Summative Reflections Research Articles

Into the Buzzing World: Integrating Artwork with Fieldwork to Learn About Bees

This article describes a pedagogical approach that integrated artistic expression with experiential fieldwork to enhance pupils’ learning of bees. Initially, pupils were tasked with creating an artwork of a bee or bees based on their preconceived notions, allowing teachers to identify their prior ideas of bees. Afterward, an immersive field activity was conducted to provide pupils with an opportunity to close-up observe live honey and native bees in canola fields and their pollination processes. Through teacher-guided explorations, pupils systematically inspected the morphology of various bee species, relating their external structures to associated functions. The fieldwork allowed for detailed observations of bees’ features, such as the proboscis, antennae, and legs, and their roles in nectar collection and pollen distribution. In addition, exposure to honey and native bees informed pupils of the differences in their stinging, nesting and sociality. Pupils’ summative reflections post-fieldwork suggest that the immersive fieldwork enabled multi-sensory modes of learning barely available in a traditional classroom setting. By juxtaposing the new insights from field observations with the prior ideas of bees embodied in their initial artworks, pupils achieved gains in both their conceptual understandings and perceptual knowledge about bees. Pupils acknowledged deeper understandings of bee anatomy, pollination processes and the diversity within bee species. This approach to learning about bees epitomizes the value of empirical investigation for advancing pupils’ scientific practices and understanding life science core ideas of how animals' external structures fulfill various functions and of how plants and pollinators are interdependent, as highlighted in <i>the Next Generation Science Standards</i>. The integration of artwork creation and experiential fieldwork exemplifies an effective pedagogical approach for enhancing pupils' engagement and learning of biological ideas.

Enabling computing students to recognize acquired competencies with ePortfolios

ABSTRACT Background and Context While higher education in Norway intends to ensure students can translate academic learning to real-world settings, a gap persists in computing students’ perceptions of their acquired competencies. Objective This study aims to understand the gap and explore how formative assessment with ePortfolios can help students recognize acquired competencies. Method This study investigates data from a national student survey, summative reflections from 67 computing students’ exams at the end of a course, and observations of their ePortfolio development during the course. Findings The ePortfolio emerges as a powerful tool, enabling students to actively record their learning journey, recognize acquired competencies, and gain a holistic understanding of the total learning outcomes, thus bridging the identified gap. Implications This study offers insights into how ePortfolios can help computing students recognize acquired competencies and present implications and recommendations for higher education institutions and teachers.

Exploring Teacher Motivation to Implement After an Online Professional Development by Using Expectancy-value-cost theory

This case study investigated the variations in teacher motivation to implement an instructional design model (Understanding by Design, UbD) after a seven-week online professional development (PD). Data were collected through a motivation scale and formative and summative reflection forms. Based on the quantitative results, teachers had high task value but differed in terms of their expectancy of success. Our qualitative findings produced two significant perceived costs behind doubted ability beliefs: First, teachers expressed difficulties in integrating the elements of the UbD into the centralised national curriculum, which they found to be intensive and confusing. Second, the lack of on-the-job support after PD programs negatively impacted teachers' expectancy of success. This study emphasises the importance of considering teachers' expectancy of success and task value before, during, and after PD programs, highlighting the need for tailored support and activities to enhance teachers' motivation and successful implementation of new learning in their classrooms.

Institutional and Structural Isolationism Within and Among Land-Grant Universities: Chronic Maladies Impacting Community Engagement That Demand Long Overdue Remedies of Relief

In this essay, the author provides a summative reflection on the articles included in this special issue of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship.

