Pedagogical Choices Research Articles

Alignment of code switching varies with proficiency in second language learning dialogue

Speakers in dialogue tend to adopt the language patterns of the other, aligning their language to their interlocutor. This can happen at many levels of communication, including the tendency to code switch (CS), or change to another language. Alignment has often been considered the result of an unconscious automatic process that facilitates speakers' mutual understanding. In dialogues with a second language (L2) learner, alignment is constrained by the proficiency of the learner, and additional non-automatic processes will be at play, namely the individual pedagogical goals of learner and tutor. In this study, we investigate alignment in dialogues between Spanish/Catalan learners of English and their tutors. We analyse CS incidence, whether code switching can be explained as automatic alignment between speakers, and whether this is independent of other, non-automatic factors related to speakers’ goals. We find that alignment of code switching is present, varies with learner proficiency, and that code switching can additionally be triggered by lexical overlap and turn taking asymmetry, which we attribute to conscious pedagogical choices on the part of both tutor, at lower levels, and learner, at higher levels of student proficiency.

Strengthening online teaching capability: Medical and health sciences faculty development

Educational institutions have experienced a rapid pivot to online learning over the last two years due to global COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Historically, in moving to online teaching, research has found that educators experience varying degrees of success with key challenges being: time pressure; staff shortages; insufficient technical ability; technical difficulties; and lack of faculty development (FD) opportunities (Aghakhani & Shalbafan, 2020; McQuiggan, 2007; Nimrod, 2018; Rajab et al., 2020). These challenges are exacerbated in the current climate and, despite being in our third year of teaching and learning under ongoing pandemic constraints, there is still a paucity of literature around how faculty have been supported in their provision of online teaching initiatives (Daniel et al., 2021). Our research aimed to identify features and enablers that staff value to strengthen their online teaching capability. Additionally, we intended to determine gaps in and future directions for strengthening staff online teaching capability, with a view to affecting change at an institutional level in addition to improving outcomes for students. To do this we used The Kirkpatrick Model as modified by Steinert et al. (2006) to evaluate FD initiatives and outcomes at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at New Zealand’s leading university, The University of Auckland. We conducted a mixed methods study comprising five datasets: interactive learning (in H5P) FD workshop surveys (1); teaching staff surveys (2) and interviews (3); student Summative Evaluation Tool (SET) surveys (4); and assignment grades (5). The FD workshop exit surveys (1) found that staff (n=105) valued personalised support and active learning. Teaching staff (n=86) surveys (2) showed that staff place high value on their Community of Practice (CoP) (Lave & Wenger, 1991), which were seen to provide personalised, technical, and emotional support. Similarly, findings from interviews (3) indicated that staff (n=20) appreciated FD that was personalised, interactive, timely, and they were overwhelmingly grateful for support from colleagues. Some key areas were identified as needing further FD by staff: fostering online relationships and engagement, and teaching in culturally sustaining and universally accessible ways. There was also a strong belief that university management should support professional development by allocating time and resources to FD in online teaching. Using SET data (4) from 2018 to 2021, we determined that providing students (n=809) with online interactive resources was a key support for their learning. During this time, the grade mean for a student assignment, that was purposely redeveloped for online learning using H5P to facilitate interaction and engagement, increased significantly from 2018 to 2019 (9%, p<.001). FD in interactive learning using H5P, driven by early adopter teaching staff, resulted in creating content associated with a mean increase in assignment grades (level 4B - Change among the participants’ students or colleagues [Steinert et al., 2006]), and the provision of an institutional licence (level 4A - Change in the system/organisational practice [Steinert et al., 2006]). The CoP approach ensured that personal connections were at the fore of FD and enabled effective modelling of pedagogical choices for interactive online learning. Providing personalized, just-in-time support through a CoP approach, interactive online teaching capability was improved, and institutional change was affected.

Building confidence in STEM students through breaking (unseen) barriers

Abstract. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects have historically struggled to be inclusive and accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. The field of geoscience, in particular, has also had challenges in diversity with respect to staff and student recruitment. The consequence of non-inclusive practices still propagates today, with certain demographics not engaging in STEM activities. As a result, there needs to be conscious efforts to adopt equity, diversity, and inclusive (EDI) initiatives for subjects such as geoscience to grow. In this article, we outline the steps we have taken to break down known (and unknown) barriers to education in the teaching of a science outreach course to a diverse student body. Our outreach course, Think Like A Scientist, has been running in a number of English prisons since 2019. Although the programme is tailored to the restrictive prison environment, the application of its core principles to education are fundamental EDI practices that could be beneficial to a wide audience. In this paper, we outline our reasoning for specific pedagogical choices in the classroom when working with students that have low confidence in STEM education, and we highlight the need for engagement that is not only relatable, accessible, and inclusive but also offers encouragement.

