Pedagogical Advantages Research Articles

Versatile, Immersive, Creative and Dynamic Virtual 3-D Healthcare Learning Environments: A Review of the Literature

The author provides a critical overview of three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds and “serious gaming” that are currently being developed and used in healthcare professional education and medicine. The relevance of this e-learning innovation for teaching students and professionals is debatable and variables influencing adoption, such as increased knowledge, self-directed learning, and peer collaboration, by academics, healthcare professionals, and business executives are examined while looking at various Web 2.0/3.0 applications. There is a need for more empirical research in order to unearth the pedagogical outcomes and advantages associated with this e-learning technology. A brief description of Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Siemens’ Connectivism Theory for today’s learners is presented as potential underlying pedagogical tenets to support the use of virtual 3-D learning environments in higher education and healthcare.

Promoting Local Languages in Ugandan Primary Schools: The Community as Stakeholder

Abstract: The community is an important stakeholder in language education, and community views are critical for the successful implementation of new language policies. This article reports on a study on multilingual language policies conducted in two primary schools in two communities in eastern Uganda, one rural and one urban, from 2005 through 2006. The study focused on community responses to the new language education policy, which promotes the teaching of local languages in the first four years of schooling, using questionnaires, individual interviews, and focus-group discussions to collect data from the two communities, each linked to a local primary school. The findings show that in both communities, although participants were generally aware of the new local-language policy, they were ambivalent about its implementation in their school. They recognized the importance of local languages in promoting identity and cultural maintenance, but a higher priority was their children's upward mobility and the desire to be part of wider and more international communities. Further, while area languages such as Luganda and regional languages such as Kiswahili were perceived to have some benefits as languages of wider communication, it was English that received unequivocal support from both communities. The study concludes that parents and communities need to be better informed about the pedagogical advantages of instruction in the local language and that communities need convincing evidence that the promotion of local languages will not compromise desires for global citizenship.

An Open Source Power System Virtual Laboratory: The PSAT Case and Experience

This paper describes the authors' experience in the assessment of laboratory activities based on an open source software package for power system analysis, namely, Power System Analysis Toolbox (PSAT). PSAT is currently used in several universities for both undergraduate and graduate courses. PSAT has also its own Web forum, which provides support to students and researchers all around the world, thus resulting in an almost unique example of ldquovirtual laboratoryrdquo over the Internet. This paper attempts to answer through a variety of real-life examples the following open questions: What are the practical and pedagogical advantages of using an open source software with respect to proprietary software for power system analysis? What happens if a power system virtual laboratory is freely available on the Web? What is the difference between a class-based and a Web-based virtual laboratory?

Use of the Primitive Unit Cell in Understanding Subtle Features of the Cubic Close-Packed Structure

One of the most important crystal structures adopted by metals is characterized by the abcabc… stacking of close-packed layers. This structure is commonly referred to in textbooks as the cubic close-packed (ccp) or face-centered cubic (fcc) structure, since the entire lattice can be generated by replication of a face-centered cubic unit cell containing exactly four atomic spheres. However, there is an inconsistency between the definition of unit cell generally applied in chemistry textbooks, as the smallest repeating structural unit, and the choice of the face-centered cube. The ccp structure may also be described by a primitive unit cell (containing one atom) that is a rhombohedron, where each face is a rhombus with acute angles of 60 degrees. While the fcc unit cell retains the symmetry of the ccp lattice, there are some clear pedagogical advantages in presenting the primitive rhombohedral unit cell that may help students gain greater insight into the nature of the ccp structure. We have compared the two unit cells and have performed calculations on the rhombohedral unit cell to determine the individual atomic sphere fraction enclosed by each of the vertices, which, as far as we have been able to determine, have not been previously reported.

A General-Purpose Microeconomic Model

This paper presents a general-purpose Excel model that can generate the nonlinear total (utility, product and cost) functions in use in undergraduate microeconomics by mere change of parameters. The main pedagogical advantage of the model lies in the fact that it can produce the said nonlinear functions without relying on nonlinear mathematical formulas. This is achieved by reversing the usual order of exposition which starts with the total function. Instead, I begin with a two-piece linear marginal function and construct the total function recursively on its basis. Thus the model makes it possible to avoid mathematical concepts beyond elementary algebra without sacrificing precision and completeness of analysis. Since the majority of non-major undergraduate and MBA students in economics courses have minimal mathematical backgrounds, the proposed model would be of widespread interest to both the instructors and the students in smaller institutions and possibly even in some of the state universities.

