Creating a Win-Win

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 605-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Wrye ◽  
Cynthia Chafin ◽  
Casie Higginbotham

PurposeIt is well established that partnerships between universities and community organizations can serve to enhance student learning and employability (Anderson et al., 2011; Arantes do Amaral and Matsusaki, 2017; Jones and Sherr, 2014; Voss et al., 2015). Within this context, the purpose of this paper is to explore how one such partnership has resulted in the successful implementation of three pedagogical methodologies, which individually and collectively promote student-centered learning and employability skills through an experiential learning framework.Design/methodology/approachUsing this methodological case study approach where the pedagogies of internships, service-learning opportunities, and project-based learning are critically evaluated, the research reveals only positive benefits for students, faculty, and the community organization(s). These benefits center on improved employability skills, the development of social skills and societal contribution for students.FindingsParticipating students also noted the development of their confidence and the importance of feedback from both peers and assigned staff. Members of faculty considered the opportunity for students to put theory into practice, enhanced employability skills and the collective nature of the methodologies as the main benefits with The center echoing the sentiments of other stakeholders. The center considered the workplace preparedness, the development of soft skills and confidence and the collective nature of the methodologies as the main benefits of the partnership.Originality/valueThe insight provided by the research contributes to existing literature through examining the relationship between an academic institution and its community, providing a practical framework and guidelines for the implementation of student-centered pedagogical methods.

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-708
Author(s):  
Miguel M. Gonzales

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the significant challenges school administrators encountered leading a one-to-one laptop school and what vision school administrators have for one-to-one laptop use in the classroom. Design/methodology/approach The methodology for this study was a case study approach. In total, 15 school administrators were interviewed from the Western region of the USA. Findings Results from the study indicated that significant challenges for school administrators were budgeting and sustaining the initiative, and negotiating and setting expectations for instructional use with teachers. School administrators also envisioned one-to-one laptop use as a mean to enhance student-centered learning and inquiry. Research limitations/implications Further research is needed which examines how school administrators make financial decisions in regards to sustaining one-on-one laptop initiatives and how they manage conflict with teachers in respect to one-to-one laptop instruction. Originality/value Minimal literature exists which examines the challenges and vision of school technology leaders. Policy-makers and school administrators can use the findings to recreate teacher evaluation forms, develop conflict management strategies and teaching standards that are aligned and conducive to one-to-one laptop schools.


Author(s):  
Anabela C. Alves ◽  
Francisco Moreira ◽  
Celina P. Leão ◽  
Sandra Fernandes

Abstract Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an active student-centered learning methodology. Several schools (of varying degrees of education) have implemented, in different ways, PBL, having as common strands that the student learns in teams, and being challenged in the context of a case-scenario. In Portugal, a PBL methodology has been implemented, in the first year of an Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program, for more than 15 years. This represents a total number above 700 students of IEM enrolled in PBL during the reported timeframe. A continuous improvement process of the PBL activities was relentlessly pursued during such period. Grounded on end-of-term on-line PBL process satisfaction questionnaires, as well as on results of each PBL edition final workshops, this paper studies and reports on a number of such achievements and shortcomings. Thus, this paper presents the analysis of the results of ten academic years of PBL evaluation process, grounded on the compiled results obtained from 2009/10 to 2019/20. Also, a synthesis of the effective findings (either positive or negative), systematically pointed out by the students, will be presented. Altogether, the PBL implementation in the IEM program has been very positive for students and teachers and worth for others to follow.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Khalid Perwez ◽  
Goutam Kumar Kundu

Purpose This paper aims to identify and model the key barriers to implementation of project-based learning (PjBL) in higher educational institution. Design/methodology/approach Using the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique, the study has developed a hierarchical-based model, depicting the mutual relationships amongst the key barriers to implementation of PjBL. Additionally, the paper has performed Matrice d’ Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliqué an Classement (MICMAC) analysis to categorize the barriers in terms of their driving and dependence power. Findings The study has identified the key barriers to implementation of PjBL and presented an integrated model using ISM. Higher educational institutions need to pay attention to diagnose and overcome these hindrances for effective implementation of PjBL in their programmes. Research limitations/implications The study adopts a systematic way to model the relevant barriers to implementation of PjBL. The ISM-based model would help higher education institutions to prioritize the issues as the barriers are hierarchically structured. As the input to model development is based on the experts’ opinions, it may be biased, influencing the final output of the structural model. Originality/value The presentation of PjBL implementation barriers in the form of an ISM-based model is a new effort. The model would be useful to understand the barriers and overcome these for the successful implementation of PjBL in higher educational institutions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Izzah ◽  
Venny Mulyana

