Embodied Experiences in Virtual Worlds Role-Play as a Conduit for Novice Teacher Identity Exploration: A Case Study

This article presents a descriptive case study of teacher embodiment during a role-play parent-teacher conference in a collaborative virtual world. Using a single novice teacher as the primary unit of analysis, the article describes the nature of teacher embodiment by deconstructing the teacher\u27s various Discourses using Gee\u27s Building Tasks as an analytical tool and reconstructing them using embodiment literature as a synthesis tool. The findings indicate that well-designed experiences in collaborative virtual worlds coupled with meaningful reflection of those experiences have the potential to allow novice teachers to feel and act like a teacher, a phenomenon that is called embodiment in this article. The study provides theoretical and empirical basis for continued examination of the use of collaborative virtual worlds for clinical practice

Situating Interprofessional Education Curriculum within a Theoretical Framework for Productive Engaged Learning: Integrating Epistemology, Theory, and Competencies

Interprofessional education (IPE) has a longstanding presence in the health and social care (HASC) professions, by which its sustainable implementation in HASC professional education has the potential to effectively prepare HASC professional students for interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). Implementation of IPE has increased over the last two decades with the emergence of a curriculum guided by constructivist epistemology and learning theories that emphasize demonstrating competence in practice. Nonetheless, since IPE first emerged in the early 1960s, most IPE initiatives have been sporadic and lacked guidance through theoretical underpinnings. This conceptual article first discusses why it is important to have theory drive HASC professional education. Next, it explores what is meant by curriculum, followed by a discussion on the importance of curriculum theory to HASC professional education processes. This article then illustrates the learning theories arising from behaviourist and constructivist epistemologies that inform curriculum theory in the HASC professions, with particular emphasis on how constructivist learning theories inform IPE. Lastly, the article proposes a theoretical framework for productive engaged learning through which IPE opportunities may be grounded, leading to student proficiency in interprofessional professional competencies (knowledge, skills, and dispositions), establishment of professional communities of practice, and eventual improvement of patient/client-oriented outcomes

Examining the Mediation of Power in a Collaborative Community: Engaging in Informal Science as Authentic Practice

Focusing on the interplay of context and language, this study examined a group of high school students and their mentors’ use of language during a robotics competition. This informal setting allowed us to gain insights into the mediation and manifestation of power within the group. Using critical discourse analysis of competition transcripts and interviews we found that both students and mentors felt a sense of ownership and community leading to symmetry in power amongst them. The shift in power led to greater student ownership and agency and created a space for authentic and meaningful science learning. The context of the robotics competition mediated discourse practices that were different from students’ classroom experiences in that they were descriptive, relational, explanatory, and had an authentic evaluative dimension. This engaged the participants to co-construct and critique each other’s knowledge claims thereby engaging in scientific practices that approximated the practices of scientists. Our study presents an argument that language and context reflexively influenced one another and reduced the imbalance of power amongst the participants thereby adding a new dimension to what has already been established about the conditions under which authentic science learning is likely to occur

A Case Study of Organizational and Curricular Attributes for Interprofessional Education: A Model for Sustainable Curriculum Delivery

Background: In health and social care (HASC) professional education, interprofessional competencies are optimally developed by engaging in interprofessional education (IPE) activities that are delivered sustainably along a continuum. Ultimately, active engagement in IPE is meant to prepare future practitioners for interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP), which leads to improved patient/client and community-oriented outcomes. Methods and Findings: This qualitative case study explores how four Canadian post-secondary institutions deliver IPE within their HASC professional education programmatic structures. Data were collected from institutional websites, publicly available IPE relevant records and documents, and interviews with coordinators and faculty/facilitators of IPE curriculum. Data were inductively analyzed to generate relevant themes, followed by a deductive analysis guided by the five accreditation standards domains identified in the Accreditation of Interprofessional Health Education (AIPHE) projects. Analyses of the data resulted in five attributes: 1) central administrative unit, 2) longitudinal and integrative program, 3) theoretically informed curriculum design, 4) student-centred pedagogy, and 5) patient/client-oriented approach. Conclusions: Using these attributes and guided by AIPHE’s accreditation standards domains, an organizational-curricular model for sustainable IPE is proposed, through which we assert that IPE reinforced through these organizational and curricular supports reflects successful programming, leading to patient/client-oriented outcomes

