English language study abroad program : an investigation of Hong Kong pre-service teachers’ experiences of a language immersion program

There has been minimal research focused on short-term study abroad language immersion programs, in particular, with home-stay families. The importance of authentic intercultural experience is increasingly clear and was acknowledged as central to the process of language learning (Liddicoat, 2004). In Hong Kong, education programs for pre-service language teachers have significantly emphasised language and intercultural training through short-term study abroad, and these short overseas language immersion courses have become a compulsory component for teacher training (Bodycott & Crew, 2001) in the last decade. This study aims to investigate eight Hong Kong pre-service teachers’ and their home-stay families’ experiences of a short-term (two months) language immersion program in Australia. The focus is on listening to commentaries concerning the development of communicative competence, intercultural competence and professional growth during the out-of-class study abroad experience. The conceptual framework adopted in this study views language and intercultural learning from social constructivist perspectives. Central to this framing is the notion that the internalisation of higher mental functions involves the transfer from the inter-psychological to the intra-psychological plane, that is, a progression process from the socially supported to individually controlled performance. From this perspective, language serves as a way to communicate about, and in relation to, actions and experience. Three research questions were addressed and studied through qualitative methodology. 1. How do the pre-service teachers and their home-stay families perceive the out-of-class component of the program in terms of opportunities for the development of language proficiency and communicative competence? 2. How do the pre-service teachers and their home-stay families perceive the out-of-class component of the program in terms of the development of intercultural competence? 3. How do the pre-service teachers and home-stay families perceive the outof- class component of the program in terms of teachers’ professional growth? Data were generated from multiple data collection methods and analysed through thematic analysis from both a “bottom up” and “top down” approach. The study showed that the pre-service teachers perceived that the immersion program influenced, to varying degrees, their language proficiency, communication and intercultural awareness, as well as their self-awareness and professional growth. These pre-service teachers believed that effective language learning centres on active engagement in the target language community. A mismatch between the views and evaluations of the two groups – the pre-service teachers and the home-stay family members – provides some evidence of misalignments in terms of expectations and perceptions of each other’s roles and responsibilities. The study has highlighted challenges encountered, and provided suggestions for ways of meeting these challenges. The inclusion in the study of the home-stay families’ perceptions and commentaries provided insights, which can inform program development. There is clearly further work to be done in terms of predeparture orientation and preparation, not only for the main participants themselves, the students, but also for the host families.

goDesign travelling design workshop program for regional secondary students

goDesign Travelling Workshop Program for Regional Secondary Students was an initiative of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) Queensland Branch, which aligned with the DIA unleashed: Queensland design on tour 2010 Exhibition. It was designed be delivered by university design academics in state secondary schools in Chinchilla, Mt Isa, Quilpie, Emerald, Gladstone and Bundaberg between February and September 2010, to approximately 95 secondary students and 24 teachers from the subject areas of visual art, graphics and industrial technology and design. A talk by a visiting design practitioner whose work was displayed in the exhibition, also features in the final day of the program in each town, and student work from the workshop was displayed in the exhibition alongside the professional design work. The three-day workshop is a design immersion program for regional Queensland Secondary Schools, which responds to specific actions outlined in the Queensland Government Design Strategy 2020 to ‘Build Design Knowledge and Learning’ and ‘Foster a Design Culture’. Underpinned by a place-based approach and the integration of Dr Charles Burnette’s IDESIGN teaching model, the program gives students and teachers the opportunity to explore, analyse and reimagine their local town through a series of scaffolded problem solving activities around the theme of ‘place’. The program allows students to gain hands-on experience designing graphics, products, interior spaces and architecture to assist their local community, with the support of design professionals. Students work individually and in groups on real design problems learning sketching, making, communication, presentation and collaboration skills to improve their design process, while considering social, cultural and environmental opportunities. The program was designed to facilitate an understanding of the value of design thinking and its importance to regional communities, to give students more information about various design disciplines as career options, and provide a professional development opportunity for teachers. Advisory assistance for the program was gained through Kelvin Grove State College, Queensland Studies Authority and QMI/Manufacturing Skills Queensland Manager, Manufacturing & Engineering Gateway Schools Project.