Applying Differentiated Instruction in Elementary Classrooms: Practice and Reflection of Student Teachers

Differentiated instruction has a direct impact on the quality of teaching in inclusive classrooms. For student teachers, their ability to plan and apply differentiation is a factor in transformation from a dependent to an independent teacher. This study examines student teachers’ practice of differentiated instruction to meet diverse needs of elementary students including English learners. The participants completed a survey, planned and taught lessons, and wrote summative reflection on areas to improve after student teaching. The results indicated that the group preferred to use some strategies more than others to differentiate instruction. However, application of the same strategies varied in how instructional activities were organized and level of student participation. Analysis of the after student teaching summative reflection revealed a focus on assessments of student learning. The student teachers would like to further develop in differentiation by exploring assessments not only from a teacher perspective but also through student self-assessment to promote active participation and self-directed learning. The findings indicated that the participants recognized the importance of comprehensive assessments in applying differentiation to support students of diverse needs as a result of completing student teaching. Implications for teacher preparation are also discussed. Keywords: differentiated instruction, student teaching, elementary level, English learners DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-27-01 Publication date: September 30 th 2021

Selecting Quality Picture Books for Mathematics Instruction: What Do Preservice Teachers Look For?

A quality picture book can enhance instruction and build positive and meaningful connections that enable students to visualize and engage in mathematics. To learn more about how preservice teachers analyze and select quality picture books in their mathematics lessons, a study was conducted over two semesters during a required field experience component of an undergraduate teacher education program. The preservice teachers were required to use a picture book to explore a mathematical concept in three mathematics-focused lesson plans. Data was collected through preservice teachers’ lesson plan reflections, summative reflections over the experience of integrating picture books and mathematics, and focus group interviews. The qualitative data analysis revealed that in planning mathematics lessons to incorporate quality picture books, preservice teachers most often selected a book based on the topic to be taught or based on previous use by their university instructor. The quality of the selected picture books did not appear to be a critical criterion for selection. As a result, it is important for teacher educators to model ways of assessing and selecting quality picture books and provide opportunities for preservice teachers to incorporate these techniques.

Technology Experiences of Student Interns in a One to One Mobile Program

This article describes how a group of student intern teachers (n = 51) in a one to one teacher education iPad program were asked to reflect using Experience Sampling Method (ESM) on their use of technology in the classroom during internship. Interns also completed summative reflections and class discussions. Data collected both in online and paper-based summative reflections were subjected to content analysis and triangulated with classroom discussions. The responses showed that interns tended toward teacher-focused uses of technology and were frustrated by their inability to use technology due to infrastructure or cooperating teacher beliefs and practices related to technology. Implications and plans for improved support is discussed.

