Disrupting the College Classroom Experience

This chapter provides readers an overview of the potential advantages and disadvantages of technology integration in higher education. As technological innovations continue to advance, faculty are provided ample opportunities to enrich their curriculum to further enhance student engagement and learning. Further, the inclusion of technology promotes student retention and provides them access to real-world content. Innovations in technology have resulted in a plethora of tools that can be incorporated into today's classrooms. However, faculty are often hesitant to integrate technological tools given security, accessibility, and access considerations. Further, faculty may perceive technology as disruptive to their classrooms resulting in distracted learners who experience lower academic gains.

School as a hostile institution: How Black and Immigrant Girls of Color Experience the Classroom

The paradox of girls’ academic gains over boys, across race and class, has perplexed scholars for the last few decades. Through a 3-year longitudinal ethnography of two predominantly economically marginalized and racially minoritized schools, I contend that while racially marginalized girls may have made academic gains, school is nevertheless a hostile institution for them. Focusing on the case of Black girls and recent immigrant girls of color, I identify three specific ways in which school functions as hostile institution for them: (1) gendered racial harassment from teachers, (2) erasure of intellect, and (3) estrangement within their communities. Furthermore, the denigration of immigrant girls becomes the conduit for misogynoir. I find that the gains of some racially marginalized girls in school often justify hostility against all of them. Bringing into conversation a feminist analysis of schooling that rejects girls’ educational gains as ubiquitous evidence of a gender revolution with a Black-colonial education framework that emphasizes schooling as a technology of oppression, I explore the current role of school as a hostile institution for Black girls and immigrant girls of color.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING, ACADEMIC, AND SOCIAL GAIN: A STUDY OF MEDIATING ROLE OF TEACHER’S FEEDBACK

Purpose: The study aimed to investigate the scope of cooperative learning (CL) as an alternate of traditional teaching methods in Pakistani classrooms and to examine the direct and indirect relationship between CL and social & academic gains through teacher feedback. The study also intended to survey students' opinions regarding the usefulness of the CL approach and to identify challenges that hindered its implementation at the tertiary level. Methodology: This study was a cross-sectional and mixed-method (Concurrent Dominant Status (Quan+qual) research design). Qualitative data was collected through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) technique, while quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire. Data were analyzed with the help of mediation analysis using bootstrapping approach. Results: Findings of Quantitative data analysis proved the significance of Cooperative Learning in terms of academic and social gains. Teachers` feedback had a significant mediating effect on the quality of students` group work. Qualitative data analysis revealed that students had a positive attitude towards the CL approach; however, students had few concerns regarding the group size, time, cohesion, etc. The study proposed using the CL method and teachers` feedback regularly during group assignments to improve students` academic and social gains. Application of this Study: The findings of the study promote the implementation and use of cooperative learning at the tertiary level in different subjects to increase students` academic gain and social adjustment. As Pakistan is situated in East Asia so in Pakistani teachers should adopt this teaching methodology which supports collectivism rather than individualism. The novelty of this study: The current study was unique by methodology as well as variables. The researcher adopted a mixed-method concurrent with Dominant Status (Quan+qual) research design. Researchers used teacher feedback as a mediating variable to assess CL's effect on learners' academic gains. Data was collected in three interims during the semester, and group assignments were given to students to intervene feedback with the CL.

The Power of Purposeful Play in Primary Grades: Adjusting Pedagogy for Children’s Needs and Academic Gains

The amount of intentional, instructional, purposeful play has decreased in primary grades, and didactic, test-driven instruction has increased. Emerging neuroscientific evidence is beginning to highlight the significant effects the toxic stress from poverty has on developing brains. Almost half of American children can be considered to come from low-income to high-poverty households. Purposeful play may be the best solution to help ensure an equal and equitable educational playing field. This reflection establishes a research-based rationale for a more play-based pedagogy in primary grades and posits how striking balance between purposeful play and rigorous educational expectations is key to better developmental outcomes.

Education

Children are born learning and press for chances to push abilities as long as they feel safe and have a hope of succeeding at the demands of the day. It is the whole child that comes to school and whose needs, desires and aptitudes, varied and exciting, need to be honored. Children crave attention, affection, safety, growth, companionship, knowledge, success. They thrive in social situations where they feel honored and sense they belong. They are energized with stimulation and the opportunity to press forward at the developmental tasks that call, individually, to them for completion. Curriculum that springs from this natural essence of children is motivating and supports academic gains. When the needs of the child are part of the focus, the youngster cares about learning and the self and excels at personal potentials. When it is the whole child who is nurtured, seen for strengths and gifts, it is exhilarating, challenging, potentiating and the child yearns, strives and presses with energy and hope.