Secondary Classrooms Research Articles

Cinema as a didactic tool in the secondary school foreign language classroom: French

The seventh art forms an essential part of the students’ daily lives; additionally, it has been asserted that it is a highly advantageous didactic tool for high school foreign language learners. Thus, the purpose of this empirical study is twofold: to explore high school learners’ perception on the didactic exploitation of films in the French classroom, and to determine whether or not the cinema-based approach is as beneficial for high school French students as it seems. Accordingly, a cinema-based teaching unit was put into practice in two high school French classrooms and, afterwards, the thirty-five participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire in order to examine their views on this methodology and analyse its effects on their language learning process. The results obtained have revealed that high school French students have a very positive opinion on the cinema-based approach and that this method is motivating and helps learners to enhance their linguistic and sociocultural competences.

The Impact of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on Student Self-Determination in Inclusive, Secondary Classrooms

Previous research reported differences in student self-determination based on disability status. Specifically, students without disabilities consistently self-report higher self-determination compared with their peers with disabilities, suggesting differential opportunities and supports for self-determination exist within school contexts. To further examine potential differences in student self-determination, the present study examined the impact of an evidence-based practice designed to promote student self-determination, the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI), on student self-determination outcomes when implemented in inclusive, secondary core content classrooms as a universal (i.e., Tier 1) support across an academic year. Findings suggested a relatively small change in overall self-determination during the first year of a multiyear study, but consistent patterns across students with and without disabilities. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

A Critical Review of Learning Environment Policy Discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand

The Ministry of Education is funding a significant building programme for primary and secondary classrooms across Aotearoa, New Zealand. In New Zealand there is an expectation that new or refurbished classrooms will be innovative, modern or flexible learning environments. This paper reports findings from a critical policy analysis of the discourse within Ministry of Education documents focusing on the design of learning environments published 2010–2019. Using a ‘what’s the problem’ approach (Bacchi in Women, policy and politics: the construction of policy problems, Sage, London, 1999), we examine the representation of the ‘problems’ which the policy documents relating to modern learning environments intend to address. We use an eight-stage process of analysis of these documents in order to identify policy priorities, ideologies, assumptions and potential outcomes in order to see how these are used to justify authority and action. This analysis revealed two larger ‘problems’ and a number of subthemes underpinning these documents. We suggest that the construction of these problems has conflated many aspects of both space and teaching and learning and relied on unquestioned assumptions about ‘modern’ learning and collaborative teaching. We conclude by considering the implications of this policy direction for New Zealand’s education system.

The links between pedagogical competence, instructional quality, and mathematics achievement in the lower secondary classroom

It is widely assumed that teachers play a key role in providing high-quality learning opportunities to students and fostering students’ learning. Yet it is still unclear how specific teacher knowledge facets as part of their professional competence contribute to classroom processes and learning outcomes. Focusing on mathematics education at the secondary level, this study investigates the links between teachers’ pedagogical competence (i.e., cognitive pedagogical facets of their professional competence), instructional quality, and students’ mathematics achievement. The sample comprises mathematics teacher and student data from 59 classrooms in Germany. Student mathematics achievement was measured across two time points (grade 7 and 8). Teachers’ pedagogical competence was tested using two tests measuring their general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) and situation-specific classroom management expertise (CME). Instructional quality was measured using observational rating data from in vivo rating in mathematics classrooms. Research questions on the relation of teachers’ competence and students’ mathematics achievement were answered using multilevel models. Results from multilevel regression analyses indicate that both GPK and CME predict instructional quality. Direct statistical effects on students’ mathematical progress were identified, whereas no indirect statistical effects via instructional quality could be identified. Although teachers’ measured pedagogical competence is not subject-specific, it serves as a significant predictor for cognitive activation as an indispensable part of quality-oriented mathematical teaching and learning processes in the lower secondary mathematics classroom, and it contributes to students’ mathematical progress.

Teaching the Plant Kingdom Using Cooperative Learning and Plants Elements: A Case Study with Spanish Secondary School Students

The learning of the plant kingdom can be achieved more successfully if tasks involved the direct contact with elements of the vegetal world where students have the possibility of working in small groups cooperatively within in the secondary classroom. This paper analyses the student’s understanding of the general and floral physiology of angiosperms within a teaching sequence where the cooperative learning was used with 74 Spanish secondary school students. The influence on learning of group work and the use of natural elements was assessed by comparing two tasks administered individually before and after the sequence. The Fisher exact test detected statistically significant differences between the two stages in favour of cooperative learning and the use of plants. We can conclude that this active method of learning the plant kingdom as it enables students to physically get closer to the subject of the plant kingdom whilst developing their scientific knowledge through group work.

