The cultural dimension in focus : promoting awareness of diversity and respect for difference in a Finland-Swedish EFL classroom

This study addresses the role of EFL education, its potential and shortcomings, and the challenges the future of EFL education will bring. It is argued that new societal demands and the limited time we have at our disposal in the classroom make it necessary to rethink goals and content and move away from the transmissionof limited sets of facts and information to helping students develop awareness and competences that can be applied in many different situations, also in a perspective of lifelong learning. The overall aim of the current study is to problematize and increase understanding of the implementation of cultural aspects in the language classroom by addressing the interrelated what, why and how of the cultural dimension within EFL education. This has been conducted by means of theoretical explorations into the area, alongside an attempt at promoting intercultural competence (IC) in a more systematic and insightful manner within my own educational praxis. The focus of the intercultural work in the classroom was on the promotion of awareness of difference and diversity, as well as respect for such difference through the ability to decenter from cultural norms and behavior that previously have been taken for granted. These are two elements that have been suggested as fundamental for other work with IC in the classroom and for the realization of important aspects of the underlying values of basic education. In the context of this study, IC comprises several interconnected components supportingeach other in a variety of ways, with the further aim being interaction with and respect for difference in general, not only concerning e.g. representatives ofcertain English-speaking communities. The methodology was informed by action research, with myself in the role of the teacher-researcher or the reflective practitioner. For the purpose of the project I was authorized to take on the EFL education for the three years of upper comprehensive school of one random class of students originally assigned to one of the language teachers of the selected Finland-Swedish school. Thus, the class of 17 students was not specifically chosen for the project, and the aims and contents chosen for the development project were placed within the framework of the ordinary curriculum. By exploring the students¿ insights concerning different English-speaking cultural groups, mainly through a set of questionnaires, it was possible to outline the work with the cultural dimension in the classroom for the following three years. Work progress was evaluated at specific stages, and the final project evaluations were conducted through individual student interviews in grade 9. The interviews were focused on possible development of students¿ insights concerning different aspects of the cultural dimension. In particular this concerned awareness of difference and diversity, including modification of stereotypes, as well as the ability to decenterin order to be better able to respect such difference. I also explored students¿ awareness and views of the activities and approaches used in class, as well asaffordances both inside and outside the EFL classroom in relation to these intended insights. A further focus area was the perceived relevance to students of different aspects of the cultural dimension. The frameworks and approaches adopted for the work in the classroom all have in common that they are based on a constructivist framework, where knowledge is constructed and reconstructed through interaction with one¿s social and cultural environment, including interaction with others. Reflective processes precede or are simultaneous with the learning of basic factual knowledge. This entails a view of learning as a progression from simple to more complex models rather than as a progression from facts to understanding and analysis. Here, the development of intercultural competence is seen asa cyclical process, or along a spiral curriculum, from simple to more complex levels through a combination of cognitive, affective and behavioral elements within a framework of experiential learning. This project has shown one possible wayforward concerning the development of intercultural competence within EFL education through a more systematic and comprehensive approach regarding linguistic and cultural aspects. The evaluation of the educational process explored in the study suggests the possibilities for work with the promotion of awareness of difference and diversity concerning some specific context that, based on students¿ prior knowledge and preconceptions, would benefit from further work. In this case, the specific context primarily concerned different aspects of both cultural and linguistic conditions in the UK. It is also suggested that many students developed the ability to decenter, described in the study as integral to being able to respect otherness. What still remains to be explored are more individualized approaches considering students¿ different levels of departure. Further work alsoneeds to be put into how to apply insights gained in these specific situations to more general contexts. It is also necessary to explore the use of the suggested approaches in a wider range of different contexts.

