Inclusive Pedagogical Practices in Online Courses

Author(s):  
Christina M. Nash

This chapter examines the best practices for creating inclusive online courses, focused at the K–12 level. It presents a theoretical framework that is rooted in teacher reflectivity and social justice in the classroom. Teachers should not only present voices from a diverse population, but also ask students to evaluate the dominant voices still left in the curriculum and how those voices shape societal institutions. Strategies recommended include, but are not limited to, being aware of cultural differences through both information gathering and experience; providing opportunities for communication that honor both students cultural and learning preferences; providing explicit course guidelines, expectations, and extended descriptions of course assignments; addressing the implementation of collaborative work with students of diverse backgrounds; and promoting students' cultural awareness through the critique of content.

Author(s):  
Christina M. Nash

This chapter examines the best practices for creating inclusive online courses, focused at the K–12 level. It presents a theoretical framework that is rooted in teacher reflectivity and social justice in the classroom. Teachers should not only present voices from a diverse population, but also ask students to evaluate the dominant voices still left in the curriculum and how those voices shape societal institutions. Strategies recommended include, but are not limited to, being aware of cultural differences through both information gathering and experience; providing opportunities for communication that honor both students cultural and learning preferences; providing explicit course guidelines, expectations, and extended descriptions of course assignments; addressing the implementation of collaborative work with students of diverse backgrounds; and promoting students' cultural awareness through the critique of content.


Author(s):  
Christina Nash

This chapter examines the best practices for acknowledging and accommodating diversity in online courses, focused at the K-12 level. It presents the challenges of a culturally biased Internet and offers possibilities for educators to address this bias, not only for themselves as pedagogical and instructional designers but also for their students in both online and blended learning environments. While understanding cultural learning biases is important in any online education setting, teachers at the K-12 level need to be especially vigilant as they are working with students who are still developing their own identities as both people and learners. Strategies recommended include, but are not limited to, being aware of cultural differences through both information gathering and experience; providing opportunities for communication that honor student learning preferences; providing explicit course guidelines, expectations, and extended descriptions of course assignments; addressing the implementation of collaborative work with students of diverse backgrounds; and promoting student's cultural awareness through content and instruction.


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1170-1171
Author(s):  
M. C. Henk ◽  
H. Silverman

LSU began introducing a prototype SCOPE-ON-A-ROPE (SOAR) to selected teachers in Louisiana and Tennessee three years ago as part of our K-12 outreach activities. It proved to be an invaluable aid to all K-12 classrooms as well as to college classrooms or laboratories in several disciplines. The SOAR is extremely easy to use in the normal classroom setting, but can also introduce sophisticated concepts usually possible only through complicated microscopy exercises with specialized instrumentation.The professional microscopist who occasionally teaches students how to use microscopes can only begin to appreciate the position of classroom teachers who are routinely faced with inadequate, insufficient microscopes for classes of 20- 30 students at a time. This SOAR, inspired by industrial inspection devices, aids the teacher in introducing valuable concepts in microscopy and scale while easily serving the functions of many different microscopes and accessories. It is a comfortably hand-held device that can be used capably even by a five-year-old to provide excellent,


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Manuel Baltodano-Enríquez

This article presents the results of a teacher leader’s pedagogical practices in a pilot test on innovation implemented in a Costa Rican primary school. The pilot test was conducted due to the need of renewing the technological equipment in schools belonging to Conectándonos MEP-FQT project run by the Department of Research, Development, and Implementation of the Ministry of Public Education and Quiros-Tanzi Foundation. This pilot test aimed to diagnose the pedagogical practices of a teacher leader through the exploration and use of didactic digital resources of Clamshell-type laptops and an interactive projector. This equipment was used to favor the teacher’s pedagogical mediation through the access, selection, and use of didactic digital resources. To collect the information, we used non-participant observation guides, a questionnaire with open questions, and a bibliographic review of the teacher’s didactic planning. The systematization of the observation guides permitted to put in evidence, naturally and concretely, the aspects covered by the objectives of the study. The information was analyzed with a qualitative approach of phenomenological type. This approach defined categories and subcategories that, later, were linked to establish coincidences, similarities, differences, and the presence or absence of terms and phrases. Likewise, the data were interpreted to relate the information collected through the analysis and the theoretical patterns. This interpretation permitted, afterwards, to reflect on the studied categories. Finally, the main conclusion drawn from the pilot test was that the collaborative work between students was promoted and the learning objectives in the didactic planning drawn up by the teacher were achieved. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Anne Marie Guerrettaz ◽  
Eric J. Johnson ◽  
Gisela Ernst-Slavit

The rapid decline of indigenous languages represents one of the most troubling topics within applied linguistics. Teachers’ implementation of indigenous language planning through their pedagogical practices is a significant but under-researched issue. This ethnographic study examines a Maya language program (i.e., professional development) for 1,600 teachers in the Yucatan’s Intercultural Bilingual Education (EIB) system, and K-12 schools in Maya-speaking communities where they worked. Using longitudinal data (2010-2016), analysis centered on the creation and promulgation of the Norms of Writing for the Maya Language (2014) and related language policy. Findings illustrate: 1) the importance of increasing the quantity of Maya-speaking teachers, and 2) a clash between widespread orthographic variation in Maya and teachers’ standard language-culture. The new standard has not been implemented in EIB, which still does not in practice require Maya proficiency of teachers. This research discusses possible benefits and risks of a standard Maya for EIB.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. S. Samokhina

