Classroom-based Research Research Articles

СПРИЙНЯТТЯ СТУДЕНТАМИ ІНТЕГРОВАНИХ ЗАВДАНЬ З АКАДЕМІЧНОГО АНГЛІЙСЬКОГО МОВЛЕННЯ

In an attempt to understand the ways L2 undergraduate students use information from external sources in their writing and to examine what difficulties they encounter during the process, this classroom-based research investigated student writers’ perceptions towards their source use, purposes of students’ self-reported citation practices, and suggested actions to be taken for progress in source-based writing within the context of freshman English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing course. Perceptions of 22 freshman student writers were surveyed through an open-ended questionnaire. Questionnaire was given upon the completion of a source-based writing assessment task and it required students to reflect on their writing performance which was produced under examination circumstances. Frequency counts and thematic content analysis revealed several challenges in handling citation practices effectively and a limited range for using citation purposes, mainly limited to attribution of sources. The study has implications for instruction in order to enhance citation practices of emerging L2 student writers..

Reclaiming the space for storytelling in Ugandan primary schools

The purpose of this article is to highlight teachers’ beliefs and practices towards storytelling in the mother tongue in Ugandan rural classrooms and the effect this could have on efforts to promote reading, such as the mother-tongue (MT) education programme in Uganda and the African Storybook Project (ASb). The article demonstrates that although there are initiatives to promote storytelling in the mother tongue in Ugandan primary schools to enhance reading and literacy acquisition, teachers are not prepared for the task and, therefore, disregard storytelling in the mother tongue. This disregard of storytelling in the mother tongue stems from the fact that teachers view storytelling as a waste of time, time that can rather be spent on ’ real’ lesson content. Furthermore, they feel that storytelling adds unnecessary pressure to their already demanding workload. Moreover, learners are not assessed for storytelling at the end of their primary education. In addition, teachers are not trained on how to integrate storytelling in their teaching practices. The article presents classroom-based research which highlights teachers’ practices towards storytelling. The article ends with a request for ethnographic fieldwork to educate teachers on the social-cultural values of storytelling beyond learner assessments (among other benefits) and to facilitate teachers on how to integrate stories in the learning process.

Entrepreneurial narratives and concept teaching and learning

Entrepreneurship education (EE) is facing a tension between practical valence and academic institutionalization. As a consequence, we know very little about how story-based pedagogy is implemented in the classroom, though various entrepreneurial narratives have been institutionalized into EE programs. This article examines how one Chinese teacher thematically constructs six nascent entrepreneurs to illustrate the concept of entrepreneurship in a classroom setting. The findings suggest that the entrepreneurial narratives used by the teacher are different in structure from those reported by entrepreneurship studies, because entrepreneurial stories narrated by teachers are non-participant life stories. This article argues that narrative is an important tool for teachers to personalize their conceptualization of entrepreneurship. Such conceptualization, embedded in both the structure and the content of narratives, facilitates entrepreneurial teaching and learning in a holistic, instantiated, and impactful way. The article also demonstrates that teachers can create additional learning opportunities, by resorting to specific narrative features and thematic construction. It concludes with critical reflections on entrepreneurial narrative, story-based pedagogy, and EE research and calls for more classroom-based research in the field.

The Relevance of Applied Linguistics in Relation to Language and Communication Studies: A Worldwide Overview

Abstract The paper outlines the peculiarities of Applied Linguistics as a branch of science and specialty provided by universities worldwide. Its scope, relevance in modern labour market and immediate relation to communication and language studies have been analyzed. Its advantages as a flourishing educational program for tertiary education and as an occupation in modern digital world with diverse realms of communication and language application have been substantiated. A wide range of activities pressuposed by Applied Linguistics study have been outlined: researching language in classrooms (classroom-based research); work with different kinds of written and spoken texts (corpus linguistics); approaching language learning (learner autonomy); testing and assessment of language learning; expanding vocabulary (including multiword expressions); dictionary making; interpretation and translation; studies of bilingualism and multilingualism. It has been determined that five most important concepts are basic for understanding the relation of Applied Linguistics to language and communication studies: Functional Linguistics, Language and its Application, Communicative Competence; Cognitive Discourse Analysis, Conceptual Blending Theory, and Contemporary Discourse Analysis; Barriers in Specialized Translation fields and their overcoming (by means of technology); Linguistics and Culture; Language hierarchy, authority, policy, and planning. Applied Linguistics program in tertiary education provides students with necessary studies in relation to language and communication in terms of language communication, its components, conditions of successful communication and cooperation; language etiquette; speech codes, their switching and mixing; speech acts and their types; context of culture, situation and co-texts; assembling and working with corpora; researching collocations and units of meaning. Undergoing the program of Applied Linguistics in tertiary education students can broaden knowledge of linguistics and language; deal with contemporary issues concerning the diversity of languages and cultures in societies; learn and teach foreign languages; eliminate language and communication gaps between people of different cultures; enhance the development of languages and communication skills.

