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Many previous studies have shown that peer assessment teaching can help develop cognitive skills. There are also numerous studies that explore issues related to web-based peer assessment activities. However, most current studies focus on peer assessment instructional activities under an asynchronous collaborative learning environment. In turn, there is a lack of research related to the interactive process of synchronous peer assessment activities and the cognitive dimensions of the discussion. Therefore, this study conducts an empirical analysis of an instructional activity in which 38 students used online instant messaging tools to conduct peer assessments. students viewed and evaluated each other's work on a one-to-one basis. This case study uses the cognitive processing dimensions from Bloom's Taxonomy to analyze the contents of the discussions. Quantitative content analysis, lag sequential analysis, and qualitative content analysis were conducted during the study to explore the cognitive dimensions of peer assessment, both the characteristics and limitations of interactive behavioral patterns, and the differences in discussion patterns between high- and low-quality discussion groups. The results show that synchronous peer assessment discussions can elicit a two-way interaction between basic and advanced cognitive dimensions, which may be valuable in developing cognitive abilities. However, the results also show a lack of advanced cognitive dimensions and a tendency for the discussion to repeatedly go off-topic in the observed discussion. After examining the results, we propose relevant recommendations and references for teachers and researchers interested in synchronous peer assessment instructional activities. © 2012 De La Salle University, Philippines.

By analyzing domestic and oversees experiences in open-ended practical project-based instruction (OEPPBI), and in close combination to the deep meaning and characteristics of OEPPBI, we studied the OEPPBI mode under engineering environment. This mode relies on open-ended practical learning, and aims at improving the comprehensive qualities of the engineering talents. It encourages the students to participate in various research projects, scientific contests. The evaluation is based on scientific results and their promotions. © 2012 IEEE.

Introduction: Medical education in Australia is increasingly delivered through longitudinal placements in general practice and other community settings. Early meaningful exposure to patients has been shown to improve the transition from medical student to junior doctor. This study examines the experience of the first year cohort of the University of Western Sydney (UWS) Medical School long-term rural placement students. Results have been placed in the context of other published results for rural training schemes, comparing and contrasting the present results to those of others. Methods: students undertaking a rural placement in their final year of the UWS medical program (n=21) participated in a mixed methods evaluation. students filled out a quantitative survey, modified from a validated instrument, and also participated in a focus group. Class ranking of students, and changes over the time of their placement, were also examined. Results: Overall, students were very pleased with their rural experience, both clinically and socially. students found the rural experience more comprehensive than they had expected. They considered that they had a stronger learning experience in most aspects than they expect they would have received in a metropolitan area. The smaller realm of the medical world in a rural area was considered an advantage in providing more hands-on experience and more interprofessional team approaches to healthcare provision. It was also considered a drawback by some that more advanced cases of all kinds were sent out of the area to metropolitan hospitals. Between their ranking in the end of Year 3 examination and the examination in the middle of Year 5, during which period students undertook their year-long placement, 14 of 22 students increased their class rank while two experienced no change and six decreased their class rank. Overall, the rural cohort advanced 4.2 places compared to their urban-placed peers. Conclusions: The present results confirm that rural placements have come into their own in Australia. Curriculum content regarding Aboriginal health issues should emphasise the complexity of culture and range of living conditions that makes up Aboriginal Australia and avoid a 'deficit-based perspective' that emphasises extreme cases over routine presentations. Taken together, the results reported by Australian medical schools now offering long-term rural placements suggest that rural long-term placements are at least as effective, and may even be more effective, than metropolitan hospital placements as an effective means of providing clinical education to medical students in their senior years. ©HH Birden, I Wilson, 2012.

The functions and possibilities afforded by blogging have been suggested to be relevant to learning and information management. Its increasing use in the business and education sectors is documented, but currently its use in professional education or internship is limited. The social nature of blogging appears to support the applicability of blogs to facilitate learning and communication between student interns. To contribute to the empirical evidence supporting these propositions, this study investigated the use of web logs to facilitate information management, learning, and mutual support for internship students. Undergraduate information management students (N=53) formed three cohorts who used three different blogging platforms in the course of their internships. They evaluated the use of blogs through an interview questionnaire that included close-ended rating scales and open-ended probes. The results revealed that students generally have positive perceptions on blogging as a tool to facilitate information management and mutual support. Blogs were also perceived to be useful in terms of self-reflection and communication. This study also showed that the blogging platform does not seem to have an impact on the students' perceptions on the use of the blogs, whereas the communication between students and supervisors through the blog comments needs to be improved. © International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS).

