Idea Transcript
October 10-13, 2016, Dublin, Ireland
Sponsor
Proceedings
Collaborators
Edited By Charles A. Shoniregun
Contents Page
Program Committees
Sessions
Galyna A. Akmayeva
Welcome Speech
Keynote Speakers
PhD Consortium
Copyright © WCE-2016 Published by Infonomics Society
ISBN: 978-1-908320-75-9
World Congress on Education (WCE-2015) October 10-13, 2016
Clayton Hotel Ballsbridge Merrion Rd, Dublin 4, Ireland Tel: +353 (0)1 668 1111 Fax: +353 (0)1 668 1999
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Message from the Steering Committee Welcome to the World Congress on Education (WCE-2016)! The WCE-2016 provides an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various educational fields with cross-disciplinary interests to bridge the knowledge gap, promote research esteem and the evolution of pedagogy. The WCE-2016 themes are Global Issues in Education and Research.
We received 904 papers (201 Abstracts, 223 Extended Abstracts, 468 Full Papers and 12 Speaker Proposal (see Figure 1) from 63 countries of which 146 (24 Abstracts, 33 Extended Abstracts, 86 Full Papers and 3 Speaker Proposals) were given consideration for acceptance and finally 23 (2 Abstracts, 6 Extended Abstracts, 14 Full Papers, and 1 Speaker Proposal) were accepted for publication (see Figure 2). The i-Society double blind paper evaluation method was adopted to evaluate each submission and selected papers will appear in high impact International Journals published by Infonomics Society.
Figure 1. Total Submission Received
Figure 2. Accepted for Publication
Many people have worked very hard to make this conference possible. We would like to thank all who have helped in making WCE 2016 a success. The Programme Committee members each deserve credit for their excellent job. We thank the Keynote Speakers who have contributed to WCE 2016: Professor Gordon W. Blood, Dr Lynn Ang and Dr Fiona King, for agreeing to participate in the WCE 2016. The long term goal of WCE is to build a reputation and respectable conference for the international community.
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On behalf of the WCE-2016 Executive members, we would like to encourage the participants to contribute to the future of WCE in London, UK as authors, speakers, panellists, and volunteer conference organisers. We wish you a pleasant stay in Dublin, and please feel free to exchange ideas with other colleagues.
General Chair Kathy Harrison, Dublin City University, Ireland Steering Committee Chair Charles A. Shoniregun, Infonomics Society, UK and Ireland
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Contents Page Message from the Steering Committee
3
Programme Committees
7
Keynote Speakers
9
Professor Gordon W. Blood
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Dr Fiona King
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Dr Lynn Ang
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PhD/Doctorate Consortium
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Organiser: Charles Shoniregun
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Sessions Curriculum, Teacher Education and Education Policy
15
The Role of Motivation and Attitude in Language Education: An Undergraduate Student Perspective (Authors: Cathy E. Daniel, Florentina Halimi)
16
Using Augmented Reality in a Higher Education Curriculum: Gimmick or Game-changer? (Author: Mary O’Rawe)
18
How has Motivation and Engagement in Children’s and Young Adults’ Writing Been Theorized and Studied Empirically? (Author: Melanie Obitz-Bukartek)
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Session 2:
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Session 1:
Learning / Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
Post Graduate Support to Develop Master of Arts in Leadership Capstone Project (Author: Scott De Long)
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Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap: Challenges of Using Innovation Centres in the Teaching of Marketing Communications to Non-Business Undergraduate Students (Authors: Andrea Moloney, Gabriel J. Costello)
29
Education in Modern School via Projects in Bioinformatics (Authors: Alina A. Astakhova, Vladimir K. Arzhanik, Oleg V. Koliasnikov, Marina G. Sergeeva)
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Session 3:
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Cross-disciplinary Areas in Education
Assessment of Corporate Training by Employees (Authors: Zuzana Birknerová, Miroslav Frankovský, Mária Zahatňanská, Zuzana Daňková)
36
Agents of Change: Windows to Teachers’ ICT Pedagogical Experiences (Author: Thirusellvan Vandeyar)
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E-Learning Technology and EFL Classrooms (Author: Khawlah Ahmed)
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What School writes within Me: Dysorthographia and its impact on self-concept and educational commitment (Authors: Adriana Guerreiro, Tereza Ventura)
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Session 4:
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Teacher Education and Learning Methodologies
Teachers’ Views on the Approach to Sexual Orientation in the School Environment in the Azores, Portugal (Authors: Cláudio Machado, Fátima Coelho)
49
Experiential Learning: Developing Professionalism through Reflective Practice (Author: Karen Roland)
54
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Analysis of Collaborative Structure of Participation in Practice of Writing Narrative Texts (Authors: Maria Leocádia Madeira, Manuel Montanero)
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Session 5:
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Inclusive Education
Other Ways to Hear Beyond the Heard: Musical Education in Deaf Culture (Authors: Tatiane Ribeiro Morais de Paula, Patrícia Lima Martins Pederiva)
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Stability of Bully-Victim Status and Lingering Effects of Childhood Bullying in Adults (Authors: Gordon W. Blood, Ingrid M. Blood)
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Impact of Special Education Policy in Portuguese Education System (Author: Orlando Silvestre Fragata)
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Session 6:
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Learning / Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
Disrupting Inequality through Education Research: Contested Spaces and Shared Places - A South African Perspective (Authors: Saloshna Vandeyar, Thirusellvan Vandeyar)
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The Reading and Writing Learning Difficulties and Teachers’ Pedagogical Differentiation Practice (Authors: Maria Rodrigues Henriques, Maria Leocádia Madeira)
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Formal Education or Ongoing Team Learning? The Case of Patients' Safety (Author: Sarit Rashkovits)
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Session 7:
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Inclusive Education
Total Quality in Inclusive Education - A Study Case in Portugal (Author: Tereza Ventura)
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Satisfaction of Families Supported by Early Intervention in Portugal (Authors: Andreia Guerreiro, Mariusky Spínola, Rita Correia, Fátima Coelho)
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The Employers Perception and Employee Satisfaction with the Inclusion of Disadvantaged People in the Azores Labour Market (Portugal) (Authors: Márcia Azevedo, Raquel Vargas, Fátima Coelho)
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Session 8:
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Curriculum, Research and Development
Teacher Performance Evaluation Performance Standards: The Norm. Beyond and Below the Norm. (Author:João Casanova de Almeida)
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The Moderating Role of Gender in the Link between Proactivity and Self-Efficacy in Male-Dominant Occupations: The Case of Information Systems Students (Author: Sarit Rashkovits)
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Multi-Disciplinary Teaching and Learning: Planning ahead for Collaborative Practice in an Innovative Era (Authors: Ann Brantingham, Chengcheng Li, Gareth Morris, Raffaele Pernice)
114
Flipping an Introductory Statistics Class: Students’ Attitudes About and Success with the Use of Online Tools (Author: Craig McBride)
118
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Programme Committees General Chair Kathy Harrison, Dublin City University, Ireland
Steering Committee Chair Charles A. Shoniregun, Infonomics Society, UK and Ireland
Steering Committees Moses Oketch, University College London (UCL), UK Cynthia Northington-Purdie, William Paterson University, USA Norma Nel, University of South Africa, South Africa Bimbola Kemi Odu, University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria Patricia Mannix McNamara, University of Limerick, ROI Peter Duffy, University of South Carolina, USA Barba Aldis Patton, University of Houston-Victoria, USA Emmanuel Hooper, Harvard University, USA
Publicity and Publication Chair Galyna Akmayeva, Infonomics Society, UK Ireland
Conference Coordinators Audrey Wang, Infonomics Society, UK Christina Pawlowska, Infonomics Society, UK
PhD Student Forum Co-Chairs Marta Cabral, Columbia University, USA Gergana Argirova, University of Denver, USA
Program Committee Chairs Zhanna Dedovets, The University of The West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago Tintswalo V. Manyike, University of South Africa, South Africa Robert Foster, University of Wolverhampton, UK Luyanda Dube, University of South Africa, South Africa
Program Committees Regis Chireshe, College of Education, University of South Africa, South Africa Norma Nel, University of South Africa, South Africa Isao Miyaji, Okayama University of Science, Japan Gergana Argirova, University of Denver, USA Olaniyi Alaba Sofowora, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria Marta Cabral, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA Victoria Repka, People's Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni), Australia Lorayne Robertson, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), Canada Christopher Kong, Hua Chin University of Tasmania, Australia David M. Chapinski, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA Elizabeth Magaret, St. Ann’s College for Women, India Mikhail A. Rodionov, Penza Pedagogical State University, Russia Ahmed Ibrahim Usman, Federal College of Education, Kano, Nigeria Barba Aldis Patton, University of Houston-Victoria, USA Vyacheslav Grebenyuk, Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics (KNURE), Ukraine Arend E. Carl, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Florence Nkechi Okeke, Imo State University, Nigeria Zhanna Dedovets, The University of The West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago Copyright © WCE-2016 Published by Infonomics Society
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Kamla Suleiman Salim Al Aamri, Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman Abiodun Popoola, University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria Julie A. Holmes, Louisiana Tech University, USA Luyanda Dube, University of South Africa, South Africa Maria Dorota Stec, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland Veli Jiyane, University of South Africa, South Africa Kunle Oke Oloruntegbe, Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria Faten Saad Mahmoud Abdel-Hameed, University of Bahrain, Bahrain Maureen Finlayson, Cape Breton University, Canada Ben John Siyakwazi, Great Zimbabwe University, Zimbabwe Paul Walsh, Cork Institutie of Technology, Ireland Barbara Hong, Penn State University, USA Margarita Elkina, HWR, Germany Emre Erturk, Eastern Institute of Technology, New Zealand Natalia Frolova, Samara State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, Russia Ria Hanewald, Deakin University, Australia Zeynep Kızıltepe, Boğaziçi University, Turkey Shradha Kanwar, NIIT University, India Pedro José Canto, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico Christian Kahl, Taylor's University, Malaysia Anca-Olga Andronic, Spiru Haret University, Romania
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Keynote Speakers
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Keynote Speaker 1 Gordon W. Blood, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at The Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the psychosocial aspects (anxiety, self-esteem, communication apprehension, stress) of communication and social disabilities in children and adults. His recent research identifies bullying in children and adults with disabilities. Currently, he is examining the long-term negative impact of bullying, through retrospective bullying questionnaires, in adults with communication disabilities. He also reports on the perceptions and roles of school-based personnel in eliminating bullying. He has published more than 100 referred articles, presented more than 150 referred papers at state, national and international conferences and garnered continuous external funding during the past 30 years from federal granting agencies and private foundations.
Title: What Educators Need to Know about Bullying in Students: Especially Students with Special Needs Abstract: Primary school, secondary school and university bullying by peers is a global educational and health problem. Approximately 20-30% of all students are victimized by their peers on school grounds (e.g. classrooms, cafeterias, bathrooms and hallways) and 10 - 40% are cyberbullied off school property in their homes and on-line through technology. Students have the right to attend schools and learn in safe, nonviolent, caring and healthy environments. This presentation will provide an overview of the definitions, types of bullying and roles of students and education personnel in the bullying dynamic based on the current research. A review of the immediate consequences and also the long-term negative effects of childhood bullying will be presented. A focus on cyberbullying versus traditional bullying will also be discussed. The research is clear that children with special needs are at higher risk for bullying and victimization. The brief review will focus on what we currently know based on the research evidence and what educators can do to enhance ALL students’ (especially those with special needs) social skills, strengthen peer relations, team building and collaboration to prevent and eliminate bullying in the school environment. Important legal issues and best practices for student advocates will be presented. ALL educational personnel, families, administrators and community members must become aware of the critical need for intervention and changing the systems that tolerate abusive environments and climates.
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Keynote Speaker 2 Dr Lynn Ang is an expert in early childhood care and education. She is Reader in Early Childhood in the Department of Learning and Leadership at University College London (UCL), Institute of Education. Lynn has specific expertise and interest in children’s learning and development from birth to 8 years. Her work is focused on issues of social inequality and cohesion, and how advocacy and socially relevant research are translated into policy and practice to benefit young children and families. She has extensive methodological experience in qualitative and participatory methods, evaluation research, ethnography and systematic reviews. Lynn’s expertise also includes cross-disciplinary research in the fields of early childhood and international development, particularly in fragile developing countries. She is Lead Investigator of two seminal studies - Ang L. and Oliver S. (2016) ‘A systematic policy review of Early Childhood Development and Peacebuilding in Fourteen Conflict-affected and Post-conflict countries’ | Ang L. (2014) ‘Early Childhood and Peace Building in the Asia-Pacific Region’. Lynn has been awarded research grants from major funding bodies including the British Academy, the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and United National Children’s Fund (UNICEF). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Fellow of the ESRC Peer Review College, Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Early Years Education, and a supervisor of Masters and Doctoral students.
