Classroom Events Research Articles

Soil and Water Iron Microbes in North Carolina (SWIMNC) Outreach: Positive Impact of Combining Classroom and Field Experiences to Promote Learning and Shift Attitudes

. Environmental science is a topic that lends itself to innovative teaching methods in secondary education. Many aspects of environmental science have macroscopically observable components, creating myriad opportunities to link classroom lessons and practical, outdoor exercises to both pique the students’ curiosity about the world around them, and reinforce the fundamental knowledge imparted through books and lectures via active learning. Linking university research teams and local science teachers is a key way to incorporate cutting edge science into the classroom and to provide students with the experience of being a “scientist for the day”. Through the Soil and Water Iron Microbes in North Carolina (SWIMNC) project, local science teachers were recruited to participate in a university outreach program to bring current biogeochemical science to both students and teachers. A team of faculty, postdoctoral research associates, and graduate students delivered a classroom presentation on the importance of metals and iron oxidizing bacteria, emphasizing the role microbes play in affecting the availability and transport of metals in the environment. The group then traveled to a nearby site where iron oxides (bright orange deposits common in shallow water) form to collect samples and other field data. Students worked in small teams with a member of the university to collect and label samples, take measurements of pH and temperature, and make and record observations. Pre- and post- activity surveys assessed the impact of the combined classroom and field event on student’s knowledge and attitudes relating to environmental science. Survey results indicate that the combination of classroom activities and hands-on field sampling and analysis had a positive influence on students’ knowledge and views of environmental science. This impact was most pronounced on middle school students, but was still significant for high school students. University outreach programs provide a clear opportunity to integrate current topics into secondary school classrooms. Here, research about how bacteria and metals interact in the environment provides an avenue to incorporate current research data and demonstrations into classroom activities, giving teachers and students the opportunity to use these approaches in lessons and projects to gain a better understanding of environmental science.

A Typology of Student-Teachers’ Coping with Stressful Classroom Events

In teacher education programs, student teachers gain their first autonomous teaching experiences. While students regard the teaching practicum as the most valued part of their teacher education program, they also consider it to be the most stressful. Student teachers are most concerned about daily hassles in class, mostly related to poor student discipline. Yet they also consider direct interaction with students as the main source of their job satisfaction and a reason to enter the profession in the first place. This paradox could imply that feelings of stress do not so much result from the events themselves but from inadequate responses to classroom events. Based on cluster analysis of video-taped lessons and stimulated-recall interviews with 27 student teachers, a typology has been developed of student teachers’ coping with stressful classroom events in secondary education. Responses to classroom events have been grouped into four types of coping: Varying (a combination of problem-focused actions and teaching activities ignoring the problematic classroom event), Hestitating (hesitation to either approach or avoid the classroom event, arousing at the same time tension in the relationship with students), Problem-solving (a series of problem-focused actions), and Avoiding (avoiding or ignoring the problematic classroom event). These types vary along two underlying dimensions: avoidance-approach and calmness-agitation. The coping types particularly differed in the way student teachers approached, avoid or ignored the classroom event, how agitated they were and the length of the coping response. Implications for teacher education are discussed to support student teachers with more approach-coping strategies.

Understanding Emotion-Related Processes in Classroom Activities Through Functional Measurements.

To improve educational research focusing on such complex phenomenon as the interaction of emotion-related processes (affects) and students’ learning classroom activities, the collaboration between educational studies and neurosciences appears particularly relevant. Stress or “stress response” being an emotion-related psychological process (Gross, 2015) and having a neurobiological origin (Selye, 1956) is mostly studied in neurophysiological research using laboratory controlled objective measurements. One of such methods, heart rate variability (HRV) is considered as a reliable neurobiological correlate of stress response as the heart and the brain are directly and indirectly connected, which is advanced by the neurovisceral integration model (Thayer and Lane, 2000, 2009). This article presents an empirical research that uses a neurophysiological HRV method of wireless measurement of stress response in students of 11–12 years old (N = 12) during real-life classroom (oral and written) assessment activities and in five different lessons. The stress data were confronted to the analysis of the students’ behavior and the nature of classroom events through a video-based classroom observation. The results indicate that cardiovascular correlates of parasympathetic activity are instantaneous markers of stress response and correspond to real contextual elements of classroom assessment activities, among which the most stressful are writing a short test, an oral reply to the question of the teacher, putting up hand to reply, etc. The stressful factors were highlighted, grouped and ranked. The longest stress duration was registered for oral reply at the blackboard. The total stress duration covered 38.8% of time spent in the classroom. This finding suggests that classroom assessment activities are stressful in young students as possibly representing social evaluation.

