Classroom Culture Research Articles

Students' thinking dispositions and teacher's approaches in conflict situations: a case study of a secondary school mathematics class in Japan

PurposeThis study aims to depict the process of creating a culture of thinking in relation to developing thinking dispositions, focusing on conflicts between students and teachers at the beginning of the school year.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a year-long fieldwork in a secondary school in Tokyo, Japan, including participatory observation of a mathematics class and a semi-structured interview with a teacher. The classroom discourse is analyzed to interpret the students’ thinking dispositions and the teacher's approaches in context using eight lessons. A situation in which the teacher attempts to change the method or direction of students’ thinking is defined as a conflict.FindingsFive conflict situations are found, namely (1) listening, (2) mathematical explanation, (3) disclosure, (4) giving up and (5) examining ideas. They reveal three characteristics about students’ thinking dispositions: closed-minded, correct answer-ism and mathematical immaturity. Against such students’ thinking, the teacher tried to make them listen carefully to, understand and examine peer ideas, aiming to discuss mathematically. Through these conflicts, the classroom culture moves toward a community of thinking and discussing mathematically.Originality/valueThis study emphasizes the cultural and contextual aspects of thinking dispositions as shaped by a classroom culture. By depicting “conflict” as a new analysis unit, this study reveals students’ thinking dispositions and how they are enacted in what situations and how teacher’s approaches to them create a culture of thinking.

Humanizing pedagogies and student‐centered instruction in a networked improvement community

AbstractImproved English Language Arts instruction within classrooms and schools that typically serve low‐income, English Language Learners, and Students with Special Needs is important for ensuring all students receive rigorous and inclusive instruction. From the case of a Networked Improvement Community focused on improving instructional practices through student‐centered routines, this research explores the role of humanizing pedagogies in enabling effective student‐centered instructional routines by interviewing 16 teachers who were identified as particularly successful in working with Students of Color. Two major themes and six subthemes were identified from these interviews focused on building relationships as a foundation for humanizing pedagogies and then leveraging those relationships to create a positive classroom culture that fosters increased student engagement and academic risk‐taking with challenging student‐centered routines. These strong teacher–student relationships and student‐centered routines led to improved academic outcomes.

Using teach ECE to observe the quality of online teaching during the pandemic: an exploratory study in a pre-school in Chile

ABSTRACT During COVID-19, many schools worldwide were closed. In this unprecedented context, some students accessed distance or remote education. Assessing the quality of in-person early childhood education has a long-dated challenge and doing the same within a preschool online setting is unprecedented. This study aimed to utilize the Teach ECE observation instrument developed by the World Bank in 2021 to explore the quality of synchronous online lessons across 8 preschool classrooms in a private school in Chile. The tool is designed to observe 28 quality teaching behaviors organized into four areas. The dataset encompassed 640 min of video recordings capturing synchronous online classes over a 5-month period. Findings revealed that 7 out of the 8 preschool teachers exhibited low or medium-low quality practices across all three areas examined in this study. Average scores per area indicate that Classroom Culture obtained the highest score, followed by guided learning, and finally by socio-emotional Skills.

A study on translanguaging between Malaysia and China primary schools’ students in ESL writing classroom

This research investigates the efficacy of translanguaging on writing ability and the attitudes of students from Malaysia and China in English lessons. Writing ability, a combination of various skills, is explored through a mixed-method approach with a purposive sampling of 20 students—10 from Malaysia and 10 from China. Interviews were conducted with two teachers and three students from a Malaysian sub-urban school, and a teacher and two students from a primary school in China to gather qualitative data. The study also used a pre-experimental design, employing pre- and post-tests to assess the quantitative aspect. The findings suggest that classroom culture plays a crucial role in fostering positive attitudes toward multilingualism and second language acquisition. Translanguaging allowed students to bridge the gap between their home language (L1) and school language (L2), resulting in improved writing outcomes, particularly for students with low proficiency. It also led to more authentic, well-constructed work. However, some teachers expressed concerns about the influence of translanguaging on students' writing, particularly the risk of substituting L1 strategies for English ones. Despite these concerns, the research demonstrates that translanguaging can be a valuable tool for enhancing writing ability and building positive attitudes towards language learning.

