Developing critical reflection as a part of teaching training and teaching practice

Academics in universities can no longer teach in the ways that have been appropriate in the past. The paradigm has shifted from the dissemination of knowledge to a focus on the students and how to facilitate the best learning outcomes for them. This paper proposes that critical reflection is at the heart of being an effective teacher. It invites teachers to evaluate their own philosophies about teaching and to be critically reflective of their own practice. It is suggested that teachers need to learn how to be reflective practitioners through both self-evaluation and the use of collaborative strategies. It is no longer appropriate to focus solely on the 'what', but also on the 'how' and 'why'.     

Intrinsic integration in learning games and virtual instruction

This paper responds to a 2016 systematic literature review of the research on learning games by Ke (Educ Technol Res Dev 64(2):219–244, 2016). The review paper unpacked the idea of intrinsic integration in learning games, analyzing important emergent themes. The key ideas and the value of this review are discussed in the context of the recent shift to virtual instruction. The limitations, impact, and future implications are also described, with the perspective of this response focused on education theory. Intrinsic integration is an important consideration when designers create the next generation of digital games, and as researchers try to untangle the affordances of different educational games for student learning.

     

Interest-enhancing approaches to mathematics curriculum design: Illustrations and personalization

Two common interest-enhancement approaches in mathematics curriculum design are illustrations and personalization of problems to students’ interests. The objective of these experiments is to test a variety of illustrations and personalization approaches. In the illustrations experiment, students (n?=?265) were randomly assigned to lessons with story problems containing decorative illustrations, contextual illustrations, diagrammatic illustrations, misleading illustrations, or no illustrations (only text [control condition]). Students’ problem-solving performance and attitudes were not affected by illustration condition, but learning was better in the control compared with contextual illustrations. In the personalization experiment, students (n?=?223) were randomly assigned to story problems that were either personalized based on: a survey of their interests, their choice of interest topics, a randomly assigned interest topic, or the original nonpersonalized story problem (control). The findings indicated there were benefits for choice personalization both for performance in the problem set as well as on a later learning assessment.     

Threading mathematics through symbols,sketches, software,silicon, and wood: Teachers produce and maintain cohesion to support STEM integration

ABSTRACT

This classroom-based investigation sought to document how, in real time, STEM teachers and students attempt to locate the invariant mathematical relations that are threaded through the range of activities and representations in these classes, and how highlighting this common thread influences student participation and learning. The authors conducted multimodal discourse analyses of teacher–student interactions during multiday observations in 3 urban high school STEM classes. The focal lessons were in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering (within Project Lead the Way), and precollege geometry. Across 3 cases, teachers and students actively built and maintained cohesion of invariant mathematical relations across activities and representations. Pre- and postlesson interviews revealed that teachers intentionally managed cohesion to provide the continuity across the curricular activities that teachers believed would promote student understanding. The findings contribute to ways of fostering STEM integration and ways of grounding abstractions to promote meaning making and transfer.