Feedback is a gift: Do Video-enhanced rubrics result in providing better peer feedback than textual rubrics?

High-quality elaborative peer feedback is a blessing for both learners and teachers. However, learners can experience difficulties in giving high-quality feedback on complex skills using textual analytic rubrics. High-quality elaborative feedback can be strengthened by adding video-modeling examples with embedded self-explanation prompts, turning textual analytic rubrics (TR) into so-called \u27video-enhanced analytic rubrics\u27 (VER). This study contrasts two experimental conditions (TR, n = 54; VERs, n = 49) with their version of the anonymized online tool (used to collect the given feedback in \u27Tips for improvement and Tops identifying strengths\u27). Peer feedback quality (concreteness and consistency) was evaluated using Natural Language Processing. As expected, the video-enhanced rubrics condition resulted in a higher quantity of words used and a lower amount of naive wording compared to the textual rubric condition. Contrary to our assumptions, it did not lower the amount of non-constructive wording nor improved the amount of behavioral and process-related feedback. Possibly, the transition from providing more feedback to delivering more accurate behavioral and process-related feedback has not yet been made in the time set for the study

Strategies for integrating literacy into a science classroom

A science reading course offers opportunities for students to develop their scientific literacy by delving into current topics in science through reading and writing. Due to the nature of the course, students could be enrolled for one semester or for the whole year. Through differentiation, Science Reading is accessible for a variety learning and interest levels. This creative component lays the groundwork for the development of a science reading course by providing examples of topics, methods, lesson activities, and assessments that could be incorporated into a Science Reading curriculum. The project recognizes the resources that are available to educators and includes a series of ideas or starting points for others to develop their own units or courses that embrace literacy in the science classroom

The benefits of imbedding literacy and skill development into content while embracing culture and diversity in the classroom

ABSTRACT Imbedding literacy and critical thinking skill development into content while embracing culture and diversity in the classroom By Ryan Bell By teaching the Socratic Method for discussion and debate, and classroom instruction that relies on skill-building critical thinking skills and literacy development can have a profound impact on creating deeper learning connections. By using sheltered instruction and scaffolding tools taken from the ELD framework, my Action Research shows that not only can I teach students how to break down primary and secondary sources, but also develop literacy skills, while creating a culturally inclusive and diverse classroom. The methods used for this action research include evidence that allowed students to develop deeper literacy and critical thinking skills. Students were able to learn using my philosophy of teaching method of Social Constructivist. I believe in the Social Constructivist theory that students make deeper connections by learning and observing the experiences or opinions of others. I found this theory to be profound in my own learning and decided to employ it in my teaching practice. I believe that to create a classroom that embraces culture and diversity the Social Constructivist classroom-style curriculum must be present. This way, students are growing and evolving by learning and collaborating with each other. This action research argues that not only can a social studies teacher implement literacy development within their content area, but also while skill building the content areas core focuses on analysis and examination of issues from the past, present, or future using primary and secondary sources

CLIL and project based learning: two approaches working together. A proposal for 6th grade in social science: "Let´s help Peracense´s Castle!"

This work has been developed in order to contribute to the current demands of this interconected and changing world. Nowadays, we live in a digital and globalized era which requires a deep methodological change in education, making essential the development of 21st century skills and learning English as a foreign language effectively. PBL together with CLIL seem to give an answer to these needs being both student-centered approaches which facilitate the learning of new content, SLA and the development of 21st century skills such as: creative and critical thinking, and cooperative and digital skills among others. This is why this study would like to demonstrate that CLIL and PBL are two complementary and beneficial approaches to learning a second language, by designing a CLIL project proposal for 6th grade in Primary Education that will be explained in the subsequent pages

Leveraging the Force of Formative Assessment & Feedback for Effective Engineering Education

In recent years, there has been a fundamental shift in engineering education from an emphasis on covering content to a student-centric focus on ensuring the attainment of learning outcomes. To ensure attainment of the educational objectives, engineering education thought leaders have highlighted the importance of the development of effective authentic assessment schemes appropriate for the 21st century, and the alignment of assessment and instructional efforts with the planned learning objectives and outcomes. Our focus in this paper is on the use of formative assessment (also called assessment for learning) for engineering education. With formative assessment, an assessment is made of the current learning level and then pertinent feedback is provided to both the student and to the instructor so that they can take concrete steps to facilitate learning improvement. This is in contrast with the ubiquitous summative feedback (assessment ``of'' learning)---in which the main aim is to grade or rank the student by ascertaining their current learning level without really giving them concrete advice on what to do next to improve learning performance. The use of formative assessment can transform students' performance by empowering them with particularly potent ``self-assessment’’ skills through which students become more aware of their learning and know what is it that they should do next (i.e., they become ``self-directed”.) Formative assessment is equally useful for the teaching staff—by helping them know their impact and tailor the instructional strategy and try to personalize their pedagogy to the individual needs of the students. The main contributions of our paper are that we review the rich literature on formative assessment and effective feedback and synthesize insights that are relevant for engineering education

