ACEID2023 Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations

Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis

66919 | Make the World a Better Place: Design Skills in an Academic Context

Carla Cadete, Lusófona University, Portugal

This article aims to present a pedagogical practice carried out in an academic context with undergraduate students from the 2nd year of the Communication Design course at Lusófona University (UL) in the second semester of 2021/22. A proposal that provides continuity to a project developed in the 1st semester in partnership with this NGO. A collaborative endeavour to help build a school in Monte Chimoio, Manica, Mozambique, through a collection of design artefacts for fundraising – T-shirts and sweatshirts for different ages and genders, hats, key holders and tote bags. The creative process was done using the Design Thinking methodology (problem definition, project ideation, prototyping and implementation of the chosen proposal). The article is divided into four parts: Introduction, literature review, work methodology and final considerations. The President of the NGO will take part in the last step of the creative process by selecting for print the best propositions. This pedagogical exercise proved to be an opportunity for students to engage in a real-life project with the possibility of applying the tools and methods learned in the course. Design scholars must motivate and prepare design students to work on projects that contribute to society and to recognize the role design plays in social issues — a Design practice through co-working that educates students to use design processes to support positive social change giving them the ability to be part of a project with a cause.

67425 | Designing the Support Framework for New Students in the Postgraduate Module “Open and Distance Education: Theory, Institutions and Operations” at the Open University

Antonia Maria Chartofylaka, Hellenic Open University, Greece

Evangelia Manousou, Hellenic Open University, Greece

Ilias Mavroidis, Hellenic Open University, Greece

Ioannis Giossos, Hellenic Open University, Greece

Maria Koutsouba, Hellenic Open University, Greece

Student support has been at the core of the research interests of the practitioners and the organizations that provide distance learning services since the very beginning. Besides their individual needs and capabilities, distance learning students have specific common characteristics that are linked to the context in which they study, which differs from the traditional way of learning in an on-site campus. Therefore, Open Universities need to invest in student support constantly, to improve student experience, reduce the numbers of student retention and preserve their characteristic of "openness" to anyone who wish to study. In their previous study in academic support (Lionarakis et al., 2017), the researchers identified seven discrete categories of support for both newcomers and ongoing students at the Hellenic Open University. The practical outcome of the study was an open course (MOOC) open to all interested students through the learning management system of the Open University’s Educational Content, Methodology and Technology Laboratory. Based on the abovementioned findings, the current research aims to record the specific needs of the new students at the postgraduate program "Education and Technology in distance teaching and learning" (School of Humanities) and evaluate the role of the MOOC on their first steps of their studies. Students’ viewpoints have been gathered through especially designed focus groups and the tutors were also involved, giving their viewpoints, through individual interviews. The findings are useful to both course designers and tutors, to better understand their audience and design more direct and more effective ways to cover their needs.

67827 | The Study Concept of the Professional Learning Community and Teacher’s Practice in School, Thailand

Anchalee Srikolchan, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand

The research aims to study the concept and practice of a teacher's professional learning community. This research collects data from 360 teachers by using online questionnaires: consisting of multiple choices about general information, the concept of teacher professional learning community, and rating scale questions about the practice of using the process of teacher professional learning community. According to the results, teachers have the proper perspective on the professional learning community process. First, evident by the percentage of "yes" respondents, up from 85%, there are some issues that show that teachers have misconceptions about the process of the professional learning community and that the implementation of discussion results in teaching and learning needs to be followed up with only 54.7%. Secondly, the Teacher's Practice in the Professional Learning Community process was moderate. Only some issues are practised at a high level, namely, working together in friendship, trusting, and helping each other. Empowering and empowering each other in solving problems with students and creating encouragement to work together to solve the issues and welcome each other in success. The results of comparing the concepts and practices of teachers in using the professional learning community process are classified by teaching experience, subject, size of the school, and knowledge worker positions; found no differences in all variables.

68702 | Teaching Science in Remote Schools: The Struggles and Successes of Teachers in the Perspective of Ethnographer

Kenneth

Adu-Gyamfi, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Isaiah Atewini Asaki, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

The remote population in Ghana has been on the increase in the last decade with the number of males being slightly higher compared to females. This affected the share of educational resources as the remote schools were disadvantaged in human and material resources. However, the basic schools in the remote communities had their students in the junior high schools sit for the basic education certificate examination (BECE) together with their age-mates in the urban communities. We, therefore, studied the struggles and successes of two teachers (a male and a female) in an attempt to teach science concepts to students in remote basic schools effectively. The two teachers met our main selection criteria of gender and have taught science in a remote school for 5 years and above. Through observer participation, interviews, and field notes qualitative data were collected from teachers, both during school hours and outside school hours, over a period of 14 weeks. The data in a form of text were broken into units of analysis using content analysis procedures. It was found that being a female teacher and a family woman and teaching science in a remote school was challenging. Though teachers struggled to effectively teach science to students in remote schools there were instances some students had attained grade 1 in science in the BECE. Implications of the findings are discussed.

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