Education Commons^™

Investigating Indonesian Master's Students’ Perception Of Critical Thinking In Academic Writing In A British University, Millatul Islamiyah, Muchamad Sholakhuddin Al Fajri

The Qualitative Report

Critical thinking is generally valued as expected outcomes of university graduates although the concept of it is controversial. Students are required to display it in academic writing which is the default of university assessment. However, international students from “non-Western” backgrounds in particular, frequently experience difficulty in demonstrating critical expression in their written texts. The current study, in the light of interviews with four Indonesian master’s students, therefore, aims at investigating their perception of critical thinking, exposing some factors perceived to be influencing the application of critical thinking in academic writing, and exploring their development of critical thinking. The results of …

Trustworthiness In Sampling Selection: Remedies Against Introspective Chaos, Cécile Gabarre, Serge Gabarre

The Qualitative Report

The ethical dimension pertaining to protecting participants from psychological harm due to the in-depth nature of the inquiry and to the intimacy resulting from prolonged engagement is well-documented. This is laudable, but very few studies focused on guiding the researchers against chaotic emotions arising from introspectively questioning their beliefs and motivations and inspiring their judgments underlying their decisions. In our involvement with masters’ students’ thesis writing and research management training, supervision, and examination, we became aware of recurring cases of novice researchers silently disappearing from the program, eventually reappearing, continuously struggling with their thesis. Investigating this process, we identified the …

A Case Study On Professional Development: Improving Stem Teaching In K-12 Education, Roshani Rajbanshi, Susan Brown, Gaspard Mucundanyi, Mehmet Ali Ozer, Nicole Delgardo

The Qualitative Report

STEM Outreach Center is a non-profit educational center in southern New Mexico that supports K-12 STEM teachers and students by providing professional development, after school programs, summer camps, and field visits. This center has been organizing the Summer Institute Professional Development (SIPD) for more than ten years. The purpose of this research is to understand the effect of SIPD on teachers’ pedagogy to excite and engage students in STEM learning. This study contributes to the program evaluation by analyzing the experiences of teachers who participated in SIPD. This qualitative study uses the open-ended questionnaire as a method of data collection. …

Stem Education In College: An Analysis Of Stakeholders’ Recent Challenges And Potential Solutions, Santanu De, Georgina Arguello

FDLA Journal

A vast majority of academic disciplines and curricula in the college center around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), which are critical to developing the skills necessary for a global workforce. Rapid changes in pedagogical setups, educational modes, and advances in instructional technology entail diverse challenges for key stakeholders (i.e. students, faculty, and the organizations). This paper highlights the most relevant challenges and potential solutions in STEM higher education at the college level, reported in the last decade. The holistic analysis combining the three stakeholders’ perspectives would help elucidate significant contemporary aspects impacting the fields. The goal is to further …

Overcoming The Feeling Isolation In Distance Learning: A Collaborative Auto-Ethnographic Research, Jayrome Lleva Núñez, Marie Camille Cuisia-Villanueva

FDLA Journal

In this research, we present our own experience as distance education (DE) learners the process of overcoming the feelings of alienation and isolation. The participants of the study are the authors, themselves, which are graduate students from the University of the Philippines – Open University. Thus, auto-ethnography is used. Autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno) (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2010). This research is significant because we, the authors ourselves, are distance learners and have experienced isolation in our journey. This …

Topr Turns 10! Celebrating 10 Years Of Curating Ucf’S Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository, Aimee Denoyelles, Sue Bauer, Shelly Wyatt

FDLA Journal

In this paper, the editors of the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository (TOPR) will share global insights derived from the last ten years of pedagogical entries. What technologies and techniques of online teaching and learning were “hot” a decade ago, and what is currently trending? What are the most visited entries? TOPR’s value in relation to the COVID-19 crisis will be explored, as many educators were forced to teach in remote and online learning environments for the first time. Finally, readers will learn about the process of submitting their own strategies to TOPR, along with an update on the peer-review process …

Planning A Virtual Conference: Tips From The Topkit Team, Roslyn B. Miller, Amanda E. Major, Sue A. Bauer, Tina Calandrino, James R. Paradiso, Joseph Lloyd

FDLA Journal

Factors that make a virtual conference great require a dedicated team, careful planning, and a variety of technological tools. The TOPkit (Teaching Online Preparation Toolkit) Workshop team reveals the secrets of their virtual workshop planning process, including strategies and tools for virtual teamwork, project management, constructing the conference program, selecting virtual platforms and websites, and communications and promotions, laying the foundation for planning your own successful virtual event.

