Teacher-led Discussions Research Articles

Dialogue and defamiliarization

To lead discussions about complex literary texts in a classroom of teenagers is no doubt a challenging task for many teachers. It is therefore meaningful to explore how teachers’ management of literature discussions can be supported and improved. Prior research indicates a positive relationship between certain modes of discussion and increased literary awareness. Yet observational studies underscore that open-ended, probing discussions about literature are scarce in today’s classrooms.
 This article elaborates the theoretical framing of an intervention designed to improve the quality of teacher-led discussions about complex literary texts. We argue that dialogic theory, appropriate for highlighting the processes of classroom interaction, needs to be supplemented by theory that offers an explanation for the role of the literary text and its impact on both readers and their interaction processes. For this purpose, we examine the conceptual matching between theory of dialogic teaching, drawing on Bakhtin’s idea of meaning making as inherently dialogic, and theories of literary reception, specifically Shklovsky’s concept defamiliarization and recent didactical analysis of Derrida’s concept undecidability. The intention of the paper is to suggest a theoretical framing of the intervention, one that allows for both analysis of the aesthetic processes of reading and talking about literature, and specific guidance of teachers’ management of those discussions.

수학적 논의와 임파워먼트를 위한 교사의 수업 조직 연구

This study aims to analyze teachers and students' perceptions of lessons, focusing on the concept of responsiveness and empowerment. As a result of the analysis, it was observed that the teacher's instructional organization, which wanted to distribute authority to students, shifted to a teacher-led discussions as soon as the entire class discussion proceeded. In response, the students conceived that they were contributing to the class by teacher’s organizations, and they did not pay attention to the process of elaborating their ideas in whole-class discussions. With these research results, this study proposes some implications for a mathematics teacher's teaching organization.

Teachers and Students Perspectives on Group Work in Learning Geography

Aims: To explore the perception on the effectiveness of group work learning in Geography.
 Study Design: The study adopted a qualitative approach, Focus group discussion, Face to face individual interview and classroom observation were carried out for data collection.
 Place and Duration of Study: Study was carried out in the eastern part of Bhutan, Trashigang dzongkhag in four Middle secondary schools for the duration of three weeks. From June 27 to July 17, 2022.
 Methodology: For this study, four groups of FGDs were conducted to enrich information about GW practice in learning. FGD members were selected equally in terms of gender four boys and four girls, learning abilities, and level of Classes from IX and X. Further, the structured interview (face to face interview) was conducted for seven Geography teachers from four different schools which helped to explore and expand interviewees’ deep understanding and experiences of group work implementation in learning Geography. The observation tools were used to triangulate the interview to see if the teachers’ and students’ responses aligned with their practice of Group work learning. The observation form was designed by the researcher based on the aims of the study.
 Results: The finding of the study showed that the same common types of Group work activities were given to students in the classroom. The common tasks given to students in groups are presentation, discussion, question and answer, reading, and taking notes. The finding of this study proved that proper planning before assigning GW to students is important to make effective GW learning achievement. Teachers and students make proper planning before the actual start of the GW activities to make effective GW learning. The teacher has an effective role in selecting, adjusting, and creating tasks and then shaping these tasks in keeping with learner needs and interests. The teacher-led discussions indicate that group work can be an efficient instrument for teaching students their specific needs in the classroom. Thus the finding of the study shows that effective GW for teachers means that GW is connected to the lesson objectives, well-organized, cooperative small group and promotes learning. Additionally, students also agreed that effective group work occurs when all participants share equal responsibility and collaborate to support one another. Therefore, it is evident that there are benefits of GW for both the teachers and students in teaching and learning. The majority of the teachers agreed that GW reduced their workload, likewise, a student also shared GW helps them to understand the topics better and get more ideas. However, assigning the group members is essential to the group's success. Small group sizes and students’ choice of group members can make GW learning more interactive and effective.
 Conclusion: This paper suggests the best practices to maximize the approach to create more effective group work learning. Moreover, Group work is considered one of the techniques that are centrally practiced in the communicative method as well as students- centered approach. Further. The study revealed that group work can be a powerful pedagogical choice when coupled with appropriate planning and reflection. Furthermore, Groups can support each student in developing the social skill of building cooperation in a team along with academic learning. Both the teachers and students are positive about group work learning.

