Didactic Intervention Research Articles

Shove Less, Nudge More: Stakeholders’ Perspective from Writing Classrooms

Academic writing courses are critical in higher education. However, they often rely on directive measures, or "shoves," that impose rigid guidelines, high-stakes assessments, and punitive consequences. These approaches, such as inflexible deadlines and harsh grading penalties, can increase student anxiety, disengagement, and surface learning. As a result, some students resort to unethical strategies, such as using essay mills or AI-generated content. This qualitative study, conducted through interviews with 20 writing professors and 30 students, identified several common shoves in academic writing courses and explored their negative impacts on student engagement and academic integrity. The findings highlight critical areas of concern, including strict rubrics, high-stakes deadlines, standardized feedback, and plagiarism threats. In response, the study proposes a shift from punitive shoves to supportive nudges, categorizing the latter into intuitive and didactic interventions. These nudges, such as automated deadline reminders, scaffolded assignments, and ethical AI usage prompts, aim to foster more positive student behavior and engagement. The next phase of this research will investigate how these behavioral nudges influence learning outcomes and student well-being.

Necessary Competencies for The Completion of a Thesis: Students’ Perceptions

Research is a core skill in university education, which allows students to develop knowledge and skills to intervene in their professional field. However, there are areas of opportunity to complete an investigation, and the context of the present study is no exception. According to this background, the objective is to characterize the students’ competencies to develop a thesis and identify obstacles in its preparation, presentation, and defense. Concerning methodology, a transversal quantitative approach was used by applying a questionnaire, finding that participants manage some techniques, abilities, competencies, and knowledge and identifying difficulties centered on lack of knowledge and investigative skills. In conclusion, students do not complete their work because theoretical foundations are not put into practice since there are ambiguities in knowledge conceptualization and the operationalization of research skills. The contribution of this study lies in identifying the difficulties in preparing a thesis, which can allow teachers to design an appropriate didactic intervention to meet students’ needs for the successful completion of their research and foster interest in the inquiry.

Explorando la invisibilidad en el paisaje cultural urbano: intervención didáctica en la formación inicial de maestros

The urban cultural landscape emerges as an element of spatial relevance to address socially relevant problems. It integrates various elements that make visible and commemorate certain historical figures, places or events, to the detriment of other groups or minorities, whose representation in the symbols of the urban landscape is practically non-existent. Based on this approach, this works presents the results of a didactic intervention, aimed at valuing urban heritage and its social implications. The training activity takes place at the Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa (ESELx), involving two groups of students. The main objective was to evaluate whether the toponymy of the street map and the sculptures of certain neighborhoods in Lisbon reflect the diversity that exists in the city in terms of social classes, cultures and genders. Likewise, student perceptions in relation to the analyzed urban heritage were explored. For this purpose, debates were generated, the content of the student productions was evaluated and a questionnaire was implemented. The main results show that the various elements of the urban heritage do not reflect the existing diversity in the city of Lisbon. A scant representation of female figures is evident, as well as elements related to diverse beliefs or cultures and members belonging to disadvantaged social strata. Furthermore, the potential of using urban heritage as a teaching resource to develop the critical thinking of future educators is manifested.

A Didactic Intervention On Written Discourse And Rhetorical Patterns

Reading comprehension skills in EFL is vital for university students. Particularly, being aware of the writer’s intention by means of discourse patters allows students to interact with the written text. Therefore, this research paper examines the implementation of a Discourse Analysis perspective in an Intermediate general EFL lesson aimed to enhance both critical thinking and reading skills by identifying the use of language patterns in written texts. 20 students form an Upper-Intermediate English course that studies a BA in English at a public University situated in the center of the state of Veracruz Mexico were the participants. Qualitative classroom research approach was chosen to implement a didactic intervention aimed at enhancing students communicative and reflective skills on the impact that social media has had on their lives. Results revealed that students were able to identify the meaning, and the relationship discourse markers establish between the written ideas and the meaning the writer wants to transmit. Particularly, students were able to reflect on the implications of social media use on communication, information access, marketing, and self-perception of its users. The didactic implications of the lesson focused on discourse patterns use indicate that such teaching perspective can significantly improve students’ critical thinking and communicative abilities. Therefore, it can be considered this lesson as an innovative proposal for enhancing the development of communicative skills in EFL students.