Raising The Bar With Professional Development In The Use Of Distance Learning Tools, Victoria Brown, Jillian Powers, Ann Musgrove Dr., Daria Olden

FDLA Journal

Abstract: Strategic plans to increase online student enrollment and distance learning (DL) enrollment are driving professional development centers to change their approach to faculty preparation for designing, developing, and facilitating online courses. As it takes approximately three to five years to achieve change in teaching attitudes toward technology (Hall & Hord, 2014), understanding factors that influence faculty adoption of technology, their self-efficacy, and attitudes toward technology becomes indispensable. This paper describes a study that explored how different professional development (PD) options affect faculty self-efficacy and attitudes toward adopting distance learning tools for online instruction. The authors welcome a discussion on …

Looking Through The Lens Of Online Faculty In Higher Education, Theresa West

FDLA Journal

This article aims to provide a meaningful, insightful, and educational perceptiveness of online faculty. Specifically, this article will provide specific insight of online faculty’s changing role, cultivate an educational teaching philosophy, incorporate a structural teaching methodology, and exemplify a multicultural teaching presence.

The Urgency To Train Online Instructors, David L. Hart Jr., Rebecca J. Armstrong

FDLA Journal

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has redefined the manner in which those seeking advanced degrees will succeed in the academic arena. Due to the effectiveness of learning in the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom, a certain sense of complacency exists but suddenly, learners are forced to alter that established learning path and arrive at new methods of acquiring information. Alongside the COVID-19 attack, the modern era of academia calls for the need and desire to learn in online, distance education learning programs. Long distance teaching programs are designed to rely upon the abilities of technology to facilitate effective communication as well as the sharing of …

Transformative Learning: An Approach To Understand Participatory Action Research, Roshani Rajbanshi, Bal Chandra Luitel

Transformations

Transformative learning is to observe one’s experience that makes one conscious of one’s knowledge and one’s changing view in the learning community. This paper presents reflection on transformation in learning both the theory and practice of participatory action research as experienced through field visits and interacting with the participants. Critical reflective journal entries and discussions on workshops provided source of data. The purpose of this paper is to provide understanding of participatory action research from traditional conventional research and how reflection helped unfold the ideologies of participatory action research. Following the cycle of participatory action research, authors explored the need …

Strategy To Estimate Size, Hui Fang Huang Su, Dylan Mandolini, Bhagi Phuel, Shawlyn Fleming, Chloe Johnson

Transformations

Have you ever wondered exactly how much land and space are included in a national park? In this paper, we will explore the vastness of a fictitious Park and calculate its total area.

We will:

1. Create a fictitious Park, determine a scale that can be used to perform

calculations using a practical unit of measurement.

2. Develop a strategy that students can use to find the area of the Park.

3. Demonstrate the use of the strategy by solving for the area of the fictitious park.

Using Geogebra, Photography, And Vocabulary To Teach Mathematics While Aiding Our Esol Populations, Joseph M. Furner, Noorchaya Yahya

Transformations

This paper shares many important examples of using real world photography and GeoGebra software in teaching math to all students including the ESOL population. ESOL learners can benefit immensely from the use of real-world photography imported into GeoGebra software because new vocabulary and math concepts are concretized. Students are often excited and motivated by photography and technology. Thus, this paper will demonstrate how mathematics teachers can insert photos into GeoGebra Software and then explore math concepts relevant in the photographs, i.e. shapes, symmetry, measurement, fractions, parabolas, etc. By using software and a visual approach to teaching math with photographs, many …

Solving Logic Problems With A Twist, Angie Su, Bhagi Phuel, Chloe Johnson, Dylan Mandolini, Shawlyn Fleming

Transformations

The crossroads of logic and mathematics breeds critically thinking students that have the confidence and independent working skills to tackle any problem they come across. In this artifact, several applications of logic to common problems have been applied in a way that would allow teachers to use the examples in their classrooms in a wide range of grade levels. More specifically Boolean Algebra and Truth Tables have been making their way into middle and high school mathematics classrooms with the nation's shift from just being able to compute to an understanding on a cognitive level why you solved the problem …

Creative Geometry Games, Hui Fang Huang Su, Dylan Mandolini, Bhagi Phuel

Transformations

The geometry game presented in this article was inspired by Bright and Harvey's (1988) Learning and fun with geometry games. In their article, Bright and Harvey (1988) propose three interactive games: Polyhedron Rummy, Polygon Rummy and That are Stretching it. Polygon Rummy is a game pertaining to plane geometry where the instructional objective is to construct a figure using lines and angles, whereas the goal of polyhedron rummy is to construct a solid using faces and angles. Although Bright and Harvey focused on constructing shapes, they also suggested presenting pre-constructed shapes to students, allowing them to classify and identify them …

Winter 2020

Transformations

No abstract provided.

