Classroom Teaching Practices Research Articles

Tensions between technology integration practices of teachers and ICT in education policy expectations: implications for change in teacher knowledge, beliefs and teaching practices

AbstractIn line with ICT in education policies and curricula in Ghana and many other countries, teachers are expected to integrate digital technologies into instruction to facilitate meaningful and engaging student learning experiences. More research is however needed to investigate teachers’ actual classroom practices with technology to determine whether these align with national ICT in education policies and curricula expectations. This qualitative study conducted phone interviews with twenty teachers from twelve schools and used a synthesised ICT pedagogy classification framework as a lens to investigate teachers’ technology integration practices in relation to Ghana's ICT policies and curricula requirements. Following a thematic analysis procedure, the article finds that teachers mainly use technology conveniently for lesson preparation and direct instruction delivery, treating technology primarily as a productivity tool to support traditional teacher-centred teaching tasks. The use of technology for constructivist practices and fostering student-centred learning appears to be limited, which contradicts the priorities outlined in ICT in education policies and curricula in Ghana. The findings highlight a discrepancy between the requirements of ICT policies and the actual classroom practices of teachers. The implications of the findings are discussed, emphasising the need to action change in teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and teaching practices in order to bridge the gap and effectively translate ICT curricula and policy plans into actual teaching practices.

Dual Language Program Leadership in High Needs Rural School Districts

One of the most pressing challenges confronting change-agent leaders in rural school districts in the United States is how to provide well designed instructional programs to meet the biliteracy academic development needs of emergent bilingual learners. This article examines how one language arts teacher / dual language coordinator and her instructional improvement team colleagues working in a high needs rural middle school leveraged design research thinking and intervention development strategies to: 1) engage in intensive data teaming to investigate the root causes of the persistent learning performance gaps of emergent bilingual students on their rural campus; and 2) develop and implement a design-based professional development intervention program for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade core content teachers to refocus teachers’ individual and collective pedagogical perspectives regarding the perceived learning capabilities of emergent bilingual students and reinvigorate their team-centered interdisciplinary planning and classroom teaching practices. Change-agent leadership insights derived from an analysis of collective intervention design and implementation efforts completed by the instructional improvement team are presented and discussed within two areas: 1) leading instructional improvement initiatives in high needs rural school districts; and 2) leveraging immersive professional development to build core content teachers’ dual language instructional teaming capacities. Finally, a set of design principles derived from the case study is presented that may be of practical use to rural school leaders interested in exploring the potential of design-based intervention methods to address the dual language programming needs of biliteracy learners.

Student Motivation and Learning: The Impact of Collaborative Learning in English as Foreign Language Classes

Teaching approaches and techniques shape classroom practices and ultimately contribute to students’ learning and achievement. While abundant research exists on how such practices impact student learning in EFL classes around the world, this research still remains scarce in Kosovo. Therefore, the current research addresses this existing gap by exploring the link between teacher classroom practices and student learning. Participants of this study included 10th and 11th grade students across six municipalities in Kosovo (N=237). The respondents were asked to complete a questionnaire inquiring about practices adopted by teachers to teach EFL. The results reveal disparate teaching practices adopted by teachers to teach the material. To that end, female students report enhances participatory and collaborative approaches used by teachers and in the meantime an overall higher perception of the chances given by teachers to express opinions and ideas in class, compared to male students. Similarly, 10th grade students reported higher opportunities provided by the teacher in class to express opinions as well as collaborate with other students to complete tasks. Finally, significant positive correlations are evident between certain collaborative and participatory approaches utilized by teachers in class as well as students’ motivation. Evidently, students enjoy problem solving tasks and are much more active in cases when they collaborate with other students. In conclusion, this study sheds light on how students perceive teacher techniques and teaching methods used in EFL classes.