Education is essentially an activity carried out by students which results in changes in themselves. This principle implies that what must be prioritized is the learning activities of students instead of something that is given to students. STEM-based learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) can train students to apply their knowledge to create designs as a form of solving environmental problems by utilizing technology. The learning model recommended for use in the 2013 curriculum is a student-centered learning model, one of which is the Project Based Learning model. This study will analyze how much influence STEM education with the PjBL model has on student learning outcomes. This study uses a meta-analysis method. determined via the Effect Size (ES). Research data were obtained from 25 national and international journals. The meta-analysis study is based on three categories, namely education level, subjects and student learning outcomes. The results showed that; first, the influence of the PjBL model of STEM education based on the level of education is most effective in SMP. ES value = 1.89 and categorized as high. Second, based on the type of subject, the most effective influence of the PjBL model of STEM education is Mathematics. ES value = 3,7 and categorized as high. Third, based on student learning outcomes, the influence of the PjBL model of STEM education is the most effective in the aspect of skills. ES value = 1.68 and categorized as high.


RENOTE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 450-459
Author(s):  
Deivid Eive dos S. Silva ◽  
Aline De Oliveira Sousa ◽  
Marcela R. Oliveira ◽  
Marialina Corrêa Sobrinho ◽  
Eduardo Todt ◽  
...  

Education 4.0 is defined as a student-centered learning model that prepares young for the challenges of the 21st Century, how to deal with emerging technological resources and processes. This case study aimed to encourage 21st Century skills and competencies seen as relevant to Education 4.0, such as teamwork, communication, autonomy, creativity, and innovation. In this study, we analyzed the feedbacks collected to identify which skills were encouraged in undergraduate and graduate students during one semester of the Mobile Robotics discipline, using Project-Based Learning (PBL). Students carried out projects and answered a self-assessment questionnaire about their skills. The qualitative analysis of the case study followed the procedures of the Grounded Theory method. The results indicated that learning based on robotics projects could encourage teamwork, communication, and organization skills.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney Enock Msonde ◽  
Charles Enock Msonde

Purpose There have been ideological variations in the understanding of student-centered learning (SCL), culminating in varied practices of SCL across the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of learning study on teachers’ appropriation of the conditions for learning in SCL lessons. Design/methodology/approach Three secondary school mathematics teachers in Tanzania formed a learning study group, guided by the theory of variation, to share their experience of how to engage learners in experiencing critical aspects of the object of learning. In-depth interviews, records of teachers’ lesson preparation meetings, and students’ tests were tools used to collect data. All of the qualitative data were analyzed using a phenomenographic variation framework and coding strategies. Moreover, a paired sample t-test was used to analyze the students’ pre- and post-test results. Findings The results show that teachers were able to identify critical aspects of two objects of learning for mathematics and create conditions for engaging learners in experiencing those aspects sequentially and simultaneously. There was strong evidence that the theory of variation as a framework helps teachers to learn effective ways of creating conditions for students to appropriate features of the objects of learning for mathematics as well as developing a new SCL pedagogical framework. Originality/value This study suggests that using learning study guided by the theory of variation supports teachers’ appropriation of the conditions for student learning within an SCL framework.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Toomey Zimmerman ◽  
Katharine Ellen Grills ◽  
Zachary McKinley ◽  
Soo Hyeon Kim

