Classroom environment

Development, validation and application of a modified Arabic translation of the What Is Happening In this Class?(WIHIC) questionnaire

by Cheri MacLeod

Co-authored with Barry J Fraser, published in 'Learning Environments Research' (2009)

Discursive enactment of power in Iranian high school EFL classrooms

by Faiz Sathi Abdullah

Co-authored with Kobra Hosseini; published in GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, Volume 12(2), Special Section, May 2012, pp. 375-392.

Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical... more Teachers’ dominance in teaching environments has been criticized as an oppressive educational practice by critical theories of education. While critical pedagogy that espouses a problem-posing model of education has sought to promote a more equitable and dialogical teacher-student partnership and to transform the oppressive conditions of the ESL/EFL classroom, the claimed potential of the approach has had only limited success in practice. Drawing upon Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis to make for a principled analysis of EFL classroom practice, this study investigated the discoursal features of unequal power relations in Iranian high school EFL classes. The data was collected via observation of two classrooms, one located in an urban area and the other in a semi-urban area of Iran. The analysis of the observation data, which included transcripts of classroom lessons as well as field notes, indicated that teachers played a disproportionately dominant role to the extent that the students were kept
apparently passive and powerless via a range of discursive strategies including maximizing teacher-controlled talking time, turn-taking, topic control, modes of meaning-construction, and elicitation strategies. The findings of this study are expected
to provide critical and emancipatory insights into ESL/EFL classroom practice and contribute to the transformation of its status quo.

Engaging students with online assignments: a replacement for digital dropboxes and paper assignments

by Brett Landry

A Big Problem for Magellan: Food Preservation.

by Pedro Reis

Published in Science Education International

In this paper, we present data related to how a Portuguese teacher developed the module "A big problem for... more In this paper, we present data related to how a Portuguese teacher developed the module "A big problem for Magellan: Food preservation." Students were asked to plan an investigation in order to identify which were the best food preservation methods in the XV and XVI centuries of Portuguese overseas navigation, and then establish a parallel between those methods and current ones. Students were involved in discussing the relationship between science and social issues, and about the impact that science evolution has on daily life practices. The teacher had professional experience and a Master's degree in science education and considered that PARSEL and the specific module constituted a good approach to achieve his goals concerning science education. Students were attending a twelfth-grade biology class and wished to pursue university studies in science. We carried out participant observations, interviews with the teacher and four of his students, and we also administered a questionnaire to the students. Both teacher and students found the module popular and relevant for their lives. Despite positive assessment, some less positive issues, such as, time management and module extension, and the difficulty of making a connection between science and social issues were also identified.

When teachers use Malay to teach English: vignettes from Malaysian classrooms.

by Airil Haimi Mohd Adnan

(2011) - refereed proceedings.
Co-authored with Nurulhayati Ilias (lead).

1st Teaching of English as a Second Language One Special Topic (TESL 1 STop) National Seminar / December 10th, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Bangi, MALAYSIA.

Towards a multimodal literacy pedagogy: Digital video composing as 21st century literacy

by Suzanne Miller

Miller, S.M. (2010). Towards a multimodal literacy pedagogy: Digital video composing as 21st  century literacy, pp. 254-281. In P. Albers & J. Sanders (Eds.) Literacies, Art, and Multimodality. Urbana-Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

In new times of digitally accessible multimodality for designing texts for social purposes, changes are needed in... more In new times of digitally accessible multimodality for designing texts for social purposes, changes are needed in schools.  Scholars examining these trends in research have reached a clear consensus: facility with interpreting and designing multimodal texts will increasingly be required by human beings to communicate, work, and thrive in the digital, global world of the 21st century. In this article I propose a framework and a method for drawing on these new social practices and developing performance knowledge for learning in schools. In a long-term project professional development a multimodal composing project provided point-of-need support for English teachers in workshops and in their classrooms to help them expand their beliefs about literacy and critically reframe their pedagogical practices. The focus on digital video composing provides teachers and students with multimodal learning in an authentic, high-status, social and media practice with powerful attention-getting qualities and expert models in the real world. Analysis of teachers successfully integrating DV composing for students in their classrooms revealed four principles representing the key changes needed for teachers to transform the teaching and learning in their classrooms towards multimodal composing.  The components that provide teachers direction toward this reframing include: (1) providing explicit multimodal design instruction and attention; (2) co-constructing authentic purposes for representing multimodal meaning for an audience; (3) designing multimodal composing activities that invite students to draw on their identity lifeworlds as resources; and (4) creating functional social spaces for mediating multimodal learning.

