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Virtual worlds in education – best practice, design and research considerations
309-323Views:18The article briefly describes and characterizes the virtual worlds, different kinds of virtual worlds and possibilities of their use in education. The virtual worlds beyond the passive learning opportunities offer active, constructive and collaborative learning possibilities as well. In the middle section of this article we present the most common ways of different kinds of learning methods, which are illustrated by practical examples as well. In the final sections of the article we deal with the design research approach of 3D virtual worlds. -
Building a virtual framework to exploit multidisciplinary project workshops – peaks & pits
147-164Views:14Multidisciplinary project work in connection to industry is highly favoured at University education, since it prepares students to envision their spectrum of profession, to be able to participate in production projects in co-operation with partners out of campus, and learn to communicate between disciplines. An effctive combination presumes selection of right partners, set-up of proper virtual platform to bridge time, space, and diffrences in working styles. The set-up process requires several phases of design-based research proofing the melding process to produce a productive workshop that is sustainable. The paper describes the review of literature, the platform and set-up established, a first phase in bridging Art and Computer Science through the description of MOMELTE project, a critical evaluation in order to learn from mistakes, and a new list of design principles to improve the next phase of the workshop process. -
Overview of the accessibility of webpages, related research, advantages, guidelines and recommendation
233-262Views:14The essay aims to provide a survey of web accessibility, introduce the relevant research results along with describing the advantages of obstacle free webpages. Furthermore, I will attempt to promote the awareness of the significance of accessibility and equal access to information in case of educational webpages especially in the higher education sphere. My primary audience are educational policy makers and leaders of higher education institutions along with in-service teachers who regularly use webpages during their daily work with students struggling with various impairments. The article's focus is expanded onto the relevant professional and legal background, the most important accessibility principles in addition to discussing the tools assuring accessibility and the presentation of best practices for web developers elaborating the electronic learning environments for higher education institutions. -
"How to be well-connected?" An example for instructional process planning with Problem Graphs
145-155Views:96Teachers’ design capacity at work is in the focus of didactical research worldwide, and fostering this capacity is unarguably a possible turning point in the conveyance of mathematical knowledge. In Hungary, the tradition hallmarked by Tamás Varga is particularly demanding towards teachers as they are supposed to be able to plan their long-term processes very carefully. In this contribution, an extensive teaching material designed in the spirit of this tradition will be presented from the field of Geometry. For exposing its inner structure, a representational tool, the Problem Graph is introduced. The paper aims to demonstrate that this tool has potential for analyzing existing resources, helping teachers to reflect on their own preparatory and classroom work, and supporting the creation of new designs.
Subject Classification: 97D40, 97D50, 97D80, 97G10, 97U30
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Programming Theorems and Their Applications
213-241Views:117One of the effective methodological approaches in programming that supports the design and development of reliable software is analogy-based programming. Within this framework, the method of problem reduction plays a key role. Reducing a given problem to another one whose solving algorithm is already known can be made more efficient by the application of programming theorems. These represent proven, abstract solutions – in a general form – to some of the most common problems in programming. In this article, we present six fundamental programming theorems as well as pose five sample problems. In solving these problems, all six programming theorems will be applied. In the process of reduction, we will employ a concise specification language. Programming theorems and solutions to the problems will be given using the structogram form. However, we will use pseudocodes as descriptions of algorithms resembling their actual implementation in Python. A functional style solution to one of the problems will also be presented, which is to illustrate that for the implementation in Python, it is sufficient to give the specification of the problem for the design of the solution. The content of the article essentially corresponds to that of the introductory lectures of a course we offered to students enrolled in the Applied Mathematics specialization.
Subject Classification: D40
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The Mathematics Education Traditions of Europe (METE) Project
353-364Views:12This study is based on the work of the METE (Mathematics Education Traditions of Europe Project) team. Following a short introduction of the project, its theoretical background, methods and research design are presented in the next three sections. In the 4th section the tools developed by the METE team for qualitative and quantitative analysis of the collected data are discussed in details. The 5th section contains some personal remarks about using these tools. The 6th section presents the main results of the project, followed by a summary of the project's educational and theoretical significance. -
Categorising question question relationships in the Pósa method
91-100Views:66The doctoral research of the author – with a reverse didactic engineering (RDE) methodology – aims at reconstructing the theoretical background of the ‘intuitively developed’ Pósa method for inquiry-based learning mathematics (IBME) in Hungarian talent education. Preliminary results of the second step of this theorization is presented, which applies tools of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD). A model is proposed for categorizing question-question relationship with 3 categories: helping question, follow-up question and question of a kernel. The first two of them are claimed to represent two types (relevant or not) of generating-derived questions relationship. The model is also a prospective tool for connected task- and curriculum design and analysis within IBME development.
Subject Classification: 97D20, 97D40, 97D50, 97E50, 97K30
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Guided Discovery in Hungarian Education Using Problem Threads: The Pósa Method in Secondary Mathematics Classrooms
51-67Views:116In Hungary, ‘guided discovery’ refers to instruction in which students learn mathematical concepts through task sequences that foster mathematical thinking. A prominent figure of guided discovery is Lajos Pósa, who developed his method to teach gifted students. Rather than teaching mathematics through thematic blocks, the Pósa Method employs webs of interconnected problem threads in which problems are built on each other, and different threads are presented simultaneously, so that students work on problems from multiple threads at the same time. It was found that this method has been successful as extracurricular training for gifted students since the 1980s; however since 2017, as part of an ongoing research, the method has been applied to mainstream curriculum in two public secondary school classrooms. The present paper examines the design and implementation processes of problem threads in this public secondary school context.
Subject Classification: 97D40