Purpose The researchers conducted a collective case study to investigate how families engaged in making activities related to aerospace engineering in six pop-up makerspace programs held in libraries and one museum. The purpose of this paper is to support families’ engagement in design tasks and engineering thinking, three types of discussion prompts were used during each workshop. The orienting design conjecture was that discussion prompts would allow parents to lead productive conversations to support engineering-making activities. Design/methodology/approach Within a collective case study approach, 20 consented families (22 adults, 25 children) engaged in making practices related to making a lunar rover with a scientific instrument panel. Data included cases of families’ talk and actions, as documented through video (22 h) and photographs of their engineering designs. An interpretivist, qualitative video-based analysis was conducted by creating individual narrative accounts of each family (including transcript excerpts and images). Findings Parents used the question prompts in ways that were integral to supporting youths’ participation in the engineering activities. Children often did not answer the astronomer’s questions directly; instead, the parents revoiced the prompts before the children’s engagement. Family prompts supported reflecting upon prior experiences, defining the design problem and maintaining the activity flow. Originality/value Designing discussion prompts, within a broader project-based learning pedagogy, supports family engagement in engineering design practices in out-of-school pop-up makerspace settings. The work suggests that parents play a crucial role in engineering workshops for youths aged 5 to 10 years old by revoicing prompts to keep families’ design work and sensemaking talk (connecting prior and new ideas) flowing throughout a makerspace workshop.


Author(s):  
Victoria M. Cardullo ◽  
Nance S. Wilson ◽  
Vassiliki I. Zygouris-Coe

Emerging technologies enhance student learning through the explicit intentional educational design such as Active Learning Classrooms, Flipped Classrooms, Problem Based Learning, and Project Based Learning to empower students. Throughout this article, we will describe several emerging technologies that support learning for the 21st century using student-centered learning models. By means of vignettes, we model how a Metacognitive Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework (M-TPACK) supports the use of emerging technologies for active learning (Wilson, Zygouris-Coe, Cardullo, & Fong, 2013). Throughout all of the vignettes, we draw connections to the various emerging technologies and the level of integration using both Blooms Taxonomy (Bloom et al., 1956) and the SAMR Model: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (Puentedura, 2006).


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-137
Author(s):  
Erfan Shakibaei

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to clarify the effects of the Iranian Hospital Accreditation Program (IHAP) on hospital processes from the viewpoint of the staff charged with establishing the program.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study is based on the data collected in semi-structured interviews conducted in 2016, which involved eight questions. Interviews were held with 70 staff members at 14 hospitals. Managerial staff were purposively interviewed based on their familiarity and involvement with the program. The hospitals were divided into five groups, comprising public, private, charity, military and social service hospitals. A thematic analysis was carried out using the collected data.FindingsThree themes emerged from the data, which together comprise a process management cycle: the establishment, implementation, and control phases of the program. For each phase, various positive trends, as well as hurdles for establishing the program, declared which were framed two sub-themes as positive effects and challenges.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to the body of evidence used by policy-makers and hospital managers to improve the change management processes related to the Iranian IHAP. Although positive changes in the process management cycles at Iranian hospitals were noted, successful implementation of the program demands a thorough assessment of the hospitals’ technical and financial needs (taking into account disparities between hospitals), and there is an urgent requirement for a plan to meet these needs.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Yassine Zarouk ◽  
Eugénio Olivera ◽  
Paula Peres ◽  
Mohamed Khaldi

Student-centered learning approaches such as project-based learning and flipped classroom stress the active role of the learner by applying knowledge rather than absorbing knowledge, and preparing higher education students for professional development. Student-centered learning environments are more effective when students regulate their learning and learn autonomously. There-fore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a proposed ap-proach of flipped project-based learning on various facets of students' self-regulated learning, including motivational beliefs and learning strategies in higher education. A flipped project-based learning environment was designed and developed to improve students’ self-regulated learning skills. In this regard, multiple case studies were conducted according to a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment design to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by four groups of students from different disciplines. The study employed a mixed-method research approach for data collection. Overall, the results re-vealed that the flipped project-based learning approach significantly enhanced students’ self-regulated learning skills. It was found that the approach fostered the students’ self-regulation performance among different groups across dif-ferent disciplines and levels. Moreover, participants also claimed that the approach was useful and ef-fective. The findings indicated that students who actively engaged within flipped PBL activities demonstrated increases in cognitive and metacognitive functioning both individually and collaboratively. This study contributes to an advance in the understanding of how the development of SRL can be inte-grated into a flipped project-based learning environment in higher education.


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