The playground as a laboratory for playful practices and social relations

Playtime in the playground at school is the object of study for its educational potential, a moment where children show their behavior in a natural way and their participation is free and voluntary according to interests and preferences. This study aimed to determine the effects of an intervention on the diversity of games played during school recess and on interactions among children. This is a quasi-experimental study using a mixed methodology, involving 270 children from two elementary schools in the north of Portugal. The instruments used for data collection were the questionnaire, field notes and video footage. After applying the pre-test, the didactic intervention and the post-test, we observed an increase in the practice of activities and a greater diversity of games performed (movement games), especially among girls, and a notable rise in peer interactions, particularly between different genders. Keywords: Playtime, school recess, playground, play, children, elementary school, relationships.

La scelta dell’ausiliare nei tempi composti: Variazione nell'interlingua di apprendenti ungheresi e inglesi di italiano L2/LS

The aim of this study is to identify some factors that determine variability in the interlanguage of L2/FL learners of Italian concerning auxiliary selection (essere ‘to be’ vs avere ‘to have’) in compound past tenses. Data were collected by means of a grammaticality judgement test and a binary choice sentence completion test. The participants were L1 English and Hungarian university students of various levels of proficiency (A2, B1, B2 and C1). The results were interpreted both in correlation with certain learning variables such as L1, proficiency level, and the category the main verbs belong to according to Sorace’s Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy. Based on the results, some hypotheses are put forward on teaching material design and on the possibility of harmonising the didactic intervention and the acquisitional sequence observed.

Didactic strategy of linear algebra with collaborative learning in mathematics pedagogical training

This article details the design and implementation of a didactic intervention strategy aimed at enhancing the pedagogical skills of mathematics education students in the teaching of linear algebra. Given the challenges students often face in grasping abstract mathematical concepts, the intervention leverages the Anthropological Theory of Didactics and Collaborative Learning as its theoretical framework. The phases of the intervention's execution in the classroom, along with the key elements for successful implementation, are thoroughly outlined. The results indicate significant improvements in academic performance in the units’ covering determinants, matrices, and systems of linear equations, while challenges persist in the unit on vector spaces. In terms of task genres, students showed proficiency in defining and calculating, although there was a lower level of mastery in demonstrating. The study concludes that, despite a general unfamiliarity with autonomous learning, the future educators were able to become active and effective contributors to their own mathematical knowledge construction through collaborative group work.

Investigating the effectiveness of using a real and a virtual model in teaching astronomy concepts to elementary students. The cases of the eclipse phenomena

This paper examines and compares the degree of effectiveness of utilizing a tangible, hands on model and a virtual simulation model when teaching the astronomy concepts of eclipse phenomena. A number of 77 students of the fifth and sixth grade of Primary Schools of Patras participated in the research. The didactic intervention included appropriately structured scenarios and worksheets that were utilized by the students and facilitated the teaching of the specific astronomy concepts. The method followed included the use of a pre and post-test questionnaire as well as a focus group discussion. The results highlight the effectiveness of the use of hands-on models, which enhance the learning outcomes as well as learners’ motivation to participate in the educational process.

Medicinal plants as a generative theme for the study of organic functions and scientific literacy in chemistry

Chemistry teaching requires the use of approaches that provide students with conditions so that they can critically interpret the reality in which they live. This implies the need to link the content worked with the social context in which the student is inserted. However, the practice of contextualizing is rarely addressed in the classroom, especially when it comes to teaching Organic Chemistry. Therefore, this research aimed to propose a didactic intervention based on the theme of medicinal plants as a proposal to integrate the student's daily life with the construction of knowledge about Organic Functions, in order to make the teaching and learning process more meaningful in accordance with the proposal for Scientific Literacy. The research was carried out with students from a 3rd year class of Integrated Technical High School in Computer Science for the Internet at the Federal Institute of Education Science and Technology Baiano - Campus Guanambi, in the period between November 2022 and May 2023 and involved six stages, with diverse activities. The use of the theme met the objectives of the study proposal, as, depending on the receptivity of the participants, it constitutes a teaching resource that brought the study of Organic Functions closer to everyday life, favoring more meaningful learning. The proposed use of the generating theme also demonstrated that it aroused the students' curiosity and interest, given their active participation in the construction of knowledge, which may have contributed to the teaching and scientific literacy processes.

