Structure Of Course Research Articles

Addressing Pedagogical Challenges in Teaching Social Justice Issues: Are We Scared Yet?

ABSTRACT While films are popular as teaching tools in social work education, to critique social inequalities, horror films have not been the conventional genre. This teaching note describes the creation and deployment of a course that uses horror films to address social justice issues as part of different critical reflection, which is linked to practice wisdom. The author describes the structure of course, readings, activities, and reflections for expanding the use of this genre and well as limitations. The use of horror films can be a useful and salient tool to engage students to draw upon social constructions of what it means to be fearful or scared, and teach about infractions to human nature from a social work perspective. Broad implications are discussed, including other genres and the availability of resources to replicate this course in other settings.

Проблемы и возможности подготовки специалистов для работы с детьми с задержкой психического развития в системе высшего образования

In the modern rapidly changing world, there is a change in value orientations and educational paradigms, socio-economic, political, liberal-social and scientific conditions. These processes also affect the training system for working with different categories of children, including those with mental retardation. The purpose of this work is to study, analyze and objectively compare the structure of training bachelors who are capable of creating special conditions for education and upbringing for children with mental retardation, to identify common elements of this training. The study of the domestic practice of training specialists for working with persons with mental retardation is important for concretizing the content of specialized education. The study used a comparative analysis of training profiles in the framework of defectological, psychological-pedagogical and pedagogical training areas. At the same time, the authors also analyzed the main professional educational programs and work programs of specialized disciplines aimed at preparing defectologists, teachers and psychologists to work with children with impaired mental function. The study expanded the understanding of the dependence of the structure and content of personnel training for working with children with mental retardation on future areas of professional activity; the influence of research results, concepts of leading scientists who advocate the priority of defectologists in teaching and upbringing of children with mental retardation. Based on the results of the study, a versatile description of the structure of training psychological, pedagogical and defectological personnel was obtained by identifying factors that can affect the organization of optimal profile training for bachelors. The authors declare the idea of a specialized professional defectological education of teachers who are ready to work with children with mental retardation. The obtained research results can be used to design training modules in the structure of courses, the content of which maximally effectively ensures the formation of core competencies for working with children with mental retardation.

Возможности электронного учебного курса в развитии креативности студентов: моделирование, реализация, оценка

The aim of the study is to test the effectiveness of an e-learning course organised in accordance with the author’s model for students’ creativity development by means of the electronic information and educational environment of the university. The paper describes the structure of the course, presents its adaptation to the “Foreign Language” discipline and analyses the results of students’ mutual evaluation of one another’s work. Scientific novelty of the study lies in elaborating a methodology for students’ creativity development by means of the electronic information and educational environment of the university within the framework of foreign language teaching. As a result, the researchers have been able to prove the effectiveness of the author’s model for students’ creativity development and the corresponding structure of the e-learning course, which makes it possible to recommend them to teachers of other social disciplines and the humanities focused on students’ creativity development.

Aspects Influencing ESP Syllabus Design in Lifelong Military Education

This paper aims to identify and compare aspects affecting English language syllabus design at military language centres in six NATO countries. Close attention is devoted to course syllabi for Level 1 (Survival; approximately corresponding to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) Level A2) and Level 2 (Functional; approximately corresponding to CEFR Level B1). The descriptive quantitative research, conducted in 2019, concentrated on determining which stakeholders participated in creating the English language syllabi presently in use and which critical aspects of syllabus design the creators considered in the process of their compilation. The findings reveal that active teacher participation is one of the most prominent characteristics of the entire syllabus design process in all of the institutions examined, which results from the specific nature of the courses focused on preparing learners for final English examinations in a military context. Integrated syllabi, which are product-oriented and teacher-led, are another defining characteristic typical for both levels in all institutions. The syllabi in the countries studied are designed similarly, considering such crucial aspects as the learners’ entrance level, previous syllabus, exit requirements, and the type and length of courses. The study offers new insight into the organisational structure of courses at the elementary level, and an increase in the number of lessons in courses for Level 1 organised within the Czech army is strongly proposed.

