Classroom Examples Research Articles

Learning Communities: Beliefs Embedded in Content-Based Rituals

This article addresses the underlying beliefs needed by teachers of young children if their learning communities are to be successful and self-sustaining. The relationships of language arts and social studies content to specific academic, social and literary rituals are discussed in the context of classroom examples in the United States. Trust and respect are treated as critical components supported by the work of Parker Palmer, Alfie Kohn and others. Relevant resources are also provided.

Technoconstructivism for the Undergraduate Foreign Language Classroom

Abstract: Although we have entered into the 21st century, most institutions of higher learning have not yet realized a routine integration of technology into regular classroom pedagogical practices. This article highlights two of the main concerns of university‐level foreign language faculty with respect to incorporating technology into everyday classroom teaching and provides suggestions for facilitating the integration of technology into the undergraduate foreign language classroom as an integral part of the curriculum where the main focus is creating an educational environment that is conducive to student learning. A technoconstructivist approach, a blending of the pedagogical practices advocated by social constructivism with the benefits of educational technology, is recommended and demonstrated. By providing examples of effective classroom uses of technology that respect the five attributes of meaningful learning that are the hallmarks of technoconstructivist pedagogy, this article furnishes a blueprint for faculty to follow that will ensure a successful integration of technology, from the use of the scanner to incorporating material from Web sites designed by top education professionals into daily lessons in the foreign language classroom.

Classrooms and the Design of Pedagogic Discourse: A Multimodal Approach

This paper offers a social semiotic analysis of the school classroom, in this case the subject English classroom, as a material instantiation of pedagogic discourse. The classroom is looked at as a multimodal sign: the semiotic ‘residue’ or ‘sediment’ of discursive practices over time. In particular it discusses how visual displays and spatial design in the English classroom can be thought of as signs of school English. From this perspective a teacher’s classroom can be understood as a sign of how she or he mediates ‘official’ government and school discourse. Drawing on three illustrative examples of English classrooms from three different schools, the paper argues that the variation between these classrooms can be understood in part as a consequence of the complex web of social relations that mediate and institutionally frame pedagogy.

Some Illustrative Classroom Examples Regarding Sums of Discrete Random Variables With Finite Support

In many probability and mathematical statistics courses the probability generating function (PGF) is typically overlooked in favor of the more utilized moment generating function. However, for certain types of random variables, the PGF may be more appealing. For example, sums of independent, non-negative, integer-valued random variables with finite support are easily studied via the PGF. In particular, the exact distribution of the sum can easily be calculated. Several illustrative classroom examples, with varying degrees of difficulty, are presented. All of the examples have been implemented using the R statistical software package.

Digital Video in the Classroom: Communication Skills for Future Resource Professionals

Abstract This article reinforces the need for effective communicators in natural resource organizations. It demonstrates the usefulness and accessibility of one communication format—video production—and provides a specific illustration of how Oregon State University is preparing future forestry professionals with a useful skill set. It draws on classroom examples to show how ideas can be merged with technology to deliver creative messages to citizens. It also describes the applicability of video beyond the university to forest agencies and organizations.

Selectivity in Learning: A Theme in the Application of Whitehead’s Theory of Prehensions to Education

This paper, which is particularly centered on the student’s learning process, is the first half of a detailed study of selectivity in Whitehead’s philosophy of education. Here, by setting forth the analogy between the creative process exhibited in Whitehead’s Theory of Prehensions and the learning process through an interpretation of the term, ‘prehending subject’ as ’learner,’ I argue that selectivity, via ‘negative prehensions,’ is the efficient motive power at work in the process of learning. Various concrete classroom examples of selectivity are alluded to, which lend support to this thesis. With clues from the Aims of Education, by reading the theory of prehensions with some conceptual modifications made for the purposes of education, I present the perspective that, as one side of a logical contrast, Whitehead’s theory of prehensions can be said to be conducive to a critical pedagogy.

