ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Troubling Neutrality: Toward a Philosophy of Teacher Ambiguity
Author: Heybach, Jessica A.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Ambiguity (Semantics),Educational Philosophy,Comparative Analysis,Ethics,Freedom,Death,Jews,European History,Etymology,Professional Autonomy,Teaching Methods

Who is keeping watch to warn when policies and practices become essentially the same as those used in previous eras to justify the destruction of human beings? This question is asked by author Jessica Heybach, as she describes the etymological roots of the word &quot;neutrality,&quot; the social function of teacher as neutral, and its relationship to what she believes is the self-censorship, or the knowing adoption of neutrality as a guiding philosophy that has become common practice and common sense among teachers. Heybach notes that the image of a teacher as neutral is far more complicated than it may first appear, and the issue of teacher neutrality proper prompts teachers to consider the unethical dimension of sacrificing one&apos;s freedom, and adopting the suspicious aims of those who claim that neutral is in fact ethical. Rather, she contends, freedom is found through ambiguity and in the choosing associated with subjective crises. Ambiguity freedom is a continual choice, it must be won--each new set of circumstances always demands engagement and inquiry rather than the application of already predetermined outcomes. Educators must be mindful of their perpetual evasion of freedom, their own and the freedom of their students, and begin to imagine a classroom or school where every moment offers a choice to be made.
Fairness in Teaching Evolution in Public Schools
Author: Warnick, Bryan
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Evolution,Creationism,Science Instruction,Public Schools,Controversial Issues (Course Content),Scientific Concepts,Theories

In this article, Bryan Warnick discusses not so much whether creationism should be taught in schools, but how evolution should be taught. He contends that if we are going to prohibit the teaching of something like Intelligent Design (ID) in science classrooms because it is unscientific, what implications does that then have for how we teach evolution? Warnick&apos;s goal was to uncover the most fair and consistent position. To analyze fairness in science class, it must first be acknowledged that there is much overlap of the biological and geological basics between the Darwinian evolutionist and the ID theorists. After further evaluation, Warnick concludes that, when the theories converge, as they do when they both make claims about what stands behind nature, they should be treated the same. Another way to be fair is to open science class to the philosophical debate about what lays behind nature, and give both sides a voice in this long and heated debate.
Can Personal Relationships Encourage Social Reform?
Author: Watras, Joseph
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interpersonal Relationship,Social Change,Cooperation,Religious Factors,Experience,Community,Philosophy

This paper will consider whether Martin Buber&apos;s affirmation of relationships offers a means for people to cooperate in seeking social change. On the one hand, Buber determined that the essence of humanity was in the relationships people formed. On the other hand, he did not think that genuinely mutual relationships could fuel political movements. For Buber, genuine relationships were intensely personal and sharing them caused their quality to deteriorate. Despite the truth of this perspective, it seems there is some connection between the search for self-perfection as Buber described it and wider social reform. Three elements contribute to this thesis. One comes from the way Buber depended on his religious beliefs and his academic studies to direct the Zionist movement toward genuine human community. The second emerges in Buber&apos;s personal experiences. The third element comes from experiences of spiritual leaders, such as Gandhi, whose admirers imitated their commitment to personal perfection and brought about wider social change. The question of whether personal relationships can become a force for social reform is related to issues of appropriate pedagogical practices. Although Buber did not offer a set of practices teachers could follow to build a moral community or a moral classroom he did not consider rules for classroom practices to be unimportant. For Buber, a dependable classroom organization was an essential aspect of education. Nonetheless, he warned that it should not hinder teachers from helping students react to situations from their personal, internal sense of unity.
Comparison of Name-Writing Rubrics: Is There a Gold Standard?
Author: Puranik, Cynthia S.
Date: 2014-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preschool Children,Naming,Emergent Literacy,Childrens Writing,Scoring Rubrics,Scores,Correlation,Alphabets