Successful interaction across cultures requires cultural awareness and cultural intelligence which help the participants of communication select effective verbal and nonverbal means to realize their communicative intention. The paper addresses communicative strategies of representatives of different cultures in similar communicative situations. The author shows conclusively that though the Americans and the British share the same language their communicative behavior differs in typical situations of business interaction, which makes them use different verbal and nonverbal means to achieve their communicative goals. Due to the cultural differences, Russian speaking students need to be taught these differences to achieve cultural intelligence.


Author(s):  
Darlene A. Smucny ◽  
Courtney Baker ◽  
Monisha Tripathy

High-agency learning activities empower students to take more active roles in their own learning, directed by their interests, curiosities, and choices. Educators, particularly K-12, have long asserted that student choice of learning activities encourages a greater degree of personal engagement with instructional content, leading to more confident, interested, imaginative, and creative students (e.g., Kohn, 1993; Ronan, 2015).  However, implementing these strategies at the college level often proves challenging as course instructors merge learner engagement strategies, such as student choice, while still sufficiently addressing course objectives and content. Additionally, creating  supportive classroom environments that promote “open-ended” assignments at times are met with student resistance. This session is designed to provide ideas and tips to instructors wishing to employ student choice to enhance active learning, imagination, and creativity in their courses.  Presenters will share best practices for implementing student choice in learning activities and assignments, primarily using examples from asynchronous and synchronous online courses across various disciplines at George Mason University. We also will encourage participants to reflect on how learning activities and assignments in their own courses might be adapted to include student choice to promote imagination and creativity in university-level learning across course delivery formats.ReferencesKohn, A. (1993). Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide. The Phi Delta Kappan, 75(1), 8–20. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20405017Ronan, A. (2015, March 20). 7 Ways to Hack Your Classroom to Include Student Choice. Retrieved March 16, 2016, from http://www.edudemic.com/7-ways-to-hack-your-classroom/


10.28945/2227 ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 161-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Ruggiero ◽  
Christopher J. Mong

Previous studies indicated that the technology integration practices of teachers in the classroom often did not match their teaching styles. Researchers concluded that this was due, at least partially, to external barriers that prevented teachers from using technology in ways that matched their practiced teaching style. Many of these barriers, such as professional support and access to hardware and software, have been largely diminished over the last twenty years due to an influx of money and strategies for enhancing technology in primary and secondary schools in the United States. This mixed-methods research study was designed to examine the question, “What technology do teachers use and how do they use that technology to facilitate student learning?” K-12 classroom teachers were purposefully selected based on their full-time employment in a public, private, or religious school in a Midwestern state in the United States, supported by the endorsement of a school official. There were 1048 teachers from over 100 school corporations who completed an online survey consisting of six questions about classroom technology tools and professional development involving technology. Survey results suggest that technology integration is pervasive in the classroom with the most often used technology tool identified as PowerPoint. Moreover, teachers identified that training about technology is most effective when it is contextually based in their own classroom. Follow-up interviews were conducted with ten percent (n=111) of the teachers in order to examine the relationship between teachers’ daily classroom use of technology and their pedagogical practices. Results suggest a close relationship; for example, teachers with student-centric technology activities were supported by student-centric pedagogical practices in other areas. Moreover, teachers with strongly student-centered practices tended to exhibit a more pronounced need to create learning opportunities with technology as a base for enhancing 21st century skills in students. Teachers indicated that external barriers do exist that impact technology integration, such as a lack of in-service training, a lack of available technology, and restricted curriculum, but that overcoming internal barriers, including personal investment in technology, attitude towards technology, and peer support, were a bigger indicator of success. Recommendations are made for restructuring professional development on strategies for contextualizing technology integration in the classroom.


Author(s):  
Dixie D. Massey

Students' reading abilities and achievements are the focus of numerous national and international reports. At the same time, research on K-12 distance education offers a very limited description of the types of reading that students are asked to do or the students' abilities to accomplish this reading effectively. This chapter overviews the limited research about reading in online courses. The author then examines the potential of reading in online courses through bounded and unbounded contexts. The chapter concludes with instructional opportunities for teachers of online courses when designing reading assignments.


Author(s):  
Joost Bücker ◽  
Rens Bouw ◽  
Alain De Beuckelaer

This study examines the extent to which faculties receive support in their coping with the challenge of cultural differences in their international classroom. The authors explore this relationship in eight business schools in Dutch research universities. These cases offer an in-depth description of the problems encountered in cross-cultural interactions, such as development of monocultural groups, lack of proper foreign language understanding, and stereotyping. They also discuss potential solutions in terms of language training, cultural awareness training for both teachers and students, institutional support, and the business school's rationale for internationalization.


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