Synergy: A Complement to Emerging Patterns of Distributed Scaffolding

In this article, I examine distributed scaffolding, an emerging approach in the design of supports for rich learning environments intended to help students develop disciplinary ways of knowing, doing, and communicating. Distributed scaffolding incorporates multiple forms of support that are provided through different means to address the complex and diverse learning needs that arise in such settings. I synthesize research to date to articulate three patterns of distributed scaffolding and the pedagogical considerations that they target. I introduce synergy as a pattern that has not received much attention in the past. Synergy refers to the characteristic that different components of distributed scaffolding, such as software supports and teacher coaching, address the same learning need and interact with each other to produce a robust form of support. I illustrate this pattern through classroom examples and discuss the scaffolding functions that it can fulfill. I conclude with implications for the principled design of distributed scaffolding.

Erring on the Margin of Error

term of is often erroneously explained in news articles reporting the results of public-opinion polls. We present here a number of representative examples of such misinterpretations drawn from the popular news media as well as from a number of authoritative Web sites (including that of the Gallup Organization) that explain the margin of error incorrectly. We suggest that encouraging students to search for, recognize, and correct misinterpretations of the margin of error can be a useful way of enhancing their understanding of sampling error, and we describe a number of classroom exercises that can help in this regard. to students is that of sampling error. Yet with the proliferation of the reporting of the results of public- opinion polls in the news media, students and the general alike are exposed to this concept almost on a daily basis. In fact, when the authors recently accessed the Dow-Jones Interactive News Library' and typed in the words public opinion poll, we registered nearly 60,000 hits in major newspapers and newswires for the period 1990 to the present. Often accompanying the discussion of the poll results is a statement describing the accuracy of the poll's estimates, which ordinarily reads something like, The margin of error is 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.2 Because to many readers the meaning of this statement is fuzzy, the article sometimes attempts to clarify what the margin of error indicates about the poll's accuracy. However, from our experience, the attempted explanation is often completely in error-sometimes outrageously so. In this article, we first briefly explain the correct way of interpreting the margin of error, which currently seems to be the fashionable way to explain in the media what statisticians routinely call sampling error. margin of error concept is also gradually making its way into the professional economics literature (see Borenstein and Rose 1994; Brezis 1995) and into business/economics statistics textbooks as well (e.g., Anderson, Sweeney, and Williams 2002; Bowerman and O'Connell 2003). Next, we present some typical misinterpretations of the margin of error drawn from the news media that will prove interesting to both teachers and students and useful as classroom examples.

Treemap visualizations for CS2

Computer science instructors periodically need to update their classroom examples and programming assignments in order to reflect changes in current practice in the field and to discourage copying by students. As experienced CS2 instructors, we regularly face this challenge. The topics in our CS2 course are standard and include recursion, lists, stacks, queues, and trees (including B-trees as well as standard binary search trees and AVL trees). Our students use Java (including GUIs). We have experimented with having students use and write programs to visualize various data structures. The students have written programs to visualize search trees using the traditional approach in which ovals represent nodes and lines represent links. They have also written programs to visualize search trees via a Web browser [2]. We propose an alternate visualization technique based on treemaps. We believe that treemaps are a rich source for classroom examples and assignments for CS2 instructors. Trees are useful for storing hierarchical data, and they are naturally recursive. A tree is either empty, or it has a root node with subtrees. A root is connected to its subtrees by links or branches. We had an idea to draw a tree in a square, which would be split into multiple rectangles, one for each node in the tree. As we moved down a level in the tree, we toggled the direction of the split in the rectangles from vertical to horizontal or vice versa. The root node's size in the current rectangle corresponded to its relative weight in the current subtree. The structure of the tree could be inferred by the relationships among the rectangles and their relative widths and heights. We drew several of these embeddings by hand and noted that the patterns resembled art by the Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian [6]. We then implemented this visualization using the Java Power Tools [4] library and noted that this visualization can be enriched with colors and graphical patterns, as in the Kaleidoscope example [3]. Our idea is an active research area in computer graphics [7]. However, it still appears to be a novel teaching idea for CS2. Ben Shneiderman [5] was the first to study two-dimensional space-filling representations of trees; he called them "treemaps". His motivating problem was to visualize directories in order to determine disk utilization. His algorithm was similar to our algorithm. XML documents can also be visualized using his algorithm and others [1]. Our goal is to synthesize this treemap visualization literature [1, 5] into classroom materials for CS2 instructors.

