Fostering Transformative Learning in an Online ESL Professional Development Program for K-12 Teachers

This qualitative study examines evidence of transformative learning surrounding sociocultural issues in the K-12 classroom of in-service teachers, while participating in an online English as a Second Language (ESL) professional development program. Using inductive data analysis, precursors and catalysts to transformative learning were identified to understand the ways in which 24 purposefully sampled participants experienced learning. Areas explored included ways in which the candidates participated in critical reflection of their own perspectives, ways in which this process affected their meaning making of their experiences, potential for action in changing their practice as ESL educators, and transformative learning features present throughout their learning experiences. Findings reveal evidence of perspective shifts in this context that complement the professional dispositions identified as important for K-12 teachers: the importance of carefully choosing resource materials in professional development, and the necessity to encourage critical reflection in course activities

Interaction in Emergency Remote Higher Education: A Case Study

Emergency Remote Education (ERE) has provided an effective response to the education emergency created by the coronavirus outbreak. Teachers, lecturers and students have experimented with new teaching and learning strategies and digital tools, adjusting to the possibilities and the constraints of computer-mediated communication. This study investigates a case study to show how multimodal interaction, communication and engagement can be established during video lessons in English courses delivered in a university environment. Data collected through the participant observation of a 2-hour- online class will be analysed combining classroom discourse and multimodal analysis to investigate synchronous interaction and the different modes of meaning-making emerging during emergency remote teaching and learning. The goal of the present study is twofold: on the one hand, it aims to contribute to the discussion of the short-term and mediumterm impact of wisdom gained during ERE on academic teaching in terms of interaction and multimodality. On the other hand, it sheds light on challenges and best practices revealed during ERE classes, which at the same time could contribute to improve lecturers’ interactional competence in terms of ways of interacting and meaning-making in an instructional context

Multimedial ways of learning languages:how online communities promote English learning

Abstract. Research on the effectiveness of online interaction and the tools available for English learning is a relatively new domain in the current field of linguistics. Various acts from building one’s identity, creating a sense of community and getting to a common understanding through negotiation and meaning-making processes, contribute to users developing English skills in several ways in an online landscape. Learning groups in many networking sites demonstrate how English can be learned through an active membership in such a community. Learning methods do not limit to learning new words since learning groups may provide their users with other societal benefits, like identity construction, that further promote language learning. Media sites differ on their interaction styles, which is why an analysis of the activities taking place on such sites is vital to understand online interaction. Three sites, Facebook, Twitter and Discord, are researched in order to compare findings, methods and their effectiveness comprehensively. This thesis will investigate these social networks and how they help users improve their English skills.Tiivistelmä. Tutkimus englannin kielen oppimiseen verkkoympäristöissä tapahtuvien keskustelujen ja välineiden kautta on suhteellisen uusi tutkimuskenttä lingvistiikassa. Monet aktiviteetit identiteetin, yhteisöllisyyden ja yhteisymmärrykseen saapumisesta neuvottelemisen ja merkitysten luomisen kautta vaikuttavat englannin kielen oppimiseen monella tavalla verkkoympäristössä. Englannin oppimiseen keskittyvät ryhmät verkkosivuilla osoittavat, kuinka englantia voi oppia niiden jäsenyyden yhteydessä. Oppiminen ei rajoitu uusien sanojen oppimiseen, sillä oppimisryhmät voivat tarjota jäsenilleen yhteisöllisiä hyötyjä, kuten identiteetin käsitteellistämistä, jotka edelleen edistävät kielen oppimista. Mediasivustot eroavat vuorovaikutustavoiltaan, minkä vuoksi niissä tapahtuvien toimintojen analysointi on olennaista verkkovuorovaikutusten ymmärtämiseksi. Kolme verkkopalvelua, Facebook, Twitter ja Discord, on valittu tutkittavaksi voidaksemme vertailla tuloksia, menetelmiä ja niiden toimivuutta kattavasti. Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii näitä sosiaalisia verkostoja, ja kuinka ne auttavat parantamaan niiden käyttäjien englannin kielen taitojaan

Teacher education during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Insights from a formative intervention approach involving online feedback

This paper examines preservice teachers’ perspectives on assessment feedback developed in a teacher education course during the first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As initially negotiated with students, feedback was learner-centred and involved a formative intervention approach applied iteratively by the teacher educator over the course of one semester. Although such feedback was initially face-to-face, it had to be given exclusively online following the unexpected closure of the university. Analysis of student teachers’ perspectives, which were collected through an online questionnaire completed after their final assessment, reveals both positive and critical aspects regarding the feedback provided by the teacher educator. While reaffirming the significance of feedback as a crucial element for learning in online teacher education contexts, the findings also show that the clarity, affective bonding and multimodal meaning-making involved in face-to-face interaction are particularly challenging when the communication of feedback is digitally mediated. The implications and limitations of such findings are discussed.This work is supported through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT by CIEd—Research Centre on Education, Institute of Education, University of Minho, projects UIDB/01661/2020 and UIDP/01661/2020, and by CIEC—Research Centre on Child Studies, Institute of Education, University of Minho, projects UIDB/00317/2020 and UIDP/00317/2020

Multiliteracies for academic purposes : a metafunctional exploration of intersemiosis and multimodality in university textbook and computer-based learning resources in science

This thesis is situated in the research field of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in education and within a professional context of multiliteracies for academic purposes. The overall aim of the research is to provide a metafunctional account of multimodal and multisemiotic meaning-making in print and electronic learning materials in first year science at university. The educational motivation for the study is to provide insights for teachers and educational designers to assist them in the development of students’ multiliteracies, particularly in the context of online learning environments. The corpus comprises online and CD-ROM learning resources in biology, physics and chemistry and textbooks in physics and biology, which are typical of those used in undergraduate science courses in Australia. Two underlying themes of the research are to compare the different affordances of textbook and screen formats and the disciplinary variation found in these formats. The two stage research design consisted of a multimodal content analysis, followed by a SF-based multimodal discourse analysis of a selection of the texts. In the page and screen formats of these pedagogical texts, the analyses show that through the mechanisms of intersemiosis, ideationally, language and image are reconstrued as disciplinary knowledge. This knowledge is characterised by a high level of technicality in image and verbiage, by taxonomic relations across semiotic resources and by interdependence among elements in the image, caption, label and main text. Interpersonally, pedagogical roles of reader/learner/viewer/ and writer/teacher/designer are enacted differently to some extent across formats through the different types of activities on the page and screen but the source of authority and truth remains with the teacher/designer, regardless of format. Roles are thus minimally negotiable, despite the claims of interactivity in the screen texts. Textually, the organisation of meaning across text and image in both formats is reflected in the layout, which is determined by the underlying design grid and in the use of graphic design resources of colour, font, salience and juxtaposition. Finally, through the resources of grammatical metaphor and the reconstrual of images as abstract, both forms of semiosis work together to shift meanings from congruence to abstraction, into the specialised realm of science