Academic Classroom Research Articles

Teaching Places and Teaching Place

Keith Basso’s seminal work, ‘Wisdom Sits in Places’, explores epistemologies of place used by the people of the Cibecue Western Apache community in what is now called Arizona, US. One of the major conclusions Basso arrives at is that places for the people of Cibecue are active repositories of wisdom, as embodied in narratives connected to those places. Engaging with the places in a particular way leads to wisdom. Using this book in an academic classroom provides interesting layers of opportunity, in that students can be said to be at university on a similar path, a pursuit of wisdom. This paper will explore the complexity and value of using ‘Wisdom Sits in Places’ to simultaneously teach about the people of Cibecue and their way of finding and making wisdom, and also give students their own set of tools as they attempt to find and make wisdom. Using an epistemological approach from an undergraduate course, “Place and Identity”, this paper will present what it means to teach about a place, to teach a place, and to teach the concept of place all at the same time. Multiple intersections of place, knowledge, and people (folk) will be explored.

Evaluating MOL-Magsaysay Maritime Academy’s Educational Program: Performance of First Graduates and Stakeholders’ Feedback

MMMA’s Educational Program provide students with an opportunity to develop the necessary technical skills (Hard skills) and personality traits (Soft skills) to become a well-rounded and a successful seafarer and individual. MMMA’s Educational Program includes two areas of activities and experiences that are designed to enhance the student’s learning. Specifically, this includes the approved CHED-MARINA prescribed and regulated Maritime Academic Curriculum underpinned on the STCW Convention, and MMMA’s own Leadership Training Paradigm, anchored on the Transformational Leadership through Coaching principle. This paper aims to determine whether MMMA’s educational program effectively prepares students for their maritime industry careers. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate MMMA’s educational program by obtaining key stakeholders’ and employers’ feedback based on the work performance of the first graduates, and exploring whether there is a relationship between the 3-year classroom instruction performance and the 12-month onboard training performance. By examining both classroom and onboard performance outcomes and key stakeholders’ and employers’ feedback, the study seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the academy’s impact on its graduates’ readiness for the maritime workforce. The research utilizes a descriptive-correlational approach. Preliminary findings indicate that the majority of the first graduates have demonstrated strong academic competence and skills during the 3-year classroom instruction and the 12-month shipboard training, both in the areas of technical skills (hard skills) and personality skills (soft skills) based on the results of the document analysis. Correlation results also showed that there is a linear relationship between the manifestation of soft skills during the 3-year academic classroom instruction and the 12-month shipboard training, but there was no relationship on the technical skills. On the other hand, satisfaction ratings provided by the two groups of stakeholders, namely the faculty and the industry partners/ employers expressed some serious concerns on the manifestation of the cadets’ personality skills or soft skills particularly in discipline and leadership based on their interactions with cadets and occasional feedback from the ships. Nonetheless, some areas for improvement have been identified, such as the need for enhanced soft skills and further alignment of academic training with industry-specific demands. The study concludes that MOL-Magsaysay Maritime Academy’s educational programs have been effective in preparing the first batch (Batch 2018) of graduates for successful maritime careers. The insights gained from the stakeholders’ feedback will be instrumental in refining the academy’s educational program and training methods in terms of the leadership training paradigm, anchored on the principle of transformational leadership through coaching, to better meet industry needs in general, and stakeholders’ needs in particular, and enhance future graduates’ employability and performance. On the technical side, new trends and regulations in the areas of digitalization and environmental regulations needs to be incorporated in the educational program. Keywords: MMMA (MOL-Magsaysay Maritime Academy); Educational Program; Technical Skills; Soft Skills

The Value of an Informal Before-School Exercise Opportunity for Adolescent Girls Living in a Low-Socioeconomic Community.

Physical activity is beneficial to physical, social, and emotional well-being, and schools are required to provide opportunities to engage in physical activity. While physical education and school sport have been extensively researched, little is known about the value of informal, unstructured, exercise opportunities. This study involved interviews with 19 adolescent girls who attended "extra" exercise opportunities provided by their school. The 3 opportunities were: (1) informal before-school exercise sessions at school, (2) before-school sport training, and (3) externally provided exercise sessions in a community setting during school hours. Students perceived all opportunities as valuable with benefits to confidence, social well-being, and emotional well-being. The informal exercise sessions held greater benefits to confidence as confidence transferred from the physical activity context into the academic classroom more so than for those participating in sport. Social benefits were greater for those exercising before school as this opportunity created new relationships with teachers and with students from other classes and year groups. The opportunity to engage in informal exercise with peers before school widened social networks, increased confidence, changed the overall school climate, and increased attendance.