Staying-in-English rule revisited

Abstract Based on qualitative data (class observations, interviews, a letter from the researcher to the teacher about her classroom practice, videotapes, and documents), this paper reconsiders the staying-in-English rule, a popular classroom rule that requires learners to stay in English. It presents an ESL classroom example in which circumstances and strategies arising from the observation of the rule provided genuine opportunities for the students to communicate, making the best use of the linguistic and cultural knowledge base they already possessed. Not language choice per se, but circumstances and strategies-such as the development of a staying-in-English ethos over a sustained period of time, devising tasks that appeal to the students' imagination and structurally induce the students to communicate in English, and above all, the teacher's respect for the students, their languages and cultures, and their desire to communicate-seem to be critical issues in the promotion of student use of L2.

Embodied [by] Dance: Adolescent de/constructions of body, sex and gender in physical education

Using developmental, sociological, feminist, and dance studies perspectives on the social construction of body, sex, and gender, the author discusses the functions of agency and performativity in the physical education curriculum with specific attention to the embodied performance of culture through dance and movement. Classroom examples of critical and feminist approaches to dance pedagogy are provided to deconstruct body/sex/gender through dance education. A dialectical approach to critical self-reflection is proposed that limits reproduction of the mind/body split, thus reinscribing the body as subject.

Accounting for trading and available-for-sale investments

Differences in accounting for trading securities versus available-for-sale securities is often confusing to students. SFAS No. 115, Accounting for Certain Investments in Debt and Equity Securities (FASB, 1993), SFAS No. 130, Reporting Comprehensive Income (FASB, 1998), and the presentation of investments in intermediate financial accounting textbooks provide limited guidance for preparing useful classroom examples. Moreover, little mention is given in textbooks to the Statements’ explicit shift in measurement theory for security investments from historical cost to current cost. In this paper, we provide examples of the accounting treatment, journal entries, and financial statement preparation for trading and available-for-sale investment portfolios. Both debt and equity portfolios are used to illustrate the accounting for gains and losses (holding and realized), and the related financial statement presentation. The examples also provide an introduction to the relationship between net income and comprehensive income.

Analogy, dialectics and lifelong learning

Adopting a question and answer format, this paper examines an unlikely link between the dissimilar concepts of analogy and dialectics. Both concepts are simply defined, briefly explained and their common ground established in relation to education and learning. Graphic and visual analogies are used at key points to illustrate complex points. Combining analogy and dialectics can contribute positively to all educational activity and the implications of this are examined, particularly in relation to adult lifelong learning and its social application. The potential of the Hegelian dialectic, as applied by Freire to combat the traditional ‘banking concept’ of education, is acknowledged as a liberating tool but found to be limited by its oppositional nature. It is superseded by a more holistic dialectic, from the work of Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico, which has even greater potential for application in the learning context. Using analogy as the trigger, Vico's specific ‘double dialectic’ connects the macro-scale social and the micro-scale individual relationships, knowledge and experience, thought and action as ‘praxis’. This dialectical exchange is examined and applied in detail to a specific classroom example selected from the author's research. The paper concludes by encouraging all teachers and trainers of adults to consciously explore the potential of analogy with dialectics for improving the learner's ability to grasp difficult concepts.

Observing Metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia: Using an urban field study to enhance student experiences and instructor knowledge in urban geography

In urban geography courses, knowledge of a local area is especially useful for demonstrating geographic principles. These classroom examples are further enhanced when students conduct their own field observations, with direction from the instructor. This paper describes a field study of the metropolitan Atlanta area that is used in an intermediate geography class, in which students compare their observations of Atlanta with urban geography models and theories. I argue that the preparation of the project, and the completion of it by students, represents a valuable firsthand observation experience for both the instructor and the students.