Exploring the personal and professional lives of teachers in the search for authenticity /

"We teach who we are" (Palmer, 1998, p. 2). This simple, yet profound, statement was the catalyst that began my thesis journey. Using a combination of self-study and participant narratives, Palmer's idea was explored as search for authenticity. The self-study component of this narrative was enhanced by the stories of two other teachers, both women. I chose to use narrative methodology to uncover and discover the relationship between the personal and professional lives of being a teacher. Do teachers express themselves daily in their classrooms? Do any lessons from the classroom translate into teachers' personal lives? The themes of reflection, authenticity, truth, and professional development thread themselves throughout this narrative study. In order to be true to myself as a teacher/researcher, arts-based interpretations accompany my own and each participant's profile. Our conversations about our pasts, our growth as teachers and journeys as individuals were captured in poetry and photographic mosaics. Through rich and detailed stories we explored who we are as teachers and how we became this way. The symbiotic relationship between our personal and professional lives was illustrated by tales of bravery, self-discovery, and reflection. The revelations uncovered illustrate the powerful role our past plays in shaping the present and potentially the friture. It may seem indulgent to spend time exploring who we are as teachers in a time that is increasingly focused on improving student test scores. Yet, the truth remains that, "Knowing myself is as crucial to good teaching as knowing my students and my subject" (Palmer, 1998, p. 2).

Writing and science connections : integrated instruction and assessment

Learning to write is a daunting task for many young children. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a combined approach to writing instruction and assessment on the writing performance of students in two grade 3 classes. Five forms and traits of writing were purposefully connected during writing lessons while exhibiting links to the four strands of the grade 3 Ontario science curriculum. Students then had opportunities to engage in the writing process and to self-assess their compositions using either student-developed (experimental group/teacher-researcher's class) or teachercreated (control group/teacher-participant's class) rubrics. Paired samples t-tests revealed that both the experimental and control groups exhibited statistically significant growth from pretest to posttest on all five integrated writing units. Independent samples t-tests showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the persuasive + sentence fluency and procedure + word choice writing tasks. Pearson product-moment correlation r tests revealed significant correlations between the experimental group and the teacher-researcher on the recount + ideas and report + organization tasks, while students in the control group showed significant correlations with the teacher-researcher on the narrative + voice and procedure + word choice tasks. Significant correlations between the control group and the teacher-participant were evident on the persuasive + sentence fluency and procedure + word choice tasks. Qualitative analyses revealed five themes that highlighted how students' self-assessments and reflections can be used to guide teachers in their instructional decision making. These findings suggest that educators should adopt an integrated writing program in their classrooms, while working with students to create and utilize purposeful writing assessment tools.

Disquietude: A Sonata-Form Inquiry Into Multiliteracies Practices in an EAL Classroom

This narrative case study describes an English as an Additional Language teacher’s struggle to understand her young adult learners’ apparent resistance toward multiliteracies pedagogical practices in a college setting. Multiliteracies Pedagogy (New London Group, 1996) advocates the use of digital media, and home languages and culture, to engage diverse youth in designing personally meaningful multimodal texts that can significantly impact learner identity, voice, and agency. This arts-based study uses an innovative sonata-style format to document the making of a class documentary, accompanied by teacher reflections on the video project in the form of poetry, journal excerpts, and classroom dialogue. The sonata form provides a unique methodology for teacher inquiry, allowing the teacher-researcher to explore the ways in which curriculum, pedagogy, and sociocultural influences intersect in the classroom. The study does not end with a clear resolution of the problem; instead, the process of inquiry leads to deeper understandings of what it means to teach in the complex worlds of diverse learners.

Écrire à la manière d'un auteur au premier cycle du primaire : pratiques et impacts

