The Relationship between Teachers and Students in the Classroom: Communicative Language Teaching Approach and Cooperative Learning Strategy to Improve Learning

The aim of this research is to to investigate how a supportive relationship between teachers and students in the classroom can improve the learning process. By having a good relationship with students, teachers can offer to students chances to be motivated and feel engaged in the learning process. Students will be engaged actively in the learning instead of being passive learners. I wish to investigate how using communicative approach and cooperative learning strategies while teaching do affect and improve students’ learning performance. To achieve these goals qualitative data collection was used as the primary method. The results show that teachers and students value a supportive and caring relationship between them and that interaction is essential to the teacher-student relationship. This sense of caring and supporting from teachers motivates students to become a more interested learner. Students benefit and are motivated when their teachers create a safe and trustful environment. And also the methods and strategies teachers uses, makes students feel engaged and stimulated to participate in the learning process. The students have in their mind that a positive relationship with their teachers positively impacts their interest and motivation in school which contributes to the enhancement of the learning process.

The Influence of Space Layout, Technology and Teaching Approach on Student Learning: An Architectural Technology Perspective

Some would argue that there is a need for the traditional lecture format to be rethought in favour of a more active approach. However, this must form part of a bipartite strategy, considered in conjunction with the layout of any new space to facilitate alternative learning and teaching methods. With this in mind, this paper begins to examine the impact of the learning environment on the student learning experience, specifically focusing on students studying on the Architectural Technology and Management programme at Ulster University. The aim of this study is two-fold: to increase understanding of the impact of learning space layout, by taking a student centered approach; and to gain an appreciation of how technology can impact upon the learning space. The study forms part of a wider project being undertaken at Ulster University known as the Learning Landscape Transition Project, exploring the relationship between learning, teaching and space layout. Data collection was both qualitative and quantitative, with use of a case study supported by a questionnaire based on attitudinal scaling. A focus group was also used to further analyse the key trends resulting from the questionnaire. The initial results suggest that the learning environment, and the technology within it, can not only play an important part in the overall learning experience of the student, but also assist with preparation for the working environment to be experienced in professional life.

Geography, History and Natural Sciences: an interdisciplinary teaching approach with GIS

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a technology that deals with location to support better representations and decision making. It has a long tradition in several planning areas, such as urbanism, environment, riskiness, transportation, archeology or tourism. In academics context higher education has followed that evolution. Despite of their potentialities in education, GIS technologies at the elementary and secondary have been underused. Empowering graduates to learn with GIS and to manipulate spatial data can effectively facilitate the teaching of critical thinking. Likewise it has been recognized that GIS tools can be incorporated as an interdisciplinary pedagogical tool. Nevertheless more practical examples on how GIS tools can enhance teaching and learning process, namely to promote interdisciplinary approaches. The proposed paper presents some results obtained from the project “Each thing in its place: the science in time and space”. This project results from the effort of three professors of Geography, History and Natural Sciences in the context of Didactics of World Knowledge curricular unit to enhance interdisciplinarity through Geographic Information Technologies (GIT). Implemented during the last three years this action-research project developed the research practice using GIS to create an interdisciplinary attitude in the future primary education teachers. More than teaching GIS the authors were focused on teaching with GIS to create an integrated vision where spatial data representation linked the space, the time and natural sciences. Accumulated experience reveals that those technologies can motivate students to learn and facilitating teacher’s interdisciplinary work.

