Connect Classroom Learning Research Articles

Bridging the theory-practice divide: Reflections of school-based student teachers

Background: Teacher education programmes often prioritise theory over practical experience, leaving students struggling to connect classroom learning with real-world application. Addressing this gap, a proposed model integrates online coursework with mentored practice-based experiences through full-time placements in selected schools.Aim: The study delves into the experiences of first-year school-based student teachers (SBST) enrolled in a full-time undergraduate online programme aimed at bridging the theory-practice divide.Setting: First-year student teachers in the 2021 and 2022 cohorts (N = 30) placed full time in selected schools participated in the study.Methods: Using an interpretive qualitative research design, data were collected via focus group interviews with first-year student cohorts. Data was analysed using the cultural-historical activity theory combined with the constant comparative method.Results: Two primary findings emerged. Firstly, SBSTs faced difficulties balancing academic requirements between the school and the programme. Secondly, the varying degrees of support from stakeholders within both the programme and school environment influenced the quality and meaningfulness of SBSTs’ learning experiences.Conclusion: The convergence of university and school activity systems revealed tensions and contradictions yet also presented opportunities for expanded learning when coursework and classroom practices aligned. Despite criticisms of universities being overly theoretical, the research indicates that SBSTs prioritise practical experience in school settings, potentially overshadowing the significance of theoretical knowledge.Contribution: This study contributes to knowledge of the challenges faced by student teachers and highlights the need to address these contradictions through open dialogue within teacher education programmes.

EE= E3LC3: Engaging Experiences Enabling Learning Connections between Curriculum and Career

The current movement to institutionalize Experiential Education (EE) reflects and acts as a response to contemporary concerns about the perceived value of investing in education. The authors delineate the need to collaborate within a shared understanding of the possibilities, diversity, and operational practicalities of EE across different units and communities. This article presents a flexible working definition of EE that is intended to be malleable and applicable across universities. Subsequently, this article explores how this definition can serve as a guiding framework for the development and implementation of EE in specific areas, offering insights from three distinct scholar-practitioners. The article argues for shared overarching understanding of EE, accompanied with opportunities to adapt and delineate further by different interested parties and units. Finally, practical steps are suggested for colleagues seeking to establish a definition of EE at their institutions or respective organizations. Tangible strategies for adapting to individual contexts will be unique and must navigate particular campus and community contexts. Characteristics, competencies, high-impact practices, principles, and other elements can be useful as guidelines, but the umbrella definition of EE will enable various departments to implement tailored approaches to connect classroom learning with real-world experiences and careers.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

The Influence of Learning Models on Scientific Literacy in Physics Course: A Meta-Analysis Research

This study aims to analyze the influence of learning models on students' scientific literacy skills. This research method is a meta-analysis with a sample of ten national and international journal articles. The results of this study indicate that the STEAM learning model, STEM, Problem Based Learning, Literacy Learning Model, E-learning, Project Based Learning or combination models have an influence on students' scientific literacy skills because they connect classroom learning activities with students' daily lives and motivate students to participate actively in the learning process.

Linguistic Risk-Taking: A Bridge Between the Classroom and the Outside World

This article describes an initiative launched at a Canadian bilingual university in order to encourage L2 French and L2 English learners to take ‘linguistic risks’: authentic, autonomous communicative acts where learners are pushed out of their linguistic comfort zone. The initiative was operationalized through the development of a Linguistic Risk-Taking Passport, which contains 74 linguistic risks that students can take in their L2 across the university campus and in their everyday life. An analysis of interviews with participating teachers (n=6) and learner self-report data from completed passports (n=410) examines how the initiative was integrated into the classroom and which passport items were perceived by students as particularly high-risk. A cyclical process of risk-taking within a broad Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) framework is described in which risks are viewed as learner-selected tasks with a dynamic affective slant; risks can be used to connect classroom learning with real-life L2 use and vice versa. The data illustrate that linguistic risk-taking can help TBLT practitioners generate ideas on how to narrow the gap between the classroom and the real-world. The article concludes with a list of practical implications and suggestions for adapting linguistic risk-taking to other institutional contexts.

Research on the application of “O2O” teaching mode based on mobile communication platform in the course of air transportation geography

Although smart phones have greatly changed people’s way of learning, it will also affect classroom teaching if it is not used normally. At present, this paper proposes an innovative teaching mode, which can connect classroom learning and extracurricular learning through mobile communication platform. The O2O teaching mode not only solves the problem of improper use of mobile phones, but also expands the breadth and depth of students’ autonomous learning. First of all, this paper analyzes the teaching organization of O2O teaching mode in the aviation transportation geography course. Then, this paper puts forward some problems in O2O teaching. Finally, some suggestions are put forward.

Teaching Ethical Reasoning

This article presents evidence supporting the claim that ethical reasoning is a skill that can be taught and assessed. We propose a working definition of ethical reasoning as 1) the ability to identify, analyze, and weigh moral aspects of a particular situation, and 2) to make decisions that are informed and warranted by the moral investigation. The evidence consists of a description of an ethical reasoning education program—Ethical Reasoning in Action (ERiA)—designed to increase ethical reasoning skills in a variety of situations and areas of life. ERiA is housed at a public, major comprehensive U.S. university—James Madison University—and assessment of the program focuses on interventions delivered prior to and during orientation for incoming first-year students. Findings indicate that the interventions measurably enhance the ability of undergraduate students to reason ethically. ERiA’s competency-targeted program and positive student learning outcomes offers a promising model for higher education ethics programs seeking to connect classroom learning in ethics to decision-making in everyday life.

