College-level Classrooms Research Articles

Pausing and contributing towards Indigenous futures: A pedagogical reflection on college history classrooms

In this article, I explore a pedagogical approach grounded in Native feminist theories and their commitments to place, to relations, to lands, and to more sustainable, just futures. In approaching college history instruction from a place informed by Native feminist teachings, I offer that the college-level classroom can be a space for students to imagine and work towards anticolonial futures as they process hard histories from where they stand. To do so, I draw on self-reflection and an examination of student reflections on their relationships with tribal sovereignty, their perceptions of ethical commitments to Indigenous people, and their understandings of academic collaborations toward Indigenous priorities. This analysis reveals how a pedagogy that embraces “pausing” and contributions to Native nation building can create a classroom space for students to process histories of genocide, build habits of relationality and civic engagement, and work toward more just futures.

Fostering Critical Thinking Skills in the EFL College-Level Classroom Through Online Collaborative Document Tools

Fostering Critical Thinking Skills in the EFL College-Level Classroom Through Online Collaborative Document Tools

Footprinting in a course on energy

Footprints provide a way to estimate the relative impact of processes and products on the global climate. Including footprint analysis in a course on energy simultaneously provides students with an understanding of this tool and a quantitative guide to approaches that address climate change. College-level classroom activities for (primarily) process-based life cycle carbon footprinting are discussed.

ChatGPT in the English Classroom

18 students engaged in learning about artificial intelligence, specifically ChatGPT 3 (CHAT), to respond to the question of whether it is ethical or practical for students to use CHAT in college-level classrooms to complete assignments. A thematic unit was created and taught in 2 face-to-face English 101 classes to explore the topic of CHAT. The unit was created with and designed to be completed by CHAT. After reflecting on 3 readings, 2 videos, and completing various related assignments, students were expected to write a 5-page essay about CHAT using CHAT in whatever way they wanted to complete the work while still maintaining the specific requirements of the English 101 objectives. The essays were examined by the students using the same peer review process that we used for 2 essays written without using CHAT before the thematic unit, with the addition of 2 instructions: to check the veracity of the sources, and to evaluate the essays for consistency of tone, accuracy of information, and originality. Data collection for this qualitative study was based on hand-written reflections by 18 of the students in the classroom, quick polls at the end of each lesson, and semi-structured, recorded interviews with 9 of the participating students who volunteered to be recorded. The students were charged with the dual roles of tester and consultant, and it gave them the opportunity to understand and test CHAT in a classroom and to share their insights with faculty. Reflections and interviews were transcribed, coded, analyzed, and categorized into the 3 strongest recommendations for faculty considering using CHAT in their curriculum: (1) faculty should be open-minded and well trained in what CHAT is and how to use it safely before attempting to allow their students to use it in class; (2) students should be given specific instructions for how to use CHAT for specific tasks that will help them reach their potential and then allowed to decide for themselves how to proceed; (3) students should be tested to demonstrate comprehension of the material and classroom objectives both before and after the use of CHAT.

Michigan: A History of Explorers, Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People by Roger L. Rosentreter

