No description available.

This study examined the effect of computer-aided thinking (CAT) on students' achievement and learning experience in studying a biochemistry1 unit. CAT offers different activities, tasks and questions according to the learner's thinking style based on the mental self-government theory. The aim was to investigate the effectiveness of using CAT with the thinking styles feature on students' achievement and learning experience over computer aided instruction (CAI) without the thinking style feature when both teaching methods were used to replace the traditional chemistry instruction. A study was conducted to standardize the Sternberg-Wagner Self-Assessment Inventory of thinking styles for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) environment. The study showed that the thinking styles inventory was reliable and valid for use in identifying the thinking styles among a sample of UAE high school students. The development of the CAT system went through two phases. The goals of the first phase were to provide computer-aided learning material for two chemistry lessons, Oxygen and Ozone, to explore how students would respond to it with regard to their learning experience and to get feedback from the students to help build the CAT system which embeds the thinking style theory in the second development phase. Finally, an experiment was conducted using two randomly selected groups of students. One group studied the lessons using CAT and individuals were offered learning activities based on their thinking styles. The other group studied the lessons using CAT but without the thinking style feature. At the end of the experiment, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered and then analyzed. The results showed that learning with the CAT tool during the period of this experiment had significant effects on the experimental students' learning experience. This research is the first known study to explore the way that thinking styles can be used to sequence teaching material and activities for the purpose of individualized instructions. The research will inform UAE in helping teachers improve the learning process by conducting student-centred teaching.

This thesis presents an evaluation of the impact of the use of Electronic Voting Systems (EVS) on mathematics teaching and learning, based on the research question: What are the views of academic staff on the impact of EVS use on their mathematics teaching; and how has EVS use influenced student engagement and learning approach to mathematics? To answer the question, a descriptive survey of academic staff, and semi-structured interviews with students were conducted; data from these studies were supplemented by classroom observations of EVS use, relevant documentary evidence, and preliminary studies conducted. Survey data was analysed via quantitative techniques; while the annotated interview transcripts were analysed via thematic analysis, and the application of an integrated theoretical framework. The validity, reliability and replicability of both studies were also established. The findings show that feedback is viewed as the single, most beneficial impact of EVS use, as it enables instructors, through formative assessment, to identify student misconceptions, which then helps instructors to focus on the identified problem areas. EVS has also positively impacted student emotion, behaviour, and cognition. EVS use helps focus student attention, enhances participation and interactivity, and enables students to cognitively engage with learning material. The adoption of an integrated theoretical framework helps to characterise, and to reveal qualitative differences in student learning approaches. Also, the use of specific EVS question types tends to induce specific learning approaches in students. Implications of the findings include the need for EVS-using instructors to have clearly defined pedagogical objectives and well-designed questions, and for learners to re-adapt their mathematical ideas in response to EVS feedback. Findings also show the need to incorporate instructional measures that would promote both procedural and conceptual learning approaches in students, and to perhaps rethink the role of calculator usage and guesswork in student approaches to learning. The requirements for technologies that may replace EVS, the need to align assessment with instructional practices, and for instructors to undergo further EVS training and/or form mathematics-specific support group(s) are also highlighted.

