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The essay discusses innovations in reading education by the schoolbook author Marcius Willson (1813-1905) through an examination of two popular series of basal readers he produced during and after the American Civil War. His School and Family Series (Harper & Brothers, 1860-) generated acrimonious debate about science education, literacy, and object pedagogy in the primary grades. His successor Popular Series (Lippincott, 1881-) went beyond compilation of classic literature in a basal reader by creating a fictitious community populated with a diverse cast of characters and storyboard of incidents that could draw young readers out of the classroom and into a broader world of nature and commerce. Both series competed effectively against rivals in national and regional markets and foreshadowed modern concepts of reading education based on the idea of "learning to read while reading to learn." The essay also affirms the centrality of individual authorship and scholarship as the textbook market industrialized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This column will focus on several standalone titles offered by Marvel/Graphix and DC Kids/YA and their pedagogical potential for exploring transitions with upper elementary and middle grades readers. Because children's lives are inherently in flux, they should have opportunities to read and discuss empowering stories, in a format and featuring characters they enjoy, that are attuned to the various types of transition they experience and encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desired affordances and appropriate product semantics are important when considering products that are easy to use and easy to understand. Despite affordances and product semantics being taught in some design educations, many designers in industry do not explicitly consider affordances nor product semantics during the design process. This is partly due to the lack of a framework that supports the considerations for affordances and product semantics during the design process. As a consequence, many designers rely on their own intuition, and this can be problematic. To avoid the potential negative effects of relying on intuition, we designed a framework to support the designer in explicitly considering affordances and applying product semantics during product design. This framework was used by undergraduate students in product design engineering during a 12-week product design assignment. In this paper we present the framework, examples of how it was used and how it was evaluated by the students. We finally discuss the findings within the context of design for meaning and project-based learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-group activities have increased in higher education since 2000. Research focused on the possibility to have positive effects on students' learning, regardless of the number of students by identifying facilitating factors. Hence, the achievement of learning results is used as a criterion of effectiveness. This review summarises the findings of research studies on conditions that determine the effectiveness of large-group learning activities in higher education contexts published from 1996 to 2016. The PRISMA declaration for conducting literature reviews was followed. Articles were searched through the ERIC, Web of Science, SCOPUS, SCIELO, and EBSCO databases, including additional sources. A total of 78 articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected for thematic analysis. These studies came from a wide range of disciplines, types of institutions, and locations. Five themes emerged as conditions that facilitate the effectiveness of large-group learning activities: (1) student–teacher and student–student interaction, (2) implementation of active learning strategies, (3) classroom management, (4) students' motivation and commitment, and (5) the use of online teaching resources. The discussion is centred on the conditions by which large-group activities can be effective learning strategies in terms of student's achievement of learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Inquiry Based Activities (JIBA) / Araştırma Temelli Etkinlik Dergisi (ATED) is the property of Journal of Inquiry Based Activities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Project‐based learning (PjBL) has demonstrated its ability to improve a range of skills in students. However, some studies have reported that English teachers have difficulty activating interaction among all the participants, teachers and students, in a PjBL practice. No studies have empirically investigated how teachers can collaborate in PjBL and how students can engage in interactive learning activities. Therefore, this research demonstrates a PjBL practice led by the notion of value‐centered team learning. A total of 19 teachers collaboratively implemented a year‐long PjBL project with 73 high school students in Japan. The researcher used quantitative and qualitative questionnaires to collect data from students and teachers. Students' responses on their skill development and involvement in the project were statistically analyzed, and supplemented by qualitative analysis of their comments. Teachers' comments were inductively categorized into six categories from the perspective of what they learned in the project. The results show that value‐centered team learning could contribute to success in creating a learning environment in which all the participants could learn much from each other through dynamic interaction. Therefore, this study suggests that English teachers should actively participate in PjBL by applying value‐centered team learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes project-based learning in the primary grades and argues that authentic inquiry, grounded in real-world problems deepens student learning across the curriculum. Topics discussed include criteria to have a meaningful project, idea that appealed to the adults who were privy to the project, and description of methods that emerged from student research and imaginations.

The article discusses the use of objects in teaching English language education. The authors mention their experience of teaching high school students in Oman under the Takatuf Young Scholars Program. The educational program aimed to develop student skill and promote engagement in classrooms. Topics include the use of think-pair-share discussion technique, asking essential question for deep inquiry, and facilitating peer feedback.

