Problems of Education in the 21st Century

3-4

Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, Vol. 47, 2012, PEC

6-15

Authors: Andrea C. Burrows, Mike Borowczak, Timothy F. Slater, J. Chris Haynes

Is the field of computer science and engineering a strict discipline or an art form? The answer is both. Computer science and engineering concepts are typically found almost exclusively in collegiate engineering and technology programs. Given its importance across the 21st Century workforce, arguably these concepts should be taught at all pre-collegiate grade levels. This study, specifically focused on pre-collegiate teachers’ increased confidence and subsequent use of robotics, indicates that designed professional development (PD) focused on simple computer programming approaches (e.g. LEGO MindStorm® kits) can propel pre-collegiate teachers to integrate new, challenging computer controlled robotics into their instruction. Surveys, content knowledge quizzes, and artifacts show teachers readily developed sufficient confidence and knowledge in producing lessons embedded with computer programming and robotics. Targeted classroom-ready instruction and modifiable computer programs appear to enhance pre-collegiate teacher knowledge of and confidence in robotics use. Considering overall self-rankings and content, pre-collegiate teacher pre-post scores increased. With these results, the authors argue why approaching computer science as both a strict science and art form is essential in PD.

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Authors: Maria de los Ángeles Fanaro, Maria Rita Otero, Marcelo Arlego

The goal of this proposal is to teach the basic aspects of light from the point of view of quantum mechanics at high school level. To this end, we have adapted Feynman´s Path Integral Method of Quantum Mechanics. This is a continuation of previous works where we considered the quantum behaviour of matter. The situations were to promote the conceptualization of the electron as a quantum system, the probabilistic function and the transition quantum–classic. Now, the goal is to build a new proposal to teach the behaviour of the light from an actual vision and from a unified model: the quantum mechanics, from the reconstruction of a reference that also uses the approach Path Integrals of Richard Feynman. It is adapted for secondary school students using vectors and sums, and it is inserted in a problems context about the light. Careful and accurate language is used, avoiding terms like photon or expressions like particles of light or wave-particle duality, because these ideas could present obstacles to understanding key aspects of quantum theory. This proposal is an alternative to avoid historical approaches commonly used so far and it is being implemented in two groups of students in secondary school (15-16 years old).

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Authors: Sudgasame Jantaraweragul, Noy S. Kay

The basic research dilemma of the present study relates to the assumption that every individual can learn, not based on a personal innate intelligence but what and how a person learns to acquire intelligence. The investigation involved developing an instrument to detect the trait of basic knowledge through knowing factors that form a student’s knowledge preference. Furthermore, the study attempted to analyze the association between knowledge preference and the student’s nurturing culture and environmental influential factors. The assessment of tacit knowledge is to gain information that has been influent student’s learning formally or informally. Student early characteristics of the knowledge learning preference can be derived from different sources of knowing, for instance, the biological heredity procession in family, language, thinking process, perception, and frames of thought. A test named the Knowledge Preference Test was developed, and it consisted of 50 items. It statistically received a reliability coefficient of 0.91. The study participants included 2 017 secondary school students in Thailand. The study found significant association patterns among knowledge preference, student biological and cultural status, and some areas of student achievement.

91-99

Authors: Tarja Kröger

Studies on boundary crossing and boundary objects emphasize that boundaries carry potential for learning. However, it is not explicated how the craft could be used as a boundary in multi- and intercultural education. This research describes a case of using craft as a boundary to facilitate multi- and intercultural education. It first gives an overview on the Multi- and Intercultural Craft course including a theoretical part that was organized through a virtual platform, Moodle. The course included also a practical part, a project, where Finnish, exchange students and a group of immigrants from Burma met in the context of craft. The students (n = 14) were asked to write reflective essays about the course. In the qualitative analysis of essays, their learning experiences that appeared in the data, were examined. Three aspects of learning experiences were identified: first a cognitive aspect, which is about increased knowledge; second an affective aspect, which focuses on changing attitudes; and the third an interactive aspect, which is concerned with how to get on with people from different cultures.

110-125

Authors: Joana Paulin Romanowski, Pura Oliver Martins, Simone Manosso Cartaxo

The research focuses on the reformulation of undergraduate courses in universities in the state of Parana, Brazil. The research problem arises in the context of reformulations in the courses of teacher formation, the undergraduate courses encouraged by the demands of current educational policies for these courses, with the following questions: What changes to current policies of teacher education were produced in the organization of undergraduate courses? The overall objective was to analyze the reformulations of the undergraduate courses in relation to established priorities and the implications to the professional development of teachers indicating the tensions caused in this process and to indicate alternatives that contribute to the improvement of basic teacher education. The methodology of the study considers the assumptions of the theory as practice of expression, performs the analysis of educational legislation, organization of curriculum matrices of undergraduate courses at universities in the State of Parana and includes interviews with coordinators and teachers from the course. Results show that the courses differ in the composition of the curriculum matrices in each of the institutions examined, as for example: the organization of the curriculum regarding the disciplines that are part of it; sorting the disciplines; the number of hours of each discipline; the design of the training process; the apprenticeship supervision processes. This means that the tensions and priorities generated at each university in the constitution of the identity of the undergraduate courses are disparate from the proceedings in which these courses are instituted because of the institutional clashes priorities. The performed reformulations extend the amount of teaching time for teaching practice, starting from the first year of the course, in the form of professional practice and in the final years the completion of supervised practice. However, the university remains far removed from the elementary school, the academic disciplines do not articulate these practices. It is noteworthy that the undergraduate courses in Brazil have been the subject of debates and proposals, since the 1.980s.

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Authors: Hustana Maria Vargas

The professional aspect of teacher education is in the core of a more general context of teachers’ work. One of the most marking issues of this work’s conditions, as cause and consequence of many problems, is its insertion in a career framework. At which point of this framework are teaching careers? What consequences for the teaching work may be anticipated from this relative position of teaching in the general career framework? Let us examine this situation from the Brazilian viewpoint. To discuss this subject, a study that deals with career hierarchy in higher education, the socioeconomic profile of undergraduates of some careers related to teacher formation and the position of these careers in the Brazilian university context was conducted. Socioeconomic data were obtained from national microdata of undergraduate students in a time series from 2000 to 2008. The investigation concluded that there is a strong internal hierarchy among careers in Brazil, revealing its effects in symbolic, intra institutional, employment, salary, and corporate terms. This scenario has persisted over time, without the entry of new profiles in teaching careers, traditionally addressed to low-income students.

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Authors: Stephen Wambugu Maina, John Gowland-Mwangi, Dave Boselie

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), through its extension workers, has been educating tea producers on good agricultural practices using Farmer Field Schools (FFS). Information on training cost and benefits of running a tea-based FFS in Kenya were not readily available. Such information would enable tea stakeholders to develop a strategy for up-scaling FFS. This study sought to determine and describe the cost and benefits of running a tea-based FFS among small-scale farmers in the Rift Valley. The study used a Cross-Sectional research design to collect data from 514 small-scale tea growers drawn randomly from KTDA factories. A questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.92α was used after validation by extension experts. Face-to-Face interviews and a stakeholders’ workshop were used for triangulation purposes. Data were analyzed qualitatively and reported using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that training a farmer in a tea-based FFS in a year costs Ksh 6,076/= (US$71). The training gave farmers skills to improve their tea husbandry, yields, level of empowerment and leadership skills. The researchers concluded that training tea farmers in FFSs was cheap, sustainable and effective in changing their behavior. Stakeholders in the tea-value chain should increase funding and use of FFS in training tea farmers.