Learning Stories Research Articles

Engaging Ethnic-Diverse Students: A Research Based on Culturally Responsive Teaching for Roma-Gypsy Students

Intercultural Education is a key feature in the development of inclusion strategies aimed at ethnically diverse students. Transformative approaches towards learning such as Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) are essential in order to answer the educative needs that arise due to the coexistence between ethnic minorities and mainstream society. Therefore, cultural and historical representation of these communities play an important role as gatekeepers in order to achieve positive results as far as inclusive education is concerned. This article explores research based on a case study carried out in a high school located in the North-West of Spain developing successful learning stories after implementing the CRT methodology within the teaching of English as a foreign language. For its development, this article examines the trajectory of education with Roma-Gypsy students and moves forward with previous studies that endorse the success of using this approach among ethnically diverse students for their inclusion within the educative system. Intercultural and Plurilingual Education is a key feature in the development of inclusion strategies aimed at ethnically diverse students. This article includes research based on a case study carried out in a high school located in the North-West of Spain. It is aimed at: 1. Engaging ethnically diverse students to become part of the mainstream classroom through the inclusion of their culture; 2. Improving their language skills and competencies in the learning of a foreign language; 3. Raising the attendance at schools of ethnically diverse students. To achieve these targets the Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) Methodology has been implemented. CRT is considered essential to answer the educative needs that arise due to the coexistence between ethnic minorities and conventional communities. After gathering and analyzing data, results show that: ethnically diverse students’ motivation has been increased; it also expanded their social skills among peers; they gained more visibility; and finally, both diverse and non-diverse learners improved their proficiency in the English language. The discussion section states that the use of CRT Methodology traditionally used with Afro-American and Native-American students is also relevant for the Roma-Gypsy students that took part in this study.

Learning English Changed My Life

The article Learning English Changed My Life by Liyan Zhang was written in the International College-English Communication (IEC) 494 Senior Seminar course that I (Professor Shizhou Yang) taught at Payap University in Thailand in 2020. The main objective of the course was to prepare the seniors in English communication BA program “for work experience or senior project” (Course syllabus). Inspired by Transnational literacy autobiographies as translingual writing (Canagarajah, 2020), which included a clear course design, and building on my previous experiment of teaching literacy autobiographical writing to my graduate students in China, I imagined the Senior Seminar to be a catalyst for similar researching and writing explorations. Except this time, I wanted my students to write with an end goal of “submission to MEXTESOL Journal as non-refereed articles” (Course syllabus). There was some flexibility added, though. For instance, I allowed some students to research their internship experiences. I also provided the option for them to only submit their literacy autobiographies for an in-house publication at the end of the semester. During the 15 weeks of class, the students learned about the autoethnography research method, read and discussed recent publications on language, literacy, and identity, told stories, asked questions, collected self-related data, and based on our cultural analysis of the data, drafted their own literacy autobiographies. Toward the end of the semester, we shifted our focus to peer review and revision to make the literacy autobiographies more narrative, more autoethnographic, and academic. I was impressed by my students’ literacy autobiographies. They showed me that, through autoethnographically oriented literacy autobiography projects, literacy education can be made relevant, critical, imaginative, and liberating even in an English-medium environment in Asia. Liyan was one of the two students who submitted their literacy autobiographies to MEXTESOL Journal. She cherished this opportunity to be mentored by an MJ reviewer, and as evidenced by her current literacy autobiography, her writing has taken strides. I hope the readers will find that an important story of language learning is not just a mechanical skill, but impactful on the learners’ life trajectories— an important point for ELT professionals to bear in mind.

Changes in Early Childhood Teachers’ Assessment Practices: Positioning Pedagogical Documentation

Collecting traces of children’s learning story through pedagogical documentation (PD) has increasingly been acknowledged in early childhood education because it helps to make decisions about development of child-centered curriculum. However, there is still a lack of attention on creating child-centered assessment practices in different educational contexts. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate how PD implications were changed in Turkish early childhood teachers’ assessment practices after participating in a series of PD training. To this end, a case study research was conducted with two early childhood teachers, as a part of larger project. The data were collected through video-based observations, interviews, and in-class activity photographs, which lasted two semesters. The findings revealed that both teachers’ assessment practices changed after they implemented PD practices. More specifically, they started to employ different forms of PD tools including panels, portfolios, and monthly bulletins. Correspondingly, they provided an environment where children shared and discussed their learning process with their peers through sharing times. The potential importance of implementing PD as an assessment tool in early childhood education was addressed in discussion as well as implications.

We Are Not a Stereotype: Co-Creating Resources Centering Asian American and Pacific Islander Histories

ABSTRACT The dual pandemic that started in 2020, COVID-19 and events revealing systemic racism, has increased awareness about violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities across the United States. This article describes how the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, a “museum without walls,” collaborated with a group of educators to co-create video resources for teaching and learning AAPI histories and stories.