Triggers and conducive factors for reflection in university students: a focus group study

ABSTRACT Although previous research highlights the importance of reflection in higher education, little is known about the type of triggers and contexts that promote authentic reflection in university students who are in academic classroom environments. This qualitative study addresses this question based on content analysis done on eight focus groups consisting of a total of 45 university students. Results revealed that authentic reflection was triggered by adverse and positive situations, challenging interpersonal interactions, emotional responses to events, performance data and proactive enquiry. Furthermore, findings highlighted the relevance of Self-Determination Theory as a guiding framework for describing contextual factors conducive to reflection: student reflection benefited from a positive interactive context, autonomy for reflection, a variety of opportunities to reflect and guidance in the form of mentors or workshops. Conversely, exam pressure and effortful periods reduced the likelihood of student reflection. Finally, results indicated that students engaged in reflection to raise personal awareness, improve academic and personal performance, and change their beliefs, attitudes, feelings, and behaviours. Implications for practice are given.

Operationalizing the Human Condition, Cultures, and Societies Outcome through the National Character and Leadership Symposium

This paper focuses on the Human Condition, Cultures, and Societies institutional outcome at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) and highlights the connection between the outcome and the 2024 National Character and Leadership Symposium (NCLS) theme. Each year, the symposium provides the USAFA community and visitors the opportunity to learn from and engage with nationally recognized speakers. Interactions allow participants to contemplate not only the importance of valuing the human condition but also engage concertedly and compassionately with others. Every four years, the NCLS theme is rooted in the institutional outcome of the Human Condition, Cultures, and Societies. This year’s theme places particular emphasis on precisely the need to know oneself, know others, and to elevate performance through constructive engagement to make a difference, namely learning what each can and must do to value the human condition and human beings. The authors explore how USAFA operationalizes the importance of understanding the human condition as participants transition from the academic classroom to the field to the Air Force and Space Force.

Digital Twins: building your own virtual lab for enhanced vocational education training

The emergence, in the context of Industry 4.0, of tools for developing Digital Twins of automated industrial systems brings about a paradigm shift in the development of control systems. Their virtual commissioning allows for shortening delivery times of automated solutions, among other benefits, but also highlights the need for competent technicians in these technologies. The academic classroom is a breeding ground for future professionals. This article presents an initiative carried out by the Technological Innovation and Intelligent Systems area at Tknika to exploit and transfer results of projects and services developed with these tools to vocational training teachers.

Forest Pedagogy towards the Problem of Polish Educational Monoculture: Projective Pilot Studies

The development of topics related to the idea of sustainable development, ecology and the climate crisis is increasingly supported by Polish educators, psychologists and therapists. At the same time, forest kindergartens as well as various grassroots initiatives based on the methodology of outdoor education are developing in Poland. The long-term achievements of practitioners - most often employees of the State Forests - for whom the forest education of the society has been one of the priorities since the early 1990s, deserves special appreciation (Wierzbicka and Czołnik 2022). In 2021, Forest Pedagogy was initiated in Poland as an interdisciplinary problem area, aspiring to a scientific sub-discipline (Paluch and Klimski 2022). The first contacts between foresters and educators gave rise to the question: Can the forest become a real “pedagogical medium” (Rykowski 2022), understood as an educational environment? What became clear was the problem of the similarity of the forest monoculture (management forests dominating in Poland) to the educational monoculture of the school and academic classroom system. Each monoculture is created with the view of matching the production demand for relatively identical objects – on the one hand, these can be trees “for boards”, but on the other hand, young people subjected to a systemic process of “labour force allocation” (Parsons 1969), serving the development of consumer attitudes. In both cases, the goal is to accelerate production, artificially stimulated competition, preventing the attainment of full maturity, or replicating an unambiguous and one-dimensional picture of the world. A symbolic illustration of the last phenomenon are the findings of a qualitative pilot study in which two groups of students completing a Forest Pedagogy course were asked to design a forest kindergarten. As it turned out, the respondents most often drew ordered elements of the urban playground infrastructure: swings, slides and sandboxes, in the vicinity of the building of the local kindergarten, which dominated the drawing. What is particularly poignant, in the analysed drawings the forest was only a symbolic background.