Reviewed by: Michigan: A History of Explorers, Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People by Roger L. Rosentreter Matthew Lawrence Daley Roger L. Rosentreter, Michigan: A History of Explorers, Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013. 448 pp. $29.95 (paper). Single-volume histories of states share a common set of difficulties with national history textbooks. What topics should be covered? Which major figures require inclusion and emphasis? Which lesser known yet still significant figures warrant inclusion? Is there a particular topical or thematic focus to center the work? Is the audience intended to be a general one, or is the book geared more towards a classroom-based readership? Authors have become more conscious of all of these issues as they consider a diverse population, address new curricular standards, and engage broader public interest since the 1960s. Michigan's history has been examined by a number of authors both within popular histories and textbooks. The latest entry into the field is Roger L. Rosentreter's Michigan: A History of Explorers, Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People. The long-time editor of the state's popular-history format Michigan History Magazine, Rosentreter draws on that experience to craft his book. His particular goal is to touch upon the "contributions of the everyday people" who played unsung roles in the state's history (iv–v). At the same time, Rosentreter makes the case that some topics, despite interest or significance, must receive less coverage or be left out to ensure a work of manageable length. The standard book on Michigan history has long been Willis F. Dunbar's Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State, first published in 1965 and last updated in 1995 by George S. May. A massive volume of over 750 pages, Dunbar's work (with May's additions) follows the standard narrative format for the genre. Starting with a survey of the state's geography, the book moves chronologically through histories of early Native Americans, European contact, exploration, war, industrialization, the auto industry, politics, and culture appropriate to Michigan's 1960s-era development. May's later additions push the endpoint of the work forward to the mid-1990s. Its sheer bulk and degree of detail make the book more an encyclopedia and less a work for a general audience. Even within a college-level classroom setting, the structure and general lack of narrative or thematic focus make it challenging to use. Other works also follow this format, including: F. Clever Bald's Michigan in Four Centuries (1954), Ferris E. Lewis's My State and Its Story (1937, with multiple editions) and later Lewis's Michigan: Yesterday and Today (1944 and 1956, with multiple editions), Richard A. Santer's [End Page 174] Michigan: Heart of the Great Lakes (1977), Bruce A. Rubenstein and Lawrence E. Ziewacz's Michigan: A History of the Great Lakes State (1981, multiple editions), and George S. May and JoEllen Vinyard's Michigan, the Great Lakes State: An Illustrated History (2005). While effective, these narratives primarily serve as textbooks for classroom use at various levels, and subsequent works display limited variation from this style. Two works that take a different approach are the Federal Writers' Project WPA Guide to Michigan: The Great Lakes State (1941) and Michigan: Visions of our Past (1989). The WPA Guide, although providing a history that is now dated in its approach, also examines major urban centers in the state, offering a snapshot of those cities during the 1930s. Additionally, it offers tours of regions throughout the state, highlighting industries and communities that have since departed or have been significantly altered in the intervening years. Instead of being a strict narrative, the WPA Guide surveys the state as a whole at a particular moment in time. It is valuable for its perspective of that time, both for what it included and what it left out. Visions of Our Past, commissioned for the state's 150th anniversary in 1987, is a collection of essays edited by Richard J. Hathaway that examine different aspects of Michigan history and synthesize the literature and scholarship to that point. Rosentreter contributed to this volume, as did other scholars, making it a vital contribution to understanding Michigan's...

Faculty Beliefs about Intelligence Are Related to the Adoption of Active-Learning Practices.

Mounting evidence of the efficacy of active learning has prompted educators to consider adoption of these practices in college-level classrooms. One tenet of active learning is that most, if not all, students have the ability to learn. Instructors’ perspectives on learning, however, may or may not be aligned with this. One belief held by some educators is that intelligence is fixed, that is, some students are more intelligent and have a higher ability to learn than others. Instructors with a fixed mindset may not be convinced that their investment in developing active-learning materials will be as fruitful as the education evidence suggests, because these instructors may not believe that most students can grow in their learning. Here, we explored the relationship between fixed mindsets and the adoption of active-learning strategies. We found that instructors with higher fixed mindsets were less persuaded that active-learning strategies were a good idea and less likely to implement the teaching practices. Our research suggests that development initiatives should explicitly address educators’ lay theories of intelligence (fixed or growth mindset) to support successful implementation of active learning.

Using Rich Context and Data Exploration to Improve Engagement with Climate Data and Data Literacy: Bringing a Field Station into the College Classroom

ABSTRACT Authentic scientific data, when richly contextualized, can provide the basis for compelling learning experiences. Many undergraduate students either do not have access to primary data, or if they do, the data are so abstract that student engagement is limited. Here, we describe contextual information and data-rich, student-centered activities we developed to give life to data sets from an intensely studied place, the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). The project Web site, Digital RMBL, highlights charismatic organisms, scientists, and long-term data sets as a tool for engaging students who are unable to physically visit a field station. The Biology of Climate Change module, the focus of this paper, has been tested in college-level classrooms by 10 collaborating faculty and 243 undergraduate students at a variety of colleges and universities across the nation. Authentic long-term data sets, primary literature, data visualizations, and a flexible format suitable for laboratory sections have led to very high usability ratings by collaborating faculty. In student surveys, a surprising number of undergraduate science majors (20%–30%) report that they have never worked with authentic scientific data—even at major research universities. The percentage of students who have not worked with data is much higher at collaborating 2 y institutions (60%–80%). The majority of students report that they appreciate the opportunity to explore long-term climate science data sets despite the frustrations they experience with the “messiness” of authentic scientific data. The impact of this climate change activity is achieved through engagement with people, place, and research subjects, followed by student-centered data exploration that builds personal interest and scientific discovery skills. This paper outlines one model in which scientists can meet funding agency requirements to share data publicly while providing excellent opportunities for improving climate and data literacy at the college level.

