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Question
- May 2020
My interest with the science and technology curriculum dates back more than ten years ago in Nigeria when I began as a fresh biology graduate teacher with the aspiration of literally igniting the classroom. I finally had the license and authority to teach integrated science/biology and management which entrusted me to groom learners to be “great!” scientists. Shortly into the adventure towards greatness, I realised that the process was already pre-determined, and I was expected to tinker with classroom interactions within the boundaries of a western science and technology curriculum which did not recognise and acknowledge the learners’ culture and interaction within their natural environment. The goal was to cover the syllabus- and any thought of introducing new content to relate to learners’ culture and language was frowned upon. There was no room for knowledge for its sake, a teacher was in class to teach and how well one taught was evident through students’ exams. But I wanted to excite the learners, introduce them to new concepts and ideas based on their cultural practices and beliefs, make them think, and yearn to know more.
Soon enough, the parents and guardians came to expect more from schools: they had high expectations that school would transform their children to fit into the western culture. In some cases, they even saw the teacher as a miracle worker of sorts, after all, a teacher could make a child learn. A common assumption was that schooling would shape the children to become successful citizens of the country and the teacher would be the one person to ensure this happened. However, things were not as simple, and practice was indeed different from the western theory and practice covered in university lecture rooms.
It gradually dawned on me that maybe the science and technology curriculum would yield different results if it catered to the unique classroom circumstances that the teacher faced. I had come to expect more from the learners, and by extension, I expected to offer more as a teacher. This conviction inadvertently led me on a journey to try to change the way science and technology instruction was carried out, through research, curriculum development and reform. As a research practitioner, I would question and investigate Nigerian teachers’ perceived challenges of teaching a western science and technology curriculum.
My educational and work experience in Nigeria led to my realisation that policymaking was complicated, and any change to the science and technology curriculum would require extensive decision- making at a national level. It was a humbling realisation to look back and trace my path from a student to a biology teacher and now as a research practitioner. All through, the idea is to contribute towards changing the Nigerian science and technology curriculum and make it better for the learner, the teacher, and ultimately, the country.
I think a lot about how innovation can help Nigerian schools. What are teachers’ perceived challenges of teaching western science and technology curriculum in a country rich in diverse cultural and language heritage? How can new approaches help teachers best serve the unique circumstances they face daily in the classroom? How can the education system best address the needs of a developing economy and propel it to the heights of industrialisation?
It has always been the desire of successive governments in Nigeria to bring about system reforms in line with national and continental aspirations. At the African Union level, member countries have agreed to Agenda 2063, which includes education aspirations to catalyse an education and skills revolution and actively promote science, technology, research, and innovation, with the goal of building knowledge, capabilities, and skills for Africa’s future. This is given impetus by the African Union’s vision of an integrated, peaceful, and prosperous Africa, driven by its own citizens to take up rightful place in their global arena. This requires pursuing a process of change guided by evidence-based decision-making, supportive legislative frameworks, and resource allocation to the actual teaching and learning process in science and technology. Can Nigeria achieve this goal with a western science and technology curriculum?
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Question
- Apr 2020
Dear fellow academicians, firstly I wish the health & safety of you and your relatives during this pandemic; and present my kindest regards from Turkey. I am working on a research project that is orientated towards the pre-service training of science teachers through the utilization of low-end VR (Virtual reality) materials. Although bearing a humble background regarding this topic, I am also aware that there is still much to go before sufficiently rationalizing it and inferring any potential conclusions as a result of such an intervention.
Therefore, I am asking for your thoughts, backing, and counter-arguments against the use of VR in the training of pre-service science teachers. As a tentative outline, I am proposing the basic elements as follows;
The central educational gap that will be addressed: I plan to address the artificiality of the science instruction in the classrooms, which have been torn apart from the actual context that modern science is concerned with. My preliminary target in this manner is the facilitation of the instructional practices of pre-service science teachers.
Underlying theoretical perspective: I plan to adhere to the Contextual learning theory as my central perspective of research. In the research on VR-assisted science education, the most prominent tendency is the lack of theory, particularly in manipulative interventions. Apart from that, the Experiential learning theory appears as the dominant choice in the relevant literature, which primarily is in-line with high-end VR materials. However, I am keen to believe that the nature of contextual learning is compatible more with low-end VR materials, which I plan to utilize for this intervention.
What is the nature of the intervention that you plan to develop?: During the micro-teaching practices of pre-service science teachers, I plan to require them to use their mobile phones as VR headsets with the phone shell that I will provide. The reflections of this intervention will be evaluated with the focus group interviews and the quantitative queries regarding the technology acceptances of the participants as well as the peer reviews between the participants and the initial feedbacks of mine for them
Who is the target group of the intervention?: The target group of the intervention thought to consists of the pre-service science teachers from a state university that enrolled in the "Instructional Technologies" course.
What kind of setting will you use?: I plan to train and encourage the participants to use low-end VR during their micro-teaching practices during the approximately 12-week semester, first three weeks allocated for the necessary training. The required hardware power is abundant as the participants will use their devices, as the VR interface framework named Google Cardboard is compatible with most of the consumer devices. The head-mounted displays that I will provide are low-cost tools that just contain two biconvex optic lenses and an area that the smartphones from different sizes can be embedded. This even can be DIY' ed using regular cardboards, as the name suggests.
