Rich Learning Experience Research Articles

Creating Cultures of Participation to Promote Mathematical Discourse

IntroductionAs a former eighth grade mathematics teacher, I was aware of the impact discourse had in shaping students' thinking and thus often implemented strategies that supported these efforts. However, a reality became clear when pursuing these National Board Certification, which demanded a 15-minute unedited video of me facilitating a whole-class discussion. While recording the lesson, which centered on an introduction to irrational numbers, I thought students were engaged in lively discussion. However, analysis of the video-taped lesson revealed that I was doing almost all of the talking! The perceptions of my practice were not aligned with my actual practice. After this revelatory experience, I was curious to learn more about how other teachers perceived the use of discourse to support adolescents reasoning in mathematics and particularly how they created cultures of participation to support equitable discursive interactions with adolescent students from diverse backgrounds.Consistent with my own experience, equitable access to mathematically rich and meaningful learning experiences continues as a critical need in the classroom (Cobb 8c Hodge, 2011; National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2010). Rich learning experiences also are fundamental in supporting and developing students' mathematical reasoning and sense making (Chapin, O'Connor, 8c Canavan Anderson, 2003), which is of particular concern during the middle grades as the level of abstraction in mathematics increases greatly. As a means of openly engaging in understanding meaningful and rich mathematics, discourse offers one avenue for teachers to create equitable and mathematically rich learning environments and interactions; this article demonstrates why an emphasis on mathematical discourse should be a common practice within the middle level classroom (Bartolini Bussi, 1998).Discourse requires students to evaluate and interpret the perspectives, ideas, and mathematical arguments of others as well as construct valid arguments of their own. That is, students develop deeper understandings of mathematics when they engage in meaningful social interactions such as whole class discourse (Cobb, Yackel, W NCTM, 1991; Rigleman, 2010). The adoption of the Common Core State Standards in many states reinforces the importance of creating classrooms that focus on reasoning, deep conceptual understanding, and the communication of mathematics (Larson, 2012;NCTM, 2000). In addition, the teacher's efforts and attitudes in creating a caring and well-structured classroom environment with high expectations for all students are more likely to increase student engagement (Klem 8c Connell, 2004), which can lead to greater achievement (Smith, Rook, 8c Smith, 2007). Such classrooms exemplify cultures of participation. With that said, knowing that discourse can support student learning and creating the structures to help discourse come alive are not the same thing. Creating a classroom culture of participation is a necessary first step in implementing meaningful discourse and creating equitable learning experiences.What follows is a compilation of strategies and classroom structures from 13 middle level teachers from highly urban communities with tremendous cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity. …

Case reports as a resource for teaching and learning.

