Lifescaping action research pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This article is a collaboration involving a professor and three graduate students. Together, they explore lifescaping action research pedagogy guided by the participatory inquiry process. Since the lesson taught is not the lesson learned, the first author presents a perspective about teaching PIP followed by the graduate students’ collective responses enacting what they learned in three different school settings.     

An Undergraduate Research Opportunity: Collaboration Between Undergraduate and Graduate Students

ABSTRACT: A research experience was made available to an undergraduate Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) student through collaboration with a Masters-level Nutrition graduate student. Both students were under the supervision of a graduate FSHN faculty member. Positive, self-identified aspects for the students included learning how to work collaboratively as a team member, gaining a better understanding of the process of field-based research, and successfully completing both projects. While caveats are noted, we suggest that this process is an untapped opportunity to offer a research experience to undergraduates. It could be applicable in departments/ units that maintain both an undergraduate and graduate program or across departments where disciplines are similar.     

Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Inclusion: Factors Influencing Classroom Practice

Effective collaboration between early childhood teachers and social workers is now considered critical to providing children with adequate psycho-social supports and services in early childhood settings. In order for this interdisciplinary collaboration to be more effective, opportunities for each discipline to learn about each other's knowledge, skills, roles, and responsibilities need to occur well before these professionals enter early childhood settings. This pilot study engaged 2nd-year, preservice, graduate early childhood education and social work students in an interprofessional training and collaborative activity as part of their graduate coursework. Following this training and activity, the early childhood education graduate students and the social work graduate students were invited to participate in uni-professional focus groups as a way to explore their experiences. Findings suggest that although there is general agreement among graduate students that interdisciplinary training and learning activities during coursework provide an important foundation for collaboration, there are several challenges. These challenges include a lack of clarity around professional roles and responsibilities, differences in understandings of children's behavior, and a perception that there will be little opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration in early childhood settings. Implications are discussed for strengthening relationships between professional preparation programs as a way to improve collaborative teaming and increase early childhood teacher retention.     

Collaborative Action Research on Technology Integration for Science Learning

This paper briefly reports the outcomes of an action research inquiry on the use of blogs, MS PowerPoint [PPT], and the Internet as learning tools with a science class of sixth graders for project-based learning. Multiple sources of data were essential to triangulate the key findings articulated in this paper. Corresponding to previous studies, the incorporation of technology and project-based learning could motivate students in self-directed exploration. The students were excited about the autonomy over what to learn and the use of PPT to express what they learned. Differing from previous studies, the findings pointed to the lack information literacy among students. The students lacked information evaluation skills, note-taking and information synthesis. All these findings imply the importance of teaching students about information literacy and visual literacy when introducing information technology into the classroom. The authors suggest that further research should focus on how to break the culture of “copy-and-paste” by teaching the skills of note-taking and synthesis through inquiry projects for science learning. Also, further research on teacher professional development should focus on using collaboration action research as a framework for re-designing graduate courses for science teachers in order to enhance classroom technology integration.     

培养研究生科研能力的行为逻辑与机制创新

全域信息化时代复杂性社会问题跨界特征要求研究生科研能力培养工作实现"教学-科研-实践-工作"的有机关联。本研究基于重建知识关联和重构学习空间视角,深入探讨研究生科研能力培养的"拓展学习-文化沉浸-知识涌现"行为逻辑,在实践基础上探索涵盖门槛概念、师生互动、拓展合作、价值实现体验的研究生科研能力TTEV培养框架,进一步营造个性化学习氛围、建设全域化学习空间、关注可雇佣能力提高和完善柔性化评估体系等支持要素,以提高研究生科研能力培养水平。     

Influencing Student Attitudes Toward Older Adults: Results of a Service-Learning Collaboration

This article describes a service-learning collaboration between a research center at a graduate school of social work and a community college. While the goal of the collaboration was to conduct a community needs assessment of the older population of Bermuda, the project offered a unique opportunity to connect community service, teaching, and research. Students' classroom experience prepared them to play a critical role as interviewers of older adults. Participation in this project enabled students to contribute to a vital step in the process of community change. Students reported more positive attitudes toward older adults and greater interest in working with older adults as a result of this experience. Service-learning can be an effective means of teaching students about aging.     

