MODEL OF EDUCATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION TO ENHANCE MODELING SKILLS, DOMAIN-SPECIFIC CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS, AND VIEW OF NOST ON SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY

Solid State Chemistry (SSC) learning focuses on structure, properties, and application of solid material. It allows students to make connections between science, human daily life, and advance technology. However, abstract concepts in SSC make students difficult to understand it. The difficulty may cause misconception. They lack of students' ability to visualize structure of solid may be the main difficulty in studying SSC. Applying model and modeling activities in SSC learning may help student in visualizing structure of solid. Integrating domain-specific critical thinking (DS-CT) skills in SSC learning process may promote students’ conceptual understanding into scientific conception. A learning sequence was designed based on model of educational reconstruction (MER) to enhance all domain needed by students on SSC learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of MER to developing students’ conceptual knowledge (CK), modeling skills (MS), DS-CT skills, and NOST aspects. Mixed methods design with one group pre-test and post-test embedded experimental design was used in this study. Twenty four structured essay (SE) of CK, 22 SE of DS-CT skills, 5 SE of MS, and 9 questions of NOST aspects were developed to measure 33 pre-service chemistry teachers. Students’ CK, MS, DS-CT skills, and view of NOST before and after their engagement with the activities were analyzed. Paired sample t-tests were employed and results showed significant differences in the overall domain knowledge, sub-MS and DS-CT skills (p < .001). Students’ view of NOST aspects were improved from majority in naive (N) into real (R) category. Positive correlations among CK, DS-CT skills and MS (R = .82 and p <.001) showed that good DS-CT skills (explanations, inference, interpretation, and analysis skills) and MS (making a good structure, using model to explain, and using model to predict) help students to understand the concept well. Constant contribution of DS-CT skills and modeling skills on CK are 67.5%. This study provided insights into effective instructional designs for Chemistry educators in developing students’ CK, MS, DS-CT, and view of NOST aspects. It found that metallic crystal, analysis skill, and sub-modeling 3 (using model to predict) have the lowest n-gain. For further researches, it is recommended to embed deeper analysis of the students’ conception in body of knowledge in order to make them easier to predict, able to manipulate and create many chemical structures.-- Fokus pembelajaran SSC adalah menghubungkan struktur, sifat dan aplikasi material zat padat. Hal itu memungkinkan mahasiswa menghubungkan antara konten sains yang dipelajari dengan kehidupan sehari-hari dan teknologi terkini. Hanya saja konsep-konsep abstrak yang terdapat dalam SSC membuat mahasiswa kesulitan bahkan miskonsepsi dalam mempelajarinya. Kesulitan mahasiswa memvisualisasikan struktur zat padat menjadi kesulitan utama mempelajari SSC. Mengaplikasikan model dan pemodelan dalam proses pembelajaran SSC membantu mahasiswa memvisualisasikan struktur dengan baik. Mengntegrasikan domain-khusus CT (DS-CT) pada pembelajaran SSC dapat meningkatkan pemahaman yang mendalam mengenai suatu konsep. Tahapan pembelajaran SSC kemudian didesain berdasarkan kerangka model of educational reconstruction (MER) untuk meningkatkan kemampuan-kemampuan yang diperlukan dalam pembelajaran SSC. Oleh sebab itu tujuan penelitian ini untuk menguji penggunaan MER dalam mengembangkan pengetahuan konsep (CK), kemampuan pemodelan (MS), kemampuan DS-CT dan padangan mahasiswa mengenai aspek NOST. Desain mixed method dengan setting one group pre-test and post-test embedded experimental digunakan dalam penelitian ini. Dua puluh empat butir soal essay terstruktur (SE) terkait CK, 22 SE terkait DS-CT, 15 SE terkait MS, serta 9 pertanyaan tentang NOST dikembangkan untuk mengukur CK, MS, DS-CT dan aspek NOST 33 mahasiswa calon guru. Kemampuan-kemampuan tersebut sebelum dan sesudah terlibat dalam intervensi dianalisis menggunakan paired sample t-test. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat peningkatan yang signifikan pada seluruh domain pengetahuan, sub-MS, dan DS-CT (p < 0.001). Persepsi siswa meningkat dari sebelum pembelajaran ada di kategori naive (N) menjadi real (R). Hubungan positif antara CK dan MS serta DS-CT (R = 0.82 and p < 0.001) menunjukkan bahwa kemampuan DS-CT (kemampuan mengeksplanasi, menginferensi, menginterpretasi dan menganalisis) dan MS (membuat model struktur, menggunakan model struktur untuk menjelaskan sifat, serta menggunakan model struktur untuk memprediksi) yang baik membantu mahasiswa memahami konsep dengan baik. Konttribusi konstan dari DS-CT dan MS sebesar 67.5%. Hasil penelitian ini memberi pemikiran yang mendalam untuk pendidik kimia mengenai efektivitas desain pembelajaran berbasis MER dalam mengembangkan CK, MS, DS-CT, serta aspek NOST mahasiswa. Ditemukan bahwa topik kristal logam, kemampuan menganalisis, dan sub-MS 3 (menggunakan model untuk memprediksi) perolehan n-gainnya ada di kategori rendah, maka disarankan untuk menanamkan analisis yang mendalam mengenai konsepsi mahasiswa dalam suatu body of knowledge sehingga mereka mampu memprediksi, memanipulasi, serta membuat struktur kimia dengan mudah

