Twenty-first Century Classroom Research Articles

“Injustice Everywhere”: Confronting Race and Racism in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

Abstract: The Sun Also Rises contains troubling depictions of African-American characters framed by a vile racial epithet. Although critics have addressed this topic using the familiar contexts of Hemingway’s life, his iceberg theory, or intertextuality, this article argues that a fluid, combinatory context is necessary in the twenty-first century classroom. Acknowledging Toni Morrison’s important intervention in Playing in the Dark , this essay seeks neither to dismiss or ignore the novel’s racist content nor to banish the novel from the canon, but rather to engage the novel in a complex ongoing dialogue about race and racism in American culture and literature.

Teaching Hamilton: from Broadway to the classroom

ABSTRACT Hamilton, The Musical can be a powerful educational tool. The play provides a cultural touchpoint into a world that existed 250 years ago —a time that is alien to our twenty- first-century sensibilities. The fame of the musical is an opportunity, not to fall back on a popular and idealized narrative, but instead to grapple with its historical complexity. In turn, the musical might help students to imagine Hamilton as a figure in today’s politics and, perhaps, to better understand his role in simultaneously transforming and preserving the political, social, and economic contours of the late eighteenth century. Essentially, we must curate Hamilton for the classroom and address criticisms surrounding its presentation of abolitionism, immigration, upward mobility, and finance. In the following article, I reframe both Hamilton, The Musical and Hamilton, the ordinary man, as timely teachable subjects for a twenty-first century classroom.

Evidence-Based Assessment of Student Performance in Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds (VWs) are popular tools for teaching/learning in the twenty-first century classroom. The challenge remains however, to provide the means by which teachers could sustainably analyse and assess the performance of large groups of students in such environments. Unfortunately, external game features such as game scores and play duration have turned out to be unfair in some assessments. In this context, a case study was carried out in a foreign language course, illustrating how teachers could easily retrieve a number of performance indicators from VW-interaction logs and harness them to conduct a fine-grained analysis of students’ performance, while facilitating at the same time valuable tools for their assessment. Objective performance indicators in a server database were made accessible using an end-user development programming language. This way, a range of data visualisation methods could be employed to contrast different assumptions regarding learner performance when playing a VW-based game, which was designed to help CEFR A1 level students to learn German. This way, factors such as randomisation of game tasks, which could negatively affect learner performance, were alleviated.

Using screencasting to give feedback for academic writing

ABSTRACT This article reports on student reactions to a relatively new method of giving feedback using a technique called ‘screencasting’. Screencasting is a technique where the computer screen is captured in a video while an audio recording is being made. In this way, students can receive oral feedback in conjunction with written corrective feedback. Forty-four freshman students from an advanced writing class in the ELT department of a small private university in Istanbul participated in the study. During the semester, three high stakes essay assignments were given. For the first essay only written corrective feedback was given, but for the subsequent two essays students received a combination of written and oral feedback through screencasting. Screencasting was originally used because it was purported to be more efficient than written corrective feedback. While it wasn’t found to be more efficient for the teacher, it was enthusiastically embraced by the students. To gauge the students’ perceptions, a survey was given at the same time as the final exam. The survey included a section for demographics, four open-ended questions, and 28 Likert scale-type questions. The Likert-type questions represented nine categories of inquiry including both practical and affective factors. The results indicated overwhelmingly that the students perceive screencast feedback as more pleasant and more effective than written corrective feedback alone. The technique is appropriate to the twenty-first century classroom and the learning styles of modern students. It is recommended that this technique be adopted in academic writing classes.

Enhancing University Students’ Achievement in Physics using Computer-Assisted Instruction

Twenty-first century classrooms have come with a lot of changes in instructional delivery at various levels of education. However, most lecturers in Nigerian universities still adopt the traditional method of instruction not minding the demands of the twenty-first century classrooms. As a result of this, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the impact of computer-assisted instruction on the students’ achievement in physics. This study, therefore, sought the efficacy of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on students’ achievement in physics. A randomized controlled trial experimental design was adopted for the study using a sample of 120 participants. Physics Achievement Test (PAT) was used to collect data for the study. Analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. It was found that Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) had a significant effect on students’ achievement in physics at posttest and follow-up assessments. Thus, Physics education lecturers should be trained on how to design and use CAI package for effective twenty-first century classroom instructional delivery in Nigerian university.

