Curriculum Development in Technology-Enhanced Environments

Author(s):  
Mike Keppell ◽  
Eliza Au ◽  
Ada Ma ◽  
Christine Chan

As teacher-educators, we are acutely aware of our responsibilities in nurturing the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of pre-service teachers. As part of our interest in improving our teaching, learning, and assessment practices, we have been participating in an action-research project on technology-enhanced assessment over the last 12 months. Throughout this collaboration, we have become aware of our assessment practices and have been delighted that this has also resulted in a questioning of our current learning design for our modules and further clarity in our own thinking about why we teach the way that we do. The process of action-research has forced us to examine our educational beliefs and how these motivate our teaching and learning. This article focuses on why as teacher-educators it is our obligation to articulate our theories of teaching and learning. It is essential that we articulate these often-implicit theories not only as a means of engaging in dialogue with other teacher-educators, but also as a means of engaging in dialogue with our own students who are pre-service teachers. This cascading waterfall of dialogue and explicitness may allow pre-service teachers to gain insight into the decisions we make as teacher-educators and the rationale we use in our teaching. This obligation has important ramifications for the education of children in the Hong Kong setting, as pre-service teachers may see these explicit rationales as a guide to their own teaching within the early childhood, primary, and secondary settings.

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
[None] Sandra S.A. ◽  
Durri Andriani ◽  
Sunu Dwi Antoro ◽  
[None] Prayekti ◽  
[None] Warsito

This action research project aims to understand whether teachers are mastering the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct classroom action research through two courses, Classroom Action Research (CAR) and Enhancing Teaching Professional Skills (PKP: Pemantapan Kemampuan Profesional), offered via distance education to Indonesian teachers and to identify areas for possible improvement of both courses. The research was conducted in two urban study centers located in the cities of Bogor and Tangerang in the Indonesian provinces of West Java and Banten. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, questionnaires, and focus group discussions. All data were analyzed for patterns that might offer insight into the problems tutors and teacher-learners were facing as they worked through the Classroom Action Research (PTK: Penelitian Tindakan Kelas) module and tutorial. The research team from Indonesia Open University (UT: Universitas Terbuka) identified several problematic aspects of each course, including excessive lag time between the first and second courses, insufficient examples of model classroom action research projects, a lack of supervised practice of action research techniques, variability of tutorial quality, and a mismatch between course assessments and the content and purpose of the courses. While the findings of this study focus primarily on two distance courses offered by UT, they offer insight into the challenges of providing in-service teacher development via distance education in the Indonesian context. Key Words: Distance Learning, Classroom Action Research, Teacher Professional Skill


2021 ◽  
pp. 95-118
Author(s):  
Jolanta Baran ◽  
Tamara Cierpiałowska ◽  
Ewa Dyduch

AbstractThis chapter discusses the assumptions, implementation and deliverables of an action research project in a selected Polish class of integrated form. The main objective of the project was to trigger changes in the learning–teaching process based on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach and thus promote inclusive education. The action research lasted one school semester. The empirical data, mainly qualitative, triangulating various sources of information and synthesising perspectives, were used to identify specific topics and threads identified in the gathered inputs, to present it in an orchestrated manner and to interpret it. It has been indicated that UDL approach implementation has a positive impact on the course of the teaching–learning process and optimises it to enhance the activity, commitment, self-reliance and responsibility of students and develops their cooperation, which breeds inclusion in education. Meanwhile, it stimulates teachers to change their mindset with a view to the essence of success in education and supports their daily practice.


Author(s):  
Ramesh Chander Sharma

Motivation is an important parameter for successful completion of the course by the student. There are many factors that can mar such motivation like digital fatigue, poor instructional design, facilitator competency, course design, assessment practices, and student support. For online teaching learning, the authors spend a lot of time in front of computer monitors, keep typing on computer keyboard, listen to audio using headsets, etc. The students may be sitting in live meeting of their class and not understand what is expected of them. They may have a sense of being lost and demotivated. The students may not want to ask questions for fear of appearing foolish. This chapter looks into the factors related to motivation in online teaching and learning settings. It examines the factors related to motivation like deepening connections, dealing with diversity, managing conflict, teacher capabilities for online facilitation, providing feedback, providing educational resources to students, digital fatigue, assessment and evaluation practices for online learning, and conversing.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalis G Wamba

The Kwithu project started when a volunteer who joined Kwithu, a community-based organization in Mzuzu, Malawi (Africa), to teach English gave a diagnostic test to a random group of forty 7th and 8th graders (20 boys and 20 girls) and discovered that most of them could hardly read or write in English. The test results prompted Maureen, the Kwithu director and co-founder, the teacher and myself to meet with the headteachers of the three schools mostly attended by Kwithu children. The headteachers appreciated our concerns about the English proficiency of the children, but they advised us to focus on more urgent matters if we truly wanted to help, e.g., lack of teaching and learning materials, lack of running water in schools, hunger, teacher qualifications, etc. This advice shifted our initial inquiry goal—from English language teaching—to a community-based participatory action research project designed to address the school conditions in Luwinga. In this paper, I describe the community-based participatory action research inquiry and I reflect on the process of participation.


Author(s):  
Signe E. Kastberg ◽  
Elizabeth Suazo-Flores ◽  
Sue Ellen Richardson

Teacher stories/autobiographies have been used by mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) to gain insight into prospective teachers’ (PTs) experience with mathematics, yet stories of MTEs’ motivation for and learning by engaging PTs in creating teacher stories is less understood. We fill this gap by narrating our experiences gaining insight into motivations for engaging PTs in creating teacher stories. Artifacts from our teaching practice, discussions of the work of Dewey and Rogers, and reflections were used to create themes that informed the plot line of each narrative. Findings focus on ways that teacher stories sustain PTs and MTEs by creating a living counter-narrative to the narrative of teacher evaluation MTEs and PTs live in the United States. We argue that MTEs’ motivations for collecting PTs’ teacher stories are informed by MTEs’ life experiences and the development of MTEs’ views of teaching and learning to teach.


