Learning in the liminal space: a semiotic approach to threshold concepts     

Ray Land  Julie Rattray  Peter Vivian 《Higher Education》2014,67(2):199-217

The threshold concepts approach to student learning and curriculum design now informs an empirical research base comprising over 170 disciplinary and professional contexts. It draws extensively on the notion of troublesomeness in a ‘liminal’ space of learning. The latter is a transformative state in the process of learning in which there is a reformulation of the learner’s meaning frame and an accompanying shift in the learner’s ontology or subjectivity. Within the extensive literature on threshold concepts, however, the notion of liminal space has remained relatively ill-defined. This paper explores this spatial metaphor to help clarify the difficulties that some teachers observe in the classroom in regard to their students’ understanding. It employs a novel and distinctive approach drawn from semiotic theory to to provide some explanatory insight into learning within the liminal space and render it more open to analysis. The paper develops its argument through four distinct phases. Firstly it explores the spatial metaphor of liminality to gain further purchase on the nature of this transformative space. The second section introduces semiotic theory and indicates how this will be used through a series of graphical and visual devices to render the liminal space more open to analysis. The third section then employs semiotic analysis to nine dimensions of pedagogical content knowledge to gain further insight into what may characterise student conceptual difficulty within the liminal state. The fourth and concluding section emphasises the role of context in conceptual discrimination before advocating a transactional curriculum inquiry approach to future research in this field.  相似文献   

Engaging Faculty in Assessment of Institutional Learning Outcomes     

Judith Canner  Sarah P. C. Dahlen  Ondine Gage  Nelson Graff  Shar Gregg  Daniel F. Shapiro  Vivian Waldrup Patterson  Swarup E. Wood 《Assessment Update》2020,32(3):1-16

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The impact of family obligation on the daily activities and psychological well-being of Chinese American adolescents     

Fuligni AJ  Yip T  Tseng V 《Child development》2002,73(1):302-314

A daily diary method was employed to examine the extent to which Chinese adolescents in the United States assist and spend time with their families, and the implications of such behaviors for their involvement in other activities and psychological well-being. Adolescents (N = 140) completed checklists in which they reported their activities and psychological well-being every day for a period of 2 weeks. Adolescents showed a greater propensity to balance family obligations with their academic demands than with their social life with peers on a daily basis. Girls experienced slightly more daily conflict between activities than boys. Neither the extent of involvement in family obligations nor the balancing of family obligations with other activities were associated with psychological distress among adolescents. These findings demonstrate the complex manner in which adolescents from immigrant families attempt to combine their cultural traditions with selected aspects of American society on a daily basis. In contrast to the expectations of some observers, the youths in this study appeared to accomplish such an integration with little cost to their psychological well-being.  相似文献   

The effects of advance organizer and prerequisite knowledge passages on the learning and retention of science concepts     

Vivian C. Healy 《科学教学研究杂志》1989,26(7):627-642

Fifty-five ninth-grade science students participated in this study which compared the effects of two pretreatments, an advance organizer and a prerequisite knowledge passage, on learning and retention measured at low (knowledge and comprehension) and high (application and analysis) levels of the cognitive domain. The effectiveness of the pretreatments was measured by a framework test and a prerequisite knowledge test prior to the beginning of instruction. An analysis of covariance, with IQ as the covariate, was performed on the framework test and the prerequisite knowledge test. It was found that the advance organizer group performed significantly better than the prerequisite knowledge group (p < 0.001) on the first framework test, and the prerequisite knowledge group performed significantly better (p < 0.001) than the advance organizer group on the prerequisite knowledge test. These results provide evidence that both passages were read and understood by the students and that the passages had their intended effects as preinstructional treatments. An analysis of covariance, with IQ as the covariate, was performed on the low-level questions, high-level questions, and total score for the posttest and retention test. The group means for the two question levels and the total score were not found to be significantly different (p > 0.05) for either the posttest or retention test. The results of this study do not provide evidence that an advance organizer facilitates learning and retention more than a preinstructional treatment that concentrates on developing prerequisite knowledge.  相似文献   

Instructional design using an in-house built teaching assistant robot to enhance elementary school English-as-a-foreign-language learning     

Wen-Chi Vivian Wu  Rong-Jyue Wang 《Interactive Learning Environments》2013,21(6):696-714