THE ROLE OF THE EDUCATOR IN IMPROVING THE LEARNING PROCESS THROUGH THE PAULO FREIRE PROBLEM METHOD

This research aims to look at how to improve the role of educators in the learning process, especially through Paulo Freire's problematic education concept. As it can achieve the expected goals in the learning process, the role of educators is very important. This study employs a qualitative method with a descriptive design in which it provides a careful description of certain individuals or groups about the conditions and symptoms that occur. In this study, the author uses data techniques based on analyzing the thoughts, biographies, and especially in the concept of problems with the perspective of Paulo Freire descriptively. Traditional methods are still widely used by educators today who are lacking in the learning process, which according to Paulo Freire is called the concept of bank style or the existence of oppression of students, with educators as the dominating party, and arguably are the same direction as students. In this case, the author uses the concept of Education Against Problems to streamline the learning process that can be used to achieve a goal.  The educator along with the learner is placed as an educational subject who knows himself, in order to achieve more knowledge in the form of purity and knowledge as an object. Therefore both parties are in the same position as learners, and interact in providing knowledge information in a straight line.

Communicative practices in a bi-/multilingual, rural, fourth grade classroom in Kenya

Today, multilingualism in primary education is a reality that must be fully embraced in language and literacy research. Multilingualism is the norm in schools due to linguistic heterogeneity in classrooms. Despite the growth of bilingual education all over the world in the twenty-first century (Chimbutane, 2011; Garcia, 2009), there remains little understanding around how two or more languages interact and affect learning. This study was designed to understand and document how emerging bilingual or multilingual speakers deploy their communicative practices, specifically in a fourth grade rural classroom in Kenya, and how the deployment of those resources affects knowledge construction and access to literacy. To do so, I draw on sociocultural (Bakhtin, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978) and cognitive (Collier, 1995; Cummins, 1979; 1981) theoretical perspectives. These theoretical perspectives permit recognition of the importance of native languages in the development of literacy in a second language (L2), as well as the importance of sociocultural contexts as influences on literacy learning (Bakhtin, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978, 2012). A qualitative case study approach was employed to understand the communicative practices of emerging multilingual children in a fourth grade classroom. The study was carried out in a rural primary school in eastern Kenya. The participants included the school principal, the English and science teachers, five focal students, and five parents of those students. The data collection procedures included classroom observations, interviews, shadowing, collection of artifacts, and home visits. The findings indicate that while safe talk strategies predominate in English language arts classrooms, students also would engage unofficial literacies during those lessons, an indication of a disconnection caused either by a language barrier or other factors. In the science classroom, the teacher used (officially disallowed) translanguaging approaches, which raised student participation and disrupted the Initiation, Response Feedback (IRF) discourse pattern that otherwise prevailed in the English language arts classrooms. Additionally, students used their multilingual resources in both writing and speaking practices, even when they were required to use one language. These literacy practices suggest that students enact their lived practices in school settings, thereby disclosing a need to consider and put to good purpose those resources that they bring to school. Another major finding is language as a problem and time on task ideologies that were entrenched in the language practices and linguistic decisions made by the education stakeholders (parents, students, and teachers alike). These ideologies were embodied in daily literacy practices and were articulated, and imposed, through institutional policies. We find that these ideologies eventuate in the exclusion of the rural children from literacy access due to a language barrier. They also lead to changes in pedagogical strategy such that teachers resort to teaching to the test, helping students simply to memorize formulaic phrases necessary to pass a test. In this way, student creativity and voices are silenced, and education is distanced from the child. This deployment of linguistic resources then reproduces social inequalities, most of all in the conditions that lead to continued mass illiteracy in rural settings. I call for a heteroglossic multilingual pedagogy, for bilingual and emerging multilingual children in rural Kenya. Such an education acknowledges the sociohistorical and ideological bases of current language-in-education policies—not only, for example, an exclusive choice of English for literate social functions and the reservation of indigenous languages for oral interpersonal relations and storytelling—but also the effects that this has had on formation of linguistic ideologies and attitudes towards knowledge in certain languages. Heteroglossic multilingual education acknowledges that different languages index varying viewpoints, challenges the stratification of language that tends undesirably towards oppressive universality rather than liberating heterogeneity, and holds out the feasibility of making informed decisions to support and enable the multiple voices of children, through channels like stylization and hidden dialogicality (Bakhtin, 1981). Through heteroglossic multilingual education, education can be connected or reconnected to children, so that children can be guided to acquire and use a foreign language without negating their existing linguistic resources and identities