CLIL and Pre-Primary Education: A Critical Analysis of the Spanish/British Integrated Curriculum

The aim of this research is to analyse the presence of the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach in the Spanish/British Integrated Curriculum for Pre-Primary Education, the document followed by the schools regulated by the MECD British Council programme. In order to do so, the theory corresponding to this approach, especially focused on the Pre-school stage, and to the different existing programmes which carry out a bilingual education, among them the one we are going to discuss, is shown. Accordingly, four necessary tools for this analysis are designed and applied: a checklist that relates the main aspects of CLIL with the curricular programme; an interview with two project teachers regarding this bilingual programme; a more general questionnaire aimed at diverse teaching professionals in Zaragoza; and lastly, various observation tools to assess the reality in our pre-school bilingual classrooms. Finally, the results obtained after applying these tools would allow me to deduce whether or not and how the CLIL approach is being carried out in some of our bilingual schools, and therefore some possible improvements that could bring a major change, focusing on the stage of Pre-Primary Education, are proposed. Key words: CLIL, Spanish/British Integrated Curriculum, MECD- British Council, Pre-Primary Education.<br /

OPERATIONALIZING AND ASSESSING REFLECTIVE EXERCISES IN LEGAL EDUCATION: TOWARDS A PEDAGOGY OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

This thesis examines the understudied topic of operationalizing and assessing reflective practice in undergraduate legal education and the promise that this type of teaching and learning framework has to improve the legal profession and justice system in a myriad of ways. The purpose of the inquiry is to advance research on the topic and to take steps toward establishing a pedagogy of reflective practice in legal education. The research approach taken was thus pragmatic and utilization-focused as the findings are intended to be helpful and actionable for legal educators. In Chapter 1, I acknowledge the context of the current and longstanding debate on what the purpose of university-based legal education is. I draw from the literature to describe three predominant visions within the debate and explain how building a ‘reflective muscle’ starting in law school is necessary to achieve each of the visions, and as a result the promise of reflective judgment skills should be carefully considered by legal education stakeholders. I also summarize the history of reflective practice and assessment of it in legal education. Next, in Chapter 2, I introduce and analyze the overlap among three reflective practice models that are associated with legal education. While the focus is on three models that are associated with legal education, much could be learned from other models in future research. In Chapter 3, I describe and map onto a ‘Pedagogic Field’ the reflective practice exercises associated with each of the three models, to establish a ‘Working Operationalization’ of reflective practice in undergraduate legal education. Chapter 4 moves to the assessment topic, to highlight concerns and considerations that should be taken into account in evaluating reflective practice exercises. A ‘Working List of Considerations’ is developed based on related scholarship both within and outside of law. Finally, Chapter 5 focuses on the promise of using scoring rubrics to encourage deeper critical and creative reflection among law students, as opposed to surface level learning or strategic engagement. The results and the significance of this thesis are two-fold. First, a summary and analysis of the overlap among reflective practice models and exercises is undertaken, which establishes, as stated above, a synthesized Working Operationalization, using a Pedagogic Field. Second, the hope is that the Working List of Considerations for assessing reflective practice exercises summarized and analyzed from the literature will be a helpful contribution to the field

Impact of teaching summarizing to improve comprehension and retention of a religion textbook

This study analyzed the impact of summarizing on students’ comprehension and retention of a religion textbook. The study consisted of an eight-week intervention during which the participants engaged in a variety of summarizing activities three days each week in religion class. Fifteen eighth grade girls from an urban, all-girls, Catholic school in a Midwestern city participated in the study. The researcher used oral and written summaries as well as objective quizzes and exams for pre- and posttests. In addition, the researcher monitored the students’ progress by collecting the students’ notes and written summary paragraphs. Results indicated that the study had a positive impact on the students’ ability to comprehend and retain information from the religion textbook. The study did not impact students’ ability to recognize main ideas and write summaries