Wales is currently undertaking significant curricular reform following a systematic review of the country’s education system (Donaldson, 2015). As frameworks that reflect evolving societal demands and shape learning experiences, curricula occupy a powerful and integral place in Education. Despite this, it is not always clear that they support pupils’ learning in ways that pay attention to research evidence and classroom experience. The CAMAU Project (University of Glasgow & University of Wales Trinity Saint David), designed to address this concern, was commissioned by the Welsh Government to support the process of radical, evidence-based curricular reform. Developed around the Integrity Model of Change (Hayward & Spencer, 2010), it brings together researchers, policy-makers and Welsh teachers as co-developers of learning progressions using participatory research methods (Bergold & Thomas, 2012) and the principle of subsidiarity (Donaldson, ibid). These frameworks will support planning and formative assessment by describing learning journeys for Welsh pupils aged 3 to 16.This paper describes the CAMAU project and discusses selected findings from research, policy and practice in the first phase of developing progression frameworks for Design and Technology, and Computer Science. Reviews of research and policy presented in Hayward et al (2018) were undertaken using the ‘Knowledge to Action’ method (Khangura et al, 2012). A discussion of this evidence suggests that ideas of ‘the process of abstraction’, ‘systems and mental models’ and ‘quantity, level of integration and complexity of factors considered’ may be important in learning progression. From the perspective of practice, more open-ended pupil tasks appear to support teachers better in the early stages of thinking through progression. When initially describing learning progression, many teachers focused on describing particular task requirements or the independent use of skills, rather than the underlying conceptual understanding. Initial descriptions were more skill-based with less agreement about the knowledge required to support progression.
As countries adopt computing education for all pupils from primary school upwards, there are challenging indicators: significant proportions of students who choose to study computing at universities fail the introductory courses, and the evidence for links between formal education outcomes and success in CS is limited. Yet, as we know, some students succeed without prior computing experience. Why is this? Some argue for an innate ability, some for motivation, some for the discrepancies between the expectations of instructors and students, and some -- simply -- for how programming is being taught. All agree that becoming proficient in computing is not easy. Our research takes a novel view on the problem and argues that some of that success is influenced by early childhood experiences outside formal education. In this study, we analyzed over 1300 responses to a multi-institutional and multi-national survey that we developed. The survey captures enjoyment of early developmental activities such as childhood toys, games and pastimes between the ages 0 --- 8 as well as later life experiences with computing. We identify unifying features of the computing experiences in later life, and attempt to link these computing experiences to the childhood activities. The analysis indicates that computing proficiency should be seen from multiple viewpoints, including both skill-level and confidence. Our analysis is the first to show, we believe, that particular early childhood experiences are linked to parts of computing proficiency, namely those related to confidence with problem solving using computing technology. These are essential building blocks for more complex use. We recognize issues in the experimental design that may prevent our data showing a link between early activities and more complex computing skills, and suggest adjustments for future studies. Ultimately, we expect that this line of research will feed in to early years and primary education, and thereby improve computing education for all.
This report defines notional machines (NMs), and provides a series of definitional characteristics by which they may be identified. Over several sections, it includes a first-hand report of the origin of NMs, reports a systematic literature review to track the use and development of the concept, and presents a small collection of examples collected through interviews with experienced teachers. Additionally, the report presents NMs in a common format, and makes some preliminary explorations of their use in practice, including examples of instructors using multiple NMs in sequence. Approach and method are fully detailed in evidential appendices, to support replication of results and adoption/adaptation of practice.
The lack of code comprehension skills in novice programming students is recognised as a major factor underpinning poor learning outcomes. We use Schulte's Block Model to support teachers' understanding of how to break the skill down into component parts that are more manageable for a learner. This analysis is operationalised in three code annotation-based learning/assessment exercise formats, two helping students to identify and describe programming concepts and the third enabling them to parse code correctly and carry out desk executions. A great benefit of the activities is that they are low cost and can be applied to any imperative style code and so can be easily adopted by schools anywhere; furthermore, they are active, not passive, an issue with some animation-based visualisation approaches. The exercise formats were included as part of a national schools computing science professional learning programme (PLAN C).
Purpose: This multicenter regional trial aimed to evaluate prospectively whether a home-constructed training system comprised of a camcorder, standard television, and laparoscopic box trainer could be used to advance intracorporeal laparoscopic suturing skills. Subjects and Methods: Ten urology residents attended a 1-hour teaching session on laparoscopic suturing at the outset of the study. Baseline times and quality assessment were recorded for single-knot intracorporeal laparoscopic sutures, performed on standard laparoscopic stack systems, directly after instruction. Four residents were assigned to train regularly for 4 to 8 weeks on the home-constructed system. All participants were reassessed after 4 weeks on standard laparoscopic stacks, and the times of the study group and controls were compared. Results: Baseline times were not significantly different (p = 0.2764) between the study group and controls. However, the study-group times (111.3 ± 6.874 [SEM] seconds) were significantly better (p < 0.0001) than those of the control subjects (202.2 ± 16.96 seconds) after 4 weeks and an average of 303 minutes of total training time on the home-constructed system. Furthermore, subjects training on this system were more likely to throw an acceptable knot (100%) than were the controls (66%). Two subjects who trained for a further 4 weeks achieved greater improvement in facility. Conclusions: Intracorporeal suturing skills can be learned using a home-constructed system. This could be beneficial for those wishing to develop the advanced skills required for various laparoscopic urologic procedures.
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