Reading to Learn or Learning to Read? Engaging College Students in Course Readings

Despite instructors' belief that class readings are integral to the learning process, only 20–30% of undergraduate students complete required readings. Failure to complete course reading has been associated with declines in exam and research performance. This article first offers a brief review of the literature on why students do not complete course readings: 1) unpreparedness, 2) lack of motivation, 3) time constraints, and 4) an underestimation of reading importance. We then identify approaches that encourage students to read, enjoy reading, and develop metacognitive knowledge, shown to improve learning.     

Social Work and Law Interdisciplinary Service Learning: Increasing Future Lawyers’ Interpersonal Skills

Social workers and attorneys both interact with persons from diverse backgrounds every day, yet although interpersonal skills are an essential focus of social work education, these skills are not addressed in legal education. Interdisciplinary courses in which social workers and lawyers learn interpersonal skills together and have an opportunity to practice them through service learning opportunities are a way to remedy a gap in legal education. The authors describe a project recently piloted at a large midwestern university in which law and graduate social work students participated in an interdisciplinary course with a service learning component requiring students to work together on cases. As one component of the clinic’s assessment, all students were pre- and posttested via an interpersonal skills survey. The law students showed statistically significant improvement in interpersonal skills at the end of the course. The results indicate a need for increased support for interdisciplinary education, specifically partnerships between the professions of law and social work.     

Students’ Learning Processes during School-Based Learning and Workplace Learning in Vocational Education: A Review

Learning in vocational schools and workplaces are the two main components of vocational education. Students have to develop professional competences by building meaningful relations between knowledge, skills and attitudes. There are, however, some major concerns about the combination of learning in these two learning environments, since vocational schools are primarily based on the rationales of learning and theory, while workplaces are based on the rationales of working and practice. This study therefore aims to structure empirical insights into students’ learning processes during the combination of school-based learning and workplace learning in vocational education. A review-study has been conducted in which ultimately 24 articles were analyzed thoroughly. The review shows that students’ learning processes in vocational schools and workplaces are related to six main themes: students’ expertise development, students’ learning styles, students’ integration of knowledge acquired in school and workplace, processes of knowledge development, students’ motivations for learning and students’ professional identity development. Our results show that students are novices who use specific and different learning styles and learning activities in vocational schools and workplaces. It is concluded that the enhancement of students’ learning processes needs to be adaptive and differentiated in nature. Recommendations for further research are elaborated and suggestions for the enhancement of students’ learning processes are discussed using insights from hybrid learning environments and boundary crossing via boundary objects.     

Building Bridges: Experiential and Integrative Learning in a Canadian Women’s Prison

ABSTRACT

This article reports on a study of student experiences of a Walls to Bridges (W2B) class taught by Faculty of Social Work instructors in a Canadian women’s prison. The Walls to Bridges (W2B) program is based on the U. S. Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program and brings students from the university together with students from the prison to study for a semester long course in correctional settings. The article reports on how the program pedagogy of experiential learning and Talking Circle processes impacted student’s awareness of privilege, marginalization and stereotypes, commitment to social change and action.     

“At Sea”: Reversibility in Teaching and Learning

An equal-armed balance at equilibrium—the bar is horizontal—tips into disequilibrium upon displacing a weight. Equilibrium is restored by reversing that move—putting the weight back where it was, or doing the same on the other side. Piaget adopted the idea of equilibration to describe how the intellect, in relating to the world, develops. Equilibrium arises as: our mind adjusts its structures in response to the outer world (accommodation), so our internalized views can take in this outer world (assimilation). That is the process Piaget calls equilibration. Upon undergoing disequilibrium, the intellect employs these equilibrating moves, changing its structures in the process. When the intellect resolves a disturbing problem no matter how it is encountered, the intellect tries to reverse the disturbing feature: how did the familiar situation get to this disturbing one; how might that change be reversed? These equilibrating processes are encouraged as means of teaching and learning in this paper’s math and science examples. The clinical interviewing methodology of Piaget and Inhelder, as adapted by Eleanor Duckworth in the research pedagogy of clinical exploration in the classroom, provides the neutral, safe conditions requisite for these learners and teachers in undergoing disequilibrium, struggling with uncertainty, and constructing new understandings. In beginning to teach through exploration, the author and an undergraduate experimented with free fall motion. Experiencing disequilibrium, the student reconstructed her understanding of time as concurrently continuous and divisible. Seeking to enact methods of Piaget and Duckworth while engaging her, the teacher also experienced disequilibrium.     