Preparing the next generation of health professionals is a collective responsibility. All health professionals have a role to play in contributing knowledge that can enhance teaching and learning for health students across the educational spectrum. Health professionals in general have a commitment to lifelong learning and this commitment is reflected in our professional standards and guidelines, and our literature 1. Indeed, healthcare practice changes quickly in response to new diseases, treatment modalities, and changing patient needs. Thus, lifelong learning is essential if we are to successfully meet the needs of the communities we serve. As we develop professionally, our learning needs and styles of learning mature and develop 2. For example, graduate health professional students often have a rich range of clinical experiences to draw on that can enhance their learning and their insight into the need for ongoing learning. However, for those in the pre-service educational setting, there may be far less clinical experiences to draw on, and so it falls to faculty to ensure that students are provided with current and contextualized cases upon which their learning can be based. Indeed, there are challenges associated with adequately preparing students to face the rigors of clinical practice. It is here that case reports can potentially fill a void. Case reports bring a contextualized account to the classroom. Each case report represents a healthcare encounter involving a real person with a real clinical problem 3. Through case reports, real-world concerns and experiences are able to be brought into the classroom and research suggests that using case studies based on episodes of “real life” provide learning opportunities that can support knowledge, improve attitudes, and enhance skills development 4. The reporting of a case assimilates theory and practice and highlights the key individual factors that were the catalyst for clinical decision-making and action, and also provides students with crucial information about the outcomes. Case reports allow students to engage with real clinical scenarios, and to contemplate the decision-making and actions of the treating team. However, in addition to the focus on health issues, case reports can be used to stimulate students in considering the wider social, cultural, political, and economic issues that may contribute to and impact on the health status of an individual. This can then be used as a lens to consider issues more broadly. Effectively working with other disciplines is an essential skill for all healthcare professionals, and inter-professional learning using case reports may contribute to and foster knowledge sharing and development of the required competencies to successfully collaborate with peers 5. With the increased emphasis being given internationally to inter-professional education for healthcare professional students 6, case reports can provide a learning opportunity and be a useful strategy to enhance inter-professional student learning activities. In addition, sharing practices through case reports provides a means to actively engage students and through insight into the use of clinical guidelines, encourage them to consider issues around guideline-informed practice. As with any teaching and learning activity, there is a need for skilled facilitation to actively engage students to enable them to get the best from engaging with case reports. Current health environments are complex, as are the patients seen within these environments. All health professionals need to be active lifelong learners, so they are in a position to underpin their practice with the most current evidence; yet, often translation of evidence into practice can be fraught with difficulties. Case reports offer a lens in which to view single episodes of care which are often used to facilitate the understanding of a larger body of evidence. Case reports bring to the classroom real-life tangible scenarios that provide students with high value learning experiences. Under the guidance of a skilled facilitator case reports offer a rich and in-depth learning experience in the class room for all disciplines across health care.

Designing learning to engage students in the global classroom

The purpose of the article is to examine how the paradigm shift in education and the availability of digital technologies have created new opportunities to move learning beyond the microcosm of the traditional face-to-face classroom and into the online global classroom. Students and educators are better positioned to work with other students and experts in new and meaningful ways at anytime and anywhere in the world. The challenge is how to design and facilitate authentic collaborative learning in the global classroom that engages students. The author shares a four-element framework with examples from her research to provide images and strategies to help educators to design rich learning experiences for the global classroom. The paper concludes with a discussion of technological and pedagogical implications for practice.

Using a digital story format: a contemporary approach to meeting the workforce needs of public health laboratories.

Public health laboratories are an integral partner in preparedness and emergency response. The Upper Midwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center (UMPERLC) and the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa have a long history of working together to identify and meet the preparedness training needs of the laboratory workforce. The training, Anatomy of a Foodborne Outbreak, which uses a digital story format, provides an example of this partnership. The State Hygienic Laboratory expressed the need for training programs targeted at enhancing early detection and investigation of outbreaks. Clinical laboratory staff play a significant role in identifying patient samples that may represent the effects of foodborne illness. Given that foodborne illnesses are on the increase nationally, it is critical that laboratory staff be prepared to deal with these outbreaks. UMPERLC collaborated with State Hygienic Laboratory content experts in the design and development of a digital story, using a foodborne outbreak that focuses on testing to detect Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. This narrative format was selected because seeing and hearing a story about the training content provide the learner with a deeper interaction and richer learning experience, allowing the learner to better see the bigger picture. Anatomy of a Foodborne Outbreak is available on UMPERLC's Learning Management System, Training Source (http://training-source.org). Evaluation data indicate positive learning experiences overall. The digital story format, which is a video that uses a blend of images, text, and audio narration, was an appropriate method for the content and learning outcomes of the Anatomy of a Foodborne Outbreak training. This format requires more active learning, which increases retention and transfer of knowledge. Training that is easily accessed and user-friendly is an important resource for laboratory staff. When reviewing the course completion data, the highest enrollment occurred immediately after the training program was released. To increase visibility, Anatomy of a Foodborne Outbreak is housed on both the State Hygienic Laboratory Web site and UMPERLC's Learning Management System. The course has also been added to national learning databases such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TrainingFinder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network (CDC TRAIN) and Certified in Public Health Recertification & Reporting System.

