Powerful Teaching Strategy Research Articles

The "STAR WARS: The First Jedi" Program-Effects of Gamification on Psychological Well-Being of College Students.

Background: College students are particularly susceptible to developing mental health problems. Gamification can be a powerful teaching strategy to favor motivation and behavioral changes for the improvement of psychological well-being. Purpose: To analyze the effect of a 14-week gamification-based physical education teaching program on psychological well-being of college students. Materials and Methods: A total of 112 college students (21.22 ± 2.55 years) were recruited and assigned to a gamification-based group or a control group. The intervention group participated in a gamification-based program under the framework of "STAR WARS" science fiction sage. Participants from this group used a mobile app with a countdown timer and the way for them to gain lifetime was by doing physical activity (PA) and formative challenges. The control group did not experience the gamification approach itself as their classes were based on traditional methodology. They were asked to maintain their usual lifestyle and were not required to do PA. Emotional intelligence, personal initiative, entrepreneurial attitude, resilience, and self-efficacy were self-reported. Results: The gamification-based group showed a significantly higher improvement of emotional intelligence (P ≤ 0.006), personal initiative (P ≤ 0.033), entrepreneurial attitude (P < 0.001), resilience (P = 0.002), and self-efficacy (P < 0.001), compared with the control group. Overall effect sizes were of medium magnitude for emotional intelligence and personal initiative, large magnitude for entrepreneurial attitude, and small magnitude for resilience and self-efficacy. Conclusion: Gamification and the use of mobile apps may become powerful teaching strategies to motivate college students toward healthier lifestyle behaviors that have psychological well-being benefits.

"STAR WARS: The first Jedi" Gamification Program: Use of a Mobile App to Improve Body Composition in College Students.

Background: There is a need to promote initiatives toward reaching more active and healthier lifestyles. Gamification has emerged among teachers as a powerful teaching strategy that favors students' motivation and behavioral change by applying game elements in nongame contexts. Purpose: To examine the effects of a 14-week gamification-based teaching program, including the use of a game-based mobile app on body composition in college students. Materials and Methods: One hundred twelve college students (21.22 ± 2.55 years) were assigned to a gamification-based group or a control group. College students from the intervention group participated in a gamification program under the narrative of "STAR WARS" and had a mobile app with a countdown timer. They had to meet physical activity recommendations to gain lifetime (i.e., sum time to the countdown). A portable eight-polar bioelectrical impedance analysis was used to obtain body composition outcomes; height (cm) was measured with a stadiometer; and waist circumference (cm) was measured using a metric tape. Body mass index (BMI), muscle mass index, fat mass index, and body fat percentage were computed. Results: Participants from the gamification program reported a significantly lower BMI, waist circumference, fat mass index and body fat percentage after the intervention, in comparison with the control group, indicated by an effect size ranging from -0.23 to -0.11 (all P ≤ 0.043). Conclusion: Gamification and the use of interactive mobile app are powerful teaching strategies in higher education to motivate students toward healthier lifestyles that lead to body composition benefits.

Enhancing Student Learning and Engagement Using Digital Stories

ABSTRACT To prepare students for competent practice in increasingly technology-enabled settings, social work curricula must provide ample opportunities for developing digital literacy. Incorporating digital stories as course assignments offer educators one promising approach. Despite the fact that digital stories can provide a powerful teaching strategy and meaningful learning experience for students, they have received little attention in the social work education literature. This study explored implementation of a digital story assignment in three social work courses and examined undergraduate and graduate students’ appraisals of the assignment and learning outcomes. Qualitative findings indicated high satisfaction and learning associated with key social work competencies such as digital literacy, group work, and advocacy. Students valued the novel opportunity for creativity and collaboration, and were challenged in positive ways to produce high quality work that could be shared with a public audience. Key challenges identified by students included a steep technology learning curve, some technology resistance, and limitations associated with group projects (e.g., group dynamics). Overall, however, these exploratory findings suggest that digital story assignments can offer a timely and useful tool for social work educators to enhance engagement and learning, foster advocacy practice skills, and build digital literacies needed in the 21st century practice landscape.

A clinical supervision intervention in questioning: an action research study

ABSTRACT This article presents the outcomes of a project, which aimed to develop the use of questioning in one teacher’s. practice using a professional development intervention termed ‘clinical supervision’. As well as being a project which adopted an action research approach, this use of clinical supervision is, we argue, a form of professional collaborative support between more- and less-experienced colleagues, akin to the kinds of relationships typical of collaborative action research. Questioning, as a common teaching technique second only to lecturing, is evidenced to be a powerful teaching strategy when used competently. Yet, many teachers struggle to do so by spontaneously asking unplanned questions during a lesson, over-using lower-order questions or even furnishing the answers themselves before waiting for student responses. The current study thus aimed to examine the routine pre-intervention questioning strategies used by the participating teacher and then document the outcomes of the clinical supervision intervention that targeted the development of her questioning skills. Findings indicated that the teacher’s pre-intervention use of questioning was typical of the kinds of errors that some teachers make as evidenced in existing literature; while post-intervention findings revealed notable improvement in the teacher's practice of the targeted questioning skills.