The classroom in your pocket?1

Research exploring the ways in which information communication technologies (ICTs) could improve access to, and the quality of, teacher education in the global south (Leach et al., 2006) showed that when teachers were given sustained training, support and access to laptop and handheld computers, they found the handheld and laptop computers equally useful, both as tools for their own professional development and as tools for supporting classroom practices. Those who expressed a preference for one device over the other identified the handheld computer as the best tool for supporting teacher professional development and practice, particularly in rural communities.This article reports the findings of a recent one‐year project which built on the previous research, but which focused solely on the potential of handheld computers for teacher professional development. Many studies have investigated the use of handheld computers in classroom settings but most of these focus on pupil learning (e.g. Fung et al., 1998; Yarnall et al., 2003). There is not yet a substantial body of literature on the potential of handhelds for teacher education, although Soloway (2002) argues that handhelds provide an opportunity for making major changes in educational settings.In this study, the teachers themselves used the analytical framework for teacher professional knowledge developed by Banks et al. (1999) to consider their own experiences with the handheld computers. This study finds that handheld digital tools offer a number of pedagogic and pragmatic advantages over laptop or desktop computers for teachers, especially in rural communities. However, further technical development is required fully to orient the devices to classroom practices (as opposed to the ‘office’ or ‘business’ orientation).

Facilitating Classroom Economics Experiments With an Emerging Technology: The Case of Clickers

The audience response system (ARS) has increasingly been used to engage students by eliciting and analyzing responses to questions posed by instructors. The authors discuss how they used the system to facilitate pit market trading in a microeconomics class, report the efficacy of the approach and provide suggestions extending the use of ARS to other experiments. Using the ARS to facilitate active learning by engaging students in economics experiments has pedagogical advantages over both the labor-intensive approach of pencil-and-paper and the capital-intensive route of relying on networked or on-line computer labs which oftentimes preclude or restrict face-to-face student interactions. Thus, the new method represents an added advantage on top of such conventional functions as taking attendance and administering quizzes of this increasingly popular classroom technology.

Computer based learning in an undergraduate physics laboratory: interfacing and instrument control using Matlab

In this paper we describe the recent changes to the curriculum of the second year practical laboratory course in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham. In particular, we describe how Matlab has been implemented as a teaching tool and discuss both its pedagogical advantages and disadvantages in teaching undergraduate students about computer interfacing and instrument control techniques. We also discuss the motivation for converting the interfacing language that is used in the laboratory from LabView to Matlab. We describe an example of a typical experiment the students are required to complete and we conclude by briefly assessing how the recent curriculum changes have affected both student performance and compliance.

Using Technology To Enhance the Effectiveness of General Chemistry Laboratory Courses

Practicing and teaching current chemistry requires the use of computers, yet the focus of undergraduate teaching laboratories for several decades has been using the traditional bench method. This paper makes a case for the pedagogical advantages of using computer-interface systems to perform computer-assisted experiments in general chemistry laboratory courses. We compare data from control group students using traditional bench laboratory procedures and experimental group students using computer-interface laboratory procedures with the software program LabWorks. The results show that conducting laboratory activities using computer-interface procedures can improve student understanding of calorimetry.

CALL on hold: The delayed benefits of an online workbook on L2 vocabulary learning

This study examines the effects of an online workbook and a paper workbook on L2 vocabulary acquisition. Participants consisted of 549 L2 learners of Spanish enrolled in a large language program at an American state university. The participants received 4 hours of classroom instruction per week and worked with an online or a paper workbook once a week during two semesters. They also completed a screening test and four vocabulary tests: two during the first semester and two during the second semester. The results showed no significant differences between the online and the paper workbook groups after one semester of instructional treatment. However, the online workbook group proved better than the paper workbook group in the second semester. These findings confirm results of previous studies on the beneficial role of CALL on L2 vocabulary acquisition, and they point to the pedagogical advantages of online workbooks for large language programs as long as enough length of exposure to the online environment is allotted.

Homework as serious family business: power and subjectivity in negotiations about school assignments in Swedish families

Most previous research on parental involvement in children's homework has focused on the pedagogical advantages or disadvantages of school assignments while neglecting the practice in its social context, family life. By studying parent–child homework negotiations in Swedish families, this paper examines how family members position themselves and each other in relation to Swedish discourses on homework and parental involvement. The study shows that parents want their children to do homework independently. It is hard for the parents to take up another subject position than that of a ‘responsible parent’ who helps the child with homework or controls that it is done. Thereby, the child is simultaneously positioned as ‘irresponsible’ whether that is the case or not.

What Factors Promote Sustained Online Discussions and Collaborative Learning in a Web-Based Course?

Although the pedagogical advantages of online interactive learning are well known, much needs to be done in instructional design of applicable collaborative learning tasks that motivate sustained student participation and interaction. This study investigates the factors that encourage student interaction and collaboration in both process and product oriented computer mediated communication (CMC) tasks in a Web-based course that adopts interactive learning tasks as its core learning activities. The analysis of a post course survey questionnaire collected from three online classes suggest that among others, the structure of the online discussion, group size and group cohesion, strictly enforced deadlines, direct link of interactive learning activities to the assessment, and the differences in process and product driven interactive learning tasks are some of the important factors that influence participation and contribute to sustained online interaction and collaboration.

Engaging with Economic Geography in the ‘Real’ World: A Central Role for Field Teaching

Debates concerning how to engage students with economic geography have ignored the important role of field teaching. This paper argues that fieldwork must remain a key component of economic geographical teaching and that it offers a variety of advantages to overcoming student disinterest in the sub-discipline. It goes on to argue that field teaching must be developed, not neglected, in economic geography and illustrates its pedagogical advantages with reference to the example of a field class in north-east England.

