Intensive Summer Course Research Articles

The Effect of Coded Focused and Unfocused Corrective Feedback on ESL Student Writing Accuracy

This study employed a mixed-method approach including a classroom experiment and 24 in-depth interviews, to investigate the effects of two feedback techniques (coded focused and unfocused written corrective feedback) on L2 learners in a self-financed tertiary institute in Hong Kong. Three intact classes of 47 students served as the experiment and control groups; the control group only received feedback on content and organization, whereas the two experiment groups also received focused and unfocused linguistic feedback respectively. The feedback intervention was conducted over an eight-week intensive summer course, focusing on three grammar errors (articles, singular/plural nouns, and verb forms). Altogether students wrote six pieces, among which four were analysed for the present research. The study found that students who received focused WCF significantly outperformed the other two groups, though the effects vary across error types. Meanwhile, no significant differences are found between the unfocused and control group. In-depth interviews explored how individual learners’ metalinguistic understanding and engagement affect the usefulness of WCF. The results reveal that learners who received focused feedback developed a deeper understanding of the linguistic nature of specific error types. Learners’ English proficiency and engagement strategies also played a role. Implications for pedagogical practice are discussed.

Engaging youth in global health and social justice: a decade of experience teaching a high school summer course

ABSTRACT Background Education and training in global health and social justice is crucial to ensuring the next generation of health professionals are poised to tackle the pressing issues of our time. Objectives To develop and implement an intensive summer course on global health and social justice for high school students at the University of Southern California. Methods This paper reviews the course aims and curriculum, its implementation both onsite and online, and reports on student course evaluations and long-term student outcomes. Results Student satisfaction with the program was extremely high, which endured when the course went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most popular elements of the course included interactive, game-based activities and guest speakers. Many students reported that the course motivated them to pursue higher education and careers in global health or related fields. Conclusions More universities should consider offering summer programs or other extension programs targeting high school students in order to meet the increasing demand for global health education. Recommendations for implementing global health courses for younger learners include having an interdisciplinary focus with a range of topics and diverse perspectives; provision of scholarships to allow low-income students and students from abroad to participate; prioritizing the integration of active learning and experiential educational opportunities; and incorporating debriefing and reflection as integral parts of learning.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF BLENDED ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING IN AN ADVANCED SPANISH CONVERSATION CLASS

<p>This study examines students’ perception of blended asynchronous and synchronous learning in an advanced L2 Spanish conversation course that took place at a major-sized public university in the Unites States as an intensive 5-week summer course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty students participated in a survey, which was comprised with open-ended questions about their overall perception about the online activities and learning, in addition to 51 five-point Likert scale questions about course design, course components, instructor feedback, and peer interactions and rapport. Findings indicate that most of students perceived that they have gained proficiency in speaking, listening, reading and writing, and they felt more comfortable and confident in communicating in Spanish. The activities that students perceived more helpful than others in enhancing communication skills in Spanish were both the semi-guided synchronous, unsupervised group conversations via Zoom and the asynchronous video reports and discussions, while the small group Zoom conversation activity was also perceived as the most enjoyable. Students’ overall positive perceptions and satisfaction about this blended course were achieved through a combination of several factors, such as the clarity of the course design and instructions, the right combination of asynchronous and synchronous online activities that provided students with enriched materials to learn as well as ample opportunities to practice Spanish, the interactions and support with peers that created a sense of learning community and connectedness, and the instructor’s timely and constant feedback, rapport, and social presence to motivate students to learn. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0994/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Notícias

Notícias

"It was Like Magic": Relationships Supporting Compassion, Creativity, and Sense of Coherence in Nutrition Students.

The purpose of this exploratory research was to understand the experiences and learnings of dietetic and nutrition students following a 3-week intensive summer course designed to enhance students' understandings of compassion, creativity, and sense of coherence as they apply to personal growth and socially just professional practice. Seven of 15 students participated in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was conducted using inductive thematic analysis, resulting in 3 meta-themes: (i) personal meaning and sense making, (ii) relational and power dynamics, and (iii) disruption; participants contextualized these themes via a dynamic interplay within and among the domains of self, pedagogy, and practice. As a result of taking this course, participants developed an enhanced sense of coherence, self-compassion, well-being, and a more equity-focused understanding of health. Student development may have been achieved through attending to student experience and a relational pedagogical epistemology that allowed students to make personal, interpersonal, and systemic connections among their own subjective experiences, the experiences of peers, and broader social impacts on health. Given nutrition classrooms are largely positivist, it is important to consider how these environments as relational contexts may support or undermine compassion, sense of coherence, and ultimately the health and well-being of students.