Improving Learning Effects of Student-Led and Teacher-Led Discussion Contingent on Prediscussion Activity

This study compared undergraduate students’ learning gains attained through student-led discussions with those acquired through teacher-led discussions in students who had previously engaged in a different learning activity. A total of 305 undergraduate students participated in the study. It was found that prediscussion activities yielded differential student outcomes depending on the applied combination. Self-study groups achieved higher scores through student-led discussions, whereas, lecture groups attained better scores through teacher-led discussions. To substantiate the joint effect, we attempted to elucidate students’ outcomes through moment-by-moment analyses of cognitive-behavioral engagement observed during discussions. Students assigned to the self-study and student-led discussion groups displayed consistently high engagement throughout their discussions, however, the engagement dropped sharply in teacher-led discussion. Meanwhile, student engagement increased over time in the teacher-led discussion group after the class listened to a lecture. The results of moderated mediation analysis showed that discussion formats moderated by prediscussion activity affected students’ cognitive-behavioral engagement, which led to their learning. Therefore, our findings contribute to a new perspective of engagement as a student learning in discussions and imply that teachers can induce students’ engagement leading to superior learning outcome by combining appropriate instructional strategies and classroom discussion.

Envisioning texts through cooperative learning - peer-led and teacher-led discussions

Previous research has shown that cooperative learning interventions, in which reading comprehension strategies are embedded, have a positive effect on students’ reading comprehension. However, the question is whether these interventions give rise to genuine discussions, promoting flexible and dynamic understanding of texts. In this study, one lesson module from the intervention Cooperative Learning and Reading Comprehension (CL-RC; Klang et al., 2022) was studied using theory of stances of envisionment building (Langer, 2011). The results of the video analysis disclosed that, over the course of three lessons, the peer-led discussions and teacher-led discussions provided unique opportunities for student literary understanding. The results also revealed the limitationsof CL-RC intervention with regard to opportunities for students to focus on an author’s craft and literary elements or to use their envisionment in new unrelated situations.

What we learned from Covid-19 about discourse-based learning.

Now is an auspicious time to make student-centered discourse a centerpiece of social and civic education, as well as across the curriculum more broadly. We describe here the features of the middle-school program we have developed and implemented for this purpose, emphasizing its concentration on direct student-to-student communication, in contrast to the more common whole-class teacher-led discussion. The Covid-19 epidemic forced us to modify the way in which we implemented the program, eliminating face-to-face contact. What had been an in-person interactive discourse-based workshop we transformed into a remotely-experienced, technology-supported interaction between revolving student pairs. Each participant debated individually with a sequence of individual peers who held an opposing view on a series of social issues. This modified distance-learning approach revealed some unanticipated benefits that we share here. Most notable among them were the enhanced comfort in sharing their views that participants reported they experienced, due to the remote, text-only connection that concealed their personal identities.

One-Minute Paper (OMP) as a Formative Assessment

In the teaching process, several daily quiz points cannot guarantee an increase in the level of student understanding because it may be caused by different factors, one of which is the formative assessment applied to students who are not effective. The aims of this study is to analyse the effectiveness of a One-Minute Paper (OMP) as a formative assessment contribute meaningfully to increasing the scores of ninth grade of students on their summative assessment. This action research employed a quasi-experimental pre/post-test design. Subject of this study consist of fourteen students who were classified as experimental group who participated in the teacher-led discussion with the integration of one-minute paper as their formative assessment. The data obtain using open-ended question. Feedback-giving on the next day of class were done as part of the intervention. The result of study show a comparison group with fourteen students who were classified as control group had done the traditional way of formative assessment – the quiz. Both groups fall in the accepted region at 5% level of significance with mean gains of 9 and 6, respectively. It was revealed that the two methods were effective in increasing the scores of the students due to their higher mean scores. However, the experimental group’s mean gain score and mean percentage score (MPS) were significantly higher than the comparison group; thus, one-minute paper is more effective than quiz as a formative assessment.

How Contemporary Disney Film Can Be Used for Mental Health Teaching in Schools: A Case Study of Inside Out (2015)

AimsMental health disorders can be a burden on both patients and the National Health Service. With the majority of lifetime mental health problems emerging in childhood and the prevalence of childhood mental illness increasing, the need for effective, standardised mental health education and fostering healthy socio-emotional development is more important than ever before. The aim was to explore if Inside Out provides an accurate representation of depression, and thus, can it be a useful resource for teaching mental health and developing emotional awareness in the classroom?MethodsI explored a novel educational concept: ‘edutainment’, to see if it has use in state mental health education. This project provides a quantitative coding analysis and a qualitative artistic analysis of a contemporary Disney film, Inside Out (2015), for The International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition (ICD-10) depression symptoms. Depression has been chosen as an example of a mental health disorder as it is one of the commonest mental health problems and the leading cause of disability worldwide.ResultsInside Out provides an accurate representation of many of the ICD-10 ‘core’ and ‘cognitive’ symptoms of depression through both coding words and artistic means.ConclusionInside Out, alongside teacher-led discussion, could be useful in teaching children about depression in a relaxed but educational way. Inside Out features themes that can help children develop their emotional intelligence and reduce mental health stigma. I highlight a need for standardised mental health education and suggest that film may be an effective tool for learning about common mental health conditions, such as depression.

