A classroom-based investigation of reciprocal teaching at the grade seven level

This study assessed the effectiveness of a reciprocal teaching program as a method of teaching reading comprehension, using narrative text material in a t.ypical grade seven classroom. In order to determine the effectiveness of the reciprocal teaching program, this method was compared to two other reading instruction approaches that, unlike rcciprocal teaching, did not include social interaction components. Two intact grade scven classes, and a grade seven teacher, participated in this study. Students were appropriately assigned to three treatment groups by reading achievement level as determined from a norm-referenced test. Training proceeded for a five week intervention period during regularly scheduled English periods. Throughout the program curriculum-based tests were administered. These tests were designed to assess comprehension in two distinct ways; namely, character analysis components as they relate to narrative text, and strategy use components as they contribute to student understanding of narrative and expository text. Pre, post, and maintenance tests were administered to measure overall training effects. Moreover, during intervention, training probes were administered in the last period of each week to evaluate treatment group performance. AU curriculum-based tests were coded and comparisons of pre, post, maintenance tests and training probes were presented in graph form. Results showed that the reciprocal group achieved some improvement in reading comprehension scores in the strategy use component of the tests. No improvements were observed for the character analysis components of the curriculum-based tests and the norm-referenced tests. At pre and post intervention, interviews requiring students to respond to questions that addressed metacomprehension awareness of study strategies were administered. The intelviews were coded and comparisons were made between the two intelVicws. No significant improvements were observed regarding student awareness of ten identified study strategies . This study indicated that reciprocal teaching is a viable approach that can be utilized to help students acquire more effective comprehension strategies. However, the maximum utility of the technique when administered to a population of grade seven students performing at average to above average levels of reading achievement has yet to be determined. In order to explore this issue, the refinement of training materials and curriculum-based measurements need to be explored. As well, this study revealed that reciprocal teaching placed heavier demands on the classroom teacher when compared to other reading instruction methods. This may suggest that innovative and intensive teacher training techniques are required before it is feasible to use this method in the classroom.

An examination of grade three mathematics textbooks for problem solving strategies

Three grade three mathematics textbooks were selected arbitrarily (every other) from a total of six currently used in the schools of Ontario. These textbooks were examined through content analysis in order to determine the extent (i. e., the frequency of occurrence) to which problem solving strategies appear in the problems and exercises of grade three mathematics textbooks, and how well they carry through the Ministry's educational goals set out in The Formative Years. Based on Polya's heuristic model, a checklist was developed by the researcher. The checklist had two main categories, textbook problems and process problems and a finer classification according to the difficulty level of a textbook problem; also six commonly used problem solving strategies for the analysis of a process problem. Topics to be analyzed were selected from the subject guideline The Formative Years, and the same topics were selected from each textbook. Frequencies of analyzed problems and exercises were compiled and tabulated textbook by textbook and topic by topic. In making comparisons, simple frequency count and percentage were used in the absence of any known criteria available for judging highor low frequency. Each textbook was coded by three coders trained to use the checklist. The results of analysis showed that while there were large numbers of exercises in each textbook, not very many were framed as problems according to Polya' s model and that process problems form a small fraction of the number of analyzed problems and exercises. There was no pattern observed as to the systematic placement of problems in the textbooks.

Effectiveness of instructional strategies based on schema theory on attention deficit disorder children

A review of the literature reveals that there are a number of children in the educational system who are characterized by Attention Deficit Disorder. Further review of the literature reveals that there are information processing programs which have had some success in increasing the learning of these children. Currently, an information processing program which is based on schema theory is being implemented in Lincoln County. Since schema theory based programs build structural, conditional, factual, and procedural schemata which assist the learner in attending to salient factors, learning should be increased. Thirty-four children were selected from a random sampling of Grade Seven classes in Lincoln County. Seventeen of these children were identified by the researcher and classroom teacher as being characterized by Attention Deficit Disorder. From the remaining population, 17 children who were not characterized by Attention Deficit Disorder were randomly selected. The data collected were compared using independent t-tests, paired t-tests, and correlation analysis. Significant differences were found in all cases. The Non-Attention Deficit Disorder children scored significantly higher on all the tests but the Attention Defici t Disorder children had a significantly higher ratio of gain between the pretests and posttests.