“Not a cookie cutter situation”: how neurodivergent students experience group work in their STEM courses

BackgroundAlthough group work is increasingly used in STEM courses and may lead to improved academic outcomes, there is evidence that some implementations of group work may lead to unintended barriers for certain students’ learning. Despite the growing number of neurodivergent undergraduate students, there is limited research on neurodivergent students’ experiences with group work in STEM courses. To address this knowledge gap, the current research investigated the experiences of 22 neurodivergent undergraduate students with group work in STEM courses at a range of institution types and in a variety of STEM disciplines. Participants shared experiences with in-class and out-of-class group work assignments for lecture and laboratory courses.ResultsThrough inductive thematic coding of semi-structured interview transcripts, we identified seven themes impacting participants’ experiences. Three themes were individual level: personal characteristics that participants associated with their neurodivergence; strategies for academic success (with subthemes of organization/time management, adaptive communication, and self-advocacy); and beliefs on group work’s value. Four themes were group level/classroom level: group dynamics; role in group (including leadership roles); the competitive culture within STEM; and recommendations for instructors. Through a social-relational perspective on disability, we proposed a model showcasing how group and classroom factors serve as supports or barriers to neurodivergent students’ full participation in group work, as well as to their sense of belonging. Using the seven themes we articulated, we outlined a set of practices for designing group work assignments. In addition, we propose how pairing inclusive assignment design with instructor reflection and articulating anti-ableist values can support neurodivergent student belonging by disrupting discourses of normalcy in STEM.ConclusionsAs one of the first studies exploring the impact that group work in STEM courses has on neurodivergent undergraduates, this work may inform reimaginations of group work practices to better address the needs of neurodivergent STEM students and support a more inclusive culture in STEM classrooms. In addition, our conceptual model may serve as the basis for future research regarding interactions between individual-level and group-level factors associated with neurodivergent students’ learning through group work and other active learning practices.

English language preservice teachers’ attitudes towards Singlish and their beliefs about the utility of contrastive pedagogies in the language classroom

ABSTRACT Singlish, also known as Singapore Colloquial English, has been the focus of many studies, but its tenability as a tool in the classroom has received scant discussion. This study explores English language preservice teachers’ attitudes towards Singlish and their beliefs towards use of contrastive pedagogies in the English language classroom. Adopting a mixed-methods study involving quantitative and qualitative data, 40 preservice teachers majoring in English from the National Institute of Education were surveyed and interviews with eight participants subsequently conducted. The findings reveal that participants appraise Singlish positively for its affordances in fostering rapport and a healthy classroom culture. Despite concerns that language classrooms should only focus on quality input, Singlish is recognised for its ability to reduce students’ affective filter and increase their accessibility to standard English. Participants generally supported the inclusion of Singlish in the English language classroom, using contrastive pedagogies to promote students’ noticing of language features.

Construction of Classroom Culture of International Chinese Teachers from the Perspective of Effective Teaching

Culture and economy are two subsystems that are indispensable and closely linked in a country's development process. Economy determines culture, and culture is a reflection of politics and economy and reacts to economy. With the continuous rapid development of China's economy, "Chinese", as a unique cultural element in China, is increasingly active and spreading on the global international stage with the development of China's economy.​ Therefore, China's language and the cultural civilization factors attached to the language are in urgent need of "going out", they need a "missionary" who not only has the Chinese ontology knowledge but also has a high degree of cultural cognition to spread Chinese characters and Chinese civilization. At this time, international Chinese teachers who have a high degree of conformity with internal and external standards and who are familiar with cultural teaching methods and teaching techniques become indispensable. It is imperative to improve the comprehensive quality of international Chinese teachers and promote the effective teaching of international Chinese classroom culture.

Balancing Emotions for Effective Teaching: Cultivating Teacher Well-being in TESOL

This study aims to examine the extent to which Saudi Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teachers appreciate teacher well-being, perceive the significance of balancing emotions for effective teaching, and establish a compassionate classroom culture that promotes learner well-being and learning achievement. The study also investigates the Saudi TESOL teachers' perceptions of the importance of the mixed-methods research design for exploring teacher well-being. The study applied a quantitative design, administering an online survey to a sample of 59 Saudi TESOL teachers with varying educational levels and experience. The findings indicate that Saudi TESOL teachers consider emotions to be highly important for effective teaching, though they report placing moderate importance on cultivating strategies to support their own well-being. Additionally, they perceive the use of mixed-methods research to explore teacher well-being as moderately important. The study results indicate that prioritizing teacher well-being can significantly influence student learning outcomes underlining the role of educational institutions in considering this an important factor in quality enhancement on their campuses.

The Journal Club Module: A Co-Learning Tactic for Demystifying Academic Research and Building Classroom Culture in Undergraduate Courses

This project uses the lenses of co-learning and a pedagogy of vulnerability to assess the effectiveness of ‘the Journal Club Module,’ a tactic to increase critical thinking, build classroom culture, improve student research skill development, and model lifelong learning in undergraduate classes. In the Journal Club Module, instructors assign recent articles that they have not yet read, and then the students and instructors read the articles for the first time together in preparation for each class. Leveraging survey data and written self-reflections of undergraduate students in an upper-division Judicial Politics course, this project finds that the Journal Club Module is associated with improvements in critical engagement with assigned readings, the authenticity of classroom culture, and comfort with academic research.

