Adversarial thinking is essential when dealing with cyber incidents and for finding security vulnerabilities. Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions are used all around the world to stimulate adversarial thinking. Jeopardy-style CTFs, given their challenge-and-answer based nature, are used more and more in cybersecurity education as a fun and engaging way to inspire students. Just like traditional written exams, Jeopardy-style CTFs can be used as summative assessment. Did a student provide the correct answer, yes or no. Did the participant in the CTF competition solve the challenge, yes or no. This research project provides a framework for measuring the learning outcomes of a Jeopardy-style CTF and applies this framework to two CTF events as case studies. During these case studies, participants were tested on their knowledge and skills in the field of cybersecurity and queried on their attitude towards CTF education. Results show that the main difference between traditional written exam and a Jeopardy-style CTF is the way in which questions a re formulated. CTF education is stated to be challenging and fun because questions are formulated as puzzles that need to be solved in a gamified and competitive environment. Just like traditional written exams, no additional insight into why the participant thinks the correct answer is the correct answer has been observed or if the participant really did learn anything new by participating. Given that the main difference between a traditional written exam and a Jeopardy-style CTF is the way in which questions are formulated, learning outcomes can be measured in the same way. We can ask ourselves how many participants solved which challenge and to which measurable statements about “knowledge, skill and attitude” in the field of cybersecurity each challenge is related. However, when mapping the descriptions of the quiz-questions and challenges from the two CTF events as case studies to the NICE framework on Knowledge, Skills and Abilities in cybersecurity, the NICE framework did not provide us with detailed measurable statements that could be used in education. Where the descriptions of the quiz-questions and challenges were specific, the learning outcomes of the NICE framework are only formulated in a quite general matter. Finally, some evidence for Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of Flow has been observed. Following the theory of Flow, a person can become fully immersed in performing a task, also known as “being in the zone” if the “challenge level” of the task is in line with the person’s “skill level”. The persons mental state towards a task will be different depending on the challenge level of the task and required skill level for completing it. Results show that participants state that some challenges were difficult and fun, where other challenges were easy and boring. As a result of this9 project, a guide / checklist is provided for those intending to use CTF in education.
To adequately deal with the challenges faced within residential care for older people, such as the increasing complexity of care and a call for more person-centred practices, it is important that health care providers learn from their work. This study investigates both the nature of learning, among staff and students working within care for older people, and how workplace learning can be promoted and researched. During a longitudinal study within a nursing home, participatory and democratic research methods were used to collaborate with stakeholders to improve the quality of care and to promote learning in the workplace. The rich descriptions of these processes show that workplace learning is a complex phenomenon. It arises continuously in reciprocal relationship with all those present through which both individuals and environment change and co-evolve enabling enlargement of the space for possible action. This complexity perspective on learning refines and expands conventional beliefs about workplace learning and has implications for advancing and researching learning. It explains that research on workplace learning is itself a form of learning that is aimed at promoting and accelerating learning. Such research requires dialogic and creative methods. This study illustrates that workplace learning has the potential to develop new shared values and ways of working, but that such processes and outcomes are difficult to control. It offers inspiration for educators, supervisors, managers and researchers as to promoting conditions that embrace complexity and provides insight into the role and position of self in such processes.
Explicit language objectives are included in the Swedish national curriculum for mathematics. The curriculum states that students should be given opportunities to develop the ability to formulate problems, use and analyse mathematical concepts and relationships between concepts, show and follow mathematical reasoning, and use mathematical expressions in discussions. Teachers’ competence forms a crucial link to bring an intended curriculum to a curriculum in action. This article investigates a professional development program, ‘Language in Mathematics’, within a national program for mathematics teachers in Sweden that aims at implementing the national curriculum into practice. Two specific aspects are examined: the selection of theoretical notions on language and mathematics and the choice of activities to relate selected theory to practice. From this examination, research on teacher learning in connection to professional development is proposed, which can contribute to a better understanding of teachers’ interpretation of integrated approaches to language and mathematics across national contexts.