The role of teachers’ implicit social goals in pedagogical reforms in Tanzania

ABSTRACT Pedagogical reforms in sub-Saharan Africa have often been unsuccessful, arguably because they fail to account for the social and cultural context of teachers’ choices. Two studies in rural Tanzania examined the pedagogical decisions of teachers taking part in a programme of teacher professional development. Teachers reflected on their own decisions to conduct teaching activities, which were observed by the research team, and on the decisions taken by teachers in vignettes. Results suggested that pedagogical decisions were influenced by the social goals of togetherness, cooperation, and fairness. Pedagogical choices were also influenced by the need to avoid embarrassing students and to address conformity among student responses and students’ lack of confidence in addressing teachers. The findings broadly support the hypothesis that Tanzanian teachers pursue implicit social goals in their classroom, some of which are associated with the culture of historically agricultural societies. Teachers may be resistant to new pedagogies which do not support these social goals. Rather than seeing cultural values as ‘barriers’, we argue that teacher professional development programmes, particularly for early years education, should design teaching activities which are consistent with the culturally shaped social goals of teachers while remaining true to the learning goals of those activities.

Making decisions about attainment grouping in mathematics: teacher agency and autonomy in Norway

ABSTRACT Grouping by attainment is a relatively new and contested practice in Norway, where strong historical discourses of heterogeneous education are under pressure from international test comparisons, particularly in mathematics. At the same time, research indicates that Norwegian teachers have a high degree of autonomy in education policy enactment. Analysing thirteen Norwegian mathematics teachers’ reflections on grouping practices, we seek to understand their decision-making processes within this context. Our findings indicate that teachers report a high degree of autonomy in grouping practices which is exercised through considerable diversity in practice and defended when necessary. Using an ecological model of teacher agency reveals how teachers explore and explain their highly situated practice and its tensions and contradictions. We find that teachers who are removed from the central locus of autonomy have less to draw on in making and justifying their pedagogic choices, while those who are more central are able to continually reassess in this highly sensitive arena. We note the implications for practice and research on attainment grouping, particularly the need for teacher autonomy and support for professionally-based local decision-making.

Pedagogy matters: A framework for critical community-engaged courses in higher education


 
 
 This article describes specific pedagogical components of a community engagement project between students in a psychology course and youth at a juvenile justice centre (JJS). The purpose of the research was to illustrate how feminist and critical pedagogies can create reciprocal community engagement that provides a space for learning at both college and community sites. The researchers involved in this study included the professor of the Psychology of Women course, a senior college student who previously took the course, the JJS volunteer coordinator and an education professor. Together, they employed qualitative, single case study methodology in order to understand the complex social phenomena of this community-engaged course. The results demonstrate that lessons addressing social inequities are beneficial for youth in JJS and offer a way to alleviate the gap in gender-specific programming. They also create community and offer an empowerment lens. By explicitly focusing on the pedagogical choices of the partnership, this research contributes to an understanding of how critical community engagement can provide mutual benefits.
 
 

Spatial Knowledge Making from Writing about Appalachia outside Appalachia

AbstractThis article uses narrative inquiry to examine one instructor's experiences teaching two first-year writing classes, each one marked by different pedagogical choices. Themed with the topic of place and foregrounding the recurring example of Appalachia, the classes were nonetheless taught outside the region usually called Appalachia and to college students coming from, and identifying with, places other than Appalachia. This resulting data lends support for easing non-Appalachian-identified students into studying Appalachia as a rhetorical case and for encouraging students to explore various ways that textual representations of Appalachia reveal social and economic patterns noticeable in some form elsewhere.

Resisting Neoliberal Subjectivities: Friendship Groups in Popular Music

The pedagogical strategy of students choosing their own friends with whom to work in classroom contexts (under the guise of democratic participation) because this is how popular musicians learn, has mostly gone uninterrogated in the literature. Approaching the question of how to create a common world through a critical examination of the unexamined assumptions that underpin emerging celebratory discourses on friendship, I consider the ways in which the words friends and friendship are indiscriminately used without acknowledging that the soundness of this pedagogical choice is based on data collected from people (‘real life’ popular musicians) who are in, more often than not, instrumental relations of utility. In doing so I call for a rereading of friendship groups in order to resist the neoliberal injunction of self-interest, a survival-of-the-fittest ethos, and unchecked individualism. To that end I question the ways in which friendship groups in popular music groupings have become sites for developing and perfecting the neoliberal self.

