Search

The study presents the design and validation of a Physical Education for Sustainable Development (PESD) instrument. This consists of a 25-item quantitative instrument that assesses the teaching interventions of physical education teachers. A total of 358 physical education teachers completed the questionnaire. The instrument uses an 8-point Likert scale. For the validation of the instrument, content validation, factorial validation, reliability through Cronbach’s alpha, and stability through test–retest were considered. The results show that the PESD is a two-factor instrument with very high reliability (0.95). In addition, positive results were found for the temporal stability of the scale. The principal component factor analysis results show that the scale consists of two factors: (1) environmental, health, and economic sustainability; and (2) social sustainability, gender, and inclusion. This questionnaire is the first valid and reliable tool to measure the ability of physical education teachers to promote attitudes that favour sustainable actions.

Communication skills are designated as one the keys skills for the 21st century. Practice by training on the job or in role play with a simulated character are effective ways to learn communication skills. In serious games to practice communication skills, a player performs a dialogue with a virtual character to learn and practice a communication skill in a particular situation, for example ‘Breaking bad news’. In my dissertation, I consider three aspects of a serious game, namely: develop generic components and tools; analyse learning aspects and game mechanics; and evaluate and improve pedagogical aspects. I investigate these aspects in the context of Communicate, a serious game for practicing communication skills. We successfully created a generic dialogue integration component that can be used to develop and integrate dialogue scenarios seamlessly in a serious game. We also successfully created a smells tool that a scenario author can use to detect potential scoring problems in a scenario. We used information within a scenario to create a scenario specific corpus and use this corpus to match open text input from a player during gameplay. We call our method scenario specific corpus method (SSCM). We evaluated SSCM against generic Natural language processing (NLP) methods and found that SSCM slightly outperformed generic NLP methods for matched text but underperformed for unmatched text. We compared student feedback to various interventions in blended teaching. Our results suggest that in designing and employing serious games, it is crucial to investigate pedagogical aspects such as peer teaching.

El artículo presenta una reflexión sobre las intervenciones docentes ancladas en la perspectiva constructivista psicogenética y reitera la propuesta de una enseñanza contextualizada y reflexiva. Inicialmente, retoma las críticas a los métodos de alfabetización a partir de la comprensión de la intensa actividad intelectual de niños, jóvenes y adultos a lo largo del proceso de apropiación de la escritura. Luego, destaca la importancia de los aportes de la investigación didáctica, basada en el marco psicogenético, para comprender que las situaciones didácticas de enseñanza de la lectura y la escritura deben ser planificadas tomando como punto de partida su función primordial de posibilitar que los niños pongan en juego sus propias formas de producir conocimiento. A partir del análisis de una situación didáctica en la que los niños fueron desafiados a escribir por sí mismos, reitera la necesidad de una enseñanza contextualizada y reflexiva, en la que las intervenciones de los docentes estén comprometidas con la problematización y no con la enseñanza explícita y directiva de la relación grafema-fonema. Por ello, concluye que las intervenciones docentes no deben basarse en evitar o corregir errores, sino en asumir el compromiso de problematizar lo que los niños piensan y ofrecer las condiciones didácticas necesarias para que puedan seguir aprendiendo sobre los usos y el funcionamiento de la escritura., The article presents a reflection on teaching interventions anchored in the constructivist psychogenetic perspective and reiterates the proposition of contextualized and reflective teaching. Initially, it takes up the criticisms of literacy methods based on an understanding of the intense intellectual activity of children, young people and adults throughout the process of appropriating writing. It then highlights the importance of the contributions of didactic research, based on the psychogenetic framework, to understanding that didactic situations for teaching reading and writing should be planned taking as their starting point their primary function of enabling children to put into play their own ways of producing knowledge. Based on the analysis of a didactic situation in which children were challenged to write for themselves, she reiterates the case for contextualized and reflective teaching, in which teacher interventions are committed to problematization and not to explicit and directive teaching of the grapheme-phoneme relationship. For this reason, she concludes that teaching interventions should not be based on avoiding or correcting errors, but on taking on the commitment to problematize what children think and offer the didactic conditions necessary for them to continue learning about the uses and functioning of writing., O artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre as intervenções docentes ancoradas na perspectiva construtivista psicogenética e reitera a proposição de um ensino contextualizado e reflexivo. Inicialmente retoma as críticas aos métodos de alfabetização suscitadas a partir da compreensão sobre a intensa atividade intelectual de crianças, jovens e adultos ao longo do processo de apropriação da escrita. Na sequência, ressalta a importância das contribuições das pesquisas didáticas, realizadas a partir do marco psicogenético, para compreender que as situações didáticas para ensinar a ler e a escrever devem ser planejadas tomando como ponto de partida sua função precípua de possibilitar às crianças que coloquem em jogo suas próprias formas de produzir conhecimento. A partir da análise de uma situação didática, na qual as crianças foram desafiadas a escrever por elas mesmas, reitera a defesa de um ensino contextualizado e reflexivo, no qual as intervenções docentes estão comprometidas com a problematização e não com o ensino explícito e diretivo da relação grafema-fonema. Por esta razão, conclui que as intervenções docentes não devem estar baseadas em evitar ou corrigir o erro, mas em assumir o compromisso de problematizar o que as crianças pensam e oferecer as condições didáticas necessárias para que possam seguir aprendendo sobre os usos e funcionamento da escrita.