Boys 'doing' and 'undoing' media education : new possibilities for theory and practice

The purpose of this study is to investigate how secondary school media educators might best meet the needs of students who prefer practical production work to ‘theory’ work in media studies classrooms. This is a significant problem for a curriculum area that claims to develop students’ media literacies by providing them with critical frameworks and a metalanguage for thinking about the media. It is a problem that seems to have become more urgent with the availability of new media technologies and forms like video games. The study is located in the field of media education, which tends to draw on structuralist understandings of the relationships between young people and media and suggests that students can be empowered to resist media’s persuasive discourses. Recent theoretical developments suggest too little emphasis has been placed on the participatory aspects of young people playing with, creating and gaining pleasure from media. This study contributes to this ‘participatory’ approach by bringing post structuralist perspectives to the field, which have been absent from studies of secondary school media education. I suggest theories of media learning must take account of the ongoing formation of students’ subjectivities as they negotiate social, cultural and educational norms. Michel Foucault’s theory of ‘technologies of the self’ and Judith Butler’s theories of performativity and recognition are used to develop an argument that media learning occurs in the context of students negotiating various ‘ethical systems’ as they establish their social viability through achieving recognition within communities of practice. The concept of ‘ethical systems’ has been developed for this study by drawing on Foucault’s theories of discourse and ‘truth regimes’ and Butler’s updating of Althusser’s theory of interpellation. This post structuralist approach makes it possible to investigate the ways in which students productively repeat and vary norms to creatively ‘do’ and ‘undo’ the various media learning activities with which they are required to engage. The study focuses on a group of year ten students in an all boys’ Catholic urban school in Australia who undertook learning about video games in a three-week intensive ‘immersion’ program. The analysis examines the ethical systems operating in the classroom, including formal systems of schooling, informal systems of popular cultural practice and systems of masculinity. It also examines the students’ use of semiotic resources to repeat and/or vary norms while reflecting on, discussing, designing and producing video games. The key findings of the study are that students are motivated to learn technology skills and production processes rather than ‘theory’ work. This motivation stems from the students’ desire to become recognisable in communities of technological and masculine practice. However, student agency is not only possible through critical responses to media, but through performative variation of norms through creative ethical practices as students participate with new media technologies. Therefore, the opportunities exist for media educators to create the conditions for variation of norms through production activities. The study offers several implications for media education theory and practice including: the productive possibilities of post structuralism for informing ways of doing media education; the importance of media teachers having the autonomy to creatively plan curriculum; the advantages of media and technology teachers collaborating to draw on a broad range of resources to develop curriculum; the benefits of placing more emphasis on students’ creative uses of media; and the advantages of blending formal classroom approaches to media education with less formal out of school experiences.

Broadening horizons : an emerging research agenda modelling design led innovation across secondary education

A re-examination of design education at all levels is needed to ensure global economic competitiveness and social and environmental sustainment. This paper presents an emerging research agenda modelling design led innovation approaches from the business sector to secondary education curriculum. To do this, a review of literature is provided and current knowledge gaps surrounding design education are detailed. A regional secondary school design immersion program is outlined as a future research case study using action research. A framework and recommendations for developing and delivering pedagogical approaches for 21st century skill outcomes in secondary education are briefly introduced and future research objectives are overviewed and discussed.

A methodological approach to modelling design led innovation across secondary education : an Australian case study

Incorporating design thinking as a generic capability at a school level is needed to ensure future generations are empowered for business innovation and active citizenship. This paper describes the methodology of an investigation into modelling design led innovation approaches from the business sector to secondary education, as part of a larger study. It builds on a previously discussed research agenda by outlining the scope, significance and limitations of currently available research in this area, examining an action research methodology utilising an Australian design immersion program case study, and discussing implications and future work. It employs a triangulated approach encompassing thematic analysis of qualitative data collection from student focus groups, semi-structured convergent interviews with teachers and facilitators, and student journals. Eventual outcomes will be reviewed and analysed within the framework of a proposed innovation matrix model for educational growth, synthesising principles responding to 21st century student outcomes. It is anticipated this research will inform a successful design led secondary education innovation model, facilitating new engagement frameworks between tertiary and secondary education sectors, as well as providing new insight into the suitability of action research in prototyping social innovation in Australia.

Experiencing and imagining new ways of becoming TESOL teachers

The question has been asked "Can we shape an imaginative teacher identity?" (Garrod 2005). This research explores how participating in an overseas school experience can contribute to developing TESOL teachers' professional identities. The particular context for this research is the experiences of a group of Hong Kong pre-service TESOL teachers attending a short language immersion program at a university in Australia. As part of this program, the teachers are attached to a local school, where they observe and interact with the school community. This research tracks the teachers' perceptions of how this experience has contributed to their understandings of what it means to be a TESOL teacher and to their own developing sense of professional identity. It is suggested that engaging in critical reflection on this intercultural experience can develop teacher knowledge, practice and sense of self. Recent research (Swain, in press) posits that verbal protocols, such as 'stimulated recall' are part of the learning process rather than mere data collection techniques. How can this potential of 'stimulated recall' be realized as part of the learning processes in TESOL teacher education?