The importance of ongoing observations in educational spaces to understand and reflect changing acoustical environments

In the past, observations to understand room acoustics were considered as an important tool and were performed to establish and develop acoustic experiments, parameters, and measurements. As the objective data have been collected, the standardized methods have been playing important roles in judgment and improvement of acoustical environments in educational spaces. These days, the standards for experiments or measurements have been commonly used to understand the quality of acoustic environments. Architectural soundscape has strongly suggested ongoing observations in order to reflect changing acoustic environments even though they show reliable and concrete data. For example, as the transition of educational environments has been made, the roles of teachers and students have been expanding to ones of each other. Also, the perceptions of sound have been rapidly changing since teachers’ and students’ diverse experience of industrial and electrical sonic environments have been changing rapidly. In this paper, observations on acoustic events in classrooms were taken to understand the changes in acoustical environments based on architectural soundscape in order how to change measurement settings or analysis methods. Also, acoustical measurements were conducted with diverse measurements setting including various positions of sound sources and receivers based on diverse educational arrangements shown in the results of the observations.

Relevant classroom events for teachers: A study of student characteristics, student behaviors, and associated teacher emotions

To gain insight in relevant classroom events for teachers, this study asked 218 elementary school teachers to describe the most relevant event of the past workday, involving an individual student. Male students and students with relatively high externalizing, antisocial behavioral attributes were overrepresented in both positively and negatively valued events. Independent coders classified all student behaviors described in the event based on a newly developed coding system. Teachers described more social-emotional and relational student behaviors than achievement or motivational behaviors. Hostility and aggression towards the teacher was the strongest predictor of teachers’ enjoyment, anger, anxiety, and self- and other-related emotions.

The dynamic layering of relational pairs in L2 classrooms

AbstractThe focus of this paper will be placed upon the methods people use to interact in second language learning settings, discussing interactional aspects of language use in the ongoing production of classroom events. The extracts selected for analysis were drawn from Portuguese language lessons (for beginner and advanced students) in a Chinese university. The results show how L2 classroom participants secure joint orientation and mutual understanding of the categorial pairs (such as ‘teacher-student’ and ‘native-non-native’) being invoked in the sequential organization of the utterances. In other words, when classroom members show orientation to a categorial pair, their subsequent moves will exhibit predicates (actions) of that pair, which will be available to the analyst as phenomena to be explored. This suggests that the sequential elements of the interaction and the membership categorization work carried out by the participants require attention for praxiological enquiries.

Effects of digital video-based feedback environments on pre-service teachers’ feedback competence

The present study investigates the added value of blended digital video-based feedback environments in fostering pre-service teachers' feedback competence on teaching during a practicum. Pre-service teachers practised providing their peers with feedback on their classroom management in traditional face-to-face feedback sessions (control group, n = 65) or blended digital video-based environments with an expert present (V-Feedback+, n = 22) or without (V-Feedback, n = 16). Before and after the practicum, a video-based tool was applied that required pre-service teachers to provide written feedback to a teacher concerning fictitious classroom events. Written feedbacks were analysed by applying quantitative content analysis. Feedback competence was assessed with six categories: assessment criteria; specificity; suggestions; questions; first person; and positive/negative emphasis. This study demonstrated that digital video-based environments can elicit stronger effects than traditional face-to-face settings, especially when combined with expert feedback. Results from the pre- and post-tests revealed that V-Feedback and V-Feedback + participants provided more specific feedback than the control group. V-Feedback + participants provided feedback containing more high quality suggestions than the V-Feedback group. This study illustrates how pre-service teachers’ feedback competence can be fostered in teaching practicums using digital video-based feedback environments.