Critical Race Theory and the Multicultural French Enlightenment

Critical Race Theory and the Multicultural French Enlightenment Christy Pichichero (bio) For specialists of the eighteenth century, teaching the history of race is a necessary dimension of our practice. We are experts of the age when the modern conception of race coalesced through (and in service of) enterprises of global economic and military power that were fueled by enslavement, colonization, exploitation, and genocide of peoples designated as other. Antiracist protests of 2020 have brought urgency to examining this history in our classrooms. Yet as I have written elsewhere, there remains extraordinary resistance to and controversy surrounding the concept of race and its study, especially in the French context.1 For scholar-pedagogues who take up the challenge of teaching race in the eighteenth century, it is essential to work together to share resources for building curricula, methods, courage, and creativity that will foster deep inquiry and learning for students and professors alike. It is in this spirit that I will discuss—though not prescribe—some of my own experiments in teaching race in the eighteenth-century French empire through the lenses of diversity, decolonization, multiculturalism, and Critical Race Theory (CRT). While certain scholars object to the use of CRT, deeming it an inapplicable or unwelcome American import into the study of French texts and cultural phenomena, I strongly disagree with this rigid appraisal. CRT not only attends to the historical period in question, but can illuminate structural forms of discrimination that are evident in artistic, social, economic, and political life in the first French empire. It is [End Page 137] my hope that sharing these approaches will serve as a point of departure that encourages others to tap into these resources as well as their own innovative minds to open up novel and productive avenues for teaching race in the eighteenth-century in the twenty-first century classroom. The notions and praxes of diversity and decolonization have become central frameworks for teaching race. The former embraces compositional and epistemic multiplicity by incorporating works from authors of different identities, geographies, and genres. In this regard, there is a wealth of sources in French and in translation with which to engage. Scholarship abounds on women authors, and collections of documents and articles regarding gender, homosexuality, Jewish history, and race in early modern France offer excellent sources for undergraduate and introductory graduate study.2 While we have not yet discovered an individual like Olaudah Equiano in the French imperial setting, a vast array of documents from Saint-Domingue—for example, political pamphlets written by free colored planter Julien Raymond in favor of free-colored rights and, of course, Toussaint Louverture's writings—lead to many productive discussions about race, politics, gender, and sexuality, in addition to colony-metropole dynamics in terms of laws, information, power, and economics. Assembling interdisciplinary reading lists that include and interrogate the power structures behind archival sources, many of which are available online, is critical for bringing minoritized voices and experiences into courses on the French Enlightenment. As these and related sources convey, the era of the first French empire and, specifically, the eighteenth century was not solely a period of nascent white supremacy and specious universalism based upon blind, tacit, or purposeful white (Christian, heterosexual, socially elite) male privilege. It was also a period in which issues of social difference and justice began to take shape and profound questions about society started to emerge. Can we all live together? Should we all live together? If so, how? In order to explore the implications of this diversity and burgeoning social awareness, I have turned to the idea of multiculturalism and developed a course on the multicultural French Enlightenment. Unsurprisingly, one must eschew a commodifying, superficial, or passive view of multiculturalism. Instead, I deploy the term as indicating an active process of seeking to understand and respond to perceived differences.3 Writers of the French Enlightenment and Atlantic Revolutions grappled with a number of geographies and social categories, including gender, social class, religion, race, and, to some extent, sexuality (as a set of practices, as opposed to an identity). If institutions of the Bourbon monarchy had little room or motivation regarding social change, the French and Haitian Revolutions offered opportunities...

