Instructional Context Research Articles

Online Teacher Training for Global Teaching Contexts – Can E-learning Help Develop Better Language Teachers?

During the two-year pandemic period all university education, including language teacher training, was conducted exclusively in the online mode. While for many instructional contexts transition to the online mode meant decreasing the effectiveness of instruction due to lack of physical contact and greater time consumption for materials development, it became clear that skillful use of e-learning tools and procedures might give university education a boost. The paper will put to test the research hypothesis that using social professional networks, composed of participants who are familiar to one another outside the course but become new personas inside it, will have a positive effect on the involvement of teacher trainees in pursuing teaching qualifications, evidenced in their increased participation in methodology-oriented tasks in different modes. This will be illustrated with examples from the Foreign Language Teaching Methodology online course for undergraduate applied linguistics students which blended synchronous and asynchronous interactions in different Moodle activities.

Using audiovisual material to teach refusals from a discursive perspective: a research-based proposal

Refusals are complex face-threatening speech acts whose appropriate performance requires not only lengthy sequences of negotiation and cooperative achievements, but also face-saving strategies to accommodate the disruptive nature of the act (Gass & Houck 1999). Also, since they have a face threatening nature, they are subject to cultural variations. Consequently, care must be taken in the choice of refusal strategies. On that account, this paper first describes the speech act of refusal and reviews findings of empirical interventional studies on this speech act, with particular interest in understanding their methodological choices. Then, it presents the benefits of using audiovisual material for teaching pragmatics in a foreign or a second language instructional context. Finally, relying on excerpts from TV series, an instructional method for teaching refusals at the discourse level is presented. All the designed activities are built upon research-based recommendations for teaching refusals in hopes to provide teachers with resources and ideas for including pragmatics into their language courses.

메타버스 플랫폼이 교육적 맥락에서 사용된 경험연구 문헌분석

Objectives The purpose of this study was to review the empirical research on the use of metaverse platform in educational contexts through systematic literature review. Among the empirical studies where metaverse platform was used in educational contexts, detailed research contexts, results of the studies, and limitations of the studies were analyzed, and implications for using metaverse platform for educational purpose were examined. Methods A systematic review of literature was conducted where empirical studies in the past 10 years that were published in KCI indexed journals were examined using a list of selection criteria. A total of 14 empirical research studies were selected and analyzed. In this study, 3 researchers developed the research questions and determined the selection criteria for the review. The search and selection process was from March 4, 2022 to April 1, 2022, and the selected studies were systematically analyzed and the results were derived. Results The research context, platforms and their functions used, main constructs examined in the studies were examined, and research findings as well as limitations from the studies were summarized. The result showed that university setting was the most studied context and Gathertown was the most popular metaverse platform. As for the functions used, metaverse was used as communication/collaboration tool, emotional supporting tool, and knowledge formation tool most frequently. The most studied constructs include learning presence, satisfaction, immersiveness, 4C competencies, interaction, affective state, media efficacy, understanding, and intent to use metaverse. Conclusions The use of metaverse in educational contexts can enhance students’ self-directed leanring and can bring positive influence on collaboration as well. However, there has been little research conducted examining the effect of metaverse use on learning performance in instructional contexts. More research is needed in the area where metaverse environments are designed based on specific learning objective in specific subject matters to examine the effec of metaverse use. In addition, instructors need to fully understand the functions and characteristics of metaverse so that the learning environments can be designed in a way that learners can feel learning presence. More research is needed to advance the knowledge of design and development of guidelines for incorporating metaverse in educational contexts.

Understanding interaction network formation across instructional contexts in remote physics courses

Understanding interaction network formation across instructional contexts in remote physics courses

Comprehensible to Whom? Examining Rater, Speaker, and Interlocutor Perspectives on Comprehensibility in an Interactive Context