The purpose of this study was to compare name writing using six different rubrics with the aim of ascertaining whether any were better for evaluating preschoolers' name-writing skills. In addition, we investigated the relation between name writing assessed using these six rubrics and children's emergent and conventional literacy skills. Name-writing data were obtained from 346 preschoolers across four data sets and scored using six rubrics: five detailed rubrics and a simple rubric. Results indicated that the scores from these rubrics were highly correlated. Furthermore, the magnitude of the correlations between name-writing scores and children's literacy skills were similar. Findings suggest that these rubrics provide an equivalent index of children's name-writing skills at a single assessment point.
A Research on Identifying the Need for Distance Education for National Athletes Who Study in School of Physical Education and Sport
Author: Bozkus, Taner
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Distance Education,Athletes,College Athletics,Qualitative Research,Student Needs,Attendance,College Students,Student Surveys

The purpose of this study was to identify the problems which national athletes, who study in School of Physical Education and Sport in universities, encounter in formal education and to determine their need for distance learning. Qualitative research, which is one the techniques of researching the method of the study, forms a structured deliberation technique. Deliberation questions are prepared with this technique based on expert opinions and during the deliberation, the questions were asked to the people who attended the deliberation in a partially flexible way. Population and sampling of the research; population of the study is the people who study in School of Physical Education and Sports, and sampling is the 348 national athletes who study wrestling, bocce, dart, bowling, basketball, volleyball, football, taekwando, karate, archery, atheism, tennis, judo, badminton, table tennis, boxing, weight lifting, handball, gymnastics and swimming in School of Physical Education and Sports. 20.4% of these sportsmen are female, 79.6% of them are male and 78.7% of them are between 19-25 years old, 14.4% of them are between 26-30 years old, 4.3% of them are between 31-35 years old, and 2.6% of them are 36 years old and older. 26.4% of the sportsmen who attend the research, study Coaching, 49.7% of them study Profession of Teaching, 14.1% of them study Sport Management and 9.8% of them study Recreation. And 97.7% of these sportsmen receive undergraduate education, 2.3% of them receive graduate education. At the end of the study, the national athletes, who attended the research, emphasized that they were having problems in formal education, they failed the exams because they couldn't follow the courses, when they had to attend the courses, they delayed their trainings, and this situation effected their education level. 87.9% of the national athletes who took part in the study pointed that they need distance learning and if such a programme is developed, they could follow the courses even when they were resting in the camping and they think that a programme like this must be developed as soon as possible.
The Barriers and Needs of Online Learners
Author: Srichanyachon, Napaporn
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Barriers,Student Needs,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Distance Education,Gender Differences,Access to Computers,Computer Literacy,Undergraduate Students,Questionnaires,Measures (Individuals),Statistical Significance,Statistical Distributions,Correlation,Budgets

This study investigated some specific barriers and needs that online students are facing when learning English through WebEx system. It compared students' barriers and needs with their background including gender, computer ownership, and monthly allowance. It also investigated the relationship among computer aptitude, barriers and needs of online learners. The samples were 211 undergraduate students enrolled in Fundamental English course. The instrument in this study was a questionnaire. Results indicated that the levels of needs and barriers of online learners in general were moderate. There were no statistically significant differences at 0.05 level found in barriers and needs of online learners as classified by gender, computer ownership, and computer aptitude. As hypothesised, there was a negative relationship between computer aptitude and barriers of online learners at 0.01 level. Students with high computer aptitude had fewer barriers to learn online than those with low computer aptitude. In addition, there was a positive relationship between barriers and needs of online learners at 0.01 levels. Students with more barriers were found to have more needs to help them to learn online than those with few barriers. Teachers and institutions can take the results of this study into consideration when developing online courses.
Task Relevance in the Design of Online Professional Development for Teachers of ELLs: A Q Methodology Study
Author: Collins, Linda J.
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Faculty Development,Online Courses,Web Based Instruction,English Language Learners,Task Analysis,Q Methodology,Semi Structured Interviews,Instructional Design,Relevance (Education),Instructional Effectiveness,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Factor Analysis

