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1 – 10 of over 6000This study determines which aspects of the intended object of learning (planned by teachers during the first phase of a learning study) is made discernible from a learners'…
Abstract
Purpose
This study determines which aspects of the intended object of learning (planned by teachers during the first phase of a learning study) is made discernible from a learners' perspective. In a learning study, the intended, enacted, and lived object of learning are considered. This study focuses on the learning material used by teachers while designing a lesson.
Design/methodology/approach
In many learning studies, variation theory is used to design lessons, which predicts difficulties in and possibilities for student learning. The data consisted of a lesson part – instruction through a video-recorded dance choreography – employed to enhance primary school (in a Swedish context, grade 4) students' dancing skills in the subject of Physical Education and Health. The choreography comprised five different sequences, where a variation occurred when the subsequent (new) sequence was applied to the previous movement pattern. The sequences acted as building blocks, where the students' transitions from one movement pattern to another were logical and distinguishable.
Findings
The results of this study show in what way an analysis of learning material, based on variation theory, can help teachers take into account the level of complexity of the object of learning. The results also identify which parts of a lesson design can be predicted to present a higher degree of challenge and by that more difficult to grasp, especially for students with different educational needs.
Originality/value
Lessons may be designed based on theoretical assumptions to ensure effective classroom learning and provide guidance to teachers based on student needs.
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This research explores lesson study as a way to enhance the quality of teaching for pupils with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder by observing changes to one…
Abstract
Purpose
This research explores lesson study as a way to enhance the quality of teaching for pupils with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder by observing changes to one pupil's (Wilma) active educational participation. The study also investigates if and in what ways the professional development impacted teaching practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Five teachers met with the author on four occasions. Between these meetings, the teachers delivered the lessons they had planned together. The author video recorded the meetings to discern how the teachers' expressions developed. The author shared their thoughts with another researcher to enable an interrater validity examination.
Findings
The implementation of the lesson study vehicle enabled the teachers to transform their thinking from mainly focusing on pupils' deficiencies to instead focusing on their strengths. A relationship was found between teachers' understanding of central coherence, their skills in adapting received instructions and pupils' abilities to process and contextualize information or discern the whole picture.
Research limitations/implications
Research that involves teachers in the learning process emphasizes the relation between teachers’ thinking and their potential to enable the contextualized inclusion of pupils with learning disabilities.
Originality/value
This research offers important insights into how school-day navigation for pupils with severe intellectual disability and autism can be understood through the lens of variation theory; the teachers' repeated and adjusted use of the frame on the schedule strip enabled Wilma to discern what would happen next during the school day.
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Stefan Cronholm and Hannes Göbel
Action design research (ADR) has become widely accepted as a prominent research method within information systems when managing design-oriented research projects. One purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Action design research (ADR) has become widely accepted as a prominent research method within information systems when managing design-oriented research projects. One purpose of the ADR method is to provide methodological guidance for the building of IT artefacts. However, several scholars have reported a lack of guidance of method support at the micro level. This article aims to complement the macro level of the ADR method by integrating prescriptive method support at the micro level.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach including direct content analysis. An empirical ADR project was analysed in order to identify method support that could be integrated into the ADR method.
Findings
Method support at the micro level was identified for all the stages of the ADR method. The method support consists of procedural support, guiding concepts, and various techniques for the documentation of project tasks stated in the ADR method.
Research limitations/implications
The contribution to theory consists of aspects concerning the integration of macro and micro levels: relationships between normative and prescriptive support, continuous focus shifts, and method completeness.
Practical implications
The contribution to practice consists of explicit suggestions for method support that could be integrated into the ADR method.
Originality/value
This study extends previously provided knowledge by offering empirical evidence concerning theoretical constructions consisting of explicit relationships between ADR tasks and integrated method support, and elaboration on the integration of macro and micro levels.