Project based learning (PBL) fully engages students in the subject area, promotes teamwork, transdisciplinary collaboration, allows student teams to engage and solve community design problems and can ultimately lead to broader student worldviews. PBL, however, presents significant curricular challenges, including project definition and meaningful student assessment. The authors began the process of exploring PBL through a National Science Foundation Transformation Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (TUES) award. The program was piloted for two semesters under the TUES award and has now completed its eighth semester overall operating as a special curricular track in parallel with an existing, traditional curricular program in Building Science. With four years of dedicated PBL program experience to inform their efforts, the authors are currently reworking the existing Building Science program curriculum to fully integrate a PBL capstone during the senior year while establishing a clear curricular path, creating a sound base of projects, and maintaining resource limits that include, but are not limited to, facilities, materials and personnel. In this paper, the authors discuss their successes and difficulties with implementing PBL in an undergraduate design and construction program by reviewing twelve years of both spontaneous and planned project based PBL experiences in an undergraduate design and construction program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While we have known about the benefits of project-based learning for decades, it has been difficult to maintain momentum in learning how to do it well, especially as the policy context in education turned toward high-stakes accountability measures in the early 2000s. Currently, many schools across the country are incorporating project-based approaches, but few have provided a portrait of how to do so in his current context. This is the story of how one sixth grade teacher, Mr. Waspe, successfully developed strategies for conducting an inquiry-based pedagogy called the Project Approach (Katz, Chard, & Kogan, 2014). Mr. Waspe's work revealed several consistent critical considerations that became design features for using the Project Approach--time, choosing a researchable topic, addressing curriculum and standards, assessing student artifacts of learning, appropriate instructional tools, modeling and providing student feedback, and audience. This article provides readers with a list and descriptions of these concrete considerations as well as a descriptive portrait of Mr. Waspe's artful approach to project-based learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: In our clinical experience, people with Parkinson's disease (PwP) and their caregivers have difficulty understanding the complexities of the disease, which has a multitude of symptoms and involved therapies. We undertook a needs assessment to understand the need for, and to guide the development of, an educational tool. Methods: We invited PwP, caregivers and health care providers (HCP) from across Canada to participate in an online survey to determine the need and desired content for such a tool. Results: Respondents included 450 PwP, 335 caregivers, and 96 HCP from across Canada. 86.5% of HCP reported that it was “very important” for patients to understand issues in PD and 84.4% would use a visual aid to explain these issues. Results showed that 81.9–95.7% of caregivers and PwP were not “very satisfied” with the explanations of all domains in PD. Non‐motor symptoms and cognitive issues were highly ranked by all groups as difficult to understand or explain. Older PwP (those with PD for less than 5 years and those who reported that their HCP spent less than 15 minutes counselling in each clinic visit) were less likely to fully understand and be satisfied with the explanations of most issues in PD. Interpretation: There is a need for better patient education when discussing PD issues in the clinical setting. Older PwP that have been recently diagnosed have the greatest educational needs. Potential users indicate that a visual aid would help and non‐motor symptoms, particularly cognitive issues, need to be a focus of such a tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Children from disadvantaged settings are at risk for delays in their object-control (OC) skills. Fundamental motor skill interventions, such as the Successful Kinesthetic Instruction for Preschoolers (SKIP) Program, are highly successful when led by motor development experts. However, few preschools employ such experts. This study examined the extent to which Head Start teachers delivering an 8-week teacher-led SKIP (T-SKIP) intervention elicited learning of OC skills for Head Start children.Method: Head Start teachers (n = 5) delivered T-SKIP for 8 weeks (450 min). Control teachers (n = 5) implemented the typical standard of practice, or well-equipped free play. All children (N = 122) were pretested and posttested on the OC Skill subscale of the Test of Gross Motor Development-2.Results: Descriptive analyses at pretest identified 81% of the children were developmentally delayed in OC skills (below the 30th percentile). A 2-level hierarchical linear model demonstrated the effectiveness of T-SKIP with significant differences (β = 4.70), t(8) = 7.02, p < .001, η2 = .56, between T-SKIP children (n = 63) and control children (n = 59) at posttest.Conclusion: Head Start teachers who delivered T-SKIP could bring about positive changes in children's OC skills, thereby remediating the initial developmental delays presented. Control children remained delayed in their OC skills in spite of daily well-equipped free play, giving rise to concerns about their future motor competence and physical activity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we will be interested on the investigation of categorial forms of the Axiom of Choice (AC). We introduce a quite comprehensive list of categorial set-forms of AC, which are (by definition) all equivalent statements within the category Set--but which may behave differently in some other categories. We exemplify (either the presence or the absence of) all of these introduced categorial versions of AC in several categories; a number of applications of such forms, mostly related to the notion