Retracted: The Practice and Reform of Classroom Teaching Based on the Coordination of Online Environment and Deep Learning

Retracted: The Practice and Reform of Classroom Teaching Based on the Coordination of Online Environment and Deep Learning

English Language Teachers’ Classroom Practices in Ibadan, Nigeria

The focus of the research is to find out about the practice of English teachers in the classroom because teachers are the best model for students' acquisition of linguistic knowledge and what they do in class during the teaching and learning process. Although all English teachers are responsible for transferring linguistic expertise to students in class, their classroom practices differ. Therefore, this study qualitatively examines the classroom practice of English teachers in the Akinyele Local Government, Ibadan, Nigeria. This study adopted a mixed methods research design. The findings reveal that English teachers in Akinyele Municipality, Ibadan, Nigeria, use a traditional approach to teach students, paper and pencil tests primarily to assess students, engage in learning assessment and enforce classroom rules to manage their classrooms. Based on the findings, it is recommended that English teachers improve their classroom practices and update their teaching methods with modern ones.

Exploring the experience of Year 10 South Korean students’ English language learning in immersive virtual reality.

A prescribed English language textbook often directs classroom teaching practices in secondary school classes in EFL contexts, such as in South Korea. The textbook is often accompanied by multimedia resources which are delivered to students as input at a regulated pace with limited opportunities for communicative interaction or spoken output. Such opportunities are further limited in the community outside of the English classroom. Immersive virtual reality (i-VR) has the potential to situate learners in a real-world context for authentic application of textbook language learning. English teachers in the formal classroom focus on linguistic competence development within time constraints by teaching new vocabulary and grammatical items in decontextualised forms. By comparison, i-VR environments focus on learning to construct meaning in communicative events in contextualised, real-world settings based on students’ existing linguistic knowledge and ability. In a small-scale pilot study, two teachers of Year 10 English classes in Seoul implemented four i-VR language learning modules in their classes: one as a self-directed learning experience that extended beyond formal classroom learning, and the other as a teacher-facilitated learning experience within the formal classroom. Both teachers were interviewed after the two-week implementation to seek their views on their perceptions of the value of such i-VR learning for their students. Beyond the motivational and entertainment value, the teachers viewed the i-VR experience as capable of incorporating pedagogical structures using the embedded multimodal resources that is not possible in other immersive forms of language learning. Moreover, the teachers believed that incorporation of authentic conversations and interactional opportunities could further enhance the learning potential.

LEGAL CONCEPTS, THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND TEACHING METHODS

This study aims to identify the characteristics of legal concepts in terms of the foundations of their construction and methods of downloading them in classroom practice in teaching and evaluation, in proportion to the specificity of these concepts, which are distinguished from other concepts by their abstract characteristics and their metaphysical nature at times. To address this problem represented in: "What are the advantages and characteristics of the legal concept, and what are the problems of downloading it in classroom practice, and what are the proposed solutions to overcome it"? This research was organized in two sections, the first of which was devoted to clarifying the reality of concepts, the second to their characteristics, and the third to teaching methods and the proposed methodology for evaluating them, in order to bring them closer to learners, and to overcome the problems that teachers face when presenting these concepts to their learners, whether at the methodological or didactic level. In order to address the research problem, the study started from the following hypothesis: - The legal concept has its own nature that distinguishes it from the rest of the other legal concepts, and therefore its teaching requires its own methodology because it is an abstract and intangible concept, and therefore teachers of Islamic education must have knowledge of these legal concepts, in order to have a clear vision of the reality of the legal concept and its characteristics. And the requirements of teaching it, just as the textbooks should reveal legal concepts in a dialectical way that takes into account the level of growth of the learners’ knowledge, through educational and educational activities directed to them, and in effective pedagogical ways. In conclusion, the research presents a set of proposals and recommendations in order to overcome the imbalances and solve the problems that prevent building doctrinal concepts on sound foundations, and downloading them properly in classroom practice.

Reform planning strategies: a micro-policy case of Norwegian school principals

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how Norwegian school principals prepared to carry out the LK20 reform process. The importance of school principals and middle-level leaders as enactors of change efforts results from their close ties to teachers and teacher classroom practices. This suggests that without negotiation and support from micro-policy actors, such as school principals, reforms are unlikely to be realized as intended and are therefore likely to fail. The present study was based on interviews and video observations of principals and leader team meetings. The findings demonstrate that school principals’ interpretations of policy intentions through their enforcement of curriculum reform demands are closely connected to their schools’ organizational contexts. The planning process involves recycling previous plans and customizing them to new ones. Opportunities and challenges are illuminated when school principals provide counter-discourses in the planning process.