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Martha L.P. MacLeod, Neil Hanlon, Trish Reay, David Snadden and Cathy Ulrich
Despite many calls to strengthen connections between health systems and communities as a way to improve primary healthcare, little is known about how new collaborations can…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite many calls to strengthen connections between health systems and communities as a way to improve primary healthcare, little is known about how new collaborations can effectively alter service provision. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a health authority, municipal leaders and physicians worked together in the process of transforming primary healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal qualitative case study was conducted to explore the processes of change at the regional level and within seven communities across Northern British Columbia (BC), Canada. Over three years, 239 interviews were conducted with physicians, municipal leaders, health authority clinicians and leaders and other health and social service providers. Interviews and contextual documents were analyzed and interpreted to articulate how ongoing transformation has occurred.
Findings
Four overall strategies with nine approaches were apparent. The strategies were partnering for innovation, keeping the focus on people in communities, taking advantage of opportunities for change and encouraging experimentation while managing risk. The strategies have bumped the existing system out of the status quo and are achieving transformation. Key components have been a commitment to a clear end-in-view, a focus on patients, families, and communities, and acting together over time.
Originality/value
This study illuminates how partnering for primary healthcare transformation is messy and complicated but can create a foundation for whole system change.
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Stefan Kleinke and David Cross
The purpose of this two-part research was to investigate the effect of remote learning on student progress in elementary education. Part one, presented in this paper, examined…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this two-part research was to investigate the effect of remote learning on student progress in elementary education. Part one, presented in this paper, examined achievement differences between learners in a fully remote learning environment and those in a hybrid setting.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative, quasi-experimental study with factorial design was used to investigate group differences in student achievement between the different learning environments. Ex-post-facto data from standardized test scores were utilized to examine in which ways the learning environment may have affected learner progress in two distinct subject areas crucial to elementary education: English language (ELA) and math.
Findings
Findings revealed a significant difference between the two learning environments in both subject areas. While preexisting group differences, selection biases and testing inconsistencies could be effectively ruled out as potential causes for the observed differences, other factors such as developmental and environmental differences between the learning environments seemed to be influential. Therefore, the follow-on research aimed at further investigating and confirming the influence of such factors and will be presented in a Part 2 paper.
Practical implications
Knowledge of the observed differences in learning achievements between the different environments, as well as the factors likely causing them, may aid educators and school administrators in their decision processes when faced with difficult circumstances such as during the pandemic.
Originality/value
When the SARS-CoV-2 virus started to rapidly spread around the globe, educators across the world were looking for alternatives to classroom instruction. Remote learning became an essential tool. However, in contrast to e-learning in postsecondary education, for which an abundance of research has been conducted, relatively little is known about the efficacy of such approaches in elementary education. Lacking this type of information, it seems that educators and administrators are facing difficult decisions when trying to align the often conflicting demands of public health, local politics and parent pressure with what may be best for student learning.
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Andrew Morden, Lauren Brooks, Clare Jinks, Mark Porcheret, Bie Nio Ong and Krysia Dziedzic
Intervention evaluations have not always accounted for long-term implementation of interventions. The purpose of this paper is to explore implementation of a primary care…
Abstract
Purpose
Intervention evaluations have not always accounted for long-term implementation of interventions. The purpose of this paper is to explore implementation of a primary care intervention during the lifespan of the trial and beyond.
Design/methodology/approach
Eight general practices participated in the trial (four control and four intervention). In-depth interviews (with nine GPs and four practices nurses who delivered the intervention) and observation methods were employed. Thematic analysis was utilized and Normalization Process Theory (NPT) constructs were compared with emergent themes.
Findings
Macro-level policy imperatives shaped practice priorities which resulted in the “whole system” new intervention not being perceived to be sustainable. Continued routinization of the intervention into usual care beyond the lifespan of the funded study was dependent on individualized monitoring and taking forward tacit knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
The authors discuss the implications of these findings for sociological theories of implementation and understanding outcomes of research led complex interventions.
Originality/value
The study describes the complex interplay between macro processes and individual situated practices and contributes to understanding if, how, and why interventions are sustained beyond initial “research push”. The value of the study lies in describing the conditions and potential consequences of long-term implementation, which might be translated to other contexts.