This thesis examines how to engage UK based undergraduate students in Sport & Exercise in the process of becoming information literate in their subject area. The Main Study focused on three groups of students enrolled on a core subject based module. The module in question was delivered via a blended learning approach where part of the delivery was face-to-face and part online via discussion board within the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Acquiring a rigorous understanding of how to deliver information literacy (IL) required four things to be achieved: an understanding of the field of IL; an appreciation of the information behaviour (IB) processes underpinning IL, an awareness of current theory and practice in the area of teaching and learning and finally, an understanding of current thinking and scholarship in e-learning. In particular the thesis adopted notions of constructivist approaches to learning recommended by Mayes & de Freitas (2004), community of practice (Wenger, 1999), scaffolding (JISC, 2004), and managing online discourse (Goodyear, 2001) to create a workable, theoretically and empirically grounded model for testing. An in depth investigation of methodological theory was carried out in order to devise a robust research strategy to thoroughly test this new model. This strategy has a number of unique characteristics: it uses an IB model (Hepworth, 2004), a cognitive theory of learning (Bloom et al, 1956) and a notion of metacognition defined by Moseley et al (2004) to code and analyse qualitative data. The model was tested in a Pilot Study, substantially modified and then re-tested in a Main Study. The key findings generated from this indicated the importance of task, role and norms in the IL pedagogical process and that the new model for delivering IL teaching and learning via a blended approach engendered higher order thinking in particular analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Data also indicated four discrete levels of information discernment which suggest a possible format for the structuring of an evaluation of information assessment rubric. It is envisaged that this new model has a broader application beyond Higher Education (HE) and Sport & Exercise. Whilst the study has a number of limitations it can be concluded that the research undertaken here provides a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge in IL, IB, learning and e-learning scholarship. However, it is recognised that any apparent solution is only provisional in a rapidly developing information landscape and, as a consequence, a number of future avenues for research are recommended.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis presents the study of a whistled form of language known as the Silbo Gomero (Island of La Gomera, Canarian Archipelago). After fifty years of almost total extinction this form of communication has been revived, shifting from the fields where it was once used by peasant islanders and into the space of the classroom. Here, it is integrated into the curriculum of the island’s schools while providing children with a rich cultural platform that instigates linguistic and auditory experimentation. As a response to this transformation, the need to develop didactic materials is presented as one of the main challenges encountered by the community. Taking this condition as the driver of its research, this body of work draws on phonological, bioacoustic and cognitive theories to develop a formal understanding of the Silbo Gomero in a way which aims to complement the whistler’s own experience and mastery of the language by also developing an ethnographic reading of this indigenous body of knowledge and its characteristic auditory perceptual ecology. The investigation has culminated in the design of a digital application, El Laberinto del Sonido, and its active use within the educational community of the island. Finally, emphasising the practice-based nature of the research, this thesis attempts to relocate the question of intangible heritage from a focus on cultural safeguarding and transmission to one of experimentation, where an indigenous body of knowledge not only provides new exploratory paradigms in the design of didactic materials, but also contributes towards the sustainability of culturally situated forms of apprenticeship within contemporary educational contexts.

Applying sociocultural principles of mediation, collaboration and scaffolding as the underpinning theory, combined with the integrative teaching of reading and writing method, this study explored how L2 students’ thinking and reasoning abilities as manifested in their argumentative writing skills can be improved. Students’ creative and critical thinking skills and their ability to write logically and intelligently are part of English teaching objectives in the Sudan. However, there are no explicit guidelines on how they could be achieved. In this study therefore, argumentative/persuasive writing is considered to be a manifestation of critical thinking skills, since a writer needs to analyse, evaluate and counter arguments and present a logical text to convince the reader. Thirty, first year university students from the faculty of Medicine, Upper Nile University, Sudan were randomly selected. They were first pre-tested and then randomly assigned into experimental and comparison groups. A twelve-week intervention was conducted in which the experimental group were taught reasoning and critical thinking to enhance their argumentative writing abilities employing integrative teaching of reading and writing method in conjunction with sociocultural principles and Paul and Elder’s (2006, 2007) close reading strategies. After the intervention, the groups were post-tested and a month later after the completion of the study they were post-post-tested. The nature of the tests was argumentative written compositions. In addition, pre and post focus groups interviews were conducted with the experimental group to explore their perceptions and attitudes towards thinking skills before and after the intervention. These interviews were organised to enable the researcher to trace and monitor how students’ ideas and perceptions changed as a result of the intervention. The study found among others that students’ critical thinking, reasoning and argumentative writing skills improved dramatically after the intervention. In addition, there were improvements in their perceptions and attitudes towards thinking skills as well as in their understanding of the cognitive relationship between reading and writing. Moreover, a remarkable improvement in their spoken English was recorded as well as they developed positive attitudes towards learning English. The study concluded that critical thinking skills can be taught at post secondary school level. It recommended that future research should investigate the complexity of argumentative texts written by L2 students and how the complexity of their thinking may lead to the increasing sophistication of the language produced.