Secondary Classrooms Research Articles

Beyond error correction in EFL writing in a Finnish upper secondary classroom: a practical approach

In Finland, teachers have considerable autonomy over their assessment practices. Recent studies suggest that FL/L2 teachers, particularly at the upper secondary school, primarily focus on summative assessment rather than on formative assessment and feedback, which is in contrast with the latest Finnish National Core Curricula. Furthermore, while appreciating teacher feedback, learners do not perceive it as an integral part of assessment. In this paper, we propose formative classroom practices to support the learning process and go beyond error correction in FL/L2 writing. These practices are grounded on
 our earlier research, and they focus mainly on two themes: fostering learner choice in feedback and error correction methodology, and supporting peer feedback with the help of a checklist based on the Matriculation Examination rating scale. Drawing from students’ comments and texts, we will explore learner experiences with these assessment practices and the changes they may bring to the classroom.

A Case Study on The Implementation of Collaborative Learning in The Malaysian Lower Secondary Classroom Mallika

Collaborative learning is a highly effective approach that can yield numerous benefits for students, such as enhanced learning outcomes, improved communication skills, increased motivation, and better preparation for the demands of the workplace. The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of collaborative learning in the classroom and the factors that affect students’ participation in collaborative learning activities in Malaysian secondary school. Data were collected using qualitative methods, including group observation and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that most students had positive perceptions towards collaborative learning in the classroom and agreed that collaborative learning helps them in the achievement of learning goals if certain criteria were met. These included the role of the teacher and the role of the group members. The role of the teacher was perceived as crucial in providing direction and guidance for the collaborative activities to ensure successful learning outcomes. Participants felt that better outcomes would also result from collaborative learning if the group could choose its own members. Reasons that hindered students’ active participation or caused reluctance towards collaborative learning were their own self-image and perceptions of their own ability. Personality clashes, lack of cooperation among group members and unclear instructions or lack of guidance from the teacher were also stated as obstacles towards a successful collaborative learning experience.

Opportunities to improve student mathematics achievement and outcomes: Building student–teacher relationships and the integration of inclusive and equity‐minded teaching practices

Opportunities to improve student mathematics achievement and outcomes: Building student–teacher relationships and the integration of inclusive and equity‐minded teaching practices

Comparing students’ and teachers’ perceptions about teachers’ interpersonal behaviour in Greek secondary education

Τeachers’ interpersonal behaviour is considered important for the quality of the student–teacher relationship. The present study examined teachers’ and students’ perceptions regarding teachers’ interpersonal behaviour and the degree of their agreement at the class level. Moreover, this study investigated whether possible differences between them are associated with the teachers’ and classes’ characteristics. Participants were 1669 students and 43 secondary teachers within 85 secondary classrooms in Greece. The Greek version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction was used to assess eight aspects of teachers’ interpersonal behaviour. A high degree of divergence between teachers’ self-perceptions and students’ perceptions about their teachers’ interpersonal behaviour was found. Multiple regression analyses showed that the differences among teachers’ and students’ perceptions can partially be explained by teachers’ years of teaching experience and the degree level, as well as the class educational level. Findings of this study provide specific practical implications.

Moving Towards Inclusive Education: Secondary School Teacher Attitudes Towards Universal Design for Learning in Australia

AbstractAchieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 is underpinned by the provision of quality inclusive education for all young persons, including persons with disabilities. The universal design for learning (UDL) framework provides the basis for establishing an inclusive pedagogical learning environment in classrooms. However, implementing such an inclusive pedagogical framework continues to be profoundly challenging across all countries, including Australia. Teacher attitude is the most important construct in efforts to create inclusive educational contexts. The aim of this study was to examine secondary school teachers’ attitudes towards the UDL framework in Australia. One hundred and twenty mainstream secondary classroom teachers in Sydney completed an online survey. The mean values and standard deviations of a self-designed UDL framework were calculated to examine teacher attitudes. Correlations and multiple regressions were conducted to verify the relationship between teachers’ attitudes and their background variables. The main results indicated that Australian secondary school teacher attitudes towards the UDL framework were generally positive, although they still had some practical concerns, such as having inflexible ideas about how to provide instructions. The findings provide useful insights for developing professional teacher training to promote inclusive education, where the UDL framework is a lens for interpreting inclusive education.