Online professional development (oPD) for teachers should focus on designing web-based learning opportunities that help practicing educators solve the tough problems of practice when working in their schools. Technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge can be integrated in the design of online professional development modules to enhance task relevance for maximum learning and transformation. The purpose of this study was to learn which tasks in an online professional development module were ranked by in-service educators as relevant to their work with English language learners (ELLs). Using Q methodology, the researcher asked participants to rank the relevancy of 36 online tasks from an online professional development module designed and developed at an American university. Participants used a -5 to 5 forced distribution to rank online activities from &quot;Least relevant to my work with ELLs&quot; to &quot;Most relevant to my work with ELLs&quot; followed by a semi-structured interview to explain their decisions. After data analysis, two factors emerged, indicating that participants' perceptions on task relevance differed by professional roles and educational settings. The participants also favored didactic online tasks over interactive tasks. The findings from the oPD participants' responses have the potential to serve as the basis for future online professional development design and for planning other relevant activities to be applied to the e-learning environment.
Student Opinions on Management of Distance Education Applications
Author: Gulsen, Celal
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Distance Education,Student Attitudes,Graduate Students,Student Surveys,Likert Scales,Reliability,Comparative Analysis

Traditional education systems can sometimes become inadequate in the face of technological developments. Individuals, whose educational needs cannot be met by traditional education systems, can tend to search for alternatives and can have different demands in order to meet with these needs. These demands of the individuals can be reciprocated by managements and internet-based education methods, which remove limitations of time and space, provide facilities and equal opportunities, comply with student-centered educational approach and use computer and internet technologies, can be put into practice. Appearing before us sometimes as an alternative to the traditional education and sometimes as a support, these applications began to occupy an important place in the education systems of our era. This study, which was conducted by general survey method in view of this importance, aims to learn opinions of &quot;masters' students on the efficiency of distance education applications.&quot; Survey of &quot;Distant Education and Technologies Assessment,&quot; developed by Aktas (2008) and adapted to Istanbul sampling by the researcher, was used in order to determine opinions. University students, who are doing masters without thesis at Social Sciences Institute Educational Administration Supervision Planning and Economics Department of Fatih University in 2013-2014 academic years, constitute the study group of the research. All of the students in the study group were reached. As a result of the study, masters' students believe that &quot;distance education applications&quot; fills a very important void for individuals that experience difficulties especially in time management despite some of its inconveniencies. By looking at the results of the study, it is suggested that measures, which provide further dissemination of distance education application by will improve their technical competencies, should be taken.
Perceived Quality Dimensions in Distance Education: Excerpts from Student Experiences
Author: Thapliyal, Upasna
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Distance Education,Educational Quality,Higher Education,Graduate Students,Student Attitudes,Content Analysis,Student Experience,Inservice Teacher Education,Foreign Countries

Distance education by its nature differs from the regular mode of higher education. A viable option for providing access to higher education for students who cannot attend traditional, on-campus courses, distance education, often gets a tag of being sedentary. This puts into question the qualitative aspect of the distance education courses. Distance education therefore often confronts a perception that its programmes, learning materials, and student support are not of a high standard (Badat, 2005). Evaluation of the effectiveness of distance learning should focus mainly on students' academic performance and their feedback on their learning experiences. The present study intends to study the quality facet of distance education and its dimensions as perceived by the students enrolled in distance education courses. For conducting the study, 100 students pursuing Masters of Education (M.Ed.) from University School of Open Learning, Panjab University, were selected. Students were asked to give their feedback on areas associated with the quality like, aims and objectives of the course, teaching of the course content, curriculum transaction, learning material, student support services, evaluation procedures, infrastructural facilities and general perspective of the overall learning environment. To study the quality dimensions as perceived by the learners, content analysis was incorporated. The results reveal that the students are satisfied with the overall quality of distance education courses. The areas that emerged to be a matter of concern in the present study are student support services and infrastructural facilities available in the institutions offering distance education courses.
Modern Languages and Distance Education: Thirteen Days in the Cloud
Author: Dona, Elfe
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College Faculty,Second Language Instruction,Spanish,German,Distance Education,Online Courses,Web 2.0 Technologies,College Second Language Programs,Undergraduate Students,Graduate Students,Interviews,Student Surveys,Student Attitudes,Instructional Design