From Doing to Thinking: Developing the Entrepreneurial Mindset through Scaffold Assignments and Self-Regulated Learning Reflection

AbstractEngineer, innovators, and designers play a critical role in the economy by addressing pressing problems and creating solutions that are new and innovative. It is a role that involves technical skills but also requires curiosity, an ability to connect pieces of knowledge to discover solutions, and a focus on value creation – which are all characteristic of the entrepreneurial mindset. There are many different design-focused frameworks that can be used to enhance the entrepreneurial mindset; this study focuses on four of them: systems thinking, design thinking, the value proposition canvas, and the business model canvas. The purpose of this paper is to highlight a new approach to developing the entrepreneurial mindset that goes beyond the proverbial “checking boxes” to providing an approach for demonstrating the integration of doing (artifact development) and thinking (reflection). This innovative and experimental approach offers two unique attributes. First, it is a scaffold in that instruction of each of the four modules builds on the other, further enhancing and grounding the learning experience. Second, students are required to continuously reflect on the process. This encourages students to think about learning in a holistic manner, allowing the ability to connect classroom learning with specific current and future utility. The findings suggest that students were able to recognize why the design-focused frameworks and learning activities were important outside of the classroom, particularly in relation to workforce preparation and securing future employment.

Connecting formal and informal learning to enhance elementary teacher preparation in geosciences

The U.S. National Research Council has called on the science education community to conduct further studies on how informal learning complements the formal classroom environment. Responding to this research need, we are developing, testing, and studying new instructional materials that integrate informal, field-based science learning into elementary teacher education. Us-ing EarthCaching as a model for teaching geosciences, the project team has developed an introductory module and seven field-based EarthCaching activities that connect to the earth and space science core ideas described in the Next Generation Science Standards. The materials are aimed at pre-service elementary teachers; however, they are appropriate for use with early child-hood and special education majors. To date we have piloted the materials over four semesters, gathering feedback through fo-cus groups to inform iterative revisions. Through the redesign process, the team has identified a set of preliminary design prin-ciples to guide other teacher educators interested in integrating EarthCaching into their instruction. These include attention to preparation, safety, and navigation; emphasis on observation, estimation, and prediction; promoting peer group interactions; presenting familiar sites from a new perspective; and highlighting cultural significance. Elementary pre-service teachers in the focus groups noted the value of taking young learners outside to EarthCache, including the opportunity to connect classroom learning to the real world and to teach geosciences locally. We anticipate that integrating informal science learning experiences into a science course for elementary pre-service teachers will increase their positive attitudes towards informal learning and in-tention to use elements of informal learning with their own students.

Call Your Representatives: Connecting Classroom Learning to Real-world Policy Action

This article presents an in-class exercise that teaches students how to call elected officials about a course-related issue of their choice. The goals are to connect classroom learning with real-life action, to show that contacting elected officials need not be difficult or intimidating, and to help students develop a sense of efficacy that can contribute to ongoing engagement. I describe the exercise and present evidence that it led students to call their elected officials, most for the first time ever. I show that students find the exercise interesting and empowering and that it increases their civic comfort and self-reported likelihood of contacting a representative in the future.

Challenges and pedagogies for teaching inequality in undergraduate development economics

Students in undergraduate economics classes, bogged down by mathematical and statistical technicalities, often fail to connect classroom learning to real world experiences which would better help to understand concepts and to examine policy prescriptions for economic issues such as economic inequality. Through a combination of different pedagogies involving academic resources, media, data analysis and experiential learning, students in my economic development course are exposed to the challenges of measuring and combating inequality. By looking at income inequality in conjunction with inequalities of health and education access, and understanding gender and racial differences across nations as well as locally, students grasp the complexities of public policies addressing inequality. Adopting a feminist methodology in class provides students a framework to analyse the heterogeneity of the human experience critical to the study of inequality.

Educating the Music User

To better serve students’ evolving needs in music, music educators must connect classroom learning with how students use and interact with music in their daily lives. One way to accomplish this is by approaching classrooms with the music user in mind, which can open new possibilities for meaningful music making and remove students from the constraints of ensembles projected only as preparing them for performances. This article provides several examples of how to help students further their active involvement with music in their adult lives—especially if they no longer participate in a performance ensemble after they leave the music classroom.

Making the Connection: A Case Study on Bridging Classroom and Experiential Learning

This article describes a 9-month longitudinal study, which in part examined how seminary students (N=60) connect classroom learning with field education experiences. Findings indicate that many students began field education either underestimating the connections between their courses and ministry in the field or overestimating their ability to move between theory and practice. Over time, students gained a deeper appreciation of the nuanced connections between classroom and experiential learning. Some students emerged from this deeper sense of connection disillusioned by disconnects between real-life ministry and their classroom learning. This disillusionment is important for educators to expect, understand, and address.