Engida Gebre is a PhD Candidate in Educational Sciences (Learning Sciences). His work centers around student engagement, design of learning environments, use of computers as learning tools, and effective university teaching. Alenoush Saroyan is a Professor in Educational Psychology with extensive research on pedagogical/faculty development, academic leadership, and quality assurance and accreditation. Robert Bracewell is Professor Emeritus, Educational Psychology. His research interest focuses on use of information technologies for instruction, cultural historical activity theory, and complex cognition.
AbstractThis study examined dimensions of student engagement in technology rich classrooms and the relationship of this engagement to professors' conceptions of effective teaching. We collected questionnaire data from 332 students and analysed the data in relation to the finding of another study (Authors, forthcoming) involving 13 professors' coursespecific conceptions of effective teaching. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation revealed four dimensions of student engagement: cognitive and applied engagement, social engagement, reflective engagement and goal clarity. Subsequent multivariate and univariate analyses of variance showed that the extent of students' cognitive and applied engagement and social engagement is related significantly to professors' conceptions of effective teaching. The study has implication on design and assessment of technology-rich learning environments and on faculty development programs involving technology use in their teaching.If one agrees that learning environments influence the extent of student engagement (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000) and that the design of these environments, in turn, is influenced by teachers' views and orientations about effective teaching (Kember & Kwan, 2000;Pajares, 1992), then one would assume that a full understanding of computer use in classroom contexts will require examining the learning environment, including the nature and extent of student engage-
Teaching young adults about interpreting and creating the sort of multimodal infographics increasingly prevalent in science communication creates considerable challenges for teachers and practitioners, as there is no guide to determine the quality or effectiveness of this new genre of inscriptional forms, and to scaffold students' performances in the learning process. In this study, we begin to address this challenge by identifying components of science infographics that can be focused on in instructional settings. Using six infographics developed by professionals and published online, we gained insight from 10 individuals with expertise in science, graphic/information design, and learning sciences on their thinking about graphic and information design related to science. Each participant was provided with two infographics and was asked to critically appraise by interpreting and evaluating the quality of each artifact. Inductive analysis of transcripts using constant comparison method resulted in five super-ordinate categories, some with subcategories, representing aspects of infographics these experts attend to. The identified categories can be used as inputs in teaching and learning about the use and creation of science infographics and broadly visual representations. Connections to the literature on science education, science communication, and science and technology studies are made, and directions for future research described. # 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 2015
Data literacy has been suggested as an important competence that individuals need to succeed in a data-intensive society. However, there is no common understanding as to what data literacy entails and how it could be developed. Instructional emphasis on developing competence of individuals fails to capture learners' relationship to data in everyday life and limits what they can possibly achieve in data-rich environments. This paper critically reviews conceptualizations of data literacy in the literature with a focus in K-12 education. The analysis determined four orientations of data literacy: development of competence, inquiry with data, awareness of personal data and civic engagement. I proposed a broader conceptualization of data literacy that integrates conceptions, competencies and contexts. The study offers holistic and context-oriented framing of data literacy for researchers and educators.
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