Contours of Inclusion: Inclusive Arts Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this publication is to share models and case examples of the process of inclusive arts curriculum design and evaluation. The first section explains the conceptual and curriculum frameworks that were used in the analysis and generation of the featured case studies (i.e. Understanding by Design, Differentiated Instruction, and Universal Design for Learning). Data for the cases studies was collected from three urban sites (i.e. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston) and included participant observations, student and teacher interviews, curriculum documentation, digital documentation of student learning, and transcripts from discussion forum and teleconference discussions from a professional learning community.The initial case studies by Glass and Barnum use the curricular frameworks to analyze and understand what inclusive practices look like in two case studies of arts-in-education programs that included students with disabilities. The second set of precedent case studies by Kronenberg and Blair, and Jenkins and Agois Hurel uses the frameworks to explain their process of including students by providing flexible arts learning options to support student learning of content standards. Both sets of case studies illuminate curricular design decisions and instructional strategies that supported the active engagement and learning of students with disabilities in educational settings shared with their peers. The second set of cases also illustrate the reflective process of using frameworks like Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to guide curricular design, responsive instructional differentiation, and the use of the arts as a rich, meaningful, and engaging option to support learning. Appended are curriculum design and evaluation tools. (Individual chapters contain references.

Rich environments for active learning in action: Problem‐based learning

Rich Environments for Active Learning (REALs) are comprehensive instructional systems that are consistent with constructivist theories. They promote study and investigation within authentic contexts; encourage the growth of student responsibility, initiative, decision making and intentional learning; cultivate collaboration among students and teachers; utilize dynamic, interdisciplinary, generative learning activities that promote higher‐order thinking processes to help students develop rich and complex knowledge structures; and assess student progress in content and learning‐to‐learn within authentic contexts using realistic tasks and performances. Problem‐Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional methodology that can be used to create REALs. PBL's student‐centred approach engages students in a continuous collaborative process of building and reshaping understanding as a natural consequence of their experiences and interactions within learning environments that authentically reflect the world around them. In this way, PBL and REALs are a response to teacher‐centred educational practices that promote the development of inert knowledge, such as conventional teacher‐to‐student knowledge dissemination activities. In this article, we compare existing assumptions underlying teacher‐directed educational practice with new assumptions that promote problem solving and higher‐level thinking by putting students at the centre of learning activities. We also examine the theoretical foundation that supports these new assumptions and the need for REALs. Finally, we describe each REAL characteristic and provide supporting examples of REALs in action using PB

Entertainment Games for Teaching English as a Second Language: Characteristics and Potential

This article explores the use of entertainment games for teaching English as a second language. It is a narrative literature review of theories of motivation and learning. To facilitate the choice of didactic resources to be used in the English classroom by teachers, this study brings to light the characteristics relevant to teaching that can be found in games, associated with different genres. In this sense, 14 researches involving digital games of entertainment were analyzed, using as basis Gardner’s theories of motivation in the teaching, games and the active learner of Gee, zone of proximal development of Vygotsky, tangential learning model of Portnow and Brown, model of the monitor, Krashen’s input hypothesis, Schumann’s acculturation model, and the hypothesis of the interaction proposed by several authors such as Gass and Larsen-Freeman and Long. The results obtained were the definition of the relevant characteristics to teaching and learning in games and the identification of the genres associated to these characteristics. The discussion used the following characteristics found in the analyzed texts: motivation, classroom interaction, social interaction in the game, tangential learning, grades, complementary material, vocabulary, repetitive written content, big written content, need for text interpretation, audio and text

Planning for Excellence: Insights from an International Review of Regulators’ Strategic Plans

What constitutes regulatory excellence? Answering this question is an indispensable first step for any public regulatory agency that is measuring, striving towards, and, ultimately, achieving excellence. One useful way to answer this question would be to draw on the broader literature on regulatory design, enforcement, and management. But, perhaps a more authentic way would be to look at how regulators themselves define excellence. However, we actually know remarkably little about how the regulatory officials who are immersed in the task of regulation conceive of their own success. In this Article, we investigate regulators’ definitions of regulatory excellence by drawing on a unique source of data that provides an important window on regulators’ own aspirations: their strategic plans. Strategic plans have been required or voluntarily undertaken for the past decade or longer by regulators around the globe. In these plans, regulators offer mission statements, strategic goals, and measurable and achievable outcomes, all of which indicate what regulators value and are striving to become. Occasionally, they even state explicitly where they have fallen short of “best-in-class” status and how they intend to improve. To date, a voluminous literature exists examining agency practices in strategic planning, but we are aware of no study that tries to glean from the substance of a sizeable number of plans how regulators themselves construe regulatory excellence. The main task of this Article is undertaking this effort. This Article draws on twenty plans from different regulators in nine countries. We found most generally that excellent regulators describe themselves (though not necessarily using exactly these words) as institutions that are more (1) efficient, (2) educative, (3) multiplicative, (4) proportional, (5) vital, (6) just, and (7) honest. In addition to these seven shared attribute categories, our reading of the plans also revealed five other “unusual” attributes that only one or two agencies mentioned. Beyond merely cataloguing the attributes identified by agencies, this Article also discusses commonalities (and differences) between plan structures, emphases, and framings. We found that the plans differed widely in features such as the specificity of their mission statements, the extent to which they emphasized actions over outcomes (or vice versa), and the extent to which commitments were organized along organizational fiefdoms or cut across bureaucratic lines. We urge future scholarship to explore alternative methods of text mining, and to study strategic plans over time within agencies, in order to track how agencies’ notions of regulatory excellence respond to changes in the regulatory context and the larger circumstances within which agencies operate. Looking longitudinally will also shed light on how agencies handle strategic goals that are either met or that prove to be unattainable