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Keynote Speaker 3 Dr Fiona King is an academic member of the School of Inclusive and Special Education, Dublin City University (DCU). Her current research focuses on social justice leadership as part of the ISLDN- BELMAS UCEA Project (The International School Leadership Network, an international collaboration between members of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) and University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA)), which involves collaborations with research colleagues at various institutions across 20+ countries. Additionally she is part of a research team focusing on Continuing professional development on the Individual Education Plan process: its impact on teachers’ practice and on learning outcomes for pupils with special educational needs and another collaborative project exploring the Unlocking of teacher leadership for inclusive practice at ITE level. Her teaching interests are in the areas of collaboration and collaborative practice, leadership and teacher professional development. She is a supervisor of Masters and Doctoral level students.
Title: Inclusion: Paving a way forward... Abstract: This keynote will explore inclusion from an international and national (Republic of Ireland) context. For the purposes of the keynote inclusion will be conceptualised largely within the context of special educational needs. It will highlight the importance of leadership for inclusion and draw upon findings from a collaborative self-study in initial teacher education which aimed to unlock teacher leadership for inclusion. It argues that a focus on teacher leadership and asking the right questions can help pave a way forward for inclusion.
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PhD and Doctorate Consortium The idea of writing a research paper or developing a topic of research interest that can lead to a PhD / Doctorate degree or proposal is always an endless thinking of where, when, why, what and who. Therefore, becoming an experienced researcher and writer in any field or discipline takes a great deal of practice. The Consortium has the following objectives:
Provide a supportive setting for feedback on current research that will stimulate exchange of ideas; Guide on the future research directions; Promote the development of a supportive community of scholars and a spirit of collaborative research; Contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and conference events.
The PhD and Doctorate Consortium highlights possible solutions in response to the lack of competence demonstrated by young researchers and PhD and Doctorate students, and the understanding of what contributes to knowledge gap. Organiser: Charles A. Shoniregun, Infonomics Society UK and Ireland
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Sessions
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Session 1: Curriculum, Teacher Education and Education Policy The Role of Motivation and Attitude in Language Education: An Undergraduate Student Perspective (Authors: Cathy E. Daniel, Florentina Halimi)
Using Augmented Reality in a Higher Education Curriculum: Gimmick or Game-changer? (Author: Mary O’Rawe) How has Motivation and Engagement in Children’s and Young Adults’ Writing Been Theorized and Studied Empirically? (Author: Melanie Obitz-Bukartek)
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The Role of Motivation and Attitude in Language Education: An Undergraduate Student Perspective Cathy E. Daniel, Florentina Halimi Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait
Abstract In the study of educational psychology motivation is likely the most essential element that educators can focus with a specific goal to enhance learning. Investigating the learning experiences within the higher educational setting is a complex task, therefore this research gives students the voice to present their personal opinion. The Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), developed by Gardner [9], was used to measure three concepts: (i) Motivation in terms of desire to learn the language; (ii) Integrativeness in terms of individual’s openness to talking on characteristics of another cultural/linguistics group; and (iii) attitudes toward the learning situation in terms of student’s reaction to formal instruction including the evaluation of the language instructor and evaluation of the language course. Considering that motivation is a driving force for learners in any subject in any educational system, this study’s ultimate goal is to identify the factors affecting students’ motivation and attitude toward learning English in higher education from an undergraduate student perspective.
1. Introduction Educational psychology research suggests that student motivation and attitude toward language education contributes highly to learning outcomes, and ways to foster positive motivation among students, is undoubtedly important in improving language education for all students. Based on various motivational theories, the theoretical analysis of this study is based on research and findings of motivational factors effecting higher education students to learn English. When discussing the roots of motivation to learn a second language in the educational context Gardner [8] focuses on the expectations of the educational system, the quality of the program, the interest, enthusiasm, and skills of the teacher, the teaching materials, the curriculum, classroom management and other factors affecting learning outcomes. Thus, while this study examines the motivation and attitude of the students, the educational context will be analyzed and interpreted. A considerable number of studies have been conducted reporting results of students’ motivation
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and attitude toward learning English as a second or foreign language. However, the regional literature on English teaching (ELT) in the Arabian Gulf has recently produced some insightful research addressing students’ attitudes and motivation to learning English and in English in various higher educational settings [10]. The results showed that the factors that influenced the decision to study in English at higher educational institutions were the status in the society and family, the appropriateness, and service to one’s country. Another study by AlQuyadi [1] carried out with Yemeni students investigated English major students’ motivation and attitude. The results indicated that the students had a high level of motivation and attitudes toward English language learning and use in both social and educational context.
2. Methodology Purposeful sampling was applied to select English Department Writing program classes within the Gulf University for Science and Technology. A total of 161 students from English Composition One and English Composition Two (ENG 110 and ENG 112) classes participated in the study. The surveys started one week prior to the end of the spring course and ran for one week. The survey ended before the final exam and before students received their final grades. This timing allowed students to have a considerable experience in that particular classroom and therefore have fully-formed impression about their learning experiences.
4. Expected Outcomes The main expected result of this study is the identification of the factors influencing students’ motivation and their level of achievement as related to the experiences in the classroom, characteristics of the teacher and pedagogical procedures. In particular, the results showing the weaknesses in motivation and attitude among students are considered and analyzed for use in developing successful teaching and learning strategies to be recommended to educators and policy makers to
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promote improved attitudes and positive motivation toward language education.
5. References [1] Al-Quyadi, A. (2000). Psycho-sociological variables in the learning of English in Yemen. PhD thesis, Bhagalpur University. [2] Bernaus, M. (2010). Language classroom motivation. In Gardner, R. C. (Ed.). Motivation and second language acquisition. The socio-educational model (pp.181-199). New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. [3] Bernaus, M. & Gardner, R. C. (2008). Teacher motivation strategies, student perceptions, student motivation, and English achievement. The Modern Language Journal, 92, ii. [4] Cziér, K., & Dornyei, Z. (2005). Language learners‘motivational profiles and their motivated learning behavior. Language Learning, 55, 4, 613-659. [5] Dörnyei, Z. (2001b). Teaching and Researching Motivation. Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited. [6] Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The psychology of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [7] Gardner, R. C. (1972). Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Learning. In Reynolds, Allan G. (Ed.), Bilingualism, Mulitculturalism, and Second Language Learning (pp. 43-64). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. [8] Gardner, R. C. (1985a). Social psychology and second language learning: the role of attitudes and motivation. Baltimore, Maryland: Edward Arnold. [9] Gardner, R. C. (2006b). The Socioeducational Model of Second Language Acquisition: A research paradigm. In S.H. Foster-Cohen, M. Medved Kajnovic, & J.Mihaljevic Djigunovic (Eds.), Eurosla Yearbook, 6,1, (pp. 237-260). (Annual Conference of the European Second Language Association). Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing. [10] Norton, B. (2000). “Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change”. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
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Using Augmented Reality in a Higher Education Curriculum: Gimmick or Game-changer? Mary O’Rawe School of Hospitality Management & Tourism College of Arts and Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology Abstract There is considerable pressure on lecturers to bring ‘edutainment’ to the higher education classroom, amid pressures to engage and retain students. New technologies emerge regularly but can fail to live up to hype and early promise. There is much excitement around the latest newcomer, augmented reality (AR), particularly in the commercial world. How can this promise be harnessed in education, and to what extent could AR be a game-changer in teaching and learning? This paper discusses the results of focus groups through which undergraduate students had their first exposure to augmented reality technology in learning materials. The potential for AR to enhance students’ learning is assessed, using Bloom’s taxonomy to structure and support the discussion, and an overall conclusion offered. The introduction of AR into a higher education curriculum can clearly result in an engaged, personalized and mobile learning environment. Thus, AR supports contemporary trends in learning and learning spaces. Challenges are also presented, offering caveats if AR is to move beyond the tendency towards gimmicks.
1. Introduction In this era of technology-enhanced and gamified learning, educators may react with caution to hype around yet another newcomer. One such newcomer is augmented reality (AR). But what is different about this technology? What can it offer educators over, say, Second Life, on which there was a similarly evangelical focus a decade ago? Despite more and more evidence of AR in a variety of academic contexts, there is still a need to demystify AR for most educators. Indeed, the frequent linking of AR to gamification may be off-putting for many lecturers and may mask other contexts for AR as a learning technique. In the contemporary higher education battleground of rising expectations and decreasing budgets, AR merits comprehensive examination to assess its place in driving change in
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Fundamentally, this paper reviews what AR can offer to meet the challenges of today’s highereducation learning environment.
2. The Emergence of Augmented Reality Amid much publicized technology launches such as Google Glass, Augmented Reality has emerged over the last five years as a potentially groundbreaking technology which has transcended both business and academic sectors. Described as “the addition of a computer-assisted contextual layer of information over the real world, creating a reality that is enhanced or augmented” [1], much has been reported of its seemingly unbounded rise commercially. In the first quarter of 2016 alone, VC investments in both AR and its sister technology, Virtual Reality (VR) totaled $1.2 billion [2]. However, adoption of these technologies in a higher education classroom lags behind, with very variable levels of interest. Some disciplines are now enjoying early benefits of AR, with STEM, (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) benefitting to the greatest degree [3], [4] and business-oriented disciplines less examined. Considering the shift towards virtual and mobile learning (M Learning), ubiquitous learning [5] and nomadic learning [6], it is timely to explore the potential for AR in curriculum design and didactic methods. This paper presents the findings of exploratory research on the potential benefits of AR in a highereducation business and event management curriculum. The research was conducted by introducing rudimentary AR-enabled materials into a curriculum and academic supports at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Using focus groups, the author assessed the degree to which AR emerged as a valuable tool in increasing learners’ knowledge gain, the type of cognitive processes that may benefit most, and the difficulties of using this technology. A range of useful lessons for the creation of a progressive and engaged curriculum and learning
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environment through AR were garnered, which will be used to inform ongoing curriculum design and pedagogy for the curriculum teams involved.
3. Aims and Research Tool According to Dunleavy and Dede [7], Augmented Reality poses unique technological, managerial and cognitive challenges in both learning and teaching. While understanding the interrelationship between these challenges, this research chose to address the challenges exclusively through the cognitive lens. The specific question under examination, and therefore the overall aim is: To what extent, and in what context, can AR aid students’ knowledge gain, and what type of knowledge? To structure the discussion, and attempt to categorize the cognitive learning outcomes experienced by the student focus groups, Bloom’s taxonomy [8], [9] was selected as the focus of the research. Two separate focus groups were conducted, one with a sample of eleven first-year undergraduate students, the other with a final year sample of seven undergraduates, all currently enrolled on a Level 8 honours degree in Event Management. The focus groups took place in the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, DIT in April 2016. At the outset, students were shown a video on Microsoft Hololens, to orient their understanding of AR. Students were then presented with two stimuli material: Using the Aurasma AR app, both items served as trigger images to launch digital overlays. Students were then invited to explore how the technology would enhance their learning across a wider number of course modules (subjects), and what the nature of that learning might be. By mapping AR applications to the key learning typology of Bloom’s taxonomy (and the revised typology), the author assessed the extent to which AR scaffolds and facilitates Bloom’s levels of learning. Specifically, the author assessed how AR integration into the curriculum could enhance learning, and the challenges experienced.
4. Findings and Discussion From the research a number of interesting findings emerged. Relative to Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy and the revised version, the author found that AR offered most promising applications at the more rudimentary ‘Remember/Recall’ and ‘Understand’ domains, and paradoxically at the highest order domain of ‘Create’. A member of the first-year focus group commented that “AR would definitely improve my recall and revision”. Final years, too highlighted that AR “would help me
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understand Accountancy, for example if I miss a class”. Key advantages of AR over their traditional Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard /Webcourses) were seen in terms of personalization, accessibility, and real-time application. “It feels more interactive” and “I would feel more in control of my learning”, commented two final year students. This benefit of interactivity was highlighted on a number of occasions; students cited poster and presentation design for a variety of modules as lending themselves easily to AR. “I could make my materials more personalized and engaging”, commented one student. Also drawing favourable comments, was the “potential of AR to aid the transfer of learning from one subject to another”. The ability of AR to expose students to real-life learning environments without risk was apparent to both focus groups e.g. gaining knowledge of health and safety hazards, crowd management safety and risk assessments. This aspect of offering exposure to authentic learning without risk has met with success in other disciplines; for example, students in the medical field have benefitted from AR around an anatomy curriculum [10]. In assessing the four knowledge dimensions – factual, conceptual, procedural and meta-cognitive proposed by Anderson et al. [9], factual and metacognitive were most clearly pointed to by both groups of students. While AR’s potential for easily simplifying subject material was clear, it was the meta-cognitive learning which could be deemed critical and most worthy of further examination. The role of AR in “helping me look back and see the effect on my learning process” was a most useful dimension to the discussion. Although Bloom’s affective dimension of learning was not considered as a core component of this exploratory research, it was noteworthy that both groups of students saw a strong motivational effect in using the technology which would transfer to the cognitive dimension. Comments such as “wow!”…”so cool!”… and “so good!” were noted in both focus groups, as was the strong novelty dimension of the technology. This is a phenomenon previously explored in the literature, and the author deems this a valuable aside. Esposito [11] although writing in the context of Facebook, comments that the more ‘relevant’ lecturers are deemed to be, the more students engage with their learning. A student in the final year group enthused that “We would be at the cutting edge if we could use this technology, both for our learning and in the workplace.”
