• Title/Summary/Keyword: informal education

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Researching Science Learning Outside the Classroom

  • Dillon, Justin
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.27 no.6
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    • pp.519-528
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    • 2007
  • Although science continues to be a key subject in the education of the majority of young people throughout the world, it is becoming increasingly clear that school science is failing to win the hearts and minds of many of today's younger generation. Researchers have begun to look at ways in which the learning that takes place in museums, science centres and other informal settings can add value to science learning in schools. Four case studies are used to illustrate the potential afforded by informal contexts to research aspects of science learning. The case studies involve: the European Union PENCIL (Permanent European Resource Centre for Informal Learning) project (a network of 14 museums and science centres working with schools to enhance learning in maths and science); a large natural history museum in England; the Tate Modernart gallery in London, and the Outdoor Classroom Action Research Project which involved researchers working in school grounds, field centres and farms. The range of research questions that were asked are examined as are the methodological approaches taken and the methods used to collect and analyse data. Lessons learned from the studies about research in the informal contexts are discussed critically.

Case Study of Informal Institute-Public School Collaboration in Environmental Education (환경교육에서 지역사회단체와 학교의 협력 사례 연구)

  • Kim, Su-Yeon;Kim, In-Ho;Kim, Jong-Wook
    • Hwankyungkyoyuk
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    • v.18 no.3 s.28
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    • pp.19-32
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    • 2005
  • This paper examines procedure of informal institute-public school collaboration in an elementary school and analysis environmental effects of informal institute-public school collaboration that follows up curriculum based environmental education programs. The purpose of this program is to improve environmental knowledge, attitudes of elementary students. Partnership between informal environmental Institute(NGO's) and public elementary school teachers established through program. Teachers are encouraged to be involved in student's activities and program assesment. The program we discuss here is a community collaboration project that combines environmental and outdoor education based on school curriculum and student's regional properties. The aim of the study was to describe environmental educational-based school-community partnerships and to examine the advantages and limitations for such collaborations. Qualitative and Quantitative Data are collected and analysed. Outcomes of this program are very positive. Students who were participated in this program gained more environmental awareness, attitude, knowledge, skills and affection to their region. More this programs were helpful to teachers who were participated. Further study needs to practice an exemplary collaboration and development of local school-community partnerships, which yields a blueprint for more productive collaboration in other communities.

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The Informal Knowledge of Elementary School Students about the Concepts of Fraction (분수 개념에 관한 초등학생의 비형식적 지식)

  • Hong, Eun-Suk;Kang, Wan
    • Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.59-78
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this study was to research and analyze students' informal knowledge before they learned formal knowledge about fraction concepts and to see how to apply this informal knowledge to teach fraction concepts. According to this purpose, research questions were follows. 1) What is the students' informal knowledge about dividing into equal parts, the equivalent fraction, and comparing size of fractions among important and primary concepts of fraction? 2) What are the contents to can lead bad concepts among students' informal knowledge? 3) How will students' informal knowledge be used when teachers give lessons in fraction concepts? To perform this study, I asked interview questions that constructed a form of drawing expression, a form of story telling, and a form of activity with figure. The interview questions included questions related to dividing into equal parts, the equivalent fraction, and comparing size of fractions. The conclusions are as follows: First, when students before they learned formal knowledge about fraction concepts solve the problem, they use the informal knowledge. And a form of informal knowledge is vary various. Second, among students' informal knowledge related to important and primary concepts of fraction, there are contents to lead bad concepts. Third, it is necessary to use students' various informal knowledge to instruct fraction concepts so that students can understand clearly about fraction concepts.

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Informal Support as an Influential Factor in Elderly Women′s Health: The Importance of Same-Sex Friendship in US

  • Kim, Jeoung-Hee
    • Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.59-73
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    • 1999
  • It is known that the role of informal support for elderly women is critical to their physical and mental health, adjustment in old age, and their overall life satisfaction. Elderly women's situation such as social losses, widowhood, living alone, and geographic relocation etc. may result in a need for more informal supports for elderly women's health than ever before. Particularly, women's same-sex friendships were rated higher for overall quality, intimacy, enjoyment, and nurturance. Unlike a generally accepted notion that later life for women is a time of isolation and loneliness, elderly women tend to maintain and reestablish their friendship regardless their marital status and living situation. Although studies on informal support for elderly women were inconclusive in many ways, elderly women's friendship tends to be stable despite of changing health status and life events. The relative importance between daughters and friends was also controversial. This study suggests that more research with reliable measurements is necessary for the practical prevention and intervention program of elderly women's health on this issue.

