peer learning, enhancing learning of content knowledge, promoting professional development, and cultivating critical thinking. However, e-portfolio assessments also bring some negative washback effects, such as learning anxiety deriving from larger audiences, and resistance to technology. Finally, it is concluded that EFL professionals make judicious use of e-portfolio assessments to balance classroom assessments and to facilitate the learning of content knowledge.

Integrating computer- and teacher-based scaffolds in science inquiry

Because scaffolding is a crucial form of support for students engaging in complex learning environments, it is important that researchers determine which of the numerous kinds of scaffolding will allow them to educate students most effectively. The existing literature tends to focus on computer-based scaffolding by itself rather than integrating it with teacher support. This study examined students' inquiry learning skills and content knowledge when they utilized a virtual learning environment called Supervolcano: Kikai Caldera. The present study specifically explored how the timing of teacher-based metacognitive scaffolding in combination with different types of computer-based procedural scaffolding affected students' science inquiry learning. To answer this question, a 2 x 2 factorial design was conducted. One factor examined continuous and faded computer-based procedural scaffolds, and the other factor investigated early and late teacher-based metacognitive scaffolds. Students who received both continuous computer-based procedural scaffolding and early teacher-based metacognitive scaffolding performed best in acquiring scientific inquiry skills. Students using both faded computer-based procedural and early teacher-based metacognitive scaffolding had the worst performance in learning scientific inquiry skills. However, although we applied different types of scaffolding, the results showed no statistically significant difference among the groups' science learning knowledge.

Courseware integration into task-based learning: a case study of multimedia courseware-supported oral presentations for non-English major students

AbstractThis study reports on the integration of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) multimedia courseware for oral presentations into a self-learning and elective program for non-English major students in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. A computer-aided instruction approach, combined with a task-based learning approach, was adopted. Computers played a central role as the means of information delivery. The courseware acted as a silent partner and played the role of a tutor and adjunct teacher to provide students with authentic materials for learning to give English oral presentations in international business and technical settings. It offered a variety of learning activities with instant on-line self-evaluation for students to practice integrative language skills and learn content knowledge. Evaluation of student performance was based upon data from pre- and post-tasks, student questionnaires about concerns, and an open-ended questionnaire. After active participation and self-learning, most of the non-English major students clearly indicated they had made some improvement or progress and felt their learning effectiveness for preparing speech texts was significantly improved. In addition, they had become more concerned about their English ability and the ESP courseware was able to meet their need for greater linguistic support to enhance their language ability.

Teaching and learning in morbidity and mortality rounds: an ethnographic study

OBJECTIVES In keeping with the current emphasis on quality improvement and patient safety, a Canadian division of general internal medicine began holding weekly morbidity and mortality rounds (M&MRs) with postgraduate trainees. Grounded in the medical education and social sciences literatures about such rounds, we sought to explore the teaching and learning processes that occur in M&MRs in order to understand their role in, and contribution to, the current medical education context. METHODS We conducted an ethnography of these M&MRs. We observed the rounds, conducted interviews with both staff doctors and residents and triangulated the resultant data. Concurrent, iterative data collection and analysis enabled sampling to saturation. RESULTS Staff doctors had differing understandings of the role of M&MRs and valued different kinds of teaching. They did not think they were teaching medical content knowledge at these rounds, but rather that they were role-modelling six skills, attitudes and behaviours, including 'identifying and addressing process and systems issues affecting care'. Residents primarily wanted to learn content knowledge and tried to extract such knowledge out of the rounds. They did recognise and value that they were learning about process and systems issues. They also agreed that staff doctors were role-modelling other things, but had varying perceptions of what those were; most did not value this role-modelled learning as much as they valued the acquisition of content knowledge. CONCLUSIONS These M&MRs were effective forums for addressing patient safety and quality improvement competencies. They carried none of the negative functions attributed to such rounds in the sociology literature, focusing neither on absolving responsibility nor on learning socially acceptable ways to discuss death in public. However, this study revealed a marked disjunction between the teaching valued by staff doctors and the learning valued by their trainees.

Learning of content knowledge and development of scientific reasoning ability: A cross culture comparison

We report the results of our study of the connections between students’ learning of physics content knowledge and the development of general scientific reasoning abilities. In particular, we seek to determine whether and to what extent content learning affects the development of general reasoning abilities. Pre-college-instruction data of first-year college students in the United States and China were collected using the FCI, BEMA, and Lawson’s classroom test of scientific reasoning. We find that the rigorous learning of physics knowledge in middle and high schools has made a significant impact on the ability of students in China to solve physics problems, but this knowledge does not seem to have a direct effect on their general scientific reasoning ability, which is determined to be at the same level as that of the students in the United States.

BRIDGING DISCOURSES IN THE ESL CLASSROOM: STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND RESEARCHERS. Pauline Gibbons

BRIDGING DISCOURSES IN THE ESL CLASSROOM: STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND RESEARCHERS. Pauline Gibbons . New York: Continuum, 2006. Pp. 256. $60.00 paper. In English-speaking countries with large numbers of immigrants, like the United States and Australia, children from non-English-speaking families are very likely to encounter difficulties in learning English and content knowledge simultaneously. In particular, one of the greatest challenges for English as a second language (ESL) children lies in their tendency to use everyday language (i.e., language acquired in informal situations, such as playing) in academic settings. Gibbons' work presents a research project that examines real-life content-based classroom interactions in which ESL children's English and content knowledge learning are facilitated. It makes an invaluable contribution to the effort to help ESL learners make a successful transition from everyday informal language to specialized academic registers.

Emotional ecology: The intersection of emotional knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in teaching

The purpose of this paper is to offer some theoretical as well as empirical examples that describe the interrelations between pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and emotional knowledge in teaching and learning. The argument put forward is that there is a need to expand current conceptions of PCK and acknowledge the role of emotional knowledge. It is shown how a teacher's emotional knowledge about teaching and learning is an inextricable part of the ecosystem of teacher knowledge; this is called emotional ecology. Our research shows that the construct of emotional ecology occurs on different planes as there are different types of emotional knowledge that are aspects of PCK. The implications for pre-service and in-service teacher development are discussed.