Investigating homework as a social practice : a qualitative approach

This thesis examines the social practice of homework. It explores how homework is shaped by the discourses, policies and guidelines in circulation in a society at any given time with particular reference to one school district in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. This study investigates how contemporary homework reconstitutes the home as a pedagogical site where the power of the institution of schooling circulates regularly from school to home. It examines how the educational system shapes the organization of family life and how family experiences with homework may be different in different sites depending on the accessibility of various forms of cultural capital. This study employs a qualitative approach, incorporating multiple case studies, and is complemented by insights from institutional ethnography and critical discourse analysis. It draws on the theoretical concepts of Foucault including power and power relations, and governmentality and surveillance, as well as Bourdieu’s concepts of economic, social and cultural capital for analysis. It employs concepts from Bourdieu’s work as they have been expanded on by researchers including Reay (1998), Lareau (2000), and Griffith and Smith (2005). The studies of these researchers allowed for an examination of homework as it related to families and mothers’ work. Smith’s (1987; 1999) concepts of ruling relations, mothers’ unpaid labour, and the engine of inequality were also employed in the analysis. Family interviews with ten volunteer families, teacher focus group sessions with 15 teachers from six schools, homework artefacts, school newsletters, homework brochures, and publicly available assessment and evaluation policy documents from one school district were analyzed. From this analysis key themes emerged and the findings are documented throughout five data analysis chapters. This study shows a change in education in response to a system shaped by standards, accountability and testing. It documents an increased transference of educational responsibility from one educational stakeholder to another. This transference of responsibility shifts downward until it eventually reaches the family in the form of homework and educational activities. Texts in the form of brochures and newsletters, sent home from school, make available to parents specific subject positions that act as instruments of normalization. These subject positions promote a particular ‘ideal’ family that has access to certain types of cultural capital needed to meet the school’s expectations. However, the study shows that these resources are not equally available to all and some families struggle to obtain what is necessary to complete educational activities in the home. The increase in transference of educational work from the school to the home results in greater work for parents, particularly mothers. As well, consideration is given to mother’s role in homework and how, in turn, classroom instructional practices are sometimes dependent on the work completed at home with differential effects for children. This study confirms previous findings that it is mothers who assume the greatest role in the educational trajectory of their children. An important finding in this research is that it is not only middle-class mothers who dedicate extensive time working hard to ensure their children’s educational success; working-class mothers also make substantial contributions of time and resources to their children’s education. The assignments and educational activities distributed as homework require parents’ knowledge of technical school pedagogy to help their children. Much of the homework being sent home from schools is in the area of literacy, particularly reading, but requires parents to do more than read with children. A key finding is that the practices of parents are changing and being reconfigured by the expectations of schools in regard to reading. Parents are now being required to monitor and supervise children’s reading, as well as help children complete reading logs, written reading responses, and follow up questions. The reality of family life as discussed by the participants in this study does not match the ‘ideal’ as portrayed in the educational documents. Homework sessions often create frustrations and tensions between parents and children. Some of the greatest struggles for families were created by mathematical homework, homework for those enrolled in the French Immersion program, and the work required to complete Literature, Heritage and Science Fair projects. Even when institutionalized and objectified capital was readily available, many families still encountered struggles when trying to carry out the assigned educational tasks. This thesis argues that homework and education-related activities play out differently in different homes. Consideration of this significance may assist educators to better understand and appreciate the vast difference in families and the ways in which each family can contribute to their children’s educational trajectory.

Something’s coming, something good: Identifying TPACK competence in pre-service teachers’ analyses of learning objects

There is a song at the beginning of the musical, West Side Story, where the character Tony sings that “something’s coming, something good.” The song is an anthem of optimism, brimming with promise. This paper is about the long-held promise of information and communication technology (ICT) to transform teaching and learning, to modernise the learning environment of the classroom, and to create a new digital pedagogy. But much of our experience to date in the schooling sector tells more of resistance and reaction than revolution, of more of the same but with a computer in the corner and of ICT activities as unwelcome time-fillers/time-wasters. Recently, a group of pre-service teachers in a postgraduate primary education degree in an Australian university were introduced to learning objects in an ICT immersion program. Their analyses and related responses, as recorded in online journals, have here been interpreted in terms of TPACK (Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge). Against contemporary observation, these students generally displayed high levels of competence and highly positive dispositions of students to the integration of ICT in their future classrooms. In short, they displayed the same optimism and confidence as the fictional “Tony” in believing that something good was coming.