Teaching About Electricity in Primary School Multimodality and Variation Theory as Analytical Lenses

AbstractPrimary school topics involving abstract concepts are challenging to teach. Electric circuits can be simply constructed but complex to explain. New approaches in teaching students for understanding are needed to advance practice in primary science. This paper combines the strengths of multimodality research perspectives with variation theory to provide insights into a teaching sequence designed for year 6 students. Application of a representation construction approach (RCA) provides opportunities for multimodal meaning-making of electric circuits. The case study adopted a design-based research method to investigate teaching electric circuits. Data collection involved video capture of classroom practice, teacher and student interviews, student journal entries and assessment artefacts, field notes, and pre-test and post-test results. Design principles included identifying key ideas, devising a lesson sequence emphasising energy transfer and transformation, hands-on exploration using multimodal representations in response to learning challenges, and student journaling. Students’ metarepresentational competence was also developed through evaluation, negotiation, and creation of representations and models of electric circuits. Representational challenges followed by strategic teacher-led discussion facilitated students’ developing understanding through focusing attention on critical features. Deep learning was evidenced by journal records, formative and summative assessment artefacts, and post-test responses. RCA principles were instrumental in the successful design of an effective teaching sequence through focus on critical aspects of energy. We advocate a RCA for the design of a multimodal learning sequence. Variation theory was a useful analytical framework to understand the enactment of the design sequence. The study contributes to the challenge of rethinking traditional teaching practices in primary science.

SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING READINESS IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS – A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Self-Directed Learning (SDL) is a way of learning. A learner takes responsibility for his/her learning by formulating learning goals and identifying resources to achieve the same. Objectives: The current study was conducted to know the level of SDL readiness in undergraduate medical students in a tertiary teaching hospital and to see the correlation between SDLRS score and demographic parameters across different years of study so that appropriate recommendations may be provided for teaching delivery. Methods: SDLRS Likert scale questionnaire was administered to 302 medical undergraduates across the rst to the ninth semester in paper form during August-October 2018. It consists of 40 questions categorized under three domains, namely Selfmanagement (9 items), Desire for learning (13 items), Self-Control (18 items). Results: The present study included 302 participants. The average SDL score is 149.8.47 % of the students included in the current study have scores <150. The current study shows that there is no signicant association between Gender (P=0.30), Current Age (P=0.07), age at admission into the medical course (P=0.75), and level of SDL readiness. Students who had English and Hindi as a medium of instruction before admission to medical school have better SDL scores than those whose medium of instruction was in either one of the languages(P=0.005). In addition, students from the third semester have signicantly higher SDL scores than students from other semesters (P=0.04). Conclusions: Since the SDL scores are low in these students, they require more teacher-led discussions, demonstrations, and lectures in the initial period rather than independent projects, case studies, and private tutorials.

Comparison of Disfluent and Ungrammatical Speech of Preadolescents with and without ASD

This paper analyses disfluencies and ungrammatical expressions in the speech of 11–13-year-old Finnish-speaking boys with ASD (N = 5) and with neurotypical development (N = 6). The ASD data were from authentic group therapy sessions and neurotypical data from teacher-led group discussions. The proportion of disfluencies and ungrammatical expressions was greater in the speech of participants with ASD (26.4%) than in the control group (15.5%). Furthermore, a qualitative difference was noted: The ASD group produced long, complex disfluent turns with word searches, self-repairs, false starts, fillers, prolongations, inconsistent syntactic structures and grammatical errors, whereas in the control group, the disfluencies were mainly fillers and sound prolongations. The disfluencies and ungrammatical expressions occurring in the ASD participants’ interactions also caused comprehension problems.