Teaching and Learning Science in Authoritative Classrooms: Teachers’ Power and Students’ Approval in Korean Elementary Classrooms

Research in Science Education - This study aims to understand interactions in Korean elementary science classrooms, which are heavily influenced by Confucianism. Ethnographic observations of two...     

How Can We Support Students’ Learning Experiences in Higher Education? Campus Wide Course Transformation Program Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Innovative Higher Education - The aims of this paper are to examine the breadth of scholarship that emerged from a large-scale university-wide course transformation program between 2011 and 2021,...     

“I Accept All Students”: Tolerance Discourse and LGBTQ Ally Work in U.S. Public Schools

This article explores how tolerance discourse is being taken up by educators in interview data about the roles and responsibilities of LGBTQ allies. Participating teachers used the phrase “all students” as a mechanism to include LGBTQ students in their professional narratives without naming them and their particular needs. I argue that such tolerance-informed language and actions integrate LGBTQ ally intentions into teachers’ professional obligations by calling on their responsibility to support and care for all students, but it does not necessarily invoke responsibility to confront policies and practices that contribute to LGBTQ students’ exclusion.     

Resuscitating Students’ Learning: Exploring the “Living Dead” Phenomenon

There is research spanning the 20th century on student disengagement. Despite all the research, the problem remains. It is time to adopt a different perspective. This article attempts to make transparent the influences on disengagement in schools by applying Jean Gebser's (1985) empirical phenomenological study of cultural consciousness. What differentiates this approach from previous arguments is the basic premise that the “problem” of disengagement lies not with an individual or group, but with the cultural consciousness.     

“We are Humans First”: Expanding Learning Outcomes in an Undergraduate Research Methods Course Through an Experiential Learning Project on Homelessness

This paper outlines my approach to and lessons learned from an experiential learning project on homelessness in an undergraduate research methods course for criminal justice majors. Students receive training in research ethics as well as interpretivist research epistemology and methods, and then conduct structured interviews with un-housed individuals. Drawing on a thematic analysis of students’ research reflection papers, I discuss three ways in which this approach can enhance and expand learning outcomes beyond what is conventionally achieved in a methods course: (1) developing competency in conducting human subjects research; (2) challenging pre-existing views on social issues; and (3) increasing empathy and enhancing communication skills, which may be particularly important for aspiring law enforcement officers.     

Garden-Based Learning: An Experience With “At Risk” Secondary Education Students

The reengagement of disenchanted secondary students is one of the priorities of the educational system. Over a six-year period (2003–2004 to 2008–2009), 63 disruptive and low-performance secondary school students were integrated into a two-year garden-based learning program, which took place in southeastern Spain. This article intends to assess the quantitative and qualitative changes in both academic outcomes and personal behavior brought about by the experience. Results show that school failure decreased substantially, while the dropout rate was reduced from an initial 30% to zero in some years. Disruptive episode control improved significantly in the classroom, where teachers observed a decided improvement in students' skills, self-esteem, and self-confidence.     

Using Cogenerative Dialogs to Improve Science Teaching and Learning: Challenges and Solutions in High School Students’ Internships

Internships in science research settings have received increasing attention as a means of helping students construct appropriate understandings, practices, tools, and language in scientific activities. To advance student–scientist partnerships beyond the status quo, the study aimed to investigate how cogenerative dialogs (cogens) may help high school students and scientists identify and address challenges collectively. The analysis identified nine major challenges discussed during cogens: (1) the quality and progress of scientific practice in laboratories, (2) the quality of scientists’/assistants’ instructions in classrooms, (3) the quality of student participation in classrooms and homework, (4) students’ absences, including arriving late or leaving early, (5) the quality of administrative support, (6) preparation for scientific presentations, (7) the process of deciding project topics, (8) students’ peer interactions and communication, and (9) students’ physiological needs. The three most salient challenges were “the quality and progress of scientific practice in laboratories” (39%), “the quality of scientists’/assistants’ instructions in classrooms” (20%), and “the quality of student participation in classrooms and homework” (17%). The study shows that cogens allowed students and scientists to agree on teaching modifications that positively influenced teaching and learning processes during the internship, such that issues were reduced from the beginning to the closing stages. Importantly, the challenges and solutions identified by students and scientists in this study provide accounts of first-hand experience as well as insights to aid program directors or coordinators in designing a learning environment that can foster effective practice for internships by avoiding the issues identified in the study.     