Autobiographical Memory And Future Imaginings As A Resource For Pedagogical Understanding In Initial Teacher Education, Carmel Hinchion Miss

The Qualitative Report

The focus of this article is twofold: (a) It explores how autobiographical memory and future imaginings can be used as a resource for pedagogical understanding in Initial Teacher Education, and (b) The paper engages a methodological experiment where there is a layered reading of texts across time, 2008-2018.The paper presents, through a narrative analysis of autobiographical texts, the stories of two student teachers, Ciara and John (Text 1, 2008). These student teachers were in the early years of their undergraduate four-year programme in my university and I was their English Pedagogics lecturer. Later, I revisit these student teachers’ narratives and …

Insights From Academics Teaching International Students In Australia, Dawn Joseph Dr, Kay Hartwig Dr

The Qualitative Report

Australia continues to be an attractive destination in the world for international students. For higher education institutions to remain globally competitive there is a need to deliver high quality teaching and learning programs and adequate support structures. This paper forms part of a wider study on improving work placement for international students, their mentors and other stakeholders at Deakin University (Australia) and adds to the body of knowledge on international students as seen through the eyes of academic staff. It explores the lived experiences of seven academics as they navigate what is required of them when teaching international students in …

The Problem-Based Learning Approach Towards Developing Soft Skills: A Systematic Review, Sadia Deep, Ali Ahmed, Nazia Suleman, Muhammad Zahid Abbas, Uzma Naza, Hina Shaheen, Abdul Razzaq

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, we review systematically the role of problem-based learning (PBL) in developing soft skills in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and other fields of studies. The Systematic Literature Review (SLR) includes the most recent empirical, review, and conceptual studies from TVET and other multiple fields of studies including medicine, humanities, and engineering between the years of 2001 and 2016 collected from four databases. A qualitative method was used to accomplish the systematic review. After the collection of articles, the selected studies were analyzed through thematic analysis. From this review, we concluded that PBL as an instructional …

Methods Of A Narrative Inquirist: Storying The Endured Teacher Identity, Taylor Norman

The Qualitative Report

While I was a young English language arts teacher, my teacher identity matured in a nurturing environment cultivated by my veteran colleagues. Finding that this is not the common narrative told by beginning teachers (Alsup, 2019, 2006; Danielewicz, 2001), I wondered what impact sharing the stories of my veteran colleagues could have on young teachers. The purpose of this paper is to explain why narrative inquiry fit the parameters of this particular inquiry, what methods were utilized and how the project was constructed. Like Spector-Mersel (2011), I intend to describe my use of narrative inquiry to expand its conceptual and …

Qualities Of A Good English Language Teacher From The Perspectives Of Textbook Authors In The Field Of Language Teaching, Teachers, And Learners, Mohammad Mohammaditabar, Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri, Mortaza Yamini, Ehsan Rassaei

The Qualitative Report

Researchers in the field of language teaching have long been fascinated by the qualities of good teachers. Such qualities have rarely been approached qualitatively from different angles in a single study. Thus, this research aimed to unearth the qualities in question by employing a qualitative multimethod approach. To this end, 23 randomly selected standard language teaching textbooks were analyzed by two coders using qualitative content analysis. The judiciously adopted codes from the analysis were employed to design and carry out semi-structured interviews with nine effective language teachers as well as ten good learners nominated via purposeful sampling. The data gleaned …

Understanding Efl Teachers’ Beliefs And Practices In Efl Classrooms: A Phenomenological Approach To The Impact Of Teacher Education Program In Bangladesh, Abdul Karim, Liza Reshmin, Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan, Faheem Hasan Shahed, Mohammad Mosiur Rahman, Manjet Kaur Mehar Singh

The Qualitative Report

The construction of teacher beliefs through teacher education programs and their impact on classroom practices has drawn enormous attention in the concurrent literature. Yet in Bangladesh, little is known about the construction of teacher beliefs through teacher education programs and the impact of teacher beliefs on their classroom practices. Pertinently, the current study aimed at answering the questions regarding teachers’ beliefs about teaching before and after the completion of the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) programs to identify the changing patterns of their beliefs. In addition, the study explored their classroom practices to examine whether teachers’ beliefs …

Key Stakeholders’ Lived Experiences While Implementing An Aligned Curriculum: A Phenomenological Study, Pedro P. Aguas

The Qualitative Report

Furthering innovation in English as a foreign language curriculum has been a concern for the Colombian educational system for many years. Nevertheless, the major attempts at the national level continue to fail. Through this phenomenological study of 12 participants at a an urban public school in grades 6-12 I attempted to answer the phenomenological question, “What were the lived experiences of key stakeholders involved in implementing an aligned curriculum at an urban public school in a northern city in Colombia, South America? “The theoretical framework that guides this study included innovation, the theory of policy attribution, and the learner-centered philosophy. …

