Catching the virus – a peer-to-peer game that encourages active participation in microbiology lectures

An important part of learning within lectures and classrooms is active participation, but this is sometimes difficult in larger lecture rooms. Questioning students is also not very fruitful in larger rooms for many reasons and invariably results in a wall of silence. Playing active-learning games changes the student–teacher dynamic and energizes the lecture room, making the lecture more memorable and worthwhile for the students. In our microbiological lectures, particularly lectures on virology and immunology, students play the ‘catch-the-virus’ game. As all students are in the game together, there is a competitive edge, and students forget about the anxiety of the the lecture theatre. Importantly, because of the nature of the game, the entire lecture room is involved, including students in the back rows. Interestingly, the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and its impact on student lives, makes the catch-a-virus game even more poignant.

The Translanguaging Pedagogies Continuum

Translanguaging pedagogy is an approach to educational equity that harnesses multilingual learners’ communicative repertoires (e.g., home languages, non-standard varieties, and gestures) by strategically incorporating them in the classroom to ensure students’ active participation and meaningful learning. This paper proposes a research-informed continuum that captures a range of possibilities for integrating translanguaging in language and literacy instruction. This continuum provides insight into how educators may make socially just instructional and curricular decisions that are based on recognizing multilingual students' languages, cultures, and ways of knowing as valuable assets in the classroom.

MANAJEMEN EKSTRAKURIKULER DI SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEJURUAN (SMK) TERPADU AL-ISHLAHIYAH SINGOSARI MALANG

This study used qualitative descriptive method. The data were collected by means of observation, interview, and documentation. This study aims at describing the management of extracurricular activities in SMK Terpadu Al-Ishlahiyah Singosari. Extracurricular activities are performed outside the lesson haours that must be developed properly by a school, so that interest talent, and potential learners an be more optimally. In order to extracurricular activities an be run effectively then in the implementation required management functions of planning, organizing, actuating, and evaluation of extracurricular activities. The result achieved of implementation activities extracurricular in SMK Terpadu Al-Ishlahiyah is the active participation of students and development of talent learners in both academic and non academic.

The children's collective as a space for artistic production and cultural management

Social life is full of multiple manifestations that will evidence the structures that sustain it; given the dynamics of a globalized world, it is necessary to direct efforts to culture as one of the essential nuclei in the evolution of societies. Due to the above, the population has generated proposals such as cultural collectives, which try to be the space where such production is generated, protected and motivated. Directed by the methodology of action research, the Cocotón Children's Collective project was born, a space where children from the city of Tehuacán and its region are apprentices, producers and cultural managers, allowing them to interact, express themselves and take on new roles in their development environments. The first stage of the project's implementation was achieved thanks to the interest and active participation of the children's population, using the resources and capital of their home environments.

Assesing teaching assistant programmes as a tool facilitating the learning process of Physiology / Avaliação do modelo de monitoria como ferramenta facilitadora para o processo de aprendizagem em Fisiologia

A teaching assistant programme is an extracurricular activity in which an advanced student (the assistant) is guided and supervised by the lecturer to provide support to the curricular unit. The aim of the present study was to asses the contribution of teaching assistant programmes based on problem cases towards the acquisition of a medicine course content. The study was cross-sectional and involved 153 students divided into two groups: the present and the absent at teaching assistant sessions. All the participants responded to standardised questionnaires that have been used to analyse their perception of content acquisition, their active participation in learning and the contribution of teaching assistant sessions. The results showed that the perception of complete content acquisition among the present group was at 38.4%, while for the absent group only at 29.7%. The negative perception of content acquisition was at 13.6 % for the absent group and at 6.1% for the present group. Within the present group 73.5% of the students studied the topics covered in lectures within two weeks. For the absent group this number fell to 49.4%. In addition, 86% of the present group said that the teaching assistant sessions contributed towards their learning. As the main reason they pointed to the opportunity to answer questions. On the whole, the results suggest that teaching assistant programmes based on problem cases can be effective in facilitating the perception of learning. The reason appears to be a more intense involvement of the participants in a more active study routine.

Video Games and Accessibility

This essay aims, through a hermeneutic-argumentative approach, to present some ideas for inclusive teaching, starting with an educational re-evaluation of video games, for years considered a mere form of entertainment. Their use as educational mediators is a useful response to the needs of a school that is increasingly aware of the educational needs of all pupils. Through the recovery of the recreational dimension and the Accessibility paradigm, it is possible to offer teachers guidance and design insights in order to create educational itineraries of inclusion, finding in video games a possible tool capable of engaging the class in common activities, on the basis of equal opportunities and active participation, additionally for the development of digital skills.

The implications of COVID-19 for concepts and practices of citizenship

Based on a review of citizenship and citizen participation in politics and policy studies, this article reveals diverse concepts of citizens and citizenship and their changing roles within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the pandemic will result in bringing citizens back into the policy process, given that active participation of citizens in solving wicked social problems has been emphasised. Our results suggest that the pandemic will result in a return of public citizens as their voluntary, active participation and coproduction practices are expected to increase.

Strengthening the coding skills of teachers in a low dropout Python MOOC

In this paper, we present a structured approach to developing an outreach program aimed at improving the coding abilities of pre- and in-service teachers. The paper presents the design and development decisions made using the ADDIE model. External evaluators assessed the material's quality, confirmed the estimated workload, and examined the material's relevance to the educational goals. Learners’ active participation was encouraged through multiple quizzes, and learners were assisted in their learning activities by means of practical examples. Based on the number of people who actually logged into the course, a completion rate of 70.84 percent is achieved. The paper presents and discusses the findings of an evaluation conducted with the assistance of experienced teachers and course participants.