Current ways of structuring courses of academic disciplines

The article substantiates the need to revise not only the content, but also the structure of courses of academic disciplines, provides some terms of self-directed and goal-oriented learning. Options for building a tree of courses, various tools for organizing the structure of courses, such as electronic information and educational environment, interactive textbook, channels on platforms for organizing the workspace, corporate messengers (Google Class, Slack, Teams, etc.), intelligent map, and intelligent learning system are considered. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are analyzed in detail, the recommended forms of organizing the information structure of courses for full and part-time students are derived. A promising method of registration of distance courses is highlighted and the problems of its implementation are identified. The examples of the implementation of the proposed approaches to organizing the structure of the educational process in the form of courses in the Google Class service are given.

Modelling students’ career indicators via mixtures of parsimonious matrix‐normal distributions

SummaryThe evaluation of the teaching efficiency, under different points of view, is an important aspect for the university system because it helps managers to improve more and more the quality of the education and helps students to achieve strong professional skills. In this framework, students’ careers as well as teachers’ qualification and quantity adequacy indicators are analysed based on data sets provided by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) according to a mixture model approach. In particular, parsimonious mixtures of matrix‐normal distributions are used to detect underlying grouping structures. The results show that the data present an underlying group structure of courses having different traits, thus providing useful information for the university policy makers.

Digitálisan aláírt tanúsítványok és digitális kitűzők a szakképzésben és felsőoktatásban

The Digitally Signed Credentials and Open Badges in VET and HE project aims to come up with a data structure of course and content typology based on current European and national standards and new research. The resulting grid of extra metadata enables a better mapping and manageability of their badges for VET, HE and CPD institutions. Based on the grid, an open source displayer will be developed, accompanied by a 30 hours course on open badges and digitally signed credentials targeted to the issuers and validators to support the implementation of the displayer platform in their institutions.The article gives an overview about the results of the research conducted at the beginning of 2021 about the state-of-the art of the use and the approach of the open badges and digitally signed credentials in Europe and the partner countries, highlighting the results from Hungary.

Teaching spirituality to medical students: a systematic review

Purpose Though it has become increasingly clear that religion and spirituality are important aspects of whole patient care, little is known about how this topic is taught to medical students. This systematic review examined the structure of courses teaching spirituality to medical students and assessed their impact on reported student outcomes. Methods In October 2020, the authors conducted a systematic review of the literature from 1926 to 2020 to identify published articles describing medical school spirituality curricula. Included studies were English-language articles that described spirituality courses predominantly designed for medical students, specified a curricular structure, and evaluated outcomes of the course. The authors used the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) to assess the quality of the included studies and summarized course structures, curricular content, and study outcomes. Results Nineteen publications of the 1889 reviewed met the inclusion criteria. These studies were of moderate quality (mean MERSQI = 9.9). The majority of curricula were taught in United States medical schools. Courses were evenly split between mandatory versus elective classes, with mandatory courses having a shorter duration and higher total student participation. Most studies with clear student outcome evaluation had a pre- and post-test design. Common themes throughout the curricula included teaching how to take a spiritual history, delineating differences between spirituality and religion, and experience shadowing chaplains interacting with patients. Conclusions This broad systematic review of the literature revealed a small but growing number of studies describing specific course structure and curricula for teaching spirituality at the medical student level. For the most concise approach, one short, mandatory didactic session followed by application with standardized or hospital patients can be an effective method of introducing students to the importance of spirituality. Important topics to address include the differences between religion and spirituality, recognizing spiritual distress, how to take a spiritual history, and the relevance of spirituality to student well-being. Measured student outcomes should encompass behavioral changes during patient care in addition to changes in knowledge and attitudes. Suggested methods of evaluation include reflective writing and adding a standardized patient case in which the patient is in spiritual distress in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