Cotton Island: Students’ Learning Motivation Using a Virtual World

ABSTRACTAs technology advances, it is important for teachers to seamlessly integrate technology into their innovative teaching techniques. Using virtual worlds is one alternative to traditional teaching methods that can provide rich learning experiences. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to present Cotton Island, an avatar‐based 3‐D virtual learning environment in Second Life and (b) to evaluate students’ learning motivation in using Cotton Island as a learning tool. Cotton Island was designed with unique navigational features to provide access to rich resources and educational activities that improve students’ knowledge of cotton. Based on the ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) model, this study assesses students’ learning motivation when using Cotton Island as a learning tool, and whether students had a positive learning outcome consistent with the instructors’ goal of knowledge improvement. The results show that students had a positive experience in terms of learning motivation and knowledge improvement.

Comparative analysis of International Service Learning Programs

Purpose – International service learning is a new trend in management development and a new field of research. International Service Learning Programs (ISLP) are experiential corporate volunteering initiatives designed to give employees the chance to work for a short spell abroad (often in a developing or emerging market) on a service assignment with a partner from the social sector (e.g. NGO, social enterprise). The service assignment is a project defined with a social-sector partner on which the corporate employee works full-time on a pro-bono basis and contributes his/her knowledge and expertise in exchange for a rich learning experience. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the use of ISLP in business firms and conducts a comparative analysis of six programs set up by multinational corporations from three industries (health, technology, and accounting and professional services). It identifies characteristics and similarities among programs, discusses differences, offers criteria for program classification and areas for future research. As such, it is an important starting point for quantitative studies. Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative study based on six ISLP. The data were gathered through desk research, interviews with program representatives and a structured questionnaire containing closed and open-ended questions. Findings – Regardless of the stated aims (which usually stress value for the participants, the company and the communities), most programs had one clear focus (two programs in the area of leadership development, two in the area of community development) while two showed closely linked foci (with slightly greater emphasis on organization development than on the other areas). Research limitations/implications – The authors suggest that the type of ISLP has an effect on the learning outcomes. Since companies are still testing usefulness and outcomes of these programs, academic research that provides comparative quantitative data on the outcomes of such programs is of great value for business practice. Practical implications – This systematic overview and classification of ISLP is a starting point for empirical program comparisons as well as for the evaluation of different service learning approaches. This could prove very useful for other companies planning to set up or refine their own ISLP to achieve certain outcomes. Originality/value – This is the first paper that compares ISLP run by multinational corporations. It identifies a number of category areas in which they differ (e.g. in placement length, nature of the assignment – individual or in teams, learning methods used) and provides a typology for program classification (leadership development, organization development or community development).

Exploring discipline differentiation in online discussion participation

<p>Online discussion forums are often the only interaction or communication a student in an online learning environment will have with the course instructor and fellow students. Discussion forums are intended to elicit a range of thinking skills from the students, from purely social interaction to metacognition in order to achieve deep learning. Given the increasing use of online learning environments, it is timely to question whether students from different disciplines use online discussion forums in different ways, particularly in terms of their level of thinking. If there is differentiation, educators need to provide discipline specific opportunities for undergraduate students to interact in dynamic online discussions as part of a rich learning experience. This ethnographic study explored the types of online postings provided by students as part of their learning journey in two undergraduate online courses, one in an Engineering program and another in a Teacher Education program at a regional university. The goal of the research was to identify evidence of higher order thinking within students’ online posts. Data were analysed according to Henri’s Content Analysis Model for Asynchronous Conferencing.</p>

So much more than just a list: exploring the nature of critical questioning in undergraduate sciences

