\u27Service Learning\u27 Brings Classroom Subjects to Life as College Students Put Lessons into Practice

News release announces information on Building Bridges and how it helps adolescent offenders

Effects of a service-learning experience on English language teacher development

This project examines how a service-learning project helped future English language (EL) teachers grow. TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) students planned and implemented an afterschool program to support young English learners at Estabrook Elementary. Using Piaget\u27s theory of constructivism, this hands-on, real-world learning opportunity allowed EMU students to construct their own understanding and reflect on the experience. TESOL students first developed an after school EL program and put into practice their own lessons. Then, through reflection journals and critical discussions, students used metacognitive strategies to strengthen their expertise. As the ‘students turned teachers’ reflected on their learning, they grew as EL teachers in ways they would not have without this program

An investigation into how grade 9 Physical Science learners make meaning of the topic on acids and bases through exploring their prior everyday knowledge and experiiences: a case study

This study was conducted at the school where I teach which is a semi-rural secondary school (Grade 8-12) situated in Omuthiya Town in Oshikoto region, Namibia. The new curriculum that has been implemented in Namibia, has posed challenges in how best to put the curriculum into practice at this school. It was this challenge that triggered my interest in doing a research study with the aim of improving my practice. Essentially, the study sought to gain insight into whether integrating learners’ prior everyday knowledge and experiences of acids and bases in conjunction with practical activities using easily accessible materials enabled or constrained meaning-making of this topic. This study is located within an interpretive paradigm. Within this paradigm, a qualitative case study approach was adopted with my Grade 9 class. Data were gathered using document analysis, videotaped lessons and observations by a critical friend, stimulated recall discussions while watching the videotaped lessons as well as focus group interviews with the learners. An inductive analysis to discover patterns and themes was applied during the data analysis process. The themes were further turned into analytical statements. Data sets were also analysed in relation to the research questions posed by this study. The validation process was achieved by using a variety of data gathering techniques. I watched the videotaped lessons with a teacher who observed the lessons and transcripts of the interviews and a summary of discussions were given back to the respondents to verify their responses and check for any misinterpretations, a process known as member checking. I also translated what the learners said in Oshiwambo, their home language, into English. The findings from the study revealed that the use of learners’ prior everyday knowledge and experiences of acids and bases facilitated meaningful learning during teaching and learning. Furthermore, linking learning to learners’ everyday experiences enabled them to learn scientific concepts in a relaxed and non-threatening environment. However, linking learners’ prior knowledge and experiences to conventional science (textbook science) proved to be a challenge. My recommendations are that teachers need support in their endeavors to incorporate learners’ real life experiences into their teaching and learning repertoires. Another aspect of my study that deserves further research is the role that language plays in implementing the curriculum

The Analysis of English Language Education Students’ Teaching Skills During Microteaching: Product-Process Approach in Teaching Grammar

Teaching grammar within the context of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) needs both product and process approaches. Microteaching is one of the techniques to prepare students teachers to improve their skills in this area. One of the microteaching lessons in English Language Education Department, Teachers College Universitas Pelita Harapan, is called Planning, Strategy, Assessment, and Learning (PSAL) Grammar. In this class, students are exposed with the nature, principles, and strategy of teaching and learning grammar. Students are planning lessons related to teaching grammar in various grades as well as developing teaching and learning material and instrument for language assessment. Students then put them into practice in the classroom individually. Discussion on the students ‘performances will be conducted after the microteaching session. This research aims to analyze students’ skills in teaching grammar in microteaching class as well as the discussing the strength and challenges arise. The type of the research is a qualitative case study research. The data collection techniques being used are observation, reflective journal, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Moreover, the technique of analyzing the data was Miles and Huberman concept of data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results of this research will be presented in a descriptive-narrative manner by describing and discussing students’ skills in teaching grammar. &nbsp

Distributed Practice and Retrieval Practice in Primary School Vocabulary Learning: A Multi-classroom Study