5. Challenges and criticisms of using AR Unsurprisingly, in the context of the current higher education student population, no challenges arose in terms of students’ ability to use and understand AR technology. The highly technological
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profile of the contemporary learner points to opportunities for AR in the curriculum, with the predominance of students in today’s universities being from the tech-savvy ‘Generation Y’, or “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” as Prensky [12] famously termed them. However, concerns were voiced around the extent to which the technology might inhibit group and peer learning. These are key dimensions in engaged learning, and although at present the sharing of devices aids peer interaction, this concern is still important in the context of widespread concerns around student drop-out and non-progression rates [13], [14]. Caution around AR impeding peer learning, or impacting on students’ perceived need to attend lectures was voiced more strongly in the firstyear focus group. These students felt that the classroom is critical to learning and that “peer learning could be negatively affected by AR”. Final years too, voiced some concerns around any impact of AR learning materials on the acquisition of soft skills and the role of such skills in enabling higherorder thinking.
6. Conclusions A key task of curriculum designers today is to grapple with and structure module/subject design around learning outcomes. AR offers clear potential in this respect. Moreover, aspects of gimmickry are not necessarily negative. Today’s students welcome, indeed demand, “edutainment” [15]. But capitalizing on AR’s early promise and translating it into gamechanging pedagogies and curricula may require some time. It also needs a clear focus on the student, as consumer and key stakeholder. The potential observed in this research, and in the literature explored in preparation of this paper is very much in tune with contemporary trends such as the shift from teaching to learning, the role of technology, and debates around the future make-up of learning spaces. In this challenging era of budgetary constraints in the higher education sector, and pressure to retain and engage students, the introduction of AR into a higher education curriculum may clearly result in an engaged, personalized and mobile learning environment. However, considerably more research across a wide variety of disciplines and levels is required both to determine AR’s game-changing capabilities, and to develop the technologies and scholarship required. Following this introductory research, the author now plans to develop a design toolbox so that selected modules and their content will be AR– enabled, with a view to building on the student feedback and knowledge creation.
7. References [1] Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A. and Haywood, K. (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report, Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium, Available from: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report.pdf, [Accessed May 10, 2016]. [2] Merel, T. (2016). ‘Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Investment Hits $1.7 Billion in Last 12 Months’, Available from: seekingalpha.com, [Accessed April 12, 2016]. [3] Antonioli, M. Blake, C. and Sparks, K. (2014). ‘Augmented Reality Applications in Education’, Journal of Technology Studies, 40, pp. 96-107. [4] Shirazi, A. and Behzadan A.H., (2015). ‘Design and Assessment of a Mobile Augmented Reality-Based Information Delivery Tool for Construction and Civil Engineering Curriculum’, Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education & Practice, 141:3, pp. 401-410. [5] Bacca, J., Baldaris, S., Fabregat, R., Graf, S., and Kinshuk, (2014). ‘Augmented Reality Trends in Education: A Systematic Review of Research and Applications’, Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 17, pp. 133-149. [6] Estapa, A. and Nadolny, L. (2015). ‘The Effect of an Augmented Reality Enhanced Mathematics Lesson on Student Achievement and Motivation’, Journal of STEM Education: Innovation & Research, 16, pp. 40-48. [7] Dunleavy, M. and Dede C. (2014). ‘Augmented reality teaching and learning’, in M.J. Bishop and J. Elen (eds.) Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology, (4th edition, vol. 2), pp. 735-745, New York: Macmillan. [8] Bloom, B.S. (ed.), Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co. Inc. [9] Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, New York: Longman. [10] Patzer, B., Smith D., and Keebler J. (2014). ‘Novelty and Retention for Two Augmented Reality Learning Systems’, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, September, 58:1, pp. 1164-1168. [11] Esposito, A. (2007). ”Saving Face(book): Engage Through Facebook and Retain Relevance”, Available from: https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/AcademicAdvising-Today/View-Articles/Saving-Face(book)Engage-Through-Facebook-and-Retain-Relevance.aspx, [Accessed May 10 2016]. [12] Prensky, M. (2001). ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’, On the Horizon, October, 9:5, pp. 1-6.
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[13] Donnelly, K. (2014). ‘One in six first-year students quit college’, Irish Independent, July14th, Retrieved from: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/one-insix-firstyear-students-quit-college-30428659.html [accessed May 25 2016]. [14] HEA (2016), A Study of Progression in Irish Higher Education, 2012/13 to 2013/14, Dublin: Higher Education Authority, January, http://www.hea.ie/sites/default/files/ hea-progression-irish-higher-education_final.pdf, [accessed April 13 2016]. [15] Anikina, O. & Yakimenko, E. (2015). ‘Edutainment as a modern technology of education’, Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences, 166, pp. 475-479.
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How has Motivation and Engagement in Children’s and Young Adults’ Writing Been Theorized and Studied Empirically? Melanie Obitz-Bukartek University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States of America
Abstract The paper depicts the examination of the theories used in empirical studies of children’s and young adults’ writing. Collectively, these studies provide a developing picture of the complex landscape and the paper aims to identify the current landscape of how motivation and engagement in children’s and young adults’ writing has been theorized and studied empirically to look towards promising paths for future empirical studies. Although limited in volume, the empirical studies begin to glean patterns of theories invoked when exploring motivation and engagement in children’s and young adults’ writing.
The first study representing a braided view of both motivation and writing occurred in 1983 (see [18]) with sporadic studies speckled lightly across the next three and a half decades. Most years yield zero studies about writing and motivation; however, some years accumulated as many as five relevant publications.
1. Introduction First, to examine the question, How has motivation and engagement in children's and young adults' writing been theorized and studied empirically?, I collected empirical studies, “reports of original research” [3], in peer-reviewed journals. I began with a manual search of archival research journals centrally focused on writing (e.g., Written Communication, Research in the Teaching of English) and on educational research (e.g., American Educational Research Journal, Harvard Educational Review). My search was open to all countries and all languages in a wide range of areas (e.g., health, business, education, science). In addition, I explored the university library database and Google Scholar using key terms such as “writing motivation” and “writing engagement.” After amassing 79 articles, I scrutinized the research questions from each empirical study, ensuring the study’s purpose examined the relationship between writing and motivation or writing and engagement among children and young adults. For example, Nolen [17]’s 2001 study studied emergent motivation to read and write. Additionally, I ensured the writers being studied were children and young adults, removing studies with participants outside of this age range. These boundaries reduced the remaining studies by twothirds with a total of 24 empirical studies.
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Figure 1. Number of empirical studies relevant to the literature review boundaries published each year The 24 empirical studies were spread across 19 different peer-reviewed journals (see Table 1), illuminating the varied fields and subfields investigating motivation and writing. Table 1. Peer-reviewed journals that published empirical studies relevant to the literature review boundaries
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2. Results Because, “theory plays important roles in guiding empirical research in the social sciences and education by providing guidance about the questions to ask, the key constructs to measure, and the hypothesized relationships among these constructs” [8], I present here the overarching motivation theories used in the empirical studies that examined motivation and engagement in children's and young adults' writing: a) social cognitive theory, b) selfdetermination theory, c) achievement goal theory, d) flow theory, and e) expectancy-value theory along with how the reviewed studies took up the particular theories.
2.1. Social cognitive theory A psychological model, social cognitive theory, marries the continuous interaction among cognitive (e.g., knowledge, expectations, attitudes), behavioral (e.g., skills, practice) and environmental, both social (e.g., family, friends, colleagues) and physical (e.g., size of room, temperature) factors [5]. Theorized by Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura, social cognitive theory emphasizes theoretical framework for “analyzing human motivation, thoughts, and action from a social cognitive perspective” [5]. Self-efficacy, the most popular branch of social cognitive theory in the empirical studies I examined for this paper, is the ‘‘conviction that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the outcomes’’ one desires [4]. Pushing back against the idea that people are solely reactive, Bandura posited that people are agentic, ‘‘partial architects of their own destinies’’ [6]. Bandura and other theorists have expanded SCT to include five attributes: a) observational learning/ modeling, b) outcome expectations, c) perceived self-efficacy, d) goal setting, e) self-regulation [6], [7], [31]. Social cognitive theory has also been used to investigate student motivation [20], [22], [31]. Self-regulated learning is an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior in the service of those goals, guided and constrained by both personal characteristics and the contextual features in the environment. Self-regulation unfolds over four flexibly sequenced phases (a) task perception, (b) goal setting and planning, (c) enacting, and (d) adaptation. During the task perception phase, students gather information about the task at hand and personalize their perception of it. This stage involves determining motivational states, self-efficacy, and information about the environment around them.
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Under the theoretical umbrella of social cognitive theory, several of the studies created surveys and questionnaires with the intention of learning about the (a) self-efficacy of writers [20]; [24], (b) perceived writing competence [8], and (c) academic self-regulation [8].
2.2. Self-determination theory Under development for nearly forty years, selfdetermination theory (SDT), inspired by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan [12], [13], [14] along with dozens of scholars who continue to expand upon SDT [25]. This macro-theory of motivation attends to emotion and social contexts, and asserts that people can control their own destiny through experiencing autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This theory has been taken up in many fields and, with such heavy empirical support, selfdetermination theory remains a top theory for research involving human motivation. Although the notion of intrinsic motivation has been around since the 1950s, self-determination theory has built steadily on this idea positing that people who are functioning under intrinsic motivation are motivated by the sheer enjoyment of the activity. Deci [11] proposed that people inherently possess intrinsic motivation. It is worthwhile to pause and clarify the intended meaning of “enjoyment” in relation to intrinsic motivation within self-determination theory. In contrast with engaging in an activity for the purpose of enjoyment, “rather, enjoyment is a by-product of full immersion in an activity” [25]. Writing attitudes (e.g., enjoyment) were assessed and analyzed in many of the studies [15] through self-assessments. In a 1983 publication, Eccles et al proposed that children’s achievement performance, persistence, and choice of achievement tasks are most directly predicted by their expectancies for success on those tasks and the subjective value they attach to success on those tasks. Children’s expectancies and values themselves are most directly determined by other achievement-related beliefs, including children’s achievement goals and self-schemata, and their taskspecific beliefs (defined as beliefs about ability or competence and task difficulty beliefs). Children’s interpretations of their past performance, and their perceptions of socializers’ attitudes and expectations.
2.3. Goal theory Often used in educational psychology, goal theory, represents a theory that details how and why people create goals in order to achieve something. Achievement motivation theorists attempt to explain people’s choice of achievement tasks, persistence on
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those tasks, vigor in carrying them out, and quality of task engagement [26]. Pushing beyond task engagement, goal orientations deal with the deeper analysis about why a writer is writing in the first place. Although goal orientation theory is the most popular approach in motivation literature within sport psychology, studies examining writing motivation evoked goal orientation theory [2].
[4] Bandura, Albert. "Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change." Psychological review 84.2 (1977): 191.
2.4. Flow theory
[7] Bandura, Albert. "Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective." Annual review of psychology 52.1 (2001): 126.
A “subjective state people report when they are completely involved in something to the point of forgetting time, fatigue, and everything else but the activity itself” [10] is flow theory. The concept of flow emerged in the late 1960s as a result of the question Why do people perform time-consuming, difficult, and often dangerous activities for which they receive no discernible extrinsic rewards? The intense experiential involvement of flow results in three additional subjective characteristics commonly reported: (a) the merging of action and awareness, (b) a sense of control, (c) and an altered sense of time [10]. One study relied on flow theory as its theoretical backbone [1]. The researcher interviewed two fifthgrade boys who each referenced experiencing flow, or in their words, “blinking out” and “having the touch,” while writing.
[5] Bandura, Albert. Self‐efficacy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994. [6] Bandura, Albert. "Self-efficacy: The exercise of control." (1997).
[8] Brouwer, K. L. (2012). Writing motivation of students with language impairments. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 28(2), 189–210. [9] Bruning, R., & Horn, C. (2010). Developing motivation to write. Educational Psychologist, 35(1), 25–37. [10] Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Collins. [11] Deci, Edward L. "The effects of contingent and noncontingent rewards and controls on intrinsic motivation." Organizational behavior and human performance 8.2 (1972): 217-229. [12] Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. "The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality." Journal of research in personality19.2 (1985): 109-134.
3. Conclusion The theories invoked by the examined empirical studies showed a disparity in how some researchers interpreted the meaning of motivation specific to writing. This is just one reason why work towards writing motivation/ writing engagement has been slow moving. Unlike motivation in other subfields (e.g., reading, mathematics, science), motivation specific to writing has yet to be theorized with great depth and breadth; therefore, researchers are pulling from a variety of motivational theoretical frameworks.
