Perceptions of English Language Instructors on the Effectiveness of Learning Advisory Training Programme (LATP)

Advising in language learning (ALL) can be defined as “the process of helping someone become an effective, aware, and reflective language learner” (Kato & Mynard, 2016, p. 1). In order to promote learner autonomy, a learning advisor conducts an intentionally structured reflective dialogue, the purpose of which is to engage the learner in reflective processes so that the learner can reach a deeper sense of understanding and control of language learning (Carson & Mynard, 2012; Kato & Mynard, 2016). The main role of the learning advisor in this process is to “activate learners’ reflective processes through a one-to-one dialogue” (Kato & Mynard, 2016, p. 104). To encourage active and critical reflection, learning advisors need to be provided with proper training. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of the experienced English language teachers regarding the effectiveness of the learning advisory training program (LATP) they have attended and its effects on the teachers’ professional and personal lives. To achieve this aim, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaires and interview findings. The results suggest that the teachers who attended the LATP developed a deeper awareness of how to promote learner autonomy.

Design Experiences as Pathways for Embracing Failure

There is a growing movement in engineering and industry for students and practitioners to learn to embrace failure and develop resilience. The design process is naturally full of iteration and failures that can inherently be leveraged as learning opportunities for students. This study establishes a set of failure-related interventions implemented in an introductory design course, and then examines potential links to students’ experiences and attitudes towards failure. These interventions included a failure-themed “speaker seminar” series, a virtual gallery of design mistakes (“mistake museum”), and the introduction of a prototype logger for students to intentionally reflect on each iteration of their own design projects, including what went wrong and what was learned from the iteration. Students found these interventions to be effective in gaining perspective on failure and learning to embrace it. Students’ perceptions of the openness to failure of the class, perceptions of the field of design’s openness to failure, and perceptions of their major’s openness to failure all changed significantly, while their perceptions of their own openness to failure and their academic institution’s openness to failure were unchanged over the duration of the design course. Students also self-reported that the reflective processes of logging prototypes made them feel more comfortable with failure.

COVID-19: emergency remote teaching and university professors’ mental health

Astract Objectives: reflections on the experiences of emergency remote teaching by the faculty of the university and the impacts of these professionals’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: this is a bibliographic review. The descriptors "Docent", "Mental health", "Covid-19", "Higher Education" were used in Portuguese, English and Spanish. The articles found were selected using the pre-established inclusion and exclusion criteria. The text was organized into two thematic approaches: “Emergency remote teaching and the professors’ difficulties /challenges” and “Professors’mental health during the COVID-19pandemic”. Results: in view of the current educational context, professors faced new demands that had repercussions on their social and work routine, due to the increase in the number of hours, the pace and diversity of work. It was evident that these professionals were affected financially, affectively and motivational aspects. Conclusions: the pandemic brought a series of feelings and perceptions to the professor with new challenges in his/her teaching. However, it is important to encourage the establishment of reflective processes around physical and mental balance in and outside the educational environment.

Mediation of Information on Eliminating Violence Against Women

Violence against women is a central topic in the public debate in Brazil. In this way, entities and other stakeholders require flexible strategies in order to eliminate it. This chapter aims to report experiences related to an action research based on the transformative and reflexive potential of civil society groups (in Bauru city, state of São Paulo) involved in eliminating violence against women. In this sense, mediation of information is discussed in order to prioritize the elimination of gender-based violence against women. In face of outcomes, mediation of information have been used in order to explore the adaptative and dynamic nature of participatory methodologies by not only allowing reflective processes but also providing value of how all stakeholders present themselves as mediators by using their knowledge in order to mediate information.

Progressive electronic self-assessment to promote reflective processes of future teachers.

El artículo presenta un estudio empírico sobre los procesos reflexivos de futuros docentes mediados por el empleo progresivo de la autoevaluación electrónica durante la realización del prácticum en formación inicial. El instrumento empleado para examinar la evolución de la reflexión es una rúbrica electrónica (e-rúbrica) diseñada en la aplicación CoRubric <https://corubric.com/>, cuyas características (anotaciones, observaciones y comentarios) pretenden contribuir a la mejora de las reflexiones. Se analizan 240 aplicaciones de la e-rúbrica para la autoevaluación de los diarios reflexivos en los grados de Educación Infantil y Primaria. La finalidad es analizar la evolución y mejora de la reflexión en los diarios del futuro docente contribuyendo, como consecuencia, a que la autoevaluación formativa le ayude a crear conciencia de las capacidades reflexivas que va adquiriendo durante el prácticum. Los resultados muestran un aumento estadísticamente significativo de los indicadores de la e-rúbrica de la mayor parte de los participantes desde la primera hasta la última autoevaluación. Existen avances, pero también se aprecian necesidades de mejora en la capacidad reflexiva. Se concluye que la autoevaluación con rúbricas electrónicas ayuda al futuro docente a reflexionar sobre el conocimiento práctico adquirido, favoreciendo la integración y mejora de los procesos reflexivos durante el prácticum.

How Adolescents Think When Responding to Alcohol-Related Questionnaires: A Think-Aloud Study

Self-report questionnaires on alcohol use are commonly used in both research and in clinical work with adolescents, but little is known about how adolescent responders perceive and interpret them. This study explores how adolescents think while responding to two alcohol-related questionnaires. It also investigates whether the instruments can initiate self-reflective processes on alcohol use. Data were collected among adolescents visiting a center for young people with substance use problems in Sweden. The participants found the questionnaires easy to complete and widely relevant, and the questionnaires commonly initiated a process of self-reflection. Results support the use in clinical settings.

Networked Deliberation across Political Difference

Chapter 7 explores one important obstacle to informal networked deliberation: polarization. If citizens exclude differently-minded people from their networks or refuse to deliberate with them on political matters, then informal networked deliberation cannot fulfil its full potential. Drawing extensively on empirical research, the chapter points out that citizens’ networks are heterogenous, and citizens do deliberate with differently-minded others. They may not completely change their minds in response, but in any case opinion change is not a good indicator for genuine deliberation and its reflective processes of internal deliberation. Finally, this chapter discusses how organized group deliberations can be used as ‘network interventions’ and valued instrumentally for what they can achieve at the community level. By selecting participants with the help of network mapping, organized deliberation can leverage the diffusion capacity of people’s social networks to scale up important deliberative effects across the entire community.