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUES IN COVID-19

This paper explores how conversations about digital culture, innovation, and online pedagogy can inform practices accentuated during the pandemic. The immediatism adopted by universities around the world due to the urgency of lockdowns is problematic in many ways. Firstly, the little time to switch to an online environment, advance online delivery, and ensure assessment is undeniable. Second, the extent to which universities were at different levels of digitally ready infrastructure and related staff and students’ development, training, and readiness to learn and teach remotely is also challenging. However, research shows the important role of digital culture in pedagogical choices inside the classroom, as much as it considers how individuals cope with technological innovation in their daily online practices. From a Freirean perspective, pedagogy is reflective and transformative and online pedagogies can reconceptualize knowledge and practice, minimize physical and intangible spaces, and redefine time, constructing new ecologies of learning for an inclusive pedagogy. This paper addresses the above by presenting data from interviews with instructors, administrative staff, and students at three universities in Brazil, Canada, and the UK. This qualitative study uses intercultural concepts of pedagogical innovation, and how participants have adapted their practices in digital culture. We further explore the pedagogical implications of their attitudes towards online learning, the reconstruction of their self-awareness, and aim at corroborating future comprehensions on how COVID-19 will impact higher education. This paper is timely in problematizing concepts that are important to understanding and dealing with digital culture, innovation, and online pedagogies in learning contexts post-COVID.

Teacher Identity in CLIL: A Case Study of Two In-service Teachers

The provision of CLIL teachers in Spain has outpaced the growth of the so-called bilingual programs, as there are no specific training requirements for CLIL teachers who are either ­content or language specialists. So, CLIL teachers have a preexistent teacher identity that could influence their pedagogical choices. This study examines how teachers negotiate their existing ­teacher identities in a CLIL environment and how they exercise those identities in the classroom. The study adopts a qualitative case study methodology using interviews and questionnaires. Findings show that the way teachers negotiated their identities was affected by their former personal and professional experiences, their conceptualization of the imagined community, and their investment in that community. The findings have implications for creating in-service training programs that enhance teachers’ language awareness in CLIL and their association with the community.

A Music Librarian’s Guide to Creating Videos and Podcasts by Katie Buehner and Andrew Justice

Reviewed by: A Music Librarian’s Guide to Creating Videos and Podcasts by Katie Buehner and Andrew Justice Anders Tobiason A Music Librarian’s Guide to Creating Videos and Podcasts. By Katie Buehner and Andrew Justice. (Music Library Association Technical Reports Series, vol. 36.) Middleton, WI: Music Library Association and A-R Editions, 2018. [81 p. ISBN 9780895798329 (paperback), $35.] Technical examples, index. While this book will certainly be of use to music librarians, and many of the examples concern music-related topics, the guide can also serve as an excellent resource for any librarian interested in creating multimedia teaching and learning objects. And as such, perhaps one of the only things a little bit off in this excellent guide to creating videos and podcasts is its title. Katie Buehner and Andrew Justice provide a detailed and comprehensive guide with everything from the very basics to more technical and advanced steps toward creating excellent videos and podcasts. The step-by-step instructions and recommendations for software and other products are helpful both to librarians completely unfamiliar with creating videos and podcasts and to those with more advanced skills. The book is organized into two parts, each with four chapters and numerous sections within each chapter. There is no large-scale introduction, which is unfortunate as it would have been interesting to hear the authors’ perspective on the book holistically. And perhaps it could have articulated the importance of using multimedia teaching tools in the library. The introduction to part 1 sums up the reasons to use video: “Video is no longer an expensive, fringe medium produced in hard copy by trained professionals alone; it is now a core method of delivering content used by pros and amateurs alike in a fluid, fast-paced online environment” (p. 1). Part 1 highlights just how easy it is to start making videos [End Page 94] and the possibilities for outreach, instruction, and more that this medium affords. Each of the four chapters of part 1 delves into a different aspect of video creation. The first, an introduction to online video, provides an excellent foray into the first steps one should take when making online videos. These are not technical steps (those come in the following chapters) but rather guidance on how to conceive of video as a medium for instruction and outreach. By emphasizing the conceptual before the technical, the authors make a strong statement about not putting the cart before the horse. And by organizing the creation of videos in this way, they provide the reader with an understanding of the process, which can translate to different software and other new technologies. The “Seven Tips for Making Great Online Videos” (pp. 7–8) continues in this vein, as the emphasis is on learning the creative process and not being afraid to ask questions rather than on the need to be a technical expert prior to beginning the process. This approach certainly helps to demystify the video-creation process for those unfamiliar with it. In chapter 2, the authors explore the purely technical side of making videos, including recommendations for hardware and software, how to use the recommended resources, and other general considerations. They then describe in chapter 3 how to make a video, beginning with preproduction, best practices for storyboarding, and so on. This is again a key pedagogical choice, emphasizing creative process rather than technical skills. Importantly, the authors then go into detail about different types of videos (instructional, promotional, documentary, and live video), addressing both where to use each type and their particular challenges. This section will be particularly helpful to librarians who are just beginning the process of making videos. The production and postproduction sections likewise are detailed and very helpful. Of particular note is the subsection on “Resources for Free or Creative-Commons Licensed” images (pp. 35–36). Buehner and Justice next explore issues related to publishing videos. This final chapter of part 1 discusses far more than the usual simple truths about where and how to publish videos online. Following the general pedagogical bent of the book and thinking in terms of skills that can be used across platforms, the authors include an excellent section on assessment...

