OBE,RPL and adult education: good bedfellows in higher education in South Africa?     

Gail Cretchley  Jane Castle 《International Journal of Lifelong Education》2013,32(6):487-501

As its title suggests, this paper explores the compatibility of outcomes-based education (OBE), the recognition of prior learning (RPL) and adult education in higher education in South Africa. OBE and RPL entered the consciousness of South African educators in the 1990s, when policymakers, responding to economic and political imperatives to develop a more skilled and flexible workforce, turned to overseas models of integrated education and training systems. OBE and RPL are often described as ‘learner-centred practices’, meaning that learning goals, teaching and assessment processes, content and pace of learning are mutually determined by the tutor and student. Such practices are grounded in a humanistic approach to adult education which places emphasis on the person as a holistic being and allows for considerable differences which characterize mature adult learners. The paper explores the relationship between OBE, RPL and the andragogical model of adult education proposed by Malcolm Knowles, whose theories have acquired the status of established doctrine in South Africa. The paper points to areas of compatibility and difference between OBE, RPL and adult education, and concludes that problems which arise in introducing OBE and RPL in higher education have more to do with features of the context, and the processes of design and implementation, than with inherent defects in the theories underpinning them.  相似文献   

Adults With Poor Reading Skills and the Inferences They Make During Reading     

Gail McKoon  Roger Ratcliff 《Scientific Studies of Reading》2017,21(4):292-309

Millions of U.S. adults lack the literacy skills needed for most living-wage jobs. We investigated one particular comprehension process for these adults: generating predictive inferences. If a sentence says that someone falls from a 14th-story roof, a reader should infer almost certain death. On any test of comprehension, there are two dependent variables: the speed of the response to a test item and accuracy. To address both simultaneously, we used a decision model that separates how much information an individual understands from a text and the individual’s speed/accuracy trade-off settings. We found that adult literacy students do differentiate between predictive inference sentences and control sentences, a finding that illustrates how a decision-making model combined with tests of particular comprehension processes can lead to further understanding of low-literacy adults’ reading skills.  相似文献   

How a verbatim drama based on the lived experience of women casual academics in Australia resonated with its audience and transformed a narrative inquiry into an action research project     

Gail Crimmins 《Educational Action Research》2017,25(3):337-353

This article discusses how a performed drama based on a narrative inquiry into the lived experience of women casual academics in Australian universities is understood by an audience. The audience, principally comprised of casual and ongoing academics, described the drama as authentic and personally recognised many of the main scenarios and preoccupations re-presented. In particular, they identified that the drama’s re-presentation of casual academics’ feelings of insecurity, precarious collegial relationships, and a lack of belonging and voice strongly resonated with them. The presentation also provoked them to communicate their own lived experiences of academia, which constituted a second set of narrative data. Moreover, when the audience was invited to engage with and respond to performed data they became active and collaborative participants in the research project by sharing personal insights and narratives which extended the scope and depth of the initial research project. Therefore, a public re-presentation of narrative research can transform narrative inquiry research into an action research project if the researcher adjusts her/his research approach and accepts that the audience narrative response can function as a second phase of data gathering. Adjusting to the emergent generation of data in turn further democratises research processes and relationships.  相似文献   

Developmental changes in the coherence of essentialist beliefs about psychological characteristics     

Gelman SA  Heyman GD  Legare CH 《Child development》2007,78(3):757-774

Essentialism is the belief that certain characteristics (of individuals or categories) may be relatively stable, unchanging, likely to be present at birth, and biologically based. The current studies examined how different essentialist beliefs interrelate. For example, does thinking that a property is innate imply that the property cannot be changed? Four studies were conducted, examining how children (N=195, grades 1-7; ages 7-13) and adults (N=187) reason about familiar and novel social characteristics. By 3rd grade (9 years), children showed some coherence of essentialist beliefs. In contrast, younger children expected less interrelatedness among dimensions than older children or adults. These findings suggest that essentialist attributions at first consist of separate strands that children eventually link together into a more coherent understanding.  相似文献   