교실 기반 설계 연구의 동향 및 쟁점 탐구 - 형성적 설계 연구방법론을 중심으로

교실 기반 설계 연구의 동향 및 쟁점 탐구 - 형성적 설계 연구방법론을 중심으로

Schema abstraction with productive failure and analogical comparison: Learning designs for far across domain transfer

Although there has been considerable research into knowledge transfer for over a century, there remains a need for specific, validated techniques for teaching for transfer. This article reports on classroom-based research in which students learned about complex systems and climate change with agent-based computer models using two different instructional approaches based on productive failure (PF). In both PF approaches, students initially explored a problem space on their own and then received teacher-led instruction. One treatment group used climate computer models whereas the other group engaged in analogical comparisons between the same climate computer models and complexity computer models in different domains. The study found both groups demonstrated significant learning gains by posttest on assessments of declarative and explanatory knowledge and on within domain near transfer. However, students in the two models treatment group performed at a significantly higher level on an across domain far transfer problem solving task. Theoretical and practical implications are considered.

‘A touchy subject’: teaching and learning about difference in the religious education classroom

ABSTRACTThe present article reports research conducted during 2018 in a secondary school in South Yorkshire, England with a class of 11–12-year-old boys and girls and the class teacher of religious education (RE), in consultation with the head and deputy head of the RE faculty. The focus of the project was on the extent to which existing research findings can assist teachers to deal with issues of religious diversity, including how the classroom can be a ‘safe space’ for dialogue and discussion and how media influences can be managed. It was one of a number of projects conducted by members of the Signposts International Research Network, who have undertaken independent studies in the UK, Norway and Sweden, which address issues identified in the Council of Europe publication Signposts. The findings reported in the present article highlight: the need for teachers to be given support in learning skills for managing classroom dialogue; the interest of young people in exploring difference; and the benefits of participation in classroom-based collaborative research.

Teaching critical literacy in inquiry-based classrooms: Teachers’ understanding of practice and pedagogy in elementary schools

Teaching critical literacy in inquiry-based classrooms: Teachers’ understanding of practice and pedagogy in elementary schools

SIM FOR SCIENCE: SCAFFOLD IN INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING

Inquiry-based learning is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios. Inquiry-based learning is an indispensable element for the generating of higher order thinking skills that assist students to inquire meaningful questions that led to relevant answers. It is essential to provoke students’ interest and bewilderment. Recent advancement in technology has captivated the enthusiasm of both educators and researchers to develop inquiry-based classroom activities that emphasize on the application of educational technology in the domain of school science education. Thus, we have designed a learning application “AIBASE”, which assists primary school students in generating hypotheses during Science experiments. The Triple E evaluation framework was used to determine the effectiveness of using “AIBASE” in aiding the learning process. The results implied improvements in students performance level. In addition, this paper also highlights the main criteria of inquiry-based learning.

Evaluation of intervention on Chinese graduate students’ understanding of textual plagiarism and skills at source referencing

Textual plagiarism is a serious violation of established academic protocols, but it requires considerable writing experience and care to avoid as well. Although student understanding of textual plagiarism and their plagiaristic behaviour in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts have been quite well researched, few studies have sought to evaluate instructional interventions specifically designed to reduce plagiarism by empowering student writers with a better knowledge of plagiarism and skills at source referencing. To the best of our knowledge, no study to date has ever systematically assessed students’ understanding of plagiarism and their source referencing performance in response to intervention. This classroom-based research, at a university in Beijing, aimed to discover whether a 6-hour block of instruction could facilitate better understanding of plagiarism and appropriate source referencing skills. The results showed that the intervention did generally give students a better appreciation of how textual plagiarism looks and significantly reduced blatant and subtle plagiarism in their writing. However, students’ heavy reliance on original source language did frequently reoccur in student writing if in less clear-cut ways. Some helpful lessons were drawn from this study.