A Place for Neuroscience in Teacher Knowledge and Education

ABSTRACTThe foundational contributions from neuroscience regarding how learning occurs in the brain reside within one of Shulman's seven components of teacher knowledge, Knowledge of Students. While Knowledge of Students combines inputs from multiple social science disciplines that traditionally inform teacher education, teachers must also (and increasingly) know what happens inside students' brains. Neuroscience professional development provides neuroscience principles that teachers can learn and apply to distinguish among pedagogical choices, plan lessons, guide in‐the‐moment classroom decisions, and inform the views of students. Neuroscience does not directly invent new pedagogies. Rather, knowledge of neuroscience guides teachers in choosing appropriate pedagogies, pragmatically informing teaching. By providing physiological explanations for psychological phenomena relevant to education, teachers benefit from neuroscience content in their training and professional development.

Moral Taste and Moral Education – An Interview Study

In recent research on moral psychology, the human consciousness has been compared to a tongue, with different taste buds, which together can cause a variety of sensations. According to this theory, people in general have a preparedness to react to situations, which can provide opportunities or pose threats in a social context. Moral psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, has described these receptors as pairs, for example: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/ betrayal, authority/subversion and sanctity/degradation. Which of these foundations the individual develops a taste for depends, largely, on the social and cultural context. Hence, the choices teachers make of which issues to address and in what way can contribute to a learning environment that influences their pupils’ moral outlook. The purpose of this study is to investigate which of these moral intuitions or taste preferences that teachers want to endorse and cultivate in their pedagogical practices. Against this background, a number of qualitative research interviews were conducted with experienced teachers in the non-confessional subject religious education (RE), who have a particular responsibility for moral education in the Swedish school system. The interviews were based on a modified version of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, which was deliberately developed to determine the participants’ moral taste, and the participants were asked to elaborate their answers. The results indicate that the participants tended to favour harm and fairness over loyalty, authority and sanctity. As one of the participants puts it: “many of my examples relate to the weak and vulnerable or the ones that are denied their rights in society… these pedagogical choices are based on the content of the curriculum but also mirror my own preferences”. In this paper we analyse the interviews with the RE teachers and critically discuss the consequences the moral foundations theory has for moral education. Keywords: moral education, ethics education, moral psychology, moral foundations theory

Voice as an interactional accomplishment in art making about social issues

ABSTRACT Background Art making is a personal and social process in which learners make meaning for themselves and audiences through the production of artifacts. In classrooms, this personal and social process is made concrete through dialogue. Methods This paper presents an illustrative case study of how sixth-grade student, Jo, developed voice through interaction with peers in a classroom context while making art about social issues. Interaction analysis methods supported inquiry into Jo’s talk about art making as she talked with peers in designed conversation spaces (i.e., intentional structures and opportunities to talk about artwork while making it). Findings Jo’s voice development illustrates the collaborative nature of voice as an interactional accomplishment; having a unique voice is something students might strive to achieve as artists, yet that voice is co-constructed through collective social interaction as students take up, appropriate, and build on others’ ideas. Artistic and political dimensions of art making were generative. Contribution Pedagogical implications are discussed for designing socially supported learning experiences in arts classrooms. What Jo’s case makes evident is that voice can be supported in classrooms through intentional pedagogical choices that create the conditions for that voice to develop through interactions with peers and materials.

