Description:
This paper describes an ALTC (Australian Learning and Teaching Council) funded project, which addresses the development of students‟ report writing skills in science and engineering across the undergraduate years. The WRiSE project grew out of concerns about student performance in written assessments, as well as the need to improve graduate writing emphasised by employers and government. The project approach involved a collaborative team across two institutions. The team comprised language and learning specialists and discipline staff who developed learning materials and technical and eLearning specialists who converted these into online materials. Development followed a feedback spiral, which also involved student users. WRiSE is an integrated, freely available, student centred, online learning environment for report writing in nine discipline areas within science and engineering. In each discipline area, interactive learning materials have been developed to address both the product and process of report writing, as well as the concepts and content behind the reports students have to write. WRiSE is designed to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds who have had varying writing experiences as it can be accessed according to student needs. Evaluation of WRiSE has been positive in the areas of user friendliness and improved understanding and confidence in report writing. Those students who used WRiSE have attained significantly higher grades in their reports than students who did not use WRiSE.
Description:
Place-based education attempts to position the individual in relationship with the human and non-human elements of the life-world, at a place that is welcoming of educational experience and a knowledge base from which to construct a more ecologically sustainable culture. Food gardens, along with ecological restoration projects within schools are experiencing a significant renaissance and are important sites for place-based education. Many of these places are located in and around the immediate environment of a school ground and become significant educational portals through which children explore their world. This paper reports on the literature reviewed for a study on how a pedagogy of place is cultivated within garden experiences. There is limited research about the use of school gardens as an educational tool and the specific pedagogies that support learning in this context. A number of themes emerge from various bodies of literature that provide a conceptual framework for the study of food garden pedagogies. These themes include placebased education, ecological literary, and nature as teacher. It is useful to think about primary school gardens in the light of this literature because it helps frame a research question for a study into how pedagogies of place can be cultivated within food gardens. [Author abstract, ed]
Description:
Place-based education attempts to position the individual in relationship with the human and non-human elements of the life-world, at a place that is welcoming of educational experience and a knowledge base from which to construct a more ecologically sustainable culture. Food gardens, along with ecological restoration projects within schools are experiencing a significant renaissance and are important sites for place-based education. Many of these places are located in and around the immediate environment of a school ground and become significant educational portals through which children explore their world. This paper reports on the literature reviewed for a study on how a pedagogy of place is cultivated within garden experiences. There is limited research about the use of school gardens as an educational tool and the specific pedagogies that support learning in this context. A number of themes emerge from various bodies of literature that provide a conceptual framework for the study of food garden pedagogies. These themes include placebased education, ecological literary, and nature as teacher. It is useful to think about primary school gardens in the light of this literature because it helps frame a research question for a study into how pedagogies of place can be cultivated within food gardens. [Author abstract, ed]