This paper aims to provide a review of the two often-confusing learning theories: constructivism and constructionism. It then presents their similarities and differences by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a review of the two often-confusing learning theories: constructivism and constructionism. It then presents their similarities and differences by identifying various learning dimensions of the two philosophies. The authors then develop a teaching-learning framework that integrates those dimensions. The authors have also implemented the framework in two information technology (IT) courses and obtained students’ feedback that relate to various learning dimensions of both of the two philosophies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review existing literature to understand the difference between constructivism and constructionism and develop a list of learning dimensions that can be applied to classroom education. They then discuss the background information or tools necessary to develop a teaching-learning framework and apply that framework through a case study. They finally present the results.
Findings
A constructivist teacher sets up the learning environment for students that fosters individual learning and presents a problem to be solved, while the students go on their own way to produce a personally meaningful artifact without any further teacher’s intervention. On the other hand, the constructionist teacher sets up the environment for collaborative learning for students, then he or she defines the problem to be solved and the meaningful end product to be developed, and then guides them to reach towards the goal. Student assessment supports this difference.
Research/limitations implications
Researchers and teachers should look carefully which methodology they are discussing and which one they are applying. They can further the authors’ research in a different angle than the authors did by finding the learning dimensions.
Practical implications
Teachers should use constructionist approach to set up their classroom and guide their students throughout the course time, such that students can work collaboratively on a project to learn the important concepts to be developed. They should also use appropriate tools and technologies that enhance classroom activities and learning. Teacher should act as a guide/facilitator or a project manager to plan for the classroom/project and monitoring and controlling project/class throughout the semester.
Social implications
Understanding the critical differences between the two learning philosophies, educators in all levels should be clear how to set up their classrooms – from kindergarten to university education, such that all students can develop their knowledge not only through personal cognition but also through interaction with others. A collaborative environment produces knowledgeable people in the society with better understanding and respect toward each other.
Originality/value
Collaborative learning environment provides a better learning opportunity over personal cognition – a major enhancement in constructionism over constructivism. Sharing the creation process as well as the product, and the use of various tools and technologies in the development process, provide a better understanding of a subject matter. The discussions and results presented here might bring some insights to the instructors who might be contemplating to implement the educational philosophies of constructivism or constructionism, or intermixing of the two in their classrooms.
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Mohammad A. Rob and Floyd J. Srubar
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how existing volumes of big city crime data could be converted to significantly useful information by law enforcement agencies using…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how existing volumes of big city crime data could be converted to significantly useful information by law enforcement agencies using readily available data warehouse and OLAP technologies. During the post-9/11 era, criminal data collection by law enforcement agencies received significant attention across the world. Rapid advancement of technology helped collection and storage of these data in large volumes, but often do not get analyzed due to improper data format, lack of technological knowledge and time. Data warehousing (DW) and On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tools can be used to organize and present these data in a form strategically meaningful to the general public. In this study, the authors took a seven-month sample crime data from the City of Houston Police Department’s website, cleaned and organized them into a data warehouse with the hope of answering common questions related to crime statistics in a big city in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
The raw data for the seven-month period was collected from the website in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format for each month. The data were then cleaned, described, renamed, formatted and then imported into a compiled Access database along with the definition of Facts and Dimensions using a STAR Schema. Data were then transferred to the Microsoft SQL Server data warehouse. SQL Server Analysis Services and Visual Studio Business Intelligent Tool are used to create a Data Cube for OLAP analysis of the summarized data.
Findings
To prove the usefulness of the DW and OLAP cube, the authors have shown few sample queries displaying the number and the types of crimes as a function of time of the day, location, premises, etc. For example, the authors found that 98 crimes occurred on a major street in the city during the early working hours (7 am and 12 pm) when nobody virtually was at home, and among those crimes, roughly two-thirds of them are thefts. This summarized information is significantly useful to the general public and the law enforcement agencies.
Research limitations/implications
The authors’ research is limited to one city’s crime data, whose data set might be different from other cities. In addition to the volume of data and lack of descriptions, the major limitations encountered were the lack of major neighborhood names and their relation to streets. There are other government agencies that provide data to this effect, and a standard set of data would facilitate the process. The authors also looked at data for a nine-month period only. Analyzing data over many years will provide time-trend of crime statistics for a longer period of time.
Practical implications
Many federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are rapidly embracing technology to publish crime data through their websites. However, more attention will need to be paid to the quality and utility of this information to the general public. At the time, there exists no compiled source of crime data or its trend as a function of time, crime type, location and premises. There needs to be a coherent system that allows for an average citizen to obtain this information in a more consumable package. DW and OLAP tools can provide this information package.
Social implications
Having the crime data of a big city in a consumable form is immensely useful for all segments of the constituency that the government agencies serve and will become a service that these offices will be expected to deliver on demand. This information could also be useful in many instances for the decision makers, ranging from those seeking to start a business, to those seeking a place to live who may not necessarily know which neighborhoods or parts of the city are more prone to criminal activity than others.
Originality/value
While there have been few reports of possible use of DW and OALP technologies to study criminal data, the authors found that not many authors used actual crime data, the data sets and formats used in each case are different, results are not presented in most cases and the actual vendor technologies implemented can be different as well. In this paper, the authors present how DW and OLAP tools readily available in most enterprises can be used to analyze publicly available criminal datasets and convert them into meaningful information, which can be valuable not only to the law enforcement agencies but to the public at large.