研究生眼中的研究生教育质量——基于江苏7所大学的调查

对江苏7所大学进行问卷调查发现：在课程教学与研究资源维度中,存在采用外国教材比例低和双语教学比例低、参与产学研基地项目的机会少、获海外博士学位导师比例低,企业专家授课比例低等问题;在制度与机制维度中,多数研究生认为有必要对研究生招生方式进行改革、研究生对学校奖助学金制度表示满意度低;在评价与监管维度中,研究生参与教学质量的座谈或意见征求活动的频率低。     

Flattened Hierarchy Through Drama-Based Pedagogy: A Graduate Student Instructor and Two Undergraduates Partner on Classroom Research

In this paper, the authors describe their journey from a teacher-student relationship to that of research partners and co-authors, thus providing a case study situated within the literature on students as partners. The instructor's use of drama-based pedagogy organically facilitated this journey both by flattening the hierarchy between teacher and students, and by being the subject under study. As a research group, the authors designed and collaborated on a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project. They analyzed existing classroom data to study the effects of drama-based pedagogy on their classroom environment and presented findings at conferences and through publication. This collaboration between a graduate student instructor and her undergraduate learners benefited all parties from both research and professionalization perspectives, which mirrors positive outcomes in the students as partners literature. The partnership can thus serve as a model for similar partnerships with minimal institutional infrastructure. Graduate students become research mentors and gain greater access to their students' classroom experiences, while undergraduate students explore the next step of an academic career track by conducting and disseminating original research as equal partners. The authors highlight reciprocity in their collaboration and call on institutions to facilitate this kind of partnership with funding and institutional support.     

Potentiality for change? Revisiting an action research project with a sociomaterial approach

This article takes as its point of departure an action research project conducted in an upper secondary school in Sweden. The project had a practitioner research approach and was carried out with students in one class. In this article, I elaborate on the tensions that appeared during the project concerning collaboration and action. This is done by revisiting the project with a theoretical approach of sociomaterialism. Revisiting entails critically and creatively exploring how to comprehend collaboration and action differently. It raises question about who or what are involved in the collaborations and what are to be considered ‘good’ actions. Within the elaboration, collaboration and action become intertwined phenomena that are always working together. Furthermore, it proposes how the notion of intervention embraces the distributed and collective disposition of both collaboration and action. By addressing the notions of collaboration and action with a sociomaterial approach changing a teaching practice becomes a relational experiment without preset goals. The potential for change becomes within speculative interventions that affords various encounters and relations.     

Perspectives from graduate students on effective teaching methods: a case study from a Vietnamese Transnational University

Abstract

Vietnam is emerging as an accelerated economic and political society with an increased global presence; thus, increased attention has been given to producing qualified college graduates who can contribute to the growing global economy. Yet challenges exist due to lack of educational infrastructure and ineffective teaching practices. As a result, the Vietnamese government embraces international collaborations in higher education as a way to address educational needs; however, although research exists on policy implications and government priorities, very little is known about how students perceive the teaching methods provided at these collaborative transnational universities. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine graduate students’ perceived effectiveness of teaching methods at Vietnamese-German University (VGU), a predominantly technology and engineering university that is an international collaboration between Vietnam and Germany. We seek to answer the research question of, ‘how is the use of student-centred practices effective in an international learning environment?’ Findings from graduate students indicate that collaborative learning, specifically through group work and modified flipped classrooms, are effective ways to maximise student learning. Implications for practice and future research are discussed as ways to emphasise the benefits of student-centred teaching and learning at transnational collaborative universities.     

Designing and implementing technology collaboration projects: Lessons learned

Conclusion Even though the collaboration between the state university and the government research center ended inconclusively, the authors examined the collaboration with an attempt to provide sound guidance for future collaboration projects. Based upon the findings above, many of the challenges that the technology collaboration faced become clearer. A primary problem was an unclear definition regarding the type of collaboration that was being developed. Goals and project timelines were not agreed upon or clearly communicated between all participants. Many graduate students chose to contribute to the project because it appeared to be an attempt to engage teachers and researchers in working collaboratively to design and develop a usable and engaging product for the classroom. This type of collaboration, however, requires authentic participation by all parties. As the project progressed, many teachers felt that they had increasingly limited input into the design of the multimedia modules. For example, teachers raised many concerns related to interface design and lesson content, but later learned that these items were non-negotiable. Teachers began to feel as though their role was more of an apprentice or an intern learning from rather than with the research center. Lack of clarity regarding roles conspired with a host of issues related to partnership development to obstruct the overall product from being completed. As a result, it is impossible to gauge whether the modules designed via the partnership will have a greater impact on student learning than those created solely by the research center. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine whether participating teacher practices changed. None of them had the opportunity to pilot test the modules within their classrooms and a very small percentage completed all quarters of participation. The greatest challenges of the project related to whether or not the needs of the two institutions involved and of the graduate students were fulfilled. The technology collaboration was an honest attempt to involve teachers in the development of science curriculum and technology on a national scale. There exists great potential in linking the skills of teachers with the resources available through the research center and the authors were personally invested in getting involved in the collaboration. Critical to the success of such collaborations is effectively utilizing the skills of all participants, and essential to the measure of its success is the overall ability of the project to meet stakeholders’ needs.     