AbstractComprehensibility has emerged as a useful and intuitive means of globally evaluating second language (L2) speakers in many research and instructional contexts. In most cases, L2 speakers’ comprehensibility is assessed by external listeners who do not engage in extensive communication with the speakers, even though the degree to which a speaker is comprehensible is presumably of greatest concern to their interlocutor. If comprehensibility is defined as the ease with which speakers come to understand one another, then interaction‐based assessments, which would include self and peer ratings, might provide different insight into interactive comprehensibility compared to assessments by external listeners. To examine this issue, in this study, 20 pairs of L2 English interactants rated themselves and their partner on 7 occasions distributed throughout a 17‐minute interaction encompassing 3 communicative tasks, and recordings of the interaction were subsequently presented to external raters for evaluation. Mixed‐effects models were used to compare the shape of the comprehensibility curves over time and the self, partner, and rater scores at each rating episode. Results demonstrated that self and partner assessments were always aligned, but raters consistently assigned significantly lower comprehensibility scores to the interactants. These findings have implications for how comprehensibility, and indeed other listener‐based constructs, are assessed.

What would the matrix do?: a systematic review of K-12 AI learning contexts and learner-interface interactions

This systematic review examines the empirical literature published between 2014 and 2021 that situates artificial intelligence within K-12 educational contexts. Our review synthesizes 12 articles and highlights artificial intelligence’s instructional contexts and applications in K-12 learning environments. We focused our synthesis on the learning contexts and the learner-interface interactions. Our findings highlight that most of intelligent systems are being deployed in math or informal settings. Also, there are opportunities for more collaboration to facilitate teaching and learning in domain-specific areas. Additionally, researchers can explore how to implement more collaborative learning opportunities between intelligent tutors and learners. We conclude with a discussion of the reciprocal nature of this technology integration.

Sharing instructional knowledge via lesson analysis

In this article we introduce a type of teaching scholarship called Lesson Analysis (LA) that helps build instructional knowledge, and an associated genre of writing called Lesson Analysis Manuscript (LAM) that shares this instructional knowledge. We briefly describe the problem LA is intended to solve, as well as key features of a LAM. In LA, instructors develop lessons that overcome specific instructional challenges. LAMs are lesson-specific manuscripts that help others understand details of the lesson that addressed the instructional challenge, and include such information as the instructional context, the rationale behind the instructional decisions, typical student thinking, and guidance on carrying out discussions and implementing tasks. We have illustrated this genre by including an entire example LAM as supplemental material located online. The example LAM focuses on helping students understand the connection between dot products and the connection of dot products to measures of similarity between vectors.

Students’ Writer Identities and Writing Practice in Tertiary English-Medium Instruction in China

This study adopts a case study approach to examine how students write in English-medium instruction contexts. It also explores why they write in this way from the perspective of writer identity. Four Chinese university students’ EMI course essays, as well as their interview and stimulated recall responses were collected. The analysis results presented three patterns of writer identity: (1) a member, as an EMI writer, of the academic community as the dominant self; (2) a student writer meeting the course requirements as the dominant self; (3) struggling between the two selves. Having different types of writer identities, the students wrote their EMI course essays in different ways. Their writings presented different features in terms of discoursal choice, language form and format. Suggestions for EMI teaching, EMI teacher training and curricula at the university level are provided.

Assessing Generalization During Professional Development in Child Care: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Early childhood care and education providers provide instruction to diverse learners, including children with developmental delays, but often lack training in the use of evidence-based instructional strategies to support children's meaningful learning engagement. This preliminary study examined effects of the Early Achievements for Child Care Providers professional development program with and without generalization training on center-based child care providers (N = 12). Outcomes assessed included providers' implementation fidelity, knowledge, and self-efficacy as well as children's (N = 43) social-communication skills and engagement in shared book reading. Results demonstrated that providers trained in a generalization context made larger gains in implementation fidelity in a generalization context; no other significant between-group differences were found for providers. Children in both groups made comparable, significant gains. Findings suggest that explicit generalization training is needed for providers to achieve fidelity when transferring newly learned evidence-based practices to additional classroom instructional contexts, but a brief interval of implementation likely is insufficient to differentially benefit child outcomes. Researchers should elicit providers' perceptions when designing professional development programs to maximize feasibility of investing additional time and resources for generalization training.