Enhancing teaching and learning speech acts: action research of Japanese as a foreign language /

This action research observes a second year Japanese class at a university where foreign language courses are elective for undergraduate students. In this study, using the six strategies to teach Japanese speech acts that Ishihara and Cohen (2006) suggested, I conducted three classes and analyzed my teaching practice with a critical friend. These strategies assist learners toward the development of their understanding of the following Japanese speech acts and also keep the learners to use them in a manner appropriate to the context: (I) invitation and refusal; (2) compliments; and (3) asking for a permission. The aim of this research is not only to improve my instruction in relation to second language (L2) pragmatic development, but also to raise further questions and to develop future research. The findings are analyzed and the data derived from my journals, artifacts, students' work, observation sheets, interviews with my critical friend, and pretests and posttests are coded and presented. The analysis shows that (I) after my critical friend encouraged my study and my students gave me some positive comments after each lesson, I gained confidence in teaching the suggested speech acts; (2) teaching involved explaining concepts and strategies, creating the visual material (a video) showing the strategies, and explaining the relationship between the strategy and grammatical forms and samples of misusing the forms; (3) students' background and learning styles influenced lessons; and (4) pretest and posttests showed that the students' Icvel of their L2 appropriate pragmatics dramatically improved after each instruction. However, after careful observation, it was noted that some factors prevented students from producing the correct output even though they understood the speech act differences.

Investigation of motivation strategies used by school teachers for workplace engagement

The purpose of this study was to explore the strategies that elementary school teachers use to be engaged in their work. Participation was solicited from a random sample of schools stratified by location (i.e., urban, inner city, and rural) of a large school board. The study used an anonymous quantitative/qualitative questionnaire. The survey tool was based upon Kahn's (1990) psychological engagement framework, which presents the foundation of availability of self, meaningfulness of work, and safety while at work. Forty-one surveys were analyzed descriptively including a subgroup of self-rated highly engaged teachers. Teachers tended to favour physical and emotional strategies compared to cognitive type strategies, with the exception of the highly engaged subgroup. The theme of preferred strategies reflected a setting outside the school/workplace, that is, a preference for horne based strategies. The study's main contribution highlights the teachers' sense of importance for physical and emotional health in a profession that is heavily focused in the cognitive domain. This may influence administrative and teacher discourse regarding workplace engagement with strategies to help reduce stress and to maintain and increase teacher engagement.

Evolution of Various Library Instruction Strategies: Using Student Feedback to Create and Enhance Online Active Learning Assignments

This case study traces the evolution of library assignments for biological science students from paper-based workbooks in a blended (hands-on) workshop to blended learning workshops using online assignments to online active learning modules which are stand-alone without any face-to-face instruction. As the assignments evolved to adapt to online learning supporting materials in the form of PDFs (portable document format), screen captures and screencasting were embedded into the questions as teaching moments to replace face-to-face instruction. Many aspects of the evolution of the assignment were based on student feedback from evaluations, input from senior lab demonstrators and teaching assistants, and statistical analysis of the students’ performance on the assignment. Advantages and disadvantages of paper-based and online assignments are discussed. An important factor for successful online learning may be the ability to get assistance.