This article was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin., In traditional advanced mathematics lectures the instructor usually provides definitions, theorems, and proofs on the board rather quickly. The students often cannot make sense of these during the lecture as they are busy writing. In order to gain an understanding of the content, an intensive post-class processing on the basis of their notes would therefore be necessary for many students. However, students often do not post-class process lectures carefully. Furthermore, they often do not record the lecturer’s oral explanations that are essential to make sense of the formal lecture content. One approach to address these problems is a flipped classroom, in which students come into contact with new content before class, while the in-class time is used for activities that help students make sense of it. We implemented an adaptation of this approach in a proof-oriented analysis course, in which the instructor used the in-class time to illustrate how experts in mathematics make sense of new definitions, theorems, and proofs, while keeping the lecture as the mode of teaching. In this article we describe this adaptation, its possible benefits for addressing students’ problems in learning from traditional mathematics lectures, and its actual effects, which we investigated in an empirical study., Peer Reviewed

General awareness in chemoprophylactic preventive methods amongst undergraduate students enrolled in our two clinical science programmes at De Montfort University (DMU, Leicester, UK) was found to be very poor. To tackle this we delivered a highly dynamic workshop in our level 4 module of Basic Microbiology in 2019/20 (n=230), BSc Biomedical Science (BMS), aimed at facilitating student acquisition of the following skills/knowledge: a) correct use of sexual barriers and available HIV chemoprophylaxis methods; b) frequency of sexual checks and use of available vaccines according to sexual behaviour and sex life; and c) tailor evidence-based public health interventions to avoid people living with HIV (PLHIV) from developing AIDS. Qualitive and quantitative (validated feedback-questionnaire) methods were used to evaluate our teaching intervention. Ninety BMS students voluntarily provided comprehensive feedback. A large majority highlighted that they learnt how to establish public health interventions to reduce HIV transmission. The workshop seemed to facilitate acquisition of knowledge on the appropriate use of condoms/barriers, as students unveiled important errors and gaps in their knowledge of the use of barriers in a preliminary test in form of a quiz. In conclusion, the improved workshop would seem to be effective for promoting sexual and public health education, acquisition of knowledge of HIV chemoprophylaxis tools available and how to minimise opportunistic pathogen infections in PLHIV.

