Using Action Research to Innov8: Facilitating Culture Shifts in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

ABSTRACT

The mission of a community college is distinct from a research one university, where empirical research is valued over investigation of discipline-based teaching and learning. The open-access, affordable, workforce, and transfer emphasis that serves many non-traditional community college students is a rich, meaningful environment for fostering the scholarship of teaching and learning, yet despite an emphasis on best practices and student success outcomes, teaching, and learning in this environment is an underappreciated element of the faculty role. This study explores the use of action research to facilitate engagement in the scholarship of teaching and instructional innovation. The mixed-method action research design incorporated quantitative and qualitative analysis from a wide variety of data sources and triangulated findings through a variation of techniques, including ongoing researcher dialogue and ratings. Action research serves as both the method for this study and the mechanism for faculty research on classroom innovations. This was substantiated as a catalyst for cultivating ongoing inquiry and professional growth. The Innov8 program and integration of action research appears to have a long-term, substantive impact on faculty perspectives, specifically influencing faculty culture, continued educational investigation, and ultimately student learning outcomes.     

The use of modern standard and spoken Arabic in mathematics lessons: the case of a diglossic language / El uso del árabe estándar moderno y del árabe hablado en las clases de matemáticas: el caso de una lengua diglósica

Abstract

Researchers have shown an increased interest in the way teachers use their knowledge about language (KAL) to enhance student understanding and learning. This qualitative case study investigated first- and second-grade teachers’ use of KAL in Arabic. We investigated the linguistic transitions from standard Arabic to spoken Arabic made by the teachers during mathematics lessons. The results suggested that Arab-speaking mathematics teachers were aware of the gap between home language (Spoken Arabic) and school language (Modern Standard Arabic) and used linguistic transition as a teaching strategy to develop academic thinking and behaviour among their students. The results suggested that Arab teachers built a non-formal bilingual education programme where the two languages were used to teach mathematics. Despite the requirement to use Modern Standard Arabic, participants bridged the gap between the languages, which suggests an inherent understanding that ‘language and identity are ultimately inseparable’.     

An analysis of sociocultural miscommunication: english, spanish and german

Nowadays, the significance of linguistic analysis applied to cross-cultural communication is enormous due to the heterogeneity of societies and the increasingly cross-cultural nature of commerce, politics, education etc. The application of linguistic theory, therefore, means the study of sociocultural communication since analysing the pragmatics of intercultural communication is the analysis of language itself. By observing the range of aspects of communication that can vary from culture to culture, we will exemplify levels of difference in habits and expectations in signalling how speakers mean what they say.     

What are we educating towards? Socialization,acculturization, and individualization as reflected in home education

This article examines the educational objectives of parents who homeschool (or practice home education) in terms of the widely accepted division of primary educational objectives, namely, socialisation, acculturation, and individualization. Using qualitative methodology and in-depth interviews, 30 homeschooling mothers were interviewed about their educational goals. The findings indicated that a significant number of the objectives cites by the interviewees were associated with the primary objective of individualization. In some cases, parents were interested in achieving goals of socialisation and acculturation in their children’s education. This analysis may help identify the pedagogical ideology of parents who chose to homeschool, thus informing the policy-making. In addition, the case of homeschooling offers an example of the struggle among the three primary objectives of education, against the backdrop of far-reaching changes underway around the world in the post-modern era, which poses a challenge for educational policymakers, as well as school systems.     

When I was at school – differences in stories about school told by parents of home-schooled and regular-schooled children

Home schooling has become increasingly widespread over recent decades in the western world. Since the choice to educate children at home in effect signifies abandonment of the educational system, one may assume that parents’ childhood experiences within the educational system play a significant part in their decision to opt for home schooling. The present study takes a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to investigating the choice in favour of home schooling and compares the childhood memories of school reported by 28 mothers of home-schooled and regular-schooled children. Data were analysed in three stages – determining the nature of the experience; performing a thematic analysis; and arranging the themes into groups of meta-themes. Six interviewees reported an entirely positive experience; 6 reported an entirely negative experience; and 16 reported a mixed experience. Analysis of the text revealed 30 themes, which were grouped into five meta-themes: treatment, attributes, teachers, studies and social relations.     