Genome Consortium for Active Teaching: meeting the goals of BIO2010   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：0  

Campbell AM  Ledbetter ML  Hoopes LL  Eckdahl TT  Heyer LJ  Rosenwald A  Fowlks E  Tonidandel S  Bucholtz B  Gottfried G 《CBE life sciences education》2007,6(2):109-118

The Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT) facilitates the use of modern genomics methods in undergraduate education. Initially focused on microarray technology, but with an eye toward diversification, GCAT is a community working to improve the education of tomorrow's life science professionals. GCAT participants have access to affordable microarrays, microarray scanners, free software for data analysis, and faculty workshops. Microarrays provided by GCAT have been used by 141 faculty on 134 campuses, including 21 faculty that serve large numbers of underrepresented minority students. An estimated 9480 undergraduates a year will have access to microarrays by 2009 as a direct result of GCAT faculty workshops. Gains for students include significantly improved comprehension of topics in functional genomics and increased interest in research. Faculty reported improved access to new technology and gains in understanding thanks to their involvement with GCAT. GCAT's network of supportive colleagues encourages faculty to explore genomics through student research and to learn a new and complex method with their undergraduates. GCAT is meeting important goals of BIO2010 by making research methods accessible to undergraduates, training faculty in genomics and bioinformatics, integrating mathematics into the biology curriculum, and increasing participation by underrepresented minority students.  相似文献   

A trio of evaluation and assessment models from pre ICT innovations: Lessons from the past     

Gail Marshall 《Education and Information Technologies》2010,15(1):37-50

Three major evaluations of innovative projects designed and implemented in the US during the 1960s and 1970s provide models for the design and analysis of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects. Large in scope, sophisticated in design and explicit in reporting, the three evaluations were: an analysis of major factors in “change agent” projects conducted by the Rand Corporation; an evaluation of Follow Through, a program to continue supporting “disadvantaged” children in elementary school; and a multi-year evaluation of the Comprehensive School Mathematics Program, a multi-grade project designed to change mathematics instruction and, at the same time, develop suitable assessment tools. Each of the studies provides a model of how ICT projects, both those in place and those in the design stages, may be evaluated in order that important questions — “What happened?” and “Why?” and “To what effect?” — can be answered. The three evaluations stress the importance of defining project characteristics, working from clearly defined practices, assessing fidelity of implementation, studying the multiple reactions of all the stakeholders, and conducting assessments of pupil progress at appropriate times and with appropriate measures. The models can serve ICT educators as guidelines as they look for complex, meaningful and educationally sound ways of determining the impact of ICT on all stakeholders.  相似文献   

The development of a conceptual framework and tools to assess undergraduates' principled use of models in cellular biology     

Richmond G  Merritt B  Urban-Lurain M  Parker J 《CBE life sciences education》2010,9(4):441-452

Recent science education reform has been marked by a shift away from a focus on facts toward deep, rich, conceptual understanding. This requires assessment that also focuses on conceptual understanding rather than recall of facts. This study outlines our development of a new assessment framework and tool-a taxonomy- which, unlike existing frameworks and tools, is grounded firmly in a framework that considers the critical role that models play in science. It also provides instructors a resource for assessing students' ability to reason about models that are central to the organization of key scientific concepts. We describe preliminary data arising from the application of our tool to exam questions used by instructors of a large-enrollment cell and molecular biology course over a 5-yr period during which time our framework and the assessment tool were increasingly used. Students were increasingly able to describe and manipulate models of the processes and systems being studied in this course as measured by assessment items. However, their ability to apply these models in new contexts did not improve. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results and the future directions for our research.  相似文献   

Can reflective practice be taught?   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Gail Edwards  Gary Thomas 《Educational studies》2010,36(4):403-414

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Shots in the dark for infertility     

Vines G 《New scientist (1971)》1993,140(1901):13-14

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Double standards for egg and sperm donors     

Vines G 《New scientist (1971)》1994,143(1941):8

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