«Sociology» and «History of Sociology» for «Social work»: to the conceptualization of sociological component education

The article proposes a review and substantiation of the conceptual foundations of the study of sociology within the framework of the Educational Programme «Social work» at the sociological faculty of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. The relevance of such a statement of the problem is associated with a discussion of the definition of the purpose of this educational program and its features, which consist, in particular, in in-depth training in sociology. Based on the characteristics and features of the educational program, the article formulates the initial provisions that guide the conceptualization of its sociological component, in particular, the nature of the discipline, the main direction of the sociological component of training, its central concept and requirements for the structure. Thematic priorities in teaching courses in «Sociology» and «History of Sociology» within the framework of the Social Work educational program have been determined. The substantiation of the conceptual foundations and thematic structure of the course «History of Sociology» is presented. In particular, the main questions have been identified that the course should answer and, accordingly, the historical and sociological material was selected. Reorientation from methodological to ontological features of sociological theorizing is substantiated. A method of paradigmatic unification of sociological concepts for effective understanding by students of the essence of sociological thinking has been chosen. The main sections of the course are characterized and its thematic structure is presented. The thematic plan of the course «Sociology» as an element of the sociological component of the educational program «Social work» is proposed and its differences from the thematic structure of the sociology course for non-core audiences are argued. By referring to the psychological, pedagogical and didactic aspects, the author describes the introduction of an appropriate system of methods of teaching, learning, support and assessment of educational activities within the framework of the courses «Sociology» and «History of Sociology».

Towards a sustainable, student-centred approach for technology-supported music education: A Dutch perspective

Applying technology in music education is not always obvious for music teachers. Pre-service music teachers should be trained in technology-supported music pedagogy, but this requires more than isolated lessons, short projects and ad hoc support. This article reports on an exploration towards a structural implementation of digital pedagogy in higher music education (i.e. a bachelor of music in schools). This exploration was based on student-centred approaches that were iteratively developed over time and have been investigated through an action research strategy. The aim of this article is to inform about the design of the approaches, such as the structure of courses with its assignments, participants and external collaborations, and turning points and insights that steered the approach. Focus is put on the so-called technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), technology acceptance and students’ motivation. In the end, this article presents recommendations for designing education that prepares students to enhance their practice with technology: (1) adapt to your students; (2) be concrete to your students; and (3) embrace collaboration. This article concludes with explaining the value of these recommendations beyond higher music teacher education by providing examples of how these recommendations can be translated to higher music performance education.

A Syllabi Analysis of Social Media for Teaching and Learning Courses

The purpose of this syllabus analysis was to explore the structure of courses focused on social media and geared toward education professionals. Fourteen-course syllabi from institutions located within the United States (U.S.) were analyzed as part of this investigation. The results of the analysis revealed a total of 46 unique topic themes across the different courses. The findings show that the most common course objectives aimed to encourage the application and practice of social media as part of a learning experience and the learners' professional practice. In total, the syllabi listed 67 unique required readings including non-peer-reviewed publications, peer-reviewed journal articles, and textbooks. Last, the analysis of the assignments listed in the syllabi shows that in these social media courses, there was a mix of traditional and non-traditional assessment methods. These non-traditional assessment methods focused on integrating social media as part of the assessment in which learners were required to create a social media account, become familiar with it, and create learning experiences incorporating a specific social media platform. Keywords: Teaching and learning. Social media in higher education. Curriculum Analysis.