Distributed practice and retrieval practice are promising learning strategies to use in education. We examined the effects of these strategies in primary school vocabulary lessons. Grades 2, 3, 4, and 6 children performed exercises that were part of the regular curriculum. For the distributed practice manipulation, the children performed six exercises distributed within 1 week (short-lag repetition) or across 2 weeks (long-lag repetition). For the repetition type manipulation, children copied a part of the description of a word (restudy) or recalled the description (retrieval practice). At the end of each week, the children received a cued-recall vocabulary test. After 1 to 11 weeks they received a multiple-choice vocabulary test. Both on the cued-recall test and on the multiple-choice test no benefits of long-lag repetition and retrieval practice were found. These results put into question the practical value of long-lag repetition and retrieval practice in real-life primary school vocabulary lessons

Catalysing learning for development and climate change: an exploration of social learning and social differentiation in CGIAR

There is convergence between current theory and practice in global environmental change research and development communities on the importance of approaches that aim to ‘engage and embed’, i.e. engage diverse and relevant actors in knowledge creation and embed scientific information into societal contexts. Social learning has emerged as a way to both approach and characterise innovative ways of doing this. Defined here as “a change in understanding that goes beyond the individual to become situated within wider social units or communities of practice through social interactions between actors within social networks” (Reed et al. 2010), a social learning approach situates scientific research as just one form of specialised knowledge amidst other contextual knowledge. Co-learning – by bringing diverse knowledge and social worlds together to exchange needs, values and norms – is considered necessary for addressing complex, wicked problems and for building decision processes and adaptive structures that help navigate uncertain futures. Including socially differentiated groups into processes of knowledge creation and decision- making may fundamentally alter what questions are asked, how changes in practices are framed and how to break down systemic patterns of vulnerability and marginalisation. This paper investigates the synergies (and trade-offs) associated with integrating socially differentiated stakeholders and/or groups – the poor, women, elderly, youth and indigenous – into social learning processes aimed at addressing poverty reduction, livelihood development and longer term resilience. An exploratory scan of CGIAR identifies projects that engage socially differentiated groups in processes of social learning. Cases were characterised for their treatment of i) the particular context, including rationale for the engagement of socially differentiated groups, ii) the design of engagement interfaces, iii) the type of learning loops occurring, iv) particular channels that contributed to learning across networks and, where applicable, v) the outcomes and lessons from the learning process. The findings suggest that diverse forms of social differentiation and learning are occurring across many of CGIAR’s fifteen research centres. This is in part due to institutional reform that has put an increasing emphasis on gender strategies and monitored development outcomes. A more explicit recognition of the role and ‘added value’ that social learning research approaches have can enhance its visibility and ultimately the effectiveness of CGIAR’s vast research partnerships

Leading whole-class discussions: From participating in a lesson study to teaching practice

Purpose – This article aims to analyse how a teacher leads whole-class discussions during and after participating in lesson studies and to what extent that participation influences her teaching practice. Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative/interpretative research with a case study design, carried out with a secondary school mathematics teacher who participated in two lesson studies. Data were collected from participant observation, audio recording of lesson study (LS) sessions and discussions with the teacher, video recording of lessons and semi-structured interviews. Frameworks regarding the teachers’ actions are used in the analysis. Findings – The results suggest that in her teaching practice, the teacher led students to explain their strategies with supporting/guiding actions, but she also challenged the students to justify their productions, ensuring that the students’ ideas were clear. Additionally, the teacher explored incorrect strategies and disagreements, inviting and challenging other students to intervene or react and involved students in drawing connections, as discussed in the LS. Therefore, the teacher put into practice several actions teachers can do in leading whole-class discussions to promote students’ learning. Participating in LS was an opportunity to rethink her teaching practice, as the teacher pointed out, bringing her a new perspective on leading discussions in which students play an active role in learning mathematics, creating opportunities for the students to explain and react to their colleagues’ ideas. Originality/value – This article examines an under-researched issue: the influence of LS on the way a teacher leads whole-class discussions, during and after participating in lesson studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Effects of Physical Activity and Movement on Learning