4. References [1] Abbott, J. A. (2000). “Blinking out” and “having the touch” two fifth-grade boys talk about flow experiences in writing. Written Communication, 17(1), 53–92. [2] Amabile, T. M. (1985). Motivation and creativity: Effects of motivational orientation on creative Writers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48(2), 393 – 399. [3] APA Manual (Publication manual of the American Psychological Association). (2010). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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[13] Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. Intrinsic motivation. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1975. [14] Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. "Selfdetermination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health." Canadian psychology/Psychologie canadienne 49.3 (2008): 182. [15] Graham, S., Berninger, V., & Fan, W. (2007). The structural relationship between writing attitude and writing achievement in first and third grade students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 32(3), 516–536. [16] Murnane, R. J., & Willett, J. B. (2010). Methods matter improving causal inference in educational and social science research. [17] Nolen, S. B. (2001). Constructing literacy in the kindergarten: Task structure, collaboration, and motivation. Cognition and Instruction, 19(1), 95–142. [18] Pajares, F. (2003). Self-efficacy beliefs, motivation, and achievement in writing: A review of the literature. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 19(2), 139–158. [19] Pajares, F., & Valiante, G. (2001). Gender differences in writing motivation and achievement of middle school students: A function of gender orientation? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 366–381.
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[20] Pajares, F., & Valiante, G. (1999). Grade level and gender differences in the writing self-beliefs of middle school students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 24, 390–405. [21] Urdan, T. "Achievement goal theory: Past results, future directions." Advances in motivation and achievement 10 (1997): 99-141. [22] Schunk, D., Pintrich, R., and Meece, J., (2008) Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications. 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. [23] Schunk, Dale H., and Barry J. Zimmerman. Selfregulation of learning and performance: Issues and educational applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, 1994. [25] Spaulding, C. L. (1989). The effects of ownership opportunities and instructionl support on high school students’ writing task engagement. Research in the Teaching of English, 23(2), 139–162. [26] Urdan, T. C., & Karabenick, S. A. (2010). The Decade Ahead: Theoretical Perspectives on Motivation and Achievement: Advances in Motivation and Achievement Vol 16A. Emerald Group Publishing. [27] Wigfield, Allan, and Eccles, Jacquelynne S., eds. Development of Achievement Motivation. San Diego, US: Academic Press, 2002. [28] Williams, J. D., & Alden, S. D. (1983). Motivation in the composition class. Research in the Teaching of English, 17(2), 101–112. [29] Wolsey, T. D., & Grisham, D. L. (2007). Adolescents and the new literacies: Writing engagement. Action in Teacher Education, 29(2), 29–38. [30] Zimmerman, Barry J., et al. "A social cognitive perspective." Handbook of self-regulation 13 (2000).
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Session 2: Learning / Teaching Methodologies and Assessment Post Graduate Support to Develop Master of Arts in Leadership Capstone Project (Author: Scott De Long)
Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap: Challenges of Using Innovation Centres in the Teaching of Marketing Communications to Non-Business Undergraduate Students (Authors: Andrea Moloney, Gabriel J. Costello)
Education in Modern School via Projects in Bioinformatics (Authors: Alina A. Astakhova, Vladimir K. Arzhanik, Oleg V. Koliasnikov, Marina G. Sergeeva)
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Post Graduate Support to Develop Master of Arts in Leadership Capstone Project Scott De Long Chapman University United States of America
Abstract This program is designed for graduates of the Master of Arts in Leadership, at Chapman University, who wish to implement their capstone project. The program was designed to be a collaboration between former students, faculty as well as community partners. The later would perform the role as mentors for the former students. This mentorship may take many forms, based on the needs of the student.
1. Scope The capstone project is the final course after two years of rigorous education in Leadership Development. The purpose of the capstone is for the student to show mastery in the leadership lessons learned during their time in the program. This is done by designing a program that would benefit the community using the leadership theories they have been studying. Implementation of this capstone is not required as part of the curriculum. The concepts and theories utilized for the development of the program are in fact the same as those taught in the MLD program. [3]. To that end, the program began with inclusion of those being served, asking what they might need, and how this could be delivered [3]. The design combines learned theory, along with best practices from leading entrepreneurial programs developed at local business schools, including Chapman. Those best practices included developing a group of community partners acting as mentors, from various disciplines. These included local business, nonprofit organizations and we included the education community, based on feedback from the MLD graduates. With the understanding that this would be a pilot program, included in the design would be assessment tools that will be asked of all constituents, including students, mentors and university faculty. The purpose of the assessment is to gage the satisfaction of the pilot, as well as to look for areas of
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improvement that we might be able to incorporate in future versions [1].
2. Objective and Motivation This program is being developed to provide the support and resources that will enable recent graduates of Chapman University Master’s in Leadership Development (MLD), the support they require to fully develop and implement the projects they designed in their capstone course, which was a requirement for graduation. What the faculty noticed was that there were several of these capstone projects that were “left on the shelf” after graduation. The reasons for this shelving are varied, many students upon graduation felt they needed to put their degree to work and obtain employment, or resume careers already in progress. For others the issue was simply a lack of additional resources, including entrepreneurial guidance. The motivations for participation from the different constituents were varied as well. The university faculty felt that several capstones were beneficial to the community and would provide some prestige to the university once they were implemented. The students, recognized the need for additional training and support, that of a practical nature, rather than theoretical. The mentors recognized the need to give back to the community and supporting the efforts of the university was very important to them.
3. References [1] Argyris, C. “Double Loop Learning in Organizations”, Harvard Business Review, 55 (5) 1977, pp. 115-125. [2] Kouzes, J., and Posner, B. The Leadership Challenge, Wiley, San Francisco, CA. 2012.
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[3] Zander, R. S., and Zander, B. The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. 2000
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Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap: Challenges of Using Innovation Centres in the Teaching of Marketing Communications to Non-Business Undergraduate Students Andrea Moloney, Gabriel J. Costello Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway, Ireland
Abstract This paper contends that joint efforts between higher education institutions and innovation centres can be beneficial in linking theory and practice for non-business students. However the gains from such collaborations are not without challenges. The primary purpose of government investment in on-campus innovation centres is to encourage idea generation and development among entrepreneurial individuals who are interested in establishing new businesses. Our research involves companies based at one specific Irish third-level academic institution. This paper evaluates the interactions between the client companies and students in the marketing communications module. The research question addressed in this research is: How can innovation centres assist in bridging the gap between theory and practice in the teaching of marketing communications to non-business undergraduate students? The study makes a contribution to research by building a procedure for engagement between non-business undergraduate students and innovation centres which can be replicated in other pedagogical contexts.
1. Introduction Exploring the challenges for students and companies in on-campus innovation centres in working together provides the basis for this paper. The mutually-beneficial aim of such collaboration is to bridge the gap between theory and practice among students. The interactions described in this paper are focused on one specific third-level academic institution in Ireland. This innovation centre has two goals: to encourage the foundation and advancement of new market-driven and information-based enterprises in the region and to create solid connections between the college and the wider business environment. The honours level degree in a specific non-business discipline incorporates a module on marketing communications. The main purpose of this module
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is to develop students' knowledge of effective marketing strategies and theories to enable them to create marketing plans appropriate for industry. This paper focuses on the research question: How can innovation centres assist in bridging the gap between theory and practice in the teaching of Marketing Communications to non-business undergraduate students? The first section of this paper presents varied definitions of innovation centres. This is followed by a brief description of the emergence of innovation centres with connections to third-level academic institutions in Ireland. Next, the structured process developed as part of the collaboration between the centre and the lecturer is examined. The findings from the research are then presented. The final section of this research paper involves a presentation of the research contributions conclusions of the research.
2. Innovation Centres Defined Innovation centres “are places of ... collective learning not only for the entrepreneurs but also for external stakeholders who come to appreciate the entrepreneurial reality better.” [1]. Such innovation centres have traditionally been defined in terms of what they do, and what they are trying to achieve [2]. Attempting to define an innovation centre makes it clear that the term is not an easy one to pinpoint. As Aernoudt notes, it is an ‘umbrella word’ covering a range of different facilities [3].
2.1. Emergence of Innovation Centres in Ireland Since 1997, Enterprise Ireland has contributed around €50 million to the development of innovation centres based predominantly on campuses of third-level academic institutions across Ireland [4]. These are situated in both Universities and Institutes of Technology, with sixteen linked to Institutes of Technology and four
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to the Universities [5]. Such centres give help and administrative support to their client [6].
The mission of the innovation centre in the college where this research took place is: To support the development of new enterprises in the region by providing incubation space and business development support for the nurturing of new ideas and the commercialisation of applied action research. Now we will outline the structured process developed as part of the collaboration between the innovation centre and the lecturer.
3. Structured Process Arising from reflection by the lecturer, the marketing communications module taught to the non-business students can be described in a number of steps which are presented in Figure 1 together with the high-level timeline.
Step 3: The lecturer meets with the class and presents an overview of the module learning outcomes, the assessment criteria and the expected project structure. The clients make a brief presentation to the class. Then the class is divided into project teams. The teams are randomly assigned to a client company and they prepare for a meeting with their client the following week. Step 4: The class project teams meet their clients face-to-face. The client presents their problem to their student group in more detail than in the original brief. At this stage a date is set on which each project team will present their marketing plans to the clients at the end of the semester (Week 12). Step 5: Each week the project teams provide progress updates to the lecturer in class and identify any issues they are having with the process. Step 6: The class project teams present their marketing plans to their clients through oral presentations and a written project report. Step 7: Reflection and feedback from the class is built into the module review process. When submitting their projects to the lecturer, students are asked to sign-off, in the table of contents, on the section(s) of the project they completed. Students are marked individually based on their contribution to the project, both in terms of the written report and their presentation. In week 12 of the module, each student is required to reflect on their views of the research process and the role they played in their group. Students are then asked to give feedback to the lecturer.
In the next section we will proceed to the main findings and contributions of this paper.
4. Findings Figure 1. Steps and timeline [7]
Step 1: The lecturer makes contact with the centre management to establish possible projects in advance of the commencement of the term enquiring if a small number of companies would be willing to take part in the projects. Step 2: The lecturer meets with the centre manager and provides a written outline of the module objectives, requirements and deliverables.
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In presenting an analysis of stakeholder engagement and reflection, we will first explore the reflections of the lecturer. Next feedback from the students who took part in the marketing communications module, which was gleaned from personal interviews with them, will be examined. Finally, feedback from the client company representatives and the innovation centre manager is detailed, with direct quotes italicised. We sought and received ethical clearance in writing to use our findings from the research from the innovation centre manager, client companies, and academic
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managers while verbal ethical clearance was received from students.
4.1. Lecturer's Reflections Each week the project teams presented a status update report of their work to the lecturer who acted as a facilitator and advisor rather than as a conventional lecturer. The project teams worked on the marketing plan during the semester using a standard template provided by the lecturer. The class project teams presented their marketing plans to the entrepreneurs and lecturer through an oral presentation and a project report. Distribution of marks was the responsibility of the lecturer. Each group member signed-off on the section he or she had completed in the table of contents of the marketing plan. Students were marked individually for their own work. The next section presents students' reflections of the process.
4.2. Students' Reflections Students were informed that they were required to do a project for their Marketing Communications module. The output from the project was to be a marketing plan for a company. The students were provided with an outline of the structure of a marketing plan and it was the students' responsibility to assess how each of the elements of that structure related to their client company. As described by one student "This project was different from anything we had done before, and so we had to become familiar with a lot of theory before starting it so that we knew what to look out for in the company." Some students initially found it difficult to relate to the client companies and then to apply the theory to practice in that company. Another student explained how: "once we had identified and allocated the various tasks to each group member, the project overall became much more manageable, because you only had primary responsibility for your own section of it." One problem encountered by a small number of students was that important information was not forthcoming from their client company. As stated by one student: "we asked them to send us on information about a specific issue, but heard nothing back from them." This highlights the importance of more clearly identifying the obligations of all parties prior to commencement of the project. A final issue experienced by a small number of students was the apparent expectation of the client
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company that the students would go beyond the agreed project remit. "They didn't seem to understand that what we had to do was based on a course outline and that we could not go beyond that, even if we had had time to do it." The solution to this issue, again, lies in a more clear explanation being provided, in writing, by the lecturer, to the clients, students and innovation centre managers as to their expectations of the students and the limitations that, of necessity, are placed on them based on time constraints and module learning objectives. In the following section, the client companies present their reflections.
4.3. Client Companies' Reflections As explained by one client representative: "I knew nothing about this particular course and group of students or this module before it started. The module lecturer had given us a module outline and then went through the requirements of the project, from the students' perspectives at our initial meeting with the students." A number of the clients voiced concern that the module's limitations resulted in a reduction in the level of interaction with, and therefore benefit that they could gain from, the students. One client representative stated that: "Some of the students seemed to struggle with some of the ideas we discussed with them...” Another client expressed the view that: "The module could be improved by broadening the scope of the marketing plan. This would allow the students to gain a better understanding of the workings of the company and its requirements from a marketing perspective."
4.4. Innovation Centre Manager's Reflections The innovation centre manager viewed the collaborations between the non-business students and the client companies as broadly positive and beneficial, stating that "I could see how students would benefit from working with real companies, rather than just learning theory in a classroom and then trying to apply it when they finished college." The innovation centre manager also stated that: "the biggest issue appeared to be finding a balance between what the clients expected the students to be able to do and what the course outcomes required of the students." In making suggestions for future improvements to the course, the innovation centre manager stated
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that every effort should be made to "ensure a better match between the client companies and the students, so that the latter could better relate to the product or service for which they were creating a marketing plan." Now the contributions to research conclusions of this paper will be presented.
