CLIL, Bilingual Education, and Pluriliteracies

The so-called language gap is not a modern invention, since language is power and a form of taking dominion over the world in humans' intellectual confrontation with reality. Historically, there has been inequality in language learning and mastery as a way to access knowledge and to achieve self-fulfillment in both the public and private spheres. This chapter explores the concept of language gap from a diachronic perspective and the way in which the Andalusian education system has taken actions emanating from European language policies, aimed at bridging the language gap among young people through initiatives of great impact on content and language education, such as the consolidation of bilingual education programmes through the CLIL approach and pedagogical tools like the Integrated Language Curriculum, the European Language Portfolio, and the School Language Project.

Social-personal responsibility as the basis for the formation of an at-risk adolescent as a subject of self-development

Introduction. The need to form responsibility as a personality trait that ensures personal growth and development of each person is currently considered as a condition for adaptation to the modern world. The problem of responsibility in relation to the category of at-risk adolescents is characterized by the importance of the formation of social-personal responsibility as a generalizing characteristic of volitional behavior, synthesizing and including manifestations of various volitional, moral-volitional and moral qualities of an individual. The purpose of the article is to study the main components of social-personal responsibility as the basis for the formation of at-risk adolescents as a subject of self-development, the conditions for the formation of personal responsibility in the specified category of adolescents. Materials and methods. The study was carried out in seven (7) educational institutions in the city of Tula and the Tula region (Russian Federation) among 13-14-year-old adolescents (n=103, of which 16 were attributed to the risk group). The diagnostic program included the following methods for the study of responsibility, coping strategies, self-esteem, self-control in communication among the subjects. Methods of mathematical statistics: G-test, Pearson's chi-squared test. Research results. It was revealed that in at-risk adolescents, the identified components of social-personal responsibility (cognitive, emotional, volitional, behavioral ones) are weak links that negatively affect the course of their subjective-personal development, distorting the directions of self-development at this age, leading them onto the deviant development path. At the control stage of the experiment, differences were revealed in all indicators of the studied variables for each component. The number of at-risk adolescents with low indicators of responsibility, communicative control, willpower, with pronounced maladjustment has decreased, the number of students with adequate self-esteem has increased. The least significant shifts occurred in the behavioral component. According to the “School of Responsibility” methodology, the value of the χ2 criterion is 4.952; “Diagnostics of general self-esteem” by G.N. Kazantseva (χ2 = 3.256); “Assessment of self-control in communication” (χ2 = 4.91); “Self-assessment of willpower” (χ2 = 0.686); “Coping strategies” (χ2 = 3.841). The relationship between the factorial and effective traits is statistically insignificant, the level of significance is p> 0.05. This indicates the need to continue working with the identified at-risk adolescents. Conclusion. A set of psychological-pedagogical tools for the formation of social-personal responsibility in at-risk adolescents should include as follows: individual and group consultations, interactive seminars, master classes, quests, discussions, classes with training elements, project activities, role-playing games, training lessons.

“Here Comes a Thought”: Steven Universe as Social Emotional Curriculum

The emphasis on social emotional learning as a focus in schools has led to the development of new materials for curriculum in classrooms for teaching social emotional content and competencies. This paper conceptualizes the use of narrative television and animation, specifically, the cartoons Steven Universe and Steven Universe Future as powerful pedagogical tools for engaging social emotional learning in classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the efficacy of these cartoons as tools for classroom use given their emphasis on inclusivity, diversity, and their popularity with young people today. Utilizing the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Competencies as a framework, the paper highlights selected episodes of the shows, and demonstrates ways the shows can be used to teach these competencies. As teachers continue to encounter ever-diversifying student populations, the use of media such as Steven Universe can help support inclusive classroom environments that engage the emotional lives and experiences of young people today.

Earth Black Rising and Queen Sono: A Critical Decolonial Analysis

In this article two series are analyzed: Black Earth Rising (a BBC/Netflix production) and Queen Sono (the first African Netflix original series), shows that are about African realities from an African perspective (Rwanda in Black Earth Rising and South Africa in Queen Sono). The findings in this article show that both series address social and political issues such as neocolonialism, neoextractivism, internal colonialism, racism, inequality, justice, self-determination, corruption, violence, peace, memory, necropolitics, mental health, and decoloniality. I also argue that the shows could be used as pedagogical tools to raise critical consciousness in a wide public regarding the social and political issues addressed. The research in this article has been conducted with a qualitative methodology, using both shows as case studies and using content analysis and bibliographical research. The analysis of the series is based in the discussion of critical theory and decoloniality approaches and authors, especially from Latin America and Africa. Furthermore, the analysis of popular media (such as series) is a relevant effort to decolonize knowledge, using alternative and non-academic sources to produce and socialize knowledge.