The Effects of Multi-Modal Representations Used within the Context of Process-Based Instruction on Problem Solving, Academic Achievement, and Retention

The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of two multi-modal representations, the use of text and graph for learning, on problem solving, academic achievement and retention when used in a process-based instruction (PBI). The study was designed as quasi-experimental study complying with pretest-posttest control group design. The study group consists of (N=30+34=64) students from the department of classroom teacher education in the Education Faculty of a university from west of Turkey in 2015-2016 academic year. The data in the study were collected through problem solving inventory, texts written and graphs drawn by the students and academic achievement test. For the data analysis, independent-sample t-test, Kruskal Wallis H-Test and descriptive analysis techniques were used. According to the findings obtained in the present study, it can be argued that while there is no significant difference between the academic achievements and problem solving skills of the students carrying out their learning activities according to drawing-modal representation and those of the students carrying out their learning activities according to writing-modal representation, a significant difference in terms of their retention was observed.

A Descriptive Case Study of a Literacy Methods Course with a Focus On Practices Related to Text-Based Discussions about Informational Text

This article describes a literacy methods course designed to introduce reading specialist candidates to research-based practices for comprehension instruction. Specifically, this article focuses on a sequence of assignments and class sessions within that course that introduced theoretical perspectives about comprehension processes and how those perspectives inform text-based discussion as a setting for teaching those processes. We describe the course assignments and sessions within three research paradigms: (a) practice-based teacher education pedagogy with a focus on text-based discussion as a core teaching practice, (b) pedagogies of investigation and pedagogies of enactment, and (c) Grossman and colleagues’ (2009) framework for analyzing the teaching of practice, which includes representation, decomposition, and approximation. To the Grossman et al. framework, we propose co-construction as another aspect of teaching practice. By that we mean, candidates’ knowledge and insights can contribute to the process of learning specific practices if they are positioned to share their insights and experiences. Our goal in this article is to provide a descriptive case study that shows how course design, the work of a teacher educator, and the contributions of candidates were orchestrated to support learning about text-based discussion as a context for comprehension instruction.

It’s all relative: Changes in teachers’ knowledge and instruction during COVID-19

In this convergent-parallel mixed-methods study, we explored the effect that teaching remotely during the first months of the pandemic had on teachers’ TPACK and how teachers leveraged their new and existing knowledge to facilitate remote instruction. Survey results indicated that teachers’ self-reported knowledge decreased across multiple TPACK subdomains, which is likely an indicator of teachers’ recalibration of their knowledge as they experienced a new instructional context. Findings from semi-structured interviews indicated that although instruction narrowed at times when teachers struggled to enact their knowledge in less-than-ideal circumstances, teachers were often able to successfully facilitate remote instruction.

Reshaping academic ways of being and doing

After a critical review of the impact of change on people’s lives, we report on an empirical study highlighting three major aspects of academic life that the pandemic affected, providing supporting examples. The method used is first textual analysis for the critical review based on what the literature identifies as difficulties brought about by change (CBIA, 2022; Senge, 1990). The empirical study is of a qualitative nature (Creswell, & Poth, 2018) based on the analysis of observations in a personal journal, and aims at uncovering academic concerns during the pandemic. The findings will be valuable to academics to reshape their ‘new normal’. Results include for the theoretical part of the literature review the fact that change impacts people and one cannot come back to prior positioning. Several findings from the analysis of the observational notes are centered around three main areas. The first issue was due to the short time span for new implementations and hence no time for foresight. This encompasses consequences of trial and error, more administrative control, and uncertainty of outcomes with contradictory discourses been held. Added to that there was a human cost that far exceeded what would normally be the case. For instance academic colleagues quitting or retiring early, unevenness in support provided, isolation in some cases compared to overabundance of support in others, perhaps even favoritism. The third major observation pointed to consequences on the instructional context. In this case, a number of positive outcomes were noted. More effort was placed on student engagement and learning, and it was all made visible. More activities were devised based on gaming strategies, and serious work was made more motivating. A better feel for knowledge integration was possible due to on-line learning for students who put some effort into it. Some observations however led to drawing conflicting conclusions. Finally, we discuss new future pathways. For instance, it is important to develop self-regulation in students and resilience for all concerned. There also appears to be a need to provide active support to everyone on an on-going basis as we move past the crisis.

Redistribution of Basic Medical Science Content During Undergraduate Medical Education Curricular Reform: An Expert-Derived List of Recommendations.

