Enhancing Productive Skills in Plurilingual Educational Settings through Metalinguistic Awareness and Instructional Dialogue

In those educational settings where several languages coexist, strategies such as metalinguistic awareness and instructional dialogue can easily be implemented, in that students are immediately able to observe the similarities and differences between languages. The present article examines metalinguistic awareness and instructional dialogue in detail, through an analysis of the findings of a number of studies. Some specific teaching implications are then exposed for the development of both these strategies. The characteristics of plurilingual educational settings, in which languages can and should be taught in an integrative manner, are addressed, looking particularly at regions and communities in Spain where two co-official languages coexist with one or two foreign languages. The benefits of using the same text in various languages as a teaching and learning resource is then showcased, particularly when students are familiar with it, as we will see in the case of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Finally, the practical implementation of metalinguistic awareness and instructional dialogue is encouraged, essentially to enhance students’ productive skills.

Cognitive Activation in Experimental Situations in Kindergarten and Primary School

Cognitive activation is one of the central quality characteristics of teaching. Studies which analyzed cognitive activation in science instruction and its influence on the achievement and the interest of students, took most of the times place in higher grades. Since scientific thinking can be taught at a very early stage and, in particular, experimental situations should be designed cognitively activating so that they can be optimally used as learning opportunities. Therefore, this study examined cognitive activation in experimental situations. For this purpose, we video recorded five lessons in primary schools as well as five lessons in kindergartens in Germany. The results showed that in the investigated experimental situations, only a few cognitively activating measures were implemented by the kindergarten educators and the primary school teachers. It is noticeable that the category Challenging questions was used most frequently while the category Instructional dialogue was by far the rarest in the videos.

Mapping Teaching Through Interactions and Pupils’ Learning in Mathematics

The aim of the study is to map patterns of teaching quality through interactions in Mathematics lessons in lower secondary school classrooms. The sample is 10 ninth-grade classrooms in Norway (pupils’ age, 14-15 years). Reciprocal linkages between teaching through interactions in Mathematic lessons and pupils’ results on a standardized National Curriculum Mathematic Test, before and after observed lessons ( N = 115) over 7 months, are studied. To map quality of teacher–pupil interactions in classrooms, observations are video recorded and analyzed using Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Video analyses elicit that there is a variety in teacher–pupil interaction quality in the 10 classrooms concerning “emotional support,” “classroom organization,” and “instructional support.” The lowest quality is found for the dimensions “analysis and inquiry,” “instructional dialogue,” and “regard for adolescent perspectives,” which might preclude facilitation of cognitive and metacognitive strategies to enhance pupils’ learning and engagement in work with instructional content. Highest quality in teaching through interactions is found for the dimensions “behaviour management” and “productivity.” Analyses show that “positive climate” and “student engagement” both have strong effect sizes and are significant concerning pupils’ learning on class level when comparing classrooms with the highest and lowest improvement score on the standardized National Curriculum Math test over 7 months.

Interaction in Distance Education

Education is a product of the objects and actors in the process of interaction. Interaction is, therefore, an important factor that affects the quality and sustainability of education. For this reason, this section will focus on interaction and its theories and approaches which are a popular and versatile concept in distance education. In the first part of the chapter, the concept of interaction will be discussed with different dimensions and components. Interaction in the following section will be examined within the framework of Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance, Anderson's Interaction Equivalency Theorem, and Gorsky and Caspi's Theory of Instructional Dialogue. At the end of the chapter, the nature of the interaction in distance learning will be discussed in the context of the studies on instructional dialogue and the cross-cultural comparisons will be addressed to the issue of the role of interaction in distance settings.

HOW MUCH ‘DISTANCE’ DOES LANGUAGE CREATE IN ODL MATERIALS? A BOTSWANA CASE STUDY

It is assumed that open and distance learning institutions develop study materials that adequately engage learners with quality content to assist their content mastery. However, distance learners continue to underperform, which raises the concern that high drop-out and failure rates may be ascribed to the study materials. This mixed-methods case study examined instructional material developed for secondary school learners studying via the open and distance learning mode. The study was informed by Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory to evaluate the process of designing and developing instructional materials while Gorsky, Caspi and Trumper’s Theory of Instructional Dialogue was used to map interaction with and within the selected study materials. A self-designed evaluation rubric included language related criteria to gauge the accessibility of content. A questionnaire survey was undertaken with purposively identified participants: five material developers, 176 learners, and six tutors. Six semi-structured group interviews and twenty individual face-to-face interviews were conducted. Open coding and SPSS reports were used for qualitative and quantitative data analysis, respectively. Findings related to non-alignment of materials with learner profile, and the national syllabus, while inadequate proficiency in the language of instruction remained problematic. The outcomes of this study highlight the importance of well-trained material developers and focused ODL policies for quality assuring effective content design and development to accommodate diverse learners with limited English proficiency.