Failing or Prevailing? Russian Educational Discourse in the Israeli Academic Classroom

Abstract This article seeks to explore the ways in which Russian–Soviet educational discourse survives in Israeli universities by bringing its underlying cultural messages to Israeli students. It focuses on the interpretation of educational discursive perceptions and practices of Russian-speaking professors who teach at Israeli universities. The study suggests considering the manifestation of the Russian–Soviet educational scenario through its enforcement in the Russian linguistic repertoire of meta-class talk, in which the professors report on the educational modes of in-class interaction. The analysis reveals that immigrant university teachers adopt communicative strategies imbued with key Russian–Soviet educational messages making them a cultural resource in the Israeli academic context. Concomitantly, however, the professors’ voices seem to be opposed to local Israeli cultural perception and practice. The study therefore seeks to uncover how enacted patterns of educational style reflect the cross-cultural condition of the academic context. It adopts the communicative–pragmatic perspective and focuses on key cultural educational scripts, rhetorical argumentation strategies, and the realization of speech acts in the university interaction.

Identity Construction and Negotiation of Classroom CoP Members in Global Englishes Course: A Higher Education Context in Thailand

This ethnographic study examines identity negotiation and construction inside a Global Englishes (GE) classroom community of practice in a Thai higher education context. Drawing on the communities of practice (CoP) framework (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), the study theorizes the academic GE classroom as a CoP and explores how participants construct identities while engaged in the joint enterprise of becoming English as a lingua franca (ELF) users and engaging in classroom activities using a shared repertoire of humour and shared narratives. The findings revealed the emergence of multiple identities from the overlapping characteristics of the academic classroom, and raised questions regarding legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) and identity trajectories as they intersect the egalitarian notion of ELF, including semi-expert identity, reverse identity, and bullying. Furthermore, the study highlighted the significant role of individual agency in the interplay between personal experiences and the broader Thai social structure in negotiating identities. The implications for researchers and practitioners focus on the potential of Global Englishes classrooms as a locus for positive identity construction and the importance of considering differing perspectives to create a more nuanced understanding of identity and participation in L2 learning. The study also suggests a bottom-up pedagogical approach with ELF-oriented materials for learners to develop more favourable identities as English as a lingua franca users and/or multicompetent speakers.

Exploring the research-based approach of academic classroom teachers in Finland

ABSTRACT Teacher education in Finland has followed a research-based approach for decades, but the approach has rarely been investigated from the viewpoint of in-service teachers. This study explores how in-service teachers experienced the meaning of educational science, research and theory (ESRT) and how teachers engage with educational research as part of their work. Using a phenomenologically oriented analytical approach, the informants were grouped into three categories. In the first category, teachers understood the meaning of ESRT broadly, whereas those in the second group viewed the meaning as primarily instrumental, and those in the third group considered it insignificant. The informants reportedly engage with educational research only rarely due to a lack of time and opportunities, and the fact that their working conditions do not support a research-based work orientation. This should be noted when developing both initial and in-service teacher education.

The Decision for War (DfW) Game: The Role of Information in War Onset

The Decision for War (DfW) game provides an opportunity to explore how information affects the occurrence of war—in theory and in practice. Gameplay, and the subsequent discussion it facilitates, provides the opportunity to explore topics such as differences in risk taking, strategic choice as a function of other’s expected actions, differing perceptions of loss or gain, and updating prior assumptions through experience, along with various psychological and cognitive biases that may preclude individuals and states reaching negotiating agreements that avoid violence. In an academic classroom setting, these questions of information and risk could complement lessons in International Relations, History, Conflict Resolution, Psychology, and Strategic Studies.