5. Contributions Conclusions
of
Research
and
and
Despite the apparent benefits to be gained by all parties in facilitating students working with business owners, there is little evidence of largescale interactions such as these in the literature [8]. Mason and Arshed (2013) argue that there is both little examination in the literature on what structure experiential learning ought to take and a scarcity of cases of experiential ways to deal with learning [9]. This research makes a contribution by developing a structure for co-operation between students and new business developers in a manner that can be reproduced in other pedagogical contexts. In addition, this research reinforces previous research conclusions that the most powerful advantage of such projects is that they provide encouragement to students to investigate entrepreneurial opportunities [10]. In presenting the conclusions of this research, we are cognisant of a number of issues. Firstly, the scope of this research is limited to one particular student cohort in the college where the research took place. Therefore, its conclusions are being limited to that context. In addition, there was a short time-frame within which students were required to develop marketing plans for their client companies. Taking account of these issues, the primary function of this paper is to evaluate interactions between students and entrepreneurs based in a specific innovation centre to show how the gap between theory and practice might be bridged by such direct engagement between the parties. This paper describes a coordinated effort between a specific innovation centre and undergraduate students from a non-business student cohort. Giving students the opportunity to work directly with the client company is a novel pedagogical methodology that has the potential to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking and conduct among the students, along with giving them a better appreciation for the demands of developing and running a business. An important conclusion from this research is that there was found to be a significant level of commonality between the requirements of all parties, for a very clear explanation of the module specifications and learning outcomes prior to commencement of the project. With this in mind, any future client participants will be asked to
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prepare a market research brief, outlining, from their perspective, what they believe to be the main problems facing the company. This would allow the students to prepare a market research proposal, in response to the brief, which would outline the students' perspective and also explain their plan of action. The proposal would then form a binding agreement between the clients and the students and provide a clear path for all parties to achieve a satisfactory outcome from the research.
6. References [1] Albert, P., Bernasconi, M., & Gaynor, L. (2004). Incubation in Evolution: Strategies & Lessons Learned in Four Countries, France, Germany, United Kingdom & United States of America. Athens, OH: National Business Incubation Association. [2] Albert, P. and Gaynor, L. (2006). Technology business incubation management: lessons of experience, in Bernasconi, M., Harris, S., and Moensted, M., (eds.), High-Tech Entrepreneurship: Managing Innovation, Variety and Uncertainty. London: Routledge. [3] Aernoudt, R. (2004). Incubators: tool for entrepreneurship? Small Business Economics, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 127-137. [4] Enterprise Ireland. (2016). Enterprise Ireland Website http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/ Accessed 16/4/16. [5] Ryan, F., and Wright, A. (2009). ‘An examination of the experiences of campus incubation companies in Irish Institutes of Technology’, Irish Business Journal, Vol. 5, No 2, pp. 71–86. [6] Stephens, S. and Onofrei, G. (2012). Measuring business incubation outcomes: An Irish case study. Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.277-285. [7] Costello, G. J. (2014). 'Teaching product design through industry collaboration', in Proceedings of the ASME 2014 12th Biennial Conference on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis ESDA2014 Volume 1, June 25-27, 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark, Paper No. ESDA2014-20060, pp. V001T08A001; 4 pages doi:10.1115/ESDA2014-20060. [8] Souitaris, V., Zerbinati, S. and Al-Laham, A. (2007). ‘Do entrepreneurship programmes raise entrepreneurial intention of science and engineering students? The effect of learning, inspiration and resources’, Journal of Business Venturing, Issue 22, pp.566-591. [9] Mason, C., and Arshed, M. (2013). Teaching entrepreneurship to university students through experiential learning. Industry and Higher Education, Vol. 27, No.6, pp.449-463. [10] MacMahon, C., Coleman, M., Ledwith, C., Cliffe, B. and McGlone, R. (2010). Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship (ACE): A Sectional Analysis of Practices to Embed Entrepreneurship Education into Engineering at Irish Higher Education Institutions. In ISEE 3rd international Symposium for Engineering Education 1-2 July 2010.
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Education in Modern School via Projects in Bioinformatics Alina A. Astakhova, Vladimir K. Arzhanik, Oleg V. Koliasnikov, Marina G. Sergeeva Kolmogorov Advanced Educational Scientific Center, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Abstract Bioinformatics researches are currently abundant in science, but usually are not presented within high school curricula. Project-based learning allows including this interdisciplinary subject into process of education. Performing of projects in bioinformatics requires from students specific skills and knowledge in math, informatics, chemistry and biology at initial stage at school level. To equip the study a computer with Internet access is enough. Among the results of project completing students get opportunity “to touch” the science in high school that further motivate them to learn and to choose their further education direction in the scientific sphere.
1. Introduction One of the problems of current high school natural science curricula is a negligible role of topics lying at the edge of classical subjects. At the same time, most of contemporary mainstream scientific researches require specialists with background in several subjects at a time. Bioinformatics is a perfect example of interdisciplinary subject being in fact a mixture of mathematics, statistics, programming, chemistry and biology. As we mentioned in our previous paper [1], it can be a fruitful field of high school project activity. Over last decade we have been helping students to get an experience of work in bioinformatics.
2. Pro et contra of bioinformatics in high school Researches of bioinformatics are currently widely presented in popular science and, thus, are very attractive for students. Simplicity of equipment that is necessary for researches decreases the entrance limit into the field. Our efforts to conduct bioinformatics projects in high school revealed that a high school student is able to do a valuable research. Most of students that prepare projects in bioinformatics in high school successfully continue study in this and related field at the University. But bioinformatics project performance is a challenge both for a supervisor and a student. To
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launch a bioinformatics research, the tutor has to become a multidisciplinary specialist. Usually it requires an additional postgraduate study for a teacher. Students should get a lot of introductory information before the research and this issue is related to motivation that the student have to perform a project in this sphere.
3. Motivation problem At a start of a project a student has quite limited knowledge in all areas related to bioinformatics. So, how can we help a student obtain knowledge of bioinformatics sufficient for research? The solution might be seen as a mixture of i) boosting interest and motivation to learn something new, ii) help with initial analysis and research subject selection and iii) recommendations of particular resources on research methods or information related to the subject, iv) discussion with a student about logic and results of most important articles. To our mind, the most effective way to motivate a student to learn subjects related to bioinformatics is to demonstrate its real achievements. For instance, development of gene network analysis in the beginning of this century allowed revealing molecular annotations that were used to divide leukemia patients in two separate groups and then better treatment strategies for various forms of disease were ultimately developed. This example shows how researches in bioinformatics may rapidly come into practice and solve real problems of healthcare. Subject selection is a key point for high school project success. For instance, researches involving gene alignments are usually easily comprehensible for student of high school age as at the start it might be limited to automatized algorithms and combined with evolution concept. Analysis of spatial structures demands a deep geometry understanding and good imagination only. At the same time gene network analysis or mathematical modeling of biochemical processes might be seen as extremely difficult areas. Thus, it is a challenge for a tutor: to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of students and to help them to select the topic that fits those strengths and weaknesses the best.
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Finally, there are some resources that might prove helpful for student research activity. In fact, bioinformatics today might be studied simply through a computer connected to web. Graduates of a bioinformatics department even have a joke: “the university has only taught us how to use manuals”. Indeed, multiple high quality web-based resources (for instance, Coursera) can be used to introduce problematics, methodology or research strategies implemented during solving bioinformatics-related problems on very basic levels. Thus, integration of such resources into research practice is seen as a good approach that shifts interaction between tutor and student from teaching to instructive model.
4. AESC experience in bioinformaticsrelated project activity Kolmogorov Advanced Educational Scientific Center (AESC) is a high school that belongs to Moscow State University. Our mission is to simplify a way to science for talented students from allRussia. In 2003 in AESC a new direction was started – a novel class focused on life sciences. Projectbased learning was present within curricula of this class from its initial stage. We work in a tight connection with MSU departments and other scientific institutions that allow us to provide a wide range of topics for projects in chemistry and biology. One of these topics is bioinformatics. We provide students of this class with additional courses that help them to get basic knowledge in informatics, nucleic acid and protein chemistry, molecular biology that are necessary for understanding of bioinformatics. We train them for scientific methodology. As a part of MSU AESC has free access to University library, and our students can perform search, read and analyze original articles in the field of their study. During research students have an access not only to Internet resources, but to University supercomputer facility as well. At a final stage, we help them to polish their research, to present it at conferences and to publish it. Bioinformatics-related project activity in AESC has success story with awards at local and international contests, papers in peer-reviewed journals and further fruitful work in science of our graduates. Our alumni also help us as tutors in current projects. For instance, our students have found a new rule for antibody structure modeling, considered a role of pi-stacking in small-ligand-protein interaction, revealed a novel motif for charged antigen binding, studied mechanisms of aggressive brain tumor appearing etc. They were awarded at Intel Baltic ISEF, ICYS, Vernadsky contest and many others. We try to help them to publish their results. Our work devoted to study of interaction between antibodies and negatively charged ligand has proved
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very successful. The main idea of study here was to search for a distinct structure motif involved into binding of a charged group by antibody with hypervariable loops residues. 3D antibody-antigen complex structures for the analysis were retrieved from the open access SAbDab database. The analysis was performed using PyMOL software. The comparison of ca. hundred spatial structures gave a result – a newly revealed ArgH52-TyrH33 motif. This research has been published recently in peerreviewed journal [2]. Another field of our bioinformatics research relates to the issue of whole genome transcriptomics. Microarray technology development has resulted in accumulation of multiple data about whole genome transcription profiles. High school students can use preprocessed arrays to analyze biological contents of the presented data. For instance, our student has analyzed how amounts of differentially expressed genes are altered among molecular classes of gliomas with different prognoses. It turned out that classes with poorer prognoses were characterized with more differentially expressed genes and these gene sets of differentially expressed genes were enriched in oncogenes. That result pointed out one of the mechanisms of glioma malignancy progress. These are just two examples of how bioinformatics can be used for high school projects.
5. Conclusion In summary, the role of a supervisor of a high school student who performs a bioinformatics research should be mostly motivational and instructive. It would stimulate student creativity and capability to reach a successful result of research. An experience of bioinformatics study at high school level opens a gate to scientific career in future.
6. Acknowledgements We thank to AESC MSU development program by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia for financial support.
7. References [1] O.V. Koliasnikov, E.A. Mendeleeva, N.I. Morozova, M.G. Sergeeva, and A.S. Sigeev, “Will high school projects help to choose a way to science for students?“ Int J Infonom, 2015, 8(3), pp. 1074–1076. [2] A. Petrov, V. Arzhanik, G. Makarov, and O. Koliasnikov “A novel ArgH52/TyrH33 conservative motif in antibodies: a correlation between sequence of antibodies and antigen binding” J Bioinf Comput Biol, 2016, 14(4), 1650019.
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Session 3: Cross-disciplinary Areas in Education Assessment of Corporate Training by Employees (Authors: Zuzana Birknerová, Miroslav Frankovský, Mária Zahatňanská, Zuzana Daňková) Agents of Change: Windows to Teachers’ ICT Pedagogical Experiences (Author: Thirusellvan Vandeyar)
E-Learning Technology and EFL Classrooms (Author: Khawlah Ahmed)
What School writes within Me: Dysorthographia and its impact on self-concept and educational commitment (Authors: Adriana Guerreiro, Tereza Ventura)
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Assessment of Corporate Training by Employees Zuzana Birknerová, Miroslav Frankovský, Mária Zahatňanská, Zuzana Daňková University of Prešov in Prešov, Slovakia Abstract Effective functioning of organizations in the condition of knowledge society is linked to the quality of human resources. Corporate training represents one of the significant factors for increasing this quality. The article presents the results of a research which included participation of 152 employees from both the public and the private sectors. Data were collected by methodology SBES (significance, benefits, expectations and satisfaction) which enables specification of various indicators for assessing corporate training. Subsequently, the data were analyzed in terms of the economic areas – education. Acquired findings, in the context of the already published findings, prove that differences in the assessment of corporate training are determined by the economic areas (education, administration, and production), the position of employees (managers or employees) and the economic sector (private and public).
1. Introduction In knowledge society exists effective organizations that are based on creativity and information [1]. In this context, among the other things, cognitive and personal attributes of employees are coming to the fore. These are the important components on which the corporate training is orientated to. The aim of corporate training is to equip an employees with an assumption through which they will be able to fulfill the tasks that enterprise gives arising from outside. Within corporate training it is mainly important learning on the fly, learning based on own experiences and searching for new opportunities [2]. Staff development means a change and an adaptation to surounding situations. To avoid employees stagnation, it is necessary to adapt to changing conditions. Education can be one of the option to address problems in the company that prevent in fullfilment of its objectives [3]. By analysing of these requirements are identified actual gaps in skills and knowledge that influence on employees performance. The presented findings are allowed to find out through so called „training needs analysis“ [4]. According to Goulda, Kelly, White [5] training needs analysis is the first step towards to educational strategies of organizations and it is crutial to meet professional development needs of employees.
