Scaffolding Understanding of Scholarly Educational Research Through Teacher/Student Conferencing and Differentiated Instruction

This article reports the results of a qualitative study of the effectiveness of a critical reading instructional intervention based on differentiated instruction (DI) and teacher/student conferencing (TSC) in improving the participants’ understanding and evaluation of published educational research. A cohort of eleven (n = 11) novice graduate students took part in a 15-week course during which they critiqued several self-selected journal articles and reflected on their experience. Results of the thematic analysis of the participants’ reflection logs revealed that their’ initial feelings of apprehension and anxiety transformed into growth in their self-efficacy as consumers and designers of educational research. Likewise, the participants benefitted from scaffolding their challenges and the provision of feedback in becoming more proficient readers and in developing supportive relationships. The study implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Prospective teachers constructing dynamic geometry activities for gifted pupils: Connections between the frameworks of Krutetskii and van Hiele

The Swedish educational system has, so far, accorded little attention to the development of gifted pupils. Moreover, up to date, no Swedish studies have investigated teacher education from the perspective of mathematically gifted pupils. Our study is based on an instructional intervention, aimed to introduce the notion of giftedness in mathematics and to prepare prospective teachers (PTs) for the needs of the gifted. The data consists of 10 dynamic geometry software activities, constructed by 24 PTs. We investigated the constructed activities for their qualitative aspects, according to two frameworks: Krutetskii’s framework for mathematical giftedness and van Hiele’s model of geometrical thinking. The results indicate that nine of the 10 activities have the potential to address pivotal abilities of mathematically gifted pupils. In another aspect, the analysis suggests that Krutetskii’s holistic description of mathematical giftedness does not strictly correspond with the discrete levels of geometrical thinking proposed by van Hiele.

Improving Elementary School Students' Knowledge of Electromagnets and their Abilities to Design Science Investigations

The research that studies the improvement of elementary school students' science knowledge and the development of elementary students' abilities to use the scientific and engineering practices is restricted. The purpose of this research is to study the effects of an instructional intervention on the knowledge of the students of elementary school about electromagnets and their abilities to design science investigations. Instructional material about electromagnets was developed, based on an inquiry-based approach using the scientific and engineering practices, which was applied to 76 students of elementary school (12 years old). To evaluate the students' knowledge of electromagnets as well as their abilities to design science investigations, a questionnaire was developed which was completed by the students both before and after the instructional intervention. The data of the research were the answers of the students to the questionnaires. The data analysis showed that the students' knowledge about electromagnets as well as their abilities to design science investigations was improved, through the instructional intervention for electromagnets.

Does expressive writing or an instructional intervention reduce the impacts of test anxiety in a college classroom?

Test anxiety is a major concern in education because it causes uncomfortable feelings in test-anxious students and may reduce the validity of exam scores as a measure of learning. As such, brief and cost-effective interventions are necessary to minimize the negative impact of test anxiety on students’ academic performance. In the present experiment, we examine two such interventions: expressive writing (Experiment 1) and an instructional intervention (Experiment 2), with the latter developed from a similar intervention for stereotype threat. Across four authentic exams in a psychology class, students alternated between completing the intervention and a control task immediately before completing the exams. Neither intervention was effective at reducing test anxiety or improving exam performance. The present results suggest that these interventions may not be successful in addressing the impacts of test anxiety in all classroom settings.

Helping Struggling Readers Comprehend Information Texts

This experimental study examined the effect of an instructional intervention that combined the use of information texts and instruction in reading strategies to improve the reading comprehension of struggling grade 5 students. Elementary (primary) school children are infrequently instructed in strategies for reading informational text, with its genre specific text structure although this is an essential component of information literacy. Two grade 5 classes were pre- and post- tested for reading comprehension. One class received instruction in collaborative strategy instruction for reading informational text. The post-test revealed that students in the experimental class achieved significantly better comprehension scores than the control class. This study examined the effect of an instructional intervention that combined the use of information texts and instruction in reading strategies to improve the comprehension of struggling fifth grade readers.

The perceptions of intermediate EFL learners to the lexical instructional intervention

This study investigated the perceptions of high school EFL learners to the lexical instructional approach intervention in the contexts of learning vocabulary and grammar. Besides, an attempt was made to explore what difficulties the participants encountered during the experimentation. The data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using a one-sample t-test, and the results showed that the estimated sample perception mean score was significantly higher than the hypothesized population perception mean score. This implies that EFL learners had positive perceptions towards the lexical instructional approach in the contexts of learning vocabulary and grammar. The data collected through interviews were analyzed qualitatively and the findings showed that students enjoyed and were interested in learning vocabulary and grammar through the lexical instructional approach. Students realized the importance of lexical chunks in learning vocabulary and grammar. In this regard, the interview results corroborated the results obtained from the questionnaire. Students encountered difficulties like lack of lexical awareness, lack of clear and adequate instructions on some activities, the lack of deliberate attention from some students during discussions, the lack of making some activities more interactive and engaging, and some classroom managerial problems. Finally, it was recommended that EFL teachers at high school should design their lexical approach-based activities systematically by considering their students’ interests, feelings, perceptions, levels, norms, cultures, and psychological setups.