From Avoidance to Competence? How the Identity Project Inspires Teachers to Engage with Ethnicity and Culture with Their Students

ABSTRACT Multicultural education highlights the need to promote students’ diverse identities, recognizing their ethnic-cultural backgrounds as resources in their teaching. However, most teachers perceive they lack competence and learning material to this end. Research suggests the Identity Project may be an appropriate tool to resolve some of these challenges. We explore both teachers’ and students’ narratives about teaching issues of ethnicity and culture in multicultural classrooms centering on potential changes from before to after teachers delivered the IP. We conducted one focus group interview with seven teachers before they were trained and implemented the IP in their classrooms, and individual interviews with them after they had completed the intervention. Data from three focus groups with 16 students from the same schools, and individual interviews with 16 other students that received the intervention are included to add perspective to the teachers’ narratives. A reflexive thematic analysis resulted in four themes: From avoidance to embracing the diversity topics, from not addressing to affirming student identities, teachers pushing for inclusion (or exclusion), using cultural background as a learning/teaching tool. Our findings imply that the IP can be a tool for multicultural education that enhances teachers’ competence in supporting students’ identity development.

A Preliminary Study of Classroom Observation LICC—Taking TU Youyou Awarded Nobel Prize as an Example

Based on the practice of high school English reading teaching, this paper firstly introduces the information about the high school English reading teaching demonstration lesson; secondly, it uses scaffolding to explain the different types of scaffolding that the teacher builds for students’ learning in the demonstration lesson and the operation steps; furthermore, it adopts the four dimensions of students’ learning, teachers’ instruction, nature of the curriculum, and classroom culture to observe and analyse the demonstration lesson of the high school English teaching—Tu Youyou Awarded the Nobel Prize; finally, the demonstration lesson was commented and summarized.

Membangun Budaya Kelas Konstruktif Melalui Prinsip Servant leadership di Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang

This research explores the implementation of servant leadership as a strategy to overcome the problem of unconstructive classroom culture in the university environment. In the context of Islamic education, the importance of creating a learning culture that is balanced between intellectual, spiritual, and moral aspects is the main foundation. Support from the literature on constructivism and previous research shows that a constructive classroom culture has a positive impact on academic achievement, critical thinking skills, and the development of ethical values in Islamic education. Servant leadership, as a proposed solution, emphasizes service as the main approach, with leaders focusing on listening and responding to the needs of their class members. This research will explain in depth how the application of servant leadership by the Class Leader can form constructive classroom conditions at Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University Malang. Through qualitative methods with observation and in-depth interviews. The findings are expected to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between servant leadership and constructive classroom culture, with the potential to provide a basis for policy development or decisions related to leadership principles in creating positive and inclusive classroom conditions

What and how? Or why and for whom? A content analysis of middle school general music literature

The purpose of this content analysis is to analyze available peer-reviewed middle school general music literature to determine the ways in which middle school general music has been conceived of in extant literature in the United States. The researchers performed a content analysis of peer-reviewed empirical and practitioner articles relating to middle school general music ( N = 45), creating a coding scheme of categorical clusters that related to the Association of Middle Level Education’s position paper: This We Believe. Content coding revealed curricular content (78%) and pedagogical practice (42%) as the most common topics. Several topics were underrepresented in the literature including student opinion/voice (11%), inclusive practice (18%), adolescent development (20%), cultural awareness (18%), classroom culture (20%), and teacher preparation and development (16%). These findings may have important implications for preservice music teacher educators preparing teachers for the context of middle school general music, as well as for researchers within this domain.

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND INDICATIONS OF STUDENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Student management strategies are critical for fostering an effective learning environment. The evaluation of these strategies is essential to ensure that they meet the educational needs of students while promoting a positive classroom culture. This article aims to explore the evaluation criteria and indications that can be used to assess the effectiveness of student management strategies. By examining the theoretical foundations and practical applications, this paper provides a comprehensive framework for educators to enhance their management practices.

