This paper examines how the learning environment in primary education can be enhanced by stimulating the use of innovative ICT applications. In particular, this discussion focuses on mind tools as a means of leveraging ICT for the development of cognitive skills. The stimulating effect of mind tools on the thinking skills and thinking attitudes of students is examined. The various types of mind tools and a number of specific examples are closely examined. We consider how mind tools can contribute to the establishment of an ICT-rich learning environment within the domain of technology education in primary schools. We illustrate two specific applications of such mind tools and discuss how these contribute to the development of thinking skills.
Background: Low-educated patients are disadvantaged in using questionnaires within the health care setting because most health-related questionnaires do not take the educational background of patients into account. The Dutch Talking Touch Screen Questionnaire (DTTSQ) was developed in an attempt to meet the needs of low-educated patients by using plain language and adding communication technology to an existing paper-based questionnaire. For physical therapists to use the DTTSQ as part of their intake procedure, it needs to generate accurate information from all of their patients, independent of educational level. Objective: The aim of this study was to get a first impression of the information that is generated by the DTTSQ. To achieve this goal, response processes of physical therapy patients with diverse levels of education were analyzed. Methods: The qualitative Three-Step Test-Interview method was used to collect observational data on actual response behavior of 24 physical therapy patients with diverse levels of education. The interviews included both think-aloud and retrospective probing techniques. Results: Of the 24 respondents, 20 encountered one or more problems during their response process. The use of plain language and information and communication technology (ICT) appeared to have a positive effect on the comprehensibility of the DTTSQ. However, it also had some negative effects on the interpretation, retrieval, judgment, and response selection within the response processes of the participants in this study. No educational group in this research population stood out from the rest in the kind or number of problems that arose. All respondents recognized themselves in the outcomes of the questionnaire. Conclusions: The use of plain language and ICT within the DTTSQ had both positive and negative effects on the response processes of its target population. The results of this study emphasize the importance of earlier recommendations to accompany any adaption of any questionnaire to a new mode of delivery by demonstrating the difference and equivalence between the two different modes and to scientifically evaluate the applicability of the newly developed mode of the questionnaire in its intended setting. This is especially important in a digital era in which the use of plain language within health care is increasingly being advocated.
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The main research question in this chapter was: Which information problem solving skills are, according to the lecturers in the Bachelor of ICT, important for their students? Selecting items from a results list and judging the information on actuality, relevance and reliability were regarded as extremely important by most of the interviewed lecturers. All these sub-skills refer to the third criterion of the scoring rubric, the quality of the primary sources. As mentioned before, one of the NSE lecturers holds the opinion that students should improve their behaviour exactly on this point. Another sub-skill that is seen as very important by the interviewees is the analysis of information to be applied in the student’s own knowledge product. This refers to the fifth criterion of the rubric, the creation of new knowledge. The quality of primary sources and the creation of new knowledge criteria both bear extra weights in the grading process with the scoring rubric. A third criterion which also bears extra weight (‘orientation on the topic’) was mentioned as an important subskill by some interviewees but not as explicitly as the other two criterions. One of the facets of information problem solving that need improvement, according to one of the lecturers, is the reflection on the whole process to stimulate the anchoring of this mode of working. In the concept of information problem solving are higher order skills (orientation and question formulation, judging information and creation of new knowledge) distinguished from lower order skills (reference list, in-text citations, the selection of keywords and databases). Considering all results of this research, one can conclude that the importance of the higher order IPS skills – which refer to ‘learning to think’ (Elshout, 1990) – is recognised by most of the interviewed lecturers. The lower order skills are considered less important by most of them.