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Andrew D. Madden, Sheila Webber, Nigel Ford and Mary Crowder
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between preferred choice of school subject and student information behaviour (IB).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between preferred choice of school subject and student information behaviour (IB).
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed methods were employed. In all, 152 students, teachers and librarians participated in interviews or focus groups. In total, 1,375 students, key stage 3 (11-14 years) to postgraduate, responded to a questionnaire. The research population was drawn from eight schools, two further education colleges and three universities. Insights from the literature review and the qualitative research phase led to a hypothesis which was investigated using the questionnaire: that students studying hard subjects are less likely to engage in deep IB than students studying soft subjects.
Findings
Results support the hypothesis that preferences for subjects at school affect choice of university degree. The hypothesis that a preference for hard or soft subjects affects IB is supported by results of an analysis in which like or dislike of maths/ICT is correlated with responses to the survey. Interviewees’ comments led to the proposal that academic subjects can be classified according to whether a subject helps students to acquire a “tool of the Mind” or to apply such a tool. A model suggesting how IB may differ depending on whether intellectual tools are being acquired or applied is proposed.
Practical implications
The “inner logic” of certain subjects and their pedagogies appears closely linked to IB. This should be considered when developing teaching programmes.
Originality/value
The findings offer a new perspective on subject classification and its association with IB, and a new model of the association between IB and tool acquisition or application is proposed, incorporating the perspectives of both teacher and student.
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Xin Li, Verner Worm and Peihong Xie
The paper debunks Peter P. Li’s assertion that Yin-Yang is superior to any other cognitive frames or logical systems for paradox research. The purpose of this paper is to alert…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper debunks Peter P. Li’s assertion that Yin-Yang is superior to any other cognitive frames or logical systems for paradox research. The purpose of this paper is to alert the Chinese indigenous management researchers to the danger of Chinese exceptionalism and over-confidence.
Design/methodology/approach
To show that Peter P. Li’s assertion is doubtful, the authors identify the flaws in his analysis.
Findings
The authors find that there are three serious flaws in Peter P. Li’s analysis. First, there are four defects in the typology of cognitive frames he built in order to compare Yin-Yang with the others. Second, his understanding of dialectics in general and Hegelian dialectics in particular is flawed. And finally, without resorting to Yin-Yang, many scholars can develop theories that are equivalent to those derived from Yin-Yang.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the page limit, this paper only focuses on arguing that Yin-Yang is not superior to other cognitive frames or logical systems without going one step further to explain in which situations Yin-Yang are valuable and might be more suitable than others for helping us understand some research issues.
Practical implications
This paper implies that we should not blindly believe that the Chinese way of thinking and acting is superior to other people’s. Chinese people should be open-minded in the globalized era, not only promoting their own culture but also appreciating and learning from other cultures.
Social implications
The reduction of cultural exceptionalism and ethnocentrism can make cross-cultural communication and interaction smoother.
Originality/value
This paper is a rigorous critique on the “Yin-Yang being superior” assertion of Peter P. Li.
Ia Williamsson and Linda Askenäs
This study aims to understand how practitioners use their insights in software development models to share experiences within and between organizations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand how practitioners use their insights in software development models to share experiences within and between organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study of practitioners in software development projects, in large-, medium- or small-size businesses. It analyzes interview material in three-step iterations to understand reflexive practice when using software development models.
Findings
The study shows how work processes are based on team members’ experiences and common views. This study highlights the challenges of organizational learning in system development projects. Current practice is unreflective, habitual and lacks systematic ways to address recurring problems and share information within and between organizations. Learning is episodic and sporadic. Knowledge from previous experience is individual not organizational.
Originality/value
Software development teams and organizations tend to learn about, and adopt, software development models episodically. This research expands understanding of how organizational learning takes place within and between organizations with practitioners who participate in teams. Learnings show the potential for further research to determine how new curriculums might be formed for teaching software development model improvements.
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