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An Evaluation of Informal Environmental Education Program Based on Evaluation Procedure Model - A Case Study on the Evaluation of Non-Indigenous, Invasive Species Management Program in New York State - (절차 모형에 따른 사회 환경교육 프로그램의 평가 - 뉴욕주의 외래종 관리 프로그램 평가 사례를 중심으로 -)

  • ;Marianne E. Krasny
    • Hwankyungkyoyuk
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.83-100
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    • 2002
  • This study introduced various theories and related studies on the evaluation of informal environmental education programs and suggested an evaluation procedure for them. The case study on the procedure and the result of Non-indigenous, Invasive Species Management/Education program evaluation was provided, which was conducted by Cornell University in cooperation with Cornell Cooperative Extension, The Nature Conservancy, and Finger Lake Land Trust. The procedure model that was used in this study was based on Herman et al. (1987) and slightly modified for the environmental education program evaluation. The procedure and results indicated that the implementation of NIS management/education program properly accomplished it's intended goal and objectives. This study also specifically described its implications for the evaluation of environmental education programs in informal settings.

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Discourse Analysis of Pre-service Science Teachers and Students in Science Museums and Its Implication for Teacher Education (과학관 수업 분석을 통해 알아본 예비 과학 교사의 비형식 교육에 대한 인식)

  • Chang, Hyun-Sook;Lee, Hyun-Ju
    • Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.211-220
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    • 2008
  • This study examined pre-service science teachers' perceptions of informal learning by adopting a discourse analysis method suggested by Mortimer and Scott(2003). The guiding research questions were: (1) What are some general patterns of the discourse occurring in science museums between a teacher and a student? (2) In what ways do the pre-service teachers perceive informal learning and teacher's role in informal settings? The 7 pre-service science teachers participated in this study. Each of them shepherd an elementary student around the museum and implemented their own instruction using a pre-planed lesson plan. Results indicated that even though the teachers had learned some characteristics of informal teaming in their college courses, they tended to implement their traditional view of science teaming into the instruction and the view affected them to set up their teaching purposes and contents, and to select communicative approach, patterns of discourse and ways of intervention.

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First to Third Graders Have Already Established (분수 개념에 대한 초등학생들의 비형식적 지식 분석 - 1${\sim}$3학년 중심으로 -)

  • Oh, Yu-Kyeong;Kim, Jin-Ho
    • Communications of Mathematical Education
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.145-174
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    • 2009
  • Based on the thinking that people can understand more clearly when the problem is related with their prior knowledge, the Purpose of this study was to analysis students' informal knowledge, which is constructed through their mathematical experience in the context of real-world situations. According to this purpose, the following research questions were. 1) What is the characteristics of students' informal knowledge about fraction before formal fraction instruction in school? 2) What is the difference of informal knowledge of fraction according to reasoning ability and grade. To investigate these questions, 18 children of first, second and third grade(6 children per each grade) in C elementary school were selected. Among the various concept of fraction, part-whole fraction, quotient fraction, ratio fraction and measure fraction were selected for the interview. I recorded the interview on digital camera, drew up a protocol about interview contents, and analyzed and discussed them after numbering and comment. The conclusions are as follows: First, students already constructed informal knowledge before they learned formal knowledge about fraction. Among students' informal knowledge they knew correct concepts based on formal knowledge, but they also have ideas that would lead to misconceptions. Second, the informal knowledge constructed by children were different according to grade. This is because the informal knowledge is influenced by various experience on learning and everyday life. And the students having higher reasoning ability represented higher levels of knowledge. Third, because children are using informal knowledge from everyday life to learn formal knowledge, we should use these informal knowledge to instruct more efficiently.

