A pilot evaluation of the Chinese learning system to support a flipped classroom

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Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

Framework to Enhance Teaching and Learning in System Analysis and Unified Modelling Language

Cowling, MA ORCiD: 0000-0003-1444-1563; Munoz Carpio, JC ORCiD: 0000-0003-0251-5510Systems Analysis modelling is considered foundational for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) students, with introductory and advanced units included in nearly all ICT and computer science degrees. Yet despite this, novice systems analysts (learners) find modelling and systems thinking quite difficult to learn and master. This makes the process of teaching the fundamentals frustrating and time intensive. This paper will discuss the foundational problems that learners face when learning Systems Analysis modelling. Through a systematic literature review, a framework will be proposed based on the key problems that novice learners experience. In this proposed framework, a sequence of activities has been developed to facilitate understanding of the requirements, solutions and incremental modelling. An example is provided illustrating how the framework could be used to incorporate visualization and gaming elements into a Systems Analysis classroom; therefore, improving motivation and learning. Through this work, a greater understanding of the approach to teaching modelling within the computer science classroom will be provided, as well as a framework to guide future teaching activities

Innovation and flexibility within a Bachelor of Information Systems transnational educational (TNE) program

The Bachelor of Information Systems program is jointly delivered by the University of Tasmania and the Shanghai Ocean University. To ensure content relevance and improved student engagement the teaching team has developed an innovative combination of technology placement and teaching pedagogy. The innovative interventions to real contractual and resource constraints presented in the delivery of the program focussed on engaging students, aligned use of technology and creating a quality learning experience amongst students that were studying offshore. By challenging our assumptions, adopting a technology supported just-in-time teaching approach informed by a collaborative team teaching philosophy we have been able to pilot and then roll out program wide innovative solutions to units within the program. The initial outcomes are promising with improvements in both student engagement and student achievement

LTC Newsletter

Spring 2014https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ltc_newsletter/1020/thumbnail.jp

Beyond the language classroom: researching MOOCs and other innovations

With the rise of the internet and new communication technologies, language learning has moved beyond the classroom walls. This volume presents a range of important studies on innovative ways for learning languages outside the classroom. Chapters discuss MOOCs in the UK, Belgium, China, and Italy for studying a range of languages, research on new apps, flipped classroom modes, and approaches to informal learning in a range of international settings. In these ways, the volume offers a significant contribution to our understanding of how learning beyond the language classroom will transform language education in the decades to come

The Effects Of Flipped Learning On Critical Thinking Disposition Among Undergraduate College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine if flipped learning has an effect on students critical thinking disposition, how students’ perceptions of flipped learning changed during the semester, and if students in the flipped classroom performed better academically. Participants for this longitudinal, quasi-experimental classroom study included 81 participants, the majority freshman and sophomores at a large Midwestern university, whom registered for an aviation Human Factors course. Two measures in this study examined critical thinking disposition and students’ perceptions longitudinally (pretest and posttest) during the 16 week semester. Paired samples t-tests, independent samples t-tests, and a MANCOVA were used to analyze the data. A number of findings were found to be nonsignificant; however, the results revealed that the flipped learning significantly increases a student’s openmindedness on the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI), students in the lecture section had higher overall course satisfaction on the Course Evaluation Survey (CES), and both the lecture and flipped groups rated teaching goals significantly higher on the CES posttest. These findings suggest that students benefited from the increase in peer interactions in the flipped group (increased openmindedness) over the semester, and that faculty have a significant impact on course satisfaction

The potential of mobile phones to transform teacher professional development

Futures thinking is used by governments to consider long-term strategic approaches and develop policies and practices that are potentially resilient to future uncertainty. English in Action (EIA), arguably the world’s largest English language teacher professional development (TPD) project, used futures thinking to author possible, probable and preferable future scenarios to solve the project’s greatest technological challenge: how to deliver audio-visual TPD materials and hundreds of classroom audio resources to 75,000 teachers by 2017. Authoring future scenarios and engaging in possibility thinking (PT) provided us with a taxonomy of question-posing and question-responding that assisted the project team in being creative. This process informed the successful pilot testing of a mobile phone-based technology kit to deliver TPD resources within an open distance learning (ODL) platform. Taking the risk and having the foresight to trial mobile phones in remote rural areas with teachers and students led to unforeseen innovation. As a result EIA is currently using a mobile phone-based technology kit with 12,500 teachers to improve the English language proficiency of 700,000 students. As the project scales up in its third and final phase, we are using the new technology kit—known as the ‘trainer in your pocket’—to foster a ‘quiet revolution’ in the provision of teacher professional development at scale to an additional 67,500 teachers and 10 million students