"It’s just very natural" – interpersonal knowledge as a didactical device in guided classroom conversations in religious education

This article investigates how teachers in religious education (RE) think and act as professionals while working with differences in religious and philosophy of life experiences and beliefs in class and trying to do this in respectful and inclusive ways. It analyses data from two research projects that were carried out in lower secondary school in Norway. The main research question is: What is the relationship between teachers’ contextual knowledge and knowledge of the child and how do these two dimensions of professional knowledge interact when religious education teachers try to strike a good balance between inclusion and productive learning in their teaching practice? The data analysed were drawn from three different data sets featuring three Norwegian religious education-teachers. The research was part of the EU-funded "REDCo"-project and the "Religious education and diversity" - project ["ROM"] funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The interviewees emphasized the potential of the religious education subject to contribute to a wider tolerance for difference and to support individual students in their identity management. The analysis shows, however, that considerable contextual awareness - of the classroom and of the local community - is needed to realize this potential. It also shows the importance of interpersonal knowledge between the teacher and each student if contextual awareness is to be effective in terms of inclusion, participation, wellbeing and good learning outcomes for all students.

Accessible Immersion Metrics (AIM) for Second Language Acquisition : A Constructivist Innovation for the ESL Classroom

Abstract: This study was designed to validate a constructivist learning framework, herein referred to as Accessible Immersion Metrics (AIM), for second language acquisition (SLA) as well as to compare two delivery methods of the same framework. The AIM framework was originally developed in 2009 and is proposed as a “How to” guide for the application of constructivist learning principles to the second language classroom. Piloted in 2010 at Champlain College St-Lambert, the AIM model allows for language learning to occur, free of a fixed schedule, to be socially constructive through the use of task-based assessments and relevant to the learner’s life experience by focusing on the students’ needs rather than on course content.||Résumé : Cette étude a été principalement conçu pour valider un cadre d'apprentissage constructiviste, ci-après dénommé Accessible Immersion Metrics - AIM, pour l'acquisition d'une langue seconde - SLA. Le cadre de l'AIM est proposé comme un mode d'emploi pour l'application des principes constructivistes à l'apprentissage d’une langue seconde. Créé en 2009 par l'auteur, et piloté en 2010 au Collège Champlain St-Lambert, le modèle de l'AIM permet l'apprentissage des langues à se produire, sans horaire fixe et socialement constructive grâce à l'utilisation des évaluations alignées basées sur des tâches pertinentes à l'expérience de vie de l'étudiant en se concentrant sur les besoins des élèves plutôt que sur le contenu des cours.

Clickers versus hand-raising in the physics college classroom : do clickers make a difference?

Abstract: Students who are actively involved in the learning process tend to develop deeper knowledge than those in traditional lecture classrooms (Beatty, 2007; Crouch & Mazur, 2001; Hake, 1998; Richardson, 2003). An instructional strategy that promotes active involvement is Peer Instruction. This strategy encourages student engagement by asking them to respond to conceptual multiple-choice questions intermittently throughout the lecture. These questions can be responded to by using an electronic hand-held device commonly known as a clicker that enables students’ responses to be displayed on a screen. When clickers are not available, a show of hands or other means can be used. The literature suggests that the impact on student learning is the same, whether the teacher uses clickers or simply asks students to raise their hand or use flashcards when responding to the questions (Lasry, 2007). This critical analysis argues that using clickers to respond to these in-class conceptual multiple-choice questions as opposed to using a show of hands leads to deeper conceptual understanding, better performance on tests, and greater overall enjoyment during class.||Résumé: Les étudiants qui sont activement impliqués dans le processus d'apprentissage ont tendance à développer des connaissances plus approfondies que lors de cours traditionnels (Beatty, 2007; Crouch & Mazur, 2001; Hake, 1998; Richardson, 2003). Une stratégie d'enseignement qui favorise la participation active est l’apprentissage par les pairs. Cette stratégie d’enseignement encourage l'engagement des élèves en leur demandant de répondre à des questions à choix multiples conceptuelles à plusieurs reprises durant le déroulement du cours. Ces questions peuvent être répondues à l'aide d'un appareil portatif électronique (un « clicker ») qui permet d’afficher de façon anonyme les réponses des élèves sur un écran. Si les clickers ne sont pas disponibles, les étudiants peuvent aussi répondre aux questions en levant la main. La littérature suggère que la méthode utilisée n’a pas d’impact sur l'apprentissage des élèves, que l'enseignant utilise des clickers, des flashcards ou qu’il demande simplement aux élèves de lever la main pour répondre aux questions (Lasry, 2007). Cette analyse critique fait valoir que l'utilisation de clickers pour répondre à ces questions à choix multiples conceptuelles en classe, plutôt que de faire lever la main aux étudiants, résulte en une compréhension conceptuelle plus approfondie, une meilleure performance aux examens et plus de plaisir pendant les cours.