Classroom Assessment Thoughts, Skills, and Practices of Secondary School Mathematics Teachers: An In-Depth Analysis

Classroom Assessment Thoughts, Skills, and Practices of Secondary School Mathematics Teachers: An In-Depth Analysis

Teaching listening in middle schools: perceptions of practice

Abstract This qualitative case study first examined middle school teacher perceptions of practice regarding L2 listening instruction and, from these, proposes guidelines to favour L2 listening development. Novice middle-school teachers from Chile (n = 14) were guided within semi-structured interviews to reflect on their own L2 listening teaching practices in public and semi-private school classrooms. Verbal reports were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis techniques and underwent systematic interrogation of qualitative data. The results show an overemphasis on teacher preference for task completion to the detriment of developing listening strategies. We present results and provide guidelines for teachers to integrate features of a metacognitive instruction approach to listening.

Game-based assessment framework for virtual reality, augmented reality and digital game-based learning

Immersive learning technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and educational digital games offer many benefits to teaching and learning. With their potential to immerse learners in realistic environments and facilitate higher-order cognitive learning, these technologies could be used to complement current classroom pedagogical practices. However, given that these learning environments differ from conventional classroom learning activities, current assessment practices may be insufficient for assessing learning in immersive environments. This paper develops the concept of a game-based assessment framework (GBAF) for educators interested in the assessment of learning in digital games, VR or AR. Importantly, this paper also presents the application of the framework to the design and implementation of assessments for a VR game during the game design phase. Grounded in the principles of Constructive Alignment and the Evidence-Centred Design (ECD) framework, this assessment framework describes the steps to consider for assessments and outlines the components that must be aligned for the design of assessments. To illustrate the application of the GBAF to the design of assessments for immersive learning environments, a stepwise design of assessments for a VR game is presented. The results of the outcome of the assessment of laboratory health and safety competencies of six engineering students is also presented. The GBAF offers simple and useful guidelines for the design of assessments around game tasks. It could serve as a structured basis for educators and researchers to design assessments to measure lower and higher-order cognitive learning in complex immersive environments.

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Interactive Learning Methods for Enhancing Art and Design Education in Higher Institutions

ABSTRACT To address the problem of the classroom practice teaching of art and design, this paper proposes an interactive learning method in universities, followed by the use of AI technology to evaluate the quality of art and design teaching. The study aims to achieve the following objectives: 1) To introduce the current research status of art and design and interactive teaching methods used in other countries; 2) To discuss the essential ideas and mechanics of Back Propagation Neural Networks (BPNN) and other standard teaching approaches based on interactive learning; and 3) To input test data into the trained model and compare the obtained results with the evaluation results of experts. The findings of this study indicate that the model used to evaluate art and design instruction is accurate. The proposed interactive learning method is beneficial for art and design majors as it allows them to improve their practical skills and learn more engagingly and effectively. The use of AI technology for evaluation purposes can also improve the quality of art and design education in universities.

Challenges in the application of the Tshivenda scientific register for physical sciences classrooms

Background: This paper investigated some of the challenges in the application of Tshivenda scientific register (TSR) during classroom practices of some physical sciences teachers in some of the public secondary schools in the Vhembe West District, South Africa. Methods: It was an interpretative qualitative case study wherein three physical sciences teachers and 40 learners took part in the study. The study conducted at schools of Vhuronga 2 circuit in Vhembe West District between January 2022 to November 2022. Interviews and classroom observations were used for data collections. Researchers analyzed their data through Data Analysis Scheme (DAS) which comprised of themes, categories, and characteristics in this qualitative study. Texts that belong to a particular theme were highlighted using same colour and track changes was also used to codify categories and characteristics of a theme. Results: The research findings had shown numerous challenges in the teaching and learning of physical sciences including teachers and learners not used to physical sciences being taught and learnt through TSR, not familiar with some scientific words in TSR, difficulties in understanding scientific term in TSR as well as absence of Tshivenda physical sciences resources beside TSR. Consequently, this has impacts on teacher and learner’s ability to implement TSR in the teaching and learning of Physical Sciences. Moreover, the findings also show that teachers and learners participated in the study sometimes switch from Tshivenda Scientific words to English Scientific words during Physical Sciences lessons. Conclusions: Therefore, it is suggested that the above-mentioned challenges in the development and application of TSR for Physical Sciences teaching need to be addressed so that teachers can teach learners Physical Sciences through language they know best. Hence, physical sciences teachers must be developed, trained, and furnished with essential language skills for them to develop Tshivenda scientific language registers on other sciences topics.

