National Pedagogic University

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) and computational sciences have aroused a growing interest in education. Despite its relatively recent history, AI is increasingly being introduced into the classroom through different modalities, with the aim of improving student achievement. Thus, the purpose of the research is to analyse, quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact of AI components and computational sciences on student performance. For this purpose, a systematic review and meta-analysis have been carried out in WOS and Scopus databases. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the sample was set at 25 articles. The results support the positive impact that AI and computational sciences have on student performance, finding a rise in their attitude towards learning and their motivation, especially in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) areas. Despite the multiple benefits provided, the implementation of these technologies in instructional processes involves a great educational and ethical challenge for teachers in relation to their design and implementation, which requires further analysis from the educational research. These findings are consistent at all educational stages.

As Michael Fullan (2001) so cogently asserts, the moral purpose of education is to equip students with the skills that will enable them to be productive citizens when they finish school. Whereas pre-21st century learning paradigms catered reasonably well for the pursuit of this moral purpose in turning out school leavers with specialized skills that were applicable in highly compartmentalized and specialized Industrial Age economies, 21st century skills require a new paradigm. In their seminal book entitled 21 st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times, Trilling and Fadel (2009) eloquently elaborate on the essential skills for 21st century learning and occupations. I call the adoption of these essential skills the pedagogical paradigm shift. According to these leaders in the field, the essential skills for 21 st century learning and occupations fall into four domains. First are the core subjects and skills such as the orthodoxy 3Rs that every educated person should have mastery of. Second is the learning and innovations skills domain requiring skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. The third is the career and life skills domain, calling for skills such as collaboration, teamwork and leadership. Fourth, is the digital literacy skills domain, requiring skills such as computer literacy and digital fluency. While computers and digital technologies play a central role in the development and utilization of the skills, the more essential skills for 21st century learning and occupations relate not just to the application of technology but more importantly, to the ability to engage in independent critical thinking, and a high level of problem solving, often using technology. This paper reviews the learning paradigms that have guided pedagogy over the centuries and argues that a shift is needed in pedagogy and curriculum towards a paradigm that emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving as proposed by Trilling and Fadel (2009) within the social connectivist paradigm as well articulated by Siemens rather than the dominant Vygotskyian social constructivist paradigm.

This article examines methodological issues associated with qualitative and quantitative research. In doing this, I briefly begin by outlining the philosophical and conceptual framework that informed the two research methodologies and discusses how ontological and epistemological issues were translated in to specific methodological strategies and influence researchers methodological decision. My purpose in writing this article is not to promote one methodology over the other rather to describe and reflect on thedifferences between the two research methodologies from Ontological, Epistemological and Methodological Perspectives and how they will be selected for research.

Safety is essential for life. To survive, humans and other animals have developed sets of psychological and physiological adaptations known as life history (LH) tradeoff strategies in response to various safety constraints. Evolutionarily selected LH strategies in turn regulate development and behavior to optimize survival under prevailing safety conditions. The present study tested LH hypotheses concerning safety based on a 6-year longitudinal sample of 1,245 adolescents and their parents from 9 countries. The results revealed that, invariant across countries, environmental harshness, and unpredictability (lack of safety) was negatively associated with slow LH behavioral profile, measured 2 years later, and slow LH behavioral profile was negatively and positively associated with externalizing behavior and academic performance, respectively, as measured an additional 2 years later. These results support the evolutionary conception that human development responds to environmental safety cues through LH regulation of social and learning behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

As today’s graduates engage with the demands of the current Knowledge Age, the skills that they need to succeed in their lives after college, or any other institution of higher learning, are 21st century skills rather than 20th century skills. Kivunja (2014) calls this “the new learning paradigm” (p.85). Unfortunately, those skills are not yet included in many of the learning outcomes prescribed by most educational jurisdictions or required to be assessed in high-stakes state and national examinations. It is essential that policy makers, across all nations, and in particular higher education providers, have a firm understanding of the skills most in demand in the 21st century Digital World, how those skills relate to the orthodoxy academic standards, and how those skills can be effectively taught. So, it is imperative to ask and answer the questions: what are those skills, and how can they be taught effectively to present and future students in higher education to improve their Digital Economy readiness? This paper answers these questions in four ways. First, it gives a brief review of literature that highlights the meaning of effective teaching and its importance in pedagogy. Second, it reviews literature on the new learning paradigm that will equip learners with 21st century skills and explains what the 21st century skills are. Third, arguing that those skills constitute a new way of effective teaching and learning, the paper articulates the different domains of the new learning paradigm which comprise these skills. Fourth, it discusses the first of the domains – the Learning and Innovations Skills domain – so as to explain how the skills in this domain can be effectively taught to enable higher education students to graduate well equipped with the skills most in demand for success in today’s knowledge-based, Digital World.

