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Article
Publication date: 4 July 2016

Nicole Sintov, Ellen Dux, Agassi Tran and Michael Orosz

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the impact of a competition-based intervention combining high-resolution electricity feedback, incentives, information and prompts on…

1104

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the impact of a competition-based intervention combining high-resolution electricity feedback, incentives, information and prompts on college dormitory residents’ energy consumption and participation in demand response events. The authors also investigated changes in individual-level pro-environmental behaviors and examined psychosocial correlates of behavior change.

Design/methodology/approach

Residents of 39 suites in a freshman residence hall competed against one another to reduce energy consumption and win prizes as part of a three-week competition. Feedback was provided in near real-time at the suite-level via an interactive touch-screen kiosk. Participants also completed baseline and follow-up surveys.

Findings

Electricity use among all suites was approximately 6.4 per cent lower during the competition period compared to baseline, a significant reduction. Additionally, participants reported engaging in various pro-environmental behaviors significantly more frequently during the competition relative to baseline. Changes in pro-environmental behavior were associated with changes in level of group identification and perceived social norms.

Practical implications

In three weeks, dormitory residents saved 3,158 kWh of electricity compared to baseline – the equivalent of more than 3,470 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. The findings provide evidence that real-time feedback, combined with incentives, information and prompts, can motivate on-campus residents to reduce energy consumption.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to a limited body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of dorm energy competitions in motivating college students to save energy. In addition, the authors identified individual-level behavioral and psychosocial changes made during such an intervention. University residential life planners may also use the results of this research to inform student programming.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1965

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.

Abstract

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.

Details

Aslib Proceedings, vol. 17 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0001-253X

Article
Publication date: 27 May 2014

Kay Whitehead

In Australia as elsewhere, kindergarten or pre-school teachers’ work has almost escaped historians’ attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lives and work of…

Abstract

Purpose

In Australia as elsewhere, kindergarten or pre-school teachers’ work has almost escaped historians’ attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the lives and work of approximately 60 women who graduated from the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College (KTC) between 1908 and 1917, which is during the leadership of its foundation principal, Lillian de Lissa.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a feminist analysis and uses conventional archival sources.

Findings

The KTC was a site of higher education that offered middle class women an intellectual as well as practical education, focusing on liberal arts, progressive pedagogies and social reform. More than half of the graduates initially worked as teachers, their destinations reflecting the fragmented field of early childhood education. Whether married or single, many remained connected with progressive education and social reform, exercising their pedagogical and administrative skills in their workplaces, homes and civic activities. In so doing, they were not only leaders of children but also makers of society.

Originality/value

The paper highlights the links between the kindergarten movement and reforms in girls’ secondary and higher education, and repositions the KTC as site of intellectual education for women. In turn, KTC graduates committed to progressive education and social reform in the interwar years.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 43 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 December 2021

Heather Toomey Zimmerman, Katharine Ellen Grills, Zachary McKinley and Soo Hyeon Kim

The researchers conducted a collective case study to investigate how families engaged in making activities related to aerospace engineering in six pop-up makerspace programs held…

Abstract

Purpose

The researchers conducted a collective case study to investigate how families engaged in making activities related to aerospace engineering in six pop-up makerspace programs held in libraries and one museum. The purpose of this paper is to support families’ engagement in design tasks and engineering thinking, three types of discussion prompts were used during each workshop. The orienting design conjecture was that discussion prompts would allow parents to lead productive conversations to support engineering-making activities.

Design/methodology/approach

Within a collective case study approach, 20 consented families (22 adults, 25 children) engaged in making practices related to making a lunar rover with a scientific instrument panel. Data included cases of families’ talk and actions, as documented through video (22 h) and photographs of their engineering designs. An interpretivist, qualitative video-based analysis was conducted by creating individual narrative accounts of each family (including transcript excerpts and images).

Findings

Parents used the question prompts in ways that were integral to supporting youths’ participation in the engineering activities. Children often did not answer the astronomer’s questions directly; instead, the parents revoiced the prompts before the children’s engagement. Family prompts supported reflecting upon prior experiences, defining the design problem and maintaining the activity flow.

Originality/value

Designing discussion prompts, within a broader project-based learning pedagogy, supports family engagement in engineering design practices in out-of-school pop-up makerspace settings. The work suggests that parents play a crucial role in engineering workshops for youths aged 5 to 10 years old by revoicing prompts to keep families’ design work and sensemaking talk (connecting prior and new ideas) flowing throughout a makerspace workshop.

Details

Information and Learning Sciences, vol. 123 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5348

Keywords

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