A Lecture-Based Instructional System to Promote Student Agency

This research study was conducted in 2018 and resulted in an instructional system designed to support university instructors that seek to promote student agency in lecture-based learning environments. The objective of the study was to design and test an instructional system that supplements the traditional lecture and provides opportunities for the development of agentic engagement. In support of the instructional system design, the study examined ways in which university undergraduates used a digital backchannel, determined if using a digital backchannel affected agentic engagement, and identified the features of a digital backchannel that influenced student agency. The study employed a mixed methodology design using a questionnaire to collect quantitative student profile data and phenomenography to conduct a qualitative inquiry into participants’ experience. The population for this study consisted of undergraduates at a private, international university located outside of Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 171 participants took part in this study, with ten students selected for a focus group through a non-probability, purposive sampling. Overall, the study found that a lecturing system that employs the strategic use of a digital backchannel can promote student agentic engagement. Student agency and instructor effectiveness were both positively influenced through the employment of an instructional system.

Secret of Instructional Design Revisited

Improvements in technology, especially automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence have dramatically changed what people do in the workplace and how they do it. Technology advancements over the past 3 decades have reshaped demands in schooling and the workplace bringing on new challenges and opportunities. Employers need employees who are critical thinkers, communicators, collaborators, and creators to remain competitive and innovative. Educators recognize these abilities that learners must have to take advantage of the opportunities and face the challenges that are presented to them in the 21st century. As was the case 30 years ago, the same consistency is needed today among the four elements of instructional design: objectives, methods, content, and evaluation. There must also be integration of the instructional system with authentic, real-world performance. If these two critical aspects are not met the chances of obtaining the desired effectiveness of learning is not likely to be met. The Internet and cloud computing allow more rapid development of instruction for more efficient and affective learning. The pace of change also requires a greater emphasis on the iterative nature of evaluating the instructional design system.

Gleaning the Fields of Higher Education: Exercises of an Adjunct Self and Instructional Precaritization

The use of adjunct faculty in higher education has become a widely discussed labor practice. The voices of adjuncts are largely absent in this inquiry and advocacy, an absence which wrongly suggests adjuncts a lack voice or of agency. In the first part of this piece, I argue that adjuncts should contribute to their field of inquiry to destabilize the notions of contingent instructional workers as mere classroom proctors, in need of others’ advocacy. In the second part, I relate episodes of adjuncts disregarded and embraced on their campuses. Stemming from years of teaching in higher education and adjunct organizing, this piece is written from an adjunct perspective, exploring the disregard and embrace adjuncts encounter in their institutional lives. Following Foucault's exercises of the self as part of a philosophical life, I call the academic productions of adjuncts “gleaning,” an exercise taken on by professors that enacts a philosophical project in the face of de-professionalization and precaritization. This critical and ethical intervention counterbalances managerial practices that dismiss adjunct labor and normalize the process of dismissal. Adjunct gleaning, I conclude, may never transform the two-tiered instructional system, though their cultural and intellectual production will hamper efforts to dismiss adjuncts’ presence and catalog them as agents of precarious survival.

Developing an Interactive Storybook Application ‘Jack and the Dirty Smelly Beast’ for English Language Proficiency among Children

The high percentage of students who are still struggling with the English language is worrisome, even though there are many well-planned strategies and education policies that are developed to resolve this problem. It is a universal belief that learning a foreign language at a young age through reading plays an important role. Accordingly, the aim of this research is to design, develop and evaluate an interactive storybook application combined with suitable multimedia elements and features to encourage children to read. The interactive storybook entitled 'Jack and the Dirty Smelly Beast' was developed using Instructional System Design (ISD) and Rapid Prototyping model. An experimental study was conducted with 17 respondents between the ages of 6 – 8 years to test the effects of the multimedia elements and features in improving children’s learning. Their responses were recorded and analysed using descriptive analysis. The findings showed that respondents agreed that learning experience improved significantly and attracted children to read when using this application. In conclusion, by using correct multimedia elements and suitable features in the interactive storybook application, it is envisaged that the children’s comprehension in learning a foreign language can be expanded. This research foresees there is enormous opportunity for literacy development in foreign language learning in the early ages through the creation of an interactive storybook application with suitable multimedia elements and features for children.

Psikodrama untuk Self-Esteem Anak dengan Specific Learning Disorder Usia 9-12 Tahun

Di Indonesia sebanyak 5 juta dari 50 juta anak-anak mengalami kesulitan belajar. Ujian, prestasi dan literacy, merupakan tantangan yang besar untuk anak specific learning disorder (SLD). Anak dengan SLD sering distigmatisasi dan dikaitkan dengan kegagalan yang menurunkan self-esteem. Self-esteem rendah adalah hasil penilaian negatif terhadap diri dan kualitas diri yang memberikan dampak buruk bagi anak. Modul psikodrama ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan self-esteem rendah pada anak dengan specific learning disorder usia 9-12 tahun. Rancangan modul dibuat menggunakan pendekatan instructional system design dan metode penelitian tahap uji coba menggunakan metode quasi eksperimen dengan desain penelitian small design one group pre test-post test. Pengambilan data menggunakan interview, observasi dan pengisian kuesioner self-esteem. Rancangan modul ini melewati proses uji kelayakan yang dilakukan oleh 3 orang expert judgement dan uji coba pada 9 orang anak usia 9-12 tahun yang memiliki self-esteem rendah. Berdasarkan hasil yang diperoleh untuk meningkatkan self-esteem rendah pada anak usia 9-12 tahun, maka dalam modul psikodrama menekankan pada materi area teman dan sekolah, teknik sculpture, dan proses berulang

After the Race to the Top: State and District Capacity to Sustain Professional Development Innovation in Florida

The Race to the Top (RTTT) program incentivized states to use innovation for systemwide improvement of student outcomes, but little is known about how RTTT-funded innovation was sustained after the RTTT program ended. This mixed-methods study examined state and district approaches to sustaining an international innovation called lesson study, a teacher-driven, collaborative, inquiry-based teacher learning process imported from Japan and promoted statewide in Florida. While the state’s role in sustaining lesson study was limited, we found that districts that integrated lesson study into the district instructional system through a clear expectation and strategic adaptation, supported school and teacher ownership of lesson study practice, and provided necessary support and funding were more likely to sustain lesson study. In contrast, the districts that focused on implementation fidelity and district-led facilitation eventually phased out lesson study. Policy implications for sustaining federally funded professional development innovations are discussed.

The response of the University of Isfahan to COVID-19: remote online language teaching

This study describes the changes in the instructional system experienced by the language departments in the University of Isfahan, Iran, during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak and the consequent national lockdown. After providing a very brief scenario of a regular academic year in higher education in Iran, this chapter focuses on the changes made to the instructional system in response to this world-wide pandemic and the non-academic measures taken across the university in general and language departments in particular. After pointing to some challenges of online instruction, the advantages and disadvantages of remote instruction with regard to the four language skills from both teachers’ and students’ perspectives will be discussed. A review of the assessment procedures in the platform used by the University of Isfahan will then be provided. This case study will come to an end by providing some outlook for the future.