Polic(y)ing time and curriculum: how teachers critically negotiate restrictive policies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to theorize teacher agency as enacted through a P/policymaking lens in three elementary classrooms. Big-P Policies are formal, top-down school reform policies legislated, created, implemented and regulated by national, state and local governments. Yet, Big-P policies are not the only policies enacted in literacies classrooms. Rather, little-p policies or teachers’ local, personal and creative enactments of their values and expertise are also in play in daily classroom decisions. Little p-policies are teachers doing their best in response to their students and school contexts.Design/methodology/approachAdapting elements of discursive analysis, this interpretive inquiry is designed to examine textual artifacts, situated alongside classroom events and particular local practices, to explicate what teachers’ policymaking enactments regarding time and curriculum look like across three distinct contexts. Using three elementary classrooms as examples, this paper provides analytic snapshots illustrating teachers’ policymaking to solve problems of practice posed by state and school policies for curriculum, and for use of time at school.FindingsThe findings suggest that teachers ration (aliz)ed use of time in ways that enacted personal politics, to prioritize children’s personal growth and well-being alongside teachers’ values, even when use of time became “inefficient.” An artifact from three focal classrooms illustrates particular practices – scheduling, connecting and modeling – teachers leveraged to enact little p-policy. Teachers’ little p-policy enactment is teacher agency, used to disrupt temporal and curricular policies.Originality/valueThis framing is valuable because little-p policymaking works to disrupt and negotiate temporal and curricular mandates imposed on classrooms from the outside.

Developing the Pedagogical Capabilities of Elementary Mathematics Specialists during a K-5 Mathematics Endorsement Program

This mixed-methods study explored the pedagogical practices of Prospective Elementary Mathematics Specialists (PEMSs) as they completed a university K-5 Mathematics Endorsement program. Participants were 13 elementary teachers at an urban, high-needs charter school. Data were collected via individual interviews, written reflections on enacted teaching practices, two observations of classroom teaching practices, and a 36-item Cognitively Guided Instruction Teacher Knowledge Assessment. The findings show the PEMSs were connecting their learning during program courses with instructional practices in their classrooms, as 85% were implementing standards-based learning environments (SBLEs) at a high level, with the classroom event of providing their students opportunities to make conjectures about mathematical ideas as a relative struggle. The PEMSs described pedagogical shifts across the program, providing insights into these changes, along with how particular program components contributed, with the emergent themes of skepticism, trying it on, shifters, and need more support.

(In defense of) pedagogies of obscenity

Despite best efforts to the contrary, obscenity oozes out from under the rugs of “polite” schooling and “tidy” society. In this post-qualitative inquiry, the authors pursue questions in defense of pedagogies of obscenity. In what ways do educators fail to educate when they eschew obscenity, understand shame and disgust as opposite to curiosity, and seek to teach in safe and sanitized classrooms? How might obscenity be educative? Drawing on their classroom experiences, the authors engage Žižek and Gallop in an analysis of (potentially) offensive classroom practices and events. They conclude that (Žižek and Gallop’s) obscenity might enable scholars and educators to generate critical classroom spaces that travel a delicate line between offense, discomfort, and learning. The authors suggest that there is much to defend in a pedagogy of obscenity, and that the value of obscenity may be learning to live and work more critically with(in) and against the perversions of education.

Incorporating culture in teachers’ training

The present paper addresses the question of how one should include culture in language teacher training to increase awareness of the target culture. Admittedly, language teachers are themselves learners, constantly improving their own cultural competence. Teachers must be made aware of the fact that there are no higher and lower cultures, and that there exist differences between groups within the target culture. This means that language does not only represent how we describe culture, it also mirrors cultural aspects. Thus, the culture associated with a particular language cannot be learned while referring to a few aspects about celebrations, customs or traditions of the zone in which a language is used. Culture is a much larger concept. This is inherently bound to countless linguistic aspects. The latter are to be introduced in second/foreign language education. Language teaching aids may not be enough for the target language culture teaching, so it ought to be the language teachers’ responsibility to find practical solutions to this issue. Thus, language educators ought to find a way to assimilate culture into their teaching approaches. Moreover, it may not be realistic to consider that language learners will later be faced with cultural situations after they achieve mastery of the linguistic structures of the language. The imaginative classroom teacher can bring forward countless ideas about how to insert culture into his/her textbooks and classroom events. Some of the approaches I want to suggest are the use of movies, dialogues from genuine speakers of the target culture, talks with native speakers, video-taped materials of the target language community, and genuine readings and realia. In addition to this, it ought to be noted that the possible activities and approaches are countless, and that each teacher ought to evaluate his/her own context to assess the success of any potential activity. He/she should adapt any activity or material at his/her disposal to suit his/her students’ needs.

