Roger and David Johnson are brothers who are managing to work cooperatively as faculty at the College of Education, University of Minnesota (202 Pattee Hall, Minneapolis, MN 55455).- Robert GilmanH...
Roger and David Johnson are brothers who are managing to work cooperatively as faculty at the College of Education, University of Minnesota (202 Pattee Hall, Minneapolis, MN 55455).- Robert GilmanH...
successful online students exhibited a higher average GPA prior to enrollment in
the online course (avg. GPA = 3.02) than unsuccessful students (avg. GPA =
2.25).
Learning styles
then teachers should consider altering their instructional methods as one means
of preventing drops
Successful students' independent styles of learning were significantly,
negatively related (p < .01) to their collaborative and dependent learning
styles. That is, their preference for independence was not tied to needs for
external structure and guidance from their teacher or a need to collaborate with
their classmates.
For example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficiency.
or example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficienc
For example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficiency.
Now, I like to actually have data to play around with, in part because people have been known to lie about politically charged issues and in part because I like to have nice graphs (which are not provided by Riddile). Anyway, it turns out that international poverty data is pretty hard to come by and fraught with interpretational difficulties. On the other hand, the National Assessment of Educational Progress provides test data for most of the states in the U.S., and the U.S. Census Bureau provides data on the percentage of people in poverty by state.
I took the NAEP data for 8th grade science achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. The two are negatively associated: as poverty increases, science achievement scores decrease according to the relationship in the plot below.
(Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, and Vermont did not meet NAEP reporting guidelines and are not included in the plot above.)
The association is highly significant (p=9.98*10-6).
I also took pilot NAEP data for 8th grade mathematics achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. (Evidently, the NAEP has only just started testing for mathematics achievement, and only eleven states were included in their pilot.) Again, the two are negatively associated. The slope of the relation turns out to be almost exactly the same as for science achievement. The association is not as significant, but it is still significant (p=0.0186). (My guess is the association is less significant in this case because fewer states were measured.)
Clearly there is an association between poverty and achievement in science and mathem
There is a new knowledge order where people receive information "miscellaneously" instead of in a hierarchical organization. In the physical world, things can be in only one place at a time; however, in the virtual world of the Internet, things can be sorted in any way a user wants to find them.
It’s interesting to see the pendulum swinging the other way, and libraries wanting to go back to use-based/per-use charges. Harvard is recommending it for scholarly journal content.
It’s my understanding that the shift from per-use charges to flat charges was actually pushed by libraries (can anyone around then confirm this?).
Meanwhile, David Walker pointed out to me that the Copyright Clearance Center’s “Get It Now” service , which charges per-download for particulating publisher content, could be considered not just as an alternative to ILL, but as an alternative for libraries to flat rate “platform” licensing for scholarly content.
(1) functionalist, which is directive and advice-driven, (2) engagement, which uses a nondirective approach, (3) revolutionary, which promotes radical change, and (4) evolutionary, which uses reflective dialogue to identify and challenge the prevailing discourse. The course under study incorporated two types of coaching: functionalist and evolutionary.
As the Stanford Learning Technologies group has evolved the technology
to support its research project on "folio thinking," researcher Helen
Chen reports that they are beginning to use blog or "wiki" software
to support students' reflections. David Tosh and Ben Werdmuller of The University
of Edinburgh have published a paper
online (PDF) entitled, "ePortfolios and weblogs: one vision for ePortfolio
development."
Janice McDrury and Maxine Alterio (2002), two educators from "down under"
have written a book called Learning through Storytelling in Higher Educatio
It appears that many adult educators today, especially those recognizing
the value of self-direction in learning, operate primarily from humanist
beliefs and c
It also has been our observation that some instructional designers (and
many other educators) seem to have difficulty accepting or incorporating
humanist beliefs and instead appear guided primarily by behaviorist or
neobehaviorist beliefs and paradigms based primarily on logical positivism,
although cognitive psychology is increasingly informing the instructional
design field.
We consider it important to understand why some of the philosophical
differences between the two disciplines exist.
instructional design as a separate
discipline, has developed from several forms of inquiry: (a) research pertaining
to media usage and communications theory; (b) general systems theory and
development; and (c) psychological and learning theory. Reigeluth (1983)
suggests that the three theorists most responsible for the current development
of instructional design knowledge include B. F. Skinner (1954), David Ausubel
(1968), and Jerome Bruner (1966). Skinner is identified because of his work
with behaviorism and Bruner and Ausubel are recognized because of their
contributions to cognitive psychology. Reigeluth (1987) has also compiled
information on several other authors, theories, and models he believes important
to the development of instructional design as a profession. Gagne (1985),
Piaget (1966), and Thorndike (and colleagues) (1928) are other scholars
frequently cited as foundational for much of today's thinking about instructional
design.
As Hollis (1991) notes, "traditionally, instructional
technologists have largely ignored the humanists' ideas among all the available
theories from which to draw upon and incorporate into their schemes.
Theoretically, instructional technology has been based on research in human
learning and communications theories. In reality, more borrowing of ideas
is needed, especially from the ranks of the humanists" (p. 51
Humanism generally is associated with beliefs about freedom and autonomy
and notions that "human beings are capable of making significant personal
choices within the constraints imposed by heredity, personal history, and
environment"
Humanist principles stress
the importance of the individual and specific human needs. Among the major
assumptions underlying humanism are the following: (a) human nature is inherently
good; (b) individuals are free and autonomous, thus they are capable of making
major personal choices; (c) human potential for growth and development is
virtually unlimited; (d) self-concept plays an important role in growth and
development; (e) individuals have an urge toward self-actualization; (f)
reality is defined by each person; and (g) individuals have responsibility
to both themselves and to others (Elias & Merriam, 1980).
"If an individual is concerned primarily with personal
growth and development, how can that person truly be concerned with what
is good for all of society?"
The learning environment should allow each learner to proceed at a pace
best suited to the individual.
It is important to help learners continuously assess their progress
and make feedback a part of the learning process.
5. The learner's previous experience is an invaluable resource for future
learning and thus enhancing the value of advanced organizers or making clear
the role for mastery of necessary prerequisites.
We do
recognize there may be times when self-directed opportunities are minimal,
such as when involved in collaborative learning or when learning entirely
new content, but believe that the assumption of personal responsibility is
possible in ways not tied to the type of learning or content.