(2016). Measuring the Return on Investment in TVET. Report of the UNESCO-UNEVOC Virtual Conference, 9-16 May 2016. UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Sustainable Development Goals call on Members States to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" and sets a number of targets related to technical and vocational education and training (TVET). In order to collect input from the global TVET community, UNESCO-UNEVOC organized a virtual conference from May 9-16, 2016 on the UNEVOC TVeT Forum. Moderated by Phil Loveder and John Stanwick from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research in Australia, a UNEVOC Centre, this virtual conference sought to inform the wider TVET community about a current research project currently undertaken by the NCVER. The collaborative research project aims to identify and highlight key issues in the measurement of the return on investment in TVET, and the virtual conference was an opportunity for the community to share their ideas, expertise and experiences with the research team. This virtual conference was the fifteenth in a… [PDF]
(2013). Usage Patterns of Open Genomic Data. College & Research Libraries, v74 n2 p195-207 Mar. This paper uses Genome Expression Omnibus (GEO), a data repository in biomedical sciences, to examine the usage patterns of open data repositories. It attempts to identify the degree of recognition of data reuse value and understand how e-science has impacted a large-scale scholarship. By analyzing a list of 1,211 publications that cite GEO data to support their independent studies, it discovers that free data can support a wealth of high-quality investigations, that the rate of open data use keeps growing over the years, and that scholars in different countries show different rates of complying with data-sharing policies…. [Direct]
(2013). Database Application for a Youth Market Livestock Production Education Program. Journal of Extension, v51 n1 Article 1TOT3 Feb. This article offers an example of a database designed to support teaching animal production and husbandry skills in county youth livestock programs. The system was used to manage production goals, animal growth and carcass data, photos and other imagery, and participant records. These were used to produce a variety of customized reports to help guide leaders and members through the project animal selection and management process and evaluate progress over time. The chief advantage of the system is in its utility in reducing the effort required to perform the many communication and information-sharing tasks that were necessary for success…. [PDF]
(2013). Relationship between Social Media and Academic Performance in Distance Education. Universal Journal of Educational Research, v1 n3 p185-190. The scope and method of imparting distance education to the learner has evolved over a period of time. Various models of distance education have been introduced over the years; the latest introduction is the use of Web 2.0 technologies to make distance learning more analytical, flexible, interactive, and collaborative for both the teacher and the taught. This research paper has assessed the purpose of usage of social media tools, specifically Facebook, Blogs, Google groups, SkyDrive and Twitter by the students for academic purposes. Further, the relationship between usage of Facebook and academic performance of students has been tested statistically. The study reveals that majority of the students access various social media tools for information sharing and personal interaction. The academic performance of the students is independent of the use of Facebook as a social media tool for academic purpose…. [PDF]
(2020). Optimizing Assessment for All: Focus on Asia. Center for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution This paper marks the second in a series of five reports detailing the work of the Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) project at Brookings to strengthen education systems capacity to integrate 21st century skills into teaching and learning, using assessment as a lever for changing classroom practices. Twenty-first century skills (21CS) are now firmly entrenched as learning goals in education systems worldwide, but their actual implementation in teaching and assessment practices is lagging behind. With these learning goals–which prioritize how to get answers rather than just providing a correct response–we are facing new challenges and exploring new solutions. This report describes the collaborative activities undertaken by the OAA project with three countries in Asia–Cambodia, Mongolia, and Nepal–to create 21CS assessment tasks. OAA and partners worked with the countries to identify the 21CS skills that countries value, hypothesized what these skills might look like in classroom… [PDF]
(2014). Modelling the Effects of Principal Leadership and School Capacity on Teacher Professional Learning in Hong Kong Primary Schools. School Leadership & Management, v34 n5 p481-501. Over the past 30 years, school principals have been exhorted to articulate a clear vision as a key tool for stimulating the improvement of teaching and learning in their schools. Over the past decade, as school systems have sought to distribute leadership more broadly within schools, the same imperative has applied to middle-level leaders. Indeed, a key assumption underlying the move towards sharing leadership responsibilities more broadly has been the belief that this would strengthen collective efforts and reduce the gap between goals and outcomes. Yet, to date, there have relatively few investigations of the extent to which middle-level leaders are contributing to school improvement efforts. This study sought to understand how shared vision within school management teams (SMTs) impacts teacher commitment and teacher support for students through school alignment and coherence. Dyad survey data were collected from 411 SMT members and 559 teachers at 32 primary schools in Hong Kong…. [Direct]