Empathetic Practice: Reflective Reading Journals in the CEGEP Classroom

Abstract: In order to observe whether or not students appreciate the opportunity to learn affectively, this research was designed as an exploratory project aimed at identifying the ways in which reflective reading journals enabled students to respond empathetically to works of literary fiction. To understand the relationship between the act of reading and the experience of empathy, several questions were asked. The main question was: In what ways do reflective reading journals encourage students to read and understand works of fiction empathetically? Related concerns were taken into consideration: How do students describe their experience of empathy in response to the literary techniques such as plot and characterization? Students were also expected to consider the ways in which their thoughts on writing reflective reading journals underscored the need to forge empathetic awareness of the variety of opinions, experiences, and perspectives expressed in the works of fiction.||Résumé: Dans le but d'observer si les étudiants apprécient ou non la possibilité d'apprendre affectivement, cette recherche a été conçue comme un projet exploratoire visant à identifier les moyens que les journaux de lecture de réflexion ont permis aux étudiants de répondre avec empathie aux oeuvres de fiction littéraire. Pour comprendre la relation entre l'acte de lecture et l'expérience de l'empathie, plusieurs questions ont été posées. La question principale était la suivante: de quelles façons les journaux de lecture de réflexion encouragent les étudiants à lire et comprendre des oeuvres de fiction avec empathie? Des préoccupations du même ordre ont été prises en considération: Comment les étudiants décrivent-ils leur expérience de l'empathie en réponse aux techniques littéraires telles que l'intrigue et la caractérisation? Les étudiants doivent aussi examiner les façons dont leurs idées sur la rédaction de journaux de lecture de réflexion ont mis en évidence la nécessité de forger la prise de conscience empathique de la diversité d'opinions, d'expériences et de perspectives exprimée dans les oeuvres de fiction.

Dokumentation der Befragungsinstrumente der Interventionsstudie im Projekt “Conditions and Consequences of Classroom Assessment” (Co²CA)

Das im Rahmen des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms „Kompetenzmodelle“ durchgeführte Projekt „Conditions and Consequences of Classroom Assessment“ (Co²CA) geht in vier Teilstudien der Frage nach, wie formatives Assessment im Unterricht gestaltet werden kann, um sowohl eine präzise Leistungsmessung zu ermöglichen als auch positive Wirkungen auf den Lehr-Lernprozess zu erreichen. Das Project Co²CA leistet damit einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Erforschung zweier Kernelemente formativen Assessments – der detaillierten Diagnose von Schülerleistungen und der Nutzung der gewonnenen Informationen in Form lernförderlichen Feedbacks. Zentrale Idee von formativem Assessment (Lernbegleitende Leistungsbeurteilung und –rückmeldung) ist es mit Hilfe von Leistungsmessungen Informationen über den Lernstand der Schülerinnen und Schüler zu gewinnen und diese Informationen für die Gestaltung des weiteren Lehr- und Lernprozess zu nutzen. Den Lernenden kann auf Basis der Leistungsbeurteilung lernförderliches Feedback gegeben werden, um so die Diskrepanz zwischen Lernstand und Lernziel zu verringern. Die Kernelemente formativem Assessments bestehen also aus einer detaillierten Diagnose des Lernstandes und der Nutzung der gewonnen Informationen – z.B. in Form von Feedback. [...] Das vorliegende Skalenhandbuch dokumentiert die in der Unterrichtsstudie eingesetzten Befragungsinstrumente für Schülerinnen und Schüler sowie für Lehrkräfte. (DIPF/Autor)

Norm Friesen: The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen, Relational Pedagogy and Internet Technology. New York, Bern etc.: Lang 2011 [Rezension]

Rezension von: Norm Friesen: The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen, Relational Pedagogy and Internet Technology, New York, Bern etc.: Lang 2011 (183 S.; ISBN 978-1-4331-0959-1)