After performing research into the effects of physical activity and movement on learning, I was asked to present my findings at a school-wide colloquium. This gathering was well-attended by students and faculty members alike. The university professors seemed highly interested in what I had discovered and asked many in-depth questions. The majority of the questions dealt with the same major issue: implementation. No one questioned whether the presented information was true or not. The questions that came were how it would be possible to incorporate movement in the classroom in ways that were not distracting from the content. While the point of my research was for eventual implementation, I was not prepared for these questions. I had not had many opportunitites to put into practice what I had researched. I did the best that I could to answer the questions that were asked of me, but it left me thinking and reflecting long after the colloquium. How do you allow students to move during a lesson without it being a distraction from the lesson itself? Thus, I embarked on the journey of practicing what I preached. I realized that research is only valuable if you learn from it and apply it. I wanted to be able to present a variety of methods of physical activity taking place inside of the classroom that enhanced the learning process. While I believe that any movement is good, my desire was that the physical activities in my lesson would improve the entire learning experience. My one lesson of success prior to the colloquium along with the continual reverberation of the professor\u27s questions provided me with the drive necessary to take the extra steps to develop feasible plans that included physical movement in the classroom. My aspiration is that movement in the classroom is not something that only students in my classroom will experience. I wanted to be prepared to share ideas and sample lessons plans to other teachers or anyone interested in the idea of adding movement activities in the classroom. While I could have expanded my research and learned more about the science behind this fascinating idea, I realized that teachers unfamiliar with adding physical movement to their lessons would not see two or three lessons as a valuable resource. These protopyes are intended to serve as a resource for teachers seeking to implement physical activity and movement in their classrooms. The lessons are written for first through fifth grades, all with physical movements included as integral component. Some lessons have movement as a major part of the learning while in others movement is more supplemental to the lesson. The main factor is not the amount of time students are out of their seats and on their feet, but the single factor that the students are learning through movement activities

When will we learn: key factors and potential barriers

The overall aim of this research was to improve the dissemination of Lessons Learned in construction projects so that contractors’ project teams have access to the most relevant lessons at the most appropriate time, in the most appropriate format. The outcome of the research aimed to provide (1) an understanding of the different systems and tools used for recording Lessons Learned amongst major construction contractors; (2) an understanding of the needs in terms of what sort of lessons are required, the level of detail required and how best these should be made available; and (3) an approach on how best to disseminate Lessons Learned. The key objectives of the research were to: 1. Investigate current practice for recording and disseminating Lessons Learned; 2. Identify potential barriers for successfully disseminating Lessons Learned; and 3. Identify key factors affecting company processes to encourage a more systematic dissemination of Lessons Learned. The study was conducted in three phases. The first investigated contractors’ current practices for recording and disseminating Lessons Learned through a questionnaire survey. The second phase identified key factors that would encourage the institutionalisation of Lessons Learned and also the factors that inhibit their use. The third phase examined how current processes could be adapted to develop a process that would embed the systematic dissemination of Lessons Learned within an organisation’s existing practices. This report focuses on the second stage of the project that identified from the end users those factors that would encourage the institutionalisation of Lessons Learned and also the factors that inhibit their use of Lessons Learned

Development and evaluation of an early specialised traumatic brain injury vocational rehabilitation training package

Background: In a feasibility randomised controlled trial, training was developed to equip Occupational Therapists to deliver Early Specialised Traumatic Brain Injury Vocational Rehabilitation in the English National Health Service. Methods: The package was developed by "experts" in vocational rehabilitation and traumatic brain injury and included a manual, direct instruction by six trainers and opportunity for mentorship by four therapists. Following training, therapists were interviewed regarding the effectiveness and "ease of use" of the package. Interviews were analysed using the framework approach. Results: Five trained therapists were interviewed regarding the package. Results were organised into 6 categories: (1) motivation to participate in research; (2) impact of the learning environment; (3) changing confidence levels over time; (4) growing appreciation of complexities about the intervention; (5) acceptability of the training package; (6) lessons for future implementation. Conclusions: Therapists reported acquiring knowledge necessary to implement the intervention. Data indicates that training packages require detailed descriptions of the interventions being taught for local implementation in the NHS and for future research. Training materials are valued by therapists but require time for familiarisation and reminders from mentors help put training into practice. Therapists have concerns about implementing interventions within a research context, which researchers should address