(2014). Social Learning Systems in Zoo and Aquarium Education: Networks and Communities of Practice. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Stanford University. Humans are social animals. We connect with others for a range of reasons including support, overcoming challenges, and to help us learn, among others. Though learning can occur in a variety of social contexts, the workplace is a particularly interesting venue, given the amount of time we spend at work and the potential consequences and benefits of what we learn. Learning in professional settings often occurs through interactions with colleagues. These connections can affect what kinds and how effectively work is accomplished. Because of the potential importance of learning related to professional practice, and the impacts of these outcomes, this is a fruitful area of research. This dissertation is comprised of three papers studying the nature of learning in a social workplace setting. In all three studies, I consider relationships among education professionals at zoos and aquariums to understand the roles of individuals in a networked learning community and the ways in which… [Direct]
(2019). Postfeminist Biopedagogies of Instagram: Young Women Learning about Bodies, Health and Fitness. Sport, Education and Society, v24 n6 p651-664. Social media can become a site of public pedagogy (Rich, E., & Miah, A. (2014). Understanding digital health as public pedagogy: A critical framework. "Societies," 4(2), 296-315. doi:10.3390/soc4020296) through which young people learn about health and fitness. Photo and video-sharing social networks are emerging as sites of media practices through which images of the perfect fit body circulate, popularly known as 'fitspiration' media. Our research examines how girls and young women negotiate contemporary discourses around body, health and fitness circulating through Instagram and the subjectivities such technology enables. We draw on participatory and collaborative research with young women from three Spanish Secondary schools who each engaged with exercise-related content on Instagram and who self-defined as physically active. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews explored participants' uses, meanings and influences of this digital content over their embodiment… [Direct]
(2014). "Nice to Think I'm Not on My Own": Lessons from an Arts-Based Workshop in an Urban Children's Centre. Education 3-13, v42 n5 p554-562. This paper reports the evaluation of an arts-based programme designed to encourage parental participation in an urban Children's Centre. The programme was aimed to explore the possible beneficial effects of arts-based activity as a means of engaging "hard to reach" parents more fully in the services of the centre. Practical workshops were designed for parents and their children and delivered over a 10-week period. From the evidence garnered in the evaluation, the potential of arts activities as a means to improve parental participation remains uncertain. Of greater significance, however, observations by parents and facilitators revealed that arts-based activities were a powerful dialogic tool for mediating interactions between parent and child. In particular, dance, drama and music emerged as powerful conduits for dialogic encounters with media-based activities offering previously unforeseen opportunities for the sharing of family lifeworlds…. [Direct]
(2015). Keeping Learning on Track: A Case-Study of Formative Assessment Practice and Its Impact on Learning in Meridian School District. Northwest Evaluation Association In partnership with Joint School District 2 in Meridian, Idaho, this theory-driven study assessed the impact of Keeping Learning on Track Æ (KLT‚Ñ¢), a professional development program pioneered by Dylan Wiliam and his colleagues at the Educational Testing Service (ETS). A team of Northwest Evaluation Association‚Ñ¢ (NWEA‚Ñ¢) researchers surveyed teachers and students over two academic years (2012-13, 2013-14) to examine which elements of the program, and under what conditions, we saw the greatest impact on 1) the use of formative assessment instructional practices in the classroom and, 2) changes in student achievement measures in reading and mathematics. Our results were generally positive. The findings suggest that KLT influenced teacher practices and student engagement over time. Teacher and student survey responses report successful adoption of the five key formative assessment strategies. Additionally, participants reported positive evaluations of their KLT experience and cited… [PDF]