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The listed analysis must therefore be carefully planned, managed and directed to clear results, to ensure that educational activities are effectively applied and lead towards meaningful changes. In this context, it is necessary to focus on the importance of experiences that employees have with corporate training. Education within the organizations focuses mainly on formation of working competencies and personal characteristics of employees. It becames the part of activities of human resources department in the organization. If the employees are educated at different working levels, enterprises appreciate their values and needs for the company. Armstrong [6] states that organization has to prepare conditions for employees training, to be motivated and ready to be educated. He draws attetntion to compliance with the following principles: The requirement of the firm and strong vision of an oraganization which is constantly emphesising to all employees in order to increase awarness of the needs of strategic thinking at all levels The requirement to develop strategy that relates to the vision and employees to acquire new knowledge and skills. Within the vision and its goals to implement dialog, communication and conversation to facilitate their education To create environment supporting learning and innovations An essential part of the concept of corporate training is regularly performed evaluation analysis. Evaluation of education defines Humblin [7] as any attempt to obtain information about the effect of corporate training and evaluation of training in the light of this information. Evaluation resulted into management, i.e. decision whether the eduacation has made sense or not (particularly in the terms of costs and acqusition), and what is necessary to improve for costs to be more effective. In each organization the evaluation should be a part of training that conducted into comparison of goals of desirable behaviour and its result. Evaluation has to notify if the training has met its purpose.
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Positioning of corporate training is intended by the fact that education is a tool, not a goal. To be effective, training must respect the requirements of the organization, but also the possibilities of employees [8]. The listed attributes of corporate training are reflected in concepts of this matter/issue by several authors [9], [10],[11]. From an assessment of corporate training, one of the significant discussed issues of methodology is to obtain feedback information about evaluation of corporate training by employees. Frankovský et al. [12], Birknerová et al. [13] proposed and verified a methodology labeled as SBES, which enables to identify mentioned feedback on the basis of four factors - meaning, benefits, expectation and satisfaction. The implementation of mentioned methodology in practice enabled to specify differences between managers and efficient workers, between employees from public and private sector [13]. Subsequently, to the presented findings, the aim of the research was an identification and specification of relations between assessment of corporate training and the areas of economy, in which employees work.
2. Research 2.1. Research Sample The research sample consisted of employees from both public and the private sectors working in the areas of production, administration and education. Adressed were 152 respondents out of which 87 were male (57,20%) and 65 were female (42,80%) aged from 21 to 62 years (average age of 40,84 years, standard deviation of 10,510 years). The number of years of service was range of 1 to 44 years, whereas the average number was 17,36 years of service (standard deviation of 10,806 years). Out of adressed respondents, 92 work in the private sector (60,50%), 60 work in the public sector (39.50%). There were 51 production employees (33,60%), 36 administration employees (23,70%) and 21 education employees (13,80%).
2.2. Method In presenting research data were obtained by SBES methodology [12]. The methodology consists of 22 items on the basis of which the respondents assessed the various aspects of corporate training. The individual items were evaluated on a 5-point scale, where 1 = certainly no, 2 = rather no, 3 = neither no, nor yes, 4 = rather yes, 5 = certainly yes. The corporate training was assessed by four factors that explain 65,6 % of variantions:
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F1 – Importance to perform work (Cronbach´s alpha - 0,899) F2 – Benefits for employees (Cronbach´s alpha - 0,844) F3 – Expectations of employees (Cronbach´s alpha - 0,860) F4 – Satisfaction of employees (Cronbach´s alpha - 0,871)
2.3. Results The obtained data were analyzed in terms of economic sectors of employees. The attention was focused on the three sectors - administration, production and education. 2.3.1.Differences in assessment of corporate training from the economic viewpoint. Differences in assessment of corporate training from economic viewpoint between 51 employees working in the sector of production (33,6%), 36 employees working in administration sector (23,7%) and 21 employees working in the sector of education (13,8%), were analyzed by mathematically - statictical method One Way ANOVA using Tukye test for Post Hoc comparission of significant differences. Presented statictically significant findings are presented in Table 1. Based on analysis of variance were found statictically significant differences between responses of employees from researched economic sector in order to assess all four analyzed factors of assessment of corporate training. Corporate training from its importance to work in profession more positively (Factor F1) were assessed by employees working in education sector. On the contrary, the less positively to slightly negative was the mentiond factor assessed by employees from sector of production. Significant difference was found among employeess from production sector and those working in various areas of economy (Table 2). Table 1. Evaluation of individual factors of corporate training assesment from the viewpoint of economic sectors Factors F - test
Sig.
Administrat Producti Educa ion on tion
F1
8.258
.000
3.54
2.89
3.82
F2
7.041
.001
3.38
2.64
3.13
F3
4.299
.016
3.13
2.56
2.91
F4
5.392
.006
3.31
2.72
3.23
sig. – statistical significance
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Table 2. Post – Hoc Comparison of corporate training assessment in importance for performance in the profession (Tukey HSD) Economy sector
Economy sector
Mean Sig. differe nce F1 – Significance for the performance in the profession Production Administration -.649 .009 Education -.929 .001 Administration Production .649 .009 Education -.280 .561 Education Administration .280 .561 Production .929 .001 sig. – statistical significance
From the beneficial viewpoint of employees (Factor 2), the corporate training was the most positively assessed by eployees from sector of administation. As in the previous analysis, employees assessed this factor from the production sector as the least positively to slightly negative. Significant difference was found in the analysis of this factor only among the employees from production and administration sector (see Table 3). Table 3. Post – Hoc Comparison of corporate training assesment from the beneficial viewpoint (Tukey HSD) Economy sector
Economy sector
F2 – Benefits for employees Production Administration Education Administration Production Education Education Administration Production sig. – statistical significance
Mean differe nce
Sig.
-.734 -.486 .734 .248 -.248 .486
.001 .108 .001 .591 .591 .108
Corporate training in terms of expectations of employees (Factor F3) was the most positively assessed by respondents from administation sector. Rather neutral, the same factor was asssessed by respondents from sector of education. Just as we mentioned in the relations to previous two factors of corporate training, slightly negatively, the factor of exceptation was assessed by employees from production sector (see Table 4). However, Tukey´s Post Hoc test confirmed statistically significant difference among the employees from production and administration.
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Table 4. Post – Hoc Comparison of corporate training assesment from the viewpoint of employees expectations (Tukey HSD) Economy Economy Mean Sig. sector sector differe nce F3 - Expectations of employees Production Administration -.578 .013 Education -.357 .298 Administration Production .578 .013 Education .221 .657 Education Administration -.221 .657 Production .357 .298 sig. – statistical significance Table 5. Post – Hoc Comparison of corporate training from the viewpoint of satifaction of employees (Tukey HSD) Economy sector
Economy sector
F4 - Satisfaction of employees Production Administration Education Administration Production Education Education Administration Production sig. – statistical significance
Mean differe nce
Sig.
-.584 -.507 .584 .077 -.077 .507
.008 .073 .008 .946 .946 .073
In the terms of employees satisfaction (Factor F4) was found the similar fact in answers of respondents, as in the analysis of expectations factor. Again, the most satisfied employees were assessed factor of corporate training from the administration sector. On the contrary, more negatively, this factor was assessed by employees from production sector.
3. Discussion and Conclusion Effective corporate training of employees enables better utilization of human capital and potential which are crutial elements of effectiveness and competitiveness of an organization. Savery, Luks [14] pointed to the connection between the incresed resources invested in education and the increased productivity. Education represents investments into the workforce that is highly viable and thus also valuable for organization. If an organization wants to make a progress, it is inevitable to focus on education of its employees. This education may have a different nature, degree and intensity in accordance with the needs of the organization [8]. One of the most significant aspects of effectiveness of corporate training is the perception
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and evaluation of mentioned training by employees and thus the question of feedback information. The issue of effective evaluation of corporate training is important from the modification of that training, also from the perpective of future motivation to be more educated. In this context it is possible to assume that employees who are content with their corporate training will continue with their further education in the future as well. On the contrary, those with lower education level or those dissatisfied with the training will tend to avoid education as such and thus lose the opportunity to grow and advance [13]. Findings of the presented research confirm the fact that evaluation of corporate training is not homogeneous but it is possible to specify certain structural elements of this evaluation, which are in various context (work position, economy sector) assessed differently. The extracted and specified four factors (Importance to perform work, benefits for employees, Expectations of employees, Satisfaction of employees) are considered as one of the possible approaches to corporate training assessment [12]. Presented analysis of the results, as already published findings, Frankovský et al., [12], Birknerová et al., [13] prove that it is inevitable to assume from what perspective (work position, sector, economy sector) and in terms of which atribute ( the extracted factors of SBES methodology) is a corporate training assessed. The findings prove the fact that assessment of corporate training is associated with characteristics as sector, the economy sector and work position. The results point to the fact that is necessary to focus on the forms and management of corporate training in the economic sector of production. The presented training was evaluated by employees sligthly negatively. From the methodological viewpoint are presented results represented for the support of suitability of the methodology SBES, Frankovský et al., [12], as the tool for assessment of corporate training and the feedback information about corporate training. Finally, it is essential to accentuate that effective education and development of employees enables not only the adaptation to changes in organizations, but also development of a work force which would propose and carry out these changes [11].
methods of teaching the subject; a university textbook and methodological texts].
5. References [1] Stehr, N. (1994). Knowledge societies. London: SAGE Publications. University of British Columbia, 304 p. [2] Hroník, F. (2007). Rozvoj a vzdělávání pracovníků [Development and education of workers], Grada Publishing, Praha, 232 p. [3] Babić, L., Boljanović, J. (2013). Contemporary approach to education in organizations, Singidunum Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(1), pp. 46-53. [4] Mikovich, G.T., Boudreau, J.W. (1991). Human Resource Management. Published by Richard D Irwin. [5] Gould, D., Kelly, D., White. I. (2004). Training needs analysis: an evaluation framework. Nursing Standard, 18, 20, p. 33-37. [6] Armstrong, M., A Handbook of human resource management practice (10th ed.). (2006). Kogan Page, London/Philadelphia. [7] Hamblin, A. C. (1974). Evaluation and Control of Training. McGraw-Hill European series in management. 208 p. [8] Sadler-Smith, E. (2006). Learning and Development for Managers: Perspectives from Research and Practice, Wiley-Blackwell, 488 p. [9] Spector, P.E. (1997). Advanced Topics in Organization Behavior: Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. [10] Russ-Eft, D.F. (2008). Evaluator competencies: Standards for the practice of evaluation in organizations, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. [11] Fitzgerald, W.(1992). Training Versus Development. Training & Development, 46(5), pp. 81-83. 12] Frankovský, M., Birknerová, Z., Štefko, R., Zbihlejová, L., Zahatňanská, M. (2015). Possibilities Of Determining The Effectiveness Of Corporate Training. World Congress on Education. WCE 2015: World congress on education, 19-21. October, Dublin, Írsko: Infonomic society, pp. 58-62.
4. Acknowledgements
[13] Birknerová, Z., Frankovský, M., Zahatňanská, M., Zbihlejová, L. (2016). Differences in evaluation of corporate training from the viewpoint of the work position and sector. International journal for infonomics, Vol. 9, no. 1 pp. 1131-1138.
This research was supported by the grant project KEGA: 028PU-4/2014 [Coaching basics in management – innovation of the content and
[14] Savery, L.K., Luks, J.A. (2004). Does training influence outcomes of organizations? Some Australian evidence, Journal of Management Development, 23(2), pp. 119-124.
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Agents of Change: Windows to Teachers’ ICT Pedagogical Experiences Thirusellvan Vandeyar University of Pretoria, South Africa
Abstract This paper sets out to explore teachers’ use of ICT in their classrooms by drawing on findings from a larger ongoing research study of “teachers as agents of change” that focused on their patterns of ICT changed practice. Utilising a case study approach and portraiture principles of “what is good here?” in information and communication technology integration, this study set out to explore how teachers’ ICT use has changed in their teaching practice. Qualitative methods were employed to capture data through interviews, classroom observations and document analysis. Data was analysed using grounded theory methods. Analyses of teacher’s constructions about information and communication technology (ICT) integration in schools yielded patterns in their understandings of ICT integration. Findings were fourfold. First, that teachers’ self-regulated learning was an impetus to changing their pedagogy. Second, teachers repositioned their pedagogy to fit the current policy demand of curriculum delivery. Third, teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and self-efficacy was instrumental in making the paradigm shift to a changed pedagogy. Forth, teachers used various self-taught innovative methods to enhance their teaching using ICT.
1. Introduction The use of Information and communication technology (ICT) in classrooms is a relatively new phenomenon to most schools and teachers in particular. In this regard Fullan [2] claims that the implementation of ICT in schools is a phenomenon that is uniquely different to minor changes in curriculum content and is not simply a question of re-organising the knowledge base of educators but essentially getting “teachers to start from base zero”. This phenomenon is more significant when teachers are left to their own devices whether to use to use technology in their classroom practice considering that many teachers have not been trained to use the new technology to enhance teaching and learning. In a South African context, though the e-education policy [1] promotes the use of ICT in teaching and learning and schools making significant strides in acquiring ICT resources, the actual use of technology in teaching and learning has had a minimal effect on changing
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teachers’ classroom practice. However, pockets of excellence do exist as some teachers attempt to change their classroom practice by developing and using their own pedagogical initiatives and innovations. This paper attempts to present these teachers as change agents as they attempt to change their pedagogy in the use of ICT to enhance their teaching practice.
