Traditional Educational Settings Research Articles

Teaching observational learning to children with autism.

Observational learning (OL) is critical for the acquisition of social skills and may be an important skill for learning in traditional educational settings. Although OL occurs during early childhood in the typically developing population, research suggests that it may be limited in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of the present study was to develop an assessment to test for the presence of OL across a variety of tasks. If OL was deficient, we sought to teach it by training specific skills. Six participants who had been diagnosed with ASD demonstrated deficits in OL. After an initial assessment, a multiple-probe design across OL tasks showed that training produced acquisition of these skills across multiple exemplars. After training, 5 of the 6 participants engaged in OL across multiple tasks and task variations, demonstrating generalization. For 1 participant, generalization of performance did not occur across tasks but did occur within task variations.

Developing Peer Led Check-In/Check-Out: A Peer-Mentoring Program for Children in Residential Care

Check-in/check-out (CICO) is a practical, resource-efficient mentoring program for students with behavioral challenges that has been implemented with success in both traditional and Alternative Educational (AE) settings. Traditionally, the CICO program has utilized adults exclusively to direct the mentoring process. This pilot study explored an extension to the CICO program, peer led check-in/check-out (PL-CICO), which allowed peers to facilitate the mentoring process. Results of this pilot utilizing a single-subject reversal design (A-B-A-B) indicate that the PL-CICO program improved mentee behavior. Furthermore, researchers report high rates of fidelity for student mentors’ implementation of the PL-CICO protocol. Additionally, both student and staff participants rated PL-CICO favorably, according to social validity measures.

Embodied Head Gesture and Distance Education

Traditional distance education settings are usually based on video teleconferencing scenarios where human emotions and social presence are only expressed by the facial and vocal expressions which are not enough for complete presence; our bodily gestures and actions play a vital role in understanding exact meaning of communication patterns; especially in teaching-learning scenarios. The bodily gestures especially head movements offer cues to understand contextual knowledge during conversational dialogue. In this work, we have considered the tutor's head gesture embodiment for educational assistive robot and compared the results with the standard audio-video tele-conferencing scenarios used in online education. We have used Embodied Telepresence System (ETS) to investigate the distance communication for online education setting. Our ETS emulates the head gestures of the human tutor for distance education scenario. Our experimental study includes ten able-bodied subjects (5 male and 5 female) from various countries. These participants were asked to participate in online education scenario through i) a traditional video conferencing tool, i.e. Skype and ii) an extended setup based on ETS. The statistical analysis is done on the results which indicates the effectiveness of our novel embodied head gesture based approach in distance education setting. Our experimental studies show that the proposed design of embodied head gesture based ETS is able to improve the user engagement in distance education.

Distance learning in dental radiology: Immediate impact of the implementation

Objective: This study assessed the immediate impact in terms of learning of the dento-maxillomandibular radiographic anatomy in intraoral periapical radiographs after entire replacement of the method of classroom learning by the distance learning using the Moodle platform. Material and Methods: The teaching of this subject by traditional educational setting in classroom was made until the first semester of 2011, “A class” (AC), using radiographic slabs from duplicated films. In the second semester of 2011, “B class” (BC), these radiographic slabs were digitalized, creating the Moodle e-course about dento-maxillomandibular anatomy in intraoral radiographs for distance learning. The impact was assessed by comparison of scores of students from two distinct classes, AC (N=60) and BC (N=62), after application of a similar test with all content of the topic of dento-maxillomandibular anatomy, using T-Student unpaired test (?=0.05). A voluntary and unidentified questionnaire with 12 questions, developed in Google Docs spreadsheets, was used to evaluate the acceptance of students for this e-course. Results: No significant differences (p>0.05) were observed in scores of the students from two classes. Among other questions, all students of BC who completed the questionnaire had interest in content of the available material in e-course, and their satisfaction level on a scale from 0 to 10 had a mean of 8.47 (SD=1.69). Conclusion: The method of distance learning of this subject using the Moodle platform can be utilized with same educational results as of those obtained from a traditional educational setting.

