Interactive Techniques Used in Teachers’ Oral Feedback and Its Impact on Students’ Participation

English language teaching is facing a reformation with the emphasis of students-centered learning approach and communicative language learning. Classroom interaction becomes popular especially during teachers’ oral feedback. In order to involve more students to participate, interactive techniques are applied in the classroom such as elicitation and recasts. This essay will focus on the adoption of interactive techniques in teachers’ oral feedback in terms of a specific grammar lesson and try to explore its impact on students’ participation.     

Interactive Techniques Used in Teachers’Oral Feedback and Its Impact on Students’Participation

English language teaching is facing a reformation with the emphasis of students-centered learning approach and com-municative language learning. Classroom interaction becomes popular especially during ...     

College Students’ Participation in Fundamental Scientific Research

Russian university students need to be involved in research as part of their educational experience. An example of how this may be done, and the issues that need to be addressed in such an approach, are provided by the program at Perm State University of Pedagogical Humanities.     

Students’ geometrical perception on a task-based dynamic geometry platform

This paper describes a task-based dynamic geometry platform that is able to record student responses in a collective fashion to pre-designed dragging tasks. The platform provides a new type of data and opens up a quantitative dimension to interpret students’ geometrical perception in dynamic geometry environments. The platform is capable of generating a collective image map of student geometrical perceptions for a pre-designed dragging task. This map is interpreted as students’ qualitatively different ways of perceiving a geometrical phenomenon under the drag mode, ways which are quantified and categorized in a collective way. The idea of task perceptual landscape is proposed to facilitate discussion on the pedagogical significance of this platform. Specifically, a task case is presented and analysed in which a methodology is developed that provides a way to classify students’ geometrical perceptions with respect to the task. The task perceptual landscape is interpreted as a collective example space of student perception of a task. Furthermore, an idea of personal example space is developed through the findings from a qualitative study for the same task. This brings about discussion on possible pedagogical correlation between the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the platform.     

Fostering Students’ Scientific Inquiry through Computer-Supported Collaborative Knowledge Building

Research in Science Education - The aim of this study was to investigate whether and how engaging with a computer-supported collaborative knowledge-building environment helps students to develop a...     

Students’ Perspectives on LGBTQ-Inclusive Curriculum

Implementing curriculum that is inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) people has the potential to create an equitable learning environment. In order to learn more about students’ experiences of LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, 26 high school students with diverse racial/ethnic, sexual, and gender identities were recruited from the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Network in California. Students participated in focus groups conducted by telephone by GSA staff, sharing their experiences of LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum in school. Qualitative coding methods, including grounded theory, were used to identify themes and interpret students’ responses. Data revealed that LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum was most often taught in social sciences and humanities courses as stand-alone lessons. LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum rarely met standards of social justice education, though opportunities for critical conversations about systemic oppression regularly emerged. For instance, teachers often failed to intervene in LGBTQ bullying and missed teachable moments conducive to inclusive curriculum. Some students learned positive LGBTQ lessons and highlighted the ways such curriculum reflected their identities and created a supportive school climate. Implications for equitable education are discussed.     

Effect of a Diagram on Primary Students’ Understanding About Electric Circuits

Research in Science Education - This article reports on the effect of using a diagram to develop primary students’ conceptual understanding about electric circuits. Diagrammatic...     

Effects of a Value-Reappraisal Intervention on Statistics Students’ Motivation and Performance

The authors investigated the effects of an exploratory value-reappraisal intervention on students’ motivation and performance in an undergraduate introductory statistics course. They sampled 82 students from 2 instructors’ sections during both the fall and spring semesters. Students were randomly assigned within each section to either the Value-Reappraisal (VR) or Control condition (C). VR presented messages about the importance of statistics and guided students in exploring potential values of learning statistics. Results showed positive effects of VR on task value, endogenous instrumentality, and a choice-behavior measure of interest. The authors found VR to affect exam performance, but only for students who had a particular instructor. This research helps broaden literature on self-regulation and expectancy-value models of motivation by focusing on the regulation of value perceptions.     

Students’ performance on missing-value word problems: a cross-national developmental study

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study investigates Spanish and Chinese students’ performance on both addition problems and proportion problems considering a cross-national...     

Building a Professional Learning Community: Teachers’ Documentation of and Reflections on Preschoolers’ Work

This study describes teachers’ experiences in a preschool professional learning community (PLC) in order to gain understanding of the role of documentation in group learning. A central underlying assumption of PLCs is that teacher learning involves talking with colleagues about teaching and grappling with the issues embodied in everyday classroom life. We utilized a qualitative case study design in order to emphasize the situated and contextual nature of teachers’ professional learning in context. Data sources included the following: observations of PLC sessions, interviews with participating teachers, and the classroom documentation teachers shared during the sessions. We found that the incorporation of documentation in the PLC made implicit assumptions about children visible in order to be scrutinized. In addition, the teachers’ reflections on the documentation highlighted conflicting notions about teaching as either technical practice or inquiry. In contrast to traditional delivery approaches to teacher learning, we argue that PLCs focused on documentation encourage teachers to problematize practice rather than simplify it. The process of reflecting on children’s work made shifts in thinking about the nature of teaching possible.     

Students’ communication, argumentation and knowledge in a citizens’ conference on global warming

An empirical study on 12th-grade students?? engagement on a global warming debate as a citizens?? conference is reported. Within the design-based research methodology, an interdisciplinary teaching sequence integrating an initiation to non-violent communication was developed. Students?? debates were analyzed according to three dimensions: communication, argumentation, and knowledge. Students regulated their oral contributions to the debate by identifying judgments in their discussions. Rhetorical processes developed by students were mainly related to the identity of debate protagonists with interest attributions, authority, and positions. Students?? arguments also relied on empirical data. The students?? knowledge focused on energy choices, economic, political, and science development issues. Implications for socioscientific issues integration in class are discussed.     