New Directions in Cognitive Grammar and Style

New Directions in Cognitive Grammar and Style

First-year urban secondary teachers’ responses to problematic behavior

Many novice teachers leave the field shortly after being hired due to student problematic behaviors. Utilizing effective strategies is not easy, given the disconnect between what the teachers and the students perceive as appropriate behavior. In this study, the researcher analyzed some strategies first-year teachers used to stop and/or deescalate problematic behaviors in urban secondary classrooms. Twenty-two mathematics and science teachers participated in this study. Results show that the teachers stopped and/or deescalated problematic behavior by changing students seating, rewarding appropriate behavior, conferencing with the students, and soliciting parental and administrative support. For severe circumstances, when students engaged in fighting, teachers implemented emergency plans.

Formative Assessment in Secondary Mathematics: Moving Theory to Recommendations for Evidence-Based Practice

Mathematics teacher educators play a key role in supporting secondary mathematics teachers’ development of effective, research-based formative assessment (FA) practices. We used qualitative research synthesis as a tool to identify actionable recommendations for mathematics teacher educators as they work with teachers on FA practices in secondary classrooms. These recommendations can strengthen the research-based practices of mathematics teacher educators as they support teachers’ collections and uses of FA data to move student thinking forward in secondary mathematics. We share and discuss recommendations for mathematics teacher educators to connect pedagogical content knowledge of students, teaching, and curriculum to FA practices. We also highlight the usefulness of the qualitative synthesis method, meta-aggregation, for generating research-based connections between theory and practice in mathematics education.

Students’ Perceptions Regarding Culturally Sensitive Classrooms: A Case Study of Delhi Schools

<p class="abstrak">India is known for its motto of unity in diversity. Delhi classrooms are mirrors of this diversity. The researchers, being in the capacity of teachers and educators, received regular feedback from trainee teachers regarding the classroom environment of secondary schools in Delhi. During those feedback sessions and in submitted reports on reflections, there were frequent entries on cultural alienation and cultural clashes. These entries forced the researchers to study the status of cultural sensitivity in secondary classrooms in Delhi. The study discusses the perceptions of students regarding their own cultural identity, their peers’ cultural identity, and shared experiences of cultural alienation, bullying, or conflicts in their classrooms. The study also discusses students’ expectations of their teachers in creating culturally sensitive classrooms. This is a descriptive study. Ex post-facto survey design was chosen for the study of culturally sensitive classrooms. The sample consists of 445 students in 12 schools in Delhi (five public and seven private). The self-prepared questionnaire for students called the Cultural Sensitivity Questionnaire for Students (CSQS) with CVR 0.68 was used as the tool. The study concluded that cultural alienation, bullying, and conflicts occur because of mutual ignorance of each other’s culture.</p>

The construction of interactive and multimodal reading in school—a performative, collaborative and dynamic reading

This study aims to demonstrate how interactions between a Visual Analytics (VA) application and students shape an interactive and multimodal reading practice. VA is a technology offering support with analysing vast amounts of data through visualisations. Such information-rich interactive interfaces provide possibilities for students to gain insights, find correlations, draw conclusions and gain insights, but they also generate complexities concerning how to ‘read’ multimodal information on a screen. Inspired by Design-Based Research, interventions were designed and conducted in five social science secondary classrooms. The interactions between the VA application Statistics eXplorer and the students were video captured. A socio-material semiotic approach guides the analyses of how interactions between all actors (the interactive visualisations, the written text, the teachers, students, etc.) produce a reading network. The results show a reading characterised by being performative, collaborative, and dynamic. A combination of visuals and text supports the reading. However, visuals such as colour, highlighting and movement dominantly attract students’ attention, while written text often becomes subordinate and sometimes even ‘invisible’. Hence, this paper argues that it is vital for teachers to didactically support students’ visual reading skills.