From Computational Thinking to Political Resistance: Reciprocal Lessons from Urban Latinx Middle School Students

Working with Latinx adolescents and providing informal learning experiences through a voluntary after school program aimed at developing their computational thinking and competencies, discussions around the election of Donald Trump emerged as it was important for many students. Emergent bilinguals internalized the xenophobic discourse that was amplified during the presidential election season. Thus, students feared deportation, discrimination, and other forms of violence. Many students experienced their friends and families facing deportation due to the increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that occurred in 2016. The after-school program was a safe space in which we could provide a constructive and creative environment for students to comfortably explore these topics. In this paper, drawing on three pre-service teachers’ reflections, we explore how middle school urban Latinx students navigated their oppressors through computational thinking and show case a model of a critical pedagogy in an informal science education

Community Building Through Electronic Discussion Boards: Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflective Dialogueson Science Teaching

This research study focuses on an electronic forum for building a community of pre-service teachers to reflect upon new directions in science teaching. The thesis of this paper is to model the notion of community building for teacher reflective practice. Through pre-service teachers\u27 WebCT postings on students\u27 theories in science, we provide evidence of how WebCT discussion board served as a forum for community building to carry out reflective practice. We conclude that WebCT discussion board can serve as a viable tool for building a community of reflective teachers. This study implies that WebCT and similar Internet electronic discussion tools may be effectively used for community building to carry out reflective dialogues in teacher education

Supporting teacher candidates’ multidimensional reflection: a model and a protocol

In this conceptual paper, we present a professional practice-oriented Multidimensional Model of Reflective Practice (MMRP) and a Critical Incident Reflection (CIR) protocol as worthwhile tools for supporting teacher candidates (TCs) to become more self-directed, multi-faceted, and holistic in their reflective practice. The model presents reflection as a complex endeavor situated in a dynamic milieu. It emphasizes the complementary nature of professional competencies of knowledge, skills, and disposition, and the interrogation of an incident through technical, contextual, and critical reflection as well as reflection-in, -on, and -for-action. The CIR protocol provides scaffolding support for TCs as they move toward becoming independent reflective practitioners. Together, the MMRP and CIR protocol facilitate multidimensional reflection. We present a case for providing a more deliberate support for reflection. In doing this, we define reflection, highlight its common frameworks, and discuss the significance of intentional and systematic reflection on professional competencies. In the conclusion, we bring these ideas together to discuss the implications for a self-directed and agentic approach to reflection and professional growth

Influence of a Science-Focused After-School Program on Underrepresented High-School Students\u27 Science Attitudes and Trajectory: A survey validation study

As engagement with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) increases in afterschool programs (ASPs), it is important to examine the impact of this engagement on students’ academic achievement, STEM participation, and affinity toward STEM. Results of these examinations can offer insights into both best practices that could be replicated and possible poor practices that could be avoided in ASP sites. This study describes the validation process that was undertaken on an instrument developed to measure science-related attitudes, and education and career trajectories of students participating in a STEM-focused ASP. We then use the validated instrument to draw certain conclusions about the impact of the ASP program on the participants. We propose a model for predicting students’ notions about the importance of science for their future and a model for predicting students’ enactment of science agency. The study and the derived instrument may be useful for those interested in examining the impact of STEM-focused ASPs on students’ attitudes and proclivities toward science

WebCT Dialogues on Particle Theory of Matter: Presumptive Reasoning Schemes

Analysis of how science discourse takes place among students can provide us with in-depth information on the effectiveness of a chosen instructional approach and how well students understand scientific ideas. In our study, the unit on the particle theory of matter was taught with a construcdvist conceptual change inquiry approach to a group of middle years\u27 students. The students\u27 dialogues on the particle theory of matter, which took place on a web discussion board, were analyzed and then classified into types of dialogues. By studying the fi-equency of the types of dialogues based on the nature and circumstance of teaching and learning, we were able to develop 3 general categories (experiential, referential, provisional) of dialogues that can occur in science learning