Inform Classroom Practice Research Articles

Evidence, Policy, Education, and Neuroscience—The State of Play in the UK

AbstractIn this article, we give an overview of translational educational neuroscience (mind, brain, and education) in the United Kingdom. We consider the state of translation, describing respectively the state of the dialogue between researchers and educators, the state of evaluation of approaches to improve educational outcomes, and the state of innovation in research translation. We consider the teacher perspective. What do UK teachers think about educational neuroscience and its potential for informing classroom practice, and how do ideas about pedagogical approaches feature among their everyday concerns? We describe the results of a recent survey from a representative sample of over 1,000 UK teachers, and a case study of a UK high school teacher who employs educational neuroscience in his practice and what this entails. Lastly, we consider the policy perspective and assess the recent move by the UK government to introduce knowledge of cognitive science into initial and early‐career teacher training.

A Qualitative Study into Teacher–Student Interaction Strategies Employed to Support Primary School Children’s Working Memory

The current qualitative study examined the teacher–student interaction and its influence on children’s working memory in primary schools in Belgium and the Netherlands. Eighteen primary school teachers participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on strategies employed to support students with working memory difficulties. The study offered a comprehensive overview of the strategies, categorised into instructional support, classroom organisation, and emotional support (based on the Teaching Through Interactions framework) that teachers use when dealing with working memory-related difficulties. Additionally, it provided unique insights into teachers’ underlying beliefs and rationales about the effectiveness of these strategies. Lastly, factors influencing the use and efficacy of these strategies (based on the Multilevel Supply–Use model) were explored. By integrating teachers’ voices and experiences, this research provides a unique opportunity to bridge theory and practice, and enrich the current understanding and interpretation of the teacher–student interaction and its implications for improving working memory performance in primary school students. Overall, the holistic approach, taking into account both direct and indirect approaches, offered a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted challenges faced by students with working memory difficulties and the diverse strategies teachers can employ to address them, which can further inform classroom practices, professional development, and policy-making.

Teaching Emergent Bilinguals: How In-service Teachers’ Perception of First Language Acquisition Theories Inform Practice

Different writers, linguists, and researchers present nuances in language acquisition theories. However, few studies explore in-service teachers’ voices in such discourses. It is, therefore, imperative to explore the voices of in-service teachers in such narratives as they teach emergent bilinguals (EBs) and culturally and linguistically diverse students. This paper examined how in-service teachers perceive First Language Acquisition (FLA) theories and how those perceptions influence teaching EBs and informing classroom practice. Centering on Freeman and Freeman’s discussion of five FLA theories (imitation, reinforcement, behaviorist, social interaction, active construction, connectionist), we argue that in-service teachers’ perceptions of first language acquisition theories impact how they teach and engage EBs in their classrooms. Findings show that in-service teachers consider the social interaction theory most beneficial to students’ language development. However, the precariousness of FLA theories makes it challenging for them to determine the best approach to teaching EBs. Additionally, teacher education programs and critical professional development (PD) courses are instrumental in fostering understanding and robust pedagogical mindsets and preparing teachers to meet the needs of emergent bilinguals.

Omani EFL Teachers Engagement in Action Research: Challenges & Opportunities

Action research engages practitioners in rigorous cycles of planning, observation, action and reflection, which can lead to change in understandings and practice; so, they become reflective practitioners. Despite the importance of action research in informing classroom practice, the literature has shown that there are many challenges that hinder teachers from performing classroom research. This qualitative research study investigated Omani EFL teachers' experiences of participating in classroom action research and the challenges they face in doing research. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with EFL teachers. 22 participants have been interviewed, out of whom were 18 English teachers and 4 Senior English teachers from 4 public schools in Oman. The findings revealed that some respondents participated in action research activities either as part of their pre-service teacher preparation programmes or through joining in-service action research courses after becoming practitioner teachers. However, they described their action research experience as difficult. The findings highlighted a number of challenges that hinder EFL teachers in Oman from doing action research such as, lack of knowledge, lack of time and lack of interest. The findings suggest that educational policy makers in Oman should create a research culture in schools, and provide incentives for teachers who participate in research activities. Moreover, there is a need to provide EFL teachers with the needed training on research so they become equipped with the knowledge and skills in doing research to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools and create a community of teacher-researchers in Oman.