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Michael A. Spikes and David N. Rapp
As technology enables the rapid spread of mis- and disinformation, a critical challenge for scholars and practitioners involves building student’s news media literacy (NML), a…
Abstract
Purpose
As technology enables the rapid spread of mis- and disinformation, a critical challenge for scholars and practitioners involves building student’s news media literacy (NML), a subset of media literacy education centered around journalism. This paper aims to offer a case study of secondary civics classrooms that use NML lessons and current events in their curricula, providing an empirical account of teaching techniques being used to support students' dispositions and practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This multiple case study investigates three secondary classes taught by two teachers. Data collection methods included observations, field notes and interviews with the teachers. Discourse and actions were analyzed by probing the participant structures and means of classroom management.
Findings
The findings highlight instructional techniques used by both teachers which consisted of instructionist and constructivist approaches, with informative shifts observed between the two. The teachers used instructionist methods when transmitting declarative knowledge (such as key definitions), and constructivist methods when working with students to consider more abstract concepts and developing news stories.
Originality/value
The demand for NML and associated pedagogy is increasing given awareness of the rapid spread and problematic influence of mis-and disinformation. There is a critical need for describing teachers’ implementations of these pedagogies, given calls for enacting NML into public policy despite limited awareness of the ways they actually unfold in classrooms. The current project shows how instructionist and constructivist frames prove helpful for understanding instructional practices, and for contemplating anticipated designs of NML pedagogy in classrooms.
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This short paper is focused around two important published papers in the international accounting and finance literature. These two papers (Cowen et al., 1987; and Maheshwari…
Abstract
This short paper is focused around two important published papers in the international accounting and finance literature. These two papers (Cowen et al., 1987; and Maheshwari, 1992) are concerned with examinations of levels of social disclosure by leading companies. Despite relying on data which is several years apart and drawn from very different reporting environments the results are remarkably similar. Examining such remarkable similarity between papers is principally motivated by the continuing debate about the extent ‐ and desirability ‐ of international comparability in corporate reporting practices. The present papers offer unusual insights into this issue. A secondary motivation arises from speculation about the need for authors to support and explain remarkable results in a climate of increased publication activity in which journal editors and referees are less able to police and monitor unusual results.
This study examines the univariate ARIMA forecasting model, using the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) general daily index between 4/1/2004 and 10/8/2004; with out‐of‐sample testing…
Abstract
This study examines the univariate ARIMA forecasting model, using the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) general daily index between 4/1/2004 and 10/8/2004; with out‐of‐sample testing undertaken on the following seven days. Different diagnostic tests were performed to find the best model describing the data. The selected model predicted that the ASE would continue to grow by 0.195% for seven days starting on 11/8/2004. This forecast, however, was not consistent with actual performance during the period of the prediction (11/8/2004 ‐ 19/8/2004) since ASE declined by ‐ 0.003% assuring the fact that ASE followed most closely the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) in its weak form.
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This study contributes to existing literature by investigating bank capital structure dynamics during the Covid-19 pandemic. The role of contemporary bank-specific determinants of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study contributes to existing literature by investigating bank capital structure dynamics during the Covid-19 pandemic. The role of contemporary bank-specific determinants of capital structure during this period is analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
An independent t-test is carried out to check the response of bank leverage to the crisis. Using fixed effect estimation and difference general method of moments (GMM), the impact of the shock is examined. An unbalanced quarterly data set from 2016q1 to 2020q3 of all commercial banks in Pakistan is used.
Findings
The study finds that due to procyclicality of capital, during the Covid-19 crisis, the banks preempted a fall in capital and improved their capital positions. The role of bank specific variables in determining capital structure like profitability, size and competition weakened during this period. Evidence suggests that policy rate intervention by the central bank was a significant factor in capital structure decisions during the Covid-19 period. The study finds that macroeconomic shocks have significant impact on capital structure decision-making of banks which goes beyond the bank-specific factors.
Originality/value
It finds evidence of a moderating role of monetary policy in capital structure decision-making which has not been previously highlighted in literature. Monetary policy is found to become an important factor deciding the capital structure of banks during the Covid-19 first 3 quarters. This study also explores the impact of Covid-19 on the bank-specific determinants of capital structure of banks.
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Esraa Esam Alharasis, Mohammad Alhadab, Manal Alidarous, Fouad Jamaani and Abeer F. Alkhwaldi
Motivated by the disastrous impact of COVID-19 on the world’s economies, the purpose of this study is to examine its effect on the association between auditor industry…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivated by the disastrous impact of COVID-19 on the world’s economies, the purpose of this study is to examine its effect on the association between auditor industry specialization and external audit fees, referring to two time periods: before and during COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative analysis based on the ordinary least squares regression is performed, using 3,200 company-year observations from 2005 to 2020 in Jordan to test the hypotheses. The qualitative component is a textual analysis of firms’ annual reports that support the quantitative analysis findings.
Findings
The analysis confirms there is a direct positive relationship between COVID-19 and external audit fees, confirming the tough consequences of the crisis on audit complexity and risks. While the results show evidence that the relationship between auditor specialist and audit fees is weakened because of COVID-19, the content analysis explained that COVID-19 led to fewer requests for high-quality audit, given the urgent need to report on firms’ financial circumstances. Jordan’s capital market is controlled by family businesses, and the insolvency of several large firms during COVID-19 led auditors to offer their services at low cost.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study have serious implications for policymakers, legislators, regulators and the audit profession, as they examine the arising difficulties during a period of economic uncertainty. The findings can help to improve laws that control the auditing industry in Jordan following the damage caused by COVID-19. As well, the outcomes can be extrapolated to other Middle East nations.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors believe that this research presents the first evidence on the influence of COVID-19 on the auditing industry.