Classroom Teaching Experience Research Articles

Iteratively Refining a Science Explanation Tool Through Classroom Implementation and Stakeholder Partnerships

Science inquiry challenges students to synthesize various ideas about complex phenomena into coherent explanations. It also challenges teachers, who must guide their diverse students’ developing understanding during student-paced investigations. We describe the Idea Manager, a suite of web-based, curriculum-integrated tools that (a) guides students’ knowledge integration as they generate, distinguish, and reconcile their ideas; and (b) provides means for teachers to monitor learning over the course of technology-enhanced science inquiry units. With the Idea Manager tool, students document short, text-based ideas, tag and sort them along various attributes, and exchange them with classmates. At culminating points of their investigations, students graphically organize their ideas to prepare written scientific explanations. Meanwhile, logs of idea entries, revisions, and meta-data inform teachers’ and researchers’ decisions about instruction and design.This paper offers an account of the design moves made in refining the Idea Manager, and highlights the importance of teacher-researcher partnerships and classroom implementations. Through designers’ artifacts, classroom research findings, and teachers’ and researchers’ reflections, we illustrate the tool’s origins; our strategies for testing new features and eliciting stakeholders’ feedback, and how middle and high school classroom implementations inform the tool’s continued iterations. Based on learning theory and on our own 40+ collective years of classroom teaching experience, we explain our design decisions and describe how new features and patterns for the tool’s use emerged from a community of researchers. Finally, we reflect on the process of iteration that advances both theory and design, and on the value of pedagogically-driven technology design.

Design of a Socio-scientific Issue Curriculum Unit: Antibiotic Resistance, Natural Selection, and Modeling

In this design case, we describe our work to design and develop a socio-scientific issue (SSI) based unit of instruction for use in high school biology. Our team includes university based science educators, an experienced classroom teacher, and a microbiologist. The unit focuses on antibiotic resistant bacteria as a context for student exploration of natural selection and engagement in modeling practices. Our team recently presented a model for SSI instruction that highlights: (a) a focal issue, (b) interaction of science ideas and practices, (c) social considerations, (d) use of information and communications technologies, and (e) a culminating experience that encourages students to synthesize their ideas. We use this model to frame the design case and discuss key decision points that influenced design and development of the unit. The design product is a three-week unit that we implemented in the spring of 2014. Key challenges presented in the case include continually evolving notions of scientific modeling practices and implications for related learning activities, developing supports for student negotiation of the social dimensions of antibiotic resistance, and determining how much emphasis to place on student use of information and communications technologies.

Protocol for a Systematic Review: Teach For America (TFA) for Improving Math, Language Arts, and Science Achievement of Primary and Secondary Students in the United States: A Systematic Review

Protocol for a Systematic Review: Teach For America (TFA) for Improving Math, Language Arts, and Science Achievement of Primary and Secondary Students in the United States: A Systematic Review

Second graders articulating ideas about linear functional relationships

In this paper, we explore the ideas that second grade students articulate about functional relationships. We adopt a function-based approach to introduce elementary school children to algebraic content. We present results from a design-based research study carried out with 21 second-grade students (approximately 7 years of age). We focus on a lesson from our classroom teaching experiment in which the students were working on a problem that involved a linear functional relationship (y=2x). From the analysis of students’ written work and classroom video, we illustrate two different approaches that students adopt to express the relationship between two quantities. Students show fluency recontextualizing the problem posed, moving between extra-mathematical and intra-mathematical contexts.

Prospective Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Perspectives and Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching

Background:Previous research points to two different frameworks: Knowledge Quartet provided the field to assess the (prospective) teachers’ mathematical knowledge in teaching. Teacher perspectives framework contributed to the field to examine (prospective) teachers’ pedagogical principles underlying their mathematical knowledge in teaching. The field mostly focuses on what (prospective) mathematics teachers know and/or lack. Thus, there is need to investigate both what they know and why they know in terms of their mathematical knowledge in teaching.Materials and methods:Classroom teaching experiments (Cobb, 2000) was conducted for a total of eleven weeks during both a methods and the seminar part of a practice-teaching course. Data shown in this study included prospective teachers’ lesson plans, practice-teachings and self-reflection papers. All the lessons within the methods and practice teaching courses as well as the prospective teachers’ practice-teachings were videotaped and then transcribed. Prospective teachers wrote reflection papers after watching their videotaped lessons.Results:Results showed that prospective teachers holding a progressive incorporation perspective (PIP) had demonstrated all the codes in the Knowledge Quartet Framework during their practice-teaching.Conclusions:There is need to investigate coherency between other teacher perspectives and what they reveal in teaching in terms of their mathematical knowledge.

