Papers by Fred Opeli Chandi
Intercultural Education, Jan 1, 2001
... affect the self-images of students from that particular culture and may enhance intercultural... more ... affect the self-images of students from that particular culture and may enhance intercultural exchange ... a possibility of confrontation, forceful expression of ideas, or even confl ict (hooks, 1994). ... The pivotal role of the teacher as initiator, manager and demonstrator of inter-group ...
This report illustrates the complexity of the nexus between ICT, learning and disadvantage, and h... more This report illustrates the complexity of the nexus between ICT, learning and disadvantage, and how gender, class, race, indigeneity, ethnicity, disability and location intersect when ICT is integrated into classrooms in unexpected ways. As with all learning, learning through ICT is mediated by school organization, culture, social mix and location; home environments; community expectations; and how and what curriculum is taught and received. Students are influenced by teacher and parental expectations, their attitudes to and relations with teachers, family and peers; and their cognitive, social and affective attributes.
Distance Education, Jan 1, 2007
Many forms of e-learning (such as online courses with authentic tasks and computer-supported coll... more Many forms of e-learning (such as online courses with authentic tasks and computer-supported collaborative learning) have become important in distance education. Very often, such e-learning courses or tasks are set up following constructivist design principles. Often, this leads to learning environments with authentic problems in ill-structured tasks that are supposed to motivate students. However, constructivist design principles are difficult to implement because developers must be able to predict how students perceive the tasks and whether the tasks motivate the students. The research in this article queries some of the assumed effects. It presents a study that provides increased insight into the actual perception of electronic authentic learning tasks. The main questions are how students learn in such e-learning environments with "virtual" reality and authentic problems and how they perceive them. To answer these questions, in two e-learning programs developed at the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) designers' expectations were contrasted with student perceptions. The results show a gap between the two, for students experience much less authenticity than developers assume.
Inaugural Lecture of the Universitat Oberta de …, Jan 1, 2004
In the inaugural lesson for the academic year 2004-2005, the author reflects on the role of infor... more In the inaugural lesson for the academic year 2004-2005, the author reflects on the role of information and communications technology in education. He raises some fundamental issues and questions whether ICT is suited to transmitting knowledge, particularly to students who are not already highly motivated to learn or well versed in the art of using and interpreting information. For his analysis, he takes as a point of reference the world of business and offers a brief look at the changes brought to the sector by ICT. To date, the main application of ICT in the business sector has focused on aiding access and processing of large quantities of information for employees and management with the principal aim of increasing productivity. In the case of education, however, little or no information is being used to improve student performance, mainly because education managers are largely illiterate in information management tools. Likewise, despite schools having more and more access to ICT, new technologies are still scarcely used as part of the teaching methodology. Once again, it is the lack of training that creates difficulties: many teachers do not have the necessary IT skills and feel uncomfortable, nor do they have the specific training needed to be able to use the new resources in the classroom. In the university sector, ICT has already made an important impact, whether in terms of teaching, research or administration; however, despite some exceptions, there are few real examples with educational models that are based on this technology and there is still an important social preference for traditional educational models.
Educational Research, Jan 1, 2003
... applications, music, graphics, games and CD-ROM, showed significant interactions between gend... more ... applications, music, graphics, games and CD-ROM, showed significant interactions between gender and age (see Table 3). For both music and games, boys' use in the younger age group was slightly greater than girls', but in the older age group the difference was far greater. ...
JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL …, Jan 1, 2006
South African Universities are tasked with increasing student throughput by offering additional a... more South African Universities are tasked with increasing student throughput by offering additional academic support. A second task is to teach students to challenge and question. One way of attempting to achieve these tasks is by using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The focus of this paper is to examine the effect of using an ICT tool to both increase academic support to students, and to teach critical thinking skills.
Computers & Education, Jan 1, 2008
This study evaluated the performance of university students who learned science texts by using, i... more This study evaluated the performance of university students who learned science texts by using, information communication technologies (ICT) including animation, static figures, power point, and e-plus software. The characteristics of students and their achievements and attitudes toward 11 multimedia science courses were analyzed. The 11 samples in this study included 676 undergraduate students who took science courses during the 2005 academic year. The results included the computation of the F-ratio, p-values, and Cohen's effect-sizes of attitudes toward science and learning science in relation to the student's gender, attendance of computer orientation classes, use of computer-multimedia, disposition toward computers, and majors. Our study describes some helpful approaches to the incorporation of computer-based multimedia teaching utilizing constructivist design principles to facilitate the student's understanding and attitude toward science learning.
… Journal of Dental …, Jan 1, 2008
Dental education is regarded as a complex, demanding and often, stressful pedagogical procedure. ... more Dental education is regarded as a complex, demanding and often, stressful pedagogical procedure. Undergraduates, while enrolled in programmes of four to six years' duration, are required to attain a unique and diverse collection of competences. Despite the major differences in educational systems, philosophies, methods and resources available worldwide, dental students' views regarding their education appear relatively convergent. This paper summarises dental students' standpoint of their studies, showcases their experiences in different educational settings and discusses the characteristics of a positive academic environment. It is a consensus opinion that the 'students' perspective' should be taken into consideration in all discussions and decisions regarding dental education. Moreover, it is suggested that the set of recommendations proposed can improve students' quality of life and well-being, enhance their total educational experience and positively influence their future careers as oral health physicians.
International Journal of …, Jan 1, 2007
One of the most common problems of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in edu... more One of the most common problems of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education is to base choices on technological possibilities rather than educational needs. In developing countries where higher education is fraught with serious challenges at multiple levels, there is increasing pressure to ensure that technological possibilities are viewed in the context of educational needs. This paper argues that a central role of educational technology is to provide additional strategies that can be used to address the serious environmental and educational challenges faced by educators and students in higher education. The educational needs manifest in South African universities include addressing general lack of academic preparedness, multilingual needs in English medium settings, large class sizes and inadequate curriculum design. Using case studies from one higher educational institution, this paper shows how specific and carefully considered interventions using ICTs can be used to address these teaching and learning concerns. These examples serve to demonstrate some ways in which teaching and learning may be enhanced when uses of educational technology are driven by educational needs. The paper concludes that design of educational technology interventions should be driven by educational needs within the context of a broader teaching and learning strategy which requires buy-in of both educators and learners.
Policy Studies Journal, Jan 1, 1997
In this article, we present for the first time systematic evidence that the percentage of minorit... more In this article, we present for the first time systematic evidence that the percentage of minority faculty has a significant positive relationship with overall college matriculation rates in urban school districts across the nation. Although there is little discussion in the education literature of how minority teachers might influence achievement by students of all races, there is a widespread assumption that minority teachers improve the performance of minority students. Our data support this assumption, but they also suggest an important caveat. We will explain why this finding could mean that systemic school district behaviors cause the higher rates of college attendance, while the ethnic makeup of faculty acts as a proxy for these behaviors. This finding has important policy implications, as focusing only on the role-modeling hypothesis might lead to incomplete or incorrect reform remedies for urban school districts.
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Papers by Fred Opeli Chandi