An exploration of teachers' epistemological belief: A case from in-service and pre-service physics teachers in Bengkulu

Epistemological belief is a belief, knowledge, and coaching value that is useful for creating a student learning environment to increase the belief and value system towards knowledge, learning, and teaching. However, there is a few explorations in the context of in-service and pre-service physics teacher. The aim of this study is to explore the epistemological beliefs of in-service and pre-service physics teachers based on their time period in teaching experience. This study used a mixed-method with a model explanatory sequential design. The quantitative data were collected through science epistemological belief questionnaires (n = 23) and the qualitative data were collected through interviews with teachers (n = 6) about their epistemological beliefs. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistic and a content analysis. The result from the quantitative data is that epistemological beliefs of in-service and preserving physics teachers are in a good category and the qualitative data showed that most of the in-service and pre-service teachers have epistemological beliefs on the transitional and instructive levels. The findings of this study can be considered in developing the teacher’s professionalism to have better physics classroom teaching and learning practice.
 Keywords: Epistemological Belief Physics Education In-service Teacher Pre-service Teacher

Powerful knowledge, transposition/transformation and ICT: an empirical study across school subjects in primary education

ABSTRACT This article presents a study that analyses the types of activity used to teach the curriculum in primary education, and the use made accordingly of digital and analogue resources. The research’s purpose was to discover whether there are any differentiated patterns of activity in the teaching of these subjects, and whether they are linked to the use of ICT/non-ICT resources. A multiple case study was conducted with 10 primary teachers, with three schooldays being recorded over the 2018–2019 school year, which provided 132 hours of recordings. The research design involved the use of mixed methods. The results reveal a differentiated use of patterns of activity linked to the subjects that make up the curriculum in primary education, as well as a differentiated use of ICT and non-ICT resources when teaching these subjects. The study includes the need to investigate the process of transforming/transposing the academic content into effective classroom teaching practices.

Pedagogical issues of Senior Phase teachers when teaching the matter and materials strand of natural sciences

The study reported on here was a qualitative interpretative case study. We explored the pedagogical issues of Senior Phase natural sciences teachers when teaching the matter and materials strand in some of the schools in the Siyabuswa circuit. This study was motivated by the concerted focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in developing countries with a particular focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, fast-tracked by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The following question guided the study: What are the classroom practices of teachers when teaching the matter and materials strand in the Senior Phase? Semi-structured interviews and observations were used to collect data from 2 purposefully sampled participants. The findings show that some natural sciences teachers are frustrated with the teaching of natural sciences as they are teaching out of their fields of expertise. Furthermore, they are not qualified to teach the subject and the workshops presented are not capacitating them to teach the strand. Their limited content knowledge (CK) and weak subject matter knowledge (SMK) result in misconceptions, which could be transferred to their learners. Moreover, the lack of CK and SMK also impacts on their choice of instructional strategies as they still prefer traditional methods of teaching, which promotes memorisation. In the study, even the teacher who was qualified to teach the subject still lacked content knowledge and instructional strategies like the unqualified one. The challenge is that the core resource in increasing interest and uptake in the STEM subjects, the teacher, is lacking knowledge and instructional strategies. It is, therefore, prudent to recommend tailor-made content enrichment workshops on the matter and materials strand. These workshops should also be intertwined with pedagogical issues. We also recommend studies on specific topics in the matter and materials strand as this study focused only on a broad overview of the strand.

