Acción Tutorial en Formación Profesional: perspectiva del profesorado

La Acción Tutorial (AT) es una labor integrada en todos los niveles del sistema educativo, y por tanto en Formación Profesional (FP). A través de ella, los docentes favorecen las relaciones que se establecen en el aula con los distintos agentes implicados. El objetivo es conocer la opinión de los docentes que imparten en FP de la Región de Murcia sobre el desarrollo de la AT. Para ello se ha seguido un método no experimental, cuantitativo, tipo encuesta, con una muestra de 60 docentes. Para la recogida de datos se ha empleado el cuestionario generado tras el proceso de validación. Los resultados obtenidos destacan el beneficio de la tutoría dentro de las relaciones en el aula en FP, a la vez que consideran contribuye a mejorar diferentes aspectos en la evolución de los alumnos a nivel académico, profesional y personal, si bien necesitan de más tiempo y formación. Tutorial Action (AT) is an integrated task at all levels of the educational system, and therefore in Vocational Training (FP). Through it, teachers promote relationships established in the classroom with the different agents involved. The objective is to know the opinion of the teachers who teach in FP of the Region of Murcia on the development of the AT. For this, a non-experimental, quantitative survey-type method was followed, with a sample of 60 teachers. For data collection, the questionnaire generated after the validation process has been used. The results obtained highlight the benefit of tutoring within classroom relationships in VET, while considering that it contributes to improving different aspects of the evolution of students at an academic, professional and personal level, although they need more time and training.

“At Least We Could Give Our Input”: Underrepresented Student Narratives on Conventional and Guided Inquiry-Based Laboratory Approaches

Policy documents continually stress the need to develop a scientifically literate and diverse workforce. One commonly recommended way to achieve these goals is through the redesign of introductory level science courses to foster students’ interest in science. Such redesigns take advantage of a myriad of evidence-based strategies such as inquiry and context-based approaches that place students at the center of learning. In this study, we report on interviews of 10 female students participating in a zoo-context guided-inquiry laboratory structure within an introductory chemistry course. Half of these students were taking the laboratory for the first time (first-experience, n = 5), and half were taking the laboratory a second time (second-experience; n = 5), having failed the course in a conventional format a previous semester. The conventional laboratory format was designed to reinforce lecture content with prescriptive-style laboratories while the zoo-based guided-inquiry laboratory structure was focused on supporting student-designed investigations tied to zoo exhibits. Using interviews, we sought to understand students’ experiences and how such experiences could inform future laboratory iterations. Through inductive thematic analysis, we found three themes describing student experiences in both laboratory environments—classroom relationships, relevancy of the work, and ownership of the experiments. This work describes the nuances across student perspectives of laboratory approaches and the implications of these findings for iterations to laboratory structures towards greater student science interest, both for conventional and guided-inquiry approaches.

A Cooperative Learning Intervention to Promote Social Inclusion in Heterogeneous Classrooms

Concerning challenges with the social inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN), it is imperative to evaluate teacher interventions that promote social inclusion. This study aimed to investigate the effects of cooperative learning (CL) intervention on social inclusion. In addition, it was investigated to what degree CL implementation affected the outcomes. Fifty-six teachers of 958 fifth-grade children were randomly selected to intervention and control groups upon recruitment to the study. The intervention teachers received training and coaching in CL and implemented this approach three to four times a week for 15 weeks. The results showed a significant but small effect of CL on children’s social acceptance, but no significant effect on children’s friendships and perceptions of classroom relationships. The degree of CL implementation had effect on children’s social acceptance, but the effect was not consistent across social acceptance measures as a friend or a groupmate. Thus, it can be concluded that CL, conducted with the length and intensity of this study, may not lead to substantial changes in the social inclusion of children with SEN. In future studies, more focus needs to be devoted to teacher implementation of the CL approach.

Powerful Methodologies/Powerful Pedagogy: Autoethnography and Dialogic Interviews in a WGS Empowerment Self-Defense Class

Autoethnography and dialogic interviewing are valued qualitative research methodologies across multiple disciplines. However, their use in college classrooms as a focal point of student writing, learning, and empowerment is less documented than its use in research studies despite being powerful learning tools. I describe my use of these methodologies in a women’s and gender studies course. Grounded in compelling examples from students’ autoethnographic papers and dialogic interview reports, I analyze how these methodologies enhance engagement with new academic knowledge and skills, guide meaningful self-reflexivity, foster evocative writing, encourage peer-to-peer learning, and create strong classroom relationships.

Silenced Motherhood(s): Forbidden Motherings in the Early Childhood Classroom

What is the role of mothering in the early childhood classroom? Given the focus of the field of “professionalization” and “scientific” practices, how might the role of maternal nurturance be woven into our understandings of pedagogies? This paper addresses the disempowerment experienced by an early childhood practitioner when maternal subjectivities and practices are framed as oppositional to the “professionalization” of the field. Through narrative research as a teacher-scholar, I explore my own experiences around my role as “not-mother” in the classroom, looking critically at the interwovenness of mothering and teaching in classroom relationships and communities. Through this narrative examination, I explore the role of maternal relationships in early childhood, in conversation with my practices of mothering as the teacher-not-mother. Through narrative inquiry and analysis, I attempt to make visible the forbidden subjectivities of the not-mother, and her centrality to meaningful early childhood pedagogy.