Sustainable Classroom Research Articles

Exploring the relevance of an attachment theory perspective to the behaviour management of challenging students: perceptions of education professionals advocate an attachment theory perspective

ABSTRACT Studies conducted on student profiles in academic settings reveal that a significant proportion of students, ranging from 10% to 20% , encounter various forms of stressors that include poverty, trauma, abuse, neglect, and domestic violence . Such stressors will likely manifest as disruptive behaviours within the school environment. This paper focuses on identifying the perceptions of professionals regarding effective behaviour management by considering the relevance of an Attachment Theory perspective (ATP) for students with social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties. This research is a qualitative study, and the data were collected by conducting key informant interviews with 13 participants who advocate an ATP in understanding and supporting students with challenging behaviours, who were selected purposefully. The participants are professionals who hold various positions related to research, policy, and practice, and the data gathered from them were analysed thematically. The professionals highlighted the need for a greater understanding of the relevance of an ATP in managing challenging behaviour in schools. The main finding to emerge from the interviews is that awareness of an ATP potentially leads to a better understanding of underlying reasons for challenging behaviours in the classrooms, and this awareness helps educators look for the best ways to support students in providing not only an optimum and sustainable classroom environment but also an enjoyable school experience. Moreover, with the help of extra targeted support for students, the school behaviour management system will be more inclusion-oriented rather than exclusion-oriented.

Closed Management System Relationship to Students’ Performance: Basis for a Sustainable Classroom Management Program

Learning styles vary for effective classroom management depending on the appropriate contexts, activities, proper structure, and student empowerment. In China, leadership in schools and universities manifested the closed management requirement during the pandemic, which affected students’ academic performance. This policy causes various effects due to the volume of tasks, mixed feelings, and unstable social interaction. The purpose of the study is to explore the factors of a closed management system and how they affect students’ academic performance towards effective learning and teaching.
 This study employed a descriptive research design with a quantitative approach using PLS-SEM. There are 341 students’ participants chosen purposefully at Qingdao Vocational College of Aviation Technology. The findings indicate that well-being significantly affects students’ performance. Factors like, fear of being delayed, student participation, family support, and instructor support do not have a substantial direct effect on academic performance. It can be improved by enhancing and facilitating learners’ environmental conditions and promoting well-being.
 Today, there are limited studies on the impact of the closed management system on students ‘academic performance. Existing studies concentrate on the political and cultural variables that influence the educational system rather than focusing on a particular mechanism. This aspect requires a systematic plan to create a learning environment that prioritizes students’ emotional and academic performance; thus, recommending programs for sustainable classroom management is encouraged.

Undisciplining Environmental Communication Pedagogy: Toward Environmental and Epistemic Justice in the Interdisciplinary Sustainability Classroom

This article moves beyond an understanding of environmental communication as merely the “translation” of scientific knowledge for the general public and advocates for environmental science and sustainability (ESS) educators to understand environmental communication as a critical practice with complex social, cultural, and political stakes. Due to the interconnectedness of environmental issues and social, political, and cultural contexts, environmental communication pedagogy is an important site of both environmental and epistemic justice. This article addresses the question: What forms of environmental communication pedagogy contribute to dynamic communication competencies for students while also promoting environmental and epistemic justice? The authors begin with a literature review of environmental communication and environmental justice research. Subsequently, they develop a theoretical argument advocating for an “undisciplining” of environmental communication pedagogy to promote critical thinking about the exclusionary politics of environmental knowledge production and communication. In doing so, the authors advocate for cultivating dynamic and ethically engaged real-world literacies for students through social and participatory media, including Wikipedia and podcasts. The article concludes with two sample assignments that instructors can adapt to their classrooms.