In Transition: An Activity Theoretical Analysis Examining Electronic Portfolio Tools\u27 Mediation Of The Preservice Teacher\u27s Authoring Experience

Co-chairs: Dr. Donna Baumbach Dr. Gail West Background: Electronic portfolios are increasingly used to make critical decisions about teacher candidates and program accreditation. Adoption rates for portfolios are at nearly 90% for schools, colleges, and departments of education (Salzman, Denner, & Harris, 2002). Over 50% of institutions who rated themselves or were nominated by others as exemplary users of electronic portfolios use web-based database-driven electronic portfolio systems (Strudler & Wetzel, 2005b; Wetzel & Strudler, 2005b). There is a paucity of theory-driven, systematic, rigorous research on electronic portfolios and a need for in-depth, context-aware research on such initiatives. Purpose: To explicate the differential impact of different portfolios systems on preservice teachers. The overarching research question was, What are the preservice teachers\u27 experiences using tools to create an electronic portfolio? Setting: The Teachers College at a large university and the Education Department at a small liberal arts college. Participants: Six preservice teachers at each institution served as key participants. Informal interviews with numerous other participants provided additional data. Research Design: Qualitative multi-site case study informed by Engeström\u27s Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 1987). Data Collection and Analysis: Document analysis, focus group interviews, individual interviews, thinkaloud work sessions, and lab and classroom observations provided data. Qualitative data analysis was informed by Creswell\u27s data analysis spiral and Engeström\u27s CHAT. Findings: Visits at both institutions presented several of the key ideas in the CHAT framework including the networked nature of activity, the portfolio as a boundary activity, contradictions within the portfolio activity, and changes to the portfolio activity system. Additional themes included transition, creativity, reflection, and resources

Covert conversations: disciplined improvisation and meaning-making in the masters (MA) supervisory relationship

This research asks the question: “What are the relational dynamics in Masters (MA) supervision?” It does so by focusing upon the supervisory relationship itself. It does this through dialoguing with the voices of both MA supervisors and supervisees in the Humanities using a Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework. In so doing, this research argues for a re-evaluation of how MA supervision is conceptualised and proposes a new theoretical framework for conceptualising MA supervision as a relational phenomenon. The research design was derived from an Activity Theory-influenced methodology. Data collection procedures included the administration of Activity Theory Logs, individual semi-structured interviews with both supervisors and supervisees and the completion of reflective journals. Grounded Theory was used to analyse the data. The sample for the study consists of three supervisor-supervisee dyads from three disciplines in the Humanities. Data was collected over the course of one academic year, 2010-2011. This research found that both individual and shared relational dynamics play an important role in MA supervision. Individual dynamics, such as supervisors’ iterative negotiation of ambiguity/clarity and supervisees’ boundary work, revealed that both parties attempt to negotiate a separation between their professional-academic identities and personal identities. However, an inherent paradox emerged when the shared relational dynamics of MA supervision were investigated. It was found that the shared space created by the supervisory relationship did not only exist in a physical setting, but was also psychoactive in nature and held strong emotional resonances for both parties involved. This served to undermine the separation between professional-academic and personal identities. As a result, this research argues that the interaction between the individual and shared relational dynamics in MA supervision enables, for both supervisors and supervisees, a disciplined improvisation of academic identity