History, Research, and Theory to Practice: Scaffolding Framework for Graduate Online Courses

The expansion of modern technology has vastly changed and continues to change the way we learn, communicate, and connect with one another. Institutions of higher learning including Community Colleges and Universities, traditionally known for their face-to-face courses, have had to reconsider programmatic and delivery mode over the years to transfer their face-to-face courses into online courses based on the growing demand. With this transition, comes reflective reevaluation of curriculum and programmatic structure of courses. These programmatic courses must provide instructional experiences that are meaningful and purposeful for graduate students in higher education and prepare them in the same manner and level of quality as face-to-face courses. There is a need for pedagogical research to assist faculty and instructors to make this transition to online teaching. The following paper examines 1) the historical context of distance education 2) research on face-to-face instruction in comparison to online instruction 3) a modern framework for scaffolding graduate courses and graduate course content.

A Syllabi Analysis of Social Media for Teaching and Learning Courses

The purpose of this syllabi analysis was to explore the structure of courses focused on social media and geared towards education professionals. Fourteen course syllabi from institutions located within the United States (U.S) were analyzed as part of this investigation. The results of the analysis revealed a total of 46 unique topic themes across the different courses. The findings show that the most common course objectives aimed to encourage application and practice of social media as part of a learning experience and the learners’ professional practice. In total, the syllabi listed 67 unique required readings including: non-peer reviewed publications, peer-reviewed journal articles, and textbooks. Last, the analysis of the assignments listed in the syllabi show that in these social media courses, there were a mix of traditional and non-traditional assessment methods. These non-traditional assessment methods focused on integrating social media as part of the assessment in which learners were required to create a social media account, become familiar with it, and create learning experiences incorporating a specific social media platform.

Rolul laboratorului de traducere în grupurile lingvistice mixte de studenți – analiză de caz

The case study we bring to your attention in the present paper refers to the structure of the student group learning Romanian language at Sapienza University in Rome, a mixed language group, consisting mainly of Italian and Romanian mother tongue students, gathered within these translation laboratories, organized on the following principles: competence levels (student perspective); translation direction based on these levels of competence (from Romanian to Italian for first and second year students, from Italian to Romanian, for senior and master students); the typology of the notions provided for each level (teacher's perspective) and the materialization and alignment of the two perspectives in choosing the typology of the texts and the direction of translation. In our approach, we will focus on aspects related to the structure of courses, the structure of laboratories, the importance of differentiating between the concepts of mother tongue/ethnic language/foreign language/second language, the notion of cultural gap, and the role of the act of “plural teaching”, as a exercise of collaboration between the Italian teacher and the Romanian lecturer.

Digital Technologies Development in the Educational Process of Ecology and Industrial Safety Department, Bauman Moscow State Technical University

The report gives current status overview of how the digital technologies integration evolves in the educational process as well as gives brief overview of the whole educational activities of Ecology and Industrial Safety department in Bauman Moscow State Technical University. The most attention is payed to the development and introduction of the online course Life safety in the educational process and done using Open BMSTU platform and the educational portal of the department е9.bmstu.ru. The contents and the structure of course are presented. The peculiarities of the work at online course are pointed out. The forms of online presentations, access for authorized teachers and students and control tests are considered. The procedure of the creation of video lectures and introductions to laboratory works is briefly depicted. Other components of the educational portal including online video library of the department, laboratory works online timetable, life safety course online introduction videos to the laboratory works are also presented.

Curricular Learning Communities and Retention

Learning communities have been a part of the higher educational landscape since the 1980s. Despite their widespread use, research regarding their effectiveness with enhancing retention is sparse. This study describes a freshmen curricular learning community linking courses required for all business majors. Retention for students taking courses in a curricular learning community is compared to retention for students taking the same courses independent from a learning community. Analysis of the data indicates that students who participated in the learning community were twice as likely to persist to the following semester than the students in the baseline comparison group. The results provide evidence that purposeful structuring of courses in a curricular learning community with support imbedded to help students succeed is associated with improved retention.