Trajetórias de vida : lembranças, caminhos e constituições dos saberes docentes de professores de Educação Física = Paths and trajectories of life : memories, paths and establishment of teaching knowledge of Physical Education Professors

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Future Brazilian teachers imaginaries about physics teaching in adults education

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Heritage and innovative learning approaches:an alternative approach to engineering education

Over recent years, the role of engineering in promoting a sustainable society has received much public attention [1] with particular emphasis given to the need to promote the future prosperity and security of society through the recruitment and education of more engineers [2,3]. From an employment perspective, the Leitch Review [4] suggested that ‘generic’ transferable employability skills development should constitute a more substantial part of university education. This paper argues that the global drivers impacting engineering education [5] correlate strongly to those underpinning the Leitch review, therefore the question of how to promote transferable employability skills within the wider engineering curriculum is increasingly relevant. By exploring the use of heritage in the engineering curriculum as a way to promote learning and engage students, a less familiar approach to study is discussed. This approach moves away from stereotypical notions of the use of information technology as representing the pinnacle of innovation in education. Taking the student experience as its starting point, the paper draws upon the findings of an exploratory study critically analysing the pedagogical value of using heritage in engineering education. It discusses a teaching approach in which engineering students are taken out of their ‘comfort zone’ - away from the classroom, laboratory and computer, to a heritage site some 100 miles away from the university. The primary learning objective underpinning this approach is to develop students’ transferable skills by encouraging them to consider how to apply theoretical concepts to a previously unexplored situation. By reflecting upon students’ perceptions of the value of this approach, and by identifying how heritage may be utilised as an innovative learning and teaching approach in engineering education, this paper makes a notable contribution to current pedagogical debates in the discipline.

Engineering the future! Inspiring student engagement through innovative course and programme design:an empirical approach

An analysis of a bespoke learning and teaching approach developed for use in engineering education

Innovating engineering education: the RVS approach:an empirically grounded method to improved practice and enhanced student experience

This paper builds on previous work (Clark, 2009; Clark & Andrews 2011, 2014) to continue the debate around a seemingly universal question…“How can educational theory be applied to engineering education in such a way so as to make the subject more accessible and attractive to students? It argues that there are three key elements to student success; Relationships, Variety & Synergy (RVS). By further examining the purposefully developed bespoke learning and teaching approach constructed around these three elements (RVS) the discourse in this paper links educational theory to engineering education and in doing so further develops arguments for the introduction of a purposefully designed pedagogic approach for use in engineering education.

The effects of using an alternative method for teaching badminton to post secondary level students in Taiwan

The effect of teaching method in physical education is an important issue and has been a concern of the expert teacher. Teachers are expected to create a model of teaching in their field; therefore, it is reasonable to question what is the effect of an alternative teaching method on student performance in physical education. This study explores whether teaching methods with advanced planning, behavior and belief in high enthusiasm, use of instructional strategies and evaluation, together termed a systematic teaching approach, used in a physical education activity would provide an effective environment for learning which supports student achievement in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. This study also investigated whether there was a difference in performance between students who were taught with a systematic teaching approach and students who were taught with the traditional teaching model. Information was collected using two performance skills, a written test, and one questionnaire. The 68 participants were randomly assigned into either an experimental group or a control group. Two teachers were assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. The teaching experiment took place at Tamsui Oxford University College in Taiwan and lasted eight weeks. ^ Research questions were analyzed using the t-test. Results indicated that a significant difference in students' performance was found between the experimental group and the control group on both the skill tests and the paper test. Analysis of student attitude toward their teacher and their course on the questionnaire indicated a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. ^ The findings of this study imply that students who were taught with a systematic teaching style were significantly superior to students who were taught with the traditional model on these measures. This finding supports the contention that effective teaching in physical education is related to advanced planning, high enthusiasm, instructional strategy and evaluation and that all physical education teachers should implement these planning elements in the development of the teaching strategies. ^

A contribuição da Educação Fisica no processo de humanização do adolescente

Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Faculdade de Educação Física

Learning with tangible interfaces

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Digital storytelling: emotions in higher education

The results presented in the article are part of a wider PhD project developed under the Doctoral program in Multimedia in Education from the University of Aveiro. The project, which sought to understand student ID in Higher education through the use of Digital Storytelling, was made possible through the Doctoral Grant awarded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT).

