An examination of two coteaching classrooms

The present study presents data on two classrooms that used a coteaching approach to provide services to students who were deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing. The author conducted extensive observations, as well as interviews with teachers, students, administrators, and parents. The resulting qualitative data supported coteaching's effectiveness as a service delivery model. However, the research also identified important and specific challenges. Seven subthemes about coteaching are presented, and quotes from various stakeholders are provided to support and illustrate the information reported. Suggestions for future research are provided. The author makes recommendations on how to establish coteaching teams and describes issues surrounding communication, staff development, and family involvement.     

Emergent patterns of teaching/learning in electronic classrooms

Novel patterns of teaching/learning have emerged from faculty and students who use our three teaching/learning theaters at the University of Maryland, College Park. These fully-equipped electronic classrooms have been used by 74 faculty in 264 semester-long courses since the fall of 1991 with largely enthusiastic reception by both faculty and students. The designers of the teaching/learning theaters sought to provide a technologically rich environment and a support staff so that faculty could concentrate on changing the traditional lecture from its unidirectional information flow to a more collaborative activity. As faculty have evolved their personal styles in using the electronic classrooms, novel patterns of teaching/learning have emerged. In addition to enhanced lectures, we identified three common patterns: (a) active individual learning, (b) small-group collaborative learning, and (c) entire-class collaborative learning.     

Paraprofessionals in early childhood classrooms: an examination of duties and expectations

Millions of dollars are expended, in the USA and elsewhere, to provide paraprofessionals or ‘teaching assistants’ for regular early childhood classrooms. However, little consistent information exists related to best practice in the use of paraprofessionals in these early childhood settings. This article describes a study employing the use of 159 teacher and 161 paraprofessional surveys and classroom observations in 23 randomly selected kindergarten and four-year-old classrooms. Paraprofessionals delivered large amounts of group instruction and frequently managed student behavior. Furthermore, it was found that a lack of understanding of specific duties and expectations related to the roles of paraprofessionals was characteristic of both teachers and the paraprofessionals themselves.     

Reconciling beliefs and practices in teaching and learning

Current teaching and learning methods reveal marked differences between how students approach learning and how instructors approach teaching. Little attention has been paid to understanding these differences and their implications for designing successful learning environments. The purpose of the paper is to introduce a framework for understanding and reconciling perspectives on teaching and learning success. First, we examine perspectives on learning success. Next, we compare and contrast beliefs and practices associated with teaching and learning. Finally, we introduce a model for reconciling teaching and learning beliefs and practices, and discuss implications for future research and practice.     

Lifelong learning: Universities and adult education

This paper argues that the driving force of social change in the contemporary world is economic globalisation, which has demanded and more highly educated work force. It discusses six major changes that are occurring in traditional university education, as a result, and notes that universities have now become a site where adults learn. Universities are becoming institutions of lifelong learning. In the final section traditional adult education is reviewed, which is also becoming lifelong learning, and the education of older adults is discussed.     

Hidden voices in higher education: inclusive policies and practices in social science and law classrooms

This paper pertains to a broader biographical-narrative research project which studies barriers and support as identified by students with disabilities at a Spanish University (Barriers and Support That Disabled Students Identify in the University. Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Dir. Dr Anabel Moriña; Ref. EDU 2010–16264, 2010–2014)). The present study focuses specifically on barriers and support identified by students with disabilities enrolled in undergraduate programmes in the Social Sciences and Law. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, from the point of view of disabled students (applying the biographic-narrative methodology), which barriers and which support this group encounters in Higher Education. To this end, findings are organised in the following categories: general institutional data; infrastructure, architectural and accessibility-related data; faculty and teaching-related data; data relating to fellow students; and suggestions for improving the university and/or university classrooms. In the Conclusions section, we return to our earlier discussion of key findings which shed some light on how the University helps or hinders learning among participants in the study. From this perspective, taking as a reference the social model of disability, we conclude that in order to be inclusive, the University needs to commit itself to adopting proactive measures that eliminate the barriers that do not permit the learning and the full participation of the students in question.     

思政课教学中教与学的辨证法

本文以社会主义核心价值观为引领,运用唯物辩证法对思政课的教与学进行客观分析:用普遍联系的观点看待师生关系;用发展的观点正视学生的不足;用矛盾的观点看待学生学习的反复。正确处理课程与教材的三组逻辑关系:教材编写的逻辑、教学设计的逻辑与学生思维发展的逻辑的辨证关系,帮助学生全面发展,自觉践行社会主义核心价值观。     

Student perceptions of learning environment: disciplinary program versus general education classrooms

Tertiary Education and Management - The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of the learning environment in their program major and general education classrooms. The...     

Metaphors in mathematics classrooms: analyzing the dynamic process of teaching and learning of graph functions

This article presents an analysis of a phenomenon that was observed within the dynamic processes of teaching and learning to read and elaborate Cartesian graphs for functions at high-school level. Two questions were considered during this investigation: What types of metaphors does the teacher use to explain the graphic representation of functions at high-school level? Is the teacher aware of the use he/she has made of metaphors in his/her speech, and to what extent does he/she monitor them? The theoretical framework was based on embodied cognition theory. Our findings include teachers’ expressions that suggest, among other ideas: (1) orientation metaphors, such as “the abscissa axis is horizontal”; (2) fictive motion, such as “the graph of a function can be considered as the trace of a point that moves over the graph”; (3) ontological metaphors; and (4) interaction of metaphors. We also show that teachers were not aware of using metaphors.     

在生物学教学中渗透人格教育

人格对一个人的成长与发展具有重要作用和影响,在生物学教学中渗透学生健全人格的教育,是教师教书育人和培养学生健全人格的重要途径。应在生物学教学中充分挖掘人格教育资源。     

Understanding emergent teaching and learning practices: iPad integration in Polish school

Education and Information Technologies - The appearance of tablet technology in the classroom is considered an obvious modernisation milestone. In the last few years school professionals in Poland...     

Mathematics teacher professional learning and teacher education practices

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education -     

Changing conceptions and practices of management: Professional learning from an MBA experience by distance education

This ethnographic study of a management learning experience by distance education analyses participants' changing conceptions and practices of management using the notions of professional empowerment, integration, odysseys and personal transformation. The study reveals the nature, extent and processes of professional empowerment and personal transformation. It also attempts to illuminate the contribution that the MBA program by distance education and ongoing workplace experience made to the processes of empowerment and perspective transformation. MBA participants are seen to be negotiating different stages of the empowerment/ transformation process. Different stages are seen to demand different empowerment/ transformative strategies, and to contain different forms of barriers to professional empowerment. The sobering possibility of participants experiencing professional disempowerment is highlighted in the study.