Teaching ethics to employees of a state public utilities company in a developing country: A case study

Cette étude de cas est issue d’un module final de formation pour les employés du service public d’une agence de l’eau. Nous explorons les résultats de plusieurs stratégies utilisées pour souligner le besoin de changement dans les comportements individuels et institutionnels en vue d’améliorer les services aux clients. En particulier, nous explorons certaines manières d’ouvrir la discussion sur les pratiques de corruption de manière non-triviale sans offenser les sensibilités ou provoquer l’indifférence. Comme point de départ, il est demandé aux participants de relever les problèmes institutionnels qu’ils caractérisent comme éthiques, même si d’autres problèmes appartiennent à d’autres catégories identifiées plus tard. Pour éviter une approche purement théorique des devoirs et obligations envers les clients, ils sont dérivés de la mission de l’agence telle que définit par la loi qui l’a créée.

Enseñar a aprender a pensar en los centros educativos, incluso en las actividades de evaluación.= Teaching to learn how to think at schools, even within assessment activities

El auténtico protagonismo de los centros educativos tiene que dirigirse a ayudar a pensar a sus alumnos y a enseñarlos a aprender, es decir, el docente tiene que enseñar estrategias de aprendizaje y debe promover el esfuerzo del estudiante para facilitar la construcción de esquemas y el aprendizaje permanente. El profesor debe utilizar cualquier situación de aprendizaje para enseñar dichas estrategias de aprendizaje, incluso en las situaciones de evaluación; por lo tanto, en este trabajo se sugiere que en las evaluaciones de los alumnos y alumnas se tenga en cuenta la metacognición como factor fundamental en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza

Intervention strategies on teachers focused on creating meaningful educational environments for mathematical abilities development

This article describes an intervention process undertaken in a training program for preschool and first grade teachers from public schools in Cali, Colombia. The objective of this process is to provide a space for teachers to reflect on pedagogical practices which allow them to generate educational processes that foster children’s understanding of mathematical knowledge in the classroom. A set of support strategies was presented for helping teachers in the design, analysis and implementation of learning environments as meaningful educational spaces. Furthermore, participants engaged in an analysis of their own intervention modalities to identify which modalities facilitate the development of mathematical abilities in children. In order to ascertain the transformations in the teachers’ learning environments, the mathematical competences and cognitive processes underlying the activities proposed in the classroom, as well as teacher intervention modalities and the types of student participation in classroom activities were examined both before and after the intervention process. Transformations in the teachers’ conceptions about the children’s abilities and their own practices in teaching mathematics in the classroom were evidenced.

Measuring the value of “all play and no work”: can rigorous assessment of simulation games drive innovative teaching in construction?

The construction field is dynamic and dominated by complex, ill-defined problems for which myriad possible solutions exist. Teaching students to solve construction-related problems requires an understanding of the nature of these complex problems as well as the implementation of effective instructional strategies to address them. Traditional approaches to teaching construction planning and management have long been criticized for presenting students primarily with well-defined problems - an approach inconsistent with the challenges encountered in the industry. However, growing evidence suggests that employing innovative teaching approaches, such as interactive simulation games, offers more active, hands-on and problem-based learning opportunities for students to synthesize and test acquired knowledge more closely aligned with real-life construction scenarios. Simulation games have demonstrated educational value in increasing student problem solving skills and motivation through critical attributes such as interaction and feedback-supported active learning. Nevertheless, broad acceptance of simulation games in construction engineering education remains limited. While recognizing benefits, research focused on the role of simulation games in educational settings lacks a unified approach to developing, implementing and evaluating these games. To address this gap, this paper provides an overview of the challenges associated with evaluating the effectiveness of simulation games in construction education that still impede their wide adoption. An overview of the current status, as well as the results from recently implemented Virtual Construction Simulator (VCS) game at Penn State provide lessons learned, and are intended to guide future efforts in developing interactive simulation games to reach their full potential.