Author(s):  
Theresa Austin ◽  
Mark Blum

Two university professors collaborate to carry out an action research project on literacy in a world language program. This article reports on their negotiations to define literacy, how they adapt the use of texts to the cultural backgrounds and interests of their learners and integrate native speakers in a community that builds various understanding of texts through discussion. Our collaborative process provides one example of how action research can systematically inform teaching and learning to build authentic literacy practices in a second or foreign language program.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lulza Olim de Sousa ◽  
Emerentia Antoinette Hay ◽  
Schalk Petrus Raath ◽  
Aubrey Albertino Fransman ◽  
Barend Wilhelm Richter

This article reflects the learning of five researchers in higher education in South Africa who took part in a participatory action research project to educate teachers how to integrate climate change issues into their teaching and learning. It was the first time any of the researchers had used participatory action research. We are all from natural science backgrounds and now involved in education for sustainable development. We had been trained in more traditional, objective, and researcher-driven methodologies grounded in a positivist paradigm. The purpose of this article is to share our learning about the changes we had to make in our thinking and practices to align with a participatory paradigm. We used reflective diaries to record our journey through the action research cycles. A thematic analysis of our diaries was supplemented by recorded discussions between the researchers. The analysis revealed that, while it was challenging to begin thinking in a different paradigm, we came to appreciate the value of the action research process that enabled teachers to integrate climate change issues into their teaching in a participatory way. We also concluded that we require more development to be able to conduct participatory research in a manner true to its values and principles. The conclusions we came to through our collaborative reflections may be of value to other researchers from similar scientific backgrounds who wish to learn what shifts in paradigm, methods, and processes are needed to be able to conduct community-based research in a participatory way.


Effective ICT integration requires teachers to gain proficiency in TPACK (knowledge of technology, content, pedagogy, and the intersection of these) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Archambault, & Crippen, 2009). TPACK is perceived as a dynamic framework representing the knowledge that teachers must confide on to design and implement curriculum and instruction while guiding their students’ thinking and learning with digital technologies in various subjects. TPACK competencies are very fruitful in making teaching learning process an ecstatic experience as it would make notable changes in the interaction pattern of educators. Even though TPACK is a boon in teaching and learning, it is a fact that the fruits of these skills are not appropriately utilized by the stakeholders. This study was aimed to evaluate the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) competencies among teacher-educators in teaching training colleges in the state of Punjab, (India). A five-point Likert scale constructed and validated by the researchers was used in the present study. Instrumental survey method was practiced as a tool for the present research. 200 teacher-educators working in different teaching-training colleges in the state of Punjab, (India) were selected through random sampling method. The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS 22.0 software. The findings of the study show that the technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) competencies have found high in the teacher-educators of Punjab region. The study revealed that there are statistically significant differences in the (TPACK) competencies of teacher-educators with respect to gender, locality of college, stream and type of colleges.


Author(s):  
Teuta Agaj

Assessment is a broad concept which means it is part of the whole educational process of teaching and learning. The variety of methods that teachers use to evaluate and measure the student’s learning progress and skill acquisition are referred by the term assessment. Assessment shapes how teachers teach and how students learn. The assessment of student’s achievements is a pedagogical dialogue between teacher-student for the quality of teaching, learning and knowledge.Assessment especially continuous assessment is a very important tool that teachers should use in the classroom because by using it a wealth of information to guide classroom practice and to manage learning and learners can be provided. Assessment tells us the truth about an education system, then about the qualities of students and their work.It has an important role in education and it is necessary to help students learn, to help students become knowledgeable, to help students gain insight into their learning and understanding, to teach effectively etc.Since making assessment an integral part of daily instruction is a challenge, this paper examines the process of assessing student’s knowledge, types of assessment and the assessment of L2 writing. It also focuses on the issues and challenges in the process of assessment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riyani Riyani ◽  
Ayu Istiana Sari

The objective of this research is to know whether Podcast can improve the students’ pronunciation in speaking English when it is implemented in teaching learning process in class 01 Semester I, English Education Program, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, UNISRI, Surakarta in 2019/2020 Academic Year.This research method used a Classroom Action Research which was implemented in two cycles. The subject of the research was class 01 Semester I, English Education Program, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, UNISRI, Surakarta in 2019/2020 Academic Year. This study was conducted in two cycles. The first cycle consisted of four meetings, and the second cycle consisted of three meetings. The procedure of the action research consisted of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The data were collected through questionnaire, interview, field notes, and test. To analyze the quantitative data, the researcher applied descriptive statistics. It was used to compare the scores and means of pre-test and post-test. The pre-test was conducted in the preliminary research while post-test was conducted at the end of cycle 1 and 2. The result of the test was used to know how well the students understand the text of listening. To analyze the qualitative data, the researcher analyzed the improvement of the teaching learning process based on the results of questionnaire, interview, and field notes.The result of the research showed that the use of Podcast has helped students to get exposed to correct pronunciation. By constantly listening to Podcast of native speakers of English, students develop their skill not only in listening but also in pronouncing the words in English correctly. It also has helped the students in improving the students’ vocabulary mastery. In conclusion, by listening to Podcast, students can improve their pronunciation and vocabulary mastery so that they also can speak more during the speaking activity.Based on the result of the study, it can be concluded that students’ pronunciation in English can be improved by the use of Podcast. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers and students can use Podcast as one of the alternative techniques in teaching and learning speaking.Keywords : Podcast, Proununciation, Speaking Skill, Action Research


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