Peculiarities of the pedagogical situation at the training of bachelors on the direction 08.03.01 «Construction» on the example of discipline of specialization

Requirements to the quality of students’ training are constantly growing; employers also are interested in obtaining high-quality professionals in the current system of Bachelor’s – Master’s degree. For the efficient operation of the system “lecturer” – “student” it is necessary to have highly qualified lecturers and modern material and technical equipment for the educational process. The goal of this work is to perform the analysis of the current teaching situation; on the example of the profile discipline to develop a learning algorithm and its implementation in accordance with the laws of the didactics of Bachelors in 08.01.03 construction direction “Highways”. Materials and methods: the methods of research consist in studying the basics of Didactics (learning theory) with positions of interdisciplinary areas of knowledge, such as general theory and graph sys tems, familiarizing with the functioning laws of the learning process, pedagogical technologies of domestic and foreign researchers. Basic materials were the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia from 12.03.2015 N 201 “On approval of the federal state educational standard of higher education in preparing 08.03.01 construction (Bachelor level)” (Registered with the Ministry of Justice of Russia 07.04.2015 N 36767); core curriculum educational programs for Bachelors in 08.03.01 “Construction”, as well as educational and methodical complex of discipline that was developed by the leading lecturer in accordance with the legal requirements. Results: The presented model of the logical structure of the training course of the discipline “Fundamentals of the design of transport structures” makes it possible to visualize in the graph system the totality of interaction between the didactic units of the discipline under study with other disciplines of the basic educational program, their interrelation and hierarchy. The assessment of the nature of the existing links of the learning process performed in the work made it possible to identify the problems and contradictions of the latter. The developed learning technology of mastering the profile discipline takes into account the levels of training and learning that allows creating an effective communication channel “lecturer” – “student”, the successful work of which creates opportunities for solving a large number of methodological problems of teaching and self-study of the course. Conclusion: The analysis of works on pedagogy, psychology, didactics and technology of the educational process performed in the article allowed to develop an effective logical structure of the educational material. This structure contributes to the systematization and generalization of knowledge, obtained by students in junior courses in the study of disciplines of the natural-mathematical and natural-scientific cycles, which are basic for mastering profile disciplines in senior courses. It is possible to improve the existing situation, perhaps by developing effective methodology of teaching technical subjects of appropriate specialization, which will produce positive results with the right logical structure of the course, individualization of learning, and regular quality control of knowledge. As a result, the student acquires the skills, necessary for professional practice, skills in working with regulatory and technical literature, graphic editors, computer programs and technologies and, due to, the initial experience to design traffic facilities, necessary for the formation of practical skills and abilities, development of competencies and didactic units, corresponding to the profile of the “Highways”.

Reducing depressive symptomatology with a smartphone app: study protocol for a randomized, placebo-controlled trial

BackgroundDepression has become one of the leading contributors to the global disease burden. Evidence-based treatments for depression are available, but access to them is still limited in some instances. As technology has become more integrated into mental health care, computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols have become available and have been recently transposed to mobile environments (e.g., smartphones) in the form of “apps.” Preliminary research on some depression apps has shown promising results in reducing subthreshold or mild to moderate depressive symptoms. However, this small number of studies reports a low statistical power and they have not yet been replicated. Moreover, none of them included an active placebo comparison group. This is problematic, as a “digital placebo effect” may explain some of the positive effects documented until now. The aim of this study is to test a newly developed mobile app firmly grounded in the CBT theory of depression to determine whether this app is clinically useful in decreasing moderate depressive symptoms when compared with an active placebo. Additionally, we are interested in the app’s effect on emotional wellbeing and depressogenic cognitions.Methods/designRomanian-speaking adults (18 years and older) with access to a computer and the Internet and owning a smartphone are included in the study. A randomized, three-arm clinical trial is being conducted (i.e., active intervention, placebo intervention and delayed intervention). Two hundred and twenty participants with moderate depressive symptoms (i.e., obtaining scores >9 and ≤16 on the Patient Health Questionnaire, PHQ-9) will be randomized to the three conditions. Participants undergoing therapy, presenting serious mental health problems, or legal or health issues that would prevent them from using the app, as well as participants reporting suicidal ideation are excluded. Participants randomized to the active and placebo interventions will use the smartphone app for 6 weeks. A short therapist check-in via phone will take place every week. Participants in the delayed-intervention condition will be given access to the app after 6 weeks from randomization. The primary outcome is the level of depressive symptomatology. The intervention delivered through the app to the active condition includes psychoeducational materials and exercises based on CBT for depression, while the placebo intervention uses a sham version of the app (i.e., similar structure of courses and exercises).DiscussionTo our knowledge, this study protocol is the first to test the efficacy of a smartphone app for depressive symptomatology in the form of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that includes an active placebo condition. As such, this can substantially add to the body of evidence supporting the use of apps designed to decrease depression.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03060200. Registered on 1 February 2017. The first participant was enrolled on 17 February 2017.