No Quick Fixes: Problems in the Development of A-level Students’ Writing (and Learning)

Over the past 15 years, there has been a range of standards-driven educational interventions in England: focused particularly on students’ writing, they have been targeted at particular students, short-term and based on the assumption that identifiable, quantifiable inputs would produce pre-identified, measurable outputs. This article explores one such intervention, aimed at students in Year 13 who were seen as having difficulty with academic writing. It looks closely at the work of one student, and raises questions about the effects of high-stakes testing upon pedagogy in schools and the damaging impact that this has upon student learning.     

“Hebdo-Chim,” a Web Application to Support Learning in a Chemistry Methods Pre-Service Course

The potential of the Internet for Education has been enthusiastically reported by many. It is clear, though, that science educators need to be prepared and supported in order to adopt it, as is the case with any innovation. But first they should be motivated; and one way to do this is by letting them experience the benefits of the innovation in their own learning. By showing them appropriate uses, no matter how modest, in teacher preparation courses, we can motivate and influence future science teachers; they, like any teachers, tend to model what is taught by example. This paper describes one use of the Web in support of learning in a course in Chemistry Methods for pre-service teachers at Université de Montréal. Designed as a weekly, it is a site meant to be an integral, if not central, part of the course. In addition to permanent access to links and course outline, course notes and information relevant to each class were posted every week. An assignment involving a treasure hunt on the Web is also described.     

Learning Approaches in the Architectural Education and the Role of Students’ Habitus: Case Study Pakistan

This study seeks to explore the impact of social upbringing on architectural learning. The theory of “habitus” helps to understand how students’ personality dispositions might affect the way they approach learning in the “field” of architectural education. The notions of learning approaches and knowledge codes in literature are used to develop a framework for the study that helps to explore the field of architectural education. It is a qualitative study, conducted through semi-structured interviews with 44 students in 10 architecture schools in Pakistan. Interviews explored students’ habitus as well as their learning approaches, later explored through the framework developed in the study. Interviews are transcribed and coded using Nvivo 12. A detailed analysis explores the connection between habitus and learning approaches and finds out that habitus plays a major role in determining the way students approach learning in Architecture, with most cultivated habitus students showing a deep learning approach.     

Workshop on Friction: Understanding and Addressing Students’ Difficulties in Learning Science Through a Hermeneutical Perspective

Hermeneutics is useful in science and science education by emphasizing the process of understanding. The purpose of this study was to construct a workshop based upon hermeneutical principles and to interpret students’ learning in the workshop through a hermeneutical perspective. When considering the history of Newtonian mechanics, it could be considered that there are two methods of approaching Newtonian mechanics. One method is called the ‘prediction approach’, and the other is called the ‘explanation approach’. The ‘prediction approach’ refers to the application of the principles of Newtonian mechanics. We commonly use the prediction approach because its logical process is natural to us. However, its use is correct only when a force, such as gravitation, is exactly known. On the other hand, the ‘explanation approach’ could be used when the nature of a force is not exactly known. In the workshop, students read a short text offering contradicting ideas about whether to analyze a friction situation using the explanation approach or the prediction approach. Twenty-two college students taking an upper-level mechanics course wrote their ideas about the text. The participants then discussed their ideas within six groups, each composed of three or four students. Through the group discussion, students were able to clarify their preconceptions about friction, and they responded to the group discussion positively. Students started to think about their learning from a holistic perspective. As students thought and discussed the friction problems in the manner of hermeneutical circles, they moved toward a better understanding of friction.