Hierarchically Local Tasks and Deep Convolutional Networks

The main success stories of deep learning, starting with ImageNet, depend on convolutional networks, which on certain tasks perform significantly better than traditional shallow classifiers, such as support vector machines. Is there something special about deep convolutional networks that other learning machines do not possess? Recent results in approximation theory have shown that there is an exponential advantage of deep convolutional-like networks in approximating functions with hierarchical locality in their compositional structure. These mathematical results, however, do not say which tasks are expected to have input-output functions with hierarchical locality. Among all the possible hierarchically local tasks in vision, text and speech we explore a few of them experimentally by studying how they are affected by disrupting locality in the input images. We also discuss a taxonomy of tasks ranging from local, to hierarchically local, to global and make predictions about the type of networks required to perform efficiently on these different types of tasks.

Use of the mind mapping learning model to improve the ability of students writing fantasy story text

This study aims to see the ability to write fantasy stories in Indonesian language learning with the mind mapping model of class VII-2 students at SMP Negeri 13 OKU in the 2020/2021 academic year. The approach used is a quantitative approach. This type of research is descriptive research. The data analysis in this study is the result of the assessment of student work, namely 2 assessors, namely assessor 1 and assessor 2 accompanied by an average. The results showed that the implementation of teacher learning was going well. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that the ability to write fantasy stories using the Mind Mapping model is in the ability category. Suggestions for this research are 1) so that grade VII students can improve their writing skills to get better results. 2) so that teachers of SMP Negeri 13 OKU can use an easy and precise learning model in the learning process. 3) so that other researchers can use this thesis as a reference source.

“Living with solitude”: narrative of a female college student from rural China

Drawing on a broader study that focused on understanding rural college students for equity and personal growth in higher education, this paper presents Ying’s story of learning and living as a female college student from rural China. Adopting the thinking tools of habitus and reflexivity, the paper aims to understand the constraints Ying has gone through in China’s higher education and her various response amidst them. The findings illustrate how the intersectionality of rural dispositions and gender has put her at a disadvantage and how she constantly mediates her surroundings through internal conversations. The paper discusses the intricate interplay between habitus and reflexivity during the mediation. The conclusion affirms the relevance of both habitus and reflexivity in our understanding of the rural student’s educational experiences and argues for the role of education and society in challenging the social structure and promoting social change.

The EU’s truth by omission: Learning and accountability after the Eurozone crisis

While the literature generally frames crises as catalysts for organisational learning, most theories focus on ‘success’ stories of learning – ex post facto explanations of why certain ideas gained traction after a specific crisis. Less emphasis has been placed on lessons that were likely to be drawn, but were not. In probing this point, we explore the European Union’s selective learning after the recent Eurozone crisis. Reforms were mostly top-down institutional and macroeconomic ones, while good practices developed by individual European states in the domain of accountability were ignored. In particular, we focus on the absence of a truth commission, an independent institutional mechanism mandated to carry out a forensic investigation of crisis management and convert past policy failures into lessons for future institutional reform. Why, despite the direct exposure of EU policymakers to these commissions, did this institutional mechanism not travel to Brussels? Drawing on semi-structured elite interviews and analyses of primary sources, we argue only organisations with an embedded institutional capacity for self-reflection (meta-learning) possess the required institutional skills to put certain issues into the spotlight.

My Pilgrimage to the Missional in South Africa

The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa at its 2013 General Synod made a bold resolution—to be a missional church. This resolution was not only an acknowledgement of past failures, but also a commitment to deep and lasting reform. In this article one of the pastors (and leaders) of the church tells this story from a personal, biographical perspective. It is a story of learning and growth and conversion. In this story we see how historical occurrences, personal experiences, reading the Bible and theology, meetings and conversations with friends and strangers and friendships, old and new, can help people change their minds. We also see how being missional is not only bound up with our understanding of scripture and theology, but also with the context in which we live and work. It becomes very clear that it is impossible to isolate the missional work of the church from the political, social and economic realities in which we live. We also see that being missional should not be romanticized as an ideal situation. Most of the time being missional is conducted in the messy chaos we call life.

PEMANFAATAN CERITA PENDEK SEBAGAI MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN PADA MATERI GAGASAN POKOK DAN GAGASAN PENDUKUNG PARAGRAF

Based on field observations, the use of text sourced from textbooks as a learning medium on the subject matter of the main ideas and supporting paragraph ideas as well as the application of learning methods that are less attractive by the teacher, has not been able to attract reading interest and activate students. This has an impact on the low level of student understanding and mastery of the learning material. The method used in this study is an integrative literature review that combines various studies of relevant books and journals. This study aims to provide insight to teachers about the use of short stories in learning. Based on the results of the discussion, the use of short stories in learning based on various sources can increase reading interest and activate students. so as to improve understanding and student learning outcomes. Thus, it can be concluded that short stories can be used as a medium of learning in the subject matter of the main ideas and ideas supporting paragraphs.

