Abstract
Phenomenographic research about teachers’ conception of teaching has consistently revealed that teachers’ conception of teaching influence their classroom practices, which in turn shape students’ learning experiences. This paper reports teachers’ conceptions of teaching with regards to the use of interactive spherical video-based virtual reality (ISV-VR) in Chinese descriptive composition writing. Twenty-one secondary teachers in Hong Kong involved in an ISV-VR-supported Chinese descriptive writing program participated in this phenomenographic study. Analyses of the semi-structured interviews establish seven conception categories that are specifically related to the use of ISV-VR for descriptive Chinese composition writing: (1) offering students more observational opportunities; (2) improving students’ writing skills; (3) promoting students’ learning participation and motivation; (4) shifting learning from teacher-centric to student-centric, (5) enhancing collaborative learning among students; (6) cultivating students’ positive values and moral character, and (7) shaping students’ self-identity as “writers.” The concurrent and convenient access to the ISV-VR resources was for the teachers an enriched and supportive environment for them to cultivate students’ writer identity. In addition, it was discovered that the structural relationships of the conceptions may be better organized along three axes of continuum: conception’s orientation, teaching attention locus, and understanding of writing. These categories form a hierarchy from skill-oriented to community-oriented, and finally to identity-oriented conception. The findings may provide researchers and practitioners with novel insight into the teaching of composition writing in the contexts of L1 acquisition supported by virtual reality technology.
Highlights
Literacy has always been a key competency and one of the key intellectual infrastructural elements that students need to develop (Earnshaw, 2007; Bazerman, 2009; MacArthur et al, 2016)
The Chinese language education (CLE) curriculum guide in Hong Kong highlights the importance of improving students’ communication, collaboration, self-learning skills, and culture learning supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) (Curriculum Development Council of Hong Kong, 2017)
As teachers are the key agents in all education reform (Jong, 2019); and studies showed that teachers’ conceptions of writing instruction play a role in how they implement writing programs within their classrooms (Lin, 2016; Kong, 2018; Wang and Matsumura, 2019); this study aims to explore how teachers conceive and enact descriptive writing pedagogy employing the affordances of interactive spherical video-based virtual reality (ISV-virtual reality (VR)) technology
Summary
Literacy has always been a key competency and one of the key intellectual infrastructural elements that students need to develop (Earnshaw, 2007; Bazerman, 2009; MacArthur et al, 2016). In addition to the focus on writing, many contemporary language education curriculum emphasize the development of students’ creativity, critical thinking, and positive values and attitudes (Choi, 2016; Macalister and Nation, 2019; Mickan and Wallace, 2019). The Chinese language education (CLE) curriculum guide in Hong Kong highlights the importance of improving students’ communication, collaboration, self-learning skills, and culture learning supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) (Curriculum Development Council of Hong Kong, 2017). These emphases can be broadly classified as 21st-century teaching and learning practices (Chai et al, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