As One Generation Tells Another: Teaching James Joyce in a Secondary Classroom by Dylan Emerick-Brown

As One Generation Tells Another: Teaching James Joyce in a Secondary Classroom by Dylan Emerick-Brown

Which Came First: Literacy or Social Studies? How Primary Sources Can Bridge the Divide

Due to the implementation of No Child Left Behind and the Common Core State Standards, disciplinary literacy has become a vital component of social studies instruction in middle and secondary classrooms. This paper determines the degree to which nine middle and high school social studies teachers were successful in designing integrated learning experiences for their students after attending professional development. Data from semi-structured interviews, teachers’ instructional units, workshop surveys and field notes were collected and analyzed for the qualitative study. The study considers how teachers’ instructional units incorporated primary sources to support students’ foundational literacy skills, scaffolded disciplinary understanding, historical analysis, and highlighted community issues that connected their lived experiences to broader social concerns.

Animal sciences in the secondary classroom: Considering didactic strategies available through distance learning

AbstractThe coronavirus pandemic of 2019 transformed the way that educators, across all levels and disciplines, seek to establish and provide a pedagogically sound curriculum. With the continued need to transform curriculum into an online format, secondary‐level animal science instructors have several points to consider if their applied discipline will now be rooted in a virtual format. Educators can commence with crafting a logical course structure that remains cognizant of the challenges, and opportunities, posed by teaching online. Subsequently, educators can explore different opportunities available through educational technology (i.e., digital notebooks, asynchronous discussions, guest speakers, etc.) that can then be employed to meet course objectives. For example, educators can inquire with school‐site administration and inter‐/intra‐district colleagues about technology that has already been adopted by their institution. Altogether, this communication aims to express that modern challenges can be addressed with modern solutions, which integrate past and novel pedagogical strategies. In this way, secondary‐level courses, such as those centered in the animal sciences, can thrive amid the novel upheaval to contemporary education.

SCHOOL CULTURE PRESCRIBED IN EXPERIMENTAL SECONDARY SCHOOL CLASSES IN PORTO ALEGRE (1959)

Abstract This article aims to understand the school culture prescribed in the curricular plans sent to the Ministry of Education in 1959 to obtain authorization for experimental secondary classrooms in some schools of Porto Alegre (RS). Public schools proposed two different courses with nuclei of mandatory and elective subjects. The private school, directed to the female sex, defined only one school course, which consisted of mandatory and elective subjects, in addition to participation in clubs.

Co-Learning in Hong Kong English medium instruction mathematics secondary classrooms: a translanguaging perspective

Recent studies on classroom discourse have challenged the traditional classroom role set and emphasised equal contributions from the participants and the emergence of knowledge through active participation. Co-learning emphasises the process in which teachers and students attempt to adapt to one another's behaviour and learn from each other in order to produce desirable learning outcomes. Current research has paid little attention to the ways in which content teachers and students jointly negotiate new knowledge in bi/multilingual classrooms. Based on data collected from a linguistic ethnography in Hong Kong English-Medium-Instruction secondary mathematics classrooms, this paper uses translanguaging as an analytical perspective to analyse how the EMI teacher and students co-learn in the classroom. The data are analysed using Multimodal Conversation Analysis and triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interviews which are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The paper argues that translanguaging creates a safe space for co-learning that emphasises equity in knowledge construction and challenges the hierarchical relationship between the teacher and the learner.

The Consequences of English Learner as a Category in Teaching, Learning, and Research

AbstractThe evolution of a pervasive negative view of immigrants and its role in classroom achievement in the United States is described in this paper; beginning in the crowded urban secondary classrooms of the 1800s, to IQ testing in the 1920s that identified many as morons, imbeciles, or idiots, and to an English‐only view that permeates public and political views of teaching and learning. It is argued that categories such as ELL are ill‐advised because they obscure diversity and inform neither instruction nor research because they are unidimensional and misrepresent important underlying diversity. It is argued that evidence‐based strategies should inform teaching and learning, but that evaluating research is the purview of teachers themselves, including conducting classroom‐based action research to test recommended strategies. Concludes with general guidelines to evaluate research.

La enseñanza del verbo y la actividad metalingüística de los alumnos. Dos investigaciones en aulas de Secundaria

La investigación en Didáctica de la lengua persigue entender las relaciones entre la perspectiva de la enseñanza, la perspectiva del aprendizaje y la de los contenidos trabajados en el aula de Lengua. Este artículo pone el foco en el verbo como contenido gramatical a partir de dos investigaciones centradas en la actividad metalingüística de los alumnos de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. En la primera, los estudiantes intentan explicar las diferencias entre los tiempos verbales del pasado como paso previo para utilizarlos en la escritura. En la segunda, la reflexión se centra en el subjuntivo a partir de una actividad de pares mínimos que tiene como objetivo comprender cómo conceptualizan la noción de modo verbal. Los datos de aula, en ambos casos, permiten entender los logros y las dificultades que los estudiantes encuentran cuando reflexionan sobre las nociones gramaticales. Ofrecen asimismo información valiosa para entender los problemas a los que ha de responder una gramática pedagógica, es decir, una gramática que sea útil para el aprendizaje en la enseñanza no universitaria.