Adapting Structuration theory as a Comprehensive Theory for Distance Education: The ASTIDE Model

Distance Education (DE) theorists have argued about the requirement for a theory to be comprehensive in a way that can explicate many of the activities associated with DE. Currently, Transactional Distance Theory (TDT) (Moore, 1993) and the Theory of Instructional Dialogue (IDT) (Caspi & Gorsky, 2006) are the most prominent theories, yet they still do not represent a unified and comprehensive theory for DE. This paper provides a review of the existing literature on DE theories and identifies potential gaps in theorising distance education. Building on Giddens’ (1984) work, an innovative approach to theorising DE is proposed through the conceptualisation of the Adapting Structuration Theory In Distance Education (ASTIDE) model as a means to explicate DE operations and practices at the institutional and national/international level. It also presents evidence, from a larger study, of the necessity of a comprehensive model such as the ASTIDE constructed through an investigation into the DE systems of developing and developed countries.

The Effects of Bikram Yoga on Health: Critical Review and Clinical Trial Recommendations

Bikram yoga is a style ofhathayoga involving a standarized series ofasanasperformed to an instructional dialogue in a heated environment (40.6°C, 40% humidity). Several studies evaluating the effect of Bikram yoga on health-related outcomes have been published over the past decade. However, to date, there are no comprehensive reviews of this research and there remains a lack of large-scale, robustly-designed randomised controlled trials (RCT) of Bikram yoga training. The purpose of this review is to contextualise and summarise trials that have evaluated the effects of Bikram yoga on health and to provide recommendations for future research. According to published literature, Bikram yoga has been shown to improve lower body strength, lower and upper body range of motion, and balance in healthy adults. Non-RCTs report that Bikram yoga may, in some populations, improve glucose tolerance, bone mineral density, blood lipid profile, arterial stiffness, mindfulness, and perceived stress. There is vast potential for further, improved research into the effects of Bikram yoga, particularly in unhealthy populations, to better understand intervention-related adaptations and their influence on the progression of chronic disease. Future research should adhere to CONSORT guidelines for better design and reporting to improve research quality in this field.

Effectiveness of ethics education as perceived by nursing students

Background: The effectiveness of ethics education continues to be disputed. No studies exist on how nursing students perceive the effectiveness of nursing ethics education in Flanders, Belgium. Objectives: To develop a valid and reliable instrument, named the ‘Students’ Perceived Effectiveness of Ethics Education Scale’ (SPEEES), to measure students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of ethics education, and to conduct a pilot study in Flemish nursing students to investigate the perceived efficacy of nursing ethics education in Flanders. Research design: Content validity, comprehensibility and usability of the SPEEES were assessed. Reliability was assessed by means of a quantitative descriptive non-experimental pilot study. Participants and research context: 86 third-year baccalaureate nursing students of two purposefully selected university colleges answered the SPEEES. Ethical considerations: Formal approval was given by the ethics committee. Informed consent was obtained and anonymity was ensured for both colleges and their participating students. Findings: The scale content validity index/Ave scores for the subscales were 1.00, 1.00 and 0.86. The comprehensibility and user-friendliness were favourable. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.94 for general effectiveness, 0.89 for teaching methods and 0.85 for ethical content. Students perceived ‘case study’, ‘lecture’ and ‘instructional dialogue’ to be effective teaching methods and ‘general ethical concepts’ to contain effective content. ‘Reflecting critically on their own values’ was mentioned as the only ethical competence that, was promoted by the ethics courses. The study revealed rather large differences between both schools in students’ perceptions of the contribution of ethics education to other ethical competences. Discussion and conclusion: The study revealed that according to the students, ethics courses failed to meet some basic objectives of ethics education. Although the SPEEES proved to be a valid and reliable measure, the pilot study suggests that there is still space for improvement and a need for larger scale research. Additional insights will enable educators to improve current nursing ethics education.

THE "THEORY OF INSTRUCTIONAL DIALOGUE"

This chapter presents a unified theory of instructional design in the cognitive domain; this includes, of course, online instructional modeling. The theory differs from specific instructional design theories in that it describes how all instructional systems operate (regardless of their goals) in terms of resources and dialogues common to all instructional systems; it predicts certain instructional outcomes (related to groups of learners, not to individual learners) based on given initial conditions. The theory affords practical and theoretical advantages. Practically, it (1) simply and accurately describes the mechanisms at play in instructional systems, (2) presents readily quantifiable operational definitions, (3) suggests hypotheses that may be evaluated empirically and (4) points the way toward optimizing instructional systems. Theoretically, it (1) subsumes all current theories of instructional design and (2) views campus-based, distance and online instructional systems as a single discipline.