BOOK REVIEW Make Learning Personal: The What, Who, Wow, Where, And Why

This book is indeed insightful and a challenge to many people who might be complacent in their usual ways of managing teaching and learning. Old habits die hard. For sure, it sounds personal as the title suggests. It resonates with everyone—you and I; it draws us closer to the heart of the matter, that is, managing how we teach, managing learning, and that matters greatly if we consider the learners’ perspectives. Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey argue that we should change our “perceptions about learning and realize [that] every child is a learner” (p. xxiii). The idea is, if you are a learner, you ought to be thinking seriously about learning as something you are responsible for, making it your own, if you will. If you are a teacher, you ought to be shifting your paradigm by now; make teaching less centered on you but more on the actual person who is receiving what you teach, the learner. Know your learner, understand what they want and what they think would work for them. The point to drive home is learner-centeredness tends to be the buzz word for the twenty-first century classroom.

Street Medicine: Creating a "Classroom Without Walls" for Teaching Population Health.

"Street Medicine" programs provide medical care to homeless populations outside of traditional healthcare institutions, literally on the street and in transitional settings where unsheltered homeless people live. Such programs are emerging around the world often based at medical schools and primary care residency programs, and can provide ideal frameworks for twenty-first century "Classrooms Without Walls" aimed at improving Population Health. We provide a 12-step blueprint for creating a Street Medicine program in the context of a medical teaching institution.

THE ROLE OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA IN THE TEACHING OF THE ART

We are witnessing that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have a huge impact on the functioning of the world. This explains why the tools they provide play such an important role in the educational process, their use opens up numerous opportunities and perspectives in education. Today, aware of the inevitability of digital technologies in the functioning of the world, and of the benefits they bring, we try to use them as meaningfully as possible in education.In the visual arts, ICT technologies provide various opportunities for exploring multicultural and multi-technological content. The social tendencies of the 21st century set new criteria for the modern man - creativity, flexibility and innovation, which also requires the development of educational systems in accordance with these new, changing conditions. In the context of contemporary teaching and the education process in the field of art, new technologies certainly deserve special attention as a medium and a means that enables students to apply them to innovative forms of communication, research, learning and creative expression in the field of visual arts. Today's media bring flexibility, speed, accessibility, interchangeability of digital data and this is what makes contemporary media essential in the teaching of fine arts. The basis of modern media used in the teaching of fine arts are personal computers supported by internet connection, with specific software and various input-output devices. With the use of contemporary media in a specialized classroom for the teaching of fine arts, one can speak of an increase in the choice of teaching, an increase in the choice of means of learning and expression, and finally, an increase in individualization in teaching.In the twenty-first century classroom, the teaching of fine arts is increasingly influenced by external influences, so that the classroom is a place for students to learn, explore, do and evaluate works of art. The wealth of information offered through the use of information technology is multiplied by many over the traditional media. The basis of modern media used in the specialized classroom for the teaching of fine arts are computers supported by internet connection, with specific software and various input-output devices.