This paper presents a design for a cutting-edge English program in which elementary school learners of English as a foreign language in Taiwan had lively interactions with a teaching assistant robot. Three dimensions involved in the design included (1) a pleasant and interactive classroom environment as the learning context, (2) a teaching assistant robot designed and built by the researchers as instructional technology (instructional tool/medium), and (3) the need for improved motivation and learning outcomes and positive learning experiences of the students as the core research problem. This Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) led to better pedagogical effects on learning and teaching by (1) employing a vivid, enjoyable teaching approach; (2) adopting practical, interesting learning materials; and (3) creating a natural, enjoyable learning context. Both quantitative and qualitative findings of this study indicate that the students' English learning experiences were enhanced, as were their motivation and learning outcomes as a result of this HRI. This paper, instead of merely suggesting design criteria for robots, provides a set of instructional design guidelines that other researchers can follow to create an innovative and enjoyable English classroom that employs an interactive robot as an assistant for enhancing English acquisition while simultaneously reducing the pressure and teaching load of the English instructors.  相似文献   

Ethics courses: Their impact on the values and ethical decisions of criminal justice students     

Vivian B. Lord Ph.D.  Beth E. Bjerregaard Ph.D. 《Journal of Criminal Justice Education》2013,24(2):191-211

Numerous articles and books advocate the importance of ethics as an essential component of a criminal justice curriculum. While there are several approaches suggested, one of the most popular methods of assuring coverage of this important topic is to add an ethics course to the curriculum either as a required or an elective course. Teaching students ethical theories, principles and providing them with the opportunity to discuss discipline specific ethics problems is thought to help contribute to the establishment of ethical practitioners.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of a semester long criminal justice ethics course on the students' value orientations, and their perceptions of both the seriousness of ethical violations and their likelihood of engaging in such behaviors. Our findings are consistent with the results of researchers evaluating ethics courses in other disciplines. Implications for criminal justice ethics education are discussed.  相似文献   

尴尬新专业培养的菜鸟买手     

Vivian 《大学生》2013,(23):40-41

正高考后,出于对地域、学校和分数等等的综合考量,我在志愿表上白纸黑字填上了H大学"文化产业管理"专业。班里50来个学生,有七成是女生。同学中一半来自上海本地,另一半来自全国各地。当然那时的我们,并不知道它具体会提供什么课程,更不知道我们会是该校"文化产业管理"专业培养的第一批"试验生"。我是一个理科生,稀里糊涂选择了"文化产业管理"专业。大学毕业后,我成为艺术品投资行业菜鸟一枚,在不断的学习和尝试中,缓慢而快乐地成长,用艺术照亮自己的未来。  相似文献   

The spiral of silence: examining how cultural predispositions,news attention,and opinion congruency relate to opinion expression     

Shirley S. Ho  Vivian Hsueh-Hua Chen  Clarice C. Sim 《亚洲交流杂志》2013,23(2):113-134

This study examines new explanatory predictors behind the spiral of silence theory, using the issue of legalization of same-sex marriage in Singapore as the context of study. Our results show that fear of isolation and saving face were negatively associated with individuals' willingness to express their opinion on the issue, whereas news attention and issue salience were positively associated. Also, fear of isolation was negatively associated with individuals' willingness to offer a rationale for their opinion, whereas news attention and issue salience were positively associated. Power distance had no effects on outspokenness. Notably, news attention moderated the influence of fear of isolation and saving face on public outspokenness.  相似文献   

Whom Do We Serve? A Patron by Any Other Name Might Get Sweeter Service     

Vivian Reed 《The Reference Librarian》2013,54(2):183-185

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Diversity and Social Justice Implications for Outcome Approaches to Evaluation     

Nancy Arthur  Vivian Lalande 《International journal for the advancement of counseling》2009,31(1):1-16

It is important that counsellors provide evidence regarding the efficacy of their services. Although there has been an increased focus on generic outcome measurement of counselling programs and services, little attention has been paid to accountability issues for meeting the needs of diverse populations. This article highlights the increasing relevance of cultural diversity for evaluation practices, using examples from the Canadian context. An overview is provided of the key issues for evaluation of programs and services involving culturally diverse individuals and how evaluation must incorporate social justice issues within service provision. Evaluation strategies are elaborated along with suggestions for enhancing the intercultural competence of evaluation personnel.  相似文献