Teacher–Student Behavior Recognition in Classroom Teaching Based on Improved YOLO-v4 and Internet of Things Technology

Based on the classroom teaching scenarios, an improved YOLO-v4 behavior detection algorithm is proposed to recognize the behaviors of teachers and students. With the development of CNN (Convolutional Neural Networks) and IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, target detection algorithms based on deep learning have become mainstream, and typical algorithms such as SSD (Single Shot Detection) and YOLO series have emerged. Based on the videos or images collected in the perception layer of the IoT paradigm, deep learning models are used in the processing layer to implement various intelligent applications. However, none of these deep learning-based algorithms are perfect, and there is room for improvement in terms of detection accuracy, computing speed, and multi-target detection capabilities. In this paper, by introducing the concept of cross-stage local network, embedded connection (EC) components are constructed and embedded at the end of the YOLO-v4 network to obtain an improved YOLO-v4 network. Aiming at the problem that it is difficult to quickly and effectively identify the students’ actions when they are occluded, the Repulsion loss function is connected in series on the basis of the original YOLO-v4 loss function. The newly added loss function consists of two parts: RepGT loss and RepBox loss. The RepGT loss function is used to calculate the loss values between the target prediction box and the adjacent ground truth boxes to reduce false positive detection results; the RepBox loss function is used to calculate the loss value between the target prediction box and other adjacent target prediction boxes to reduce false negative detection results. The training and testing are carried out on the classroom behavior datasets of teachers and students, respectively. The experimental results show that the average precision of identifying various classroom behaviors of different targets exceeds 90%, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method. The model performs well in sustainable classroom behavior recognition in educational context, accurate recognition of classroom behaviors can help teachers and students better understand classroom learning and promote the development of intelligent classroom model.

The Unsung Kingdom Translation Project Designing an Effective and Sustainable Classroom Activity for a Japanese Video Game Translation

This paper presents the experience of the design of a didactic activity for the translation of a Japanese video game in Italian, carried out in 2020 during the first year of the Japanese language course of the Master’s Degree Programme in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa at Ca’ Foscari University. The described protocol allows the design of video game translation sessions as a teaching activity, overcoming some typical technical and organisational problems. One important issue this paper addresses involves the possibility of reviewing the translation within the game, which is fundamental to understanding how to translate texts for this medium. The paper will also give an overview of the translation issues that students encountered during the activity and of how they solved them. Finally, the results of a survey will show whether the implemented protocol and classroom activity were satisfactory for the students and how they can be improved.

Architecturally safe and healthy classrooms: eco-medical concept to achieve sustainability in light of COVID-19 global pandemic

ABSTRACT In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic. With this announcement, the world is facing a major challenge. This research commenced as an initiative to conceptualize internal architectural space design to cope with epidemics, to ensure an architectural anti-virus environment. In fact, architectural spaces with high occupancy loads are considered a fertile environment for the spread of this virus. This study discusses classrooms as one of those patterns with high densities for a significant reason; previous studies have revealed that pupils between the ages of 5 to 18 years may be carriers of the infection, but without symptoms; therefore, this category is considered a major source of transmitting the infection to their families and society. Accordingly, this research will address the most important standards, and design norms for these spaces using an electronic questionnaire and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, to achieve two objectives: first, a healthy classroom to reduce the COVID-19 infection among pupils to promote both wellbeing and performance of users, and second, a sustainable classroom from architecture, HVAC, and a medical point of view. In addition, four alternative classroom designs were proposed based on the interpretive results from the questionnaire and simulation.

Towards a Sustainable Classroom Ecology: Translanguaging in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in a Finance Course at an International School in Shanghai

Pedagogical translanguaging has emerged as an important strategy facilitating the sustainable use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in educational settings. This mixed-method study, conducted in an EMI finance classroom at an international school in Shanghai, China, investigates the translanguaging practices of students in classroom interactions as well as their attitudes toward translanguaging as a communicative and pedagogical strategy. Drawing on video-assisted classroom observations and semistructured interviews, this study reveals that the participants’ translanguaging practices are motivated by ease of communication, facilitated by contextual resources, and reflect their strategic maneuvering of the linguistic resources in their repertoires. The data also suggest that the participants are generally positive about translanguaging as an aid in comprehension and for the enhancement of content learning. Some participants, however, expressed reservations about the acceptance of translanguaging as a standard, formal linguistic choice. The findings suggest that EMI teachers should recognize the linguistic resources of students in their entirety and incorporate them into classroom activities to promote biliteracy and the learning of academic content.