A Counterargument to Ineffective Technology in Classrooms: Characteristics of High Achieving Schools.

by Raymond Falcon

Technology is supposed to be a good thing.  If this is such a grand argument, then why do some researchers argue... more Technology is supposed to be a good thing.  If this is such a grand argument, then why do some researchers argue technology hurts more than it helps?  This is certainly getting the public confused.  This article will look at their reasoning behind their statements of how technology is not working.  Also included will be an analysis and counterarguments to each of their statements.  Technology is a tool where education can thrive when used in a meaningful manner in the classroom.  This paper will define characteristics from high achieving schools which use technology as a tool. 

Use of swivel desks and aisle space to promote interaction in mid-sized college classrooms

by Phillip Edwards

Henshaw, R. G., Edwards, P. M., & Bagley, E. J. (2011). Use of swivel desks and aisle space to promote interaction in mid-sized college classrooms. Journal of Learning Spaces, 1(1). Retrieved from http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ojs/index.php/jls/article/view/277

Traditional designs for most mid-sized college classrooms discourage 1) face-to-face interaction among students, 2)... more Traditional designs for most mid-sized college classrooms discourage 1) face-to-face interaction among students, 2) instructor movement in the classroom, and 3) efficient transitions between different kinds of learning activities. An experimental classroom piloted during Spring Semester 2011 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill uses clusters of stationary desks that swivel 360-degrees and aisle space to address these challenges. The findings from a study involving ten courses taught in the room suggest that there is a need for designs that not only promote quality interactions but also facilitate movement between small group work, class discussion, and lecture.

A Comparison of the Instructional Context for Students with Behavioral Issues Enrolled in Self-Contained and General Education Classrooms.

by Rachel Robertson

Teacher discourse and code choice in a Swedish EFL classroom

by Kristy Beers Fägersten

Beers Fägersten, K. 2011. Teacher discourse and code choice in a Swedish EFL classroom. In B. Yoon & H. Kim (Eds.) Teachers' Roles in Second Language Learning: Classroom Applications of Sociocultural Theory. Information Age Publishing: Charlotte, NC.

In this chapter, examples from classroom interaction are presented to illustrate how language functions in and is... more In this chapter, examples from classroom interaction are presented to illustrate how language functions in and is influenced by the sociocultural setting of the EFL classroom. The chapter features two distinct focal points: First, the predominant use of English by the teacher and the minimal use of English by the students are proposed as instrumental activities where English can be considered a mediating semiotic tool. I suggest that English-language interaction in the EFL classroom represents Vygotsky’s concept of a social semiotic tool that is specifically related to an institutional context (Wertsch 1998). Conversely, the second focus of the chapter is on the inverse use of Swedish, which mainly features as the students’ language of social speech and the teacher’s language of regulatory, disciplinary discourse. The teacher’s code choice and the established practice of code-switching thus serve to redirect the students’ focus, either to engaging in the learning of English, or to behaving according to the institutional context.

Violent behavior and unfairness in school: multilevel analysis of Italian schools

by Gianluca Gini

Bullying as a Social Process: The Role of Group Membership in Students Perception of Bullying and Sense of Safety

by Gianluca Gini

Acoustic Research for Architecture Studio

by Geolette Esguerra

Co-authored with Bronne Dytoc. Presented in Inter-University Seminar on Asian Megacities, Seoul, Korea, 2007.

This paper focuses on the employment of empirical data gathering of room acoustics, particularly, the classrooms of... more This paper focuses on the employment of empirical data gathering of room acoustics, particularly, the classrooms of the Mathematics building in University of the Philippines in the campus at Diliman, Quezon City. By using controlled settings in documenting the acoustic behavior of these particular rooms, designing for better performance is expanded from a practice of applying recognized standards, to an actual experience of how a room sounds.