Background: Critical thinking is one of the very highest orders of cognitive abilities and a key competency in higher education. Asking questions is an important component of rich learning experiences, structurally embedded in the operations of critical thinking. Our clear sense is that critical thinking and, within that, critical questioning, is heavily context dependent, in the sense that is applied, used by critical learners in a contextualised way.Purpose: Our research deals with enhancing science undergraduates’ critical questioning. We are interested in understanding and describing the nature and development of students’ critical questioning. The purpose is to conceptualise critical questioning as a competency, into three domains – knowledge, skills and attitudes/dispositions. We have no interest in a taxonomic category of context-free question-types called ‘critical questions’. In contrast, our view is that ‘being a critical questioner’ trades heavily on context.Sources of evidence: Four cases are considered as illuminative of the dimensions of science undergraduates’ critical questioning. Data were collected in natural learning environments through non-participant observation, audio-taping teacher-students interactions and semi-structured interviews. Students’ written material resulting from diverse learning tasks was also collected.Main argument: Our supposition is that one vehicle for achieving university students as critical thinkers is to enable them not just to ask critical questions, but to be critical questioners. We relate critical questioning to three domains: (1) context, (2) competency and (3) delivery, and propose a model based on illuminating examples of the in-classroom action.Conclusions: The dimensions of the competency-context-delivery model provide a framework for describing successful student critical questioning, showing that students’ capacity to be critical can be developed. It is possible, in our view, to generate critical questioners by means of promoting a true spirit of critical inquiry. The model also gives important insights into the design of teaching, learning and assessment contexts, where critical questioning could be promoted.

The 21st International Seaweed Symposium: seaweed science for sustainable prosperity

The 21st International Seaweed Symposium (ISS) took place in Bali, Indonesia, from April 21 to 26, 2013. For more than six decades, the ISS have been the foremost international symposia for individuals and organizations involved with seaweed research and applications. Over the years, ISS have provided a renewed forum for scientists, technologists, business people and resource managers to present their latest research results, exchange ideas and network to develop synergies for strengthening this important bioresource sector. This year was no exception, as 580 participants from 50 countries, and 33 exhibitors from six countries, presented and discussed many aspects focusing on the theme of this year’s edition “Seaweed Science for Sustainable Prosperity”. This theme recognized the fact that scientific research plays a fundamental role in the development of seaweed cultivation, harvesting, processing and commercialization, as well as in the well-being of many coastal communities. The 21st ISS was held in Bali, in the heart of the Coral Triangle where seaweed farming employs tens of thousands of coastal people. There is a clear and present need for expanding research and development to enable environmentally, economically and societally sustainable seaweed industry commercialization, not only in the Coral Triangle but also in other regions throughout the world, either alone or integrated with other aquaculture activities. One of the goals of the 21st ISS was to catalyze support for such endeavours. The program was a rich learning experience and provided opportunities for stimulating discussions. It was developed by the National Organizing Committee (NOC), with the help of the members of the International Seaweed Association Council (ISAC). We would like to thank, in particular, Safari Azis (Chair of the NOC), Made Arthajaya (Vice Chair), Tris Wismiarsi (Secretary), Iskak Indrayani (Treasurer), and the 32 other members of the NOC. There were four plenary presentations:

Using motion capture to produce learning software to aid teachers of sign language

There is a scarcity of games in the market place that can teach British sign language. Furthermore, there have been minimal efforts to develop such games. This paper addresses the creation of a prototype using the latest motion capture camera, the Microsoft Kinect TM , to aid British sign language teachers in educating young pupils learning sign language for the first time. By using this technology, the prototype can be used to teach the basics of British sign language (using a combination of JavaScript and HTML5) to deliver a rich learning experience within a web browser. Interviews and play tests were conducted with 10 sign language experts. None of them were familiar with using games technology to teach sign language, although many of them used the internet, DVD and other audiovisual technology to teach deaf students. They provided positive feedback on the prototype, and believed that such technology could be used alongside traditional sign language teaching methods.

"Listening to the silence quietly": investigating the value of cultural immersion and remote experiential learning in preparing midwifery students for clinical practice.