Cowboy Christians by Marie W. Dallam

Reviewed by: Cowboy Christians by Marie W. Dallam Sean P. Cunningham Cowboy Christians. By Marie W. Dallam. ( New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 248. Notes, bibliography, index.) Marie W. Dallam's Cowboy Christians is an engaging, interdisciplinary analysis of one of the lesser studied, but certainly more interesting subcultures within the broader scope of modern American evangelicalism. Relying heavily on a mix of personal communication, first-hand accounts, and secondary literature, Dallam illuminates the human dimensions of this subculture. The result is a study that is informative, compelling, and consumable. The book begins with an extended introduction of "cowboy Christianity" detailing its various definitions, characteristics, and iterations, including a discussion of historiographical placement and methodology. An associate professor in religious studies, Dallam is not a professionally trained historian. But she is clearly comfortable with many of the historio-graphical parameters that will be of great interest to historians, and she effectively positions her study within these parameters. She is particularly effective when discussing her work as part of a larger conversation about western mythos, as opposed to western history, not so much in distinguishing fact from fiction, but in the enduring value of the fiction as summative reflection on muscular Christian tradition in the United States. Dallam describes the incorporation of heroic, romantic themes like rugged individualism, liberty, and courage into the organizing soul of cowboy Christianity. [End Page 242] In her words, the "core of cowboy culture relates to an imagined history of white, able-bodied men riding horses across a pristine landscape, assuming authority as caretakers of land and animals, and interacting with each other in noble ways" (7). To the degree that adherents have perceived this culture to be under siege by the forces of secular modernity, cowboy Christians have rallied to a sort of movement in which nostalgia reigns and traditional order is well protected. However, the growth of cowboy Christian culture has also been enhanced by an ability to balance preservation of order with a raw, stripped down, pretention-free quest for authenticity that prioritizes personal conversion (justification) and growth (sanctification) ahead of collective behavior modification, politicized culture wars, or the "health, wealth, and prosperity" gospel of stereotypical suburban megachurches. Thanks to more than fifty personal visits to cowboy church services, Dallam skillfully takes her readers into this world, or more accurately, into the arena. Though this book relies heavily on the author's personal experiences in Texas and Oklahoma, Dallam extrapolates most of her conclusions to all cowboy churches in the United States, a number that she estimates is between 500 and 1000. This approach seems justifiable and valid, but Dallam makes no effort to hide what some may see as potential holes in her methodology. Similarly, Dallam acknowledges that racial homogeneity, and possibly even an underlying belief in white supremacy, is part of cowboy culture; yet, for reasons briefly outlined, she does not use race as a lens for analysis. However, she does eagerly tackle issues of gender and sexuality, with laudable balance and sensitivity, because her goal is sociocultural understanding, not polemical agitation. In fact, as an evangelical myself, I applaud Dallam for her delicate and respectful tone, which avoids much of the condescension and judgment that in some ways inspires the very cowboy subculture she has written about. Even if those she interviewed choose to disagree with some of her conclusions, few should question Dallam's original intent, nor will many scholars find her critical assessments lacking in bite. I should add that the book is not only about church services, but also explores Christian consumerism, sport, and the growing dichotomies between rural and urban life, or perhaps more accurately, between exurban and suburban life. In short, this is a good book that deserves a wide audience. It is a slice of modern Americana. One could quibble with the methodology, the bibliography, or the failure to chase a few seductive rabbits. But at the end of the day, one should not question its interdisciplinary value. [End Page 243] Sean P. Cunningham Texas Tech University Copyright © 2018 The Texas State Historical Association

Learning and teaching about the Shoah: retrospect and prospect

ABSTRACTThe “IHRA Education Research Project” and its concluding conference in Lucerne in February 2016 make it necessary to give a summative reflection about normative purposes, empirical results, and pragmatic ways of education about the Shoah. There is some ambivalence in all three fields. “Europeanization” has succeeded, but “universalization” not really. Two necessary (but partly conflicting) main goals are “commemoration of victims” and “prevention of genocides,” implicating conclusions for actual crises like the Syrian civil war and fugitives. In the realm of empirical findings, there are some moral limits of research methods, many illusions about great results can be destroyed, and different “contexts” prove to be absolutely decisive. Therefore, comparisons are very important as well as very difficult, and “normal everyday teaching/learning” has to be distinguished carefully from intervention by “elaborated best-practice teaching.” Unavoidably, some of the remarks are given mainly from the special situation and experience of living as a second-generation person in a former perpetrators’ society.

Fostering critical and reflective thinking in an authentic learning situation

ABSTRACT This article describes a research study in which 10 early childhood education students participated in facilitated critical reflection experiences during a 7-week practicum. Students’ critical thinking skills were quantitatively assessed using the Cornell Critical Thinking Test and qualitatively documented through analysis of daily, weekly, and summative reflections. While quantitative results showed no significant changes in measurable critical thinking skills, students’ levels of critical reflection increased when they were provided with regular guidance and appropriate tools. Students were able to demonstrate critical reflection through group discussions and written reflections while engaged in a process consisting of fading levels of structure, thought provoking questions, and meaningful experiences in environments that challenged their preconceived notions and typical practices.

