PhD success for Ipek Saralar-Aras !

Congratulations to Dr Ipek Saralar-Aras who today successfully defended her thesis. While passing a viva is always a huge achievement, it is even more impressive considering the current coronavirus outbreak which resulted in a last-minute change to a virtual viva.  Ipek has been a highly valued member of the LSRI since 2016, investigating how technology-enhanced learning can improve Turkish middle school students’ understanding of three-dimensional geometry. She will be very much missed by colleagues and friends both at the LSRI and across the wider university. We wish her all the best for her future career in Turkey.  ...
Read More

New article on Inquiry-Based Instruction by Mary Oliver

Interested in inquiry-based instruction in science education? Concerned about the efficacy of the approach to develop scientific literacy? Or want to learn more about how variables are conceptualised in PISA? If so, have a look at the new article my LSRI member Mary Oliver. ‘The Efficacy of Inquiry-Based Instruction in Science: a Comparative Analysis of Six Countries Using PISA 2015’ was recently published in Research in Science Education. In this article, Mary Oliver and colleagues from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, conduct a comparative analysis of students’ scientific literacy and its association with different instructional strategies (inquiry-based, adaptive and teacher-directed). They do this by drawing on six countries that participated in PISA 2015. ...
Read More

Successful viva for Nurjanah Jaafar

Congratulations to Dr Nurjanah Binti Mohd Jaafar who today successfully defended her thesis. Janah has been at the LSRI since 2015 working on her thesis titled ‘How to non-native speakers of English read multi-representational texts?’. It has been wonderful to have Janah working at the LSRI for the last few years, she will be sorely missed by many friends and colleagues at the University of Nottingham. We wish her all the best for her future career in Malaysia. ...
Read More

New publication by Mary Oliver and colleagues

Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) in science education has received much funding, promotion and policy support from the EU. But how do teachers view IBL? And what are their experiences of engaging in IBL? A recent publication by LSRI member Mary Oliver addresses these questions. The article, titled ‘Highly Recommended and Poorly Used: English and Spanish Science Teachers’ Views of Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) and its Enactment’, was a collaborative piece with colleagues from the University of Jaen, Spain, and the University of Nottingham, UK. Follow the link to find out about how science teachers in England and Spain view and enact Inquiry Based Learning. ...
Read More

Higher Education Partnership with Peru

Together with Andrew Joyce-Gibbons from the University of Durham and Carol Rivero Panaqué from PUCP University in Lima, we have successfully raised funding from the British Council supporting academic exchange between the LSRI and PUCP in Lima, Peru. Various workshops in Lima and Nottingham will be conducted throughout November and December 2019. Learning Sciences is still an underrepresented subject in higher education in Latin America. Thus, the workshops will be focused on introducing the Learning Sciences approach to academics in Peru, supporting the launch of a Learning Sciences course at PUCP, and ongoing academic exchange between the institutions. ...
Read More

New LSRI Postdoctoral Fellow

The LSRI welcomes back Dr Jonathan Halls. Johnny, an ex-LSRI PhD student, has been awarded a 3-year Postdoctoral Fellowship from the British Academy to pursue his research on ‘promoting children’s positive attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviours: encouraging understanding, agency and motivation through gamebooks’. The British Academy’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme is the Academy’s flagship programme for early career academics, based at universities around the UK. Johnny is part of the 2019/2020 cohort of 53 early career researchers to be awarded one of these highly competitive fellowships. Chief Executive of the British Academy, Robin Jackson, said: “We are delighted to welcome this new cohort of Postdoctoral Fellows to the Academy; competition for these awards is always keen, and I congratulate them on their success.” You can find more information about Johnny's project here. ...
Read More

LSRI at CSCL

LSRI will be well represented at this year's International Conference on Computer Supporter Collaborative Learning (CSCL) taking place from 17 – 21 June in Lyon, France. CSCL is one of the two international conferences sponsored by the International Society of the Learning Sciences. On 18 June, LSRI's Pryce Davis and Freydis Vogel together with further co-organizers will conduct a half-day workshop at CSCL 2019. The workshop intends to strengthen the exchange between academics involved in the organization and teaching of Master’s and PhD programs in the Learning Sciences from different universities and countries. The main goal of the workshop will be to identify how CSCL practices can be designed to teach the Learning Sciences in their programs and across different programs. In addition, the workshop aims to provide an arena for discussing how the Network of Academic Programs in the Learning Sciences (NAPLeS) can serve the needs of LS programs to maintain exchange and realize innovative pedagogies for learning in the...
Read More

LSRI visits Uruguay

In an effort support current projects and build new relationship, LSRI's Dr. Pryce Davis visited colleagues from several organizations in Uruguay earlier this month. Dr. Davis first visited the Plan Ceibal and the Universidad Tecnológica del Uruguay's (UTEC) logistic centers at LATU Technology Park in Montevideo. Here Dr. Davis, along with colleague Dr. Nathan Holbert (Teacher's College - Columbia University), met with representatives from Plan Ceibal, UTEC, and Universidad del Trabajo del Uruguay (UTU) to discuss support for several ongoing and future collaborations. Attendees at this meeting included two graduates from the University of Nottingham's MA course in Learning, Technology and Education—Ezequiel Aleman (UTEC) and Camila Gottlieb (Fundación Ceibal). MA LTE alumni Ezequiel Aleman and Camila Gottlieb visit with LSRI's Dr. Pryce Davi Following this fruitful and engaging meeting, the attendees visited PTI Cerro—a community space in an industrial center in the west of Montevideo—which houses local businesses, a community school for secondary and continuing education and a new communal fablab makerspace. Over...
Read More