More than meets the eye: research and practice in Italian foreign language policies and education

Abstract This contribution aims at offering an overview of the main foreign language policies implemented in the Italian educational system in the last decades as well as of the role that research in Italian foreign language education has played. Main changes and innovations introduced through institutional – curriculum renewals, pre- and in-service education, European recommendations and implementation, language teacher education, university reforms – and through unofficial paths offered by publishers, professional associations, international exchange programs, will be explored and discussed. Some of the changes introduced at curriculum level (e. g. Content and Language integrated Learning (CLIL)) and in teacher education have added new perspectives in language teaching and are currently informing classroom practice in the Italian growingly multilingual scenarios. The impact of national and international research on foreign language teaching, carried out in the Italian language classrooms by scholars and, in some cases, by teachers themselves, will be described and illustrated through examples and language teachers’ contributions.

Centering Reflection in Teachers’ International Exchange Experience

This policy paper discusses the importance of critical reflection in short-term international teacher exchange programs. It draws from the findings of a larger research project investigating teachers' use of comparison as a framework for pedagogical transfer. The paper defines intercultural pedagogical transfer as an educators' engagement with culture through an exchange experience, which forms the context for policy and pedagogical sense making. Here, culture refers to the norms, values, and expectations that inform teaching practice and policy discourses. Participating in an international exchange program involves teachers' reflections on history, culture and policy as the contexts that inform classroom practices. The discussion presented in this paper highlights the importance of critical reflection on teachers' ability to make and sustain changes to practice following an international professional development experience of a Teacher Exchange Program, supported by the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research.

Centering Reflection in Teachers’ International Exchange Experience

This policy paper discusses the importance of critical reflection in short-term international teacher exchange programs. It draws from the findings of a larger research project investigating teachers' use of comparison as a framework for pedagogical transfer. The paper defines intercultural pedagogical transfer as an educators' engagement with culture through an exchange experience, which forms the context for policy and pedagogical sense making. Here, culture refers to the norms, values, and expectations that inform teaching practice and policy discourses. Participating in an international exchange program involves teachers' reflections on history, culture and policy as the contexts that inform classroom practices. The discussion presented in this paper highlights the importance of critical reflection on teachers' ability to make and sustain changes to practice following an international professional development experience of a Teacher Exchange Program, supported by the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research.

How Can We Study Children’s/Youth’s Out of School Experiences to Inform Classroom Practices?

The collection of papers represented in the Integrative Research Review responds to the question: How can we study children’s/youth’s out of school experiences to inform classroom practices? Using a variety of lenses to address the question, the authors consider how to understand, respond to, and serve children and youth in a variety of contexts. Duke explores a quasi-experimental design showing the potential impact on student achievement and motivation in schools that incorporate literacy practices from children’s lives outside of school compared to the traditional curriculum. Bloome and Faust take a philosophical approach to explore the languaging of the relationship between students’ out-of-school lives and classroom practices and its implications for the construction of personhood by examining one classroom event from a microethnographic discourse analysis perspective. García-Sánchez highlights the methodological features that allow linguistic anthropologists to make visible the agentive and innovative character of immigrant children’s communicative practices in a variety of learning situations. Drawing on the transliteracies approach, Stornaiuolo considers work with a group of young people to study multimodal composing and the development of school makerspaces in a 6-year partnership project with a local innovation high school. Alvermann discusses the papers, pointing out the affordances and challenges of each perspective.

Teaching Civic Engagement Through Student Philanthropy: Theories and Best Practices for Transformative Learning

Student philanthropy courses are designed to teach students to ethically contribute financially to their communities. Students explore the role of values in philanthropy while actively allocating, distributing, and evaluating financial giving. Although studies have indicated positive outcomes from such courses, little is known about the processes and best practices that inform these outcomes. This mixed-methods case study reconfirms positive civic engagement outcomes while using qualitative data to inform classroom practices. Results show positive increases in civic engagement attitudes (+9%) and civic behaviors (+6%) with the greatest changes in measures related to the importance of philanthropic giving (+26%) and feeling responsible for the community (+27%). Qualitative results show the significant impacts of inclusive teaching, developing learning communities, and connecting with nonprofits on student growth and civic engagement. Students also developed transferable skills, learning to communicate, make decisions, and compromise in a dynamic group setting. Recommendations for best practices in designing student philanthropy courses are provided. Subscribe to JNEL

Neuroscience and its Contribution to Neuroeducation for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

With an increasing prevalence of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in schools, teachers are in need of different effective ways to educate these individuals who have distinctly different needs and modalities of experience. One area that has been explored is neuroeducation, or using findings from neuroscientific research to inform classroom practice. Neuroscientific findings appear to center on two main themes of neurological differences among children with ASD: sensory processing and emotional processing. This article will review findings in these two main areas and attempt to bridge the connection between such findings and neuroeducation for children with ASD.