Emerging instructional technologies: Exploring the extent of faculty use of web 2.0 tools at a midwestern community college

The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the several aspects of instructional use of emerging web-based technologies. The study first explores the extent of Web 2.0 technology integration into face-to-face classroom activities. In this phase, the main focus of research interests was on the types and dynamics of Web 2.0 tools used by community college instructors. In the second phase, we were predominantly interested in instructors’ preferences toward tools and the major barriers instructors confront in integrating these tools in a traditional educational setting. The study reveals the extent of instructors’ use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom relates to a) their level of education and b) training on the tools. Results clearly indicate that level of education and current use of web 2.0 technologies in instruction are major determinants of the instructors’ preferences toward different groups of Web 2.0 tools. Finally, lack of faculty training opportunities was identified as the main barrier for using Web 2.0 technologies. The study offers research based evidence which undoubtedly represent the current trends and issues in the process of technology integration into course curriculum at a community college level. Considering obtained findings, we suggest implementation of an institutional and systematic approach to reinforce inclusion of Web 2.0 technologies in traditional teaching and learning.

The Presidential Bioethics Commission:Pedagogical Materials and Bioethics Education

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues was created by President Obama in 2009 to identify and promote policies and practices that ensure scientific research, health care delivery, and technological innovation are conducted in socially and ethically responsible manners. The bioethics commission is an independent and thoughtful group of experts who advises the President and, in so doing, strives to educate the nation on bioethical issues. As part of the effort to promote policies and practices ensuring the ethical conduct of research, innovation, and health care delivery, the bioethics commission staff, in consultation with commission members, has used the bioethics commission reports to develop pedagogical materials for traditional and nontraditional educational settings. The goal is to use contemporary issues addressed by the bioethics commission to support teaching of bioethics ideas, principles, and theories across the major areas of study and practice.

The role of environment design in an educational Multi‐User Virtual Environment

AbstractThis paper presents empirical results from an exploratory study conducted in an authentic educational situation with preservice education students enrolled in an undergraduate course, which was partially taught in Second Life. The study investigated the effect of environment design on presence, learning outcomes and the overall experience of the students. Two different educational virtual environments (a traditional university auditorium and an open‐air setting) were designed and presented to different groups of students (n = 51). Results indicate that students' experience from the educational activities, their attitudes toward the environment and the induced sense of presence are not affected by the design of the educational setting. Learning outcomes seem to be slightly better in virtual educational settings that replicate traditional educational settings. Experience shows that undergraduate university classes can be successfully taught in Second Life and such environments elicit satisfaction, positive experiences and attitudes and high levels of social presence from the participants. Course design in a Multi‐User Virtual Environment (MUVE) should take into account the time and training necessary for all students to become familiar with the virtual environment and possible time losses due to technical issues. This study could act as support to construct and test hypotheses regarding the role of educational setting design in teaching and learning in MUVEs.

PBIS as Prevention for High-Risk Youth in Alternative Education, Residential, and Juvenile Justice Settings