Flounders unlimited

The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to higher mathematical concepts and techniques as applied to real-world problems. An interesting case study is the 200-mile limit for fisheries presented in Wan (1989, Mathematical Models and their Analysis (New York: Harper and Row)). It is commented upon, re-examined and solved in a different manner inspired by Turing's (1952, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London , B237 , 37-72) paper as a suitable classroom example for undergraduate students taking a first course on mathematical modelling. Emphasis is made not only on the mathematics--always kept as elementary as possible--but also on interpretations, explanations and translation into plain language of the mathematical expressions and results.

Using Greek Mythology to Teach Game Theory

This paper presents eight stories from classical Greek mythology which illustrate economic theories of truth inducement and separating equilibria. Since many students already have some familiarity with Greek mythology, these stories make ideal classroom examples.

Beyond Progressive Liberalism and Cultural Relativism: Towards Critical Postmodernist, Sociohistorically Situated Perspectives in Classroom Studies

In this paper we propose that classroom studies in the TESOL field tend to subscribe to either of the following two normative orders: (a) progressive liberalism, and (b) cultural relativism, without reflexively recognizing and meta-analysing these normative frameworks and their social, historical, and political situatedness. Drawing on Foucault's (1981) methods of historical excavation, we attempt a critical analysis of the socio-historical situatedness of these modernist normative orders. By building on relational analysis from critical educational studies (Apple, 1999), critical ethnography (Canagarajah, 1993; Chick, 1996; Kumaravadivelu, 1999; Pennycook, 2001), and the theory and method of articulation from cultural studies (Slack, 1996), we propose critical postmodernist, socio-historically situated perspectives in classroom studies and educational research as alternatives that break away from the modernist determinism of reproduction theories on the one hand, and radical postmodernist relativism on the other. We illustrate how such perspectives can contribute to our understanding of classroom practices with two classroom examples from Hong Kong schools, and we attempt to show the potential of these perspectives for contributing to the opening up of possibilities for change.

Family Bereavement after Collective Trauma: Private Suffering, Public Meanings, and Cultural Contexts

Abstract The author describes how the September 11 terrorist attack challenged her to articulate more fully the social and political dimensions of culture as a critical context for family bereavement after traumatic grief. The article begins with a classroom example of how diverse urban undergraduate students experienced, discussed, and learned from the distinctive ways that the trauma of September 11 affected their lives. The author questions the social ethics of a biomedicalized therapeutic approach to traumatic grief that dominates public and media images of bereaved survivors, arguing that cultural attitudes toward grief serve social and political purposes for a particular community. The author describes a multisystemic, developmental approach to family grief after traumatic loss that highlights the role of public interpretations, social supports, and ethical accountability as contexts for the family's grief and potential for shared growth. The sociopolitical dimension of cultural context in family be...

Comparative analysis of accounting treatments for derivatives

This paper provides educators with a classroom example or a self-study tutorial to teach Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 133 (FAS 133), Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities . The example can be used in courses such as intermediate or advanced accounting that discuss derivative instruments or investments topics or in a training program that focuses on implementing FAS 133. This teaching material can help students gain technical knowledge of FAS 133. It can also help develop critical thinking skills in analyzing the impact of an accounting standard on a firm's operation. A scenario based on a futures contract used by a natural gas company to hedge price fluctuations of its gas inventory is applied across four cases to show the impact of derivative designation on the accounting treatment and to provide a comparative analysis of the economic results from using different accounting treatments for the derivative. Case 1 and Case 2 demonstrate hedge accounting under FAS 133 by designating the derivative as a fair value hedge and a cash flow hedge, respectively. Case 3 illustrates accounting for a derivative that is not designated as a hedge. Case 4 demonstrates the impact of not entering or using a derivative to mitigate market risk. A downloadable spreadsheet on the author's website can be customized for use in the classroom.

Heuristics as an aid to backtracking, a classroom project

The knight's tour problem is discussed as a classroom example of a backtracking problem which requires heuristics to be effective.