Perspective changes through transcultural mediation training: A qualitative study of trainees, instructors, and experts

To deal with cultural misunderstandings in health care due to increased migration, the Babel Centre—a training and mediation center—developed “transcultural mediation”: a service meant to help health-care professionals encountering difficulties with migrant patients and their families. One of the center's health-care professionals, trained as a mediator, and a cultural broker jointly conduct the mediation session. In 2017, the center initiated a specialized training program to teach health-care professionals the skills needed to serve as transcultural mediators. We conducted a study to evaluate, through the trainees’ and instructors’ subjective experiences, the quality of this innovative training. We used semi-structured interviews and focus groups to question seven trainees, three instructors, and three experts in transcultural psychology at different stages of the 10-month program (before, at midpoint, and afterwards). We used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the data. The themes are organized around the central concept of the transmission of knowledge from instructors to trainees and vice versa. Trainees were globally satisfied with this program by its end but did not feel able to lead a mediation by then, due to insufficient anthropology knowledge and practical training. Training in transcultural mediation resembles that for resolving situational problems. It cannot be taught by an approach based on reasoning by the inverse problem method, used for teaching medical sciences. Pedagogical tools more suited to problem solving, such as role-playing or use of senior-assisted mediations, should be used to improve the quality of this training.

Prospects of Russian as a Foreign Language Online Learning in Russian Universities

The COVID-19 pandemic has made significant changes in the educational process in almost all countries of the world. The methods and approaches, techniques and technology that teachers used in offline learning, turned out to be ineffective. The issues related to online teaching of Russian as a foreign language have become particularly relevant, since many students had to leave Russia and study the language only online. The purpose of the study is to consider the prospects (immediate and long-term) of the Russian language online teaching to foreign students in Russian universities. The research materials are the results of a survey conducted among the 1st year master degree students, specialty 45.04.01 Russian as a Foreign Language of the Faculty of Philology of the RUDN University (Moscow), as well as the experience of the author, who teaches Russian to foreign students online on the TEIS (Telecommunication Educational and Informational System) and Microsoft Teams platforms. The study revealed the pros and cons of online learning of Russian as a foreign language, and showed the ways of improving its effectiveness in Russian universities. As a result of the conducted research, the immediate prospects are identified, which include the implementation of relevant components of pedagogical tools in Russian as a foreign language online learning: modern pedagogical technologies, the principles of individualization and differentiation, and the communicative approach. The long-term prospects concern teaching Russian to foreign students only in a mixed format. The formation of communicative competence, the lack of Russian-speaking environment, difficulties in organising control and developing students' writing skills are among the main problems that undermine the quality of teaching Russian as a foreign language online. It is concluded that in the future we should expect the implementation of a new approach in the world education system, since the pandemic will certainly affect the market of educational services all over the world.

Developing Global Citizens through International Studies: Enhancing Student Voices and Active Learning in Short-Term Study Abroad Courses

Educating global citizens has become part of higher education in international studies. Scholars argue that education includes having a global worldview that critically evaluates complex challenges in an ever-changing environment. Most agree that something more than classroom lecture is required to transform students’ perspectives, but debates exist about exactly what “more” means. Short-term study abroad courses have evolved as one way to offer a global experience to students, especially those who must balance work, school, and family life while also facing the economic restraints of higher education. These programs, however, have been criticized as providing little more than a voyeuristic view into the lives of others with no real experience with cultures, development of global citizenship, or true engagement with global issues. This study assesses the impact of a short-term study abroad program on students’ perceptions of their role as global citizens and identifies pedagogical tools that increase the likelihood that students will embrace global citizenship as a transformative learning experience. Using reflection papers and photo elicitation, this article shows that immersive short-term study abroad experiences that include extensive community engagement have the potential to change students’ perception of the world and the way they see their role in it.

The Effects of a VR Teaching Tool on Understanding, Comfortability, Compassion, and Empathy of Students and Caregivers

Empathetic care giving is associated with improved patient satisfaction, compliance and outcomes; clinical competence, career satisfaction, and burnout reduction; as well as diminished medical errors and litigation claims. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown erosion in empathy and compassion across the health professions. Virtual reality shows promise as a teaching tool to combat this decline as it has been dubbed the ultimate empathy machine, allowing users to vividly and viscerally experience any situation from any perspective. Embodied Labs allows users to virtually walk in the shoes of different patients, experiencing symptoms, family dynamics, support networks and various components of the health care systems. We have demonstrated that the high level of immersion and presence afforded by these virtual labs are effective pedagogical tools to increase understanding, comfortability, compassion and empathy within various populations including informal caregivers, high school students, health professional students and medical students.

Supervised Curricular Internship II: Experiences of the future chemistry teacher in remote education

The research analyzed the experiences of 20 (twenty) students developed in Remote Teaching (ER) in the 1st semester of 2021 after completing the Supervised Curricular Internship II. A qualitative and quantitative approach was carried out using a virtual questionnaire created on the Google Forms® digital platform, to investigate the choice of the Chemistry Degree course, conditions of access to digital technologies, pedagogical tools used during the internship, adversities encountered by these students during the realization of the internship and the contributions of the remote internship for the formation of the Graduate in Chemistry. After analyzing and tabulating the data, the research presented the following results: the students chose a degree because they like to teach and because of their insertion in the job market, they accessed digital technologies at home, using smartphones through a broadband service with good quality connection, used Google Meet®, WhatsApp® and VLE virtual learning environment as pedagogical tools during the internship. Internet access, lack of knowledge in digital media and adaptation to remote classes were the adversities encountered during the internship. Learning and using different technological resources and digital platforms were the main contributions of the internship to the formation of decent people. The virtual remote internship enabled and provided opportunities for varied everyday experiences, promoting reflection on teaching work.