This special issue of Education and Treatment of Children explores the use of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) as a means of prevention for high-risk youth being served in non-traditional, more restrictive educational settings including alternative education (AE), residential, and juvenile justice (JJ) settings. PBIS is a multi-tiered framework differentiating interventions and intensity of delivery based on student needs and data; and is applicable across all education settings. Currently, the PBIS framework has been implemented in many traditional education settings and has recently been adopted and adapted to non-traditional settings. Youth within these settings present a wide range of academic and behavioral deficits and excesses that could benefit from the tiered support within the PBIS framework. The goal of this special issue is to provide empirical and practical information on the PBIS framework to educators and a wide-range of service providers (e.g., behavior specialists, counselors, mental health, advocacy, and policy organization personnel) who work with high-risk youth in AE, residential, and JJ settings to improve youth outcomes and teacher effectiveness. In an effort to (a) support the continued and extended use of PBIS in these settings; (b) focus on the utility of PBIS as a method of prevention, in particular as a means to address the school-to-prison pipeline phenomenon of more restrictive placements and possible incarceration; and (c) provide resources and research directions for the field, we have assembled articles that address implementation of PBIS in AE settings across the tiers and provide lessons learned from research and implementation. To begin, we offer articles that provide an overview of the overarching goals of and need for PBIS in restrictive educational settings. Simonsen and Sugai offer a rationale for why PBIS is needed in restrictive educational settings by linking the broader PBIS literature to the needs of high-risk youth in these settings and how interventions can be intensified across the three tiers. To further contextualize this need, Benner and colleagues offer support for how PBIS can be used to bridge the achievement gap between high-risk youth and their typically developing peers through the use of effective instructional practices. Swain-Bradway and colleagues present common facilitators and barriers from stakeholder interviews of administrators and PBIS team members currently implementing PBIS in AE, residential, and JJ settings to guide future implementation of PBIS across these settings. Next, in an effort to provide empirical support and lessons learned from implementing PBIS across the tiers, we offer examples at the primary (tier I), secondary (tier II), and tertiary (tier III) tiers. …

“Black and white thinkers” and “colorful problems”: Understanding student thinking in outdoor education

Effective outdoor educators need to understand the developmental characteristics of students to best tailor programs to capitalize upon their capabilities. To the extent that learning is a primary objective of outdoor education programs, understanding our students' intellectual processes, specifically, can enhance our effectiveness in achieving this goal. This article presents several frameworks for understanding the developmental knowledge construction of adolescent, college-aged, and young adult students that were developed in traditional education settings. The purpose of this study was to determine the relevance of these models in an adventure education setting. Qualitative data were collected from students of the National Outdoor Leadership School. Results indicate that, despite differences between traditional and adventure learning environments and the types of problems students encounter in those settings, established framework of developmental knowledge construction are observable in the outdoor education classroom. Implications for teaching to developmentally different populations of students are discussed.

The Role of Leadership In the Success of e-Learning Programs: The Case of Sakarya University e-MBA Program

Developments in information technologies have significant influence on all aspects of modern life. Especially in the area of education, information technologies has a widespread use. In this respect, the concept of e-leaning is gaining acceptance all over the world. Many universities around the World tend to implement e-learning programs for undergraduate and postgraduate programs. But, they face a number of problems in implementing these e-learning-based programs given the fact that the traditional teaching mentality predominantly prefers face-to-face classroom teaching methods which have different assessment procedures and knowledge transfer methods. In order to successfully implement these e-learning programs in traditional education settings, a clear and insistent leadership style plays a critical role. In this study I wanted to examine the e-learning practices carried out for more than ten years at the Sakarya University e-MBA program. To this end, as a researcher, a teacher and a coordinator in this program, I have witnessed the whole evolution of the e-MBA program from beginning up to now. I have done many observations, carried out various interviews with students and professors, conducted many focus group studies and run several surveys on many aspects of this distant education program in order to sort out problems, develop solutions for problems, seek for new ways to improve the program. Findings indicates that a clear and sound leadership is critical in establishing and implementation of e-learning programs successfully. Also, many of the factors affecting student satisfaction and the success in e-learning based programs are discussed in the study.

A Community of Voices: Educational Blog Management Strategies and Tools

Web 2.0 offers a new type of interactive technology that may change the focus and approach of formal education in ways we are just beginning to comprehend. The new and unique qualities of Web 2.0 can be compounded in traditional educational settings by the fact that students often times have far more experience with and understanding the new technology than the teachers who are developing curriculums and setting educational goals. At the same time, Web 2.0 has become so pervasive in such a short time that it makes little sense to ignore it in educational settings. This current article suggests blogging may be the most “education friendly” of the new interactive tools. Blog posts offer students the opportunity to develop their own voice in the classroom, while commentary serves as an important reinforcement for self-reflection and continued participation. The difficulty for teachers is in understanding how to integrate, use and maintain course blogs so that they are a strong and positive educational force in the classroom. At the core of using blogs is the development of blog management strategies. Based on the authors’ use of blogs in undergraduate courses, the current paper outlines an approach to blog management.