Investigating the improvement of prospective elementary teachers’ number sense in reasoning about fraction magnitude

We report on interview results from a classroom teaching experiment in a Number and Operations course for prospective elementary teachers. Improving the number sense of this population is an important goal for mathematics teacher education, and researchers have found this goal to be difficult to accomplish. In earlier work, we devised a local instruction theory for the development of number sense, which focused on whole-number mental computation. In this study, the local instruction theory was applied to the rational-number domain, with the help of a framework for reasoning about fraction magnitude, and it guided instruction in the content course. We interviewed seven participants pre- and post-instruction, and we found that their reasoning on fraction comparison tasks improved. The participants made more correct comparisons, reasoned more flexibly, and came to favor less conventional and more sophisticated strategies. These improvements in number sense parallel those that we found previously in mental computation. In addition to the overall results, we highlight two cases of improvement that illustrate ways in which prospective elementary teachers’ reasoning about fraction magnitude can change.

Resources for Rethinking

Resources for Rethinking is a project developed by Learning for a Sustainable Future. It provides teachers access to lesson plans, curriculum units and other teaching resources that integrate environmental, social and economic spheres through learning that is interdisciplinary and action oriented. We call this learning Education for Sustainable Development or ESD. Each R4R resource has been reviewed by an experienced classroom teacher and matched to relevant curriculum outcomes for all provinces and territories in Canada.

Portuguese

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199775 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Tabela normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Apresentamos, neste artigo, o relato de uma experiencia de ensino que utilizou, em sala de aula, um jogo de dados, para o reforco no aprendizado dos conceitos de media e variância. O jogo e original e utiliza, simultaneamente, esses dois importantes conceitos da Estatistica Descritiva. Formulamos tambem alguns problemas, envolvendo situacoes de jogo, cujas solucoes, obtidas pelos proprios alunos, tem por objetivo reforcar os conceitos matematicos presentes nas definicoes de media e de variância. Pelos relatos dos alunos e das professoras que aplicaram o jogo, acreditamos que a atividade desenvolvida tenha contribuido para a apreensao dos conceitos de media e variância pelos alunos. Esperamos que a sequencia didatica aqui apresentada possa auxiliar o professor do Ensino Medio no seu trabalho com esses conceitos. Palavras-chave: Ensino de Estatistica, Jogos, Resolucao de problemas. Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE

La formation dans l’enseignement de la psychologie pour les étudiants de cycle supérieur : les compétences essentielles pour les nouveaux enseignants

What pedagogical skills are necessary for first-time college instructors? Ninety-two faculty (M=41.3years old, 68% female, 90.2% white, 91% born in the US) and 64 graduate students (M=28.3years old, 83% female, 87.5% white, 81% born in the US) listed the top three skills they believed were essential to instructors’ success in the college classroom. Despite differing levels of classroom teaching experience, graduate students and faculty members prioritized “survival” skills: public speaking, organization, and content mastery. Notable differences did emerge: faculty members were more likely to list reflection on teaching and graduate students were more likely to list classroom management and comfort with technology. Faculty also preferred more informal training methods (e.g., self-reflection, mentorship), whereas graduate students preferred more formal training methods (e.g., practice/experience, seminar/workshop). Recommendations for graduate teacher training programs include a focus on lower as well as higher-level skills and an attempt to incorporate formal and informal training methods.

Bridging theory to practice with classroom rounds

Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the how to teach were challenged by the process of classroom rounds in this study. Classroom rounds were defined as pre-conference, classroom observations and post-conference with evidence based discussions focusing on school-based practices. The pre-service teachers shared their observational data and beliefs about teaching with an experienced classroom teacher to learn the context of pedagogical practices in a classroom setting. Rounds in combination with clinical experience extended the pre-service teachers’ awareness of research-based practices, the importance of and how to implement these practices in their classrooms. Post student teaching surveys revealed the impact these observed practices had on the pre-service teachers’ classroom procedures.