Advancing a theory of change in a collaborative teacher education program innovation through universal design for learning

This design-based research (DBR) investigates the redesign of a 13-month interdisciplinary teacher preparation program to co-prepare secondary and special education teacher candidates to plan and implement evidence-based practices to meet content and literacy needs of all learners within secondary classrooms. The Theory of Change explores mechanisms for change under the umbrella of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The UDL framework can support teacher candidates in meeting the needs of students with exceptionalities in the general education classroom, yet few studies have explored the in-depth application of UDL in authentic settings across preparation program duration. DBR methods organize study design, iterative data collection, and retrospective analysis of artifacts including candidates' edTPA portfolios and action research papers. Findings revealed strengths and challenges in candidates’ (n = 14) application of components. Results for specific components and various disciplines are discussed. Implications for collaborative preparation of general and special education candidates are identified.

A Restorative Justice Book Club for Secondary Classrooms

A Restorative Justice Book Club for Secondary Classrooms

Ocenianie dłuższych wypowiedzi pisemnych w języku obcym w szkole ponadpodstawowej

According to the official reports on students’ performance in the secondary school final exam, writing is one of the most difficult language skills for L2 secondary school students in Poland. Not only is writing problematic for students, but it is also troublesome for teacher to correct and assess students’ texts. Thus, the article discusses criteria and methods of evaluating writing in the foreign language secondary classroom as well as problems related with writing and assessment. The author focuses on the process approach to writing, on the basis of which formative assessment can be applied in the L2 writing classroom context.

Implementation of ELT Training in Bangladeshi Secondary Classrooms: Challenges & Recommendations

When a curriculum is renewed or modified, the necessity of training becomes more inevitable to help teachers to cope with the innovations. With a view to enhancing the quality of English language learning, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was introduced in Bangladesh and accordingly, English language teachers have been trained to address this change. In this paper, attempts have been made to investigate the degree of implementation of the teaching skills, techniques, and knowledge the teachers received from the training session, and identify the challenges they faced while implementing them in classrooms. There have also been efforts to learn more about the recommendations of the practicing teachers. In doing so, the study adopts an explanatory mixed-method study and collects data from students, teachers, and master trainers using tools, such as a questionnaire, classroom observation, and focus group discussion. Findings suggest that because of several contextual, pedagogical, cultural, and infrastructural factors, trained teachers are unable to implement their newly-acquired knowledge in their classes. With a view to including the voices of the practitioners working at the grassroot level, the study ends with a presentation of the recommendations of the teachers and trainers to overcome th

Social Problems in the Secondary Classroom: Gaps in Teacher Initial and Ongoing Training in the Andalusian Region of Spain from the Perspective of Intercultural Education and New Technologies

The aim of this article is to analyze the initial and ongoing training of secondary school teachers to deal with the social problems of students in the classroom from the perspective of intercultural education and new technologies. The research starts from the thesis that these social problems can influence the academic and social success or failure of adolescents. Intercultural education and ICTs, with sustainability values, can favor the maturation process of students. The methodology used has been mixed: (1) documentary analysis of the curriculum of initial and continuing teacher training in relation to these social problems; (2) qualitative techniques with teachers, such as interviews and discussion groups to learn about their discourses regarding their professional vision and the training received. This has allowed us to understand professional practice from the perspective of intercultural education and new technologies. The results show training gaps in the curriculum for secondary school teachers to be able to work on social problems in the classroom with interculturality, together with the challenge of including new technologies and sustainability in the accompaniment of students. This research has done in Andalusia, the southernmost region of Spain, but with a desire to extrapolate its conclusions to other national or international contexts.

Managing classroom misbehaviours in the Hong Kong English Medium Instruction secondary classrooms: A translanguaging perspective

Studies in English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) classroom interaction have explored how content teachers can utilise various resources to encourage student engagement and facilitate the teaching and learning processes. However, less attention has been paid in terms of how teachers manage unexpected student behaviours that transgress the classroom order and disrupt the flow of classroom interaction. This article explores how EMI teachers contingently mobilise various multilingual and multimodal resources and sociocultural knowledge to address the moments when students produce socially unacceptable and inappropriate behaviour in regard to the normative expectancies in the classrooms. The data of this study is obtained from a larger linguistic ethnographic project in Hong Kong EMI secondary classrooms. Multimodal Conversation Analysis is employed to analyse the classroom interaction data and the analysis is triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interviews which are analysed with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. I argue that the EMI teachers construct a translanguaging space which affords them to draw on multiple resources to address student misbehaviours that transgresses norms for classroom participation. Such a safe space allows teachers to resume the forward progression of classroom activity and ease the tension between the teachers' authority and students’ participation in the classroom.

