The Power of Politeness Strategies in EFL Student-Teacher Interaction: Teacher’s Gender Perspective

The nature of student-teacher interaction is often influenced by the teachers’ actions and utterances. In fact, student-teacher interaction could be felt like either threatening or enjoyable. Teachers’ politeness will result in enjoyable student-teacher interaction. Very few studies about politeness on the teachers’ gender perspectives have been conducted. Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate the kinds of politeness strategies used by male and female teachers in powering EFL classroom, and to elaborate how the power of politeness strategies run the EFL student-teacher interaction. The participants are several teachers and students who conduct the English Intensive Course Program in an undergraduate university. Many students-teacher interactions using English are found in those course program, since the courses require the classroom participants to communicate in English. This research followed qualitative research design and used observation to collect data. Applying Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness, the results show that politeness strategies bring a lively and friendly atmosphere during the classroom interaction. Specifically for female teachers who mostly use positive politeness strategy, they build more interaction with the student rather male teachers. Positive politeness strategy focused on the students’ positive face by expressing the number of utterances that want to be listened to by the students. It keeps students to have willingness to communicate so that the student-teacher interaction in EFL classroom can be maximized.

Student-teacher interaction in CLIL and non-CLIL elementary education

This study analyzes interaction in a primary school science classroom. We compare the verbal scaffolding strategies used by a teacher during lessons from the same instructional unit taught in CLIL (English) and regular (Spanish) contexts. Results show that although there was no difference in the amount of information (‘content’) made available to students through the interactions, different verbal strategies were used (precision, justification and recall were more frequent in Spanish and exemplification in English) and that students were more active in engaging with science knowledge in the Spanish context. We discuss these findings in relation to the level of abstraction the teacher supported in interacting about science in the regular session, with implications for supporting children in learning both content and language in CLIL contexts.

Teacher's Competence

This study aimed to improve the professional competence of Indonesian language teachers in applying the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) learning model at State Senior High School 1 Muara. This research is a Classroom Action Research involving 6 Indonesian language teachers. The research was conducted in two cycles, namely: planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. Aspects measured in the observations were teacher teaching performance, teacher interaction with researchers, interaction with other Indonesian language subject teachers, collaboration with other teachers, making lesson plans, learning processes, evaluating the implementation of Problem-Based Learning (PBL). From the data analysis, it was found that there was an increase in teacher activity and competence in implementing the PBL model. In the initial condition, from 54.00 (criteria for poor score) increased to 66.00 (criteria for sufficient value) and 76.00 (criteria for good value). In the aspect of learning implementation, the average score of 55.21 (criteria for low scores) increased to 65.43 (sufficient value criteria) and 75.43 (good value criteria) in the second cycle. In the aspect of assessment of learning outcomes, from an average of 53.58 (criteria for poor scores) to 65.42 (criteria for good scores) and 77.42 (criteria for good scores). Also, in the aspect of classroom management from 54.00 enough and 75.83 ( good grade criteria). From the results above, it can be concluded that the implementation of the Problem-Based Learning model with academic supervision has been proven to improve the professional competence of teachers in managing the learning process

Digital portfolio: a tool for learning physics

The digital portfolio is a student-student, student-teacher interaction tool where formative assessment plays an important role in the learning of physics, with which the progress of students is monitored, the entire training process is evaluated and supported of the student, according to the planning and contents of the physics course. Therefore, this article describes the use of the digital portfolio as a tool for learning in students of a teacher training program in natural sciences and environmental education at a public university in Colombia. It is a quantitative study with a non-experimental design. The research subjects were students taking the subject of basic physics. The results indicate that students perceive the portfolio as a tool that allows monitoring and reflection of their learning and favor the integration of what they have learned, which supports the use of this tool, in accordance with the results of evaluation of the students’ formative process. However, the use of the portfolio requires a continuous process of change and innovation, monitoring and permanent feedback between the teacher and the students.

Virtual classes conducted during COVID-19 pandemic – Medical students’ perspective

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in shifting of medical education onto a virtual platform. This has provided us with an opportunity to assess and analyse the students perception of these virtual classes which otherwise did not form a significant part of the traditional medical education. The objective of the study was to assess medical students’ perception on virtual classes conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 21 questions was administered to students studying in all phases of MBBS in our college using Google Forms. A response rate of 73% was achieved. Results: The response of the students when analysed showed limited perceived benefits of virtual classes, these included accessibility to recorded lectures and convenience of attending classes in the time of pandemic. Drawbacks include decreased levels of social interaction, internet connectivity issues and absence of practical’s/ clinicals to better correlate with theory topics. Low motivational levels to attend classes, decreased engagement in classes and decreased perceived knowledge gained were also significant limitations. Conclusion: Better internet connectivity along with accessibility to recorded classes and increased student-teacher interaction could enhance the learning experience of the students in the virtual platform.

Active Participation in the Student-to-Teacher Interaction in Online Synchronous Sessions in Higher Education

Mexican institutions promoted e-learning to conclude the school year 2019-2020. In the higher education institution where this study was conducted, teachers were not familiar with online teaching. In Spring 2020, teachers prepared themselves or with students’ assistance to teach online. In Summer 2020, the institution offered workshops to update teachers on Blackboard LMS, Microsoft Teams, and Moodle to work in Autumn 2020. After that training, teachers started videoconferences in online synchronous sessions (OSSs). However, they observed that students did not participate actively in OSSs. Given this contextual background, this qualitative exploratory study addressed a threefold objective: 1. To identify students’ perceptions of active participation in OSSs. 2. To explore the degree of participation in the student-teacher interaction in OSSs at a higher institution, and 3. To identify factors affecting student active participation while teachers are lecturing. Sixteen participants with ages ranging from 19 to 25 years old were interviewed. The results showed that most participants consider active participation essential in online synchronous sessions; the level of participation was high, moderate, and low. In addition, affective, cognitive, moral and technical factors affected students’ active participation. The results of this study are useful in shaping our understanding of the whole panorama that is taking place behind synchronous sessions.

Does Greater Community Involvement Mean More Parent-Teacher Interaction? Evidence from Seven Developing Countries

Advocates for school autonomy and decentralisation argue that community involvement in school decisions would bring positive educational outcomes by increasing parent-teacher interaction. In this study, I investigate to what extent community involvement associates with parents-teacher meetings in seven developing countries using Programme for International Student for Development (PISA-D) data-2015. Employing OLS regression models, I find that the correlation between community engagement in various school activities and parent-teacher interaction is largely insignificant. Findings rather suggest that private ownership and, in some cases, higher instructional resources of schools are associated with increasing parent-teacher communication. These findings remain similar in several specifications suggesting that community involvement as part of decentralising the education sector should not be seen as a panacea to overcoming challenges in schools in developing countries.