BackgroundCultural immersion programs are increasingly offered to medical and health science students in an effort to provide experiential learning opportunities that focus on ‘the self’ as well as ‘the other’. Immersion programs encourage self-reflection on attitudes towards cultural differences, provide opportunities to build relationships and work with community members, and allow students to apply knowledge and skills learned in training programs in a supervised practice setting. The aim of this paper is to describe midwifery students’ reflections on a remote Aboriginal clinical placement that has been offered at a Western Australian university since 2010.MethodsInterviews were conducted over a period of 15 months with the first seven participants who completed the program. At the time of interview, four participants were in the final year of their undergraduate degree and three were practicing midwives. In addition, access was given to a detailed journal kept by one participant during the placement. Interviews also were conducted with midwifery staff at the university and practice setting, although the focus of this paper is upon the student experience.ResultsStudent selection, preparation and learning experiences as well as implications of the placement for midwifery practice are described. The remote clinical placement was highly valued by all students and recommended to others as a profound learning experience. Highlights centred on connections made with community members and cultural knowledge learned experientially, while challenges included geographic and professional isolation and the complexities of health care delivery in remote settings, especially to pregnant and birthing Aboriginal women. All students recognised the transferability of the knowledge and skills acquired to urban settings, and some had already incorporated these learnings into clinical practice.ConclusionsCultural immersion programs have the potential to provide students with rich learning experiences that cannot be acquired in classroom settings. In Aboriginal communities on the Ngaanyatjarra Lands students gained valuable insights into the impact of isolation on health service delivery, the extent and strength of cultural traditions in the region, and a heightened awareness of the difficulties encountered by pregnant and birthing Aboriginal women in remote locations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1756-0500-7-685) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Globalisation and the urban studio: evaluating an inter-university studio collaboration in Nairobi

This paper explores some implications of globalisation for planning education and presents faculty and student reflections on an international urban studio and three policy workshops in the Municipality of Ruiru, located outside of Nairobi, Kenya. This learning was embedded in a long-term partnership between the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Nairobi and Columbia University. We argue that carefully structured international studios and workshops are rich learning experiences that can help teach respect for local learning and knowledge. Our findings also suggest the importance of transformational and ‘authentic’ partnerships between universities, faculty and local urban players. These are partnerships characterised by equality in the way of working with all partners changing and learning in a reciprocal manner as they work together. We also underscore the importance of more explicit theorisation and evaluation of the growing number of international partnerships in urban planning.

All for one and one for all: understanding health professionals' experience in individual versus collaborative online learning.

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) may facilitate continuing interprofessional education while overcoming barriers of time and place for busy health care professionals. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences, advantages, and challenges of group versus individual online learning. Fifteen multidisciplinary health professionals participated in a 12-week online course on either diabetes or traumatic brain injury. This consisted of background e-modules and a longitudinal build-a-case exercise, done either individually or as a group. Focus group sessions exploring participants' experiences after course completion and at 4 months were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed for recurring themes. Participant reflection homework and video-recorded group sessions were used for triangulation of results. Individual learners appreciated the flexibility and control, but experienced decreased motivation. Group learners appreciated the immediate feedback from their co-learners and felt social pressure to come to the weekly sessions prepared but expressed challenges in determining group goal-setting for the session. Both groups felt they learned about interprofessional roles; however, group learners described a richer learning experience and understanding of interprofessional roles through the online collaboration exercise. The intense resources necessary for interprofessional CSCL, including time, faculty development, and technological issues, are described. CSCL is a valuable educational strategy in online learning. While individual online learning may be better suited for short and simple educational interventions such as knowledge acquisition, CSCL seems to allow for richer and deeper learning in complex and interprofessional educational experiences. However, strategies, resources, and faculty development required to enhance CSCL need to be addressed carefully.

Aligning technological and pedagogical considerations: Harnessing touch-technology to enhance opportunities for collaborative gameplay and reciprocal teaching in NZ early education

New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) aims to provide a mix of teacher and child-led learning. A non-prescriptive curriculum allows for broad and rich early years teaching and learning experiences, with teachers responsive to devising engaging activities to align with children’s diverse interests. However, such spontaneity presents an on-going challenge for teachers. Using a combination of Action Research, elements of User-Centered and Participatory Design, and Scrum software development approaches, we conducted a multi-disciplinary study which leveraged joint contributions of software engineers and experts, including practitioners (teachers), users (children and teachers), and domain experts (in ECE curriculum and pedagogy, and early childhood psychology). Examination of teacher–child interactions with our software demonstrated that our game was engaging, promoted collaborative gameplay (by promoting mutual awareness, opportunities for information, and equitable control) and supported reciprocal teaching (by aligning children’s interests with content knowledge). Finally, it opens new avenues for introducing research and pedagogy-informed interactive educational software in the NZ ECE domain.