Extending language learning beyond the EFL classroom through WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a powerful tool for L2 learning because of its capacity to promote interaction between teacher and student, as well as among students. Its use has also been shown to support ubiquitous learning. In an attempt to extend language learning beyond the classroom, this study reports on the use of instant messaging through WhatsApp by a group of EFL learners (n = 23) who were regularly sent optional language-learning tasks by their teacher during an intensive summer course. By the end of a five-week-period, 764 messages had been produced, which are explored through a qualitative analysis in the present study, with particular attention to changes of participation as a result of time. Most of the messages in the WhatsApp group were produced by the students in the context of the teacher-initiated tasks and through them students had the chance to practice the language as well as engage in real communication, even though student participation tended to decrease over time. The WhatsApp group was also used for informal communication among the students and with the teacher (a total of 289 off-task messages) which, in contrast to on-task messages, grew over time. The nature of the interactions also tended to be more spontaneous and symmetrical, at times with more of a presence of textese. Negotiation of form and content was scarce, but both on-task and off-task messages turned out to be equally productive in engaging students to use English beyond the walls of the classroom.

Português Língua de Herança e Português Língua Não Materna. (Re)construção de identidades através da experiência de ensino-aprendizagem no curso intensivo de verão para lusodescendentes da Universidade da Madeira

Este artigo enquadra-se no tópico “Experiências de ensino-aprendizagem de PL2/PLE/PLH”. A (re)construção de identidades dos lusodescendentes e outros participantes do Curso Intensivo de Verão para Lusodescendentes (CIVLD), antes e após a frequência do curso, foi objeto de estudo, por meio de inquéritos e da realização de entrevistas para o registo das respetivas Histórias de Vida. Para isso, foram elaborados dois inquéritos, um para os alunos preencherem no início do curso e o outro, na última aula do mesmo, sendo que a reconstrução identitária foi ocorrendo ao longo da experiência de ensino-aprendizagem. Recolheram-se dados sobre a sua motivação para a frequência do curso, as suas expectativas em relação ao mesmo e à aprendizagem da Língua Portuguesa (LP), as suas visões da Madeira e da sua cultura, antes e após o curso, bem como as principais dificuldades sentidas, quer a nível de integração linguística, quer a nível social. Destes lusodescendentes, os que têm o Português como Língua de Herança expressam-se com muitas interferências fonéticas, lexicais e morfossintáticas do Espanhol da Venezuela ou do Inglês da África do Sul. O curso integra também seis venezuelanos (não-lusodes-cendentes), casados com lusodescendentes madeirenses. Estes sentem a sua vinda para a Madeira como uma oportunidade de criar um novo lar, tendo também o desafio de (re)construírem a sua identidade, em contacto com a Língua e a Cultura Portuguesas.

Intensive summer course in robotics – Robotcraft

This paper describes a two-month summer intensive course designed to introduce participants with a hands-on technical craft on robotics and to acquire experience in the low-level details of embedded systems. Attendants started this course with a brief introduction to robotics; learned to draw, design and create a personalized 3D structure for their mobile robotic platform and developed skills in embedded systems. They were familiarize with the practices used in robotics, learning to connect all sensors and actuator, developing a typical application on differential kinematic using Arduino, exploring ROS features under Raspberry Pi environment and Arduino – Raspberry Pi communication. Different paradigms and some real applications and programming were addressed on the topic of Artificial Intelligence. Throughout the course, participants were introduced to programming languages (including Python and C++), advanced programming concepts such as ROS, basic API development, system concepts such as I2C and UART serial interfaces, PWM motor control and sensor fusion to improve robotic navigation and localization. This paper describes not just the concept, layout and methodology used on RobotCraft 2017 but also presents the participants knowledge background and their overall opinions, leading to focus on lessons learned and suggestions for future editions.