Analogy Teaching Method of High-Frequency Electronic Circuit

High-frequency electronic circuit is an important basic specialized course for the major of electronic information engineering, communication engineering, and electronic science and technology. Combined with a dozen years of classroom teaching experience and started from several aspects like relevancy of front-back courses, teaching framework and theoretical teaching content, this paper will discuss analogy teaching method of related content about signal amplifier, mixing, modulation and demodulation in order to help students to understand chapter structure. In the process of teaching, we should pay more attention to students ' weaknesses of knowledge, then stimulate their interests in learning and improve the teaching effectively quality.

Historical empathy and pedagogical reasoning

The process of engaging in historical empathy holds the potential for significant curricular and dispositional benefits for students in history classrooms. In order to realize these benefits, classroom teachers must be able to integrate historical empathy into their existing planning and teaching; a process that would benefit from empirical examination. This single subject case study examined the pedagogical reasoning process of an experienced classroom teacher who integrated historical empathy into an existing instructional unit designed to foster student knowledge of social control as an enduring historical understanding. The findings of this study suggest that experienced teachers may only be able to partially anticipate the unique pedagogical needs integrating historical empathy requires, and that a holistic examination of pedagogical reasoning during all phases of planning and teaching may be most suitable for the task.

Chaos in the Classroom: Center Learning in a 1st Grade Setting

How can centers be utilized in a classroom so students have full control of what they are learning and when? Can centers be used effectively post-kindergarten? During student teaching in a first grade classroom in southeast Louisiana, two student teachers, their classroom mentor teacher, and the 1 grade students experienced center learning that integrated all areas of the curriculum and was utilized for 45 minutes each day. Students were expected to determine which center they needed to attend each day, which activity to complete, who to complete it with, where to put completed work, and how to successfully tidy up the center. The classroom teacher used this independent exploratory learning time to pull students in small groups to target their reading and comprehension skills. The purpose of this research was to determine which factors played an integral part of the success of center learning in a first grade classroom. The student teachers observed the 16 centers, interviewed the students and the teacher, took photos, and videoed center time. After analyzing the research, centers appeared to be organized in an effective manner, student learning was the primary goal, which enhanced students’ ability to enjoy learning in centers and also gain social skills through collaboration. What happens in a first grade classroom that uses a complex set of learning centers to enhance student learning and free up teachers to work with individual students in a more focused way? How do student teachers learn about centers when working with an experienced classroom teacher who uses learning centers? And, how, along with the support of research faculty in a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, can student teachers look to describe and disseminate the findings of this research? Authors one (Courtney) and two (Kristen) were student teachers in a year-long MAT program in elementary education. Author three (Kenny) is the lead faculty member for the MAT program and facilitator of the student teacher action research project. As student teachers coming into a new classroom setting, Courtney and Kristen were anxious and excited to gain insight on effective teaching practices and be able to take these gains into their own classrooms in the future. As a faculty member, Kenny was eager to see how Courtney and Kristen would work through their research, and how the program can support their work as emerging educators. This article reports the findings of a study in a first grade classroom in South Louisiana examining the role of center

Conceptual issues in understanding the inner logic of statistical inference: Insights from two teaching experiments

We report on a sequence of two classroom teaching experiments that investigated high school students’ understandings as they explored connections among the ideas comprising the inner logic of statistical inference—ideas involving a core image of sampling as a repeatable process, and the organization of its outcomes into a distribution of sample statistics as a basis for making inferences. Students’ responses to post-instruction test questions indicate that despite understanding various individual components of inference—a sample, a population, and a distribution of a sample statistic—their abilities to coordinate and compose these into a coherent and well-connected scheme of ideas were usually tenuous. We argue that the coordination and composition required to assemble these component ideas into a coherent scheme is a major source of difficulty in developing a deep understanding of inference.

Teachers' Reflections on Their Subject Matter Knowledge Structures and Their Influence on Classroom Practice

Research has indicated that experts' subject matter knowledge structures (SMKSs) differ from those of novices in that they contain more cross‐linking, interconnections, and overarching thematic elements, characteristics that are in accordance with those espoused in current reform documents. Unfortunately, teachers' SMKSs are not necessarily translated into classroom practice, for either novice or more experienced classroom teachers. A means to facilitate the translation of teachers' SMKSs into practice would ensure that those desired characteristics of experts' subject matter knowledge manifest themselves in teachers' classroom practice. Four experienced physics teachers diagrammed their SMKSs, which were then compared to those inferred from their classroom practice. Prior to instruction, two teachers, as part of the explicit‐reflective treatment, were asked to reflect at multiple time points on congruence between their SMKSs and classroom practice focusing on the presence of essential concepts, interconnections, and overarching thematic elements. No discernible difference was apparent between control and treatment groups, as teachers from both groups showed a high‐degree of congruence between inferred and diagrammed SMKSs. Results further substantiate the challenges in identifying a means for both developing and facilitating the enactment of coherent, connected, and dynamic SMKSs or, in effect, accelerating teachers' pedagogical content knowledge.