Learner-Centric Technologies to Support Active Learning Activity Design in New Education Normal: Exploring the Disadvantageous Educational Contexts

Active learning is a learner-centric instructional method that uses discussion, role play, collaborative problem-solving based approaches to engage students with the course materials. However, due to the pandemic, active learning activities take place over multiple learner-centric technologies, as classroom-centered activity design is no longer possible. This study explored the success stories of active learning in disadvantageous educational contexts, particularly in Arab regions. After examining the theory, models, various learner-centric technologies of pre-pandemic active learning de-signs, this study proposes 25 emerging technologies to support active learn-ing 19 active learning strategies in terms of activity design in new education normal. The three-fold findings are related to designing active learning activities in new education normal, enhancing less practiced active learning strategies, and bridging the gaps in pre-and post-pandemic active learning activity design using learner-centric technologies.

Gradient flows and proximal splitting methods: A unified view on accelerated and stochastic optimization.

Optimization is at the heart of machine learning, statistics, and many applied scientific disciplines. It also has a long history in physics, ranging from the minimal action principle to finding ground states of disordered systems such as spin glasses. Proximal algorithms form a class of methods that are broadly applicable and are particularly well-suited to nonsmooth, constrained, large-scale, and distributed optimization problems. There are essentially five proximal algorithms currently known, each proposed in seminal work: Forward-backward splitting, Tseng splitting, Douglas-Rachford, alternating direction method of multipliers, and the more recent Davis-Yin. These methods sit on a higher level of abstraction compared to gradient-based ones, with deep roots in nonlinear functional analysis. In this paper we show that all of these methods are actually different discretizations of a single differential equation, namely, the simple gradient flow which dates back to Cauchy (1847). An important aspect behind many of the success stories in machine learning relies on "accelerating" the convergence of first-order methods. However, accelerated methods are notoriously difficult to analyze, counterintuitive, and without an underlying guiding principle. We show that similar discretization schemes applied to Newton's equation with an additional dissipative force, which we refer to as accelerated gradient flow, allow us to obtain accelerated variants of all these proximal algorithms-the majority of which are new although some recover known cases in the literature. Furthermore, we extend these methods to stochastic settings, allowing us to make connections with Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations. Similar ideas apply to gradient descent, heavy ball, and Nesterov's method which are simpler. Our results therefore provide a unified framework from which several important optimization methods are nothing but simulations of classical dissipative systems.

Writing a Different Story of Music Learning

Recently, the United States has witnessed an uptick of racially and culturally motivated events that continue to challenge the role of our schools in creating a more socially just nation. In light of these issues, it is important that we consider what role school music education plays in addressing issues related to social justice. In this column, I started by sharing a class conversation on the analogies related to immigrants in the U.S. and then explored the implication of these analogies/stories. Inspired by Chinua Achebe’s analysis on literature and its relation to reality, I ask, not only what stories we tell about music learning at school, whose interest these stories serve, and whose voices/music are privileged? I propose that multiple stories of our students’ music learning may be enacted as forces to counter the dominate narrative. I end with some curriculum ideas for teachers to adapt in their classrooms.

The Eye of the CT Scanner: The story of learning to see the invisible orfrom the fluorescent screen to the photon-counting detector.

Roentgen's photographs with the "new kind of rays" triggered a worldwide storm of enthusiasm in all social circles. It was a stroke of luck that the photographic dry plates available to him were also sensitive to invisible X-rays. The discovery, research and utilization of X-rays are based on methods for making them visible, from fluorescent screens to photographic plates and digital X-ray detectors. From this point of view, this paper aims to outline the 125-year success story of X-ray imaging from its discovery to the recent development of photon-counting detectors. The scientific-historical view during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century reveals an impressive period of profound scientific and social upheaval in which revolutionary discoveries and technological developments led to enormous progress in medicine. The cross-fertilization of physics and medicine and their combination with inventiveness, engineering and entrepreneurial spirit created the impressive possibilities of today's imaging diagnostics. This contribution accompanies the Roentgen Lecture the author gave on November 13, 2020 in Roentgen's birth house as part of its inauguration and the closing ceremony of the101st Congress of the German Roentgen Society in Remscheid-Lennep. KEY POINTS:: · The development of computed tomography was a milestone in the methodological advancement of imaging withX-rays.. · In the detector pixel invisible X-rays are converted into digital electrical impulses, which the computer uses to create images.. · Photon-counting detectors could have significant diagnostic advantages for clinical applications.. CITATION FORMAT: · Schlemmer H, The Eye of the CT Scanner: Thestory of learning to see the invisible or from the fluorescent screen to the photon-counting detector. Fortschr Röntgenstr 2021; 193: 1034 - 1048.