2. Research Question How have teacher’s pedagogies evolved to embrace information and communications technology in their practice?
3. Literature review The literature review for this paper will be embedded situated learning, communities of practice, just in time learning, self-efficacy and self-regulated learning. The literature review will also include empirical evidence of teachers’ changed pedagogy.
4. Research Strategy Meta-theoretical framework - constructivism and interpretivism Methodological framework - Qualitative case study approach; narrative inquiry and portraiture
5. Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework of this study will be the TPACK model as espoused by Koehler and Mishra [3]. The advent of new technologies for teaching and learning also brings forth new frameworks, paradigms and learning theories. The TPACK model suitably underpins this study as it seems to be the model that best explains teacher’s integration of ICT into their classroom practice. The framework identifies and describes three principal knowledge components (Technological Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge and Content Knowledge) as being fundamental to teaching practice. However, the intersection of these knowledge areas also yield subsets that are equally important as to the
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knowledges specifically; technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) and Technological content knowledge (TCK) that are necessary for teachers to successfully integrate ICT into their teaching practices. In this study focus was on the teacher’s Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) which I interpreted as the pedagogies a teacher employs to effectively to deliver the curriculum subject content through the use of technology.
6. Findings Findings were fourfold: 1. TPACK theoretical framework Firstly, teachers repositioned themselves and used uniquely different pedagogical strategies of available technology in a manner they were comfortable with. They employed and used ICT in varied ways employing their own Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) to satisfy their own innovative form of Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK). The teacher participants used different forms of available technology (Ipads, data projectors, lap tops, mobile phones etc.) in ways that were unique to them and their changed pedagogy. 2. Teachers’ self-regulated learning was an impetus to changing their pedagogy. Secondly, teacher participants sought to use ICT in unique ways that they were confident and competent. Their self-efficacy or just-in-time learning promoted their technological content knowledge (TCK), however their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) unfolded in unique ways different to each participants’ rationale and understanding of its’ effectiveness. 3. Teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and professionalism as instrumental. Third, teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and professionalism as instrumental in making the paradigm shift to experiment with technology and thus enhance their changed pedagogy. 4. Self-efficacy and situated learning. Forth, these pockets of excellence in the use of ICT for teaching and learning emerged from these teachers’ need to empower themselves through various self-taught innovative methods to enhance their teaching practice using ICT. Thus self-efficacy, ‘just-in-time’ learning, situated learning and communities of practice existed as technology support anchors for technological content knowledge and experience.
training of teachers in the use of ICT cannot be overemphasized, however one size does not fit all, and effective training often is too generic or nonsubject specific. The findings of this study suggests that it is not a case of ‘old wine in new bottles’ whereby teachers are using technology with traditional pedagogical practices, but one that indicates that teachers are teaching differently by experimenting with technology. New pedagogical practices are emerging through the manner in which teachers’ acquire their self-taught knowledge. However, these pockets of excellence that exist as unique experiences of ‘best practice’ or ‘good practices’ needs to be showcased to other teachers in order for teaching and learning to be enhanced.
8. References [1] Department of Education. (2004). E-Education policy. Government Press, Pretoria. [2] Fullan, M. (1992), Successful School Improvement: The Implementation Perspective and Beyond, Open University Press, London. [3] Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: a framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054.
7. Conclusion Though ICT for education policy exist, policy by itself cannot be the main driver of change and teachers need to be agents of change transforming policy into practice. The need for pedagogical
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E-Learning Technology and EFL Classrooms Khawlah Ahmed American University of Sharjah, UAE
Abstract Pedagogical and socio-economic factors are becoming major players in the academic scene and education is being shifted not only to enable and support the acquisition of knowledge but also to develop skills for lifelong learning motivated by new career paths and skills needed in the 21st century work place. Pressed, tertiary academic institutions are incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which are not only changing the organization of information but how that information is being delivered in academic institutions around the world. Such transformations are not only characterized by a dissemination of ICT’s but innovative, transformative learning and creative classrooms [1] that have led to the popularity of online learning. For today’s networked Research Area (Please choose the topic area that is more appropriate to your research)
References [1] Bocconi, S., Kampylis, P., Punie, Y. (2012). Creative Classrooms: A systemic approach for mainstreaming ICT-enabled innovation for learning in Europe. Proceedings of SEFM/InSuEdu212 conference, Lecture Notes in Computers Science (LNCS), Thessaloniki, Greece.
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What School writes within Me: Dysorthographia and its impact on selfconcept and educational commitment Adriana Guerreiro and Tereza Ventura Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Portugal Abstract Learning is a unique exercise, since it mobilizes a complex system of socio-cultural, psycho-affective and neurobiological variables in each children. Therefore, it is easy to understand that learning should be adapted to the different capacities and motivations, rhythms and interests of each student, regardless of them having or not special educational needs. Being a teacher is then an extremely demanding mission, far beyond the simple transmission of knowledge. The present work intended to deepen the knowledge about specific learning disabilities (SLD), namely dysorthographia, and realize if this might affect performance, selfconcept and scholar motivation of students. May dysorthographia be a “cage” on its own? Or may a teacher be able to “give wings” to a student with this problem?
1. Introduction "Schools that are wings don't love caged birds. What they love are flying birds. They exist to give the birds courage to fly. They cannot teach the bird how to fly, because the flight borns within the birds. The flight cannot be taught. It can only be encouraged."[1]
2. Special Education Needs and Inclusion The society awareness in terms of “difference” is growing until mid-twentieth century. Before that, in different cultures and times in history, disability was regarded as divine punishment and invariably doomed to isolation or even death. Only at the beginning of the last century it was understood the need to provide support to people with disabilities. Nevertheless, this support was only medical and non-educational. In the '70s people started talking about the integration of these children in regular classes, though in a still shy and discreet manner. Only in the 90s, with the Salamanca Statement, it is assumed the so called “Education for All”, recognizing the urgency of attention to students with special educational needs. However, there was still confusion between the concepts of inclusion and integration. Inclusion is more than accepting "different" students in regular classes, it is to ensure that these are respected in their differences and to actively contribute to building a shared knowledge.
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Within the context of inclusion, being "different" should never be a "defect" but a characteristic that may lead to educational development, promoting the evolution of students and teachers. Step by step, gradually, people will be building the history of special education, with lots of room to grow as an ideology and as a practice.
2.1. Dysorthographia Dysorthographia is confusion with letters, words, and syllables. The one with dysorthographia proceeds to orthographic changes (substitution, omission, addition, inversion of letters or phonemes), which can make their writings unreadable. It is relevant to stress that this issue does not necessarily affect the reading, but only the writing. Specific learning disabilities (SLD) are a reality in our schools, along with the lack of specialized training among teachers. There are, however, several studies available on dyslexia in the context of medicine and psychology, as well as action strategies and inclusion of students with this problem. When looking specifically to the field of dysorthographia, studies are a bit scarcer mainly when looking for a correlation study between dysorthographia, self-concept and students’ motivation. However, it is possible to state that children with SLD show evidence of social and affective realities to be unstable, being somewhat insecure and dependent, showing little resistance to frustration [2]. Will it arise, perhaps, with this combination of factors, a dangerous reduction in self-esteem and a distortion of self-concept, weakening the individual and putting him into direct confrontation with one of the areas where one should feel freer - the school?
2.2. Self-concept and Motivation The study around self-concept was deepened from 1960, recognizing its importance in the study of personality and human development. A child who is afraid of failing is always trapped in their insecurity and anxiety, internally conditioned by the high expectations of society, often discrepant of their actual performance. The teacher can indeed contribute pervasively, according to their performance (positive or negative), to the creation of the self-concept. In this context, it is important to
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note that various studies on the subject (prepared over the years), show that students with SLD have a more negative image of their academic potential than the other students [2]. Indeed it was found that "academic self-concept is more negative in older children and with lower levels of academic achievement, perhaps because they have more academic failure experience. (...) For a child who attaches too much importance to their academic success, an increased negative self-concept school will negatively influence their overall self-concept. Thus, the personal value of this child will be determined by their school results. These negative perceptions, will influence the levels of educational achievement, in that these children are less motivated, which will lead to reduced effort and persistence. A negative self-concept can have more influence on school failure, than the difficulties of intellectual origin. "[3] Therefore, it seems that “self-concept” is "a jewel" of inestimable value in education. Much is said about the lack of motivation of students, their selfless posture regarding school, the glaring gap in relation to objectives and the consequent negative school performance. From a perspective where the student should "bring" the motivation to the teaching-learning process for it to be carried out in a fruitful way, we moved to a vision in which the teacher and the student must work together, transforming learning into a motivational experience and motivation the driver to continuous learning. Therefore, it is a dynamic process that thrives on teacher-student reciprocity, which determines the will and perseverance in tasks aiming quality results and, especially, pleasure and happiness in the process. The question then arises, towards school demotivation: what's missing? Can you motivate without motivation? Is student motivation going to be met by self-concept? To what extent are they related? What is the teacher's role in the construction / rehabilitation of motivation and self-concept aiming to improve student performance?
3. Characterization of the studied cases In Table 1 it is possible to find a synthetic characterization of the 12 cases studied. This description was based on the documentation accompanying each student (individual case), as recorded on the date of the study, being presented in an orderly manner by the study cycles frequented.
4. Methodology
and realize if this might affect performance, selfconcept and scholar motivation of students. What are the roles of direct support / personalized educational support (90 minutes per week or less) and of the relationship school-family in the development of pupils with specific learning disabilities? Ages studied are between 8 and 15 years, the average being 12 years old. We followed and observed 12 children, in Basic Education (3 in the 1st Cycle, 6 in the 2nd Cycle and 3 in 3th Cycle). Different variables were related (dysorthographia / self-concept / motivation / performance) using a mixed methodology, triangulating quantitative and qualitative approaches All the work processes are divided into three phases: diagnostic-analytical, intervention-action and reflection-evaluation. In the first and last phase were applied two different tests - "Auto Concept Assessment Scale PHCSCS 2" [5] and "Motivation Assessment Scale for EMAPRE Learning" [6], language changes (translation to Portuguese European) used by Pereira [7] - relating the results to each other. The first set of tests was applied at the beginning of the year (diagnostic assessment), observing the needs, requirements, progress (interim evaluation), already with the extra goal in mind of realizing if the positive reinforcement and the different strategies used in the classroom and the specialized support for dysorthographic students were effective, increasing their self-concept and motivation. The records were made in the proper forms for Individual Educational Program Evaluation. Finally, we proceeded to final evaluation, with the repetition of the two tests, trying to correlate the results by student, within the same cycle of education and between cycles (1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles). Applying qualitative methods it was attempted to answer the following questions that guide the pursuit of the proposed objectives: Question 1: What is the perception of dysorthographic students observed, about the school? Question 2: What is the role of personalized educational support in improving the performance of dysorthographic students observed? Question 3: What is the role of school-family relationship in the educational process of dysorthographic students observed? Question 4: What is the influence of the school in the development of self-concept, motivation and academic performance of the dysorthographic students observed?