Plusieurs auteurs (Nadon, 2007; Tauveron, 2005; Routman, 2010) ont mis de l’avant des propositions didactiques pour enseigner l’écriture de façon optimale à partir de la littérature de jeunesse, notamment en amenant les élèves à s’inspirer du style d’un auteur. Puisque la littérature de jeunesse est encore peu employée pour induire des situations d’écriture au primaire (Montésinos-Gelet et Morin, 2007), cette recherche présente un dispositif novateur, soit l’écriture à la manière d’un auteur qui consiste à placer l’élève dans une situation d’appropriation-observation d’une oeuvre littéraire dans le but d’en ressortir ses caractéristiques et de l’imiter (Geist, 2005 et Tauveron, 2002). Selon Olness (2007), l’exposition à une littérature de jeunesse de qualité est essentielle pour permettre aux élèves d’apprendre une variété de styles et d’éléments littéraires. Cette recherche a pour but de décrire dix séquences d’écriture à la manière d’un auteur conçues par l’enseignante-chercheuse et d’identifier les impacts de celles-ci, auprès des élèves, sur leurs habiletés en production écrite, de compréhension en lecture et sur leur motivation à l’écriture. Cette recherche a été réalisée pendant une période de 5 mois auprès de 18 élèves d’une classe de 2e année du primaire. Il ressort de cette recherche que les élèves ont grandement développé leur capacité à analyser et imiter les caractéristiques d’un texte source et qu’ils ont transféré ces apprentissages au-delà du contexte de notre recherche. Par la pratique fréquente et le modelage, ils ont assimilés les six traits de l’écriture et ont manifesté un intérêt grandissant envers la littérature de jeunesse.

Desarrollo de un grupo de investigación-acción colaboradora en proyectos curriculares innovadores.

En los últimos veinte años se han realizado muchos estudios de investigación-acción con el fin de mejorar las prácticas educativas, como la comprensión de dichas prácticas y los contextos en que se realizan. El proyecto de investigación nació cuando una profesora de instituto, licenciada en Biología y en Pedagogía, decide hacer su tesis doctoral en un campo relacionado con su actividad profesional como docente. Diseño y puesta en práctica de un proyecto curricular de aula para Ciencias de Primero de Bachillerato Unificado Polivalente ofreció a todo su departamento colaborar en este proyecto. En el proceso de investigación-acción cuatro fases: reflexión inicial, acción y reflexión. Antes de pasar a la acción el grupo investigador debe identificar y clarificar la situación de problemática que desea resolver y establecer un plan para ello, flexible. Así, la acción no debe ponerse en práctica hasta que se consiga una comprensión más profunda de la situación a modificar. El proyecto traspasó los límites del centro ee que se llevó a cabo. Es lógico que un plan previsto acabe siendo modificado o ampliado en el curso en proceso.

O ensino : aprendizagem da produção textual : um estudo a partir de textos produzidos por alunos do ensino fundamental

RESUMO : Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar o processo de ensino-aprendizagem da produção textual em relação a competência comunicativa escrita do aluno, identificando as características e verificando se as propostas teóricas sobre produção textual foram implementadas em sala de aula, de forma a possibilitar o aprendizado da escrita de maneira motivadora, preparando-o para realizar tarefas sobre distintos componentes da competência comunicativa em nível de palavra, frase e texto. Foi realizado um estudo quantitativo-qualitativo e para a coleta de dados, aplicamos um questionário, e logo em seguida damos início as atividades de produção textual com temas indicados tanto pela professora-investigadora como pelos próprios alunos os quais serviram de base para a análise temática. Esta análise foi feita levando em consideração as condições de produção propostas por Geraldi, a perspectiva interacionista da linguagem Bakhtiniana e a teoria sociointeracionista de Vigotsky. Seguimos também os caminhos da Análise do Discurso de Orlandi. A sequência de textos foi de gêneros diferenciados, porém aplicada a todas as turmas. ABSTRACT: This study aimed to analyze the process of teaching and learning of text production in relation to communicative competence student writing, identifying the characteristics and verifying the theoretical proposals on textual production have been implemented in the classroom, to enable the learning of written in a way motivating, and thus prepare them to perform tasks on different components of communicative competence of a word, phrase or text. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative study and exploratory. To collect data, a questionnaire was administered, and then the activities of writing (narration, description and essay) with themes identified by both the teacher-researcher as the students themselves, which served as the basis for thematic analysis.The analysis was made taking into consideration the production conditions proposed by Geraldi. We adopt the interactionist perspective of language Bakhtiniana and the theory of Vygotsky sociointeractionist. The following texts were of different genres, but applied to all classes.