Assessing pre-service history teachers' pedagogical content knowledge with a video survey using open-ended writing assignments and standardized rating items

This paper explores pre-service history teachers' ability to recognize and reflect on typical situations occurring in the history classroom and to link these to students' historical learning. Therefore, we draw on the concept of professional vision (Goodwin, 1994), which assumes that teachers need a professional knowledge base to monitor and to reason about teaching and student learning. Based on theoretical notions of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), we investigated history teachers' professional vision by means of a video survey with integrated video clips, open-ended writing assignments and standardized item ratings. We collected data from 303 and 220 pre-service teachers at the beginning and at the end, respectively, of their subject-specific teacher training. The collected data open up the possibility of 'simultaneous triangulation' (Morse, 1991), which was used for test validation. First, we tested the reliability of the closed-ended test instrument using item response theory, in order to develop a feasible test model. Second, we investigated the validity of the test instrument by comparing test results with the findings of the open-ended writing task. In general, student teachers reached rather low test scores. They experienced difficulties in assessing classroom events in terms of their potential to support historical competencies and to evaluate the consequences for students' learning. Findings from the open writing assignment show that student teachers commented largely on generic teaching strategies while hardly noticing student learning. In sum, the chosen methodological approaches seem to contribute to a more distinct picture of preservice teachers' abilities to reason about history teaching and learning.

Using 360‐degree videos in teacher education to improve preservice teachers' professional interpersonal vision

AbstractNoticing and interpreting classroom events (professional vision) is an important element of preservice teachers' (PSTs) interpersonal competence. This paper presents a mixed‐method study about a classroom simulation using 360‐degree videos combined with theoretical lectures in teacher education, intended to improve PSTs' interpretations of noticed events. Furthermore, this study examined how PSTs evaluate technological and educational affordances of 360‐degree videos. Results indicate that participating PSTs improved in noticing classroom events and in applying a more theory‐based terminology to describe these events. PSTs perceived observing other teachers teach as an educational affordance for mastering theory and for developing insights about interpersonal teacher behaviour. Concerning technological affordances, mainly physical discomforts and technical hindrances, was reported by PSTs. The results of this study imply that 360‐degree videos can be useful for teacher education to improve PSTs' interpretation of noticed events.

Emergence and Development of a Dialogic Whole-class Discussion Genre

Prior research across disciplines has established the value of dialogic, whole-class discussions. Previous studies have often defined discussions in opposition to the notorious triadic pattern called recitation, or IRE/F, focusing on variations to the teacher’s initiating question or evaluative follow-up on students’ responses. Recent scholarship has also identified variations on recitations and dialogic discussions that suggest these categories might be flexible, containing types of interaction associated with particular contexts. However, research remains to be done on how such types, or genres, of dialogic, whole-class discussion emerge and develop over time. In this article, I take up this line of inquiry, analyzing the classroom discourse of five lesson excerpts generated by a prospective teacher and his students in a US secondary History classroom between October and March. I illustrate how, over time, teacher and students repeatedly renegotiated the nature of a recitation-style textbook review activity using similar patterns of language that suggested an emergent discourse genre. These five interactions did not all lead to dialogic, whole-class discussions; I explain their relative success or failure in terms of how they constructed participants’ relationships to historical and classroom events. I argue that even failed attempts at generating dialogic discourse may be part of a developing genre.

Who is or was E. R. F. W. Crossman, the champion of the Power Law of Learning and the developer of an influential model of aiming?

It is unusual for very little to be known about a highly influential psychological scientist, but that is the case for the individual responsible for promoting one of the most influential laws of the field, the Power Law of Learning, as well as a seminal model of aiming performance. The individual, who published as E. R. F. W. Crossman, is shrouded in mystery. The authors of the present article sought to find out who Crossman is or was. We discuss the scholarly context for Crossman's work, including the classroom event at which we resolved to find out more about Crossman. In the course of our investigation, which took quite a bit of detective work, we learned that many other psychological scientists have been curious about Crossman as well. Rather than resolve the mystery in this abstract, we leave the reader in the state we were in at first, wanting to satisfy our curiosity and, finally, feeling we had learned important things, not only about the individual at the heart of the investigation, but also about our field in general.

Virtual internships in blended environments to prepare preservice teachers for the professional teaching context

AbstractThis study investigated to what extent virtual internships in teacher education were able to reduce Preservice Teachers’ (PSTs) professional anxiety. Simultaneously, this study investigated how virtual internships in blended learning environments were evaluated by PSTs in terms of technological, social and educational affordances. PSTs followed virtual internships during two different Educational Pedagogy Master’s courses (27 and 16 participants) in a teacher education programme. A mixed methods design was employed, consisting of pre‐ and post‐test questionnaires, a focus group interview and individual interviews. A significant decrease was found in PSTs’ professional anxiety after having followed Virtual Internship 2. PSTs reported they obtained a more realistic image of teaching and felt better prepared for teaching in practice. Furthermore, regarding technological affordances, system usability was considered between acceptable and good. Concerning social affordances, PSTs appreciated collaboration within the virtual internships. As an educational affordance, it appeared that learning from videos with authentic classroom events is a good preparation for the professional teaching context. According to the PSTs, the scenarios within virtual internships could be improved in terms of authenticity and personalisation by offering more details and background information. The results of this study imply that virtual internships can be useful assets for teacher education.