Training Future Teachers in Genre Pedagogy: Does it Improve their Written Texts?

Recently, there has been growing interest in studying the factors affecting the development of academic writing competences of university students in different disciplinary areas. Less attention, however, has been devoted to the influence on this phenomenon of the specialised training students receive, even in undergraduate and postgraduate teacher training programmes where models of writing development are analysed and implemented. In this paper we measure the effect on the writing of 22 students in the Bachelor´s Degree in Primary Education of the knowledge of the genre pedagogy in the Reading to Learn model, based on Systemic Functional Linguistics. For this purpose, two groups of students in the subject Spanish Language Didactics wrote a descriptive report or an anecdote before and after a didactic intervention. From the 82 participants, texts by 11 from each group were selected. The 44 texts were evaluated by applying a scoring scheme with 8 items (rated from 1 to 4) covering features from genre to clause level, following the field, tenor and mode components established by Systemic Functional Linguistics. The statistical study shows post-intervention improvements in all the variables analysed. The Wilcoxon test shows these were significant for the narrative texts (TN1: 23.36; TN2: 30.91), but not for the informative ones (TED1: 25.20; TED 32:26).

The Diagnostics of the Design Thinker Personality Profile with the Big Five Assessment for Educational Work

Design Thinking as an innovation approach has gained relevance in the professional context and is increasingly used to solve interdisciplinary problems. In the current research literature, there are some heuristic approaches of Design Thinking that experts have described as the personal abilities of a Design Thinker, which have proven to be beneficial in practice. However, there has been no measurement of the necessary personal skills for Design Thinking. The early diagnosis of process-inhibiting personalities would be profitable for a Design Thinking coach in that certain didactic interventions could be implemented proactively, so that foreseeable disturbances within the Design Thinking process can be counteracted. For this reason, a corresponding procedure for diagnosing the expected Design Thinker skills of the students at the Münster School of Vocational Education was developed. Using the Design-based Research approach, a Design Thinker Personality Profile was designed regarding the Big Five personality traits. The developed Design Thinker Personality Profile could be reviewed by the individual personality profiles of the students and the impressions of the lecturers regarding the personality attitudes of the students.

Digital Interventions to Understand and Mitigate Stress Response: Protocol for Process and Content Evaluation of a Cohort Study.

Staffing and resource shortages, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased stress levels among health care workers. Many health care workers have reported feeling unable to maintain the quality of care expected within their profession, which, at times, may lead to moral distress and moral injury. Currently, interventions for moral distress and moral injury are limited. This study has the following aims: (1) to characterize and reduce stress and moral distress related to decision-making in morally complex situations using a virtual reality (VR) scenario and a didactic intervention; (2) to identify features contributing to mental health outcomes using wearable, physiological, and self-reported questionnaire data; and (3) to create a personal digital phenotype profile that characterizes stress and moral distress at the individual level. This will be a single cohort, pre- and posttest study of 100 nursing professionals in Ontario, Canada. Participants will undergo a VR simulation that requires them to make morally complex decisions related to patient care, which will be administered before and after an educational video on techniques to mitigate distress. During the VR session, participants will complete questionnaires measuring their distress and moral distress, and physiological data (electrocardiogram, electrodermal activity, plethysmography, and respiration) will be collected to assess their stress response. In a subsequent 12-week follow-up period, participants will complete regular assessments measuring clinical outcomes, including distress, moral distress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. A wearable device will also be used to collect continuous data for 2 weeks before, throughout, and for 12 weeks after the VR session. A pre-post comparison will be conducted to analyze the effects of the VR intervention, and machine learning will be used to create a personal digital phenotype profile for each participant using the physiological, wearable, and self-reported data. Finally, thematic analysis of post-VR debriefing sessions and exit interviews will examine reoccurring codes and overarching themes expressed across participants' experiences. The study was funded in 2022 and received research ethics board approval in April 2023. The study is ongoing. It is expected that the VR scenario will elicit stress and moral distress. Additionally, the didactic intervention is anticipated to improve understanding of and decrease feelings of stress and moral distress. Models of digital phenotypes developed and integrated with wearables could allow for the prediction of risk and the assessment of treatment responses in individuals experiencing moral distress in real-time and naturalistic contexts. This paradigm could also be used in other populations prone to moral distress and injury, such as military and public safety personnel. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05923398; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05923398. DERR1-10.2196/54180.