Life Histories Center Performance as Response to Text

Based in anthropology (Cole &amp; Knowles, 2001), life history inquiry into literature emphasizes deep understandings of literary characters that are expressed through dramatic performance. For teachers or teacher-educators, life histories offer a powerful teaching strategy. Life histories support locating readers in a particular pattern or “grammar” of events, situations, and goals while also revealing the subjective worlds of characters who are involved in such events. In an undergraduate Honors Literacies course, life histories performances in response to the young adult novel, The Skin I’m In(Flake, 1998), enabled examinations of the complex interaction of characters, their lives, and particular contexts.

12 tips for effective questioning in medical education

Questioning is one of the most frequently used and powerful teaching strategies across levels and settings in medical education. Although the concept of asking questions may seem like a simple practice, many medical educators lack pedagogical training. When effectively executed, questioning can elicit positive outcomes in learner participation, concentration, and understanding of content. When used incorrectly, questioning can leave learners feeling singled out and not in a position to learn, or worse – threatened or humiliated. There is a lot of literature in medical education about what ineffective questioning looks like, but little about how to enact effective questioning, such as what kind of questions should be asked and how to design those questions to improve learning. The following twelve tips will help medical educators be purposeful and effective as they plan, ask, and analyze questions in classroom or clinical settings.

Motion Blitz: a new card game for assessing students’ thinking level about physics

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are crucial for the 21st century. Game-based learning (GBL) is a powerful teaching strategy for fostering these skills amongst students. GBL can reinforce knowledge and bridge the gap between what is learned by creating dynamic, fun, and exciting learning environments. This research developed a card game called “Motion Blitz” for teaching the physics concept of motion in one and two dimensions. Motion Blitz is a quick matching card game that consists of a deck of “Motion Cards” which picture motions in daily life and a selection of “Motion Symbols” displaying a path of motions: linear, projectile, circular, rotational, rolling, and simple harmonic motions. To play the game, one player starts by flipping over one of the “Motion Cards”, then simultaneously everyone tries to figure out the proper “Motion Symbol” to grab. Figure it out and grab the right one to get the card/point. After playing, the teacher uses questions to stimulate student thinking and help students construct scientific knowledge. Finally, 12 questions according to Bloom’s taxonomy are administrated to students. These questions are classified according to different cognitive levels ranging from low-level thinking (knowledge, comprehension) to high-level thinking (application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation). Data analyses showed Motion Blitz’s ability to elevate students’ thinking level, over 90% of students scored well at a low level and 59% at a high level approximately. In addition, data indicated that students’ thinking scores became lower at a higher level of thinking.

Belonging, achievement and student satisfaction with learning: The role of case-based Socratic Circles

ABSTRACT We investigate the effectiveness of combining Socratic Circles with case-based learning in an undergraduate class as a means of both helping students overcome their reluctance to speak publicly and to experience the deep learning associated with case-based learning. Using partial least squares modelling (n = 84) this combination of pedagogies returns statistically encouraging results influencing desirable learning outcomes of perceptions of achievement, sense of belonging and overall satisfaction. Furthermore, statistical results demonstrate the presence of a sense of belonging in the class and perceptions of achievement explain the relationship between this pedagogy and satisfaction with learning. We conclude this active, authentic teaching strategy does achieve meaningful learning outcomes for students and may be a powerful teaching strategy.

Discovering the Chemical Elements in Food

The educational possibilities of combining four powerful teaching strategies (context-based teaching, inquiry-based teaching, murals, and augmented reality) in the learning of the chemical elements are reported in this paper. We present a project involving 15-year-old students who research and identify the chemical elements present in food using an inquiry-based approach. Students organize their findings in four categories according to the role of the chemical element in the food (major elements, essential trace elements, toxic trace elements, and chemical food preservation). Conclusions were disseminated through a large mural with audio QR codes where results can be explored for students using a smart phone. To investigate the effectiveness of the project we ask students to identify chemical elements in food and whether their intake was beneficial or harmful to health, before (pretest) and after (post-test) the project. In the first case, only five foods (milk products, bananas, lentils, water, and salt)...

Undergraduate Student Participation in an Evaluation of a Police Program: A High-Impact Practice

High-impact educational practices are increasingly being recognized as powerful teaching strategies that can positively impact both student and faculty experiences in the classroom. Student persistence in college is correlated to campus integration, and one way this can be successfully facilitated is through student–faculty research partnerships. This paper documents the process of one faculty research team integrating four undergraduate students into an ongoing research project, for which students received course credit. There were many benefits of this collaboration to both student and faculty participants, but there were also many opportunities to better streamline the project and to potentially create an institutional template for replication of this process so that other faculty members can learn from this experience and more easily successfully integrate students into their own research.