The Concepts of Cognitive Economy Included and Proposed to be Included in the Textbooks of Social Studies for the Basic Stage in Jordan

This study aimed at identifying the degree to which the concepts of cognitive economy are included in the textbooks of social studies for the basic stage in Jordan and identifying the extent of variance in including these concepts in the textbooks according to the academic classroom. In order to achieve the study objectives, the researcher used the analytical descriptive approach represented by analyzing the content of textbooks. The study sample consisted of the textbooks of Social Studies for the basic stage for the third, sixth and tenth basic grades. The results revealed that the total concepts of cognitive economy included in the textbooks of Social Studies for the third, sixth and tenth basic grades were (1419) frequencies. The tenth grade was in the first place, followed by the sixth grade, and finally the third grade in the third place. As for concepts, the concepts of organizational concepts were in the first place, followed by the concepts of teaching, knowledge and labor market, the legal concepts, the concepts of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, the concepts of information technology, and finally the concepts of scientific research. The results showed that the concepts of cognitive economy included in the textbooks of Social Studies for the basic stage in Jordan vary according to the academic grade in favor of the tenth grade. In light of the results, the study recommended the necessity of urging the ministry of education to adopt the list of the concepts of cognitive economy mentioned in this study in developing the academic curricula of Social Studies.

The Concepts of Cognitive Economy Included and Proposed to be Included in the Textbooks of Social Studies for the Basic Stage in Jordan

This study aimed at identifying the degree to which the concepts of cognitive economy are included in the textbooks of social studies for the basic stage in Jordan and identifying the extent of variance in including these concepts in the textbooks according to the academic classroom. In order to achieve the study objectives, the researcher used the analytical descriptive approach represented by analyzing the content of textbooks. The study sample consisted of the textbooks of Social Studies for the basic stage for the third, sixth and tenth basic grades. The results revealed that the total concepts of cognitive economy included in the textbooks of Social Studies for the third, sixth and tenth basic grades were (1419) frequencies. The tenth grade was in the first place, followed by the sixth grade, and finally the third grade in the third place. As for concepts, the concepts of organizational concepts were in the first place, followed by the concepts of teaching, knowledge and labor market, the legal concepts, the concepts of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, the concepts of information technology, and finally the concepts of scientific research. The results showed that the concepts of cognitive economy included in the textbooks of Social Studies for the basic stage in Jordan vary according to the academic grade in favor of the tenth grade. In light of the results, the study recommended the necessity of urging the ministry of education to adopt the list of the concepts of cognitive economy mentioned in this study in developing the academic curricula of Social Studies.

Integrating physical activity in mathematics lessons

Introduction: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of teaching mathematics through movement, depending on the amount and intensity of physical activity or the time of physical inactivity during school hours and, particular, during mathematics lessons. Methods: Twenty-two sixth graders from a Slovenian primary school participated in the study. The experimental group consisted of 16 students and the control group consisted of 6 students. Mathematics lessons were planned together with the mathematics teacher. This was then carried out in the experimental group. In the control group, the mathematics lessons remained unchanged. The intervention lasted for one week. For the duration of the experiment, students wore an accelerometer on their right hip during school hours. Results: We found that the experimental group engaged in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for 7.8 minutes more during mathematics lessons (P < 0.001) than the control group. In addition, the experimental group was less physically inactive during math lessons for 6.7 minutes (P = 0.001) than control group. Physical activity during school hours did not differ between groups (P = 0.284). Nevertheless, the experimental group spent slightly more time at moderate to vigorous intensity during school hours than the control group and was less physically inactive. Conclusion: This study showed that integrating physical activity with mathematics in the academic classroom results in increased moderate to vigorous physical activity compared to a traditional classroom. Further research should be conducted to determine how integrating physical activity with various school subjects affects daily physical activity in children and adolescents.

Promoting L2 reading fluency at the tertiary level through timed and repeated reading

This study investigates the effects of one semester of fluency-building activities on L2 readers' reading rate and comprehension. The participants were 63 university EFL students enrolled in three academic reading classes. Each class was assigned one of three instructional treatments: timed reading (TR), timed repeated reading (TRR), and timed reading and repeated oral reading (TROR). All participants engaged in the fluency-building activities twice a week, individually recording their reading rates and comprehension scores on a chart. Each reading passage was about 350 words long, written at the 1400-word level, and followed by five comprehension questions. A pretest was conducted at week 1 and a posttest at week 15. All three groups experienced gains in their reading rate, in the order of, from most to least gain, TRR, TROR, TR. The TRR group's rate gain was statistically significantly greater than that of the TR group. All three groups also improved in reading comprehension, in the order of TRR, TR, TROR. Furthermore, positive correlations between reading rate and comprehension on the posttest showed that improvement in reading rate was not achieved at the cost of comprehension. Pedagogic benefits of incorporating fluency practice into an academic classroom and instructional alternatives are discussed.