Supporting Teacher Visioning of Justice-Oriented Engineering in the Middle Grades

ABSTRACT There are well-documented justice-related issues in engineering education. How do teachers begin to develop a way of seeing forward in their teaching, both in how they understand their role and their hoped-for outcomes for students, in ways that bridge the goals of justice with required engineering disciplinary expectations? In this manuscript, we focus on how teachers envision teaching engineering in ways that attend to the sociopoliticaldimensions of STEM teaching and learning. Through participatory social design research, we ask: (1) How do two middle school science teachers’ vision of what justice-oriented engineering for sustainable communities (EfSC) is and entails, develop across sustained professional development (PD) and classroom enactment of an EfSC curriculum? (2) What is the relationship between teachers’ processes of visioning and student opportunities for consequential learning? Findings suggest that teachers’ visioning of justice-oriented engineering teaching take shape as they started to see themselves as being in relationship to engineering and community, making others’ experiences and their own important aspects of learning. Further, this work of visioning is filled with tension and contradiction. In learning alongside their students about how powered relationalities shape opportunities to learn, teachers had to see themselves inside the process. Implications are discussed.

Cultivating Spiritual Well-Being for Sustainability: A Pilot Study

Sustainability science has focused predominantly on external/technological solutions to environmental degradation while giving insufficient attention to the role of spiritual well-being for holistic sustainability. While it is important for students to learn about solutions in a time where environmental problems have been identified as prevalent, that alone is not enough. We propose that sustainability may start as a deep individual internal process manifested as a change of values stemming from enhanced spiritual well-being. The current study examined whether a novel sustainability classroom curriculum, including contemplative practices (CPs), increased traits indicative of spiritual development and well-being and happiness, which are theorized to increase sustainable behavior (SB). Students attended a 15-week university course promoting SB through CPs in a space intended to be safe and supportive. Participants were compared to unenrolled peers and completed pre- and post-intervention quantitative measures of (1) happiness, (2) self-compassion, and (3) SB, and qualitative questions investigating spiritual development and well-being. Multivariate and univariate follow-up analyses indicated that course participation increased student self-compassion and happiness, while SB was unaffected. Qualitative reports indicated that CPs led students to develop spiritual traits, a systems’ thinking mentality and an awareness of their interconnectedness. Students, also, assigned greater importance to spiritual well-being as a prerequisite for SB.

Optimization of the design of the primary school classrooms in terms of energy and daylight performance considering occupants’ thermal and visual comfort

One of the top priorities in the building design process is minimizing energy consumption. Moreover, the level of occupants’ comfort directly affects their learning ability Therefore, this paper uses a multi-objective approach to optimize the architectural design features, including some newly examined ones, that define the geometry of a classroom. Furthermore, to create a practical methodology for minimizing lighting energy demand, we put the technique of dividing the class into independent, controllable lighting zones into practice for the first time. This research aims to introduce an optimized primary school classroom that meets both inhabitants’ comfort needs and energy efficiency. For this, we first developed a parametric model using the Grasshopper plug-in for Rhino. Afterward, the environmental plug-ins of Honeybee and Ladybug were employed to evaluate energy performance and thermal comfort and find optimized solutions. The last step was assessing the occupants’ visual comfort for each of these optimized solutions and selecting the final optimum designs. This two-phase optimization procedure has led to the reduction of total energy demand, up to 47.92 kWh/m2, and improvement of occupants’ thermal and visual comfort. The results show that the proposed methodology can provide designers with a guideline for designing a sustainable classroom that fulfills their preferences as well as encouraging them to use innovative ways for energy conservation.