(2016). Charting the Development of Technology-Enhanced Learning Developments across the UK Higher Education Sector: A Longitudinal Perspective (2001-2012). Interactive Learning Environments, v24 n3 p438-455. This article reviews key findings from six surveys of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) across the UK higher education (HE) sector, conducted by Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association in association with Jisc. Updating the findings presented by Jenkins, Browne, Walker, and Hewitt [2010. The development of technology enhanced learning: Findings from a 2008 survey of UK higher education institutions, "Interactive Learning Environments." First published on: 22 January 2010 (iFirst)], the article reports on the emerging and planned patterns of TEL across the UK HE sector over the last decade. Our analysis shows that against the backdrop of Higher Education Funding Council for England capital funding, institutions have made considerable investments in technology and infrastructure to support learning and teaching–specifically in the domain of learning management and assessment systems. While the drivers for TEL development have consistently focused on… [Direct]
(2016). Measuring Changes in Interest in Science and Technology at the College Level in Response to Two Instructional Interventions. Research in Science Education, v46 n3 p309-327 Jun. Improving interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is crucial to widening participation and success in STEM studies at the college level. To understand how classroom and extracurricular interventions affect interest, it is necessary to have appropriate measurement tools. We describe the adaptation and revalidation of a previously existing multidimensional instrument to the end of measuring interest in environmental science and technology in college nonscience majors. We demonstrate the revised instrument's ability to detect change in this group over an 8-week time period. While collection of demographic information was not part of the study design, participating students were similar in that they hailed from three environmental science nonmajor classes sharing a common syllabus and instructional delivery method. Change in interest was measured in response to two types of scientific literature-based learning approaches: a scientific practice approach and a… [Direct]
(2016). The Golden Thread: Educator Connectivity as a Central Pillar in the Development of Creativity through Childhood Education. an Irish Life History Study. Education 3-13, v44 n6 p671-681. This paper presents the narratives of five creative Irish Adults who contributed to the study by sharing their childhood education experiences. The five participants are all of different ages and occupations. All identify themselves as highly creative people and all worked with me over the course of this study to identify how this creativity developed within their engagement with the Irish childhood education system. All excelled with higher education and they share a high degree of success within their careers. Between them, they express their creativity across five key genres. These are: Science, Engineering, The Arts, Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship. Well-developed themes were analysed to identify interrelationships which formed a theoretical framework of core concepts that demonstrate what holds great importance in the lives of these participants for the development of their creativity during childhood education in Ireland. A clear theme of this study was that of… [Direct]
(1998). Knowledge Sharing over the World Wide Web. This paper describes a system that facilitates and encourages the sharing of knowledge among groups of users within or across organizations. KSE (Knowledge Sharing Environment) is a system of information agents for organizing, summarizing, and sharing knowledge from a number of sources, including the World Wide Web, an organization's internal intranet, or other users. Users are organized into closed user groups or communities of interest with related or overlapping interests, such as members of a project team, students studying the same subject (perhaps at different institutions), or members of an organizational department. As well as sharing explicit (codified) knowledge, sharing of tacit knowledge is encouraged via automatic suggestion of and support for contact between people with mutual concerns or interests. Following a brief discussion of storing and organizing knowledge in KSE, the paper focuses on the following topics related to tacit and explicit knowledge in KSE: (1) ways… [PDF]
(2017). Teacher and Student Reflections on ICT-Rich Science Inquiry. Research in Science & Technological Education, v35 n1 p88-107. Background: Inquiry learning in science provides authentic and relevant contexts in which students can create knowledge to solve problems, make decisions and find solutions to issues in today's world. The use of electronic networks can facilitate this interaction, dialogue and sharing, and adds a new dimension to classroom pedagogy. Purpose: This is a report of teacher and student reflections on some of the tensions, reconciliations and feelings they experienced as they worked together to engage in inquiry learning. The study sought to find out how networked ICT use might offer new and different ways for students to engage with, explore and communicate science ideas within inquiry. Sample: This project developed case studies with 6 science teachers of year 9 and 10 students, with an average age of 13 and 14 years in three New Zealand high schools. Teacher participants in the project had varying levels of understanding and experience with inquiry learning in science. Teacher knowledge… [Direct]