The present work [4] - a comparative study of cases, designed as an Action-Research Project intended to deepen the understanding of specific learning disabilities (SLD), namely dysorthographia,
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Table 1. Students Characterization
5. Results Analysis results [4] of the quantitative approach showed that the evolution of the average self-concept in the 1st cycle was significant (17%), although it started with the lowest percentage of the three cycles at the beginning of the year. On the other hand, the motivation for learning went down 8 percentage points, and started with the average (significantly) higher of the 3 cycles. In the 2nd cycle there was a residual improvement in self-concept (3%), matching the improvement on motivation (over 8%). The 3rd cycle decreased by 10% falling below the starting point of the 1st cycle in what concerns self-concept. The motivation for learning had its starting point 28 percentage points below the 1st cycle, ending the year with the same difference, though with results below 50%. There was also an 8% decrease in motivation for learning. The school performance (measured by the results of the 3 scholar periods) follows roughly the lines of motivation and self-concept. A special reference to the case of students of the 3rd cycle, in which the motivation and self-concept went exponentially down throughout the year, along with the school
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performance. None of the three students observed in this cycle have transited year. The results obtained through the qualitative approach are presented according to the following questions. Question 1: What is the perception of dysorthographic students observed about school? It was possible to conclude that, from the qualitative analysis of the cases, the perception students have of school differs in different educational cycles. Apart from direct observation, it was asked from the students to write a short essay titled "Me and the School", with free structure. The students of the 1st cycle revealed to be receptive and open to new learning experiences, admitting shamelessly that "the school is the place where you learn", "I like school because I like to write," and "the school is really cool because I'm with my friends." The mention of writing acquires a very significant value once, being the activity in which there is greater difficulty, it is the choice to express how much they like school. The importance of friends is clear, with no evidence of acceptance problems. Football in recess is a common interest
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and the difficulties in writing do not show as an exclusion factor. There are still sporadic references to teachers who "get angry" with errors. Students of the 2nd cycle label the school as "an adventure" where there are "many teachers who love to teach." It is suggested that "instead of a pencil" computers should be used and that "tests and exams” should end. These have always proved to be moments of great anxiety. Classes are sometimes "a bit boring" and there are colleagues "who make fun of me when I talk." Taking into account the age transition into teenage years it is perceived that "I do not hate school but I do not like that much. I hate the rules, teachers, schedules, etc...". It is referred the importance / relevance of personalized support where the teacher "helps to get better grades." Looking at the 3rd cycle results, there is a clear rejection. The texts start with "I do not like school very much (...)", "I do not like teachers or classes (...)", and "I do not like school”. Students refuse to cooperate with the teacher, either in writing or orally. When asked, along the year, about their low participation in class the answers were diverse, although with a common idea: "Attend to what? I never know the answers” or “The teacher wants me to write on the board and I will not." Question 2: What is the role of personalized educational support in improving the performance of dysorthographic students observed? From the case studies it was found by observation of qualitative data that the custom support worked as a support network to classes. As shown in the planning and evaluation of performed activities, it was intended to improve the confidence and safety of students, working proactively in subjects that would be the focus of attention later. Mandatory reads of the Portuguese program were, for example, read together. Students felt thus better able to participate in the classroom context. Summary techniques and process mapping were developed in the various disciplines in order to make them understand the practical applicability of the exercises. Most of the evaluations were performed in the support room, so that students felt free to ask questions. It was also found more at an early stage, some disruption on the daily notebooks. Most of the time this was due to the fact that they were unable to write all the information from the board in the time frame or while the teacher dictated. The teacher then had an intervention within the classroom (with students and teachers) in order to find strategies for each one to feel more secure and confident in the organization of study materials. It is important to emphasize the little time spent weekly with the students. There were cases in which the students benefited from just 45
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minutes a week with the special education teacher. It is clearly low when the objective is to work crossfunctional areas, reinforcing the development of specific skills. There were also some cases in which students had to be grouped by "degree of difficulty" since there were not enough human resources to give a truly "custom support". Will it be possible to convert this into something a little less "negative"? It seems so, appealing to working in pairs, to mutual aid, sharing of experiences. Still there is work that needs to be more "personalized" to be simultaneously more "educational". And so it can be called, appropriately, "support". Question 3: What is the role of school-family relationship in the educational process of dysorthographic students observed? It is without a doubt a major role. The cooperative parents, demanding and participating in the lives of students tend to pass the message (not always necessarily orally) about the importance of education. As a result there is a greater involvement of the students, even if that involvement does not translate immediately in school success. There were also guardians who went to school only to sign documents or when requested. The reasons may be diverse (labour, impediments, ignorance, insecurity,...). The school should insist that the relationship needs to be established effectively. Tendentiously, looking at the cases observed, students who did not count on effective family support, were less motivated and with a lower school performance. In the cases analysed it was found that the older students have less follow up notes from the parents. Students seem to be, most often, a mirror of the reflecting their values and qualities as well as their fears and anxieties. Question 4: What is the influence of the school in the development of self-concept, motivation and academic performance of the dysorthographic students observed? The fourth issue has been very ambiguous for a concrete answer. Or particularly difficult to answer since it would be necessary to "put your finger on it." The School has, inarguably on the analysed cases, particular influence on the development of students, both in cases when the evolution is positive or negative. It was still clear a great resistance on the importance to suit the ways of teaching to different students with different difficulties, hindering their effective inclusion in class, to the extent that equal opportunities to learn or to show what was learned were not provided to them. In general, according to the perception of teachers, who does not follow the
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class that is given to everyone is "lazy" and "does not work at home." In fact this can happen, and it happens, but not often as a cause of lack of motivation or poor performance, but as a result of these.
In fact, we should not forget that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." - Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 (December 10th, 1948).
6. Conclusions 7. References Considering the results obtained [4] it is evident that there is a decrease of motivation with the higher levels of education that also correlates with a loss in positive self-concept. The accumulation of academic failures decreases motivation and discourages the dysorthographic student, as demonstrated in the analysis of qualitative information. This result is in agreement with several authors [7], [8], [9], [10] and [11], who found that the retention of students showed a number of less suitable motivation beliefs for learning and school success. It is relevant to mention that from the 12 observed students, the 4 with lowest self-concept and motivation results were stranded at the end of the school year. Motivation alone is not a synonym of academic success. There is a set of factors able to empower good school results. Appealing to the qualitative nature of the study, it is noted that there were cases in which the family context is not presented as a facilitator of learning. Families with structural weaknesses, culturally disadvantaged and that cannot offer a continuous and effective monitoring to their students have students with poorer performance, decreased motivation and consequent amendment of self-concept. From the number of cases analysed, except for their small number and the limited observation time, emerges the hypothesis that school motivation goes down from school cycle to school cycle. It seems that the positive self-concept of students with dysorthographia will pining away over time. And even when talking only about 12 students, these are 12 students that can multiply by 12 others throughout the world, who struggle with themselves, daily, in a place of freedom and creativity that should be the School. The Decree-Law 3/2008, in Portugal, predicts a decent support to the permanent educational needs. Why treat the SLD as less serious than other needs? Why it was possible to see the need to adapt ramps for students with reduced mobility [12], and there wasn’t (and there is not) the same willingness to adapt a lesson, a worksheet, a time of evaluation to a student with dysorthographia? Remembering Alves, we state: "Schools that are wings don't love caged birds. What they love are flying birds. They exist to give the birds courage to fly. They cannot teach the bird how to fly, because the flight is born within the birds. The flight cannot be taught. It can only be encouraged."[1].
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[1] Alves, R.,Gaiolas ou Asas. Porto, Edições Asa, 2004. [2] Esteves, M., Leitura vs Auto-conceito de Alunos com Dificuldades de Aprendizagem Específicas (DAE). Dissertação de Mestrado, Universidade do Minho, 2011 Online at [Access date 12-Dec-2014]. . [3] Simões, M. R. e Serra, A. V., A Importância do autoconceito na aprendizagem escolar, Separata da Revista Portuguesa de Pedagogia, 21, pp. 233-252, 1987. [4] Guerreiro, A., O que a Escola escreve dentro de Mim – A Disortografia e o seu impacte no autoconceito e na motivação escolar, Dissertação de Mestrado, Universidade Fernando Pessoa, 2015. [5] Veiga, F., Escala de Avaliação do Autoconceito – PHCSCS2, 2002. [Acess date 14-Jul-2016]. Online at [6] Zenorini, R., Escala de Avaliação da Motivação para a Aprendizagem EMAPRE, [Material inédito facultado pela autora] 2007. [7] Pereira, S., Motivação e Aprendizagem na Aula de Português: Turmas do Programa Oportunidade. Dissertação de Mestrado, Universidade Fernando Pessoa, 2012. [Acess date 28-May-2013]. Online at [8] Paiva. M e Burochovitch. E., Orientações Motivacionais, Crenças e Desempenho Escolar dos Estudantes do Ensino Fundamental. Psicologia em Estudo, 15 (2), 2010. [9] Leal, J., Expectativas e Sucesso Escolar: Contributo para a desmistificação da Matemática. Dissertação de Mestrado. Universidade Portucalense, 2007. [10] Martini, M. e Boruchovitch, E., A Teoria da Atribuição de Causalidade: Contribuições para a Formação e Actuação de Educadores. São Paulo, Alínea, 2004. [11] Boruchovitch, E., A Motivação do Aluno. Rio de Janeiro, Editora Vozes, 2009. [12] Correia, L. M., A Escola Contemporânea e a inclusão de alunos com NEE - Considerações para uma educação com sucesso. Porto, Porto Editora, 2008.
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Session 4: Teacher Education and Learning Methodologies Teachers’ Views on the Approach to Sexual Orientation in the School Environment in the Azores, Portugal (Authors: Cláudio Machado, Fátima Coelho)
Experiential Learning: Developing Professionalism through Reflective Practice (Author: Karen Roland)
Analysis of Collaborative Structure of Participation in Practice of Writing Narrative Texts (Authors: Maria Leocádia Madeira, Manuel Montanero)
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Teachers’ Views on the Approach to Sexual Orientation in the School Environment in the Azores, Portugal Cláudio Machado1, Fátima Coelho2 Fernando Pessoa University, 1, Fernando Pessoa University 2,Oporto, Portugal Abstract In this study we want to describe and understand in the Azores (Portugal), the teachers’ views on sexual orientation, what they feel about the approach to the subject, and the obstacles they believe they need to overcome in order to do so. The study was descriptive and quantitative in approach. A questionnaire, which was answered by 394 teachers, was used as the data collection tool. After analysing the results, it was concluded that the variables that are associated with teachers’ views on sexual orientation are gender, length of service, participation in training on sexual orientation or which has involved this subject, and having a close relationship with someone who is openly lesbian, gay or bisexual. Most teachers have, in general, positive views about sexual orientation, as well as adequate knowledge on the subject, and feel prepared and intend to address the subject. However, this does not imply that they approach and put their knowledge into practice appropriately. Furthermore, there are obstacles to doing this, the greatest being the threat of homophobia and heterosexism, which may come from the social and family environment of the student.
1. Introduction To study the issue of how to approach sexual orientation in schools, within the context of sex education, we decided, in line with current thinking and as an overall objective, to describe and understand the views and knowledge of teachers in the Azores on sexual orientation. We also explored what they feel and how they intend to approach this issue in schools, as part of sex education, and what obstacles they believe they need to overcome. At the same time we sought to determine whether the following variables are correlated with teachers’ views on sexual orientation: gender, age, type of recruitment, academic qualifications, years of service, training on sexual orientation or which has involved this subject, having a close relationship with someone who is openly LGB (lesbian, gay or bisexual), preparedness in terms of the approach to the subject and degree to which they intend to address the issue. In this study, we were acutely aware that there is an urgent need to make efforts and to optimise
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commitment to improving the way sexual orientation is addressed in schools. As any teacher may potentially teach any student, this research was focused on all teachers, regardless of the type of recruitment to which they were subject.
2. Theoretical context Schooling and sexual education is a right for all, and in line with the principles of inclusive schooling all teachers, whether involved in special education or not, have to cater to all students [1]. In the Azores, sex education in schools is mandatory and must comply with the concept of sexual orientation at all levels of education [2]. Moreover, it may be delivered by teachers of any subject. Sexuality is a need common to every human being and an essential component at all stages of life [3]. It manifests itself in many ways and is often denied and neglected for the disabled, due to unpreparedness and prejudice in society [4]. Sexual orientation begins to be defined very young, in early childhood [5] and contrary to what many may think, is not fixed and immutable. It is fluid and does not obey any developmental order. It can be redefined in any way over the course of a lifetime [6], [7]. This condition is identical for individuals with or without disabilities [5], [8], [9]. However, women admit to more homosexual or bisexual experiences than men, and more younger and highly educated women admit to having such experiences [10]. Prejudice in Portuguese society towards homosexuality and bisexuality leads people who fall into this category to be discriminated against [11]. However, having contact with people who are openly lesbian, gay or bisexual reduces prejudice towards them [5], [11]. The fact that sexual orientation is often passed over voluntarily by virtue of heterosexism and homophobia, does not help in reducing prejudice. [5] However, homophobia is higher in males [12]. Discrimination at school, often in the form of homophobic bullying, can cause very serious damage to the lives of young people, such as depression, isolation, loneliness and suicide, and these phenomena have a higher incidence in gays and lesbians than in heterosexual youth [5], [13]. In addition, we may have children, albeit heterosexual
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themselves, who have parents, relatives or close acquaintances who are homosexual or bisexual. They may even belong to families different from the heterosexual model [5], [14], [15]. This does not mean that the child will not have a healthy development [5], [15], even though there remains, in the general population, the opposite perception [15], [16], often causing unnecessary and harmful stress within the whole[15] family. School has a fundamental role to play in sex education, along with the family and the rest of society. Sex education in schools is therefore of great importance for both students and their families [17] and this should be comprehensive and plural. [18] Studies show that teachers' unpreparedness in the field of sexuality is significant and that their attitudes are also prejudiced and conservative in outlook [3], [9], [17]. In addition, many teachers encounter obstacles which prevent them from putting into practice any kind of planned sexual education [17]. Despite most teachers claim that they try to adopt a politically correct approach, in practice the little sex education they engage in is mainly still heterosexist and on purely biological aspects. However, teachers are often unaware of this. [19]
3. Methodology and procedures An online questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. The first part profiled the respondents and parts two and three functioned as a test to measure knowledge. For this, we turned to the aid of a comparison measurement unit that served as a reference. Two frames of reference were constructed, one for each part of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was validated by four experts, and a pretest was then applied to teachers not participating in the study sample. Once the design and testing of the research questionnaire was finished, with the collaboration of the Regional Secretariat for Azores Education and Culture, it was distributed via the official electronic mail to all teachers in post in state schools in the Azores. Data from the questionnaire were processed quantitatively through the IBM SPSS software, version 21.0 for Windows. Quantitative variables were summarised through the mean ± minimum and maximum standard deviation, and the qualitative variables used absolute and relative frequencies. Analysis of the research hypothesis was carried out using the chi-square test and significance testing of the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The differences are considered to be statistically significant to p