of initial objects, are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of project management as an enabling skill for individuals in the process of cross-cultural transition. It explores theoretical models of cultural adaptation, research into psychological and socio-cultural impacts of cross-cultural transitions, the challenges of being a non-native English language speaker, the concept of "skills for life" training and studies on the impact of project-based learning in education. The paper provides observations from an experimental exercise in teaching project management skills to a group of non-native English language speakers. It concludes with a view on the merit of project management skills in a cross-cultural context and thoughts on further development of the concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to consider project based learning as one of the most efficient and productive methods used in teaching English as a foreign language to engineering students of Russian technical universities. Special emphasis is put on communication skills to be mastered by future engineers through project based learning. It is of great importance to note that highly developed oral and written communication skills are valuable for engineering students wishing to become successful and competitive in the international arena. Hence, engineering students must be trained well to develop their communication skills in English in the field of professional activity, mainly in the science research area. An inter-disciplinary project designed on the basis of project based learning for the second year students of Tomsk Polytechnic University is reviewed in this work. The authors come to the conclusion that project based learning is an ideal teaching method since it allows engineering students to improve significantly their oral and written communication skills as well as apply the content knowledge in the field of their professional activity within the English language course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the digital divide in West Virginia, schools are urged to integrate emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as Web 2.0 and alternative pedagogies to develop students’ twenty-first-century skills. Yet, the potential effects of the digital divide on technology integration have not necessarily been part of planning for professional development programmes. As a first step to identify the potential digital divide between rural and urban school settings, this study examined West Virginian teachers’ Web 2.0 access levels – namely, motivation, physical, skills and usage accesses. Analysis of the survey responses from 161 teachers suggested that the divide persisted at physical and usage access levels, signifying teachers’ unique needs and conditions for the use of emerging technologies. While teachers’ usage access was observed to be a significant factor for their Web 2.0-associated project-based learning, attending professional development programmes seemed to minimally benefit such practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the current research study the use of Wikis as an online didactic tool to apply project-based learning in higher education was reported. The study was conducted in university teacher education programmes. During the online activities, participants developed interdisciplinary projects for the primary school working collaboratively in small groups in a Wiki virtual environment within the Moodle platform. Science was at the core of the projects and acted as an organising hub to finding links with other disciplines. A mixed-methods approach involving the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data was adopted in the current research study. The authors developed the following three instruments in order to measure both processes and outcomes of the online activities: the interdisciplinary project-based learning questionnaire, the reflection questionnaire and a rubric for assessing interdisciplinary projects. The current paper focuses only on the qualitative data, which were subjected to an inductive content analysis. Results provided evidence of the processes involved during the collaborative activities and that online activities can develop teachers’ abilities to design projects in interdisciplinary contexts. The discussion highlights the aspects of the online environment that made the collaborative work effective in learning. Future implications and suggestions for teacher education programmes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the educational practice, the project-based learning is well-known and used as a teaching-learning method, and also as a complementary evaluation method, both in the pre-university and higher education. This complex method was first used by J. Dewey and W. Kilpatrick, in the United Stated, and it implied replacing the classical study subjects with the performance of practical activities, having a real purpose (learning-by-doing), starting from the Pupils' spontaneous interests. It was believed that by doing so, by solving real issues, knowledge could be acquired, and abilities could be built. The project-based learning can take a variety of shapes, depending on the subject specificity the project is prepared for, the approached topic complexity (imposed or chosen, preferred), the age of the Project-Creators, their creative skills, the workmanship of the Teaching Staff, who must stimulate the Project Initiators' efforts, to encourage them during the activity performance, regardless of whether it is performed at individual or micro-group level. This article presents both some theoretical aspects related to the project-based learning method and its features, and some aspects regarding how it was applied in the artistic higher education, within the National Music University in Bucharest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents examples of stories of a particular classroom situation, lesson, or project wherein teaching values, approaches, and techniques can be viewed within the context of the actual work of teaching. One teacher describes a culturally complicated situation which needed extra time and space, both of which afforded a needed nuanced treatment. Another shares a theoretical framework that guides one's work.