High School Students\u27 Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Statistics in a Service-Learning-Based Statistics Course

Despite agreement among researchers about the powerful influence of attitudes and beliefs on the development of students’ mathematical knowledge base (Leder, Pehkonen, & Törner, 2002), relatively little is known about these constructs in statistics education. This study investigated the relationship between mathematics-and statistics-related attitudes and beliefs of 11 high school students in an introductory statistics course designed around a 13-week long service-learning project. Service-learning is a pedagogical approach that situates academic learning in the context of community service. The study utilized qualitative, teacher-researcher (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993) methodology from an interpretivist perspective. The three primary modes of data collection were journals, narratives, and an open-ended survey (Survey of Mathematical and Statistical Affect). Observations and reflections were also recorded regularly in a researcher journal. Inquiry adhered to guidelines for trustworthiness and rigor as outlined by Lincoln and Guba (1985). Item, pattern, and structural levels of analysis were employed (LeCompte and Schensul, 1999b). Investigation into attitudes and beliefs was framed in accordance with Op t’ Eynde, De Corte, and Verschaffel’s (2002) conceptualization of the mathematics-related belief system and McLeod’s (1992) framework of the affective domain in mathematics education. Results indicate that participants’ attitudes toward mathematics and statistics tended to converge while participants’ beliefs regarding mathematics and statistics tended to diverge. Participants like mathematics and statistics that involve real-life scenarios. Participants also like mathematics and statistics that do not require complex mathematical tasks. Participants’ beliefs regarding statistics were generally more positive than beliefs regarding mathematics. Participants reported greater confidence doing statistics than mathematics and contribute this confidence, in part, to service-learning. Participants also experienced a heightened sense of social awareness and social responsibility through the service-learning project. These results provide evidence that service-learning can be utilized to solidify positive attitudes and beliefs regarding statistics among high school students, in spite of potentially less positive ones toward mathematics

Conceptual Tools for Improving Self-Knowledge: V Diagrams, Concept Maps, and Time Writings

This paper presents three metacognitive tools that enable each of us to monitor and assess our degree of self-knowledge with a given topic. V diagrams, concept maps, and time writings are presented as conceptual tools for improving self-knowledge. Self-knowledge comes about from our own individual experiences and the experiences that we glean from others. Each of these conceptual tools reveal language in one of three ways: the V shows the structure of knowledge; the concept map is a word diagram showing relationship of ideas; and, the time writing spontaneously elicits the extent, accuracy, and relevance of these ideas

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity

Educating Educative Mentors: Video as Instructional Tool

New teachers rarely come to their first years of teaching with the expertise of a veteran teacher. Because teachers need to deliver impactful instruction, the education community has expanded induction initiatives that support new teachers. Understanding how induction mentors develop expertise in feedback and reflection can guide efforts to foster the development of mentor practice. This qualitative case study focused on the use of video and self-reflection to support mentor development practices within a regional induction program in Southern California. The study explored the experience of induction mentors who used both video-aided self-reflection and video-aided peer feedback during the 2017-2018 school year. Data collection methods included key documents, interviews, and observations. In researching the impact of video-aided reflection and feedback on mentor practice, the results of this study demonstrate and link the potential of video to impact new teacher practices. In addition, the study presents details of the observed changes in mentor practice. These findings provide preliminary support for an alternative model for developing educative mentors, including suggested recommendations to the educator preparation community as induction program leaders work toward developing mentor expertise

\u3ci\u3eThe Nebraska Educator,\u3c/i\u3e Volume 3: 2016 (complete issue)