L’enseignement de la distinction entre le passé composé et l’imparfait et l’utilisation de ces temps verbaux en classe d’immersion française : observations et proposition didactique

La présente étude avait pour objectif de décrire comment est enseignée (si elle l’est effectivement) la distinction d’emploi entre le passé composé et l’imparfait, une distinction aspectuelle posant problème aux apprenants du français langue seconde, dans trois classes de 3e à 5e années en immersion française précoce aux Territoires du Nord-Ouest et de décrire l’utilisation que font les enseignantes de ces temps verbaux. À partir de dix-neuf heures d’observation en classe et d’entretiens menés avec deux enseignantes, nous avons élaboré une proposition didactique basée sur la réflexion guidée avec exemples positifs et négatifs de Nadeau et Fisher (2006) mettant en évidence le contraste d’emploi entre le passé composé et l’imparfait. Cette proposition didactique fournit aux enseignantes une façon de l’enseigner alors qu’elles ne le font pas à ces niveaux, et aux apprenants, un intrant où la fréquence des emplois atypiques est plus grande que dans le discours de leur enseignante.

Podcasting Oral Presentations

This presentation tells how podcasts can be used to enhance the learning experience of English as a Second Language (ESL) students registered in a content-based language immersion program. The students were placed in groups of four and asked to prepare an oral presentation. The topics of the presentations included Financial Aid, College Courses and Course Schedules and Academic Policies. Each presentation was podcasted to give students an opportunity for self-evaluation and feedback.

Un estudio sociolingüístico sobre el catalán : Los efectos de la inmersión lingüística

This thesis analyzes the current state of the language immersion program in Catalonia after its implementation 30 years ago, and after the immigration wave of the last decade. The language immersion is a method of teaching a second language using a language of instruction different than the students’ mother tongue. The Catalan authorities use this as a method for preserving Catalan in the society.The aim of this study is to examine the use of Catalan at school and outside of school by students who have followed the language immersion program. Language attitudes play an important role for the maintenance of a minority language, as Catalan. Therefore, in this study, the informants’ attitudes towards Catalan have also been measured. The method applied is a quantitative method where the informants have answered a written questionnaire. The results show a high level of knowledge of Catalan and its frequent use in the classroom. In contrast, outside of school the Castilian language is more often used. The informants seem to have a positive attitude towards Catalan.The conclusion is that the language immersion works satisfactory in a school context but often fails outside of school.

Immersion professionnelle et intégration en emploi des immigrants : l’exemple du PRIIME (Programme d’aide à l’intégration des immigrants et des minorités visibles en emploi)

Les immigrants qualifiés rencontrent plusieurs obstacles sur le marché du travail au Québec. Parmi les plus importants, selon les employeurs, on note leur manque d’expérience québécoise. Le Programme d’aide à l’intégration des immigrants et minorités visibles en emploi (PRIIME), géré par Emploi-Québec, veut combler cette lacune en offrant aux immigrants une expérience québécoise dans leur domaine de qualification. Cette recherche a donc pour but d’examiner dans quelle mesure un programme d’immersion professionnelle tel que le PRIIME permet une meilleure intégration des immigrants qualifiés dans leur domaine et de voir si celle-ci se poursuit à la suite du programme. L’approche qualitative permet de mieux comprendre les différents points de vue : employeurs, immigrants et intervenants au PRIIME. On observe que la participation des immigrants au PRIIME permet de réduire leur degré de déqualification en emploi, mais pas complètement. Ainsi elle permet souvent de retrouver un emploi lié au domaine de formation, mais en dessous du niveau de qualifications des immigrants. Le PRIIME rend également possible un maintien en emploi, sauf que l’effet n’est observé qu’à court terme. De plus, la participation au programme ne suffit pas pour que l’immigrant soit en mesure de contrer les obstacles à l’intégration professionnelle, car les quatre volets principaux du PRIIME sont très rarement appliqués ensemble dans une entreprise. Finalement, dans la perspective des marchés transitionnels de travail, la participation au PRIIME représente une « transition critique » offrant aux immigrants une meilleure intégration professionnelle à long terme. En somme, nous concluons que le PRIIME réduit uniquement le degré de déqualification des immigrants en les rapprochant de leur domaine de formation. Toutefois, il ne tient pas compte du niveau d’éducation de la personne. Même avec le PRIIME, plusieurs immigrants se voient forcés de recommencer leur carrière.

"My One Regret...": The Case for Cultural Immersion in Study Abroad Programs

Study abroad has been an established institution in US universities for almost a century, and hundreds of thousands of students travel to all corners of the world every year. While many list some degree of cultural immersion as a main goal, most students have a difficult time achieving this. Drawing from interviews with twenty-five UConn undergraduates that studied abroad, this study attempts to identify factors that hold students back from cultural encounters. The study also discusses the 'success stories' of undergrads that made significant connections abroad, and highlights the factors that can lead to this (e.g., homestays, jobs, internships).