Thinking beyond the score: Multidimensional analysis of student performance to inform the next generation of science assessments

AbstractConventional assessment analysis of student results, referred to as rubric‐based assessments (RBA), has emphasized numeric scores as the primary way of communicating information to teachers about their students’ learning. In this light, rethinking and reflecting on not only how scores are generated but also what analyses are done with them to inform classroom practices is of utmost importance. Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics and Latent Dirichlet Allocation analyses, this study utilizes an innovative bilingual (Spanish–English) constructed response assessment of science and language practices for middle and high school students to perform a multilayered analysis of student responses. We explore multiple ways of looking at students’ performance through their written assessments and discuss features of student responses that are made visible through these analyses. Findings from this study suggest that science educators would benefit from a multidimensional model which deploys complementary ways in which we can interpret student performance. This understanding leads us to think that researchers and developers in the field of assessment need to promote approaches that analyze student science performance as a multilayered phenomenon.

Revisiting Peirce’s account of scientific creativity to inform classroom practice

Peirce made repeated attempts to clarify what he understood as abduction or creative reasoning in scientific discoveries. In this article, we draw on past and recent scholarship on Peirce’s later accounts of abduction to put a case for how teachers can apply his ideas productively to elicit and guide student creative reasoning in the science classroom. We focus on (a) his rationale for abduction, (b) conditions he recognised as necessary to support this speculative reasoning, (c) pragmatic strategies to guide inquiry and test conjectural hypotheses, and (d) his growing recognition of creative dimensions to reasoning beyond abductive inference-making. We illustrate this case through examples of a guided inquiry approach to student claim-making in the science classroom.

HOW TEACHERS DEAL WITH INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: RESULTS OF A STUDY

The process and outcome of second or foreign language (L2) learning are mediated by an array of variables, the most important of which are perhaps individual difference (ID) factors (cf. Dörnyei, 2005; Dörnyei, Ryan, 2015; Pawlak, 2012a, 2017a). It is therefore not surprising that such factors have been addressed by hundreds, if not thousands, of studies in the last several decades, and while the foci or methodology of such research have inevitably been subject to change, the role of individual variation in L2 has been taken for granted. Apart from illuminating the role of various ID factors, researchers have also attempted to draw up recommendations concerning how what we know about these factors can inform classroom practice. A question arises, though, about teachers’ awareness of different facets of individual variation, the steps they take to capitalize on learners’ individuality in providing instruction, and the degree to which they can be expected to successfully deal with ID factors in the classroom. The paper tackles these issues by reporting on a questionnaire study which involved 37 Polish teachers of English at different educational levels. The results indicate that, while the respondents are cognizant of individual differences and address them in teaching practice, their understanding thereof is limited and so are the actions they embark on in this respect.

The Editor’s Note: On learning, brains, and zombies

Kappan editor Rafael Heller reflects on how much progress has been made in the learning sciences in recent decades. Brain research, as well as cognitive and developmental psychology, has now produced findings that can and should inform classroom practice. However, educators must be cautious about mistaken old ideas that refuse to die.

Revisiting language teaching materials in a time of change

The purpose of this contribution is to elicit a reflective perspective on the role and function of English language teaching materials traditionally used in the language classroom, in a time of change for English and for the pedagogical principles underlying its teaching. This time of change is represented by the emergence of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), by the growing diffusion and use of information communication technology (ICT), by approaches to language learning inclusive of content (CLIL), and by contexts characterised by plurilingualism and multiculturalism An overview of what traditionally accompanies teachers and learners – from course-books to teachers’ self-produced handouts – in the teaching-learning process of a language whose current status is undergoing major changes, is first presented. A reflective approach in the teaching of English within a moveable scenario where new language contacts are challenging English traditional standards and its varieties and the role of language for learning has been informing classroom practice, is then offered and implications discussed. This contribution has deliberately chosen to focus only on a few of the numerous research fields and tools that are emerging in the language classroom and within the teaching materials scenarios, such as the notion of authenticity, the use and role of corpora, the function of communicative and mediation strategies, the representation of culture and the emergence of intercultural competence. Implications and practical suggestions for teaching materials follow each of the sections.