Mirror and Phrase Difficulty Influence Dancer Attention and Body Satisfaction

The dance studio typically features a wall of mirrors; however, there has been little research on the pedagogical advantages and disadvantages of mirrors in the training environment. Psychological studies on objective self-awareness, the ability to see one's self as an object, suggest that the mirrors magnify this state. How this increased attention to self and self within the group impacts dance learning has not been significantly researched. This study examined 64 college dancers' level of attention and satisfaction with aspects of their body when learning and performing a simple or complex dance phrase, in a mirrored or non-mirrored condition. This 2 X 2 research design assessed how the presence of the mirror affected dance students' perceptions when learning movements of varying degrees of difficulty.

Measuring Boltzmann’s constant with a low-cost atomic force microscope: An undergraduate experiment

We discuss a low-cost atomic force microscope that we have designed and built for use in an undergraduate teaching laboratory. This microscope gives students hands-on access to nano-Newton force measurements and subangstrom position measurements. The apparatus relies mainly on off-the-shelf components and utilizes an interferometric position sensor known as the interdigitated (ID) cantilever to obtain high resolution. The mechanical properties of the ID readout enable a robust and open design that makes it possible for students to directly control it. Its pedagogical advantage is that students interact with a complete instrument system and learn measurement principles in context. One undergraduate experiment enabled by this apparatus is a measurement of Boltzmann’s constant, which is done by recording the thermal noise power spectrum of a microfabricated cantilever beam. In addition to gaining an appreciation of the lower limits of position and force measurements, students learn to apply numerous concepts such as digital sampling, Fourier-domain analysis, noise sources, and error propagation.

The Practical and Pedagogical Advantages of an Ambigraphic Nucleic Acid Notation

The universally applied IUPAC notation for nucleic acids was adopted primarily to facilitate the mental association of G, A, T, C, and the related ambiguity characters with the bases they represent. However, it is possible to create a notation that offers greater support for the basic manipulations and analyses to which genetic sequences frequently are subjected. By designing a nucleic acid notation around ambigrams, it is possible to simplify the frequently applied process of reverse complementation and aid the visualization of palindromes. The ambigraphic notation presented here also uses common orthographic features such as stems and loops to highlight guanine and cytosine rich regions, support the derivation of ambiguity characters, and aid educators in teaching the fundamentals of molecular genetics.

Student portfolios and software quality metrics in computer science education

Cataloging of exemplars of an individual student's work is standard practice for certain disciplines, especially in creative, visually-oriented disciplines. These portfolios are often used during the interview and candidate identification phase of a student's job search. Recent trends have increased awareness and use of student work portfolios in scientific disciplines as well. While use of portfolios for interviewing purposes may never become standard practice in the field of computer science, we propose that there are nonetheless sufficient pedagogical advantages to be offered in the collection of student portfolios to make the effort of creating and maintaining them worthwhile. These advantages include the ability to conduct longitudinal studies of student performance, quantitative curriculum and course assessment, and prevention of forms of cheating which are not easily detectable by other means. In order to make optimal use of student portfolios, we also suggest use of automated software quality metrics. However, as there are no widely used pedagogically focused software metrics, we outline the requirements for such a metric.

Defining and Applying Idea Technologies

In this paper we define and explain idea technologies, illustrate how they operate in learning environments, then present and explore the pedagogical advantages of using our three-tiered, idea-technology classification system. We believe it will serve as an introductory primer, or conceptual framework, for university professors, educational technologists, teacher educators, and university administrators. Like any sound grammar, we believe our conceptual framework not only provides structure, economy, and flexibility, but also possesses the added benefit of never “crashing” as it improves teaching and learning.

The Monets, Van Goghs, and Renoirs of Science Education: Writing Impressionist Tales as a Strategy for Facilitating Prospective Teachers’ Reflections on Science Experiences

A particularly useful pedagogical strategy for beginning a dialogue with prospective teachers about the ways in which their experiences and beliefs shape their development of professional knowledge is writing impressionist tales. Impressionist tales are a form of autobiography that portrays one highly personal perspective on a significant moment in time. In this pedagogical practice article, we describe our use of impressionist tales, summarize the assumptions underpinning our use of impressionist tales in science methods courses, provide several examples of our students’ tales, and discuss the pedagogical advantages and the teacher educator’s role in using impressionist tales to promote reflective thinking among prospective elementary science teachers.

The discretized Schrödinger equation for the finite square well and its relationship to solid-state physics

The discretized Schrödinger equation is most often used to solve one-dimensional quantum mechanics problems numerically. While it has been recognized for some time that this equation is equivalent to a simple tight-binding model and that the discretization imposes an underlying bandstructure unlike free-space quantum mechanics on the problem, the physical implications of this equivalence largely have been unappreciated and the pedagogical advantages accruing from presenting the problem as one of solid-state physics (and not numerics) remain generally unexplored. This is especially true for the analytically solvable discretized finite square well presented here. There are profound differences in the physics of this model and its continuous-space counterpart which are direct consequences of the imposed bandstructure. For example, in the discrete model the number of bound states plus transmission resonances equals the number of atoms in the quantum well.