RUSSIAN RESEARCH AND HIGHER EDUCATION SYLLABI ON POST-SOVIET SPACE: PRIORITIES IN TERMINOLOGY AND STRUCTURE OF COURSES

The article is devoted to the analysis of the key concepts used in the undergraduate and graduate courses on the post-Soviet region, of the link between these concepts and the official rhetoric based on the foreign policy documents. Major research questions of the article are: how is the international political region on the ex-Soviet space is called? Are there any subregions in this region? Is more attention paid to the analysis of regional organizations compared to the analysis of national specificities or bilateral and multilateral relations not related to regional institutions? Does the structure of the Russian courses correspond to the structure of courses taught at Western universities? The results of the analysis demonstrate that the structure of the academic courses and, partially, of the PhD dissertations on economic and political processes on the post-Soviet space correspond to the priorities in the Russian official documents: for instance, the same terminology is used to describe the whole international political region (the post-Soviet space) and subregions (Central Asia and Caucasus); more priority is given to the analysis of institutionalized cooperation in the framework of international organizations (first of all, the CIS); the role of Russia in the region, its interests and its participation in regional processes are usually understudied, or is absent from the academic courses. The analysis showed that currently there are no so many textbooks on the post-Soviet space, despite the fact that the course "Economic and political processes in the CIS" is included in the basic part of the Professional cycle of the Federal State Educational Standard on the International Relations. However, it should be noted that in the federal educational standards the content of the courses is not specified, that is why universities have an opportunity to create their original content, even if the title of the course is pre-determined.

The Structure of the Course of Culture Study for Forming Socio-Cultural Competence to High School Students while Teaching Reading

Introduction: The article reveals the structure of the course of culture study for forming sociocultural competence to high school students, while teaching them reading. Purpose. To analyze the contents of the whole course and specify the contents of every module in its structure, to desingush the process of forming sociocultural competence to high school students, while teaching them reading in the structure of the elective course, to deferienciate the stages of the process of reading and to state the principles of course modeling.Results. As a result of the study, the contents of the course of country study was identified, which includes four modules (“Ireland”, “Canada”, Australia” and “New Zealand”). Every module includes the information about: background (land and climate, history), people (population, language, religion, general attitudes, personal appearance), customs (greetings, gestures, visiting, eating), lifestyle (family, dating, marriage, diet, recreation, holidays, commerce), society (government, economy, education, health, transport, communication), social interaction (space distancing, attitude to time, display of emotions), communication (communicative support, safe and dangerous topics, conversational Do’s and Taboo’s). The principles of course modeling were also identified. By the principles of course modeling, we mean the principle of integration and differentiation, the principle of course module structure, flexibility and nonlinearity of the subject “Country study”. The means for forming sociocultural competence to high school students while teaching reading at the lessons of culture study were suggested. Conclusion: For effective crosscultural interaction and forming of sociocultural competence to high school students, while teaching them reading at the lessons of country study the established structure of culture study course for forming sociocultural competence to high school students while teaching reading at the lessons of culture study should be provided in the educational process.