Students’ Knowledge, Awareness, and Pro-Environmental Behavior in Urban to Design Climate Change Book Serials

Background and objective: Problems currently occurred in the environment are caused by a lack of environmental awareness of the community. Biology students learn the environment in ecological learning. Students must explore environmental knowledge (EK) and are expected to have high environmental awareness (EA) and then apply their knowledge in daily life with pro-environmental behavior (PEB). There is a need for designing climate-change book serials for university students (CCBS-US) towards contextualized learning. This study aimed to determine the relationship between EK and EA and the PEB of biology students as a baseline for designing CCBS-US. Methods: The study used a quantitative descriptive method with a correlational design. Total 136 biology students from a state university in Jakarta, Indonesia served as samples of the study. Results: Research results revealed a positive relationship between EK and PEB of biology students. There was a positive relationship between EA and PEB of biology students and between EK and EA and PEB of Biology students. Moreover, 77% of students reported their EK is very high, 55% of students reported their EA is medium, and 46% of students reported their PEB is medium. Ecological learning has a vital role in shaping the EK, EA, and PEB, thus CCBS-US needs to be developed. Conclusion: The study concluded that there was a relationship between EK, EA, and PEB. The study recommends the development of CCBS-US based on the survey results.

Learning electrical circuits for the development of critical thinking

This article presents an articulated proposal of two pedagogical approaches to favor the development of critical thinking from a physics topic. The purpose is to design a didactic sequence for the subject of electrical circuits, using two articulated pedagogical approaches so that students from a school of engineering in Mexico must solve an engineering problem linked to a relevant topic of physics, such as the characteristics of electrical circuits, the problem must be solved methodologically and systematically. The inquiry approach is quantitative, with a quasi-experimental design, a validated instrument is used for data collection. Subsequently, the hypothesis test for differences between means is applied and the results are analyzed. Thus, it is found that the development of critical thinking is incipient; however, the assessment of physics learning products reveals relevant findings such as the promotion of creativity. Likewise, the problem presented to the students allows them to contextualize their learning and recognize the relevance and application of the characteristics of electrical circuits. This inquiry confirms that the development of critical thinking through physics improves the comprehensive training of engineers. Therefore, according to the results, there is empirical evidence that both articulated methodologies can gradually favor the development of critical thinking; In addition, the methodological and contextualized learning of physics through the subject of electrical circuits is applied to a branch of engineering.

Cross-Disciplinary Lessons in an Elementary Public Institution

This article reports the results of an action-research study, carried out in the fourth grade of a Colombian public elementary school, which sought the integration of the teaching of English and the natural sciences through cross-disciplinary lessons that followed the principles of content-based instruction. Observation, action plan, and evaluation were the ongoing research stages. Interviews, workshops, and the students’ portfolio were the main instruments used to collect data. Results revealed that the cross-disciplinary lessons were appropriate and useful to connect the foreign language learning with other school subjects. Beginner students of English demonstrated an enhancement in the communicative skills and developed contextualized learning strategies, which proved the importance of integrating English with scientific contents as a contribution to curriculum innovations.

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd): a high-level academic and industry note 2021

In the past few decades, technology has completely transformed the world around us. Indeed, experts believe that the next big digital transformation in how we live, communicate, work, trade and learn will be driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) [83]. This paper presents a high-level industrial and academic overview of AI in Education (AIEd). It presents the focus of latest research in AIEd on reducing teachers’ workload, contextualized learning for students, revolutionizing assessments and developments in intelligent tutoring systems. It also discusses the ethical dimension of AIEd and the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the future of AIEd’s research and practice. The intended readership of this article is policy makers and institutional leaders who are looking for an introductory state of play in AIEd.

The unexplored potential of virtual reality for cultural learning

<p>Educational technology tools that improve learning and foster engagement are constantly sought by teachers and researchers. In the domain of Computer-Assisted Language Learning a variety of tools, for instance blogs and podcasts, have been used to promote language and cultural learning (Shih, 2015). More recently, virtual reality has been identified as a technology with great potential for the creation of meaningful and contextualized learning experiences. Despite the learning affordances of virtual reality, in language education most of the literature has focused on the low-immersive version, whereas research investigating highly immersive virtual environments has only emerged in recent years (e.g., Berti, 2019; Blyth, 2018). In other fields, the use of highly immersive virtual reality has been compared to traditional pedagogical resources and demonstrated that students’ learning improved with the use of virtual environments as compared to two-dimensional video and textbook learning conditions (Allcoat &amp; von Mühlenen, 2018). Considering the potential learning benefits of this technology, this paper argues that longitudinal empirical research in language education is strongly needed to investigate its potential unexplored impact on language and cultural learning.</p>

Community Cultural Wealth

This chapter is the story of the authors' journey using community mapping in graduate coursework to make visible the assets in local communities through experiential learning. Community mapping is an experiential, inquiry-based ethnographic research method that can be utilized by various community members to understand a community better. In this case, teachers uncovered language and literacy present in the communities and created contextualized learning experiences by connecting students' lived realities to school instruction. The authors began with discussions around community and ethnographic projects to understand what was present in the community. This evolved to include some form of action, primarily in the form of curricular reform and critical literacy projects and/or culturally sustaining pedagogies.

Drama in education: why drama is necessary

The article dwells on the use of drama and performance techniques in education and social work in connection with multiple intelligence theory, emotional intelligence theory, and brain based learning. The author connects the use of drama in the alternative theories of teaching and learning based on recent neuroscientific research, and lays out an integrative approach to teaching and learning that promotes inclusion, diversity, and social awareness, through embodied and contextualized learning. If we perceive cognition and emotion as interrelated, then drama as an educational tool becomes essential. It creates metaphors of our lives, which we lead through both cognitive and emotional domains. Art and creativity play an essential role in connections between the body, emotions, and the mind. Moreover, as we live in relationship to the rest of the world around us, our learning is embodied, our brain, emotions, and physiology are constantly connected. Thus, the article demonstrates that drama and performance are vital in teaching the whole child, whether taught as a discipline or used as a teaching tool. This means, the author claims, educators, neuropsychologists, and theatre and drama specialists have to have open minds and be willing to step out of comfort zones and together make a case for using theatre and drama methods as a way to improve human lives.