Contemporary Approaches to Translation in the Classroom : A study of students' Attitudes and Strategies

The purpose of this study is to explore the strategies and attitudes of students towards translation in the context of language learning. The informants come from two different classes at an Upper Secondary vocational program. The study was born from the backdrop of discussions among some English teachers representing different theories on translation and language learning, meeting students endeavoring in language learning beyond the confinement of the classroom and personal experiences of translation in language learning. The curriculum and course plan for English at the vocational program emphasize two things of particular interest to our study; integration of the program outcomes and vocational language into the English course - so called meshed learning – and student awareness of their own learning processes. A background is presented of different contrasting methods in translation and language learning that is relevant to our discussion. However, focus is given to contemporary research on reforms within the Comparative Theory, as expressed in Translation in Language and Teaching (TILT), Contrastive Analysis and “The Third Space”. The results of the students’ reflections are presented as attempts to translate two different texts; one lyric and one technical vocational text. The results show a pragmatic attitude among the students toward tools like dictionaries or Google Translate, but also a critical awareness about their use and limits. They appear to prefer the use of first language to the target language when discussing the correct translation as they sought accuracy over meaning. Translation for them was a natural and problem-solving event worth a rightful place in language teaching.

Teaching grammar: A study of the common English grammar errors and grammar teaching methods that can be relevant for Swedish upper secondary schools

Grammar has always been an important part of language learning. Based on various theories, such as the universal grammar theory (Chomsky, 1959) and, the input theory (Krashen, 1970), the explicit and implicit teaching methods have been developed. Research shows that both methods may have some benefits and disadvantages. The attitude towards English grammar teaching methods in schools has also changed and nowadays grammar teaching methods and learning strategies, as a part of language mastery, are one of the discussion topics among linguists. This study focuses on teacher and learner experiences and beliefs about teaching English grammar and difficulties learners may face. The aim of the study is to conduct a literature review and to find out what scientific knowledge exists concerning the previously named topics. Along with this, the relevant steering documents are investigated focusing on grammar teaching at Swedish upper secondary schools. The universal grammar theory of Chomsky as well as Krashen’s input hypotheses provide the theoretical background for the current study. The study has been conducted applying qualitative and quantitative methods. The systematic search in four databases LIBRIS, ERIK, LLBA and Google Scholar were used for collecting relevant publications. The result shows that scientists’ publications name different grammar areas that are perceived as problematic for learners all over the world. The most common explanation of these difficulties is the influence of learner L1. Research presents teachers’ and learners’ beliefs to the benefits of grammar teaching methods. An effective combination of teaching methods needs to be done to fit learners’ expectations and individual needs. Together, they will contribute to the achieving of higher language proficiency levels and, therefore, they can be successfully applied at Swedish upper secondary schools.

The Role of Motivational Strategies in the Upper Elementary Classroom : A systematic literature review about teacher strategies that promote self-confidence, motivation and a conducive learning environment

The aim of this literature review is to investigate which strategies teachers use to motivate pupils to communicate orally in English. The literature review also investigates how these teacher strategies affect pupils. The methodology used for this investigation is a systematic literature review. Various databases have been used when searching for literature. Scientific articles and theses have been searched for. They have also been read and analyzed before they have become a part of this review. The results indicate that some teachers feel insecure when speaking English. Therefore Swedish is spoken in many language classrooms. Teachers speaking in front of the class is the traditional way of teaching, and it does not seem to be a strategy who influences pupils positively. If teachers speak the target language among pupils they often get more motivated and focused pupils who feel comfortable speaking English. Young pupils are fast learners. By exposing them to the English language in early ages they receive great opportunities to learn a foreign language and strengthen their self-confidence. Drama, songs and rhymes are preferable strategies to use when teaching young learners. What position teachers decide to take in the classroom is also a significant element when teaching foreign languages.

Faculty Instructional Quality Assessment Practices Incorporating Teaching Portfolios and Peer Review with Student Course Evaluations

Program directors and department chairs require different means of assessing faculty quality due to the unreliability of student course evaluation data. This report outlines alternative strategies for review committees to assess faculty instructional quality. This report also details incorporation of annual performance reviews for tenure-track faculty into tenure decisions.