A model of metacognition,achievement goal orientation,learning style and self-efficacy

Structural equation modelling was used to test a model integrating achievement goal orientation, learning style, self-efficacy and metacognition into a single framework that explained and predicted variation in performance. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of performance. Metacognition was a weak predictor of performance. Deep processing had a weak, negative relationship with performance. Mastery-approach goals were related to deep-processing and surface-processing learning styles. Mastery-approach and performance-approach goals were positive predictors of self-efficacy. Mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goals were related to self-efficacy.     

Supporting Vocabulary Teaching and Learning in Prekindergarten: The Role of Educative Curriculum Materials

The purpose of this study was to support teachers' child-directed language and student outcomes by enhancing the educative features of an intervention targeted to vocabulary, conceptual development and comprehension. Using a set of design heuristics (Davis &; Krajcik, 2005 Davis, E. A., &; Krajcik, J. S. (2005). Designing educative curriculum materials to promote teacher learning. Educational Researcher, 34, 3–14.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), our goal was to support teachers’ professional development within the curriculum materials. Ten pre-K classrooms with a total of 143 children were randomly selected into treatment and control groups. Observations of teacher talk, including characteristics of lexically-rich and cognitively demanding language were conducted before and during the intervention. Measures of child outcomes, pre- and post-intervention included both standardized and curriculum-based assessments. Results indicated significant improvements in the quality of teachers’ talk in the treatment compared to the control group, and significant gains for child outcomes. These results suggest that educative curriculum may be a promising approach to facilitate both teacher and student learning.     

Physical Fitness in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder

The protective effects of physical activity and fitness on cardiovascular health have clearly been shown among normally developed children. However, data are currently lacking pertaining to children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The purpose of this study was to examine differences in fitness measures, body composition, and physical activity among children with and without DCD. A cross-sectional design was implemented examining 261 children (118 girls, 143 boys) ages 4–12 years (mean age 7.8 ± 1.9 years). Children were categorized as having DCD if they scored less than or equal to the 5th percentile (n = 71) or between the 6th and the 15th percentile (n = 52) on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC; Henderson & Sugden, 1992). The typically developing children had scores between the 16th and the 50th percentile (n = 106) or above the 50th percentile (n = 32) on the MABC. The age-related body mass index was used to characterize body composition. Physical fitness was assessed with a 6-min run, 20-m sprint, jump-and-reach test, medicine ball throw, curl-ups, and sit-and-reach test. Physical activity was estimated with a questionnaire. The percentage of overweight and obese children ages 10–12 years were significantly higher in the DCD groups (severe: 50%, moderate: 23.1%) than in the typically developing groups (medium: 5.6%, high: 0%; p < .05). Significant interactions (MABC x Age Group) were found for the fitness tests (p values < .05), except flexibility; whereby specifically, compared to the children in the typically developing groups children in the DCD groups ages 4–6 years achieved significantly worse results for the 20-m sprint, and children of the DCD groups ages 10–12 years achieved significantly worse results for the 6-min run, jump-and-reach test, and medicine ball throw. The study demonstrates poorer performance in fitness tests with high demands on coordination in children with DCD compared to their typically developing peers. Furthermore, the differences in fitness increased with age between children in the DCD groups versus the typically developing groups.     

Patterns of Verbal Mediation During Problem Solving: A Sequential Analysis of Self-Explanation

The explanations that participants give themselves (self-explanations) while learning or solving problems have been shown to be positively associated with various performance measures. The major aim of this study was to identify patterns of self-explanation that distinguish between good and poor problem solvers. Thirty-two Grade 9 students were asked to solve 3 mixture problems—1 warm-up problem and 2 test problems—while thinking aloud. The problem-solving process was videotaped, protocols were transcribed, and 5 content categories were identified. Through a sequential analysis, patterns of self-explanation that differentiate between good and poor problem solvers were identified.