What kind of learning outcomes do you plan to target?: Technology acceptance of pre-service teachers, primarily through the mixed-method evaluations, in order to ensure the triangulation(s) of data, method, inferences resulting from these.
What I am requesting from you resembles a pre-peer-review for such a construction. For example, I would be flattered if you would propose alternative learning theories to take as the basis of such an intervention, sharing your ideas, the suitable VR-based materials, resources and tools to use in the process and may even propose an adequate educational design research framework for me to adhere to.
Let such a conversation to flourish, which would not only guide me during this process but also serve as a convalescent topic of discussion for relevant emerging research! As this encouragement implies, I intend to keep this discussion alive until being incapable of doing so :-) Let us brainstorm together and assemble as the "Avengers" of the science education literature!
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Question
- Aug 2018
A teacher in the class plays an important role.
Mother , father and siblings at home plays an equal role to nurture the creative behaviour.
who else plays a role in creativity fostering of an individual.
- Environment-? what factors ? please list them.
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Question
- Mar 2011
Media Literacy-New tool for Education:
Theme: History of the Culture from Stone Age to Medieval
Venue: Serbia
Time: 3rd to 10th of May 2011 (8 days)
Participants: High School Students (14 to 19 years old) and
Teachers interested to implement media literacy and media education in curriculum
International Intercultural Multimedia Education Technology (IIMET)
Media Educators of the Media Education Centre (Belgrade, Serbia) and High Mowing School, Boston, USA with 25 students from Serbia and USA will have International Filmmaking project: Travel, Source for Cultural Research. With equipment for filming, animation, radio and multimedia presentation we are going to discovery 7000 years of History!
International Teams will work on different presentations:
· Short film
· Documentary
· TV report
· Radio report
· Animation
· Multimedia presentation
All material we will produce during our traveling Film Camp will be special tool for future education!
Media Education Centre
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Question
- Apr 2019
Is the development of computerized advanced information processing technologies, ie technologies typical of the current technological revolution known as Industry 4.0, currently one of the major determinants shaping contemporary philosophical concepts describing the role of science and conducted research?
In some countries over 90 percent. official matters citizens now settle through the Internet at home. Similarly with payments and transfers via the Internet as part of electronic banking. In addition to laptops, tablets, smartphones and smartphones, more and more devices allow access to the Internet. Therefore, more and more devices offer various information services available on the Internet. More and more people use the Internet as the main global information medium. The time spent on reading books decreases and the time spent on browsing information portals and social media portals on the Internet increases. In this way, people's habits and social behaviors change. This situation can also influence the role and importance of science in the modern world.
Do you agree with my opinion on this matter?
In view of the above, I am asking you the following question:
Is the development of computerized advanced information processing technologies, ie technologies typical of the current technological revolution known as Industry 4.0, currently one of the major determinants shaping contemporary philosophical concepts describing the role of science and conducted research?
Please reply
I invite you to the discussion
Thank you very much
Best wishes
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Question
- Dec 2013
Employers want students to graduate as ‘critical thinkers’. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology specifically recommended focusing on integrating active learning techniques into classrooms. As a partial response to these discussions, the student-centered classroom has taken a bit of center-stage with many U.S. universities transitioning away from traditional lectures (teacher-centered learning) toward a student-centered curriculum. ‘Scaled.Up' is one such example in use. In particular, it would be of value to hear the experiences, pros and cons, from teachers in a K-16 educational setting in regards to student-centered learning. Also, it would be beneficial to hear ideas and receive resource information on how someone, who learned in a teacher-centered environment, can begin to make an exploratory transition toward a student-centered pedagogy.
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Question
- Sep 2016
TITLE: Administration and Teacher's Perceptions on the Standard-Based Evaluation System and how it is used to change instructional practices and student learning (TESS or Danielson Model)
I am needing to add some things that relate your problem and study to a suitable CIA topic. i need to relate teacher assessment to curriculum, student assessment and instruction. I need to use these to make a connection. It could however, be teachers perceptions of how the formative component can be used to change instruction in ways that affect student achievement (or something of that sort).
HELP!!!
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Question
- Nov 2017
Education for Sustainability (EfS) is designated a Cross-Curricular Priority in Australia, but arguably this phrase is an oxymoron. We know that schools and teachers struggle with integrating cross-curricular themes. Is there a danger that in expecting EfS to be everywhere, it ends up being nowhere convincingly? Geography and Science are both natural curriculum homes for links to be made and I have written myself about links between EfS and Citizenship education. Others would make a case for Technology and young people designing smart solutions to issues around Sustainability. Please feel free to share your examples of good practice here where yoo have seen effective approaches to creating space for EfS in school curricula and high quality student learning.
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Question
- Mar 2013
Although 21st century man has made incredible strides in medicine, science and technology, if we look at the international tables for morbidity, mortality and happiness then what we see (particularly in the urbanized materially wealthy western world) that despite increasing our longevity, it is apparent that we have not made similar progress in increasing our happiness or our levels of mental, emotional and physical well-being i.e. mind and body management.
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Question
- Aug 2019
It assumed tha in many countries, if not all, man's concentration is presently turned towards physical and material devices. Education and instruction, consequently, are victims of the new wishes ans needs. As a matter of fact, sciences about practical and productive fields are given priority and the sciences of man's inner side, among which is Phylosophy, are relegated to the lowest rank.
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