The effects of gesture and movement training on the intonation of children’s singing in vocal warm-up sessions

The main purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of gesture and movement training for beginning children’s choirs with regard to improving intonation. It was a between-subjects design with one independent variable Training Technique (TT). One dependent variable was measured: intonation in the singing of vocal pattern warm-up exercises. Fifty-three fifth grade students (10–11 years old) participated in the empirical investigation. They were randomly assigned into three training groups: (1) Group 1— students who received no gesture and movement training; (2) Group 2— students who received gesture training; and (3) Group 3— students who received gesture and movement training. The instructional unit, consisting of two 40-minute sessions per week for 24 sessions, focused on vocal development. Each individual was pretested and posttested on singing 5 vocal patterns, selected from some 20 learned in the sessions. Three experts were asked to judge the children’s individual singing of these patterns, assessing intonation. Results showed that the children who received gesture and/or movement training sang significantly more in tune than those who did not. It was concluded that gesture training has a positive effect on improving children’s intonation. Furthermore, the combination of gesture and movement training could be a powerful teaching strategy in choral rehearsals.

Enhancing gesture quality in young singers

ABSTRACTStudies have shown positive results for the use of gesture as a successful technique in aiding children's singing. The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of movement training for children with regard to enhancing gesture quality. Thirty-six fifth-grade students participated in the empirical investigation. They were randomly assigned into control and experimental groups: (1) control group – children who sang with gesture but without movement training and (2) experimental group – children who sang with gesture and received Dalcrozian movement training. The gestures were designed for developing singing voice, whereas the movement activities were designed for developing effective gestures for singing. The instructional unit, consisting of two 40-minute sessions per week for 24 sessions, focused on gesture use in singing. Each individual child was tested a Chinese art song. Three experts were asked to judge the children's individual gesture and singing performances by using a nine-point scale. Results showed that the children who received movement training gained a significantly higher score on gesture quality. It was concluded that the combination of gesture and movement training could be a powerful teaching strategy in children's singing.

Team-Based Learning in Law

Used for over thirty years in a wide variety of fields, Team-Based Learning is a powerful teaching strategy that improves student learning. Used effectively, it enables students to actively engage in applying legal concepts in every class -- without sacrificing coverage. Because this teaching strategy has been used in classes with over 200 students, it also provides an efficient and affordable way to provide significant learning. Based on the principles of instructional design, Team-Based Learning has built-in student accountability, promotes independent student preparation, and fosters professional skills. This article provides an overview of Team-Based Learning, reasons to adopt this teaching strategy in light of Best Practices for Legal Education and the Carnegie and MacCrate reports, concrete methods to use Team-Based Learning in Law School, and ways to address challenges to this teaching strategy. Co-authors Sophie M. Sparrow and Margaret Sova McCabe provide examples from their years of teaching a variety of courses using Team-Based Learning.

Enquiry-driven fieldwork as a rich and powerful teaching strategy – school practices in secondary geography education in the Netherlands

Given its active and enquiry-driven character, fieldwork is seen as an important way to develop geographical understanding of the world, during which cognitive and affective learning reinforce each other. The present study aims to give insight into whether and how secondary school geography teachers in the Netherlands succeed in using fieldwork as a rich and powerful teaching strategy. Do they perform fieldwork that is enquiry driven, structurally integrated in the curriculum and stimulates both cognitive and affective development? The results of a questionnaire show that although 71% of the geography teachers do fieldwork, they generally do not succeed in meeting the conditions mentioned above.

The Joy and Responsibility of Teaching Well

The Joy and Responsibility of Teaching Well

‘My Boyfriend Loves it when I Come Home from this Class’: Pedagogy, Titillation, and New Media Technologies

Most classroom uses of new media technologies lack a pedagogy, aesthetic, or both. Performance methods offer a pedagogy; sensual learning offers an aesthetic. Combined, the two comprise a powerful teaching strategy and one that is especially well suited to the use of explicit media in sexualities courses. This article offers some ideas about pedagogy and aesthetics, and, grounded in 35 student evaluations, explores the potential uses of new media technologies and sexually explicit media as a teaching tool.

Nature-based Excursions: School Students' Perceptions of Learning in Natural Environments

Increasingly, environmental educators are incorporating visits to natural areas into their environmental learning programmes for school students. This paper investigates school students' expectations regarding environmental education experiences in natural areas and the attitudinal and behaviour changes they report as a result of their involvement in such programmes. Questionnaire responses from 580 students aged 8-17 years confirmed that learning in natural environments is attractive to students and has an important impact on their attitudes towards the environment, their desire to look after the environment, their behaviour in natural areas and their household environmental practices. It is concluded that combining observation with instruction is a powerful teaching strategy, especially when this allows students to understand the impact of human action on wildlife and natural habitats.

Sociodrama: a teaching method for expanding the understanding of clinical issues.

Sociodrama is a powerful teaching strategy that combines a case study approach with traditional role-play methodology to illustrate critical issues in end-of-life care. Building on principles of adult learning and communication skills, the sociodrama method enables the skilled facilitator to draw on the learner's past experiences as resources for teaching and reflective practice. This article describes the use of sociodrama in end-of-life education with illustrations from actual sessions including key discussion points, a typical instructional plan and staging tips.

Learning by Being: Drama as Total Immersion

Argues that drama is one of the most powerful teaching strategies available in the classroom, in all subject areas. Notes reasons drama is not used much. Describes two drama activities used with seventh-grade students, and how they used it (with excitement) as a way of experiencing, thinking through and representing new understandings.