Expansion Dynamic Game Analysis on Education Quality Control for Distance Education System

The development of computers and the internet have made distance learning distribution easier and faster and have given rise to the virtual university, the entire educational offerings of which are conducted online. Distance education is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom. It has been described as a process to create and provide access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both. How to motivate learning sub-centers to improve education quality has become the focus of the participants’ game. The expansion dynamic tripartite game model was set up and the simulation shows the corresponding results.

Shifting the Culture of Higher Education: Influences on Students, Teachers, and Pedagogy

This article identifies a critical tension within the traditional higher education setting—specifically teacher education classrooms. Using the metaphor of a journey, the authors describe pedagogy and practice using inspirations from the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Participation in a monthly inquiry group is the catalyst for shifts in roles, expectations, outcomes, and assessment. Documentation (e.g., photos, video, narrative) of teachers' and students' learning guides teaching and learning practices that include emphasis on relationships and content, extension of learning and retention of principles, and active engagement and thoughtful reflection.

Opinions on computers, and efficacy of a computer-based learning: A pilot study

It is commonly believed that positive opinions of students and teachers on the possibilities entailed by computer use would increase the efficacy of computer-based educational processes. In turn, this amounts to postulate a relationship between measures of such opinions and well-defined patterns of interaction with computer-based educational tools. In this regard, this paper reports on an investigation performed in a primary school, designed to test whether expectations and opinions on computers, both of students and teachers, detected through suitable questionnaires, might be related to the effectiveness of computer use within a particular educational context. Our findings, contrarily to what expected, do not appear to support the hypothesis that a positive opinion on computers can lead per se to higher learning efficacy in a computer-based educational environment, as compared with a traditional educational setting.

Digital Games in eLearning Environments

The notion of using games in education is as old as games themselves. In addition, the massive market opened by the digital games industry has caused great interest regarding their specific potential in education. However, this interest is sometimes thwarted by the resistance of traditional educational settings toward technology-enhanced learning and digital games. The future, on the contrary, is much more promising within the eLearning field. This field is in a process of evolution and reinvention, seeking new features and ideas to improve the learning experience. We believe that educational games are a perfect medium for these new directions in eLearning. In this article, the synergies between the new eLearning environments and educational games are explored and reviewed.

Learning in an Ambient Intelligent World: Enabling Technologies and Practices

The rapid evolution of information and communication technology opens a wide spectrum of opportunities to change our surroundings into an Ambient Intelligent (AmI) world. AmI is a vision of future information society, where people are surrounded by a digital environment that is sensitive to their needs, personalized to their requirements, anticipatory of their behavior, and responsive to their presence. It emphasizes on greater user friendliness, user empowerment, and more effective service support, with an aim to bring information and communication technology to everyone, every home, every business, and every school, thus improving the quality of human life. AmI unprecedentedly enhances learning experiences by endowing the users with the opportunities of learning in context, a breakthrough from the traditional education settings. In this survey paper, we examine some major characteristics of an AmI learning environment. To deliver a feasible and effective solution to ambient learning, we overview a few latest developed enabling technologies in context awareness and interactive learning. Associated practices are meanwhile reported. We also describe our experience in designing and implementing a smart class prototype, which allows teachers to simultaneously instruct both local and remote students in a context-aware and natural way.