An analysis of education academics' attitudes and preconceptions about Indigenous Knowledges in initial teacher education

For more than 20 years, there has been effort made within primary and secondary classrooms and curricula to include Indigenous peoples’ perspectives. This has been met with mixed reactions from classroom teachers. Initial teacher education academics and providers have also been slow to implement and transform their teaching and learning despite the shift in policy rhetoric. This paper reports on a small pilot study conducted at a Queensland university exploring how academics perceive the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledges within both institutional and professional contexts and initial teacher education programs. Findings varied, however, they generally indicate a lack of institutional and individual responsibility to embed Indigenous Knowledges in initial teacher education. The paper argues for the urgency for change and the need for non-Indigenous academics and initial teacher education providers to begin critical conversations about how Indigenous Knowledges are being silenced within their current practices, and ways in which they can do better.

Music as an enhacer of EFL spelling skills in diverse secondary classrooms

This research has as a main aim to check the benefits of using music in the FL classrooms, specifically with students who present lower proficiency levels in the target language. In order to carry out this project, the design of a pedagogical intervention has been necessary. In particular, two groups of the first year of secondary education took part. One group belonged to a bilingual program, the other one was a group formed by students with some difficulties in their learning process, due to diverse circumstances. The intervention focused on teaching the spelling of the sounds /aI/, /eI/, /i:/ and of regular and irregular verbs in the past simple tense having music an essential role during the sessions. The intervention lasted three sessions, data was collected through two dictation passages made at the beginning and at the end of the intervention. Classroom observation also offered qualitative data. Data gathered show interesting results which are highly positive. However, some students would need more time to acquire the knowledge expected. Finally, some pedagogical implications for future teaching interventions are provided.

Investigating Teachers’ Perceptions of L1 Use in English as a Foreign Language Moroccan Secondary Classrooms: A Post-Communicative Perspective

This article draws on an online survey to collect data about the perceptions of Moroccan secondary school teachers of English in connection with their use of translation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning settings. As in previous research on L1 (first language) use, this study emphasizes the unavoidability of translation and the discrepancy between teachers’ attitudes and their real teaching habits. Uncovering participants’ lack of awareness of the communicative benefits of translation is the major contribution of this study. We recommend reconsidering the communicative prospects of translation for teachers who face the dilemma of inevitable translation, and the trepidation of its long-held uncommunicative assumption.

Literacy (Dis)Orientations in a Secondary Classroom: Possibilities and Limits of an IntersectionalLGBTQ+‐Inclusive Curriculum

AbstractDrawing from a yearlong literacy ethnography conducted at a high school in a Midwestern U.S. city, this article extends queer literacies and queer pedagogies scholarship by exploring the frictions and resonances between strategies of inclusion and queering. While inclusion strategies emphasize using expanded representations of sexuality and gender, such as of LGBTQ+ life, queering approaches often trouble inclusion through, for instance, questioning normativities and epistemologies and embracing partiality, uncertainty, and crisis in learning. To unpack interconnections between inclusion and queering, I present an ethnographic case of a lesson in a sophomore humanities course, focusing on the teacherly moves of an English language arts educator leading an instructional conversation about a nonfiction article describing intersections among sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, and class with respect to food insecurity. Engaging Ahmed's (2006) queer theorization of orientations, I develop the heuristic ofliteracy (dis)orientationsto describe the layered mixture of classroom literacy performances challenging and reifying oppressive values regarding intersections among sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, and class. The teacher disoriented students away from (homo)normativities regarding knowledge of LGBTQ+ communities and reoriented them toward and around nuanced, intersectional understandings of queer and trans life. However, these anti‐oppressive possibilities were limited by orientations around a banking model of education and binaries. This ethnographic case suggests that educators sanctioning literacy orientationstowardintersectional LGBTQ+‐inclusive curriculum presents possibilities for liberatory social change insofar as they disorient students away from education‐as‐banking and epistemological binaries and reorient themaroundalternative ways of knowing, specifically intersectionality as a queering epistemology.