Purpose: Over the past 2 decades, calls for medical school curricula reform have emphasized earlier student exposure to the clinical environment, resulting in shortened classroom time before students begin clinical rotations and compelling careful examination of the context and redistribution of basic medical science instruction across the preclinical, clerkship, and postclerkship periods. 1 Educators aim to both focus preclinical content on that which is crucial for clinical care of patients and to integrate basic science education into clinical experiences. 2 However, there are no clear guidelines on how traditional preclinical instructional topics are best redistributed within this new undergraduate medical education (UME) curricular model. Method: A modified Delphi process was used to produce recommendations that guide redistribution of basic medical science instruction during UME curriculum reform. We performed semistructured inte;, rviews with national UME experts (from institutions that previously underwent curricular reform with a shortened preclinical instructional period) to elicit perspectives on how decisions were made at their institutions. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically assessed. The findings were then condensed into a list of guidelines and distributed to a larger group of national UME educators to gauge their level of agreement with each recommendation. The guidelines were revised based on level of agreement and comments associated with each recommendation, and subsequent versions were redistributed amongst participants for feedback. Guidelines with which at least 70% of participants somewhat or strongly agreed (based on a 4-point Likert scale) were included in the final list of recommendations. Results: We recruited 40 UME educational leaders from 16 institutions in the United States. Initial interviews were conducted with 9 of these participants, after which 31 guidelines were compiled and distributed in survey format. 17/40 (42.5%) participants completed the initial survey, after which 3 guidelines were removed, 5 were added, and 5 were revised based on feedback. 22/38 (58.0%) participants responded to the second survey, after which 33/33 (100%) guidelines reached the inclusion threshold, defined as having at least 70% of participants somewhat or strongly agree. These guidelines were categorized by curriculum decision makers, general design strategies, and topic placement specific to the preclinical, clinical, and postclerkship curriculum phases. Twelve of the guidelines were considered “major” recommendations based on at least 70% of participants indicating strong agreement. Discussion: Amongst the guidelines, there was an overarching emphasis that basic science instruction should be vertically integrated into all curricular phases (preclinical, clinical, and postclerkship) with evidence-based teaching strategies including deliberate spiraling. This vertical integration has known impacts beyond knowledge acquisition including boosts to student motivation, professional identity development as doctors, and transition to independent practice, although these were not explicitly explored in this study. 3 With regard to specific teaching topics, the recommendations emphasize that basic science be taught within clinical context, with acknowledgment that faculty may lose some personal autonomy and historically taught concepts may no longer have relevance in the reformed curriculum. Instructional topics chosen for the preclinical phase should focus on need-to-know topics with an emphasis on the development of critical thinking skills, understanding that more advanced basic medical science topics will be revisited post clerkship. Approaches to accomplishing these goals may include limiting science course teaching to faculty with pedagogical expertise. 4 Significance: While medical schools widely recognize the need to redistribute basic medicine science content across a 4-year curriculum, specific strategies to accomplish this are not currently described. We compiled 33 expert-derived recommendations on how instructional topics can be redistributed during UME curriculum reform when preclinical classroom time is shortened. These recommendations can guide decisions on where components of instruction are best served during curriculum reform at any institution.

Eliciting and working with student thinking: Preservice science teachers' enactment of core practices when orchestrating collaborative group work

AbstractAs more and more science teacher educators are subscribing to a practice‐based teacher education curriculum, it is becoming increasingly necessary to identify and articulate smaller grain‐sized teaching practices nested within a core practice in important instructional contexts in order to facilitate preservice science teachers' (PSTs') learning of core practices. This paper illustrates how to achieve this goal using data from a qualitative study that aimed to characterize how PSTs enact the core practice of eliciting and working with student thinking in the three key stages of collaborative group work in rehearsals: whole‐class warm‐up, small group work, and whole‐class share‐out. Based on existing teaching practices synthesized from prior studies, as well as empirical data from the study, we identify the intermediate‐level practices (teaching moves) and technique‐level practices (talk moves) enacted by PSTs when orchestrating group work as well as the PSTs' strengths and missed opportunities in enacting these different grain‐sized practices. Findings reveal that, although the PSTs were able to enact a variety of talk moves when orchestrating group work, they missed opportunities to engage in intermediate‐level practices. For example, there were only a few instances in which the PSTs could explicitly work with the student thinking they noticed while circulating among the groups during whole‐class share‐out. We also identify three ways in which the PSTs used this intermediate‐level practice, reflective of their differing orientations toward using student thinking. We propose an integrative framework that decomposes the focal core practice into a nested set of practices of varying grain sizes, including medium grain‐sized teaching moves and small grain‐sized talk moves, during and across the key stages of group work. We discuss the implications of our findings for science teacher preparation and methodological approaches for capturing PSTs' enactment of the focal core practice, as well as the possible contributions of the framework.