Thinking Critically about Environments for Young Children: Bridging Theory and Practice by Lisa P. Kuh

 2014 Children, Youth and Environments Children, Youth and Environments 24(3), 2014 Thinking Critically about Environments for Young Children: Bridging Theory and Practice Lisa P. Kuh, Editor (2014). New York: Teachers College Press, 216 pages. $49.95 (paperback); ISBN 978-0-8077-5545-7. It is rare for a book to seamlessly meet both scholarly and practical needs, however Lisa Kuh’s edited book, Thinking Critically about Environments for Young Children: Bridging Theory and Practice, remarkably achieved this aim. The collection of chapters in this book are written from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives by leaders in the field, and are grounded in scholarship and connect early childhood educators, students, practitioners, and caregivers with educational tools and practical application techniques that focus on school and indoor environments, outdoor spaces, and informal, out of school, and virtual environments. Kuh’s unique contribution of integrating theory, research, and practice makes this book groundbreaking in terms of its application to a diverse audience. Readers are challenged to think critically about issues related to the influence of environments on child development, and are further provided with concepts grounded in theory, as well as transferrable skills, that help educators to prepare optimal environments for young children. Inspiring readers to challenge assumptions and redefine boundaries in their own practice, this book highlights the importance of creating and sustaining optimal formal and informal environments for children through encouraging rich learning experiences. Kuh is stunningly aware and cognizant of the impact of environment, and calls for scholars and practitioners to think both philosophically and practically about establishing meaningful learning environments for children. Her emphasis on philosophy and reflective articulation of goals for children’s environments fundamentally asks, “What contributes to deeper learning?” in a way that considers the whole child, encourages active use of space, and identifies how that space can profoundly influence children’s development. Kuh also challenges teachers and caregivers to become active agents in creating spaces that inspire discovery and deep learning in children. Breaking away from the standard organization and expectations of modern-day learning spaces, the notion of a “learning environment” is broadened to include spaces outside of early childhood classrooms with illustrations of “life-long, life-wide, and life-deep learning” (131) that value children’s unique interests and experiences to embed a love of knowledge, curiosity, and creativity into the learning process. Moving beyond common beliefs about and constraints on young children’s environments, Kuh and colleagues encourage innovation and risk-taking to empower children to learn in enduringly novel ways. In an age where technology prevails in children’s Book Review: Thinking Critically about Environments for Young Children… 240 lives and poses the potential to disengage children with the natural world, this collection is especially timely in terms of addressing the importance of play and outdoor environments. As readers are encouraged to value theory within their learning environments regardless of context, harnessing the potentials of the environment becomes even more accessible as new avenues for children’s learning are uncovered. Kuh speaks to the keen importance of contemplating timeless pedagogical perspectives to enlighten current practice. Reflecting upon the legacies of Dewey, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia, this book applies traditional frameworks to the design of contemporary spaces. Kuh also draws upon leading examples from other cultural perspectives, informing readers of what makes best practice in a variety of learning contexts such as informal and outdoor play spaces, natural playgrounds, gardens, museums, and virtual worlds. An essential contribution of this book is its commitment to scholarship, paving the way for students interested in early childhood education to apply classroom learning to future practice. Grounded in rich theory meant to inform thoughtful practice, students are guided to understand the complexities of what composes rich learning environments. A key theme is understanding the environment as the “third teacher” by using space, materials, and aesthetics to optimize a classroom, playground, or any educational space in ways that educate children organically and interactively. Emphasis is likewise placed upon the importance of child-driven discovery and active learning, creating environments that implicitly communicate particular expectations for children, foster curiosity and collaboration, and immerse children in interactive spaces that cultivate participation and child-directed play. Readers are thus...