Teaching Intercultural Communication in Foreign Language Education through Video Conferencing

Since 1980s, Western linguists and specialists on second language acquisition have emphasized the importance of enhancing students’ intercultural communication competence in foreign language education. At the same time, the demand for intercultural communicative competence increased along with the advances of communication technology with its increasingly global reach and the process of globalization itself.In the field of distance language education, these changes have resulted in a shift of focus from the production and distribution of learning materials towards communication and learning as a social process, facilitated by various internet-based platforms. The current focus on learners interacting and communicating synchronously trough videoconferencing is known as the fourth generation of distance language education. Despite the fact that teaching of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) faces the same or even greater challenges as teaching other languages, the intercultural communication perspective is still quite a new trend in CFL and its implementation and evaluation are still under development. Moreover, the advocates of the new trends in CFL have so far focused almost exclusively on classroom-based courses, neglecting the distance mode of CFL and leaving it as an open field for others to explore. In this under-researched context, Dalarna University (Sweden), where I currently work, started to provide web-based courses of the Chinese language in 2007. Since 2010, the Chinese language courses have been available only in the distance form, using the same teaching materials as the previous campus-based courses. The textbooks used in both settings basically followed the functional nationalism approach. However, in order to catch up with the main trend of foreign-language education, we felt a need to implement the cross-cultural dimension into the distance courses as well. Therefore in 2010, a pilot study has been carried out to explore opportunities and challenges for implementing a cross-cultural perspective into existing courses and evaluating the effectiveness of this implementation based on the feedback of the students and on the experience of the teacher/researcher.

Literatura e educação :ação argumentativa na discussão de histórias

The focus of this thesis is the discussion of stories from the fairy tales genre in reading classes of Children´s Literature. Its main purpose is to investigate the argumentative action in the mediation pedagogic process.The evidence from this study is that the argumentative action is a fundamental component of teacher´s mediation as far as story discussion is concerned. The concept of mediation in this thesis comes from principles of interacionist Psychology articulated with THE theory of argumentation. It is understood that argumentative action is a process that objectives to obtain and to intensify the interlocuter´s adhesion through speech. The analysis of the story discussion activity is based on Psycholinguistic, particularly on the study of prevision ability; on the Theory of reception with special reference to the theory of the aesthetic effect, which considers the reader´s reactions and reader´s replies to the text; and on sociocognitive conflict study highlighting conflicts modalities brought up by the discussion of texts. The corpus analysed is composed by discussion episodes of stories from reading classes of Children´s Literature realized through participative observation.The subjects were children aged five-six years old from a public pre-school located in Natal-RN, Brazil. The study highlights mediation acts of argumentative nature such as direct question; illustrations from the book; rereading that were used by the teacher-researcher in story discussion. Among its conclusions it is revealed that argumentative action in stories discussion favors and intensifies the agreement of children´s to the activity. It increases the interaction between text and reader; it favours children´s organization and explicitation of their thoughts. The analysed material shows children´s exposing their ability to argue when having adequade scaffolding by an argumentative mediator the teacher

Saberes pedagógicos/comunicacionais, pesquisa/formação: reflexões sobre as experiências formativas das professoras online

The thesis, entitled, Pedagogical/comunication knowledge, research/formation: Reflections on the formative experiences of teachers online , developed dialogues on the pedagogical/communication knowledge, research-formation and the formative experiences of teachers online, for the purpose of understanding how pedagogical/communication knowledge is establishing/established from the formative experience of teachers online. For this reason we began with the following question: how does pedagogical/communication knowledge become estabilishing/established beginning with the formative experience of teachers online? The methodological approach for the selected research was research/formation, based on Ethnoresearch of critical formation. This became a rich route for reflections on pedagogical/communication knowledge and formative experiences, making a contribution for formation and autoformation of the teacher/researcher and the teachers online. This provided moments of formation, of reflection-in-action and on the action, potentialized/structured the process of comprehending, analyzing, interpreting, reflecting on the formative experiences and contributing for reflections on pedagogical/communication knowledge of the teacher online. The theoretical referential dialogue was based on concepts such as: education online, interactivity Silva (2002), Santos (2005), Moran (2003), teaching, Veiga (2005), Pimenta (2002), Freire (2005), Tardif (2002), teaching online Sacramento (2006), teaching knowledge Tardif (2002), Charlot (2000), Porlán (1997), García (1992), Freire (2005), Ethnoresearch-formation Macedo (2000), formation Macedo (2010), Josso (2010). The discoveries revealed that the pedagogical/communication knowledged becomes establishing/established beginning with formative experience of the teachers online, from the emergency of a collective communicative dialogue, structuring and potentialized by the experiences of the context online, from the didactic pedagogical/communicational organization online, of the research, of the relation created by the expertise and the presents itself along the itinerary of the family , the school, academic and professional. From this we can conclude that of knowledge and plural experiences, which became broken down because they are parts that relate themselves with other parts, which become united in one whole, the singular/plural, the local/global, the text and the context, agregating principles a pedagogical- communication perspective that orients :the dialogue, the interactivity, the hypertextuality, themultivocallity, formative dispositions, formative experiences all of wich makes for the possibilities for researdh and the training of professors and teachers who accept their point of departure and enddind points as pedagogy and experience