Appreciating the Whole: Dante Now

Appreciating the Whole:Dante Now Akash Kumar I am sure that many teachers who teach Dante dwell on the chapter "Il canto di Ulisse" when they come to Inferno 26. And how could we not? Primo Levi's moving account of his struggle to remember the text and meaning of Dante's poem, his difficulties in explaining the details of the Commedia to his French companion Jean, and most importantly, his stunning evocation of Ulysses' dictum "Considerate la vostra semenza," provide an oasis within the horrors of Auschwitz recounted in Se questo è un uomo. When Levi recites those verses, it is as if he too is reborn and able to forget where he is: "Come se anch'io lo sentissi per la prima volta: come uno squillo di tromba, come la voce di Dio. Per un momento, ho dimenticato chi sono e dove sono."1 If Ulysses' vision of a human potential that ever seeks new and greater knowledge can provide Levi something to hold on to, something to have faith in as he witnesses and is subjected to the most vile inhumanity that we are capable of, then surely we can make the case to our students in the global twenty-first century classroom that this is a poem worth reading. It reaches out well beyond its own moment to inspire us to rise above and embrace a vision of human excellence that defies boundaries of religion, culture, and class. As Teodolinda Barolini argues, this is in line with Dante's non-stereotyping imagination. If Ulysses represents, in part, a deep and abiding respect for classical culture, Dante also steps out of line with the popular, orthodox culture of his moment in making his usurers of Inferno 16 not Jews but Christians hailing from his own city, with their moneybags prominently emblazoned with their family crests. Barolini notes that "Dante transfers the stereotypic image—the moneybags [End Page 178] worn around the neck—from the stereotypic wearers—the Jews who were synonymous with usurers in much of Europe—to contemporary Florentines and one Paduan."2 But this is by no means the only representation of Jews in the Commedia. A full accounting must also consider the razing of the Temple by Titus framed in Paradiso 6.93 as just vengeance and the charge of deicide leveled against "Giudei" in Paradiso 7.47. Before we get to these moments, we have the spiritual competition over vows put forth in Paradiso 5 and Beatrice's exhortation to Christians that they not follow the pull of greed like sheep, lest they be subjected to the mockery of Jews: "Se mala cupidigia altro vi grida / uomini siate, e non pecore matte, / sì che 'l Giudeo di voi tra voi non rida" (Par. 5.79–81). And it is here that we can think once again of Primo Levi as a reader of Dante, as he homes in on a moment far less groundbreaking and far more typical of a cultural paradigm that marginalized him and his community. In Il sistema periodico, when he recounts the fraught atmosphere in the wake of the passing of the racial laws, Levi poignantly expresses his conflicted feelings with respect to how his fellow students and his teachers viewed him: Da pochi mesi erano state proclamate le leggi raziali, e stavo diventando un isolato anch'io. I compagni cristiani erano gente civile, nessuno fra loro né fra i professori mi aveva indirizzato una parola o un gesto nemico, ma li sentivo allontanarsi, e, seguendo un comportamento antico, anch'io me ne allontanavo: ogni sguardo scambiato fra me e loro era accompagnato da un lampo minuscolo, ma percettibile, di diffidenza e di sospetto. Che pensi tu di me? Che cosa sono io per te? Lo stesso di sei mesi addietro, un tuo pari che non va a messa, o il giudeo che "di voi tra voi non rida"?3 Levi cites Paradiso 5 not in the vein of light and celebration, but as a way of pointing back to the ancient roots of the anti-Semitism that was being directed at him. He wonders if his old ties of friendship, education, and camaraderie still hold or whether the people...

Leveraging the 1:1 iPad approach for enhanced learning in the classroom

ABSTRACTMobile technologies are integrated parts of our lives, and their use in educational settings could provide new, exciting opportunities for teaching and learning. The integration of the iPad in education, in particular, is thought to bring a paradigm shift and transform the twenty-first century classroom. However, as it is relatively new and experiences from pilot projects are just now beginning to surface, little concrete research on how it can be effectively adopted in the classroom and in other pedagogical activities exists. This raises the question of how to support students and teachers to realize the full potential of the 1:1 iPad approach. We followed the principles of action research in order to explore students’, teachers’ and parents perception of 1:1 iPad approach in the classroom. Towards this, we conducted a mixed-method research and combined quantitative and qualitative data. For the needs of this research, we employed a set of questionnaires, interviews and best practice lesson plans and performed descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The results indicate that students are more positive with reference to the iPad being an excellent tool that helps them organize and understand the course. Our future work will embrace iPad’s educational potential and emphasize on the design and implementation of orchestrated learning content.

Sociomaterial assemblages, entanglements and text production: Mapping pedagogic practices using time-lapse photography

This paper maps a teacher’s pedagogic practices when teaching young children to produce texts using digital technologies during a literacy lesson for 7–8 year-old children. Pedagogies are broadly understood as what the teacher does in a classroom to facilitate learning in a twenty-first century classroom. The paper argues that the very notion of pedagogy places the teacher at the centre of learning practices, more so than other aspects of teaching such as the curriculum and assessment, which are heavily regulated by policy. Underpinned by understandings of sociomaterial assemblages, incorporating the material and the spatial, data were collected using time-lapse photography, classroom observations and field notes including classroom floor plans. The findings of a frame-by-frame analysis of the time-lapse photographs are reported through the three interconnected concepts of pedagogy, space and materials. The paper concludes by suggesting that an understanding of the material and spatial entanglements in a classroom through a mapping of pedagogies augments current knowledge, enabling a fresh understanding of teaching literacy and how young children learn to write as twenty-first century learners as children enact their journey of becoming-writer.