Analysis of Research Articles on Effective Teaching in ESL/EFL Classrooms: Focusing on TESOL Quarterly

Much research has not been conducted on how classroom-based research articles concerning teaching effectiveness in the ESL/EFL classroom have changed over time, in spite of deep interest in the field. Therefore, this study aims to examine the characteristics of research articles on effective teaching in the ESL/EFL classroom, focusing specifically on articles from TESOL Quarterly. For this purpose, this study searched articles using three key terms; effective teaching, ESL/EFL, and activity. Articles which included those terms were investigated, depending on research topic and publication year, and four key facts were found; the importance of teachers’ input (older articles), a focus on group or peer work (newer articles), teachers’ education, and the use of students’ native languages. While students preferred teachers’ reliable and explicit input in the past, modern articles tended to recommend more frequent interactions among peer groups in the English learning classroom. Limited resources in teaching contexts asked for additional qualifications from ESL/EFL teachers, thus emphasizing teacher education as an important factor for effective teaching. Lastly, the use of students’ native language had a positive influence on learning English. The findings of this study suggest some implications for how effective teaching in Korean context could be implemented.

INSIDE-OUTSIDE CIRCLE AS THE WAY IN BUILDING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND INTERACTION IN SPEAKING CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

ABSTRACT
 As the important factors in EFL speaking classroom activities, building students’ motivation and interaction in EFL speaking classroom should be designed in meaningful ways. Many research studies reported the variety ways in minimizing the problems as well as proposed innovative ways in teaching speaking skill. One of the ways that recommended by the researches is inside-outside circle strategy. It is a way that students can work cooperatively and raise their motivation to talk and interact with others. The classroom-based research was conducted with only one cycle implemented the strategy. 30 students at the first grade of Multimedia Program at SMK Negeri 6 Ambon were participated in this study. The results showed that during the implementation of inside-outside circle strategy in the classroom activities, the students could actively involve in expressing their ideas based on the given topics, they could build good interaction in the inside and outside a group, and showed high motivation in speaking classroom activities.

Estructura y dinámica de argumentos analógicos, abductivos y deductivos: un curso de geometría del espacio como contexto de reflexión

Se describen procesos de argumentación con énfasis en los argumentos analógicos, surgidos cuando un grupo de estudiantes aborda un problema que puede ser resuelto tanto en la geometría plana como en la del espacio. Para ello, en el marco de una metodología cualitativa basada en la realidad del aula, se emplea el modelo de Toulmin para tipificar los argumentos producidos y se realiza un análisis ontosemiótico para describir la actividad matemática asociada. Los resultados permiten legitimar el uso de argumentos abductivos o analógicos en procesos de resolución de problemas (particularmente, de geometría del espacio) precisando la forma en que estos articulan y dinamizan diversos objetos (conceptos, procedimientos, proposiciones) presentes en el proceso. Además, permiten detallar las fases de una argumentación por analogía mediante las configuraciones de los dominios que involucra.

Learner Concordancing for EFL College Writing Accuracy

As technologies advance, the use of corpora and concordance programs has shown their potential to help second language writing classes. Although some writing research has demonstrated usefulness of corpora in different ways, much less is known concerning how corpora can scaffold students’ correction and uptake of written corrective feedback for revision. The current study adopted a semester-long classroom-based research design keeping classroom ecology in order to examine how second-year EFL college students took up teacher-coded feedback by consulting corpus tools and other e-reference resources to rectify errors in their essays. Fourteen participants composed three multi-draft essay assignments plus a diagnostic essay in various genres. They used two Chinese–English concordance programs and “Corpus of Contemporary American English” to help their revisions. Questionnaires, interviews, students’ marked and revised essays, their written revision records, and video recording of learner–corpus interaction were analyzed and triangulated. Errors were found to decrease with increased frequency of corpus consultation over the semester. Although most participants appreciated the assistance of corpus tools, reservations were noted in the process. Two student cases with average writing performance point to learners’ engagement with corpora as one crucial factor interacting with perceptions and outcomes of lookups. Pedagogical implications and limitations are discussed.