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The Development and Application of Environmental Education Program at Informal Educational Institutes (The Case of Experiential Activity-Centered Program at Uninhabited Island) (비형식교육기관의 환경교육 프로그램의 개발 및 적용 (무인도를 이용한 체험활동 프로그램 사례))

  • Jeong, Se-Hwan;Park, Young-Shin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.281-296
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    • 2015
  • The ultimate goal of environment education plays an important role in forming knowledge, skill, attitude and a point of value along with sustainable development in the regions. Recently, however, environment education is comparatively despised due to college-entrance-exam-focused education policy. Ironically, environment education is more actively implemented at informal institutes rather than formal ones. Environment education at schools is based on the school curriculum, but at informal educational institutes enjoy much more freedom in choosing learners, places and programs. Among them, the place is one of the most important factors of environment education. Therefore, in order to maximize the goal of environment education in this study, a specified program was developed and applied to a certain place to investigate its features and effects. Also the program was checked if it reflexes the environment education goal by using environment education program analysis frame. The results are as follows; according to the analysis of the program, the program was most effective for the two goals of offering hands-on experience and presenting motivations. The second most effective result of the program lied in the goal of knowledge, functions, value and attitude. And the teachers who used this program concluded that, when the program was applied to unmanned islands, offered stronger motivation due to their natural surroundings. Furthermore, direct experience is recommended because it can give us better conditions to collect data and to enhance interpretation ability.

A Study on the Developing Core competencies of Chinese Higher Education in terms of Education for Sustainable Development (지속가능발전교육의 관점에서 본 중국 고등 교육의 핵심 역량 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Zang, Juanjuan;Kim, Youngsoon
    • Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.357-365
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    • 2018
  • In the 21st century, as the emergence of the age of creative economy is expected, interest in the cultivation of creative talents required in society around the world is newly rising. Sustainable development education should not be limited to school education, but should be promoted and supported at all social education sites for the purpose of lifelong education. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to consider the relationship between the possibility of formal and informal learning and the development of capacity in higher education. Exploratory and qualitative research based on intensive groups was designed using several groups of formal and informal learning settings. In China, the creation of a creative economy is set as a major national policy direction for the new government. What is required for talented people in the creative economy era and how to educate them is becoming a major policy issue. The development of core competencies requires multiple contexts based on cognitive non-cognitive disposition. By combining the formal and informal learning environment within higher education for the purpose of a new learning culture, it can provide a variety of situations and improve competency development. While this study can identify aspects of formal and informal learning settings, the interdependencies between them are still difficult to grasp. However, practical implications can be seen clearly. In other words, based on the results, you can point out key aspects of competency acquisition that can be a key element in the higher education environment. As a result, this study analyzed implications for formal and informal learning environments for new ways of developing core competencies in higher education.

A Critical Analysis of Learning Technologies and Informal Learning in Online Social Networks Using Learning Analytics

  • Audu Kafwa Dodo;Ezekiel Uzor OKike
    • International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.71-84
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    • 2024
  • This paper presents a critical analysis of the current application of big data in higher education and how Learning Analytics (LA), and Educational Data Mining (EDM) are helping to shape learning in higher education institutions that have applied the concepts successfully. An extensive literature review of Learning Analytics, Educational Data Mining, Learning Management Systems, Informal Learning and Online Social Networks are presented to understand their usage and trends in higher education pedagogy taking advantage of 21st century educational technologies and platforms. The roles of and benefits of these technologies in teaching and learning are critically examined. Imperatively, this study provides vital information for education stakeholders on the significance of establishing a teaching and learning agenda that takes advantage of today's educational relevant technologies to promote teaching and learning while also acknowledging the difficulties of 21st-century learning. Aside from the roles and benefits of these technologies, the review highlights major challenges and research needs apparent in the use and application of these technologies. It appears that there is lack of research understanding in the challenges and utilization of data effectively for learning analytics, despite the massive educational data generated by high institutions. Also due to the growing importance of LA, there appears to be a serious lack of academic research that explore the application and impact of LA in high institution, especially in the context of informal online social network learning. In addition, high institution managers seem not to understand the emerging trends of LA which could be useful in the running of higher education. Though LA is viewed as a complex and expensive technology that will culturally change the future of high institution, the question that comes to mind is whether the use of LA in relation to informal learning in online social network is really what is expected? A study to analyze and evaluate the elements that influence high usage of OSN is also needed in the African context. It is high time African Universities paid attention to the application and use of these technologies to create a simplified learning approach occasioned by the use of these technologies.