IPads and pre-service teaching: exploring the use of iPads in k-2 classrooms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empower teacher candidates to integrate technology into classroom learning. The participating teacher candidates were provided with tools – iPads and software applications to enhance their ability to better meet the needs of all K-2 students. Teacher candidates had the opportunity to explore the range of pedagogical strategies the iPad facilitated through lesson planning and instructional practice. In addition, this research study found that when teacher candidates are given individualized training on the iPad, they have greater comfort with integrating it into their daily practice.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a case study approach, using both quantitative and qualitative measures. Quantitative methods included the use of two surveys to better understand how teachers have been trained on educational technology. The qualitative analysis explored how teacher candidates utilized the iPad to better meet K-2 student learning outcomes through focus group interviews.FindingsFindings from this study suggest the need for embedded technology integration – through current graduate pedagogical coursework to better prepare K-2 teachers. Teacher candidates require time and regular practice to develop skills and understanding of how best to integrate iPad technology into their teaching. Redesigning a methodology course whereby candidates are developing a deeper understanding of pedagogy, while embedding technology into practice offers students this much needed opportunity. The findings from this study also indicate that, with appropriate training, teacher candidates have the ability to effectively integrate iPad technology into lessons which benefit student learning.Research limitations/implicationsResearchers should be asking whether teacher preparation programs are effectively training teachers for the twenty-first century classroom. This research explores this question and suggests ways to improve current programs to better prepare candidates to meet the variety of learning needs in today’s classrooms. Although the study was small in scale it has broader implications for teacher education programs.Practical implicationsAddressing the diversity of students’ learning needs present in today’s classrooms is a common goal for all teachers. As evidenced through the findings, having the ability to access a variety of learning resources, in particular, iPads, will help teacher candidates better achieve this goal. This research demonstrated how teacher candidates used the iPad to support differentiated instruction in K-2 classrooms.Social implicationsA one size fits all approach to learning does not work and teachers need to have access to every available resource, including iPad technology, to individualize learning. Findings from this study recommend providing teacher candidates with multiple opportunities to practice utilizing the iPad as a means to adapt, modify, and differentiate instruction to meet the variety of learning needs in K-2 classrooms.Originality/valueIt is important to note that while iPad integration throughout K-2 classrooms is on the rise, there is still limited research in how this technology is actually being used by teachers. This study explored how eight teacher candidates implemented the iPad as a technology tool within K-2 inclusive classrooms.

Formatively assessing teamwork in technology-enabled twenty-first century classrooms: exploratory findings of a teamwork awareness programme in Singapore

Teamwork, one of the core competencies for the twenty-first century learner, is a critical skill for work and learning. However, assessing teamwork is complex, in particular, developing a measure of teamwork that is domain-generic and applicable across a wide range of learners. This paper documents one such study that leverages technology to help provide a formative assessment of teamwork. It focuses on the self and peer ratings of a teamwork measure and a pedagogical method, which was trialled as a teamwork awareness programme in a mainstream Secondary School in Singapore. This teamwork awareness programme was incorporated into the school’s Interdisciplinary Project Work curriculum. Findings of students’ experiences of the programme are described. The teamwork competency dimension of “team emotional support” was rated highest amongst students. Also, students’ report gains in teamwork awareness, mixed engagement in reflective practices, and on the real-world relevancy of the programme. Discussions and implications of the findings follow.

Action research: a methodology for transformative learning for a professor and his students in an engineering classroom

ABSTRACTAn engineering professor of a first-year thermodynamics course and a PhD student with a focus in engineering education in a large research university in Canada participated in an ethnographic action research study with the intention of increasing active learning in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning. Unexpected findings included transformative changes to the professor’s epistemology of teaching and learning. Through the action research cycle of planning, implementing, observing, and critically reflecting, modifications were made to the instructional strategies and the learning environment that created a micro engineering community of practice where both students and teaching assistants engaged in deep learning and legitimate peripheral participation on the trajectory to ‘becoming engineers’. Qualitative interview data from the professor, three students, and three teaching assistants are analysed through approaches to learning research and situated learning theory. Engaging in action research had profound repercussions in this case. The authors make the argument for action research as a catalyst for transformative learning required for teachers to engage students in the twenty-first century classroom.