The Role of the Geotouristic Guide in Earth Science Education: Towards a More Critical Society of Land Management

Primary and secondary education in Spain does not satisfactorily cover the geoscientific concepts, which explains the great difficulty of citizens to understand the dynamics of their own planet, and does not contribute to a more interventionist and critical citizenship facing land projects. Scientific community is worried about the reduction in this discipline, and a need for a new approach—which should give more weight to field trips—is being manifested. In this context, geoparks would take an active role, due to the fact that they have an important function in organizing educational outdoors activities at all levels. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research focused on the role of geoparks as tools that promote educational opportunities for visitors and students. On the one hand, this article aims to provide a study of the effectiveness of the interpretative provision offered by the geotouristic guide of the Geologic Park of Aliaga to youngsters aged 12 to 17 years, and also the evaluation of this guide in their Earth science learning process. On the other hand, we study the knowledge acquisition in an intensive summer course offered to children aged 5 to 10 years. According to the results of the surveys, geodiversity and land management contents explained by the geotouristic guide are retained significantly by students and children, and significant differences were observed in the acquisition of knowledge in Earth sciences. In addition, this article adds a practical approach, and proposes some features that should be present in a geotouristic guide playing an effective role.

Analysis of Taiwanese elementary school English teachers’ perceptions of, designs of, and knowledge constructed about differentiated instruction in content

AbstractThis study analyzed Taiwanese elementary school English teachers’ perceptions of, designs on, and knowledge constructed about, differentiated instruction in content in an intensive summer course. Based on the data analysis of surveys, the document, videos, and an interview, the study had the following findings. First, before the intensive summer course, although they thought highly of differentiated instruction, they used the same textbook and did not implement differentiated instruction in their classroom practice. Their reluctance resulted from their lack of competence in differentiated instruction, time, and opportunities on collaborative planning. Secondly, throughout the intensive summer course, only three teachers differentiated their instruction in content by integration of jigsaw reading and supplementary materials. Finally, their knowledge constructed on differentiated instruction mainly came from the instructor of the intensive summer course and online resources. Three suggestions are pr...

Questioning techniques for promoting language learning with students of limited L2 oral proficiency in a drama-oriented language classroom

In drama-oriented English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, teachers often ask questions to shape the story, unveil the details, sequence the scenes, create a beneficial linguistic environment to elicit student output and promote meaning negotiation in the target language. This study investigates how instructional goals were achieved in an intensive summer course with a group of Taiwanese college students. The course aimed to help students with beginning to low-intermediate oral proficiency improve their overall English competence through various drama activities. Eight question functions were used to analyse the classroom data. The analyses show that the teachers raised inform questions extensively to seek new information and content contribution from the students to build up drama scenes. To help students cope with linguistic insufficiency, the teachers also used pseudo, confirming, and clarifying questions to remodel the students’ segmental, inaudible or ungrammatical utterances. Different questioning patterns were found when the teachers were in-role and out-of-role. The findings show that EFL drama activities facilitate more interactive questioning than traditional approaches in which pseudo questions and those which check understanding appear most frequently. The study concludes that content areas and linguistic elements can be handled through appropriate questioning techniques in order to help low-level learners carry out natural interaction in an EFL classroom

Discovering ‘Language Myths and Truths’: A Summer Enrichment Course in Linguistics for High-School Students

This article presents the rationale and curriculum for an intensive 3-week summer course in linguistics designed for students ages 13–16, and implemented within the Joseph Baldwin Academy, a residential program held annually on the campus of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, USA, which aims to provide young and motivated learners with opportunities for academic enrichment beyond those offered within their regular high-school curriculum.

Feasibility of adolescents to conduct community-based participatory research on obesity and diabetes in rural Appalachia.

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has been advocated to translate advances in health care sciences to the community. We describe a novel approach applied to obesity management and diabetes prevention. This takes advantage of a network of science clubs organized by the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) for extracurricular activity of disadvantaged high school students in rural Appalachia. Physician scientists and educators provided an intensive summer course on CBPR, ethics, and study design on obesity management and diabetes prevention. Ethical certification for CBPR investigation was obtained for 210 students and 18 mentors for a study on the prevalence of obesity and Type II diabetes within their community. Over a 6-month period, 989 had a collection of complete analyzable data, of which 103 had diabetes. The proportion with obesity (BMI > or = 30) was over 50%. The frequency of diabetes was related to increasing BMI. When BMI > or = 40, the frequency approached 50%, and exhibited a clear familial distribution. We conclude that trained adolescents can effectively conduct CBPR, and obesity and diabetes are more prevalent than previously reported in this community. This experience provides encouragement to conduct future studies to infl uence weight management from high-risk populations in this medically disadvantaged community.