The analytical lens: developing undergraduate students’ critical dispositions in undergraduate EAP writing courses

ABSTRACTThis paper comprises findings from three parallel case studies within the broad framework of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). These provide results from classroom-based action research conducted over two years working with Semantics, Specialisation and axiological cosmologies from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Each author shares how one or both of these LCT dimensions have guided their practice in the teaching of English for academic writing and specifically, the development of their students’ critical dispositions by teaching them how to apply lenses to analyse texts so that they may make informed judgements. Data from classroom interventions and student writing are provided. It is hoped that this paper elicits further discussion in the growing field of applying LCT and may draw attention to the role of the EAP teacher as expert in linguistics and the need to focus more on knowledge in EAP writing courses.

Creativity and elementary students’ multimodal narrative representations

Creativity has been identified by many scholars as a fundamental capability to cultivate in individuals in school and in society at large. Internationally, educators are exploring how to foster creativity in classrooms. A brief review of relevant literature on defining creativity, nurturing creativity in classrooms, and assessing creative products is followed by a description of a study that featured nine-year-old students designing and producing creative products. Two of the main purposes of the classroom-based research were to develop students’ visual meaning-making skills and competencies by focusing specifically on elements of visual art and design in picturebooks, and to extend their narrative competence through a focus on metafictive literature. A retrospective analysis of specific activities that occurred during the research with respect to their potential for nurturing habits of mind associated with creativity is followed by the analysis of one student’s creative product, her multimodal narrative representation. The discussion includes consideration of the importance of educators deepening their theoretical and practical knowledge of the construct of creativity as they endeavour to teach about, for and about creativity, and to) assess creative learning by students.)

Modeling as a Means to Develop New Ideas: The Case of Reinventing a Bifurcation Diagram

This article provides an overview of a modeling sequence that culminates in student reinvention of a bifurcation diagram. The sequence is the result of years of classroom-based research and curriculum development grounded in the instructional design theory of Realistic Mathematics Education. The sequence of modeling tasks and examples of student work tendered offers a fresh perspective on modeling and how an inquiry-oriented sequence of tasks can lead to the reinvention of significant mathematics.

Moving localized TBLT in Korea forward: Real issues and future directions

Over the past three decades, classroom-based research that is motivated by both instructed Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has given insights into using tasks in diverse instructional contexts. Second language (L2) researchers and practitioners claim the necessity of approaching TBLT from localized perspectives, rather than applying the principles of task design and implementation from a deficiency perspective (e.g., Butler, 2011; McDonough, 2015). In the current article, I focus on localized classroom-based TBLT in Korean educational contexts and discuss the current real issues and directions for future research.

Seeing the Unseen: Visualizing Organizational Culture in the Classroom

This article describes an inquiry-based classroom activity for strategic management, human resource management, and related courses to enhance the understanding of organizational culture. We use visual methods to provide fresh insights into an organization’s culture from which we can enable students to draw conclusions upon how this culture might affect organizational strategy. Students use their camera phones to take photos that encapsulate organizational culture, with their business school used as an exemplifying case. Students present their photos explaining what, from their perspective, the photos say about culture and its influences upon strategy and organizational performance. Other students are encouraged to offer alternative readings, thereby demonstrating the multiple interpretations of culture. An instructor-led plenary focuses upon theoretical themes within the photos. These themes are plentiful, varying from class to class. In our experience, the activity has also provided opportunities for the discussion of topics such as gendering and ethnic bias.

Exploring the Use of Oral Corrective Feedback in Turkish EFL Classrooms: A Case Study at a State University

This classroom-based research investigated how a non-native teacher of English provided corrective feedback to Turkish EFL learners. More specifically, the study aimed to identify language errors produced by the students, corrective feedback types employed by the teacher, and students’ uptake rate following the provided feedback. The data were collected through audio-recording, transcribed, and analyzed in detail for the type of learner errors, type of teacher feedback, and rate of learner uptake. The results revealed that grammatical errors were found to be the most produced error type, and lexical errors were found to be least produced error type. The study also indicated that recast was the most frequently preferred, and clarification request was the least frequently preferred corrective feedback type by the teacher. It was also found that all feedback types led to successful correction of erroneous utterances of the students with 100% learner uptake rate.