A Phenomenological Study Of Filipino Immigrant Teachers In South Texas, Olivia Panganiban Modesto

The Qualitative Report

This study explored the meanings held by Filipino immigrant teachers of their experiences as public school teachers in South Texas. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used in interviewing seven Filipino immigrant teachers who taught various subjects and grade levels. This qualitative method was useful in understanding subjective experiences, forming insights about individuals’ motivations and actions. The research question asked was: What does it mean to be a Filipino immigrant teacher in a public school in South Texas? After a careful inductive analysis of data collected, it was apparent that they viewed their experiences as an opportunity, challenge, and growth. The …

Conducting Qualitative Longitudinal Research On Learning To Teach English Pronunciation: Challenges, Pitfalls…Coffee, And Bubbles!, Michael Burri

The Qualitative Report

Inquiries into the impact of second language teacher education on the development of teachers' practices, beliefs, and knowledge have increased substantially in the last few years. However, most studies tend to investigate the process of second language teacher learning over a relatively short period of time, and only limited literature addresses methodological considerations in longitudinal research, making the design of this type of study potentially challenging for researchers. The aim of this paper is to first describe an ongoing project which explores the process of teachers learning to teach English pronunciation over a period of six years. Following an overview …

The Perverse Dynamics Of University Career: A Narrative Analysis Based On The Personal And Professional Implications, Gustavo González-Calvo, Alejandra Hernando-Garijo, David Hortigüela Alcalá, Ángel Pérez-Pueyo

The Qualitative Report

We seek to describe some of the features and symptoms that define novice university teachers in their attempts to pursue a professional career at university. Presently, university culture revolves around the evaluation of professionals based on the quantity of work published in high-impact journals (“weight evaluations”).This situation not only has its effects at a personal level, but also on the quality of the education that teachers might wish to impart. Nine university teachers -five women and four men- with experience of between three and five years in different knowledge areas were interviewed to ascertain these symptoms. The results reflected the …

“Taking The Most Delicate Care”: Beginnings Of A Mentoring Relationship Between Teachers And Coaches In An Australian School, Jane Southcott, Karen Marangio, Donna Rady, Maria Gindidis

The Qualitative Report

We explore the beginnings of professional coaching/mentoring relationships between teachers and university mentors in an Australian school. Often overlooked, initial steps are crucial, holding the seeds of eventual success or failure. Our mentoring program was undertaken in a large, independent, co-educational school in suburban Melbourne, Victoria. In our constructivist study, underpinned by our desire to explore on the lived experiences of others, we report on the understandings of three of the mentors/researchers and the teachers that they worked with. We gathered data from teacher-written statements and mentor journals. Using thematic analysis, we developed our findings, performing epoché as we hold …

Using A Crosswalk To Organize The Literature Review, Shirley M. Matteson, Sheri L. Warren

The Qualitative Report

A literature crosswalk is a valuable tool for researchers, whether novice or seasoned scholars, that can be used in organizing and synthesizing existing literature. This article provides practical advice for creating a literature crosswalk and how to use the tool to develop a literature review. Benefits of using a literature crosswalk include organizing a great deal of information in an easily searchable format, developing deeper understanding of the literature, and finding trends across multiple research studies in regard to methodology, theories used, types of participants, settings, and so forth.

“I Wish I Knew What I Know Now”: Exploring Psychology Undergraduate Students’ Experiences When Learning About Qualitative Research And Caqdas, Neringa Kalpokaite, Ivana Radivojevic

The Qualitative Report

Learning to conduct qualitative research and use computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) can be challenging, which is why it may be more effective to introduce the craft of qualitative research to undergraduate students who have the time and space to learn, even make mistakes, and ultimately build a better understanding for their future studies and careers. There are relatively few published studies sharing insights on teaching qualitative research and CAQDAS to undergraduate students. This descriptive qualitative case study explores students’ experiences in a qualitative research course for undergraduate psychology students, with the aim of discerning how feasible learning both …

Keeping Teachers Afloat With Instructional Coaching: Coaching Structure And Implementation, Siaw Hui Kho, Thapanee Khemanuwong, Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail

The Qualitative Report

Despite the press for instructional coaching as a form of effective teacher professional development (TPD), there is still a need to understand what instructional coaching is and how its operations look like. Meanwhile, the coaching literature provides scant guidance particularly about the coaching implementation in the Malaysian context. For the purpose of this study, we explored the processes of instructional coaching in Sarawak, particularly focusing on conceptualising the coaching processes to fine-tune teaching practice. Employing a qualitative case study design, we conducted non-participant observations on coaching conferences of four coach-teacher pairs on a one-to-one basis. We analysed the data obtained …