IoT Based Cloud Integrated Smart and Sustainable Classroom

Now a day, every educational environment requires an evolution of classrooms from traditional model to a more active model of classrooms. The main objective of a classroom model is to spend more time on teaching and learning and less on organizing and monitoring the workflow of the classroom. This project proposes “IoT based Cloud Integrated Smart and sustainable Classroom”. Smart classroom is developed to monitor and regularize the activities like assignments, projects, tutorial submission and attendance monitoring of the Students or scholar at ease in real time by the faculty, mentor or advisor. The proposed system monitors and reports whether the assignments, projects, tutorial is submitted on or before scheduled timeline, and sends the remainder notification to complete the assigned work in stipulated time. The proposed system utilizes Cloud Computing and Internet of Things, where sensors and processors are embedded in physical objects to form a network and communicate information with ease. RF identity card reader is fixed at each classroom to monitor the Students and give them alert, so that they meet the faculty or mentor for getting permission for attending the class if they failed to submit their work on time. Thus, by reducing the work of management, time for teaching and learning will be increased resulting in high performance of the classroom.

IoT Based Cloud Integrated Smart and Sustainable Classroom

Now a day, every educational environment requires an evolution of classrooms from traditional model to a more active model of classrooms. The main objective of a classroom model is to spend more time on teaching and learning and less on organizing and monitoring the workflow of the classroom. This project proposes “IoT based Cloud Integrated Smart and sustainable Classroom”. Smart classroom is developed to monitor and regularize the activities like assignments, projects, tutorial submission and attendance monitoring of the Students or scholar at ease in real time by the faculty, mentor or advisor. The proposed system monitors and reports whether the assignments, projects, tutorial is submitted on or before scheduled timeline, and sends the remainder notification to complete the assigned work in stipulated time. The proposed system utilizes Cloud Computing and Internet of Things, where sensors and processors are embedded in physical objects to form a network and communicate information with ease. RF identity card reader is fixed at each classroom to monitor the Students and give them alert, so that they meet the faculty or mentor for getting permission for attending the class if they failed to submit their work on time. Thus, by reducing the work of management, time for teaching and learning will be increased resulting in high performance of the classroom.

Resilient Learners, Learning Resilience: Contemplative Practice in the Sustainability Classroom

AbstractThrough literature review, anecdote, and empirical case study, this chapter explores the role of contemplative practice—yoga, meditation, reflection, breathwork—in the sustainability classroom as a way to increase both learner resilience and learner capacity to engage the challenging content of socio‐ecological resilience.

From Uniformity to Sustainable Diversity: Exploring the Design Attributes of Renovating Standardized Classrooms in Korea

Modern school buildings in South Korea, which were until the 1990s typically designed with standardized and monotonous features based on drawings provided by the government, are shifting to more well-designed spaces under a student-centered approach in this more creative and imaginative era. The purpose of this study is to examine the renovation priorities of design features based on the preferences of architects and educators, paying particular attention to classroom design for enhancing students’ spatial and aesthetic experiences. For this unusual approach, architects and school educator groups, who jointly plan the renovation of traditional classrooms, were surveyed on classroom design features and the spatial and aesthetic experiences of students. Forty-nine responses were analyzed using an importance–satisfaction analysis (ISA). The gap analysis for all respondents showed significant differences—a significance level of 0.05 between importance and satisfaction—in 31 design attributes in traditional and standardized classrooms. Both the architects and the school educator groups designated five attributes as being of the highest priority for the classroom renovations: ventilation, overall classroom shape, shape of furniture, floor material, and furniture material. Results of these analyses could become considerations for future classroom renovations by local governments to enhance educational environments. In addition, policy recommendations for applying the results of this study to be sustainable classroom renovation throughout South Korea could be an important topic of discussion.

Green Lab:Designing Environmentally Sustainable Computer Classrooms during Economic Downturns

Abstract This article offers a detailed design and concrete plan for the stewardship of an environmentally sustainable computer classroom that employs a thin client approach to power management. Though greener computer labs might seem financially out of reach during the current economic crisis, this article explains how writing programs can align efforts to reduce energy consumption with efforts to weather the current financial downturn while providing up-to-date communications technologies instruction.