A foot in many camps: literacy teacher educators acquiring knowledge across many realms and juggling multiple identities

This study involved 28 literacy/English teachers in four countries: Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia. The goal of the study was to examine their backgrounds, knowledge, research activities, identity and support within the university. The teacher educators had a range of classroom teaching experience which they drew on in many ways. Most went far beyond simply telling stories about their previous work. All were heavily influenced by their own childhood experiences, which continue to affect their current work. Many felt that they needed to hold dual identities, teacher and academic, because they were still heavily involved in schools through their research and in-service activities. Several felt that there was a hierarchy in their department with those most removed from schooling at the highest tier. Most saw themselves in the field of literacy not teacher education and gravitate towards literacy-focused conferences and journals rather than those in teacher education.

From math drawings to algorithms: emergence of whole number operations in children

This paper provides a longitudinal account of the emergence of whole number operations in second- and third-grade students (ages 7–8 years) from the initial visual processing phase to the converted final phase in numeric form. Results of a notational documentation and analysis drawn from a series of classroom teaching experiments implemented over the course of two consecutive school years indicate successful conceptual progressions in participants’ epistemological and synoptical use of visual representations. Further, their developing symbolic competence in whole number operations underwent several phases from initially linking notations with their respective signifieds to developing, elaborating, and routinizing symbol manipulation rules. Progressive emergence in both use and competence operated within interacting cycles of abduction, induction, and deduction.

Design of a Self-standing Multimedia Enriched Projector to enhance teaching experience in classroom in Brazilian public schools

For many decades, public policies promoted educational technologies usage in classroom in Brazil. Some results are noticed related to the impact on student’s performance. We present a design and evaluation of an educational sharing multimedia platform that provides facilities for teachers in the classroom. We employed a participatory design process based on providing supports intended to help teachers engage in the classroom context. We could elicit a list of design guidelines for the specifics operational system and a hardware case. This design approach has been developed for to empower teachers in public schools in Brazil. We discuss our experience with this initiative and explore its implications for teaching.

Establishment of multi-dimension teaching model for basis of cfinical laboratory course

According to the constructivism approach, instructors have to adapt to the role of fa- cilitators but not teachers. Whereas a teacher gives a didactic lecture that covers the subject matter, a fa- cilitator helps the learner to get to his or her own understanding of the content. In the former scenario the learner plays a passive role and in the latter scenario the learner plays an active role in the learning pro- cess. Under the guidance of this theory, a multi-dimension teaching model based on classroom teaching, network platform and innovate experiments has been established in the course of basis of clinical labora- tory. It has been found that this model is conducive to raising students＇ interests in learning and to culti- vating student＇s comprehensive quality. Key words: Constructivism; basis of clinical laboratory ; Innovation ability; Online edu-cation

Wiris Quizzes: un sistema de evaluación continua con feedback automático para el aprendizaje de matemáticas en línea

En estudios en línea de ingeniería, el seguimiento del proceso de aprendizaje de los estudiantes de matemáticas así como el sistema de evaluación son aspectos clave de la estrategia docente. En este artículo se presenta un sistema de evaluación continua con feedback automático, basado en la realización de cuestionarios Wiris Quizzes durante un curso de análisis matemático en la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Dichos cuestionarios, con enunciados parametrizados, funcionan en el entorno de Moodle con el soporte del programa de cálculo simbólico Wiris (www.wiris.com). Los resultados de la experiencia docente con esta metodología en una aula con 65 estudiantes y la comparación con los de semestres anteriores son claramente positivos: (a) el número de estudiantes que siguen la evaluación continua se mantiene estable; (b) la media de las notas de la evaluación continua aumenta de forma considerable; (c) el número de estudiantes que suspenden la asignatura se ha reducido significativamente y (d) la valoración que los estudiantes hacen de la asignatura, de sus contenidos y de los recursos que se ponen a su disposición ha mejorado notablemente.