Commentary on: Learning Design: A handbook on modelling and delivering networked education and training. (Koper and Tattersall, 2005) Abstract: Integrating the specifications and tools for IMS-Learning Design (IMS, 2003) into Moodle (Moodle, 2003), an open-source Learning Management System (LMS), is not just a technological question, but also relates to practical, pedagogical, and philosophical issues. This study documents the discussions and experiments of a team of teachers active in the Moodle community who are concerned with the development of international standards in future versions of Moodle. In the course (Moodle, 2005a) of studying the book, Learning Design (Koper and Tattersall, 2005), participants analysed the implications of integrating the LD specification into Moodle and the operation of various LD tools (CopperCore, Reload) and related tools (LAMS) within the Moodle environment. These differences were then summarized into general implications for future versions of both Moodle and Learning Design. This study concludes that continued, open dialogue between teachers and developers of both LD and Moodle is necessary to achieve transparent integration. Authors belong to the Moodle Community Learning Design Book Study Group. Editors: Colin Tattersall and Rob Koper.

BACKGROUND: Fractal geometry is employ to characterize the irregular objects and had been used in experimental and clinic applications. Starting from a previous work, here we made a theoretical research based on a geometric generalization of the experimental results, to develop a theoretical generalization of the stenotic and restenotic process, based on fractal geometry and Intrinsic Mathematical Harmony. METHODS: Starting from all the possibilities of space occupation in box-counting space, all arterial prototypes differentiating normality and disease were obtained with a computational simulation. Measures from 2 normal and 3 re-stenosed arteries were used as spatial limits of the generalization. RESULTS: A new methodology in animal experimentation was developed, based on fractal geometric generalization. With this methodology, it was founded that the occupation space possibilities in the stenotic process are finite and that 69,249 arterial prototypes are obtained as a total. CONCLUSIONS: The Intrinsic Mathematical Harmony reveals a supra-molecular geometric self-organization, where the finite and discrete fractal dimensions of arterial layers evaluate objectively the arterial stenosis and restenosis process.

Varios Autores: Manual de Historia de Colombia (2 volúmenes) Edic. Colcultura Bogotá, 1978-1979.

The importance of fostering student creativity in higher education has been widely recognized, due to the need for preparing young people for the uncertain and complex world of work, which requires individuals to be able to use their creative abilities.Despite this recognition, the encouragement of creativity in higher education has been a challenge for faculty.Although there is agreement that college students should be creative, college faculty are generally not familiar with learning and teaching environments that promote creativity.Furthermore, many factors impact creativity expression in higher education institutions, such as students' resistance, organizational structure of universities, faculty attributes and pedagogical practices.This article addresses various challenges to creativity blooming in higher education, as well as some factors that facilitate its nurturance in this type of educational setting.

The purpose of the present systematic and critical review was to assess the findings and to identify the gaps in the literature concerning gay and bisexual fathers. A comprehensive search of relevant literature using electronic databases and reference lists for articles published until December 2016 was conducted. A total of 63 studies, spanning from 1979 to 2016, were collected. More than half of the studies were published after 2011 and the overwhelming majority were conducted in the United States. Nine themes were identified in the studies reviewed: (1) Pathways to fatherhood; (2) Motivations for fatherhood; (3) Parenting experiences and childrearing; (4) Family life and relationship quality; (5) Gender and father identities and gender-role orientation; (6) Disclosure of sexual identity; (7) Social climate; (8) Father's psychosocial adjustment; and (9) Children's psychosocial adjustment. It was found that research on gay fatherhood appears to be more heterogeneous than on lesbian motherhood, perhaps because of the variety of pathways to parenthood (via co-parenting, adoption, fostering, or surrogacy). Two-father families are becoming more visible in research on sexual minority parenting and gradually transforming the conceptualization of parenting in family research.