The exercise gives the participants first hand experience of sounds in terms of intensity, reverberation, major frequency ranges, and their effect on the intelligibility of lectures. In cooperation with the Faculty of the Mathematics department, the problematic room became the site of as-built benchmark recordings using a hammer-board for an impulse sound source, and recorded speech of male and female voices for speech sound sources. Also used in the study  were basic equipments to generate sound and to record it into a laptop. In comparing these initial room recordings to open-field recordings, via the use of sound wave editing and analysis software, it was then easily understood how the room’s volume and hard surfaces generated excessive reverberation, particularly in the lower frequency range. General parameters of surface area, surface materials, and basic sound reflection diagrams were established for several mock-up applications into the said classrooms for subsequent room recordings.

The results of sequential combination of these parameters proved successful in improving the room’s performance in the problematic matters of excess reverberation and speech intelligibility. Not only did the design studio participants (and the Mathematics faculty) learn better by actually experiencing the sounds comparatively, the exercise also taught the value of empirical data documentation and how such data measured up against what standards recommended vs what actual people can hear and understand. With the effective learning acquired through this exercise, it is hoped that such research methods and directions can be encouraged in design studio to sharpen students’ architectural training and expand their future views of practice.

The role of fictive kinship relationships in mediating classroom competition and supporting reciprocal mentoring

by Stacy Olitsky

Previous research has suggested that competitive classroom environments can play a role in perpetuating race and class... more Previous research has suggested that competitive classroom environments can play a role in perpetuating race and class inequalities. However, classroom competition can also promote learning, and eliminating it could do students a disservice. This paper draws on research literature and data from a qualitative study by Konstantinos Alexakos, Jayson K. Jones, and Victor H. Rodriguez on fictive kinship in order to explore the conditions under which classroom competition could benefit students from non-dominant groups. Based on their data, I argue that competition can support the learning of students from non-dominant groups, provided that it takes place in the context of strong emotional ties and successful interaction rituals. I also discuss the role of competition in facilitating reciprocal mentoring, as students seek knowledge and skills from each other in order to participate in solidarity-building classroom interactions. In addition, I show how their study challenges a perceived dichotomy between competition and cultural orientations towards communalism.

Using Teacher Praise and Opportunities to Respond to Promote Appropriate Student Behavior.

by Rachel Robertson

Cognitive Communication 2.0 in the Classroom - Resonance of an Experience in Higher Education

by António Andrade

Co-authore with Sérgio Ferreira e Cornélia Castro
10th European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL 2011), Brigthon 2011 (10, 11 Nov), UK

Teachers' Polarisation in Heterogeneous Classrooms and the Social Distribution of Achievement: An Israeli Case Study

by Gad Yair

Yair, G., "Teachers' Polarisation in Heterogeneous Classrooms and the Social Distribution of Achievement: An Israeli Case Study," Teaching and Teacher Education
Journal Rank: 5574/29266
13, 3 (1997): 279-293.

This paper addresses a pertinent question in the sociological study of classrooms: to what extent do teachers in... more This paper addresses a pertinent question in the sociological study of classrooms: to what extent do teachers in heterogeneous classrooms provide pupils with equal educational opportunities. The thesis of this paper is that instruction in heterogeneous classrooms is grounded in the dialectics of social control and instruction. To instruct, teachers must maintain social order in the classroom; yet attempts to impose control upon pupils' behaviour are not conducive to efficient instruction or learning. In view of this organizational duality, we hypothesize that teachers would tend to report that they make more instructional efforts towards those who need little control, namely, high-achieving pupils. At the same time, we hypothesize that teachers would tend to report that they make more efforts at socialization of low-achieving pupils, who need more control. Our third hypothesis is that the lower a teacher's polarisation between high- and low-achieving students, the lower the achievement gap between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The study measures the extent to which Israeli teachers in heterogeneous classrooms purport to make differential efforts towards high- and low-achieving pupils in the cognitive and affective domains. The findings show that teachers do indeed have independent cognitive and affective educational aims. Moreover, while teachers tend to adopt egalitarian norms, nonetheless they report that they divide their labour by stressing improvement of cognitive skills with high-achieving pupils, while expecting low-achieving pupils to improve their self-esteem, social skills and discipline. These expectations are significantly correlated with the social distribution of achievements.

Classroom Management for Diverse Populations

by Brian Culp

Management of the physical environment in the gymnasium and classroom: It’s not that different

by Brian Culp

Unconscious mental processes and the racial achievement gap

by Brian Earp

Earp, B.D. (2010). Automaticity in the classroom: Unconscious mental processes and the racial achievement gap. Journal of Multiculturalism in Education, Vol 6 No 1, 1-22.