Young Children's Emerging Understandings of the Measurement of mass

THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES INSIGHTS into young children's emerging understandings of the measurement of mass. Findings from a teaching experiment that delivered lessons offering rich learning experiences regarding concepts of mass to children of six to eight years of age (Years 1 and 2) suggest that, while the basic idea of direct measurement may look simple, the learning of mass measurement can involve complex mental accomplishments for young children. The lessons are described briefly to communicate the opportunities for exploration that they provided. Examples of children's actions and reasoning as they experimented, theorised, and challenged each other in their learning are also described. Complexities and accomplishments in these young children's emerging understandings are highlighted and discussed.

SROI in practice: the Wooden Canal Boat Society

Purpose – The purpose of this case study is to highlight the complexities involved in conducting a social return on investment (SROI) forecast in a small social enterprise, The Wooden Canal Boat Society. Design/methodology/approach – This SROI forecast was a collaborative exercise between Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and the Wooden Canal Boat Society. A case study methodology has been adopted in order to allow the voice of the first author, from the Local Authority, to come through. Findings – The findings highlight that the process of scoping; gathering and analysing information; engaging with stakeholders and assigning evidence against proxies (London centric) is challenging and exhausting, yet it provides a rich learning experience for all those involved. The accuracy of the ratio is compromised and implicated by the time and resources that are available to invest the subjectivity of the data behind the ratio the judgements and decisions over who and how to include/exclude individuals from the SROI forecast. In short, the Wooden Canal Boat Society SROI forecast proved to be the tipping point in a successful grant application. However, SROI is not something the Local Authority are set to embrace more widely or would particularly recommend for the vast majority of their local social economy organisations. Research limitations/implications – As a case study paper, the authors do not seek to generalise. The case provides the reader with a stakeholder informed account of the experiences of being involved in a forecast SROI from the perspective of the first author from the Local Authority. In times of political change and economic austerity the climate in the UK social economy has significantly altered, particularly in the marketisation of services and funding provisions for health and social care. One implication of this shift that is reflected in the paper is Local Authority thinking in light of the Social Value Act, which passed through the UK Parliament in 2012. Originality/value – The value of this case study provides academics and practitioners with an alternative perspective and rich commentary of the first author's narrative and reflections on the process of SROI and the dynamics involved in arriving at the ratio.

Making learning and teaching a richer experience: A challenge for rural Fijian primary schools

The purpose of the study was to determine teachers’ perception of the availability and adequacy of resources for the provision of a richer learning and teaching experience to children in a rural Fijian primary school. Analysis of the data gathered from the teachers shows the school to be in dire need of such resources as textbooks, science materials, library books, sports equipment and curriculum materials for creating stimulating opportunities for children and teachers. The study findings have implications not only for the quality of schooling provided to the children in rural areas but also for teachers’ professional work and the funding criteria adopted by the principal stakeholder in funding small rural schools. The implications are likely to be relevant, too, for education provision in small schools located in remote rural areas of other jurisdictions, especially in developing contexts. Key words: Remote/ rural school, quality education, funding, resources, rural education.

Discussion Forums and Weblogs: A Means to Fostering Learning

Learning management systems can play an important role in fostering rich teaching and learning experiences for students and instructors in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions. The levels of sophistication of these platforms vary from one institution to another. Decisions regarding the use of the applications available on the learning management systems ought to be linked to their possible pedagogical benefits. In this regard, this study collected data from lecturers offering online courses in an ODL institution in order to explore their views regarding which applications available in their learning management systems stimulated constructivist and observational learning amongst their students. Using Baviskar, Hartle& Whitney’s (2009:543-544) guidelines for constructivist learning and Bandura’s (2001:265-299) observational learning, I employed a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of lecturers regarding online applications for constructivist and observational learning. The findings revealed that Discussion forums and Weblogs proved the most suitable online applications for fostering learning in ODL institutions. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n13p513

Weaving the Tapestry of Learning

Using situated cognition learning theory, nursing faculty developed simulated clinical learning experiences integrating virtual communities and standardized patients. These learning experiences provide authenticity and realism not easily achieved using the individual techniques in isolation. The authors describe the process of weaving these strategies into a rich learning experience for students.