E-Learning, Multiple Intelligences Theory (MI) And Learner-Centred Instruction: Adapting MI Learning Theoretical Principles To The Instruction Of Health And Safety To Construction Managers

This paper describes an ongoing EU project concerned with developing an instructional design framework for virtual classes (VC) that is based on the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) (1983). The psychological theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner 1983) has received much credence within instructional design since its inception and has been implemented successfully in a wide array of traditional educational settings. Nonetheless, very little research has been carried out on developing frameworks for elevating MI into an e-learning environment. Specifically, the project hopes to adapt and utilize MI theoretical learning principles to create a virtual class specifically designed for instructing health and safety to construction managers. This paper explores the emerging principles from both theory and practice in order to identify the appropriate methodology for the successful incorporation of MI based instructional techniques in the virtual class design. Guidelines are provided on how the MI concept of ‘entry points’ can best be adapted for the specific learners (in this case construction managers) and class content (in this case health and safety). Of particular concern to this papers examination of ‘entry points’ is the potential for the deployment of intelligence profiling research to create a class tailor-made for construction managers while simultaneously adaptive to each learners individual needs. Emerging from this analysis, the paper will provide core recommendations including how to create problem based instructional activities that are directly related to both the participant’s intelligence strengths and to the class content.

Development of an instrument to measure perceived cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning in traditional and virtual classroom higher education settings

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a self-report instrument that can be used to measure learning in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. The study underwent three phases, each with its own data collection and analysis. Phase I featured the development, testing, and factor analysis of an 80-item instrument that addressed cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning that was administered to a sample of 142 online and face-to-face learners. Based on the results, the instrument was reduced to 21 items for Phase II and tested with a new sample of 171 online and face-to-face students. The results of confirmatory factor analysis suggested a better data fit with an even smaller 9-item instrument, which was then administered to a new sample of 221 online and face-to-face students in Phase III. The results of this final phase are presented along with the resulting CAP Perceived Learning Scale, a 9-item self-report measure of perceived cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning. Implications and usage of the CAP Perceived Learning Scale for research and practice are also discussed.

Preclinical students’ predispositions towards social forms of instruction and self-directed learning: a challenge for the development of autonomous and collaborative learners

Self-directed and social forms of learning are fundamentally different from traditional didactic educational settings from which students are selected for veterinary, medical and other professional degree courses. It is therefore expected that a mismatch may emerge between students’ conceptions of effective learning and expectations inherent to the new learning environments. The present study addressed this issue by examining 128 preclinical students’ predispositions towards two key elements in problem-based and case-based learning, namely self-directed and social forms of learning. A mixed method approach revealed converging evidence of students’ overwhelming preference for external, teacher regulation and individual forms of learning. External regulation was consciously invoked as a coping strategy in managing large amounts of complex information. Constructivist conceptions of learning were positively related to an appreciation of the cognitive benefits of social forms of learning, a relationship that has attracted little attention in the higher education literature. These findings stress the importance of guiding students’ transition towards learning autonomy required for social forms of learning and continuous lifelong learning after graduation.

Health Access and Status of Adolescents and Young Adults Using Youth Employment and Training Programs in an Urban Environment

Purpose To describe the health status and access to healthcare of adolescents and young adults disconnected from traditional education and work settings. The health status of these disconnected youth is largely unknown, although it is suspected to be quite poor. Most information about the health of youth in the United States relies on school-based samples. Method In-person interviews with 1037 adolescents and young adults (aged 16–24 years) enrolled in an employment and training program in Baltimore were used to measure access to health services and health status in four domains: violent behavior, mental health, substance use, and reproductive health. Differences in healthcare access and health status by age and gender were examined. In addition, youth in the employment and training sample are compared with Baltimore youth in school and of comparable ages, as measured by the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. Results Nearly 50% of young adults in the employment and training program were found to lack health insurance, and about 20% reported a time when they needed medical care but did not receive it. Youth in the program exhibited notable health status concerns, often exceeding the risk prevalence of students in school. In particular, adolescents and young adults disconnected from traditional employment and work settings were more likely to be in physical fights, to smoke cigarettes, and to use marijuana than their in-school counterparts. In-school youth were more likely to have considered harming themselves and to have made a suicide plan in the last year. Conclusions Given high levels of health risk among youth disconnected from traditional education and work settings, adolescent health providers must increasingly pay attention to integrating health promotion and disease prevention strategies into youth employment and training programs, where sizable numbers of these youth can be reached.