Digital storytelling: student ID in higher education

Identity achievement is related to personality, as well as cognitive and interpersonal development. In tandem with the deep structural changes that have taken place in society, education must also shift towards a teaching approach focused on learning and the overall development of the student. The integration of technology may be the drive to foster the needed changes. We draw on the literature of multiple subject areas as basis for our work, namely: identity construction and self-representation, within a psychological and social standpoint; Higher Education (HE) in Portugal after Bologna, college student development and other intrinsic relationships, namely the role of emotions and interpersonal relationships in the learning process; the technological evolution of storytelling towards Digital Storytelling (DS) – the Californian model – and its connections to identity and education. Ultimately we propose DS as the aggregator capable of humanizing HE while developing essential skills and competences. Grounded on an interpretative/constructivist paradigm, we implemented a qualitative case study to explore DS in HE. In three attempts to collect student data, we gathered detailed observation notes from two Story Circles; twelve student written reflections; fourteen Digital Stories and detailed observation notes from one Story Show. We carried out three focus groups with teachers where we discussed their perceptions of each student prior to and after watching the Digital Stories, in addition to their opinion on DS in HE as a teaching and learning method and its influence on interpersonal relationships. We sought understandings of the integration of DS to analyze student selfperception and self-representation in HE contexts and intersected our findings with teachers’ perceptions of their students. We compared teachers’ and students’ perspectives, through the analysis of data collected throughout the DS process – Story Circle, Story Creation and Story Show – and triangulated that information with the students’ personal reflections and teacher perceptions. Finally we questioned if and how DS may influence teachers’ perceptions of students. We found participants to be the ultimate gatekeepers in our study. Very few students and teachers voluntarily came forth to take part in the study, confirming the challenge remains in getting participants to see the value and understand the academic rigor of DS. Despite this reluctance, DS proved to be an asset for teachers and students directly and indirectly involved in the study. DS challenges HE contexts, namely teacher established perception of students; student’s own expectations regarding learning in HE; the emotional realm, the private vs. public dichotomy and the shift in educational roles.

Ensino Estratégico da Gramática na Aula de Português Língua Não Materna

Esta investigação incide sobre o treino de Estratégias de Aprendizagem a estudantes universitários zimbabueanos aprendentes da Língua Portuguesa (LP) como Língua Estrangeira que revelaram, na sua maioria, problemas gramaticais relativos à Concordância Nominal em textos escritos de provas de exame realizadas entre os anos 1999 e 2011. Desenvolve-se, por um lado, uma Gramática Pedagógica que consiste no ensino de aspetos gramaticais problemáticos apresentados pelos estudantes com base na Abordagem Comunicativa de Ensino de uma Língua Não Materna e, por outro, ensinam-se as Estratégias de Aprendizagem orientadas para a aquisição da Gramática à luz dos subsídios da Instrução Baseada nas Estratégias de Aprendizagem no tratamento dos aspetos gramaticais desviantes em relação ao Português Europeu. Avaliam-se os produtos destes ensinamentos com base em instrumentos apropriados como testes de avaliação da aprendizagem da gramática e um questionário da tendência de aplicabilidade das Estratégias de Aprendizagem. O corpus é constituído de cerca 2224 “erros” gramaticais isolados com base numa grelha tipológica envolvendo 4 áreas - Léxico, Léxico-Sintaxe, Sintaxe e Morfo-Sintaxe, recolhidos nos 3 anos académicos do Curso de BAA general com a LP. Faz-se uma caracterização da população-alvo, em função de um questionário com cerca de 27 perguntas preenchido por 44 estudantes do Curso de BAA general com a LP nos anos académicos mecionados, de forma a termos uma noção em relação a (i) situação sociolinguística; (ii) visão em relação à aplicação da aprendizagem LP na vida social; (iii) opinião em relação à aprendizagem da LP na Universidade do Zimbabué.

A aprendizagem baseada na resolução de problemas na aprendizagem da Geologia: uma intervenção centrada no tópico "Ocupação antrópica e problemas de ordenamento"

Dissertação de mestrado em Ensino de Biologia e Geologia no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário