Formative interventions and practice-development: A methodological perspective on teacher rounds

Highlights • We examine Rounds in education from a methodological perspective. • In doing so, we class Rounds as a formative intervention and compare it to another means of formative intervention—Developmental Work Research. • We raise three methodological issues about both types of formative intervention: the role of theory; the relationship between the individual and the collective; and the meaning of collaboration

EFL teaching through english-practice work stations (EPWS) to enhance participation and interaction in english for third grade learners

Tesis (Pedagogía en Inglés)Teachers all over the world are constantly searching for new activities, new strategies and methodologies that can help them make their lessons more satisfying for their learners and making it possible to enhance their learning process as well as their results. This has become a titanic effort for those teachers who do not count on the amount of time necessary for their lesson planning and to design their activities. But there are numerous Internet websites or teachers on social networks that are willing to give and share ideas. While doing the previous research for this thesis the authors came across with Debbie Diller’s book “Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work” (2003), where she explains how Literacy Work Stations (henceforth, LWS) work. After reading vast information about this method, there are several aspects presented that are very similar to the one seen at pre-elementary school by two of the authors were this methodology consisted of working in stations during short periods and rotating between them, so learners can work on different subjects. The researchers think that this kind of methodology is the one that generated faster and deeper development of the four skills of the English language for the two of them. And so the main purpose of this research is to foresee its usefulness and to propose an innovative strategy to enhance participation and interaction, not only in Spanish but mainly in English, inside an English as a Foreign Language (henceforth, EFL) lesson. The topic of this research is related to the implementation of a different strategy in elementary grades called English-Practice Work Stations to enhance participation and interaction during EFL lessons

Between the Lines: documenting the multiple dimensions of computer supported collaborations

When we consider the possibilities for the design and evaluation of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) we probably constrain the CS in CSCL to situations in which learners, or groups of learners collaborate with each other around a single computer, across a local intranet or via the global internet. We probably also consider situations in which the computer itself acts as a collaborative partner giving hints and tips either with or without the addition of an animated pedagogical agent. However, there are now many possibilities for CSCL applications to be offered to learners through computing technology that is something other than a desktop computer, such as the TV or a digital toy. In order to understand how such complex and novel interactions work, we need tools to map out the multiple dimensions of collaboration using a whole variety of technologies. This paper discusses the evolution of a documentation technique for collaborative interactions from its roots in a situation where a single learner is collaborating with a software learning partner, through its second generation: group use of multimedia, to its current test-bed: young children using digital toys and associated software. We will explore some of the challenges these different learning situations pose for those involved in the evaluation of collaborative learning

The mediating effect of task presentation on collaboration and children's acquisition of scientific reasoning

There has been considerable research concerning peer interaction and the acquisition of children's scientific reasoning. This study investigated differences in collaborative activity between pairs of children working around a computer with pairs of children working with physical apparatus and related any differences to the development of children's scientific reasoning. Children aged between 9 and 10 years old (48 boys and 48 girls) were placed into either same ability or mixed ability pairs according to their individual, pre-test performance on a scientific reasoning task. These pairs then worked on either a computer version or a physical version of Inhelder and Piaget's (1958) chemical combination task. Type of presentation was found to mediate the nature and type of collaborative activity. The mixed-ability pairs working around the computer talked proportionally more about the task and management of the task; had proportionally more transactive discussions and used the record more productively than children working with the physical apparatus. Type of presentation was also found to mediated children's learning. Children in same ability pairs who worked with the physical apparatus improved significantly more than same ability pairs who worked around the computer. These findings were partially predicted from a socio-cultural theory and show the importance of tools for mediating collaborative activity and collaborative learning

Collaborative action research in the chilean EFL classroom

Tesis (Profesor de Inglés, Licenciado en Educación)Este estudio discute los resultados obtenidos en una investigación cualitativa que involucra a un docente en formación como profesor-investigador en una Investigación-Acción, en un colegio de Santiago de Chile. El objetivo de este estudio fue explorar los beneficios de la Colaboración en Investigación-Acción como una práctica para promover la inclusión de la expresión oral del idioma inglés en las aulas chilenas. El profesor-investigador utilizó un diario como un instrumento para reflexionar sobre sus clases y actividades orales, las cuales fueron aplicadas en el colegio. Esas actividades orales fueron obtenidas de dos entrevistas grupales con docentes en formación de una universidad chilena, quienes fueron los colaboradores de este estudio, así como también la profesora mentora del colegio en el cual el profesor-investigador estaba haciendo su práctica. Los resultados mostraron que algunas de las actividades obtenidas en las entrevistas grupales promovieron la participación e interacción de los estudiantes durante las clases. Además, el profesor-investigador fue capaz de percibir la importancia de la reflexión de las actividades con el fin de hacer cambios y mejoras en su docencia. Asimismo, la colaboración entre pares, la cual fue representada en las entrevistas grupales, nos permitió reconocer nuestras fortalezas y mejorar nuestras debilidades cuando enseñamos. Finalmente, este estudio sugiere que todos los docentes deberían compartir sus experiencias, opiniones, sentimientos o pensamientos con sus colegas para así implementar colaboración, y también hacer de la reflexión un método habitual en su enseñanza para prevenir errores comunes representados por profesores en la sala de clases.This study discusses the outcomes of a qualitative research, which engaged a pre-service teacher as the teacher-researcher (T-R) in an Action Research (AR) design at a school in Santiago, Chile. The aim of this study was to explore the benefits of Collaborative Action Research (CAR) as a practice to foster the inclusion of speaking skills in Chilean EFL classrooms. The T-R used journals as an instrument to reflect on his teaching and speaking practices which were applied at the school. Those speaking practices were obtained from two group interviews with pre-service teachers from a Chilean university, who were the collaborators of this study, as well as the mentor teacher (M-T) from the school where the T-R was doing his practicum. The findings showed that the practices obtained in the group interviews encouraged students’ participation and interaction during classes. In addition, the T-R was able to perceive the importance of reflection on the practices in order to make changes and improvements in his teaching. Collaboration among peers, which was represented in the group interviews, allowed us to recognize our strengths and improve our weaknesses when teaching. Finally, this study suggests that all teachers should share their experiences, opinions, feelings, or thoughts with their colleagues in order to implement collaboration, and make reflection a common method in their teaching to prevent common errors committed by teachers in the classroom