Consideration on Vocational Students’ Participation in Class:With Special Reference to Task-based Approach and Traditional Method

This paper covers an experimental study on vocational students’ participation in the class under task-based approach and traditional grammar-translation teaching method.As vocational colleges in China have developed rapidly,teachers are still exploring and experimenting with different teaching approaches in order to find the suitable one(s).Using the theory of task-based approach,the grammartranslation method,the author conducts an experiment by recording.The following key issue has been addressed and some conclusive results have been made.The paper intends to find an answer to the following question:Under which teaching approach can students participate in the class more actively? Based on the above research work,the following result has been reached:Task-based approach can promote students’ mastering of vocabulary and grammar,and students participate in the class more actively.The author would like to share her experiences with others in pedagogical studies of teaching vocational college students English.     

Challenging a Teacher's Perceptions of Mathematical Smartness Through Reflections on Students’ Thinking

Creating equitable opportunities so all students can learn and succeed mathematically has been a key focus of mathematics education across several decades. Central to student achievement are students’ mathematical identity and their feelings of success during instruction. Researchers (e.g., Boaler & Staples, 2008) have shown that teachers can be particularly powerful in shaping students’ beliefs, feelings of success, and achievement, but few studies have investigated how teachers frame what it means to be successful or “smart” in mathematics. Through the social construct of smartness (Hatt, 2012) and the learning perspectives of incremental and entity theories (Blackwell, Trzesnieski, & Dweck, 2007; Yeager & Dweck, 2012), I examine how one teacher, Mrs. Purl, conceptualized what it meant to be smart in mathematics and how this perception changed slowly, over time, through repeated examination and discussion of individual student's thinking. As Mrs. Purl came to know her students at a personal level, she began to see that her perceptions were not always accurate and warranted reexamination.     

Examining a Ferguson Effect on College Students’ Motivation to Become Police Officers

Abstract

The current study examines the impact of the Ferguson Effect and related public scrutiny on college students’ motivation to become police officers. Using data from 654 students located at two US universities with over 20,000 students, the results indicate that students’ who perceived that officer motivation and dangerousness has been affected by negative media scrutiny had significantly higher log-odds of strongly agreeing that such scrutiny has negatively impacted their trajectory to work in the police profession and had higher log-odds of strongly agreeing that it has made them apprehensive about applying for police positions in comparison to the reference category. The current study highlights how the negative attention directed towards law enforcement is adversely influencing college students’ motivation to enter the police profession. Police departments must make a concerted effort to mitigate such negative scrutiny in order to ensure a strong candidate pool for prospective police officers.     

‘Building Schools for the Future’: reflections on a new social architecture

The Labour Government launched the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme (BSF) in February 2003 with the aim of refurbishing or rebuilding all secondary schools in England over a 15‐year period, with an anticipated budget of £45 billion. In this article, we locate BSF in a wider public policy context which has already had important implications in other sectors of public provision. The local improvement finance trusts (LIFTs) initiative within the National Health Service (NHS) is of particular relevance to this discussion both because it reflects contemporary developments within New Public Management and because it also reveals new ways of extending and developing the private finance initiative (PFI) approach to public provision. We shall also consider the purposes and ‘delivery’ mechanisms of BSF and identify some of the key commentaries which have been provided by parliamentary reports and other evaluations. Although still in the early stages of its implementation, the BSF is of such significance for the future shape and form of educational provision that it is important to begin the process of considering possible directions and dimensions for a research agenda which will provide a secure empirical and analytical foundation on which to base discussion.     

Study Abroad Participation at Community Colleges: Students’ Decision and Influential Factors

This study aimed to better understand college students’ decisions to participate in short-term study abroad programs and to identify influential factors. Our constructive interview data with traditional and nontraditional students from three mid-Atlantic community colleges identified (a) the interplay between individual, social, and institutional factors, and (b) distinctive decision factors related to students attending community colleges. Notable factors included opportunity of a lifetime, academic transfer prospects, personal timing, cost affordability, faculty encouragement, family support, honors program, and group affinity. Moreover, students in this study shared how they were able to navigate and overcome their familial and vocational challenges (e.g., funding and concerns about academics–life balance) to engage in a study abroad program. Finally, we discuss the results with continuing applicability to educational practice at community colleges as well as policy implications for community college students.     

Views on College Students’ English Learning Motivation

This paper aims at exploring college students’ English learning motivation to language learning, including effort, interest, and attitudes. To some extent, it is very important to perform activities in language learning classes. On the one hand, teachers should do every effort to develop students’ keen interest in English study so as to foster their intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, they should set up new goals for students and feedback properly in order to build confidence in English learning. In a word, it is essential for English teachers to understand students’ motivation of English learning so as to save time and teach more efficiently.     

The Temporality of Participation in School Science: Coordination of Teacher Control and the Pace of Students’ Participation

This study investigates classroom organisation and interaction focusing on phases of activity. The detailed in-depth case study is based on video recordings of 1 science unit consisting of 11 lessons about biological evolution in a Swedish ninth-grade class (aged 15). The study illuminates the temporality of student participation as a fundamental and practical concern for the science teaching profession. Through multiple scale analysis an activity pattern and students' contrasting positions are identified. Movements of control and agency between teacher and students in small-groups provide opportunities for the teacher to coordinate the teaching and the pace of students' participation. The implications point to challenges involved in providing all students with the learning opportunities that participation in the school science discourse affords.