Preliminary Evaluation of a Mobile, Web-Based Coaching Tool to Improve Pre-K Classroom Practices and Enhance Learning

Educators rely on professional development to improve instruction. Research suggests that instructional coaching which utilizes specific coaching practices, such as classroom observation followed by debriefing and goal setting, and integrated strategies such as co-teaching, bring about significant change in instructional practices. The goal of this study was to gauge whether or not the use of a web-based data collection and coaching tool led to changes in focal classroom practices and whether or not improving those practices was, in turn, related to students’ academic and self-regulation gains across the prekindergarten year. To examine the implementation and impact of the coaching app, researchers conducted a cluster-randomized trial, comparing the classroom practices of teachers receiving business-as-usual coaching to those being coached with the app. Classroom observation data showed no significant differences in teachers’ practices across the school year, and student achievement did not differ between conditions. Qualitative data from coach interviews, however, revealed that coaches using the app were more likely to employ integrated coaching strategies associated with improving instruction. The lack of differences in terms of teachers’ practices and students’ assessment gains may be due to a lack of statistical power and inconsistent professional development implementation associated with ongoing disruptions due to the pandemic. Further research examining the effectiveness of educational technologies supporting professional development is needed.

Understanding Teachers’ Knowledge and Skills via Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge Framework

This qualitative study aimed to understand English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ knowledge and skills concerning integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into classroom teaching practices at a private university in Vietnam. Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework was used to guide research design, data collection and data analysis. Findings show that participants vary significantly in terms of knowledge and skills needed by EFL teachers. The study suggests that to support meaningful integration, EFL teachers need to develop three key knowledge types: technology, pedagogy and content, and skills to combine these types of knowledge.

University Educators’ Professional Learning in a PBL Pedagogical Development Programme

This study explored university teachers’ professional learning when participating in a pedagogical development (PD) programme. The PD programme, entitled the Aalborg Certificate on Basics of PBL and Curriculum Change, had a workload of 150 hours and ran for four months, involving 23 teachers from Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá, Colombia). The programme comprised four modules, delivered in a blended mode, and followed a problem- and project-based learning (PBL) approach, as well as being based on PBL principles. This investigation conceptualizes professional learning from the complex learning theory perspective, describing it as a complex dynamic system involving knowledge, motivations, values, attitudes, and beliefs dependent on social and individual contextual factors, and how these can lead to the implementation of alternative teaching practices in classroom (e.g., PBL). Building on that, this work addresses the following research questions: (1) What knowledge and beliefs have the PD programme participants developed about PBL? (2) In which ways do the developed knowledge and beliefs impact participants’ change towards PBL? This analysis takes a qualitative approach and uses multiple sources of data, namely participants’ portfolios and reflection essays, as well as a qualitative survey. The results show the participants developed a deep understanding of PBL principles and practices by experiencing them through the PD programme, and that reflective practice enables continuous professional learning and development. Additionally, their perceived challenges were related to time, as well as institutional support and infrastructures, in addition to student and teacher training.

ICT as a Didactic Tool to Facilitate the Learning Process in the Subject of Mathematics in Combined Classes

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has become a common entity in all aspects of life. The use of ICT has fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of almost all forms of endeavor within the learning process. The use of ICT in education lends itself to more learner-centered learning environments, and this often creates some convenience for teachers and students. On the other hand, with the small number of students, schools are facing the merging of several classes led by one teacher. A combined classroom is when students from more than one grade level learn from the same teacher, in the same classroom. Therefore, this study aims to explore the process of integrating ICT into teaching and learning practices in combined classrooms in the subject of mathematics. The study is a qualitative study that focuses on a case of elementary and lower secondary school "River Heroes" in the Republic of Kosovo. In this study, the descriptive survey method was chosen to evaluate teachers' experiences in the integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process in combined classes. The total number of participants in this study was 9 primary school teachers of this school. This particular study used interviews to collect qualitative data. The results of the study show that the use of technology in teaching can be a powerful tool to help students develop their mathematical skills, especially in schools with mixed classes. The results of this study can help the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, Municipal Directorates of Education, school teachers and principals, as well as other interested bodies to design intervention and rehabilitative measures related to the integration of ICT in teaching and learning, especially in combined classes.