Mathematical practice, crowdsourcing, and social machines

The highest level of mathematics has traditionally been seen as a solitary endeavour, to produce a proof for review and acceptance by research peers. Mathematics is now at a remarkable inflexion point, with new technology radically extending the power and limits of individuals. Crowdsourcing pulls together diverse experts to solve problems; symbolic computation tackles huge routine calculations; and computers check proofs too long and complicated for humans to comprehend. Mathematical practice is an emerging interdisciplinary field which draws on philosophy and social science to understand how mathematics is produced. Online mathematical activity provides a novel and rich source of data for empirical investigation of mathematical practice - for example the community question answering system {\it mathoverflow} contains around 40,000 mathematical conversations, and {\it polymath} collaborations provide transcripts of the process of discovering proofs. Our preliminary investigations have demonstrated the importance of "soft" aspects such as analogy and creativity, alongside deduction and proof, in the production of mathematics, and have given us new ways to think about the roles of people and machines in creating new mathematical knowledge. We discuss further investigation of these resources and what it might reveal. Crowdsourced mathematical activity is an example of a "social machine", a new paradigm, identified by Berners-Lee, for viewing a combination of people and computers as a single problem-solving entity, and the subject of major international research endeavours. We outline a future research agenda for mathematics social machines, a combination of people, computers, and mathematical archives to create and apply mathematics, with the potential to change the way people do mathematics, and to transform the reach, pace, and impact of mathematics research.Comment: To appear, Springer LNCS, Proceedings of Conferences on Intelligent Computer Mathematics, CICM 2013, July 2013 Bath, U

Scoping a vision for formative e-assessment: a project report for JISC

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. If the relationship between teaching and learning were causal, i. e. if students always mastered the intended learning outcomes of a particular sequence of instruction, assessment would be superfluous. Experience and research suggest this is not the case: what is learnt can often be quite different from what is taught. Formative assessment is motivated by a concern with the elicitation of relevant information about student understanding and / or achievement, its interpretation and an exploration of how it can lead to actions that result in better learning. In the context of a policy drive towards technology-enhanced approaches to teaching and learning, the question of the role of digital technologies is key and it is the latter on which this project particularly focuses. The project and its deliverables have been informed by recent and relevant literature, in particular recent work by Black andIn this work, they put forward a framework which suggests that assessment for learning their term for formative assessment can be conceptualised as consisting of a number of aspects and five keystrategies. The key aspects revolve around the where the learner is going, where the learner is right now and how she can get there and examines the role played by the teacher, peers and the learner. Language: English Keywords: assessments, case studies, design patterns, e-assessmen

Collaborative trails in e-learning environments

This deliverable focuses on collaboration within groups of learners, and hence collaborative trails. We begin by reviewing the theoretical background to collaborative learning and looking at the kinds of support that computers can give to groups of learners working collaboratively, and then look more deeply at some of the issues in designing environments to support collaborative learning trails and at tools and techniques, including collaborative filtering, that can be used for analysing collaborative trails. We then review the state-of-the-art in supporting collaborative learning in three different areas – experimental academic systems, systems using mobile technology (which are also generally academic), and commercially available systems. The final part of the deliverable presents three scenarios that show where technology that supports groups working collaboratively and producing collaborative trails may be heading in the near future

A Facebook group among postgraduate students: Evaluation results towards learning

Facebook is a very popular social media platform used by a significant number worldwide. There is strong evidence that Facebook may also facilitate learning activities, however there is not much research about the implementation of Facebook as a learning tool in higher education. In our study we investigate the use of a Facebook group among postgraduate students at the department of Informatics of the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece. In particular, we measured the contribution of a Facebook group regarding four factors: students’ engagement, students’ motivation, students’ collaborative learning and students’ satisfaction. Furthermore, we examined any significant correlations between our variables. This study shows that a Facebook group is able to facilitate learning among students in a positive way and consequently work fairly as a collaborative learning tool

The pedagogical challenges to collaborative technologies

Collaborative technologies offer a range of new ways of supporting learning by enabling learners to share and exchange both ideas and their own digital products. This paper considers how best to exploit these opportunities from the perspective of learners' needs. New technologies invariably excite a creative explosion of new ideas for ways of doing teaching and learning, although the technologies themselves are rarely designed with teaching and learning in mind. To get the best from them for education we need to start with the requirements of education, in terms of both learners‘ and teachers‘ needs. The argument put forward in this paper is to use what we know about what it takes to learn, and build this into a pedagogical framework with which to challenge digital technologies to deliver a genuinely enhanced learning experience