Effective Curricula
Current and Historical Discourses in Mathematics Cognitions Research: A Review of the Literature Related to Learning Mathematics in Neuroscience
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kakoma Luneta
This paper reviews the current research in mathematics cognition and neuroscience. The proponents of mathematics cognition have related the subject to neuroscience because cognition involves the mental application involved in mathematical knowledge acquisition. By definition neuroscience is the science that relays the physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of the brain its nerves and nerve tissues in their relation to behaviour and learning. Mathematical cognition focus on the scientific understanding of the cognitive function of the brain as it engages in mathematical interactions. Cognition is the mental process by which knowledge is acquired. It refers to thinking, understanding and remembering and the conscious mental activity involved in achieving aspects of awareness, perception, reasoning and judgement. Mathematics has been explained as a system for representing and reasoning about quantities, with arithmetic as its basis. By its nature it implies that mathematical engagement is a cognitive activity. Neuroscientists have asserted that all human behaviour is generated by the brain therefore we can argue that all human being are born with innate capability for mathematics and at a very early age, this capability is shaped by the strength and authenticity of the mathematical exposure. I conclude in this paper that by combining research of what goes on in the brain with how children learn mathematics we would acquire a lot more than adopting an isolated approach to effective instructions in mathematics classrooms.
Developing and Evaluating Work Readiness of Students in a Fully Online Careers in Psychology Course
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Filia Garivaldis, Bernice Plant, Stephen Mc Kenzie
There is an increased demand for online learning; however, this often matched with scepticism about whether online courses can prepare students adequately for the real world. The need for work readiness and developing transferable and professional skills, such as creativity and critical thinking, are all the more important in the digital world. The current research has evaluated the effectiveness of a careers unit in the Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced (GDPA), a fully online fourth-year psychology course in Australia. A pre- and postevaluation of the careers unit was conducted, exploring career certainty and career self-efficacy as moderators for the effects of the unit on students’ work readiness. To further evaluate the effectiveness of the careers unit, the work readiness of students enrolled in another online unit, which does not aim to teach careers in psychology, was also measured. All participants completed career certainty and career self-efficacy scales, as well as a pre-unit quiz about their knowledge of careers in the industry of psychology at the start of the teaching period. At the end of the teaching period, all participants completed the work readiness scale and a post-unit quiz, whilst the students of the careers unit also completed a unit evaluation. The results of this study will be presented, anticipating that students who complete the careers unit have significantly greater work readiness, particularly, if they experience greater career certainty and career self-efficacy. The study enhances knowledge of work readiness, and informs the effective delivery of careers material in the online mode.
Standardization of a College Writing Program: Providing Curricular Consistency and Instructional Freedom
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Melanie Nichole Burdick
While consistency across sections of first year college writing program is necessary, master instructors must also be provided with pedagogical freedoms. This session will provide the story of one such writing program which moved from no common curriculum across sections to a standardized curriculum with common learning outcomes and a common portfolio assessment. Theories of organic writing assessment and of Dynamic Criteria Mapping (Broad & Adler-Kasner, 2009) were used to design the curriculum. Survey and interview data from instructors as they made this transition into standardization will be shared in order to show the strengths and challenges in creating consistency through common outcomes and assessment.
Enhancing Narrative Skills in Preschoolers via Collaborative and Communicative Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eleni Mousena
The purpose of this research was to explore the advantages of collaborative learning in speaking at pre-school age.The development of spoken language in early childhood attracts the keen interest of scientists today, where societies are rapidly becoming multicultural, and forms and ways of linguistic communication face new challenges. The theoretical framework of the study draws on sociolinguistics and neo-Vygotskian theory. The survey was conducted in a kindergarten classroom with a total of 16 children aged 4 and 5 years old. Sketches were used to develop descriptive and narrative activities, which were recorded and analyzed. In the oral production process, children with limited fluency were particularly supported. The results showed that in the case of the processing of images in the group's plenary there were more possibilities for rebuilding of the so-called or self-correction, in contrast to the case where the narratives were made individually by each child.