Uma abordagem histórica para o ensino do princípio da inércia

Placed in the field of Didactic of Science, this paper proposes an approach to the introduction of the History of Science in science education, at high school level. It was designed and implemented a series of activities regarding the history of the Principle of Inertia. The aim of this approach was to give more meaning to scientific education, while opening new avenues for a better understanding of the processes of construction of scientific knowledge. The preparation of the activities involved a study of the historical development of the concept of motion, from the Aristotelian physics through physical movement concepts at medieval period, from Galileo, Gassendi, Descartes, until the first law of Newton. The strategy of teaching was applied to three classes of high school (night period) of a state public school at the city of Natal (RN). The results indicated the difficulty of overcoming alternative conceptions about movement by students. Nevertheless, we consider that the implementation of this strategy of teaching both represented gains for the learning of students, and contributed to the resizing of pedagogical practices of the teacher-researcher

Narrativas de professores em formação sobre a didatização de podcasts para o ensino de inglês na floresta

Considering the following conditions: (1) the fluency demands of students in an undergraduate program in Languages and Literatures/English in the Amazon region; (2) the listening and speaking needs of pre-service teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL); (3) my continuing education as a professor of EFL and my academic literacy as a teacher-researcher and pre-service-teacher trainer, this study, which is based on Narrative Inquiry, reports on a teacher experience of working didactically with oral genres through podcasting an activity that emerged with the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Through this process, I engage with some theorists who promote teaching as a process that is driven by a concept of language as social practice. Subsequently, I make use of the notions of context of culture and context of situation, derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics, as well as the concept of genre and register derived from the perspective of this theory. Based on these principles and beliefs, the Amazon region constitutes the register (situation) of the genres used in this study. These principles also provide, opportunities for building learning strategies appropriate to this local context, and also to teach listening and speaking skills from a task-based approach. During the experience, based on the reflective teacher-education model, the participants produced narratives about the process, which I then analyzed according to Ely, Vinz, Downing and Anzul (2001), who propose possibilities of composing meanings in Narrative Inquiry. Based on this perspective, I discuss the following topics, which were highly emphasized in the participants narratives: the lack of didactic activities using oral genres; the relevance of context within teacher education; and collaborative work as a strategy to overcome gaps in digital literacy, language fluency and teaching skills. The meanings I thereby compose point to a paradigm shift in English language teaching within this context. I also argue for a pedagogical practice that is engaged with historical and socio-cultural issues, and with the development of language skills, also one that promotes the implementation of ICTs at the very start of teacher training programs, adopting teaching and learning strategies that correspond to the demands of fluency in this particular context, and deficiencies imposed by geographical isolation

O papel da prática reflexiva do professor: uma experiência de aprimoramento de jogos com questões de física

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

Análise combinatória no ensino médio apoiada na metodologia de ensino-aprendizagem-avaliação de matemática através da resolução de problemas

Pós-graduação em Educação Matemática - IGCE

O ensino do conceito de função e conceitos relacionados a partir da resolução de problemas

Pós-graduação em Educação Matemática - IGCE