Teaching down or learning up

Résumé : L'élément important que cette thèse sous-tend est que l'enseignement efficace n'est pas seulement constitué de techniques et de méthodologie, mais plutôt d'attitude et d'approche envers l'enseignement. Ceci ne veut pas nécessairement dire que plusieurs méthodes d'enseignement reçues dans un cours avec l'intention d'optimaliser les mécanismes de transmission et d'assimilation de la matière sont inappropriées. Cependant, l'absence de ce que nous pourrions définir comme un ton pédagogique est essentiel, c'est-à-dire, qu'une attitude positive à la productivité autant vis-à-vis de la matière à transmettre que vis-à-vis de l'individu impliqué dans "l'acte" de réception versus la découverte, aura davantage de succès. Toute autre méthode sera complètement inefficace, inaccessible, voire même inutile. D'emblée, dans l'hypothèse de départ, l'argument principal présente une attitude générale d'enseignement à divers échelons ; soit au niveau secondaire ou collégial qui est inappropriée, incomplète ou négative. En d'autres mots, cette approche thérapeutise l'éducation. Dans l'exercice de cette approche, l'enseignant ou l'enseignante adopte plutôt le rôle d'un thérapeute que celui d'un éducateur. De ce fait, le professeur en situation a une approche plutôt de thérapeute que celle de maître-précepteur et que la matière présentée est souvent diluée, et réduite à des niveaux d'apprentissage accompagnés de carences notoires et d'échecs académiques. Les attentes d'une performance dans le milieu académique sont souvent des plus modestes. Cette même tendance d'une éducation à la baisse est évidente aussi dans le processus d'évaluation. Il est certain que dans les disciplines non scientifiques, l'évaluation formative a grandement suivi l'évaluation normative conduisant le précepteur, tour à tour, dans une évaluation dormative dans laquelle l'effort et l'intention remplacent les aptitudes et les habilitées réelles. Si l'approche pédagogique est vraiment l'élément crucial de l'éducation, il Importe que l'approche générale influence le climat de l'éducation contemporaine, de fait, devienne un palliatif contre-productif souvent réhabilitant. De plus, cette pseudo-thérapie d'où d'écoule une attitude exigeante envers l'enseignant et l'apprenant dont le fondement est la reconnaissance des impératifs culturels qui en sont le reflet et le corps doit-être affirmé et transposé dans la réalité. Cette dernière comprend des attentes très poussées en ce qui concerne la performance en classe et aussi le respect de la matière qui contient la présentation routinière et fondamentale; renouveau intense du processus d'évaluation qui fournira des standards communs et des objectifs externes dans l'évaluation du travail de l'étudiant. Cette connaissance et domestication empirique que nous présente Vygotsky dans un climat contemporain qu'il a expliqué ces termes comme "des zones de développement proximales" basées sur la doctrine suivante que le bon apprentissage précède le développement et que conséquemment s'ensuit une pédagogie d'apprentissage plutôt qu'une pédagogie centrée sur l'apprenant. L'application significative de ces derniers principes ou de ces épistémologiques s'imbriquent dans une situation d'apprentissage ascentionnel dont la structure est détaillée et considérée par différentes perspectives de la recherche qui suit.||Abstract : The central tenet of this thesis is that effective teaching is not only and perhaps not primarily a matter of technique and methodology but of attitude and approach. This is not to say that diverse methods of classroom instruction intended to optimize the mechanics of transmission and the assimilation of data are inappropriate but that in the absence of what we might denominate as a certain pedagogical tone. that is, a productive attitude toward both the material to be conveyed and the individuel engaged in the 'act' of reception-and-discovery, even the most powerful methods will be differentially unavailing or, at best, inefficient. Given this initial assumption, the argument proceeds that the general attitude toward instruction currently in place at the secondary echelons, that is, on the high school and college levels, may be popularly represented as a 'teaching down' approach, in other words, as one which seeks to therapeuticize education. In practice this means that the teacher tends to manifest in situ more as a therapist than as a preceptor, that the material to be presented is frequently diluted or scaled down to perceived levels of cognitive (dis)ability (as is also the case with the rate of instruction), and that performance expectations in the current pedagogical milieu are commonly quite modest. The same downward trend is evident in assessment protocols as well. Certainly in the nonscientific disciplines, normative evaluation has been widely succeeded by formative evaluation, leading in turn to a peculiar kind of dormative evaluation in which intangibles such as effort and intention may deputize for realized ability. If pedagogical approach is indeed the crucial element in instruction, and if the general approach that pervades the contemporary climate of instruction is indeed counter-productively remedial or rehabilitory, that is, therapeutic, then it should follow that a more demanding attitude toward teaching and learning founded on the recognition of the culturel imperative which teaching both reflects and embodies needs to be re-affirmed and translated into practice. This latter would entail the maintenance of high expectations with regard to classroom performance, a respect for the material which precludes its routine mitigation or debasement, a renewed insistance on grading protocols that provide an external, 'objective' or communal standard against which the student's work can be measured, the empirical acknowledgment or domestication of what Vygotsky has termed "the zone of proximal development," based on the doctrine that good learning proceeds in advance of development, and conséquently, a learning-centered rather than learner-centered pedagogy. The meaningful application of this latter set of principles or epistemological gradients comprises the 'learning up' situation whose structure is excunined in some détail and considered from various perspectives in the ensuing.