Self-Study in a Community of Learning Researchers: What Can We Do to Help Teachers/teacher Educators Benefit from Our Research?

This article reports on the results of an intensive summer course in which a community of learners, consisting of three teaching and teacher education academics and 17 European PhD students in the field of education, conducted a collective self-study. The international collective self-study offered a unique opportunity to go beyond parochial and local perspectives on the process of research and knowledge creation. The central question in this summer course was: ‘What can we, as researchers, do to help teachers/teacher educators benefit from our research and what can be learned through this research on research?’ The participants first studied relevant literature about the — relatively new — concepts of self-study and a community of learners. Secondly, they studied and discussed their own research projects through the lens of a self-study methodology. The critical study and discussions of both literature and the research projects resulted in a list of 15 guidelines. In addition, the doctoral students experienced and learned that forming a community of learners can be an effective environment for collaborative inquiry learning and that conducting a collective self-study can be an effective way of carrying out research. A Mediterrannean island, a research question and twenty researchers …

Outcomes of an Intensive Summer Course in Reproductive Biology1

The Frontiers in Reproduction (FIR) course has been held annually, starting in 1998, at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole, MA. To evaluate the impact of the FIR course in training reproductive biologists, a group of participants who completed the course between 1998 and 2002 were surveyed. The major findings of the survey were that: (1) FIR had a positive impact on the overall career development of the participants; (2) a significant majority (97%) continue to conduct research in the reproductive sciences; (3) 58% had successfully competed for grant funding; and (4) manuscripts by participants were published in higher-impact journals. In summary, FIR has had an overall positive influence worldwide on the training of future scientists whose research interests and studies are focused on the reproductive sciences.

Projects

Outreach and connections with K–12 education are part of the mission of the Geometry Center, a Science and Technology Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of Minnesota. One vehicle for this outreach is an intensive summer course for teachers in which they experience new learning using the center's technology resources. A graduate-level mathematics course, “Technology in the Geometry Classroom,” was created at the Geometry Center by director Richard McGehee with two graduate students, Eduardo Tabacman and Evelyn Sander, and two postdoctoral fellows, Chaim Goodman-Strauss and Heidi Burgiel.

Report on an in‐country intensive summer course at university third‐year level

(1996). Report on an in‐country intensive summer course at university third‐year level. Japanese Studies: Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 55-64.

Helping the poor to help themselves: A quantitative re-evaluation of the outcomes of an advanced reading comprehension program in english as a foreign language

In view of doubts raised about the efficacy of a reading comprehension course in the case of weak students, a study was carried out in which students were grouped separately. A comparison was also made of the relative benefits of a year-long course compared with an intensive summer course. The findings showed that students derived approximately equal benefit from both types of course.

An Intensive Summer Course at Oklahoma State University

An Intensive Summer Course at Oklahoma State University

Experiments with Intensive Language Teaching at the University of Chicago

TWO INNOVATIONS have recently characterized the foreign language program at the University of Chicago. The one, prepared by a committtee representing all language groups, is a general course in language. Introduced during the 194445 term, this course has now been made a degree requirement for all college students. Aiming to introduce the student to the problems of language in general, and to show the relation of language study to other fields of knowledge, it harmonizes with the Chicago college plan of emphasizing a well-rounded general education. The new course is in no sense a substitute for regular foreign language study, but is intended to parallel and supplement it. It consists of a series of lecture-discussions, one hour a week for twelve weeks, correlated with a series of readings. The discussions and readings center about the following topics: phonetics; the history of language and language families; grammar and syntax; semantics; problems of translation; the relation of linguistics to other fields of study. The selected readings, representing a wide range of ancient and modern authors, aim to show varied approaches to the study of language, so that the student may be conversant with the problems posed and the attempted solutions. A comprehensive examination at the end of the course tests the student's achievement. The course is still in the experimental stage, and further changes, both in the general plan and in the specific readings, will undoubtedly be made. In 1944-45, the course was offered parallel to the first quarter of foreign language study; later experiments, however, persuaded the committee to arrange the 1945-46 course to begin at the middle of the winter quarter, after a half year's work in the foreign language. This half year's experience should provide the students with a better background for the more general problems in linguistics. The second innovation has been an intensive twelve-week summer course in elementary German, offered for the third consecutive time in 1945; there have been similar courses in French and Spanish. Enrollment in German has consistently been larger than anticipated, and has consistently outnumbered that in the other languages; in