Softening the hierarchy: the role of student agency in building learning organisations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role of student agency in building learning organisations (LOs) based on a case study of a student learning community (SLC) model that incorporates learning-centred dialogue between students and teachers.Design/methodology/approachThe case study adopted a multi-phase design involving multiple perspectives. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews following student and teacher involvement in two classroom events and subsequent dialogic encounters.FindingsKey insights emerged demonstrating the value of the SLC model in creating conditions that support LOs by enabling pedagogical spaces where students and teachers learn together, as well as the need for this model to encompass marginal voices and negotiate alternative approaches to accountability.Research limitations/implicationsThis small-scale case study was based on a purposive sample of 10 teachers and 14 students from a single school setting in England. Therefore, there are limitations in generalising results to other contexts. Furthermore, the use of self-report measures to examine this case limits analysis of the case study conditions.Practical implicationsThe investigation provides insight into the implementation of this model through a consideration of teacher–student relationships, guidelines for dialogic encounters, training in student-led lessons and observations, as well as factors concerning the inclusivity and authenticity of this approach.Originality/valueGrowing interest in student agency emphasises the importance of further investigation into initiatives aiming to develop meaningful student involvement. This paper provides new perspectives on the insights generated by the SLC model in order to support the development of student agency models in other schools.

“The very ugly duckling” meetsMinecraft: identity work and interpretive competence

AbstractPicturebook discussions are commonplace literacy events in contemporary classrooms. The different experiences, backgrounds and ways of being that individual students draw upon during talk around texts prompt a broad range of ways to make, negotiate and share meanings. In addition to developing students' literacy skills such as oral language, vocabulary and comprehension, these discussions have been shown to be instrumental in developing students' interpretive competence which is important for achieving learning outcomes. In this article, we report a study that investigated how four diverse groups of 10‐ and 11‐year‐old students and teachers from two schools experienced such reading events. The study found that making sense of these books was more productive when students were given permission to switch identities and make connections to their out‐of‐school cyber and popular culture worlds. Using discourse analytic techniques, we uncover the identity work during a number of discussions around two different picturebooks and show how this enabled these learners to enter the academic space and demonstrate interpretive competence.

Video studies and the challenge of selecting time scales

ABSTRACTThe use of video recordings as a data source in qualitative research presents challenges when it comes to selecting time scales. Here, we discuss the implications of selecting time scales with regard to the interpretations and conclusions of a classroom event. The analysis draws on data from the PISA+ project, a large-scale video study of six ninth-grade math, science, and reading classrooms in Norway. Our data include video recordings of three lessons from one of the recorded classrooms. We examine how five 15-year-old students prepared for and performed an oral presentation. The first analysis, time scale 1, focuses exclusively on the students’ oral presentations, while the second analysis, time scale 2, includes the students’ oral presentations as well as their work during the preparation phase. We compared the results of the two analyses and found that the length of the video footage (the chosen time scale) impacted the findings of the study.

Urology onLINE-webinar for assistants : Implementation and evaluation of a voluntary, web-based e‑learning training series for urology assistants in continuing education (Urology onLINE)

The rapid development of new knowledge resources is essential for continuous training and continuing education. Since the training period often coincides with the starting of a family, time resources are often scarce. For this reason, anew, voluntary, web-based e‑learning training series was designed for urological assistants (urology onLINE). We investigated to what extent the offer of a web-based training series is used by urological training assistants and how it is evaluated by participants and speakers. The training series includes aone-month training on atopic from the urological continuing education, which is presented online and whose contents are checked by means of interspersed CME questions. During the investigation period November 2016 to October 2017, participants in the Urology onLINE training series were evaluated. In addition, an evaluation of individual events and an evaluation of the work load of the speakers took place. On average, 60participants participated in the individual events. These were rated very well with an average grade of 1.43 ± 0.21. Two thirds of the participants experienced an active and inquisitive experience during the event. The workload for the speakers was less than that of acomparable classroom event. Overall, the new Urology onLINE training series aims to contribute to the increase in spatial and temporal flexibility, and complements existing training formats, especially in times of scarce time resources.