This article analyzes the cultural content in three communicative English as a foreign language textbooks that are used as main instructional resources in the English classroom. The study examined whether the textbooks include elements of surface or deep culture, and the findings indicate that the textbooks contain only static and congratulatory topics of surface culture and omit complex and transformative forms of culture. Consequently, the second part of the article suggests how teachers can address deep-rooted aspects of culture that might help English as a foreign language learners build more substantive intercultural competence in the language classroom. En este artículo se analiza el contenido cultural en tres textos de inglés comunicativo utilizados como el principal recurso de enseñanza en la clase de inglés. Se indagó si los textos incluyen elementos de la cultura superficial o de la cultura profunda. Se observó que los textos sólo presentan temas “admirables” y representativos de la cultura superficial y no ofrecen temas complejos y trasformativos de la cultura profunda. En consecuencia, en la segunda parte del artículo se sugiere a los profesores de inglés cómo abordar aspectos complejos de la cultura profunda que podrían ayudarle a los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera a construir una competencia intercultural más sólida.

In the present article, the authors report on the development of a scale for the measurement of the militant extremist mind-set. A previous pilot study identified 56 statements selected from writings of various terrorist groups as well as from psychological, historical, and political texts on terrorism. These statements, together with measures of personality, social attitudes, values, and social cynicism, were administered to participants from 9 countries (N = 2,424). A series of exploratory factor analyses of 56 statements produced 3 factors: Proviolence, Vile World, and Divine Power. Correlations of these factors with external variables indicate that Divine Power is a traditional religiosity scale, whereas Proviolence and Vile World scales cannot be accounted for by the existing psychological constructs. The distribution of scores on the Proviolence scale is skewed, indicating that the majority of participants disapprove of this attitude. The authors also present means for the countries included in the analysis. Participants from Malaysia endorse Vile World and Divine Power statements stronger than participants from other countries. The 3 Asian countries (China, Korea, and Malaysia) endorse Proviolence more strongly than countries from other parts of the world.

El crecimiento desmedido de la población y la falta de conciencia sobre la producción y consumo han desencadenado en un problema de generación y gestión de residuos sólidos. Un claro ejemplo de estos residuos sólidos en Colombia son los neumáticos usados, los cuales no se degradan fácilmente y por esto generan focos de contaminación en las principales ciudades. Es necesario buscar soluciones a estos problemas desde los diferentes sectores, en este caso, desde el sector de la construcción, la finalidad de este trabajo es analizar la utilización de estos neumáticos usados como remplazo parcial al agregado para concreto hidráulico con el fin de aminorar el gran daño ambiental que genera la mala gestión y disposición de estos residuos. (Texto tomado de la fuente).

La evaluación del síndrome del burnout académico se ha hecho, tradicionalmente, a partir de la adaptación del MBI-General Survey (MBI-GS) al contexto académico colombiano, lo que se denomina MBI-Student Survey (MBI-SS). En ausencia de datos normativos propios, la mayoría de las investigaciones toman los datos normativos del MBI-GS para la interpretación de los resultados. El artículo examina la validez factorial del MBI-SS, la consistencia de las escalas planteadas y contrasta los resultados obtenidos en su aplicación a una muestra de 820 estudiantes de carreras del área de la salud en universidades de la costa Caribe colombiana con los planteados en la nota técnica que presenta los datos normativos. Los resultados indican un buen ajuste del instrumento a lo esperado, pero cuestionan los datos normativos utilizados para la interpretación de los resultados. Específicamente, los resultados muestran que la muestra presenta mayores niveles de agotamiento, menores niveles de cinísmo y similares niveles de autoeficacia que la muestra de trabajadores españoles. Se elaboran varias interpretaciones de los hallazgos.

En los últimos 10 años los educadores radicales han desarrollado varias teorías acerca de las nociones de reproducción y resistencia. En este artículo, Henry Giroux analiza críticamente las principales posiciones de estas teorías, encontrándolas inadecuadas como fundamento para una ciencia crítica de la escolarización. El concluye delineando las direcciones para una nueva teoría de la resistencia y escolarización que contiene una comprensión de cómo el poder, la resistencia y la acción humana (el agenciamiento humano) pueden transformarse en elementos centrales en la lucha por la justicia social en las escuelas y en la sociedad.

English language teaching around the world is taking new routes at an accelerated rhythm. As part of a globalized world, Colombia has been trying to accommodate to the new dynamics. One way to do this is through the de-contextualized implementation of standards adapted and/or adopted from overseas. This article aims at promoting reflection and awareness on implications that might arise due to the implementation of the Common European Framework (CEF) in Colombia. This paper bases its discussion on relevant literature related to bilingualism, the CEF and the Colombian Ministry of Education. The conclusion states the need for the construction of standards regarding foreign language education based on our contextual features, not leaving aside the issue of being globally competent.

