Search Results for
"learning"

The purpose of the study was to determine ways to improve the organisation of independent work in mathematical disciplines at the university, its theoretical substantiation and the development of its methodological system. This study consisted of two parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part was based on the use of general theoretical methods of scientific cognition such as analysis and synthesis, as well as the method of generalisation. The experimental part was based on empirical methods of cognition such as questionnaires, classification and description of the results obtained. As a result of the conducted research, it was determined that teachers are interested in organising the independent work of students and evaluate this type of training as effective. However, the survey also revealed that, currently, independent work primarily involves repetitive tasks which, after being performed several times, tend to become monotonous and lose their appeal to students. Therefore, it is important to give as many different tasks as possible in order to keep students motivated and eager to perform extracurricular activities. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This article proposes and illustrates a framework for thinking about how the school-to-work transitions of young people not intending to go to university can be made more equitable. This framework seeks to enrich sociological readings of VET by building on the considerable strengths of existing research on ecologies of VET provision and the life-worlds of young people navigating transitions, and bringing them together with concerns about the theoretical and practical complexity of equality that have tended to be relatively neglected in VET research to date. Its organising principle is that, in order to make young people’s transitions more equitable, we need to systematically combine analytic attention to: the multidimensional and intersectional nature of inequality; how local learning ecologies are produced at different system-levels; and how these ecologies interact with young people’s life-worlds, values and agency. We argue that identifying which aspects of local learning ecologies underpin or undermine which kinds of equality for differently resourced young people represents an important first step towards formulating a strategy for how local learning ecologies can be stimulated to become both more opportunity-rich and more equitable, and for understanding the policy and practice challenges and dilemmas that have to be negotiated in the process. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Skills and knowledge which increase the likelihood of university graduates finding employment is an increasingly important factor for higher education institutions. Even though subject matter expertise remains a primary objective, supporting students to build life skills that are desired by employers is essential to enhance graduate employability. Firstly, we draw on consultive interviews with 11 graduate recruiters to build a life skill ability scale. Through these interviews, we identify two constructs worth measuring (resilience and adaptability) not yet represented in extant life skill ability scales. Thereby contributing to life skills measures and their link to graduate employability. Secondly, this paper explores the influence of a team-based business simulation on the development of life skills at two higher education institutions in the UK for first- and fourth-year undergraduate students. Through a pre-survey and post-survey, this paper empirically finds that experiential learning by means of a team-based business simulation has an overwhelmingly positive influence on first-year students’ self-assessed life skill development as well as their course-specific subject matter expertise. Yet, the findings show less significant results for fourth-year students. This contributes to our understanding of business simulations as a pedagogical practice and its benefits for students beyond their education. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Background: Early childhood is seen as a critical period for developing psychological resilience, which is important for the development of young children’s mental and physical health. Previous research has identified the value of STEM learning in early childhood education, but less research has focused on the psychological resilience of young children in the face of STEM learning errors and setbacks. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the intervention effects of trial-and-error learning (TEL) and error-free learning (EFL) on improving young children’s psychological resilience in STEM activities. Sample The participants were 42 young children aged 5-6. Design and methods The TEL group included 21 young children who adopted the method in which the teacher guided them to learn by trial and error, while another 21 young children in the EFL group conducted the method in which the teacher provided direct instruction to reduce or eliminate errors during the learning process. The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers was used to test the pre-, mid- and post-psychological resilience of the two groups. The Friedman test and Mann-Whitney test were used to examine whether TEL and EFL can improve young children’s psychological resilience. Results: The results indicated that TEL can, but EFL cannot. Different effects were shown on the improvement of the young children’s psychological resilience in the two groups. Compared with the EFL group, the young children in the TEL group could better improve their psychological resilience, especially in the dimensions of initiative, self-regulation, and attachment/relationships, but the better improvement in behavior concerns was not evident until the final test. Conclusions: This study addresses a gap in understanding of the effects of TEL and EFL interventions on young children’s psychological resilience, and the need to establish an evidence base for promoting young children’s psychological resilience through designing STEM activities in early childhood education. Meanwhile, a reference for preschool teachers to use TEL interventions in STEM education is also provided. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Programming is an indispensable ability in the current era of artificial intelligence. It has become a topic of interest for educators and researchers to explore the effective instructional strategies to improve students’ programming knowledge and skills. Cognitive and metacognitive scaffolding have proven to have the potential to facilitate programming performance. However, their comparative effects on programming performance have received scant attention. To fill this research gap, the current study aimed to explore how cognitive and metacognitive scaffolding influence elementary school students’ Scratch programming knowledge and skills in an information technology course based on a quasi-experimental design. Three intact classes, including 126 fifth graders, were randomly assigned to a control group and two experimental groups: a cognitive scaffolding and a metacognitive scaffolding group. The findings indicated that the metacognitive scaffolding group showed significantly better scores in programming knowledge and skills than the non-scaffolding group. However, no significant differences were found between the metacognitive and cognitive scaffolding groups, or between the cognitive scaffolding and non-scaffolding groups. This study provides implications for the design and development of scaffolding based on Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive and metacognitive mediation, and also contributes to our comprehension of how scaffolding types influence students’ programming knowledge and skills. © 2024 ISTE.

Background: Instructional design is essential for the implementation and quality of STEM education. However, it remains challenging to help teachers acquire pedagogical content knowledge and come up with novel instructional design ideas in STEM. education. Purpose: Guided by the full-perspective learning theory, this study proposed a conceptual model that was constructed by teaching needs assessment (TNA), internal meditation (IM), external interaction (EI), and idea generation in instructional design (IGID). Sample: A total of 1,727 primary school technology teachers (51.8% female, 48.2% male) who had conducted STEM learning activities participated in this study. Design and methods: Structural equation modeling was used to verify the relationships between variables. Results: The results indicated that (1) TNA, IM, and EI were positively related to IGID; and (2) both IM and EI were positively related to IGID. In addition, through the multiple group analysis, it was observed that there were significant gender differences in the idea generation process. Conclusion: The findings implied that male teachers performed better than female teachers in TNA, and were more motivated to seek ideas through IM and EI after TNA. Female teachers were more likely to obtain novel ideas through IM. The research provides some ways to facilitate the acquisition of ideas on STEM instructional design, which can be used to guide course design for instructors and course designers in STEM fields. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.