Listening to Older Adults: A Qualitative Analysis of Advice Given During COVID-19

The life experience of older adults offers a unique perspective of coping through historical crises. Specific advice offered by older adults is generally underrepresented in the literature. This qualitative study explores advice offered by older adults to others on how to cope through the COVID-19 pandemic as well as advice for the community about the needs of older adults. A Midwestern sample of 67 older adults aged 70-97 completed one phone interview in June of 2020 as part of a larger study about their experiences with social distancing and isolation. Participants were asked what advice they would give to others during the pandemic and what advice they would give to communities and families about the needs of older adults during the pandemic. Transcripts of these conversations were coded using in vivo and holistic coding as first-cycle methods. These codes were then analyzed using pattern coding as a second-cycle method. Results indicated older adults offered advice along three domains: fostering physical and mental wellbeing, promoting positive life perspectives, and maintaining connections. Advice to communities regarding the needs of older adults included having a selfless attitude and taking intentional actions like grocery shopping and writing letters. However, older adults also recommended avoiding extremes to allow them to maintain their independence and preserve physical distance for safety. Older adults utilized their life perspective and their own coping strategies when offering advice. Future research should evaluate the effectiveness of the advice given and how likely that the advice will be utilized by others.

Examining Early Childhood Teacher Candidate’s Perceptions of Diversity Regarding Material Selection

Providing opportunities for reflection is one way to gain a deeper understanding of teacher candidate’s perceptions of diversity and how their perceptions regarding diversity evolve. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of reflections to explore teacher candidate’s perceptions regarding instructional material selection. By prompting teacher candidates to consider their selection of materials to use with diverse learners within inclusive, bilingual, early childhood classrooms, we were able to organize data within themes and use pattern coding to identify subthemes that emerged. The a priori themes included identify, describe, judge, and apply. Various subthemes emerged within teacher candidates’ reflection matrices (general statements on diversity, combination, age, ability, cultural, and individual). Results revealed that teacher candidates increased their consideration of some areas of diversity (i.e., general statements on diversity, cultural) while others stayed constant (i.e., combination, age, ability).

Variable but not random: temporal pattern coding in a songbird brain area necessary for song modification

Practice of a complex motor gesture involves motor exploration to attain a better match to target, but little is known about the neural code for such exploration. We examine spiking in a premotor area of the songbird brain critical for song modification and quantify correlations between spiking and time in the motor sequence. While isolated spikes code for time in song during performance of song to a female bird, extended strings of spiking and silence, particularly bursts, code for time in song during undirected (solo) singing, or 'practice'. Bursts code for particular times in song with more information than individual spikes, and this spike-spike synergy is significantly higher during undirected singing. The observed pattern information cannot be accounted for by a Poisson model with a matched time-varying rate, indicating that the precise timing of spikes in both bursts in undirected singing and isolated spikes in directed singing code for song with a temporal code. Temporal coding during practice supports the hypothesis that LMAN neurons actively guide song modification at local instances in time.

Teachers’ Perceptions and Needs of CLIL: A Collective Case Study from Turkey

Since the 1990s, CLIL has become a popular and well-established educational approach in English Language and Teaching (ELT) and has been cited for its positive learning outcomes. CLIL’s rising popularity in ELT is predicated on the necessity of internationalisation and unprecedented population mobility (Nikula, Dalton-Puffer and Llinares, 2013). Another reason why CLIL has attracted scholarly attention is attributed to CLIL’s pedagogical practicality. As Coyle (2006) suggests, CLIL can offer “opportunities involving problem-solving, risk-taking, confidence building, communication skills, extending vocabulary, self-expression and spontaneous talk” (p. 7) because it fuses content and language learning with a dual-approach. Such being the case, the aim of this collective case study was to investigate 5 in-service high school EFL teachers’ perceptions about and needs of CLIL. In line with this goal, relevant data were collected through 1) reflective essays written by the participants after reading the article about CLIL, which was distributed to them for raising awareness purposes, 2) semi-structured interviews with them after these lessons. This was a purely qualitative study with the aims of gaining an in-depth insight into the topic at hand from the teachers’ points of view and creating a venue for their voices to be heard. Data garnered from these tools were carefully scrutinized, and the pattern coding generated three main themes regarding the research questions, namely CLIL’s benefits and challenges and teachers’ needs.

SIGNIFIKANSI GAMBAR TERHADAP PEMAHAMAN TEKS INSTRUKSI BAHASA INGGRIS PADA PENDIDIKAN VOKASI

One of the skills vocational education students must master in English courses is understanding the language of instruction or procedures in English. A total of 24 vocational education students at the Politeknik Negeri Lhokseumawe participated in filling out the questionnaires distributed online. Data were collected using the convenience sampling technique for two weeks from the date of August 26, 2020 until September 9, 2020. The data were analyzed qualitatively using the Miles and Huberman model. Data analysis consists of four stages, extensive coding, pattern coding, distilling and making propositions. The results showed that the majority of vocational education students at PNL were visual learners. The inclusion of pictures in the English instruction material is very helpful in understanding the text of the instructions given. Students prefer English instruction materials that are equipped with pictures rather than just pictures or just text. Students also use google translate to understand unfamiliar words to understand English instruction texts. Keywords: English, Language Instruction, Picture Signifiance, Vocation __________________________ Abstrak Salah satu kemampuan yang harus dikuasai oleh mahasiswa pendidikan vokasi dalam mata kuliah Bahasa Inggris adalah memahami bahasa instruksi atau prosedur berbahasa Inggris. Sebanyak 24 mahasiswa pendidikan vokasi pada kampus Politeknik Negeri Lhokseumawe berpartisipasi mengisi kuesioner yang disebarkan secara daring. Pengambilan data menggunakan the convenience sampling technique selama dua minggu dari tanggal 26 Agustus 2020 sampai 9 Sepetember 2020.Data dianalisis secara kualitatif dengan menggunakan model Miles dan Huberman. Analisa data terdiri dari empat tahap, extensive coding, pattern coding, distilling and making propositions. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa mayoritas mahasiswa pendidikan vokasi di PNL adalah pembelajar visual. Penyertaan gambar pada materi instruksi berbahasa Inggris sangat membantu memahami teks instruksi yang diberikan. Siswa lebih memilih materi instruksi berbahasa Inggris yang dilengkapi dengan gambar daripada hanya gambar atau hanya teks saja. Mahsiswa juga menggunakan bantuan google translate dalam memahami teks instruksi Bahasa Inggris yang sulit dipahami. Kata Kunci: Bahasa Instrucksi, Bahasa Inggris, Sigifikansi Gambar, Vokasi __________________________

Van datapaniek naar Marokkanenpaniek

From data panic to Moroccan panic: A qualitative analysis of large data collections using codes, code groups and networks in Atlas.ti Large qualitative data collections can cause ‘data panic’ among qualitative researchers when reaching the stage of analysis. They often find it difficult to get a grip on such large data sets and to find a method of analysis that is both systematic and pragmatic and that can help them with this. In this article, I describe how I used a deductive and inductive method of analysis to get a grip on a large qualitative data collection (consisting of different formats) and how qualitative data analysis software facilitated this. This data reduction method consists of three stages: (1) deductive and inductive coding in Atlas.ti; (2) pattern coding in code groups and networks in Atlas.ti; and (3) reporting on the findings by transforming the networks into written text. This method is useful for researchers from all disciplines who want to analyze large qualitative data collections systematically, but at the same time do not want to drown in rigid methodological protocols that neutralize the creativity, reflexivity and flexibility of the researcher.