Instruction Matters: Pedagogical Approaches to Increase Engagement in a Juvenile Detention Center

Researchers have documented that high engagement in learning is linked to high academic achievement, and that low engagement is linked to low academic achievement, student alienation, and withdrawing from school. While research provides insights into student engagement and instructional practices, this research is typically conducted in traditional schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ engagement during an interdisciplinary instructional unit to better understand the instructional approaches that influenced student engagement in juvenile detention centers. 602 observation intervals and qualitative data demonstrated that students were most engaged when instruction included hands-on activities, multimedia use, literacy practices, and teacher-led discussions. This study provides implications for instructional design and approaches in juvenile detention centers.

Melding traditional and progressive andragogy in marketing education, using the hermeneutic competency development strategy

Educators are concerned about dwindling class attendance, while employers call for work-ready, socially skilled, and self-driven graduates. Various andragogies have been proposed to supplement traditional lecture-based methods, but studies have not yet investigated a strategy of methods within a particular marketing topic. The present study focuses on sensory marketing and compares seven experiential teaching methods, designed to improve engagement, enjoyment, inter-personal and higher-order thinking skills. By strategically combining seven teaching methods, this paper proposes an inter-active teaching strategy linked to prior understanding, scaffolded by peer and practitioner advice, and aimed at applying the knowledge to real-world phenomena. Students rate teacher-led discussions highest of all methodologies used to explain marketing theories. Small group discussions were rated low across all domains; enjoyment, understanding and theory application. The hermeneutic competency development strategy (HCD) tested here is successful in achieving all preset learning objectives. This empirical study contributes to enhanced understanding of the value of flipped classrooms from students’ perspectives.

Investigating Situational Interest in Primary Science Lessons

Pupils’ interest has been one of the major concerns in science education research because it can be seen as a gateway to more personalised forms of interest and motivation. However, methods to investigate situational interest in science teaching and learning are not broadly examined. This study compares the pupils’ observed situational interest and their expressed situational interest. One class of Finnish fourth-graders (N = 22, age 9–10 years) participated in a heat transfer lesson. The lesson encompassed an interactive demonstration with a thermal camera, teacher-led discussions and the conduct and presentation of a collaborative inquiry task. Pupils expressed their interest levels (scale: 1 = very boring, 5 = very interesting) by using an electronic response system called a ‘clicker’. The measurement took place 15 times during the lesson, with 1 measurement being just a rehearsal. The lesson was video recorded, and visible aspects of interest at the measurement time points were analysed. Reported and observational data were compared. In most cases, the observations did not yield data compatible with the pupils’ own evaluations, indicating that most pupils’ expressed interest is not easily interpreted through observation of their facial expressions and behaviour. In general, the interest of the group as a whole seems to diminish during the lesson. We argue that in order to maintain and increase pupils’ interest, their evaluations should be taken into account in lesson planning. Video-based research might also be further enriched and validated by employing the participants’ own expressions. The clicker is a suitable means of collecting primary pupils’ experiences concerning their interest levels.

Promoting Student Development of Models and Scientific Inquiry Skills in Acid–Base Chemistry: An Important Skill Development in Preparation for AP Chemistry

In this study, two groups of 11th grade chemistry students (n = 210) performed a sequence of hands-on and virtual laboratories that were progressively more inquiry-based. One-half of the students did the laboratory sequence with the addition of a teacher-led discussion connecting student data to student-generated visual representations of different acid–base models (Arrehenius and Bronsted–Lowry). Students were assessed for perceptions about their learning as well as their understanding of acid–base models. The results showed improvement in 79% of the students in understanding acid–base chemistry following the inquiry laboratories as well as improved mental models explaining acid–base chemistry in 72% of the students. The students also responded favorably to the addition of virtual laboratories, with 77% reporting improved understanding of the chemistry as a result of the addition of the technology.

Sensor-Augmented Virtual Labs: Using Physical Interactions with Science Simulations to Promote Understanding of Gas Behavior

Deep learning of science involves integration of existing knowledge and normative science concepts. Past research demonstrates that combining physical and virtual labs sequentially or side by side can take advantage of the unique affordances each provides for helping students learn science concepts. However, providing simultaneously connected physical and virtual experiences has the potential to promote connections among ideas. This paper explores the effect of augmenting a virtual lab with physical controls on high school chemistry students’ understanding of gas laws. We compared students using the augmented virtual lab to students using a similar sensor-based physical lab with teacher-led discussions. Results demonstrate that students in the augmented virtual lab condition made significant gains from pretest and posttest and outperformed traditional students on some but not all concepts. Results provide insight into incorporating mixed-reality technologies into authentic classroom settings.