Training music teachers in England – what is the music that is being taught in secondary schools?

This article describes policy and practice issues surrounding the training of intending music teachers in England. It tells of how there has been governmental regulation, and ministerial interference, in many aspects of this, from numbers entering the profession, to the nature of what is actually taught and learned in secondary school classrooms. Building on research evidence, it then goes on to describe how there are a number of aspects of teaching and learning which are contentious, and which can have an exclusory function. Finally, it suggests that an international audience may have much to learn from this situation.

Secondary School Mathematics Teachers’ Instructional Practices in the Integration of Mathematics Analysis Software (MAS)

This study aimed to examine mathematics teachers’ integration of Mathematics Analysis Software (MAS) in the teaching of mathematics at upper secondary school classrooms. It employed a qualitative approach with classroom observations and interviews for the data collection. The study was carried out in Indonesia, and the participants were ten mathematics teachers from ten secondary schools. The finding suggested that the participants failed to take advantage of pedagogical opportunities to digital technology in facilitating students’ knowledge construction. In addition, this study revealed that the instructional practices with technology at classroom and subject levels were closely related to the type of tasks they set in their lessons. Moreover, the findings indicate that it is important for mathematics teachers to set technology-rich mathematics tasks for students to fully capitalized pedagogical opportunities of Mathematics Analysis Software.

Teaching Jihad: Developing Religious Literacy through Graphic Novels

This study examined the representations of jihad in graphic novels to ascertain how its depictions may inform the development of religious literacy in secondary classrooms. Hegemonic constructions of jihad in the West are commonly reduced to false binaries that shape non-Muslims’ extant beliefs and perceptions of Islam and Muslims. This raises concerns about the ways in which societal expectations shape knowledge formation in schools. Accordingly, this critical content analysis explored the depiction of jihad in three graphic novel memoirs, an increasingly popular medium of instruction in secondary classrooms. Our analysis identified three forms of jihad conveyed through the graphic novels, specifically: jihad for education, jihad for gender justice, and jihad for identity. These representations provide robust counternarratives and suggest the value of teaching religious concepts through graphic novels as a way to develop deeper understandings and counter misinformation. The article concludes with six recommendations for educators to consider when teaching religious content through contemporary graphic novels.

The Interaction of Gender and Pedagogy on Learning Motivations in a Secondary PBL Mathematics Classroom

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactive effects of gender, learning motivations, and pedagogy (Project-Based Learning [PBL] and conventional) on secondary mathematics learning. In order to measure their academic achievement and learning motivations, 165 secondary students were given a state standardized mathematics test and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Study results indicated that pedagogy and gender had no impact on academic achievement. Pedagogy played a stronger role in rehearsal, peer learning, and task value. Gender played a stronger role in test anxiety, organization, help seeking, and control of learning. PBL students seemed to value and actively engage in the mathematics more than did the conventional students.

Research on the Effective Strategies of Core Literacy and Students' Self-study in Secondary Vocational English Classroom Teaching

Research on the Effective Strategies of Core Literacy and Students' Self-study in Secondary Vocational English Classroom Teaching

Teaching Our Town Through a Dramaturgical Lens

Abstract This article establishes the dramaturgical process as a means of teaching dramatic content in the secondary classroom with a specific focus on Thornton Wilder's Our Town as the core text. By utilizing a problem-based approach, students work through the dramaturgical process while reading and analyzing the play. Facets of the dramaturgical process are facilitated by students' use of self-scheduled activities and digital resources including a unit website to research past performances of the play, analyze primary sources, and make contemporary connections. The end goal of the unit is for students to create their own dramatic content.

Productive Technology Use in Mathematics Explorations

We investigate different ways interactive diagrams can be used in secondary mathematics classrooms.

Comparing Student Proofs to Explore a Structural Property in Abstract Algebra

ABSTRACT Connecting and comparing across student strategies has been shown to be productive for students in elementary and secondary classrooms. We have recently been working on a project converting such practices from the K–12 level to the undergraduate classroom. In this paper, we share a particular instantiation of this practice in an abstract algebra setting. Students compare across two common proof approaches to showing that the Abelian property is preserved by isomorphism. We share a complete sample lesson where students make sense of the theorem and the two proof approaches, then leverage the differences between them in order to modify both proofs and mathematical statements. We conclude with the students' reflections on the activities, and share our learnings from adapting best practices from K–12 to this new setting.