A pedagogic approach to enhance creative Ideation in classroom practice

The real intent for technology education is to prepare young people so that they may fully participate and function in human society. To achieve this aim, learners are guided towards the development of attributes that include perceptive, critical, creative and informed decision making. Although effective teaching strives to inspire the creative spark in every learner, there is little guidance to inform actual classroom practice. The selection of strategies and implementation methods that engender creative responses in students, is usually left to an individual teacher’s interpretation. A working knowledge of design processing provides a most advantageous methodology to guide teaching and learning as students develop ways “of knowing through thinking and doing,” Sharma and Poole (Des Manag Inst 20(4):64–74, 2010) within classroom design and technological practice. This article looks at the broad stage of Ideation in creative design practice, where designers instigate and generate ideas within their own practice. Insight and transferable skills are observed to inform classroom practice. One event from the ideation stage of design practice processing is selected to enhance student visual communication skills. A pedagogic approach is then shared to inform the implimentation of a teaching and learning strategy that has been trialled with design (aged from 12 to 18 years) and Initial Teacher Education adult students.

Announcing the – Alan C. Purves Award Recipient (Volume 50)

The Alan C. Purves Award Committee is pleased to announce this year’s award recipient, Denise Dávila, for her article, “#WhoNeedsDiverseBooks?: Preservice Teachers and Religious Neutrality with Children’s Literature” (which appeared in Volume 50, Number 1, of Research in the Teaching of English, pp. 60–84). The Alan C. Purves Award is given annually to an article in RTE that holds significant implications for informing classroom practice and is likely to have the greatest impact on instruction and classrooms.

New Zealand Teachers’ Understanding of Childhood Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Investigating and Enhancing Teacher Knowledge and Practice

This two-phase study investigated New Zealand primary school teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of childhood mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI), and evaluated the effectiveness of a professional development workshop for enhancing teacher knowledge regarding mTBI. In phase one, 19 teachers from schools in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty engaged in interviews regarding their understanding of mTBI and their experiences of learning and professional development in regards to this topic. In phase two, 38 teachers across three schools participated in and evaluated a workshop that focused on increasing knowledge of possible mTBI effects and intervention strategies. The results of phase one found that teachers had a limited understanding of mTBI, its implications in childhood and how to manage its effects at school. Few had engaged in formal learning opportunities related to childhood TBI. In phase two, the brief professional development workshop resulted in a significant increase in TBI knowledge, with teachers identifying the need for practice adaptation. The findings enrich what is known regarding New Zealand teachers’ knowledge of mTBI and demonstrates the potential usefulness of brief professional development approaches to inform classroom practice and enhance functional outcomes for children who have experienced mTBI.

Taking stock of portfolio assessment scholarship: From research to practice

Abstract Portfolio assessment has been extensively investigated over the past two decades. Nonetheless, its broader applications in the first and second language writing classrooms remain inadequate. This paper emphasizes that theoretical and empirical research evidence is likely to inform the classroom-based implementation of portfolio assessment. The paper first introduces the origin, definitions, rationale, applications and characteristics of portfolio assessment, and then historicizes writing portfolio assessment scholarship according to the evolving trends of portfolio assessment development in both the first and second language writing contexts. Subsequently, a method section is included concerning how the theoretical and empirical scholarship was screened, selected and categorized for review in terms of three key themes: (1) research which supports classroom applications of portfolio assessment; (2) research which inhibits classroom-based portfolio assessment practices; and (3) research that needs future investigation on how to promulgate portfolio implementation. The review is followed by three pedagogical recommendations suggesting how teachers, administrators and programme directors can better develop learning-supportive portfolio assessment practices and have maximum exposure to pertinent professional learning. It is hoped that the paper advances the portfolio assessment scholarship, predominantly with a view of using research evidence to inform classroom practices.

A Model for Speech Processing in Second Language Listening Activities

<p>Teachers’ understanding of the process of speech perception could inform practice in listening classrooms. Catford (1950) developed a model for speech perception taking into account the influence of the acoustic features of the linguistic forms used by the speaker, whereby the listener ‘identifies’ and 'interprets' these linguistic forms based on the association between them and the context of speech. This paper critically reviews Catford’s model and proposes an alternative one distinguishing between two levels of perceiving speech: word recognition and utterance comprehension. Smith and Nelson (1985) refer to these as 'intelligibility' and 'comprehensibility’, respectively. The proposed model could inform classroom practice as well as curriculum and material design.</p>