Research on the Effective Application of Children's Learning Stories in the Activities of Living Quarters

Research on the Effective Application of Children's Learning Stories in the Activities of Living Quarters

Becoming an English Teacher in Postcolonial Pakistan and Australian Classrooms: Negotiating Difference in Postcolonial Settings

ABSTRACT One of the consequences of globalisation in recent years has been the unprecedented spread of English as the world’s lingua franca. This has particular resonance in postcolonial countries, such as Pakistan and Australia, whose histories have been strongly shaped by English colonisers in contrasting ways. Written from the perspective of someone who has taught English in Pakistan and Australia, this essay presents my own personal stories of learning as an English language student in Pakistan and Australia. As a student of English, I felt my own voice and identity were often suppressed in the service of a curriculum that valued compliance with external standards over meeting the needs of learners. I explore how my own stories of becoming have shaped my current practices and identity as an English educator in Australian and Pakistani classrooms.

Cultural Identity Formation: A Personal Narrative

This paper provides personal experiences and perceptions of being a minoritized individual. This is the story of a professional social worker learning to adapt to social norms and expectations of self. He discusses the struggles he experienced as an adolescent and as a young adult attending college. Through this narrative, the role of faith and social work intersect, especially as a professional social worker. It is at this intersection that this social worker learns to live a holistic life without feeling discriminated against or ashamed of his identity. He begins to actualize a reality with imperfect beings who also struggle to maintain their identity as well. Thus, in this paper, the author provides a snapshot of his development as a minority in the United States.

Supporting democracy and agency for all children: The learning stories of two immigrant boys

The aim of this article is to explore democracy and agency for children with diverse backgrounds in Icelandic early childhood education and care. In the last decade, Icelandic society has become more multicultural, as reflected in the increasing number of children in preschools with a home language other than Icelandic. Hence, this article also aims to promote a discussion of how Nordic traditions can be reflected in preschool practice, especially in relation to multicultural education. The ideas, theories and methods when multicultural education is planned seek support from similar concepts, such as democracy, power relations, social justice and children’s agency. The learning stories of two boys with a cultural background other than Icelandic were documented in accordance with the New Zealand curriculum, Te Whāriki, illustrating the boys’ communication and power relations in their preschools by foregrounding their competencies. The study supports other research showing that immigrant children struggle as they participate in play and are sometimes on the verge of being marginalized in their preschool group. The findings reveal that, in the boys’ learning stories, their competence appeared clearly – they were seen to develop their participation and sometimes their agency emerged. The power relations in their groups were not in their favour; they were marginalized in the group of children. These results suggest that, in line with Nordic policy, preschool teachers might work against the marginalization of children from multicultural backgrounds by building on children’s competencies, listening to them, and relying on their ways to interact and find solutions.

TO BE AND HOW TO BE: INSIDES OF PROGRESS AND FAILURE IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

This study investigated deeply into what happened when a language learner made failure and success. The question is how and what learners do to make improvements and achievements and/or to turn their learning results worse. Adopting grounded theory methodology and ethnographic perspective with prolong observations and interviews as the basis of data collection and analysis, the researcher studied the learning stories of 8 participants in 24 months to build up a general formula explaining how improvements and achievements operate. Motivation and autonomy were classified as the two central and most stable constructs in a holistic model containing numerous changing affective factors. Results showed that it is not really because of any single change in any individual factor/construct, but the operation of this whole model shapes the success and failure in language learning.

MUATAN PENDIDIKAN KARAKTER DALAM CERITA PENDEK DI BUKU PELAJARAN BAHASA INDONESIA SMA

This study aims to (1) Describe short stories published in Indonesian textbooks for high school. (2) Describe the content of character education in short stories in Indonesian textbooks for high school. This research is a qualitative descriptive study. Data in this study are words, sentences and paragraphs in short stories in Indonesian textbooks for high school. Data sources in this study are Indonesian language textbooks for high schools which are still used in high school, both based on the 2006 curriculum and based on the 2013 curriculum. Data collection techniques used in this study are intensive reading and recording techniques. Data analysis techniques with heuristic and hermeunitic techniques. The results of this study are as follows. (1) The study found 18 lessons in Indonesian language studies, 3 books that did not include a pen, and 15 books included a pen. In 15 lessons found 27 short stories. (2) Short stories in sufficient learning have the potential for 12 educational values of religious character, responsibility, social scrutiny, love, honesty, hard work, tolerance, nationalism, water love, friendship, democracy, and curiosity. The most frequently occurring educational values of character are religious, responsibility, social scrutiny, and love.<div> </div>