Critical reflection: scaffolding social responsiveness for first-year students

The teaching and assessment of socially responsive critical reflection in higher education is challenging, especially when learning does not take place in wider social or practice-based contexts. For many students, learning to reflect on others’ experiences in a socially responsive way requires scaffolding. This paper reports on discourses of self and other in the guided summative reflections of first-year non-clinical health students (n = 23) undertaking activities aimed at increasing social responsiveness. The reflections predominantly featured discourses of self, and the corresponding discourse of others as similar to self. Critical reflection, while infrequent, was usually associated with the less common discourse of others as unlike self. Social responsibility, an even less frequent discourse, was unrelated to self. The findings confirm the need for scaffolding of critical reflection, but also suggest that more course content involvement in others’ lived experiences is pivotal to socially responsive reflection. Further research on effective socially responsive learning and whether it influences later practice is needed.

Developing pre-requisites for empathy: increasing awareness of self, the body and the perspectives of others

ABSTRACTEmpathy is an important affective attribute for graduates entering future practice with diverse populations. Self- and bodily awareness and the ability to take others’ perspectives are essential for developing, maintaining and encouraging the cognitive, affective and motivational elements of empathy. This paper presents a thematic analysis of students’ summative reflections on body-focused wellness activity participation, which indicates increased self- and bodily awareness and developing ability to take on the perspectives of others. Prolonged engagement with authentic activities that focus attention on shared bodily aspects of life and encourage self-direction appears to be central for developing awareness and the ability to take on others’ perspectives. For some students, perspective-taking may produce recognition of disempowerment and the need for power reciprocity in future professional relationships, an essential element of practising empathy.

Developing Teacher Candidates' Self-Efficacy Through Reflection and Supervising Teacher Support

The purpose of this study was to explore the complex cognitive and affective challenges of teacher candidates in their development toward self-efficacy in their teaching. Twenty-two teacher candidates recorded their challenges and thinking process during the last six weeks of their practicum. Following their placement, they completed a summative reflection, in which they noted changes in themselves and described when or if they felt confident as classroom teachers. Four themes emerge as the challenge or condition for their self-efficacy: effective classroom management, successful curriculum planning and implementation, positive rapport with students, and supervising teacher approval. This research suggests that teacher preparation program educators can support teacher candidates’ self-efficacy by understanding the developmental stages of teachers, supporting critical reflection, and using motivational and descriptive feedback to improve practical skills.Keywords: teacher self-efficacy; reflection; concerns-based stages model; transformational learning theory; and supervising teacher

Radical and Responsible

The contemporary global ecological crisis is a pressing concern for Christian theology. This essay proposes an activist approach that relates ecotheology to the classic doctrine of creation. Further, it mines the Wesleyan-Pentecostal heritage and theological trajectory for a faithful and effective approach for addressing relevant environmental concerns. Finally, it concludes with a summative reflection on the precise shape of a Wesleyan-Pentecostal ecotheology. The result is a constructive proposal for advancing Pentecostal contributions to ecotheology.

Evolving Tools for Information Literacy from Models of Information Behavior

Although models are often assumed to constitute the end product of a research project, it is not unusual for them to be refined after subsequent study or thought. Having presented a model of young people's information behavior in a previous paper elsewhere, the authors here offer a more compact version and explore the possibilities for its application in a teaching context with pupils. Use of models in this way can play an important part in reducing the longstanding gap between information-seeking research and information literacy instruction. Drawing inspiration from earlier work undertaken by Shenton with Masters students at Northumbria University, the authors demonstrate how it is possible to evolve from such models pro formas that can be completed by pupils to help them in relation to their own information-seeking activity. Shenton and Hay-Gibson feature here one such pro forma, intended for use by secondary schoolers. They discuss its value in promoting metacognition and indicate how this type of tool may be introduced at one of various points in an assignment task: in advance (as a pupil planning aid), while the activity is taking place (so as to guide information-seeking as it happens) or at the end (to aid summative reflection).