Integration of Multicultural Video Strategies that Transform Entertainment into Historical Film Literacy

According to many educators, textbooks will eventually be replaced by digital versions. Today's teachers, school administrators, and education policy makers are often digitally disconnected or at best digital immigrants, individuals who were born before the existence of digital technology and adopted it later in life. Unfortunately, when students enter most classrooms they are expected to turn off their digital devices and learn through textbooks and teacher-led discussions. This digital disconnect is counterproductive to cultivating film/video literacy, an innovative method that has been supported by the National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) as a means to make learning relevant and meaningful for all students in social studies classrooms. The purpose of this study is to showcase the NCSS position through two lenses: Look closely at film and video viewing strategies currently in place in social studies classrooms and point toward viewing strategies that bring engagement and deeper thinking and responses to interact with ideas and information for all students.

Exploring Social Dynamics in School Science Context

The purpose of this study was to explore the socio-cultural practices and interactions of learning science in a science classroom within the concept of communities of practice. Our qualitative data were collected through observing, taking field notes, and conducting interviews in a public science classroom during an entire school year. The study occurred in a seventh-grade classroom with a veteran physical science teacher, with more than 10 years teaching experience, and 22 students. For this article, we presented two classroom vignettes that reflect a sample of the participation, practice, and community that was observed in the science classroom on a daily basis. The first vignette illustrated a typical formula of Initiation–Response–Feedback (I-R-F) that transfers knowledge to students through a teacher-led discussion with the entire class. The second vignette described a laboratory activity designed to allow students to apply or discover knowledge through practical experience, while taking responsibility for their learning through small-group work. The normative practices and routine behaviors of the science classroom are highlighted through the description of material resources, and different modes of participation accompanied by assigned roles and responsibilities. What we observed was that laboratory activities reproduced the epistemic authority of the I-R-F rather than creating collective cognitive responsibility where students have the independence to explore and create authentic science experiences.

‘Do you know Actimel?’ The adaptive nature of dialogic teacher-led discussions in the CLIL science classroom: a case study

This interpretive case study is framed within recent sociocultural conceptualisations of learning. It draws on research on teacher-led classroom discussions, and investigates the conversational intricacies through which ‘dialogicity’ is accomplished in adaptive ways in one content and language integrated learning (CLIL) science classroom. Multimodal conversation analysis (CA) is performed in order to describe how classroom interactional competence (CIC) is enacted by participants while developing a teacher-led discussion. The data come from a bilingual Catalan-Spanish secondary school classroom in Barcelona in which 16 12-year-old students learn biology in English as a third language. The analysis reveals that: (a) the teacher's systematic deployment of multimodal resources ensures comprehension and favours the emergence of learner-initiated turns; (b) as a result, a highly interwoven set of sequences of ‘mediation’ and ‘remediation’ occurs, jointly providing the students with opportunities for the appropriation of language and content; and (c) this abundance of resources contrasts with the scarcity of teacher moves aimed at eliciting more elaborated learner interventions. The study contributes to further understanding of the relationship between language, interaction and learning. It also shows how multimodal CA may offer valuable tools for tracing the process of integrated learning.

Incorporating Interactive Teaching Approaches in the Tertiary Science Classroom; Benefits, Challenges and Deterrents to Use in a Jamaican University

The extent to which lecturers utilise interactive teaching strategies in the tertiary science classrooms at a tertiary institution in Jamaica was investigated. Interactive strategies used, preferred strategy, frequency of use, perceived benefits to students, deterrents to use, and challenges faced with implementation were investigated. The sample comprised of 60 full-time science lecturers with a minimum undergraduate teaching load of 10 contact hours per week. The population comprised primarily of females (93.3%) with a mean age of 38.1 ± 3.67 years. The results show that teacher-led discussion (90%) and cooperative learning strategies (50%) were the most frequently used interactive teaching approaches employed by the lecturers while peer teaching was the least (8%). Further analysis of lecturers’ views of their teaching approach revealed that all lecturers facilitated in-class discussions, student-teacher interactions and questions from students at some point during their lectures. Preparation time (40%), increased workload (40%) and poor student participation (40%) were identified as the primary challenges faced while time restriction (90%) was the main deterrent to using interactive strategies by lecturers in the classroom. Despite this however, lecturers reported that interactive teaching strategies were explored and incorporated during their lectures in a bid to improve student comprehension, improve the learning environment, and build critical and lateral thinking skills. The results also suggest that curriculum scope and institutional policies did not impact negatively on the lecturers’ ability to incorporate interactive teaching strategies in their classroom.