교실에서의 일반형과 루버형 차양장치의 채광성능 비교 분석

Shading devices have become an integral part of the daylighting strategy for sustainable classroom design. The louver type is newly designed shading devices which provide more view to the outside and protect from outside condition such as snow or rain. The purpose of this study is to compare the daylight performance of traditional and louver type overhang and lightshelf. The room dimension was <TEX>$7.5m{\times}9.0m{\times}3.0m$</TEX>. The length of shading devices was calculated by Palmero's study. The length of the traditional and louver type overhang was 455mm, 1210mm and lightshelf was 350/810mm, 625/555mm respectively. For the study, the Radiance 2.0 was used to evaluate the illuminance and uniformity ratios. And scale model were used to evaluate sunpatch area on the floor in model was calculated. The results showed that the louver type lightshelf was suitable for spring and summer, and louver type overhang was suitable for winter.

Sustained classroom observation: what does it reveal about changing teaching practices?

In the context of the tension between classroom observation as a form of empowerment and as an instrument of control, the partnership between three 16–19 colleges and a university School of Education in delivering a programme of sustained observation over eight years is explicated. Drawing on the literature about continuing professional development (CPD) and the use of classroom observation as a developmental and inspection tool, the principles and processes that underpin the programme are explained. Content analysis of 924 reports of classroom observations is undertaken to establish two areas where changes in practice can be relatively easily achieved and two areas that are more resistant.

Student use of animated pedagogical agents in a middle school science inquiry program

AbstractAnimated pedagogical agents (APAs) have the potential to provide one‐on‐one, just‐in‐time instruction, guidance or mentoring in classrooms where such individualized human interactions may be infeasible. Much current APA research focuses on a wide range of design variables tested with small samples or in laboratory settings, while overlooking important practical issues relating to large‐scale, school‐based implementations. The present study provides an early step in addressing this gap by investigating the patterns, affordances and challenges of sustained classroom use of APAs. During a 15‐class‐period science curriculum, middle school students in the treatment groups (nDr C‐1 = 191; nDr C‐2 = 181) had uninterrupted classroom access to one of the two APAs, while control group students (n = 149) completed the same curriculum without APA access. Usage patterns indicate that students accessed the APAs on a fluctuating, “as needed,” basis corresponding to the introductory, information‐gathering, and synthesis and reporting segments of the curriculum. Survey results revealed no statistically significant difference in student feelings toward the APAs between the two treatments. While treatment students reported that the APAs were unique, reliable, timely resources, interviews indicate little difference between their experiences with the curriculum and those of the control group. Results presented here provide guidance for researchers and practitioners.

Sustained classroom observation : What does it reveal about changing teaching practices?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Further and Higher Education on 25th March 2011, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0309877X.2011.558891

Urban School Connections: A University-K-8 Partnership

Urban schools in the United States are struggling. In this era of highstakes testing, teacher accountability, and standards-based curriculum, there is more and more research showing that an achievement gap exists between White students and students of color (Darling-Hammond, 2007). In large part, students of color attend urban schools where underfunding, low teacher retention, and the forces of community poverty pose signifi cant challenges to effective, sustained classroom instruction (Borrero & Bird, 2009; Duncan-Andrade, 2007; Nieto, 2002). Urban schools, and urban school teachers, are left to bear the brunt of the criticism from policy-makers, the media, and the public. More importantly, classroom teachers are left to bear the brunt of the tremendous challenge to serve the diverse needs of all of their students. Schooling in urban areas places added pressure on Catholic schools as well, as declining enrollment is forcing schools to close (Carpenter, 2008; Gragnani, 2006; McDonald & Schultz, 2009). Schools and classroom teachers cannot be alone in the quest to improve classroom instruction for students of color in urban contexts. Universities, and particularly universities in urban areas, are in prime position to provide support to K-12 schools. Fundamentally, most universities in urban centers promote mission statements that declare their commitment to the local community. Practically, universities possess tremendous resources in the form of faculty and students that can provide direct support to local schools. This paper describes a partnership between an alliance of nine urban Catholic schools and an urban university in San Francisco, California. The development of the partnership is described in part, but the details of the actual collaboration and involvement of university faculty with school leaders and teachers are the central foci. This collaboration is outlined to show how university community involvement can provide direct support to urban K-12 schools. Specifi cally, the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) is presented as a foundation upon which university-K-12 partnerships can be built. PLCs in schools are groups of teachers and staff members with a shared vision for improving student learning. PLC members