There are not many student-run academic journals, so The Nebraska Educator is excited to provide a forum for researchers, scholars, policymakers, practitioners, teachers, students, and informed observers in education and related fields in educational settings in the United States and abroad. Now in our third year, it is exciting to see the work that continues to be accomplished when those interested in educational research have a venue to share their contributions. To date, articles published in the previous two volumes of our journal have been downloaded more than 7,000 times by readers all across the globe. The Nebraska Educator has four main goals with its published research: (1) to familiarize students with the publication process, (2) to faciliate dialogue between emerging scholars, educators, and the larger community, (3) to promote collegiality and interdisciplinary awareness, and (4) to establish a mechanism for networking and collaboration. This publication would not have been possible without the guidance and assistance from faculty, staff, and graduate students across the College of Education and Human Sciences. We are also grateful for the work of Paul Royster at Love Library, who assisted us with the final formatting and online publication of our journal. In addition, we would like to thank the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education’s Graduate Student Assocation, whose financial contributions helped to launch our journal. The Nebraska Educator is an open-access peer-reviewed academic education journal at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This journal is produced by UNL graduate students and publishes articles on a broad range of education topics that are timely and have relevance at all levels of education. We seek original research that covers topics which include by are not limited to: (a) curriculum, teaching, and professional development; (b) education policy, practice, and analysis; (c) literacy, language, and culture; (d) school, society, and reform; and (e) teaching and learning with technologies. If you are interested in submitting your work to The Nebraska Educator, please submit online using: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebeducator/ Contents of Volume 3 Examining doctoral attrition: A self-determination theory approach, by Mark Beck Korea and the Dominican Republic: A transnational case study-analysis, by Aprille Phillips Transitional Adjustment Intervention for International Students in U.S. Colleges, by Zhuo Chen Language, Literacy, and Dewey: “Experience” in the Language Arts Context, by Jessica Masterson Fostering Metacognition in K-12 Classrooms: Recommendations for Practice, by Markeya S. Peteranetz A Technology-Supported Learning Experience to Facilitate Chinese Character Acquisition, by Xianquan Liu and Justin Olmanso

Teaching Strategies Used to Promote EFL Autonomous Learning in Distance Education Undergraduate Students: An Initial Approach in the Framework of the Colombian Research Context

Este trabajo de naturaleza cualitativa se ocupa de las estrategias docentes utilizadas para promover el aprendizaje autónomo del inglés como lengua extranjera en la educación a distancia. Esto cobra sentido en el contexto colombiano donde la mayor parte de los estudiantes de educación superior son aprendices heterónomos y no alcanzan el nivel esperado como usuarios independientes de esta lengua extranjera. Este trabajo consiste en una investigación documental de las revistas colombianas sobre la investigación de la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras, con el propósito de recopilar estrategias de enseñanza que brinden los fundamentos para promover el aprendizaje autónomo del EFL en este contexto. Para lograr el propósito, se analizó una muestra de nueve (9) de 70 artículos de investigación contenidos en las revistas y fueron seleccionados siguiendo varios criterios de búsqueda. Durante este proceso se compilaron los datos torno a los tres principales constructos: educación a distancia en Colombia, las características del aprendizaje autónomo del inglés como lengua extranjera y las estrategias docentes aplicadas. Los hallazgos en torno al primer constructo muestran que el modelo educativo a distancia sobre el cual hay evidencia empírica se caracteriza por el componente a distancia sumado al presencial; del segundo constructo, el aprendizaje autónomo del inglés cuenta con una amplia cantidad de características psicológicas, cognitivas, metacognitivas y sociales; y del tercer constructo, la investigación-acción y casos estudios muestran que la promoción del aprendizaje autónomo requiere tener en cuenta la naturaleza y condiciones de la educación a distancia, el concepto de aprendizaje autónomo de EFL, los papeles de los instructores, la función de tutoría, el temario, materiales de auto-acceso, contenidos, herramientas, apoyo institucional, entre otros.This qualitative work deals with the teaching strategies used to promote English as a foreign language (EFL) autonomous learning in distance education. This makes sense within the Colombian context where most of the higher education students are heteronomous learners and do not reach the expected level as independent users of this foreign language. This work consists of a documentary investigation which takes data from Colombian research journals about teaching and learning foreign languages, to compile teaching strategies that provide the foundations to promote the EFL autonomous learning in undergraduate distance education students. To achieve this purpose, exploration, and analysis using a sample of nine (9) from 70 research articles according to various searching criteria were developed. During this process, data was compiled around three main constructs: distance education in Colombia, the characteristics of autonomous learning of English as a foreign language, and the teaching strategies applied. The findings around the first construct show that the Colombian distance education model used is characterized by the distance component added to the face-to-face component; about the second construct, autonomous English learning has a large number of psychological, cognitive, metacognitive, and social features; and the third construct, action-research and case studies show that promoting autonomous learning demands taking into account the nature and conditions of distance education, the concept of EFL autonomous learning, the roles of instructors, the tutoring function, the planning, and the syllabus, self-access materials, contents, tools, institutional support, among others