Mixed-reality simulations as a tool to enhance parent-teacher conferencing in initial teacher education

Communicating effectively with parents and carers is an important skill for pre-service teachers to develop. However, they often graduate underprepared due to limited opportunities for parent interaction during their course. When engaging with parents, pre-service teachers must be able to confidently articulate their pedagogical choices, provide examples of what students will do and justify why these choices have been made. One solution lies in providing opportunities for pre-service teachers to practise parent-teacher conferencing using mixed-reality simulation technology. In this study, differentiated instruction served as the context, and reflective practice, teacher self-efficacy theory and experiential learning theory were employed as the theoretical frameworks to build on an existing parent-teacher conferencing model developed by Dotger et al. (2008) to develop a new model for use with pre-service teachers. The model uses mixed-reality simulation technology and incorporates standardised parents and students, peer observation and opportunities for feedback and reflection. The model was developed and trialled with pre-service teachers in a core unit in an initial teacher education course at an Australian university. Results indicated that the pre-service teachers felt more prepared for parent-teacher conferencing after the technology-enhanced role-play experience. Implications for practice or policy: Mixed-reality simulation technology can be a valuable tool for authentic role-play experiences for pre-service teachers when preparing for parent-teacher conferencing. Simulation technologies can provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to practise aspects of teaching, such as parent-teacher conferencing, in a safe and low-stakes environment. Simulation technologies can provide powerful opportunities for pre-service teachers to reflect and learn from peers through peer observation and reflection.

The Institutional Betrayal and Bureaucratic Violence of Higher Education

Teachers navigate funding cuts, political machination, sexual harassment and assault investigations, racism and White supremacy amid various locally constructed crises. Using bureaucratic violence and institutional betrayal – two interlinked, yet distinct, theoretical frameworks – in this brief commentary I propose that academic working conditions constrain pedagogical choice, with significant implications for teaching and learning.

Secondary teachers’ perceptions of the importance of pedagogical approaches to support students’ behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement

This article reports on original research investigating the pivotal role that teachers play in student engagement, using a tri-dimensional framework. This framework identifies how teachers’ pedagogical choices impact student engagement in ways that influence students’ external behaviours, internal emotions and internal cognitions. A questionnaire was developed to explore secondary teachers’ (n = 223) perceptions of pedagogies that support students’ behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement in the classroom. Findings revealed that female participants placed higher importance on pedagogies that support students’ cognitive and behavioural engagement, and participants with leadership roles placed higher importance on pedagogies that support students’ cognitive and emotional engagement. Also emerging from the research was a negative correlation between the importance teachers placed on pedagogies that support cognitive and behavioural engagement and their school’s ICSEA value (the measure of socio-educational advantage in Australian schools). Overall, results support the tri-dimensional framework of student engagement utilised in this study and provide a robust framework for future research to further explore teachers’ pedagogical choices and how these choices impact student engagement.

Effects of post COVID-19 lockdown on educational pedagogy

Background: The end of 2019 marked the beginning of the global pandemic COVID-19. With this global issue, all the fields of society became stagnant. The education system is no exception to it. Education sector suffered as students were sent back to homes and schools, colleges and universities were shut down. But steps were taken and the education teaching system was shifted from offline to online mode. This research project examines the educational pedagogy which has been adapted in online mode of teaching due to post COVID-19 lockdown. It seeks to discover the pros and cons of online teaching vis-a-vis the ways of offline conduct of classes. The data for the project has been gathered in the form of an online survey in which both teachers and students were given questionnaires which are used to map and understand different pedagogical choices during online teaching. It also tries to highlight the comparative value, compatibility and usefulness of digital mode of learning.

Teaching Note—Teaching Trumpism

ABSTRACT The election of Donald Trump was an astounding moment in the history of the United States. As academics across disciplines and social work as a profession struggled to understand the election and its effects, several syllabi were crowd sourced to explain the phenomenon known as Trumpism. This article describes a social work social policy course derived from these syllabi, as well as the pedagogical choices and consequences of teaching this course at the graduate level.

The Persistent Poverty of Diversity in International Relations and the Emergence of a Critical Canon

Abstract Discussions about diversifying the discipline of international relations (IR) are often met with limited evidence in practice. Employing the concepts of epistemic oppression and academic dependency, this article contributes to filling the existing knowledge gap by examining what the pedagogical practices of IR professors, particularly in terms of syllabi design and content, tell us about the state of disciplinary diversity. The article examines results from a preliminary study that analyzes different graduate-level IR syllabi from leading universities in the Global North (represented by United States and United Kingdom) and Global South (Africa in particular) in order to determine how their design, including required readings and other pedagogical choices in the classroom, contributes to the explicit diversity needed to push IR beyond its usual canon. The findings suggest that although more perspectives have become accepted or recognized, what is considered essential for graduate students to study and further propagate is still primarily mainstream. Another point is that what has become known as “critical IR” cannot automatically be equated with diversity. This means there is the need to further interrogate and open up more avenues that go beyond what can be characterized as a “critical canon” of IR.