Enhancing computational thinking in early childhood education through ScratchJr integration

A plethora of programming platforms purports to teach preschool-aged children computational thinking (CT) and coding skills. However, the empirical evidence to support their effectiveness is still in its early stages. A three-week didactic intervention using ScratchJr was conducted to investigate its effectiveness in fostering CT and rudimentary coding skills in a cohort of preschool children (N = 34, aged 4–6 years). While the initial performance mean of the control group (M = 7.07, SD = 2.58) exhibits a statistically significant elevation t (22.64 = 2.23, p = 0.036) vis-à-vis the experimental group (M = 5.35, SD = 1.58), t (22.64) = 2.23, p = 0.0 the terminal performance means of both groups converge closely. However, meticulous data analysis unveils a statistically notable enhancement among preschool participants exposed to the educational intervention involving ScratchJr. Notably, both instructional modalities appear commensurate in nurturing elementary computational tenets, namely modularity and control structures. The experimental cohort outperforms the control group with statistical significance in comprehending potent ideational constructs encompassing representation, algorithms, and hardware/software interplay. Conversely, the control group performs better in grasping the debugging concept than their experimental counterparts. The outcomes lend substantive credence to the efficacy of the distinct programming milieu offered by ScratchJr, underscoring its effectiveness in cultivating CT and coding proficiencies within the preschool demographic.

Assessing the impact of an integrated educational program on Greek students' knowledge about coastal lagoons and attitudes towards marine environment conservation

The primary objective of this study is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of seas by promoting Ocean Literacy. It investigates the impact of an educational program on Greek primary and secondary public school students' knowledge about coastal lagoons and attitudes towards marine environment conservation. An educational resource titled “Exploring the Coastal Lagoons” was developed to facilitate the non-formal educational intervention. The program involved classroom, fieldwork/outdoor and laboratory activities, focusing on enhancing understanding of coastal lagoons' abiotic and biotic characteristics and human interconnection. Results showed improved knowledge and slightly more positive attitudes after the didactic intervention. The study underlines the effectiveness of targeted educational interventions in marine sciences, suggesting that non-formal educational settings influence student outcomes more than family or informal sources. Younger students appeared more adaptable and responsive to educational stimuli. The study advocates for refined educational strategies integrating cognitive and emotional elements, emphasizing real nature experience.

Effect of didactic intervention in Einsteinian physics on students’ interest in physics

To investigate students’ interest in physics, this study explores the impact of a brief teaching intervention on the increase of interest. The intervention focused on modern physics, specifically exploring Einstein’s theory of gravity and the dual nature of light. A total of 325 Greek students participated in the survey, comprising 83 students in the 6<sup>th</sup> grade (11-12 years old), 116 students in the 9<sup>th</sup> grade (14-15 years old), and 126 students in the 11<sup>th</sup> grade (16-17 years old). Participants completed a questionnaire, which helped determine the average level of interest before and after the teaching. The findings indicate that teaching modern physics concepts contributes to the development of students’ interest. However, there is an observed decline in interest as the educational level advances, a pattern persisting despite the introduction of Einsteinian physics concepts.

Mathematics Future Classroom Lab to Measure the Affective Domain of Pre-Service Teachers

The affective domain has a great influence on mathematics learning and academic performance. Therefore, it is important to analyze different variables to propose mathematics interventions that stimulate positive emotion, self-efficacy, and attitude in students. Pre-service teachers (PST) benefit from a novel pedagogical intervention in which they experience a positive classroom environment. The scope of this study is to understand the effects of PSTs by performing an innovative didactic intervention in the future classroom lab (FCL) in a mathematics course.

Combatting the occurrence of needle-stick injuries in a medical school: why is it still an issue?

