Relational Pedagogies

Relational pedagogies place relationships at the heart of good teaching and learning. As shown across multiple fields of educational scholarship, educational interactions and learning exchanges between children and their teachers necessarily exist within the context of an existing relationship. The strength and characteristics of these relationships in turn shape and influence the success of the exchange. Importantly, therefore, relational pedagogy is not simply about making a child or teacher feel happy or content. Rather, it is closely related to the style, quality, and content of education a child receives. Empirical research supports these theoretical claims. Relationship qualities and teacher-child interaction qualities have each long been shown to influence children’s emotional well-being and competence, across early childhood centers and schools, yet there is increasingly strong evidence that they shape cognitive development and learning outcomes too. To ensure equitable educational opportunities for all children, strong and adaptive teacher-child relationships are critical. Given the varied definitions and use of relational pedagogy in the literature, together with a diverse range of relevant research that examines relational concepts, we have attempted to present multiple representative topics and articles across this encyclopedia entry. The topics and articles we feature are not exhaustive, and, indeed, there are likely to be other good ways that one might frame research and theory on relational pedagogies. Where two studies have similar findings, we have intentionally given preference to the more recent study; noting that references from this more recent work are likely to offer the reader the broadest window into the field. We nonetheless also include a number of seminal resources. We also have elected to cite research with robust methodologies where possible, although we note that methodological approaches vary markedly between subfields. Research examining teachers’ perspectives in early childhood centers has often used multiple case studies, for example, while research examining children’s developmental outcomes within particular relationships or following particular interactions is often larger in scale and broader in approach. The majority of research and scholarship on relational pedagogies, student-teacher relationship quality, and interactional processes is conducted with Western societies and cultures: often in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and western Europe. Less research or scholarship has been conducted in other countries, cultures, and subcultures. This is a problem replicated across developmental and educational research broadly, with study participants much more likely to come from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies than from other non-WEIRD societies. While the majority of works in this bibliography are therefore also conducted with Western children and students, we include a section outlining an important body of emerging research and scholarship focused on relational pedagogies in Indigenous, non-Western, and diverse communities.

A Game-Based Student Response System

In this chapter, a game-based student response system, Kahoot!, is investigated. The purpose of the chapter was to analyze instructors and pre-service teachers' perspectives about the use of this platform. The advantages and disadvantages of integrating this tool in the classroom was investigated. Pre-service teachers' feedback and instructors' experiences using Kahoot! in higher education classrooms indicate that pre-service teachers welcome the use of these kind of games. Kahoot! can be used not only to increase student participation in the classroom but also as a formative assessment tool. Kahoot! can provide an engaging learning environment and adds active participation in the classroom by appealing even the most introverted students. In addition, immediate feedback feature of this game-based learning platform provides opportunities for instructors to tailor their instruction based on student understanding on games.

Teachers' perspectives for a critical agenda in media education post COVID-19. A comparative study in Latin America

The COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America forced a transition from a face-to-face educational model to a distance model affected by emergencies, technological precariousness, and lack of planning. This has heightened the need for media literacy in the region. In this context, the changes that have occurred were analyzed in order to propose a critical agenda from the perspective of teachers. First, a desk research of official sources was carried out to learn about the strategies of the four countries under study: Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru. Secondly, eight focus groups were conducted with primary school teachers from public and private institutions to learn about their perception of their own and their students' media competencies, the impact of the pandemic on their practices and needs, and the emerging challenges in this crisis. The results shed light on the need for relevant ICT training from a media literacy perspective, and strategies to address connectivity gaps, lack of adequate environments and work overload. The specific results per country and the differences and demands of each context are discussed in this work as contributions to the development of a critical agenda in media education. La pandemia causada por la COVID-19 en América Latina obligó a transitar de un modelo educativo presencial a uno a distancia atravesado por la emergencia, las precariedades tecnológicas y la falta de planificación. Esto ha agudizado las necesidades de educación mediática en la región. En ese contexto, se analizó los cambios ocurridos para proponer una agenda crítica desde la perspectiva de los docentes. En primer lugar, se realizó una revisión documental de fuentes oficiales para conocer las estrategias de los cuatro países de estudio: Argentina, Ecuador, Chile y Perú. En segundo lugar, se llevaron a cabo ocho grupos focales con docentes de primaria de instituciones públicas y privadas para conocer su percepción sobre sus competencias mediáticas y las de sus estudiantes, el impacto de la pandemia en sus prácticas y necesidades, y los retos emergentes en esta crisis. Los resultados apuntan a la necesidad de capacitaciones pertinentes en el manejo de las TIC, así como estrategias que atiendan las brechas de conectividad, la falta de ambientes adecuados y la sobrecarga laboral. Los resultados específicos por país, las diferencias y demandas propias de cada contexto, se discuten en este trabajo como aportes al desarrollo de una agenda crítica en educación mediática.

Virtual teaching: Teachers' perspectives on online virtual classroom effectiveness during and beyond Covid-19

The purpose was to investigate the Arabic language teachers' perspectives on online VC effectiveness during and beyond COVID-19. Participants were 340 teachers. This study employed cross-sectional descriptive method, with the main focus on Arabic Language teachers' perspectives on online VC effectiveness during and beyond COVID-19. Findings from descriptive analysis of the teachers’ responses on the importance of using virtual classrooms in distance education program shoed that the rank agree comes first, where teachers responded with agree in 17 items, 2 with strongly agree and only one item for disagree. Using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), findings showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the responses of the study sample towards the use of virtual classrooms by gender, while academic qualification and years of experience contributed significantly, where those with higher qualification, and who are experts had positive perspectives on online VCs effectiveness during and beyond COVID-19. KEYWORDS. Virtual Teaching, Online Virtual Classroom, Covid-19