Contemporary education strives to make our students not only knowledgeable, but demands that they understand and know the utility of the acquired knowledge. As a result, content acquisition no longer holds value if it is not applicable in the real world. The 21st century has posed several challenges to today's educators. Political leaders have mandated teachers to create an active learning environment enriched with various teaching styles in order to reach out to all students, while still maintaining the instruction at a rigorous standard. This paper proposes a solution to these current educational quandaries, two paradigms applicable to all learning styles; problem and project-based learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the shortcomings of traditional teaching model, and combining the characteristic of strong practicalness in embedded system courses, the paper puts forward a project-based teaching method with ability progressively increase, and designs the "practice as being taught" model. The method makes the projects as the teaching support, and organizes the teaching contents with some integrated projects and splits them. The teaching process is designed around the sub-projects, and it is implemented from shallower to deeper, and with ability progressively increase. The teaching method is practiced on the embedded system courses in my school, in which the projects are constructed according to practical application. The practice shows that the proposed teaching method can improve students' practice ability and enhance their awareness of project development, it is a beneficial attempt in teaching reform under the new situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to classical problem-based learning, in guided problem-based learning, the learning goals are predetermined by the instructor—on the basis of a detailed decomposition of the subject matter to be studied—to activate prior knowledge and to structure self-study and subsequent group discussion. This study investigated the effects of classical problem-based learning and guided problem-based learning, for different prior knowledge levels, on perceived value and usefulness of the learning activity and on conceptual understanding of statistics. Participants randomly assigned 110 students to 10 problem-based learning groups, and subsequently, the 10 groups were allocated randomly to classical problem-based learning or guided problem-based learning. The results indicate that guided problem-based learning tends to enhance conceptual understanding of statistics more thanbreak; classical problem-based learning once students have some prior knowledge of the subject. Furthermore, guided problem-based learning tends to increase students’ awareness of the value and usefulness of the learning activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Robotics competitions allow self-organised learning in a quite natural way. In the last years, we have observed an increasing complexity in these competitions. At the same time, the search for an adequate project organisation became more and more important. As traditional project organisation methods failed, we adopted Scrum and tried to adapt this agile methodology to student projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Math in the City is an interdisciplinary mathematics course offered at University of Nebraska-Lincoln in which students engage in a real-world experience to understand current major societal issues of local and national interest. The course is run in collaboration with local businesses, research centers, and government organizations, that provide data and act as consultants throughout the course. We provide a brief description of the course with examples of projects offered over the years. We emphasize service-learning aspects of the program, as well as benefits to students and business collaborators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the last decade, engineering students in a Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL) environment at Aalborg University, Denmark, have developed a total of three student satellites. In order to complete such complex projects, it is emphasized that a high level of motivation is needed for the students. Thus efforts have been taken in the context of project management style with this aim. However, it is necessary to discuss this issue from the students' perspective to achieve a better PBL environment, which leads to the research question concerning how the students perceive their motivation in developing satellite projects in a PBL environment. Empirically, a total of 12 student participants have been interviewed. The results show that in project management their motivation is highly stimulated by a series of factors, such as the task characteristics, support of peers, help of supervisors and openness. Nevertheless, the time schedule can be a barrier to motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Applied Research in Health & Social Sciences: Interface & Interaction / Sveikatos ir Socialinių Mokslų Taikomieji Tyrimai: Sandūra ir Sąveika is the property of Klaipeda State College and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Docencia Universitaria is the property of Universidad Industrial de Santander and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigated the presence of a key feature of human word comprehension in a five year old Border Collie: the generalization of a word referring to an object to other objects of the same shape, also known as shape bias. Our first experiment confirmed a solid history of word learning in the dog, thus making it possible for certain object features to have become central in his word comprehension. Using an experimental paradigm originally employed to establish shape bias in children and human adults we taught the dog arbitrary object names (e.g. dax) for novel objects. Two experiments showed that when briefly familiarized with word-object mappings the dog did not generalize object names to object shape but to object size. A fourth experiment showed that when familiarized with a word-object mapping for a longer period of time the dog tended to generalize the word to objects with the same texture. These results show that the dog tested did not display human-like word comprehension, but word generalization and word reference development of a qualitatively different nature compared to humans. We conclude that a shape bias for word generalization in humans is due to the distinct evolutionary history of the human sensory system for object identification and that more research is necessary to confirm qualitative differences in word generalization between humans and dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]