Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal
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Collages of Arts-Based Collaborative Performances on Social Justice
Get PDFThis visual narrative focuses on the arts-based learning aspect of a multi-year and multi-level collaborative film and dance performance project. We use collage as an arts-based method to represent the complex process of engaging students across multi-levels of education (graduate, undergraduate, high school, middle school) in a collaborative learning project. The collages included images captured during class activities and the final performances and demonstrate multiple outcomes of the project associated with arts-based learning, embodied learning, and crystallization of learning. The accompanying narrative provides context about the project including details about the collaborative process, course activities, and development of the final film and dance integrated performance
Learning Assistantships in College Mathematics: Value for Preservice Teacher Development
Get PDFIncreasing the achievement of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) from early grades to college coursework continues to be at the forefront of educational transformations and research. There is a need for stakeholders at various levels of education to collaborate and confront the complexities of STEM teaching and learning, especially in areas like mathematics education. In recent decades, active learning in college mathematics coursework focusing on collaboration and inquiry-based learning has been proven to positively impact student learning outcomes and is transforming how students and faculty experience mathematics. Active learning environments also provide a unique opportunity to engage undergraduate learning assistants with faculty where they can support near-peer students and deepen their own understanding. Situated within a scholarship program interested in recruiting, retaining, and supporting future STEM teachers, researchers seek to understand what aspects of undergraduate student participation matter most their development and interest in STEM and teaching. In particular, this paper examines scholarship participants serving as learning assistants in active learning college mathematics classrooms to see where and how they find value in their experience. Implications of this research can inform faculty and university programs on how they might prioritize and transform learning opportunities for students to impact their current and future development in STEM and beyond
Experiences and Understanding of Screencast Feedback on Written Reports in the Bachelor Pharmacy
Get PDFScreencasts are existing teaching tools which allow recording of the computer screen while adding audio. To investigate whether screencasts might be a promising method to provide students with feedback on written assignments, screencast feedback was provided on a written assignment in a first year’s course of the Bachelor Pharmacy at Utrecht University. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of both students and teachers with, and student’s understanding of screencast feedback on written reports. Individual interviews (n=9) were conducted to explore the experiences and understanding of students. Teachers’ experiences were explored in a focus group interview. The results show that students especially valued the feedback quality, multimodality, and personal feeling of screencast feedback. Understanding of the screencast feedback in terms of ability to explain the feedback in own words, translate it to adaptations in the report, and translate it to adaptations in future assignments was satisfying to good. Teachers, however, were less positive and experienced screencast feedback as time consuming, uncomfortable and it did not match their beliefs about effective feedback.
Hence, although screencasts seem to facilitate giving effective feedback through the possibility for specific and personalized feedback, it remains difficult to choose a feedback method that fits everyone and every situation. The specific contextual conditions and personal preferences should be considered before choosing which feedback method to apply
We Belong: A Collaborative Reflection on First-Year Student Engagement under COVID-19
Get PDFFourteen first-semester, first-year undergraduate students at a small campus of a large public university in the northeastern United States engaged in a reflective and collaborative writing project during a first-year experience (FYE) course. The project challenged them to research strategies to strengthen their sense of belonging as new college students during the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19. Despite limited interactions on campus, the students were able to identify factors which contributed to their sense of belonging, both to each other and the institution. Their findings are presented here, in their own words, with additional commentary provided by their instructor. This piece serves to celebrate the significance of integrating student voice, at every level, into teaching and learning scholarship
Journaling at an Interprofessional Aphasia Retreat: Experience Grows Reflection
Get PDFEvidence has shown that reflective journaling can have positive impacts on clinical skill development and student growth. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefits of reflective journaling, suggestions for implementation, and the results of a pilot study using reflective journals at an interprofessional camp clinical setting. A pilot study was developed to explore the use of reflective journaling at a clinical camp setting. Students attended the Aphasia Couples Retreat, a therapeutic weekend camp focused on helping reconnect couples following a stroke or brain injury. A total of 20 students from both the speech pathology and occupational therapy programs completed journal entries at three time points surrounding the camp experience. Each journal entry was coded for its depth of reflection using a four-point scale. Results indicated that students could demonstrate reflective writing, even with minimal training. Furthermore, with more practice and experience in reflection as well as clinical exposure, students were able to deepen their level of reflection
Scaffolding the Scaffold: Creating Graphic Organizers to Support Your Students’ Learning
Get PDFGraphic organizers (GOs) such as Venn diagrams are tools that help instructors support students at all levels of learning in making sense of content. What happens when the readily available GOs or similar tools do not meet the needs of your specific class or your specific content? When we couldn’t find a tool that scaffolded our students’ ability to create language objectives, we created our own content and context-specific graphic organizer tool as a way to mediate student understanding of a complex concept, specifically a form/function analysis of clauses. This paper describes students’ need for scaffolds and our process of creating a very specific tool for analyzing clauses and sentences. We also lay out the steps others can take to create their own tool for their classroom. These steps include guiding principles and questions to support faculty across higher education disciplines and contexts in their own analysis and creation of scaffolds for their classrooms
Teacher-Researcher Collaborations: Negotiations of Research Practices in School
Get PDFThis paper focuses on the relationship between classroom teachers in secondary educational institutions and researchers affiliated with educational research departments housed in postsecondary institutions. The research analyses the negotiation between teacher and researcher collaboration in co-design-based research. A case study of teacher-researcher collaborations is presented. From the data, selected episodes from video recordings of teacher, student, and researcher interactions are analysed, supported by interviews and observations. A qualitative methodology is adopted, drawing on embodiment and sense-making interactions analysis. Three levels of negotiation are considered: a) the research and researcher presence in the classroom; b) the research’s influence on the teaching practices; and c) the impact of the research practices on the educational community. Starting from the three dimensions analysed, we reflect on considerations for implementing teacher-researcher collaboration in co-designed research projects
‘Experience Congruence’ as a Criterion for Generalizability?
Get PDFWhen evaluating the applicability of published SoTL and/or educational research results faculty often focus on the differences in demographic characteristics between the students in their academic context and those of the students where the data were collected. This could be problematic since readers might choose to dismiss a particular innovation if they perceive the discrepancies to be significant even though this reliance on demographics to identify informative pedagogical research may not always be justified. We report the results of survey of 1326 students from three introductory-level, first-year chemistry courses (a total of ten sections with ten different instructors) at two universities with significantly different student populations. The survey asked students to choose the hardest and easiest from five groups of topics typically taught in first-year chemistry courses. Remarkably, when separated by lecture section, overlaid frequency plots of students’ choices of hardest topic revealed a singular pattern. The trend transcended universities, courses, textbooks, instructors, and demographics. The only common parameter between the samples was the chemistry topics they learned. The correspondence in content, as such, constituted an “experience congruence”. Based on these data, we propose that readers might consider experience congruence – in lieu of sample or population characteristics – as a criterion for judging the generalizability of educational data