This, the first publication to collate a broad international perspective on the pedagogical value of GIS technology in classrooms, offers an unprecedented range of expert views on the subject. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are now ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive. They have revolutionized the way people explore and understand the world around them. The capability they confer allows us to capture, manage, analyze, and display geographic data in ways that were undreamt of a generation ago. GIS has enabled users to make decisions and solve problems as diverse as designing bus routes, locating new businesses, responding to emergencies, and researching climate change. GIS is also having a major impact in the classroom. students and teachers around the world are using this significant emerging technology in the secondary school classroom to study social and scientific concepts and processes, to broaden their technical skills, and to engage in problem solving and decision making about local and global issues. International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools brings together authors from 34 countries who profile the current status of GIS in secondary school teaching and learning in their country. Each chapter includes a summary of the country's educational context, a case study illustrating how GIS is used in secondary schooling, and an assessment of the opportunities and challenges in teaching and learning with GIS now and in the future. The book demonstrates that GIS is not only a technological tool to be used in the classroom, but also a catalyst for motivation, encouragement, and cooperation in understanding and solving global problems. The most up to date and extensive survey of GIS in the secondary education landscape, covering both principles and practice. Professor David Maguire, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Birmingham City University, UK International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning With GIS in Secondary Schools is a highly relevant, critically important, reflective contribution to the literature, providing strong arguments supporting the inclusion for spatial studies for all in secondary school education. Karl Donert, President, EUROGEO This is an invaluable and inspirational examination of innovation in geospatial technologies in secondary schools around the world. Each chapter contains practical models for how to integrate powerful tools for spatial analysis into a range of subjects. It will be useful to classroom teachers and administrators seeking pathways to implementation and teacher educators considering how to prepare the next generation to use geospatial technologies. Sarah Witham Bednarz, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012.

This study examines high school students' academic achievement during their interaction with a hypermedia environment to learn geometric transformations in the plane, under two contrasting conditions: (1) presence or absence, in the software, of a scaffold for self-regulated learning and (2) individual work or working in pairs. The interaction between each condition and the students' cognitive style, in the field dependent-independent dimension, was examined. The software was especially designed for the study. Participants werel28 tenth students from 4 class groups at a public school in Bogotá, Colombia. An ANCOVA analysis was performed, which showed significant and positive main effects on academic achievement by the presence of scaffolding, field independence and individual work. Another significantinteraction indicates that, in the presence of a scaffold for self-regulated learning, achievement differences between cognitive style subgroups disappear. Results are promising regarding the potential use of self - regulators scaffolding to support, eguitably,learning in coputing enviroments.

The Hong Kong senior secondary school system is currently involved in a major reform process. The reform process involves expanding access and offering a broader range of curriculum choices for students including options for vocational education. This is a major challenge in a society where is an emphasis on examination based academic studies and where vocational education is assigned a low status. This paper explores the initiatives of CCC Kung Lee College, an independent high school in Hong Kong, in introducing work-based learning as part of the new reforms to senior schooling. The College in partnership with the Centre for Lifelong learning Research and Developments at the Hong Kong Institute of Education successfully applied for a Quality Education Funds to implement vocational education programs using work-based learning in hospitality and tourism, IT and business studies. The paper using data from participants in schools and industry describes the processes of introducing work-based learning. The key challenges of introducing vocational education into schools in Hong Kong as well as the dynamics of change and reform in secondary schooling is described in this paper and several recommendations have been made. © Common Ground, Peter Kell, Susan HA Yuen-yung, Rupert Maclean, Francisco WONG Wai Kee, Benjamin SO Hiu Chun, Linnie WONG Koon Lin.

The first purposes of this study was to investigate the needs of language and communication capability for electrical engineering department students at the Higher Technological and Vocational Education System in their future working field, and the second purpose was to establish their basic indicators and assessment model by the concept of human resources. Six experts, including trade bosses and high-level technologists of the electrical engineering field, and professors of educational institutions with language backgrounds were invited to discuss required verbal and communication capabilities and emphasize listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The first objective of the study was curriculum development, teaching implementation and the standard of assessment as the principle of the Higher Technological and Vocational Education System, and the other objective of the study was to transform the basic competencies and the indicators into the curriculum. We hope this study becomes a reference to set up the research and development center for the Higher Technological and Vocational Education System in the electrical engineering department, and the standard of language and communication models for all engineering fields as employment, salary, in-service training, vocational education and general education. © Common Ground, Farn-Shing Chen, Yi-Chia Cheng, Mu-Chu Chen.