Prioritizing Purposes: Two American History Teachers' Choices Among Subject Matter and Classroom-Related Purposes

This study explores how two American history teachers - one novice and one experienced – make in-the-moment choices among their history subject matter and classroom-related purposes during the teaching of an American history unit. Using classroom observations, lesson artifacts, student work products, and deep, retrospective interviews with the teachers as they watched videos of their teaching, this study maps out in detail the teachers’ purposes, both within and across different lesson activity structures. This study finds that the novice and the experienced teacher navigated among their purposes differently from each other, and that the characteristics of each teacher’s purposes navigation aligned with student outcomes in that teacher’s class. The novice teacher acted more like a juggler, with visible, reactive navigation among each purpose operational throughout his teaching; student outcomes in his class were similarly fragmented and discrete. The experienced teacher presented more like an orchestra conductor, interweaving his purposes and anticipating the navigation decisions that would create a more seamless whole; student outcomes in his class were aligned with his holistic navigation of purposes. Findings from this study have important implications for education research and teacher practice, including the relationship between teachers’ navigation among purposes and desired student outcomes, the integral role of classroom-related purposes interwoven with history subject matter purposes in teachers’ decision-making, and the differences in purposes navigation between a novice and an experienced history teacher.

How valuable is web 2.0 to music criticism? An investigation into the role of web 2.0 and social media in the reception of Benjamin Britten's operas

The internet is deeply integrated with many people's day to day lives, including that of musicians and musicologists. In this thesis, the impact of the internet on classical music criticism in the Web 2.0 age is examined. Using the examples of Britten's operas, Gloriana and Peter Grimes, an overview of their critical reception is examined, using printed reviews found in The Times since their premières, internet based reviews of two specific performances, and the reactions to these performances on Twitter. Theories of media behaviour including de Mul's view of the 'ludic self' are used in order to explain the content found in reviews in conjunction with citizen journalism, of which blogging is an extension. While there are some consistencies between the print reviews and those online, there are stylistic differences, and wider repercussions for the world of criticism in the wake of the democratisation of culture, as critics find their previously regarded authority obsolete to some. Music criticism is no longer the reserve of the musicologists