CLASSROOM SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN MATHEMATICS: A CORRELATIONAL STUDY

This study investigated the association between classroom social environment and student engagement in mathematics. It utilized the descriptive correlational and causal-comparative research design and applied the following statistical tools: mean, Pearson-r, independent T-test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). This investigation used an adapted, content-validated, and reliability-tested survey questionnaire. A proportional stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 282 respondents from Manat National High School – Junior High School. The result of the study revealed that students often show high engagement with mathematics in emotional, social, and cognitive domains, with cognitive engagement peaking. The classroom social environment is favorable, with teachers providing support and mutual respect, even when performance goals are not as important. Moreover, the study revealed a significant correlation between engagement dimensions and classroom social environment, with a minor association between social environment quality and emotional and social engagement and a moderate correlation with cognitive engagement. The study found no significant differences in engagement based on sex and age, but observed substantial variation in engagement across different grade levels, suggesting that grade level significantly influences students’ mathematics engagement. Based on the findings, it was highly recommended that teachers use techniques like acknowledging student accomplishments, offering constructive criticism, and creating a friendly learning environment to promote healthy mathematical learning. They should also encourage group projects, peer tutoring, and engaging mathematical tasks to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills. A respectful classroom culture and tailored engagement strategies were also suggested. School administrators should also conduct professional development workshops for teachers.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0779/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

A Systematic Review of Integrating Culture into Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Culture has become an indispensable element in foreign language teaching. This paper intends to systematically review the existing research on culture teaching or integrating culture in foreign language teaching. 30 studies in the field of culture teaching and learning published in the last five years were reviewed systematically. The review followed the PRISMA Statement’s guidelines, and the included studies were analyzed and synthesized with seven codes, intending to investigate the latest areas of discussion in the literature of culture teaching in foreign language teaching and learning, the stakeholders’ attitudes towards culture teaching in foreign language teaching and learning, pedagogical methods used to teach culture in foreign language classrooms, the effect of culture teaching practice, as well as the research gaps derived from the analysis. In light of this information, recommendations for future research were proposed.

The Integration Strategy of Class Teacher Management and Mathematics Teaching

The professional and moral education of high school mathematics teachers will make classroom management work better, but their work pressure will also lead to classroom management problems. To do a good job in high school class teacher management and organically integrate it with mathematics teaching, we need to start from two aspects: mathematics teaching class teachers and class teacher work teaching, and penetrate mathematical thinking into daily classroom management, moral education, and classroom culture construction. Based on the attributes of the subject, we guide high school students to reflect after class to stimulate their self-management initiative through the cultivation of qualified class representatives. In addition, it is necessary to skillfully resolve classroom generative problems, change the roles of teachers and students, and integrate classroom management with mathematics teaching.

Factors Affecting The Effectiveness of Inclusive Education

The article describes the results of experimental and test work aimed at effectively organizing inclusive education and determining the factors affecting the successful implementation of the academic and social activities of children with disabilities in the pedagogical process. The experimental work was carried out in 17 schools in 4 cities of the country. 117 healthy , 53 disabled primary students, parents of the students, 45 educators were involved. During the study, methods of statistical analysis of Social Survey, observation, interview, picture keys, results were used. One important factor is the availability of resources and support services. Another factor is the attitude and thinking of teachers, students and parents towards inclusion. A positive attitude, the acceptance and support of all stakeholders will help create an inclusive culture in schools and classrooms. Conversely, a negative attitude, lack of support and understanding can hinder the success of inclusive education initiatives.

Measuring teacher beliefs about factors that promote Classroom Social and Emotional Learning (CSEL)

The success of social and emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom hinges on the buy-in of teachers, as they serve as the principal implementers of SEL initiatives. This is particularly relevant in contexts where SEL is nascent and emerging. In response to this need, we developed a scale to measure teachers’ beliefs about factors that promote classroom social and emotional learning (CSEL). We validated the scale in India, where SEL has recently gained attention, on a large sample of teachers (N = 2097). Factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure comprising beliefs about healthy classroom management, inclusive classroom culture and supportive student relationships. The scale demonstrated good psychometric properties: strong internal consistency, predictive validity (with mental well-being), convergent validity (with emotional intelligence), discriminant validity (with perceived stress) and measurement invariance across males and females. We hope that understanding teachers' beliefs on these factors can help inform successful program implementation, and thus offer crucial insights for mainstreaming SEL.

Relationship between School Culture and Moral Development of Students at the Secondary Level

This study explores the intricate relationship between student moral growth and school culture within the secondary education landscape of Lahore, Pakistan. The research aimed to investigate how student moral development intertwines with the prevailing school culture, as perceived by students themselves. The study population included students and teachers of both public and private schools in the Lahore district. Employing a quantitative approach, data was collected from 420 respondents through systematic sampling techniques. Data analysis revealed a significant relationship between moral development and classroom culture. The study also indicated satisfactory and insufficient areas of moral development among school students with respect to their teachers' role. It was recommended that the schools should provide a conducive atmosphere which may satisfy the unsatisfactory areas of moral development among their students. School culture and curricula should both be modified and developed to foster moral development among the students. Similarly, ethical leadership culture should be promoted among the teachers and Heads to cultivate responsible citizenship among students.