Teacher education programs are designed to develop professionals who are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century classrooms and workplace. To this end, the teacher education program must aim to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes of pre-service teachers to prepare them to teach effectively in the schools systems. It is, therefore, argued that the academic program of the teacher education should be coupled with an important and integral component called school -based experiences i.e. practicum which provides students with supervised experiences and help the student teachers to understand the full scope of teachers role. Many have also suggested that these experiences are very powerful in shaping pre-service teachers as they are real in contrast to the artificial environment of the tertiary education courses. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to address the need of and justification for school based practicum experience. Attempt was also made to show the current debates and future direction of practicum in teacher education.

The advent of the Web as a social technology has created opportunities for the creation of informal learning environments, which have potential for innovative methodologies in learning, teaching and assessment. However, as Wolfe (2001) admonishes, “contrary to the rhetoric of cheerleaders, the Web places greater demands on students than traditional modes of instruction” (pp. 2 – 3). The pedagogical potential of these high tech, e-skilling, multimedia digital technologies to revolutionize teaching, learning and assessment will only be realized if the underlying theoretical foundations are well articulated and supporting evidence is provided through well-designed empirical research studies. This paper contributes to these two prospects in two ways. First, it articulates the theoretical framework drawn from the work of luminaries in pedagogy that posits cooperative, social learning strategies, as potential methodologies for effective pedagogy. Second, it describes the results of a convenience sampling case study, which investigated the use of cutting-edge social media technologies, namely Google + Discussion Circles, (GDCs), to shed some light on how the use of these social media technologies supported teaching, learning and assessment activities for 2 nd year Bachelor of Education students at a university in Australia. The research found, inter alia, that when students were given the opportunity to learn using GDCs, the majority took advantage of the academic, social and structural dynamics created by these technologies in many ways that supported their learning, assessment activities and overall academic outcomes. The research-based evidence shows that the benefits included high participation rates, great levels of interpersonal interactions among participants, pedagogically rich posts in the GDC streams, metacognitive processing, peer mentoring, ambiguity tolerance, anxiety and motivation. There was also considerable student engagement, exploration of issues, elaboration of what was being discussed in the GDCs, evaluation and explanation, consistent with Bybee et al. (2006) 5E Instructional model for supporting and maximizing students’ learning. The evidence leads to the recommendation that pedagogues at universities and other institutions of higher education should explore opportunities for utilizing selected social media technologies in their pedagogical practices, because, if properly planned and implemented, these technologies appear to have potential so support effective learning, teaching and assessment in the 21 st century. Further research on this topic could also be very beneficial.

La práctica educativa de los docentes es una actividad dinámica, reflexiva, que comprende los acontecimientos ocurridos en la interacción entre maestro y alumnos. No se limita al concepto de docencia, es decir, a los procesos educativos que tienen lugar dentro del salón de clases, incluye la intervención pedagógica ocurrida antes y después de los procesos interactivos en el aula. En el presente trabajo, se proponen tres dimensiones para evaluar la práctica educativa de los docentes: 1) el pensamiento didáctico del profesor y la planificación de la enseñanza; 2) la interacción educativa dentro del aula; y 3) la reflexión sobre los resultados alcanzados. La relación entre estas tres dimensiones es interdependiente, es decir, cada una de ellas afecta y es afectada por las otras, por lo cual resulta indispensable abordarlas de manera integrada. La propuesta aquí desarrollada considera que los programas de mejoramiento del trabajo docente deben abordarse a partir de la evaluación de la práctica educativa, para después abordar la formación docente.

El presente documento muestra los resultados de una investigación documental alrededor de dos modelos de aprendizaje fundamentados en la premisa de que cada persona aprende diferente, esta temática ha sido ampliamente debatida y aún cuenta con un gran potencial para la investigación en educación, en este sentido, la investigación documental se centra en los modelos propuestos por David Kolb (1974), el cual está centrado en la concepción de que el aprendizaje es experiencial y Honey y Mumford (1986), que asumen el aprendizaje en cuatro pasos completamente articulados. En ambos casos se propone una secuencia ideal para que el aprendizaje sea exitoso, igualmente definen unos estilos de aprendizaje como características inherentes a las personas.  Con estos conceptos se plantea un análisis crítico a fin de identificar similitudes y diferencias entre los dos modelos y se proponen algunas implicaciones para la educación en ciencias. Se espera motivar a los investigadores para que propongan  nuevas iniciativas de trabajo en este campo del conocimiento.