Beyond hope: Rhetorics of mobility, possibility, and literacy

When writing teachers enter the classroom, they often bring with them a deep faith in the power of literacy to rectify social inequalities and improve their students’ social and economic standing. It is this faith—this hope for change—that draws some writing teachers to locations of social and economic hardship. I am interested in how teachers and theorists construct their own narratives of social mobility, possibility, and literacy. My dissertation analyzes the production and expression of beliefs about literacy in the narratives of a diverse group of writing teachers and theorists, from those beginning their careers to those who are published and widely read. The central questions guiding this study are: How do teachers’ and theorists’ narratives of becoming literate intersect with literacy theories? and How do such literacy narratives intersect with beliefs in the power of literacy to improve individuals’ lives socially, economically, and personally? I contend that the professional literature needs to address more fully how teachers’ and theorists’ personal histories with literacy shape what they see as possible (and desirable) for students, especially those from marginalized communities. A central focus of the dissertation is on how teachers and theorists attempt to resolve a paradox they are likely to encounter in narratives about literacy. On one hand, they are immersed in a popular culture that cherishes narrative links between literacy and economic advancement (and, further, between such advancement and a “good life”). On the other hand, in professional discourse and in teacher preparation courses, they are likely to encounter narratives that complicate an assumed causal relationship between literacy and economic progress. Understanding, through literacy narratives, how teachers and theorists chart a practical path through or around this paradox can be beneficial to literacy education in three ways. First, it can offer direction in professional development and teacher education, addressing how teachers negotiate the boundaries between personal experience, theory, and pedagogy. Second, it can help teachers create spaces wherein students can explore the impact of paradoxical views about the role of literacy on their own lives. Finally, it can offer direction in public policy discourse, extending awareness of what we want—and need—from English language arts education in the twenty-first century. To explore these issues, I draw on case studies and ethnographic observation as well as narrative inquiry into teachers’ and theorists’ published literacy narratives. I situate my findings within three interrelated frames: 1) the narratives of new teachers, 2) the published works of literacy educators and theorists, and 3) my own literacy narrative. My first chapter, “Beyond Hope,” explores the tenuous connections between hope and critique in literacy studies and provides a methodological overview of the study. I argue that scholarship must move beyond a singular focus on either hope or critique in order to identify the transformative potential of literacy in particular circumstances. Analyzing literacy narratives provides a way of locating a critically informed sense of possibility. My second chapter, “Making Teachers, Making Literacy,” explores the intersection between teachers’ lives and the theories they study, based on qualitative analysis of a preservice course for secondary education English teachers. I examine how these preservice English teachers understood literacy, how their narratives of becoming literate and teaching English connected—and did not connect—with theoretical and pedagogical positions, and how these stories might inform their future work as practitioners. Centering primarily on preservice teachers who resisted Nancie Atwell’s pedagogy of possibility because they found it too good to be true, this research concentrates on moments of disjuncture, as expressed in class discussion and in one-on-one interviews, when literacy theories failed to align with aspiring teachers’ understandings of their own experiences and also with what they imagined as possible in disadvantaged educational settings. In my third and fourth chapters, I analyze the narratives of celebrated teachers and theorists who put forth an agenda that emphasizes possibilities through literacy, examining how they negotiate the relationship between their own literacy stories and literacy theories. Specifically, I investigate the narratives of three proponents of critical literacy: Mike Rose, Paulo Freire, and Myles Horton, all highly respected literacy teachers whose working-class backgrounds influenced their commitment to teaching in disenfranchised communities. In chapter 3, “Reading Lives on the Boundary,” I demonstrate how Mike Rose’s 1989 autobiographical text, Lives on the Boundary, juxtaposes rhetorics of mobility with critiques of such possibility. Through an analysis of work published in professional journals, I offer a reception history of Rose’s narrative, focusing specifically on how teachers have negotiated the tension between hope and critique. I follow this analysis with three case studies, drawn from a larger sampling, that inquire into the personal connections that writing teachers make with Lives on the Boundary. The teachers in this study, who provided written responses and participated in audio-recorded follow-up interviews, were asked to compare Rose’s story to their own stories, considering how their personal literacy histories influenced their teaching. My findings illustrate how a group of teachers and theorists have projected their own assessments of what literacy and higher education can and cannot accomplish onto this influential text. In my fourth chapter, “Horton and Freire’s Road as Literacy Narrative,” I concentrate on Myles Horton and Paulo Freire’s 1990 collaborative spoken book, We Make the Road by Walking. Central to my analysis are the educators’ stories about their formative years, including their own primary and secondary education experiences. I argue that We Make the Road by Walking demonstrates how theories of literacy cannot be divorced from personal histories. I begin by examining the spoken book as a literacy narrative that fuses personal and theoretical knowledge, focusing specifically on its authors’ ideas on theory. Drawing on Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope—the intersection of time and space within narrative—I then explore the literacy narratives emerging from the production process of the book, in a video production about Horton and Freire’s meeting, and ultimately in the two men’s reflections on their childhood years (Dialogic). Interspersed with these accounts is archival material on the book’s editorial production that illustrates the value of increased dialogue between personal history and theories of literacy. My fifth chapter is both a reflective analysis and a qualitative study of my work at a men’s medium-high security prison in Illinois, where I conducted research and served as the instructor of an upper-level writing course, “Writing for a Change,” in the spring of 2009. Entitled “Doing Time with Literacy Narratives,” this chapter explores the complex ways in which literacy and incarceration are configured in students’ narratives as well as my own. With and against students’ stories, I juxtapose my own experiences with literacy, particularly in relation to being the son of an imprisoned father. In exploring the intersections between such stories, I demonstrate how literacy narratives can function as a heuristic for exploring beliefs about literacy between teachers and students both inside and outside of the prison-industrial complex. My conclusion pulls together the various themes that emerged in the three frames, from the making of new teachers to the published literacy narratives of teachers and theorists to my own literacy narrative. Writing teachers encounter considerable pressure to align their curricula with one or another theory of literacy, which has the effect of negating the authority of knowledge about literacy gleaned from experience as readers and writers. My dissertation contends that there is much to be gained by finding ways of articulating theories of literacy that encompass teachers’ knowledge of reading and writing as expressed in personal narratives of literacy. While powerful cultural rhetorics of upward social mobility often neutralize the critical potential of teachers’ own narratives of literacy—potential that has been documented by scholars in writing studies and allied disciplines—this is not always the case. The chapters in this dissertation offer evidence that hopeful and critical positions on the transformational possibilities of literacy are not mutually exclusive.

Motivational factors for language learning classroom situations : the self-determination theory in practice

Tesis (Licenciado en Lenguas Castellana, Inglés y Francés).--Universidad de La Salle. Facultad de Ciencias de La Educación. Licenciatura en Lengua Castellana, Inglés y Francés, 2014