Paradigm flip? Investigating technology-integrated history pedagogies

PurposeSuccessful technology integration into the teaching of social studies is imperative in the twenty-first century classroom. This study sought to answer the following questions: do synchronous and asynchronous technology integration increase a student’s understanding of social studies content? Are synchronous technology-integrated social studies lessons more effective than asynchronous technology-integrated social studies lessons? How do students perceive the effectiveness of a synchronous technology-integrated lesson vs the effectiveness of an asynchronous technology-integrated lesson? The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental research project comparing the learning outcomes of students who participated in synchronous and asynchronous technology-augmented lessons.FindingsThe results of this study found that synchronous and asynchronous technology-enhanced lessons are both viable pedagogies for increasing a student’s understanding of social studies content. The results also yielded no statistical significance between the effectiveness of the synchronous instruction vs asynchronous instruction. However, a statistical significance exists when analyzing a student’s perception of their own learning. Students participating in synchronous technology-integrated instruction reported a higher confidence in the lesson’s ability to teach them, when compared to that of the asynchronous population.Originality/valueBy continuing to seek new ways to integrate technology effectively into classrooms, social studies teachers can design lessons more effectively to meet the needs of today’s social studies students. The need to understand the learning outcomes of various technology-integrated approaches will continue to grow as more technologies become available to social studies teachers.

Young Learners’ Transactions With Interactive Digital Texts Using E-Readers

ABSTRACTThis year-long qualitative study draws from multimodal theory and New Literacies Studies to document the digital literacy experiences of a diverse group of 2nd-graders using e-readers. Twenty-first century classrooms must expand traditional notions of literacy to prepare students for the ever-changing, media-rich world. Students participated in small-group digital reading workshops, where they read interactive picture books. The data mainly drew from transcripts of student interactions and open-ended interviews and were analyzed through a combination of comparative and discourse analyses. The author argues that multimodal texts offer opportunities for rehearsal of literacy practices, engagement, talk as a choice of reader response, and student agency. Even though personal digital devices offer opportunities for independent reading, young readers still need social interactions around books to co-construct meaning. The study found the students spent additional time reading and successfully mediated the available resources as they engaged in digital reading.

Preservice Social Studies Teachers' Perspectives and Understandings of Teaching in the Twenty-First Century Classroom: A Meta-Ethnography

This meta-ethnography explores the conceptions preservice social studies teachers have toward broad theories of democratic education. The author synthesizes and analyzes empirical research to find a consensus on preservice teachers' conceptions of the social studies. Findings suggest that social studies teacher candidates enter teacher education programs with limited understandings of the broad aims of education and often exit programs unable to make proper associations between the classroom and theories of social justice, democratic education, and equality and equity. The author calls for more research exploring the extent to which preservice teachers internalize theories advocated for within teacher education.

Preservice Social Studies Teachers' Perspectives and Understandings of Teaching in the Twenty-First Century Classroom: A Meta-Ethnography

Preservice Social Studies Teachers' Perspectives and Understandings of Teaching in the Twenty-First Century Classroom: A Meta-Ethnography

The palimpsest layers of pre-service teachers’ literacy autobiographies

In this article, we examine three literacy autobiographies written by pre-service teachers. Narratives are seen as not just stories relating a set of facts, but rather a means by which individuals interpret their experience. Literacy autobiographies are a reflective and interpretive account of one’s development as a literate being. Using the tools of narrative analysis, we (a) examine these stories to understand the processes of literacy development through the experiences of learners’ storied lives; (b) seek to understand the impact that teachers’ literacy journeys have on their view of literacy and literacy education; and (c) explore what these literacy autobiographies reveal about the contributions of teacher reflection to pre-service teacher education. Our analysis points to the importance of personal relationships in the development of literacy, providing the context within which literacy practices give meaning to the literacy events active in the narrators’ lives. We also note a persistent view of traditional forms of literacy in contrast to pre-service teachers’ involvement in multiliteracies, and argue that this gap needs to be addressed in order to prepare teachers for the twenty-first century classroom. We also consider how reflection can be a more intentional aspect of pre-service teacher education to enhance pedagogy and learning.