Collaborative Programming for Work-Relevant Learning: Comparing Programming Practice With Example-Based Reflection for Student Learning and Transfer Task Performance

Computer science pedagogy, especially in the higher education and vocational training context, has long-favored the hands-on practice provided by programming tasks due to the belief that this leads to better performance on hands-on tasks at work. This assumption, however, has not been experimentally tested against other modes of engagement such as worked example-based reflection. While theory suggests that example-based reflection could be better for conceptual learning, the concern is that the lack of practice will leave students unable to implement the learned concepts in practice, thus leaving them unprepared for work. In this article, therefore, we experimentally contrast programming practice with example-based reflection to observe their differential impact on conceptual learning and performance on a hands-on task in the context of a collaborative programming project. The industry paradigm of Mob Programming, adapted for use in an online and instructional context, is used to structure the collaboration. Keeping with the prevailing view held in pedagogy, we hypothesize that example-based reflection will lead to better conceptual learning but will be detrimental to hands-on task performance. Results support that reflection leads to conceptual learning. Additionally, however, reflection does not pose an impediment to hands-on task performance. We discuss possible explanations for this effect, thus providing an improved understanding of prior theory in this new computer science education context. We also discuss implications for the pedagogy of software engineering education, in light of this new evidence, that impacts student learning as well as work performance in the future.

Context-responsive attitudinal surveys about technology in language classrooms

ABSTRACT Language learner attitudes about technology have traditionally been studied using survey data, but those surveys have primarily been based on disparate constructs and conceptualizations of learner attitudes. The lack of a common measure, or one that reflects other levels and contexts of learning, has limited the investigation about language learner attitudes about technology. One possible solution, suggested by mixed methods research methodologists, involves the inclusion of qualitative data in adapting extant surveys to new contexts. The purpose of this study is to illustrate this type of adaptation, and to highlight the challenges and insights that occur as a result. In this study, qualitative data were used to adapt extant instruments to the secondary world language instructional context in the United States. The initial survey was administered to high school students of Spanish in the United States (N = 268), eight students then participated in qualitative interviews, the survey was revised, and quantitative findings from the revised instrument (N = 1039) were analyzed for validity and reliability. This study shows that this method for adapting a survey to a new context is viable yet complex, offering researchers an important model of how to tailor surveys to new contexts while remaining in conversation with prior scholarship.

Exploring International Post-Graduate Students’ Speaking Experiences in an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) Context

This study aims to explore the practice of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in Malaysia by investigating the experiences of international students enrolled in doctoral programs at the university level. In addition, the study provides an in-depth insight into the students’ attitudes, the challenges they face, and the factors that influence academic English speaking. The authors also examine the implications of enhancing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) within the international post-graduate students’ academic English-speaking experience in the Malaysian EMI context. This study adopted a qualitative approach. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 16 international doctoral students enrolled in various doctoral programs at a university in Malaysia. Data were coded and categorized according to themes using the NVIVO 12 software. The results show that there is a variety of challenges faced by the students in academic English speaking in an EMI context. Factors influencing their academic speaking include their past experiences and willingness to communicate. The study also suggests that lecturers should know that code-switching between English and Malay may impact international students’ understanding and involvement in class.

Facilitative Effects of Feedback Delivered via a Social Q&A Platform in the English-Medium Instruction Context

Facilitative Effects of Feedback Delivered via a Social Q&A Platform in the English-Medium Instruction Context

Building Neurodiversity-Inclusive Postsecondary Campuses: Recommendations for Leaders in Higher Education.

Building Neurodiversity-Inclusive Postsecondary Campuses: Recommendations for Leaders in Higher Education.