General awareness in chemoprophylactic preventive methods amongst undergraduate students enrolled in our two clinical science programmes at De Montfort University (DMU, Leicester, UK) was found to be very poor. To tackle this we delivered a highly dynamic workshop in our level 4 module of Basic Microbiology in 2019/20 (n=230), BSc Biomedical Science (BMS), aimed at facilitating student acquisition of the following skills/knowledge: a) correct use of sexual barriers and available HIV chemoprophylaxis methods; b) frequency of sexual checks and use of available vaccines according to sexual behaviour and sex life; and c) tailor evidence-based public health interventions to avoid people living with HIV (PLHIV) from developing AIDS. Qualitive and quantitative (validated feedback-questionnaire) methods were used to evaluate our teaching intervention. Ninety BMS students voluntarily provided comprehensive feedback. A large majority highlighted that they learnt how to establish public health interventions to reduce HIV transmission. The workshop seemed to facilitate acquisition of knowledge on the appropriate use of condoms/barriers, as students unveiled important errors and gaps in their knowledge of the use of barriers in a preliminary test in form of a quiz. In conclusion, the improved workshop would seem to be effective for promoting sexual and public health education, acquisition of knowledge of HIV chemoprophylaxis tools available and how to minimise opportunistic pathogen infections in PLHIV.

In this paper we investigate the mistakes that trainee teachers of physical education frequently make while performing simulated training sessions. Also, we describe an experience focused on reflexive practice through action-research. This retrospective study is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Sources of information include 270 written reports on simulated sessions collected from 153 trainee teachers during the academic years from 2006 to 2013. The information was analyzed through a categorization process in which two categories and twenty subcategories were established. Results showed a total of 1,482 errors, distributed evenly in the categories ability to lead the class and teaching skills, and less balanced in the sub-categories, highlighting those relating to general organization of the class, activities adjustment, time spent on learning tasks, communication skills, creating a classroom environment, and structure of the session. We conclude that simulated training sessions that gradually expose trainees to the realities of teaching add value to teacher training. Simulated sessions help trainers and trainees alike identify and correct mistakes, and to establish methods and processes for systematic analysis, reflection, and improvement., En este trabajo se investigan los errores de intervención didáctica que cometen profesores de educación física en formación durante la realización de prácticas simuladas. También se describe una experiencia centrada en la formación reflexiva mediante la investigación-acción. Se diseñó un estudio descriptivo, enmarcado en un enfoque mixto (cualitativo-cuantitativo) y retrospectivo, utilizando como fuente de información una muestra representativa de 270 informes por escrito de sesiones recogidos de 153 profesores en formación entre los cursos 2006-2007 y 2012-2013. La información fue analizada a través de un proceso de categorización en el que se diferenciaron dos categorías y veinte subcategorías. Los resultados mostraron un total de 1.482 errores, distribuidos de forma equilibrada en las categorías capacidad para dirigir la clase y habilidades para enseñar, y de forma no equilibrada en las subcategorías, destacando las relativas a organización general de la clase, adecuación de las actividades, tiempo dedicado a las tareas de aprendizaje, habilidades comunicativas, creación de un ambiente en el aula y estructuración de la sesión. El estudio concluye que las prácticas simuladas pueden aportar valor a los procesos de formación del profesorado como formas de exposición gradual a la realidad de la docencia, ayudando a observar errores de intervención didáctica a partir de los cuales es posible generar procesos de análisis y reflexión para la mejora docente.

The purpose of the study was to improve student learning in a first year International and Electronic Business course by developing students written communication skills in tandem with their developing understanding of the discipline area. Staff teaching the course were concerned about students’ written communication abilities and observed that academic performance on written tasks did not necessarily reflect their level of knowledge articulated through other methods. Situated tasks, built on the SOLO Taxonomy framework (Biggs & Collis, 1982), focusing on assessment and writing were implemented within tutorial time. Student success was not uniform. We believe that students who benefited most from these interventions were those with greatest commitment to learning. However, the overall results of this study were very encouraging and have given valuable feedback about how to embed generic skills in the curriculum and provided impetus for policy development and restructuring of the whole first year of the degree program.