The impact of using divergent thinking strategies on reading comprehension

Introduction. Divergent thinking strategies are based on brain activity represented by a series of successive and branching questions related to a particular reading text. These strategies stimulate the minds of sixth graders to think of new stimuli such as finding a solution to a specific problem, or making a specific judgment, or predicting future events, which produces new and innovative solutions and achieves a deeper understanding of the target reading text.The present research aims to investigate the impact of divergent thinking strategies in developing reading comprehension skills among sixth-grade students in the English language.Methodology and research methods. The authors used the quasi-experimental approach. A pre-post design was used to identify the effect of employing divergent thinking strategies in developing reading comprehension skills. The study sample consisted of 136 students, who were selected purposefully and distributed into two groups: experimental and control groups. Students in experimental group were taught using divergent thinking strategies. Students in control group were taught in the usual way.Results and scientific novelty. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) found statistically significant differences between the two groups in favour of the experimental group in achievement. In addition, significant differences were found in the Motivation for Learning English between the two groups. It was found that divergent thinking strategies stimulate students’ thinking through various questions and allow them to look at their familiar knowledge with a new vision, to produce and generate new ideas with creative features.Practical significance. The current study is useful in determining the appropriate reading comprehension skills for students, and targeting them in developing these skills. This research also draws the attention of teachers to the importance of including strategies compatible with the brain, including divergent thinking strategies, when planning reading lessons. As for the educational supervisors, it puts in their hand’s strategies based on the theory of learning in the brain, including the divergent thinking strategies and how to employ them in reading lessons in order to develop reading comprehension. Moreover, these research materials can be employed by mentors in directing teachers to depart from the framework of traditional methods through the use of divergent thinking strategies in their classroom teaching practices.

The Impact of Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) on Loneliness in Primary School Children: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial in England

Research suggests that loneliness during childhood is associated with poor well-being and mental ill-health. There is a growing social and educational imperative to explore how school-based interventions can support young children’s social development. The Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum is a universal school intervention focused on social and emotional learning, and it has a significant evidence based supporting its positive impact on children’s social-emotional and mental health outcomes. Yet the impact on children’s reported loneliness has not been explored. This paper presents the first large scale analyses of the impact of PATHS on reducing children’s loneliness in England. A cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) with two arms: intervention (PATHS—23 schools) and control (usual practice—22 schools) assessed the impact of PATHS on children’s loneliness from baseline to 2-year follow-up. Two-level (school, child) multi-nomial regression models were used to assess “intention-to-treat” effects, controlling for important demographic co-variates such as gender, age, free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, and special educational needs. These analyses revealed a significant positive effect of PATHS on children’s loneliness. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses, treating loneliness as a dichotomous variable and using different cut-offs for loneliness, revealed the positive effect of PATHS was maintained and, thus, robust. This is the first RCT to demonstrate that a school-based universal social-emotional learning intervention such as PATHS can reduce loneliness in children.

Assessing learning transfer and constraining issues in EAP writing practices

The aim of this study was to investigate what learners carry over from a general academic writing course to disciplinary writing settings and the variables constraining the quality of the outcome. Seven EFL university writing teachers and 58 students were selected using purposive and stratified sampling techniques. Data were generated using in-depth interview and document analysis. Thematic analysis and non-parametric statistical tools were employed to analyze the data. The findings showed that the students made limited learning transfer from the writing course to their writing settings across academic discourses. While surface level knowledge of grammatical features show better transfer, skills of discourse level writing processes, thinking strategies and vocabulary showed very poor transfer. A number of reasons are identified for the failure of learning transfer in the study setting. Among others, EAP teachers’ failure to bridge the EFL writing and content area writing practice contributed to this problem. The other variable causing this problem is students’ failure to make significant moves to adapt skills of writing processes and thinking strategies to new situations. Based on these evidences, alternative ways of improving the carryover impact of such courses have been put forward.

Unfolding Layers of Meanings: Visual-Verbal Relations in Just Ask—A Children’s Picture Book

Studies in the field of semiotics and children’s literature have described the relationship between the verbal and visual texts in picture books as both complex and subtle. These relationships are named differently across theories, yet they still note two possibilities, whether they support or are against each other in conveying meanings to the readers. This study seeks to explore the relations between visual-verbal modes depicted in a children’s picture book entitled Just Ask (author/illustrator by Sotomayor Lopez, 2019), viewed from the perspective of multimodality as proposed by Unsworth (2006). The analysis between the visual and verbal modes in the picture book is focused on ideational concurrence and ideational complementarity. The results indicate that meanings in Just Ask are negotiated through verbal and visual texts which may be complementary or have divergent relationships to one another. It is through such strategy that the suggested theme of the picture book, in this case accepting diversity, is consistently conveyed to the targeted readers. Since picture books are used vastly in EFL/ESL classrooms to enhance students’ reading experiences, this study may help teachers develop students’ ability to make meaning from verbal and visual texts and inspire their visual thinking strategies.

Accessible Learning Management System (LMS) for Disabled People: Project Development Based on Accessibility Guidelines, Gamification, and Design Thinking Strategies

We live in a time of expansion and popularization of the processes of acquisition, retention, and sharing of knowledge in virtual media. Platforms geared towards digital learning now play a fundamental role in mediating knowledge processes. Many of them already use gamification with the use of game elements to increase engagement and stimulate the participants’ immersion and flow status. But in addition to the development of dynamic platforms that enhance learning, it is essential that they are accessible to disabled people, allowing gamification resources and interactions between participants to be used by any audience, including people with visual and hearing disabilities. From this premise, this research problematizes the need to think from the initial project on the accessibility tools of an LMS following the recommendations prepared by groups such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Global Learning Consortium (GLC), including Web Accessibility Initiative - World Wide Web Consortium (WAI-W3C), IMS GLC - Accessibility Guidelines (IMS GLC-ACC) and Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). In addition to studies for the development of accessible LMS, this research also presents the use of gamification strategies and design thinking in the development process, also using the method called Design Science Research to define the steps, thus seeking to promote engagement and immersion of the team, stimulating practical experiences with the gamification process. For the result, the proposal for the development of accessible LMS based on gamification and design thinking strategies is presented, with explicit use in the phases of empathy, definition, and ideation.

Percepciones del profesorado de primaria sobre las visitas educativas basadas en las Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). DAFO de su aplicación en el Museo Picasso de Barcelona.

Se presenta un estudio de caso sobre la aplicación del método pedagógico Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) a las visitas escolares del Museo Picasso de Barcelona. Teniendo como objetivo principal analizar las percepciones del profesorado de primaria y articular sus voces, se recurre a una metodología mixta a través de triangulaciones de instrumentos y técnicas de análisis. Para ello se opta por un análisis DAFO y se interrelacionan sus debilidades, amenazas, fortalezas y oportunidades mediante un mapa conceptual. Los docentes señalan muchos más aspectos positivos que negativos, concentrándose los primeros en tres áreas temáticas: los efectos cognitivos en el alumnado, el modelo educativo constructivista y significativo que impulsa y el concepto de museo como zona de confort donde el estudiantado puede participar y opinar libremente. Los aspectos negativos giran en torno a los rasgos propios del método, las características de la adaptación que de él hace la institución y las limitaciones estructurales del Museo Picasso. De acuerdo al profesorado, la implementación del método mejoraría al aplicarlo de manera más continuada y flexible, combinando las interpretaciones libres sobre obras de arte con contenido histórico-artístico. Al ser un método competencial se sugiere también un trabajo continuado en el museo y/o en la escuela.