Academic Achievement and Classroom Teacher Education Graduate Performance

Academic Achievement and Classroom Teacher Education Graduate Performance

Who they are versus what they want: How dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance profiles can aid in developing employability

This paper draws attention to a behavior-based assessment instrument that is frequently utilized in industry settings but less utilized in the academic classroom. The authors argue that this instrument, the dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance (DISC) profile, can be useful in training and developing soft skills desired by employers. They also examine the effects of gender and work experience on the various DISC patterns to better understand how this instrument may be useful for coaching and mentoring in those academic and organizational contexts. In this study, DISC pattern data were gathered from 1547 undergraduate and graduate students across multiple universities in the USA. A multivariate analysis of variance was performed on the data and the results show males scoring higher on Dominance and females scoring higher on Steadiness, as predicted. Females scored higher on Compliance, contrary to predictions. Graduate students scored higher on Dominance and undergraduates scored higher in Steadiness, as hypothesized. Undergraduates also scored higher on Influence than did graduate students. Such differences in DISC profiles suggest that, as a behavior-based instrument, DISC may be helpful for students in understanding their behavioral tendencies as well as identifying workplace behaviors needed to bridge the gap between the soft skills employers want and the competencies students possess.

ANALYZING WHAT PERMANENT ACADEMIC CLASSROOM ACTIVITY OF ENGLISH TEACHERS TELL US ABOUT THEIR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS: PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN FOCUS

The present study analyses what permanent academic classroom activity tells us about the professional development need of English language teachers in primary Schools. Teacher classroom observation was used as data gathering tools for the study. As a result, four English language teachers were involved in the study. The study was conducted in selected primary schools in North Showa Zone of Orimia Regional State. The four teachers involved in the study were observed three times. The results of the study reveal that teachers lack English language proficiency. Their classroom English lacked quality to use the target language. So, they needed to develop their English language proficiency. The result of the study further showed that the teachers needed to develop their pedagogic skills. The pedagogic skills the English language teachers needed to develop were lesson opening, lesson running and lesson ending strategies. Similarly, the teachers needed professional development on the areas of language use and transitioning and questioning strategies. Based on the finding of the study, it was suggested that English language teachers in primary schools needed to get further professional development program that addresses their linguistic knowledge and skills need areas so that the teachers improve their proficiency in the target language and enhance their skills in teaching

Complexity and Interaction across Oral, Written and Online Discourse

Most research that observed online discussions compared them to either written (e.g., Hewing& Coffin, 2007) or oral discourse (e.g., Joiner et al., 2008), never compiling the three modalities, and they did not provide comprehensive results regarding both form and Interaction. Academic essays and oral debates have been widely consumed in the EAP classroom. However, the effectiveness of synchronous online forums in the EFL academic classroom and their discourse features need to be compared to oral and written academic tasks simultaneously through a comprehensive analysis of both complexity, accuracy, and Interaction. The present study investigated the use of complex syntax, grammatical accuracy, and Interaction in the argumentative discourse of academic essays, oral debates, and synchronous online forums of EFL undergraduate students (N= 54) enrolled in a 12-week module of English for academic purposes. The methodology encompassed qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. All data were qualitatively transcribed and coded. Then results were quantitatively calculated using ANOVA and post hoc t-tests to find the differences across tasks for each variable. Results revealed a higher impact of academic essays and synchronous online forums on syntactic complexity and grammatical accuracy than oral debates and a greater influence of online forums and oral debates than academic essays on interactional features. Synchronous online forums revealed the highest impact as a task combining both structure and Interaction. Pedagogical implications then highlighted how synchronous online forums could be used in the rhetoric and composition EFL classroom

Toward better understanding Japanese university students’ self-perceived attitudes on intercultural competence: A pre-study abroad perspective

ABSTRACT This study sought to uncover the attitudinal factors impacting a group of 1st-year Japanese university students’ (n = 89) self-perceived intercultural competence (IC), prior to embarking on a 6-week US-based study-abroad program. Data were collected qualitatively through reaction reports following an interactive lecture-workshop that aimed to mirror the overseas academic classroom context. Thematic analysis of the data revealed: (1) participants typically perceived their IC through an individual lens and/or a collective lens (and whether they then aligned or differentiated themselves from their overall perception of Japanese IC), and (2) they adopted either a passive or proactive mindset toward their impending study-abroad experience. Results suggest that more intentional balancing of linguistic and intercultural content is needed to foster Japanese university students’ success in study-abroad environments.