Critical Literacy Development In Action!

In this article, we explore the determinants of critical literacy development and of social and academic transformation. Knowledge of such determinants is prerequisite to the act of creating effective classroom policy that builds on the academic, social and language experience of the students rather than on the background experience of teachers, administrators and policy makers who create and enforce educational policy. Pedagogical implications are drawn from a close examination of various novels and texts which are suitable for k to college-level classrooms and can encourage a broader look at society. These implications focus on how literacy, and in particular critical literacy, can be used to question the texts and raise social awareness of societal values, thereby promoting social justice. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2009 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]

Exploring EFL Students’ CMC Discourse Practice in a College-level Classroom

This study reports the findings of a semester-long investigation into the practices of EFL college-level students involved in the construction of CMC texts. The purpose of the study was to examine the characteristics of computer-mediated communication (CMC) discourse that was embedded in an EFL classroom and gain an insight into how students experience CMC in the classroom. Data were collected from multiple sources including classroom observations, CMC discourse texts, interviews, and students’ reflective essays. As part of the regular course activities, students participated in CMC discussions on a weekly basis, which became a focal point for our investigation. The analysis of CMC discourse revealed socio-affective, linguistic, and cultural dimensions of language use. Major themes regarding the students’ perception of CMC include reflective learning, increased participation, collaborative learning, cultural awareness, and the concept of learning communities. In light of the findings of the study, pedagogical implications are presented in an effort to offer guidelines to EFL teachers who wish to implement CMC in their classrooms.

MANAGEMENT, MOTIVATION AND STUDENT-CENTERED INSTRUCTION I: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

ABSTRACT We describe a research-based analytical framework (MALA, for motivation, activity, learning and attribution) for the examination of classroom management issues in student-centered instruction. We review research in classroom management for university and college-level classrooms and describe the research base for the MALA framework.

Humor and Film in the Geography Classroom: Learning from Michael Moore's TV Nation

How can teachers use humor and film to convert geography classrooms into public spaces for thinking and talking about the world in a critical way? One useful resource for raising student consciousness and critical discussion is TV Nation-a satirical television newsmagazine show created, produced, and hosted by rebel-filmmaker Michael Moore in the mid 1990s. TV Nation not only serves as a potential instructional resource for geographers but also provides teacher and student a springboard for re-thinking humor and television news as analytical/educational objects. Moore challenges the popular notion that humor should not be taken seriously. By combining laughter with harsh reality, he questions the legitimacy of established ways of seeing the world and provides a unique way of discussing the socially constructed and contested nature of space and place. TV Nation also challenges the value traditionally placed on claims of neutrality and objectivity in conventional television news narratives. By making his own perspectives clearly known, Moore exposes the positionality inherent in all media representations of place. Included in this paper is an annotated list of TV Nation segments available on video and a description of how one of these news segments was used in a college-level classroom to teach about the complexities and contradictions of free trade and globalization.

Mexican American Students and Classroom Interaction: An Overview and Critique

The failure of U. S. schools to successfully educate Mexican American students has been well documented. In this article, studies of Mexican American students and classroom interaction are reviewed and critiqued from a Vygotskian perspective. Four traditional approaches to the study of Mexican American classroom interaction were found. The research reviewed suggests that teachers can better ensure Mexican American student involvement in classroom interaction through collaborative learning techniques, acceptance and appreciation of student language use, and presentation of challenging material related to student interests. Researchers may expand our understanding of this topic through the descriptive study of Mexican American students in the mainstream, English-only secondary or college-level classroom. Topics in need of further research are identified.