RESUMEN
Incorporating appropriate pedagogical strategies has been instrumental in the development of a favorable learning environment for holistic learning, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. However, there is growing evidence of the need to advance the existing methods, through more robust and comprehensive fieldwork grounded in design study. It has been shown that the lack of guidance in lesson planning using variation theory is also thought to require particular attention, as the accuracy of the student learning relies significantly on the planning of the lesson. However, little research has outlined the strategy to be followed for incorporating variation theory. This article proposes a method of preparing lesson plans to systematically implement the variation theory in STEM classrooms. The method seeks to design and implement current techniques as follows:â¢According to variation theory, teachers must create the necessary conditions for learning for the students to recognize what they are expected to learn.â¢To create the necessary conditions for learning, teachers define the key aspects of the topic to be covered and use different patterns of variations in teaching those contents, such as contrast, separation, generalization, and fusion.â¢Finally, teachers focus on the key aspects one by one or simultaneously to grab students' attention.
RESUMEN
We propose that phenomenography is well-suited to research about nursing, given its focus on identifying variation in individuals' experiences, and inclusion of diverse voices and perspectives. Phenomenography explores qualitatively different ways in which a group of people experience a phenomenon, often using semi-structured interviews. The use of phenomenography is especially relevant in research about nursing which provides accounts of the experiences of nurses and patients within complex practice settings. We consider the tenets of phenomenography and examine phenomenography's relationship to and differences from phenomenology. We review literature published about phenomenographic research in nursing and reflect on the potential benefits of phenomenographic research about nursing. This paper adds to knowledge about use of phenomenography in research about nursing.
RESUMEN
Two studies are reported in this paper. The object of learning in both is the economic principle of changes in price as a function of changes in the relative magnitude of changes in demand and supply. The patterns of variation and invariance, defining the conditions compared were built into pedagogical tools (text, graphs, and worksheets). The first study is the latest in a series of studies aiming to test the fundamental conjecture of the Variation Theory of Learning that new meanings are acquired from experiencing differences against a background of sameness, rather than experiencing sameness against a background of differences. The study compares the learning outcomes under conditions consistent with the basic conjecture with the learning outcomes under conditions not consistent with the theory. The results support the conjecture. The second study shows, however, that the conditions that are consistent with the theory cannot be decided unless the learners' pre-requisites for the task in question are taken into consideration. One set of the pedagogical tools was found to be highly effective for learners with a better initial grasp of the object of learning, while another set was found to be equally effective for learners with a weaker initial grasp of the object of learning. The two sets were equally ineffective when used for the "wrong" group of learners.
RESUMEN
A group of experienced secondary school teachers used a novel learning theory as a resource for planning and carrying out their teaching of a difficult economic concept. Their students' mastery of this concept after a series of three lessons was compared with the mastery of the same concept by students who were taught by another group of teachers under the same conditions except for the use of the theory. The difference in learning outcomes was extreme. Observations of what was happening in the classrooms showed subtle but decisive differences correlated with the differences in outcome. These differences were interpreted in terms of the theory used by the first group, and the results seem to give support to the theoretical claim that for any specific object of learning there is a necessary pattern of variation and invariance that the learners must experience in order to appropriate the object of learning in question and thus by bringing out that pattern in the learning situation, the likelihood of that object of learning being appropriated is enhanced. Furthermore, this study shows how the understanding of the simultaneous change in the supply of and the demand for a certain good affects its market price can be brought about in a powerful way.