BackgroundNeedle-stick injuries (NSIs) pose a safety risk for healthcare workers with great potential for serious infections. The aim was to determine numbers and causes of NSIs as well as the frequency with which medical students report NSIs in the final stages of study.MethodsAn online questionnaire was developed and made available in January and February 2023 to all undergraduate medical students (n = 423) in the last 1.5 years of their degree course at Würzburg University, Germany.ResultsThe response rate was 19.6% (n = 84). Among respondents, 27.4% (n = 23) reported at least one NSI. Occurrence was particularly frequent in surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and internal medicine. Assisting with procedures, suturing, and blood sampling were considered high-risk activities. Lack of concentration, distraction, and time pressure played a role in incidents. Respondents did not report 18.8% of NSIs with the main reasons being fear of the consequences, self-assessment of the injury as minor, or the opinion of supervisors that reporting was unnecessary. Students with previous practice on simulators or patients were significantly more likely to suffer NSIs. Instructions from occupational health specialists beforehand correlated with fewer NSIs.ConclusionWe assume that trained students are more experienced in handling invasive procedures, leading to a greater adoption of corresponding activities and thus an increased risk of injuries in absolute numbers. This does not counter the need for didactic interventions prior to workplace-based training to raise awareness of NSI risks. Simultaneously, concepts must be developed and implemented to support reporting and alleviate fears regarding consequences.

Use of metacognitive strategies in the learning of mixture separation processes in elementary school (final years)

In the learning of concepts related to the processes of separating mixtures in elementary school (final years) some difficulties may arise related to the lack of use of some metacognitive strategies that help in the approximation of a meaningful learning. In this context, it becomes relevant to elaborate didactic intervention proposals that show students metacognitive strategies that facilitate learning and provide autonomy. This article aims to raise an environment for reflection and dialogue in the face of an intervention proposal that establishes, in a structured way, a sequence of metacognitive questions linked to the learning of the aforementioned concepts. The results show some potential that can be generated with the implementation of the suggested didactic intervention, except for the necessary adaptations to the school context in which the proposal is intended to be applied.

Didactic Interventions: The Voices of Adult Migrants on Second Language Teaching and Learning in a Rural Area in Chile

Research in Chile, regarding language teaching and learning, has focused on Spanish as a first language (L1). However, due to the growing influx and settlement of non-Spanish-speaking adult migrants, the significance of investigating language education within a second-language (L2)-context has surged. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to examine the implementation of a Spanish language teaching–learning program as an L2 from the learners’ perspectives. The ultimate objective is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this field within the national framework. This qualitative, descriptive/interpretive study involves 10 adult Haitian migrants who do not speak Spanish and live in a rural area. These participants possess varying educational backgrounds and are situated within a vulnerable context. In pursuit of the objective, two focus groups were convened. The outcomes underscore the pressing need for comprehensive macro-level development, at the governmental level, to address the inclusion of migrants. This entails equipping educators with linguistic proficiency and theoretical and pedagogical expertise for instructing an L2 program. Furthermore, the inclusion of linguistic mediators, a judicious use of the learners’ L1 as a pedagogical resource, and the implementation of strategies that cater to individual needs contribute to a more effective and inclusive teaching–learning experience.

La compétence de communication orale à l’école primaire marocaine entre exigence et réalité

This research makes a return on the notion of the competence of the oral communication on the basis of a theoretical reference which draws on the sciences of language to unveil the difficulties tarnishing its teaching - learning at the Moroccan primary school. It aims to lead a reflection on the didactical approach of the oral to emphasize its shortcomings to endow the learners with discursive capacities nevertheless perceived as essential in any didactic project envisaging the acquisition of the competence of oral communication. We postulate that to explain the limits of the didactical approach of oral currently installed in the Moroccan primary school, it is interesting to stop on the acceptance that one gives to the notion of competence of communication. Our reflection, which was carried out through an examination of the different moments of implementation of this approach, shows a tendency to reduce the didactic intervention at the level of the sentence unit without taking into account the discourse as object of teaching-learning. Consequently, the discursive dimension does not constitute an issue of the so-called approach that seems to focus only on linguistic and socio-cultural capacities.