Toward a Pedagogy of Self

Background/Context The literature on emotional and social intelligence, based on the theoretical constructs of several authors, identifies self-awareness as a core skill for leadership development. However, there is very little research or theory on how one might develop a pedagogy of self-awareness for leaders. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study describes an innovative leadership development program in self-awareness in the Summer Principals Academy at Teachers College. It describes both the theoretical and practical pedagogy of self-awareness training. What follows is a description of that pedagogy and some preliminary research results based on the journals and feedback of 45 students who completed the program in 2006. Intervention/Program/Practice The intervention consisted of daily 45-minute sessions of training in sensory awareness. The primary modes of training focused on breath, body sensations, listening, and visualizations. The training occurred as part of a five-day-per-week, six-week intensive leadership development master's degree program over two summers. Research Design Participants recorded their thoughts and feelings in semistructured journal entries immediately following the training sessions. At the end of each week, they reviewed their journal notes and wrote a weekly reflection on their experiences with the practice. In addition to the weekly reflections, they wrote three-week, six-week, and summative reflections on their experiences with the practice. These qualitative data were entered into NVivo software, coded, and analyzed for themes. Findings/Results The themes that emerged from the data led to the development of cognitive maps for practitioners that provide heuristics and developmental guides for practice, as well as refinements of the training protocols.

An anthology of codes of ethics

PurposeCorporate codes of conduct originated around 1900 in the USA gaining further momentum in the 1950s in relation to anti‐trust legislation. Subsequently, the adoption of codes of ethics has spread throughout the world and they now feature extensively in many organisations. The literature relating to codes of ethics, therefore, spans many decades and is undoubtedly comprehensive. The purpose of the paper is to provide an appropriate anthology of codes of ethics.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive, historical, anthological approach has been taken.FindingsThis paper examines the motivations for the adoption of codes of ethics, which naturally also includes international codes, their frequency of use and content. Codes are also not without critique and it is appropriate to highlight the criticisms of codes, to provide an assessment of their potential effectiveness, the issues surrounding implementation and enforcement and the relationship to organisational culture and leadership.Research limitations/implicationsAs noted, the literature on codes of conduct is extensive and while effort has been made to capture the key themes the review is not necessarily exhaustive.Originality/valueThe literature is characterised by the means of institutionalising ethics in organisations and the paper concludes with a summative reflection on the key dimensions that appear to be paramount for improving the efficacy of codes of conduct.

Implementation of service-learning in engineering and its impact on students’ attitudes and identity

The current paper outlines a concise engineering service-learning model and describes its implementation and logistics in the context of a typical heat transfer course for undergraduate engineering students. The project was executed in collaboration with a not-for-profit organisation. Summative reflections were conducted by the students by answering a set of carefully-phrased questions after conducting the project. The students had to write about their feelings, attitudes, identity, and the physical, social, ethnic and economical environment they had experienced as they performed the service. A quantitative method for analysing reflections is presented. Analysis of the students’ responses clearly showed that they became more aware and sensitive to their roles as engineers in a societal context.

Engaging Pre-Service Teachers in Multinational, Multi-Campus Scientific and Mathematical Inquiry

Pre-service teachers from Texas and Indiana in the United States and from Queensland, Australia, observed the Moon for a semester and compared and contrasted their findings in asynchronous Internet discussion groups. The 188 pre-service teachers were required to conduct inquiry investigations for their methods coursework which included an initial Moon observation assignment, an Internet Moon discussion, and a final project. The Moon context was chosen for its motivating capability, its inherent interdisciplinary makeup, its inclusion in the National Science Education Standards, and its ability to be viewed worldwide. This study was of a mixed method research design and involved pre-service teachers’ journals, summative reflections, Internet discussions, final projects, and the Lunar Phases Concept Inventory (LPCI). Analysis of the qualitative data was conducted through the exploration of patterns and themes that illustrated pre-service teachers’ conceptual development, and the LPCI was administered as a pre/post assessment. We found that our project led to increased knowledge concerning the mathematics and science involved with understanding the Moon and its phases. We also found that it was beneficial to have Internet discussions with pre-service teachers from around the world, but it was not without its problems (e.g., coordinating schedules and lack of participation by some participants). We discovered that pre-service teachers’ exposure to the new uses of technology for teaching and learning did not necessarily translate to their planning to adopt similar techniques in their own classrooms.