This research study documents the journey of two modern language faculty (Spanish and German) from their original beliefs that teaching foreign languages can only be conducted in a face-to-face format to their eventual development of an online class using Web 2.0 technologies to encourage their students' active skills of reading and speaking in their target language. The research study shows how the instructors incorporated Web 2.0 technologies and used the Communities of Inquiry (CoI) framework to design their online class to ensure their class had the essential elements of teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence. Web 2.0 technologies used to build strong levels of CoI were BB-Collaborate web conferencing, Voki, VoiceThread, ANVILL, Fakebook, Bubble,us, Mindmapping, Flashcard Exchange, Glogster, Zunal, and Weebly.
Language Learning Strategies Used by Distance Learners of English: A Study with a Group of Turkish Distance Learners of EFL
Author: Altunay, Dilek
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Distance Education,Learning Strategies,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Interviews,Questionnaires,Communicative Competence (Languages),College Students,Memory,Cognitive Processes,Metacognition,Affective Behavior

Use of language learning strategies is important for language learning. Some researchers state that language learning strategies are important because their use affects the development of communicative competence (Lessard-Clouston, 1997 &amp; Oxford, 1990). Effective use of language learning strategies has particular importance for distance language learners who do not have direct face-to-face contact with their tutors. This study investigates the use of language learning strategies by a group of Turkish distance learners of English. Oxford (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning was used and interviews were conducted to collect data. The questionnaire results show that affective strategies are used less than the other strategy categories. The reasons for the ignorance of the affective strategies are also mentioned in the study.
Human Capital Development (HCD) through Open, Distance and E-Learning: Evidence from Corporate Annual Reports (CARs) of Top South African Listed Companies
Author: Adelowotan, Mo
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Human Capital,Open Education,Distance Education,Electronic Learning,Labor Force Development,Annual Reports,Business,Content Analysis,Qualitative Research,Employees

This paper discusses the role of open, distance and e-learning in the development of human resources by examining human capital development related disclosures in the corporate annual reports (CARs) of top South African listed companies. The study employed content analysis method to analyse the CARs of these companies with the aid of qualitative analysis software known as Atlasti. The results show that open, distance and e-learning plays a significant role in the development of human capital in the new economy organisations.
Effects of Students' Characteristics on Online Learning Readiness: A Vocational College Example
Author: Cigdam, Harun
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Student Characteristics,Electronic Learning,Instructional Effectiveness,Readiness,Correlation,Vocational Education,College Students,Postsecondary Education,Measures (Individuals),Demography,Gender Differences,Intellectual Disciplines,High School Graduates,Access to Computers,Web Based Instruction,Family Income,Statistical Analysis

Educational institutions rapidly adopt concepts and practices of online learning systems for students. But many institutions' online learning programs face enormous difficulty in achieving successful strategies. It is essential to evaluate its different aspects and understand factors which influence its effectiveness. Readiness stands out among the variables that influence online learning effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to examine online learning readiness (OLR) and students' characteristics that affect OLR. This paper reports relationship between student characteristics and OLR at vocational college. Quantitative method was used to collect relevant data in this study. Hung et al.'s Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS) was administered to 725 vocational college students, in Balikesir. OLRS has 18 items grouped into five factors; computer/Internet self-efficacy (CIS), self-directed learning (SDL), learner control (LC), motivation for learning (ML), and online communication self-efficacy (OCS). t-test and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to determine if there were significant differences in online learning readiness across the students' characteristics. The study revealed that students surveyed overall ready for online learning but they need to improve themselves especially in CIS and OCS in order to be successful at online learning. Students' characteristics (PC ownership, department, type of high school graduation) significantly affect learners' in some dimensions of OLRS especially CIS dimension. The research findings were discussed in line with the literature and some suggestions were presented for further research and researchers.