Living action research: authoring identities through yaya projects

This article examines the authors’ experiences living action research through an art therapy activity known as YaYa that involved creating and sharing visual representations of themselves as beginning researchers. This activity was part of a graduate course on education action research and students in the course found the activity transformative. The article first explores how four students in the course created and presented their YaYas. It goes on to discuss how the activity provided opportunities for students to imagine and re-imagine authored identities in the figured worlds of teaching and research. The role that visual arts play in transforming consciousness is also used to help understand the powerful impact of the YaYa activity. The YaYa as a visual artistic process opened students up to meaning-making and reconstructing identities that involved not only the mind, but also the emotions, body and spirit. The authors claim that learning action research can itself be a process of action research, and that living such practice is about involving and imagining the whole self in multiple figured worlds.     

On PAR with young people: learnings from the SARUA project

The Student Action Research for University Access (SARUA) is a participatory action research project between groups of senior high school students, their schoolteachers and university staff. During the 8 years of its activities in at least 17 high schools in the greater metropolitan area of Brisbane, Australia significant learnings have developed about working with students on projects that affect their own lives. This article problematises aspects of partnerships and collaboration between two diverse cultures of the university and the school and discusses the benefits of such collaboration, some of the challenges faced and the responsibilities of the university partners in facilitating action research with young people.     

Perspectives on interdisciplinary undergraduate research

Undergraduate Research (UR) provides deeper experiential learning opportunities for students while increasing their self-efficacy, academic success and motivation to pursue graduate studies. Many real-world problems require an integrated solution and collaboration across different disciplines; therefore, it is important that students develop skills to work across disciplines on challenging research problems. As types and complexity of UR increase, Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research (IDUR) has become more prevalent, but little is known about it. We define IDUR as “student-faculty collaboration to examine, increase, and share new knowledge or works relevant to research questions the investigation of which necessitates an interdisciplinary approach”. From the faculty perspective, and based on the results of a national sample of higher learning institutions in the U.S., we outline the enablers of and barriers to IDUR and provide quantitative and qualitative insights. Survey results show that, irrespective of the size of the institution at which they work, faculty members value mentoring students conducting IDUR although it brings with it some challenges. Our findings may help institutions better facilitate IDUR projects and inform faculty development opportunities that deepen student learning and retention via enhanced curricula in which IDUR is embedded.     

The Research Mentoring Program: Serving the Needs of Graduate and Undergraduate Researchers

Many institutions of higher education confront seemingly unrelated needs of graduate students, who need not only to complete their dissertations but also to learn how to become proficient mentors for undergraduates as they move on to faculty roles. The graduate students are increasingly searching out high-impact learning experiences such as involvement with undergraduate research. The program we describe in this article offers a solution to these issues by pairing undergraduates with graduate students to work on their dissertation research. Undergraduates undertake hands-on research while learning about graduate school, and the graduate students learn about the mentoring process while receiving assistance that allows them to keep their dissertations moving toward completion.     

Wiki: Using the Web Connections to Connect Students

The present study reports on action research conducted using a resource wiki. Participants included 48 certified teachers and pre-service teachers enrolled in a face-to-face graduate course supplemented with online activities. Data collected include student reflections that indicate the use of a wiki at the university level is a feasible means of online collaboration, facilitates constructing new knowledge, and provides a medium of modeling technology integration into the classroom.     

Participants’ evaluation of consultation: implications for training in school psychology

Evaluation of graduate students’ consultation skills is essential to competent practice in school settings. Congruence of evaluation of the consultation experience has been shown as an important factor in the development of competent consultants in other, related disciplines. The current study analysed student consultant and teacher consultee perspectives on several dimensions, including school system entry, knowledge gaps, territorial concerns, role ambivalence, and problems inherent in student–staff member interaction. Results of tests for congruence of ratings of providers and recipients of consultation services suggest a number of concerns regarding the preparation of graduate student consultants for successful practise in school settings, including inadequate preparation for systems entry, conflict over shared problem solving and the need to balance expertise with collaboration, and graduate student’s lack of knowledge of instructional practices. Implications for training graduate students in school-based consultation are discussed.