The different uses of the pronoun ‘we’ by EFL teachers in classroom interaction

The pronoun ‘we’ is understood only to refer to the first-person plural. In fact, the pronoun ‘we’ can also refer to other references. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the different uses of the pronoun ‘we’ by EFL teachers in classroom interaction. This study employed a qualitative approach by using three instruments: observation, audio-recorder, and interview in collecting the data. The subjects of this research are two English teachers and the second-grade students at a vocational high school in Makassar. The data were analyzed by formulating Miles et al.’s method of analysis. The result of this study shows that, in classroom interaction, the pronoun ‘we’ can refer to six distinct references: (1) ‘we’ that refers to speaker and more than one addressee, (2) ‘we’ that refers to speaker and more than one-third party, (3) ‘we’ that refers to speaker and indefinite group, (4) ‘we’ that indicates ‘you’, (5) ‘we’ that indicates ‘I’, and (6) ‘we’ that indicates “they”. From the interviews, the researchers found that both teachers have different reasons for using the pronoun ‘we’ in classroom interaction. The first teacher intends to use the pronoun to help him create an enjoyable learning environment and establish better relationships with the students. In contrast, the other teacher uses the pronoun ‘we’ to show politeness to the students. Despite the differences, they both seem to have the same intention of creating a positive learning environment.

Using student feedback about the learning environment as a starting point for co-construction

The context in which learning takes place, or learning environment, is pivotal to a positive learning experience for students. Although numerous studies have established strong links between a positive learning environment and a range of student outcomes, far less research has examined how teachers might establish such an environment. Amidst growing acknowledgment that opportunities for the co-construction of learning and assessment design could provide a means of developing a more positive learning environment, this case study examined one such journey. Using a case study approach, we argue that student feedback involving a learning environment survey provides a valuable starting point for including students in co-construction and classroom improvement. Our findings indicate that teachers can improve the learning environment by involving students in meaningful co-construction through open tasks.

A Study on Instructional Humor: How Much Humor Is Used in Presentations?

Humor is applied in pedagogy to create a positive learning environment. Recent research focuses on the theories, effects, individual differences, and qualitative aspects of humor for instruction. However, there is a lack of studies focusing on quantitative features. Therefore, this research explored the quantitative characteristics of instructional humor in a naturalistic setting and applied techniques from natural language processing (NLP). This paper describes the results of two studies. The first study focused on instructional humor frequency and the placement of humor, while the linguistic features of instructional humor and non-instructional humor were compared in the second study. Two corpora were used in this research: TED Talks and user-submitted jokes from “stupidstuff.org” The results found that educators used humor 12.92 times for popular talks, while less popular talks only had 3.92 times. Humor is also more commonly placed during the first parts of the talk and lessens toward the end. There were also significant differences between the linguistic features of instructional and non-instructional humor in terms of readability scores and sentiment. These results provide a substantial update on quantitative instructional humor research and help educators understand how to use humor in the classroom in terms of quantitative and linguistic features.

A Mobile Learning Model to Improve the Learning Environment in Iraqi Secondary Schools

Nowadays the use of mobile devices has increased dramatically as they have been integrated into different learning facilities. In this paper, the opinions of high school students and their teachers will be evaluated in order to get a better understanding of how mobile devices are used in the learning environment. A qualitative and quantitative method was used in this study. Multiple cases for the purpose of understanding the level of students' use of these devices in schools. Through the results of this study, it can be determined whether spending on textbooks and supplies is necessary compared to replacing it with technology. This model can be divided into five categories. (MLIS) mobile phone by developing a mobile learning model in Iraqi secondary schools (MLIS). This model can be divided into five categories, including mobile learning, drivers, process, community, and influencing factors. Each of the categories is related to each other, as well as related to planning and goals. However, both students and teachers believe that using mobile devices in an educational setting can help increase overall achievement, improve student motivation, and create a positive learning environment in schools. This study also helps enrich the existing literature on mobile technology in schools, where knowledge is lacking in the Iraqi educational system.

Teaching the technical performance of bronchoscopy to residents in a step-wise simulated approach: factors supporting learning and impacts on clinical work – a qualitative analysis

Background The ability to perform a bronchoscopy is a valuable clinical skill for many medical specialities. Learning this skill is demanding for residents, due to the high cognitive load. Lessons learned from cognitive load theory might provide a way to facilitate this learning. The aim of this study was to investigate residents’ perception of factors that support and hinder learning, as well as outcome and acceptance of a workshop on flexible bronchoscopy. Methods Three half-day workshops were designed to teach 12 residents the basics of handling a flexible bronchoscope. They consisted of four phases that alternated between short theoretical aspects and longer practical situations. The practical phases focussed initially on manoeuvring a bronchoscope through holes in panels inside a box, and then on examination and practice using a three-dimensional printed model of the bronchial tree. Afterwards, three audio- and video-recorded focus groups were conducted, transcribed and coded, and underwent reflexive thematic analysis. Results Analysis of the focus groups defined two themes: (1) factors that supported a safe and positive learning environment were optimised for intrinsic load, simulated setting, absence of pressure, dyad practice (working in pairs), small group sizes and playful learning; and (2) impacts on clinical work were perceived as high levels of learning and improved patient safety. The residents did not report factors that hindered their learning. Some suggestions were made to improve the set-up of the wooden box. Conclusions The half-day workshop was designed according to several factors, including cognitive load theory in a simulated setting, and creation of a safe and positive learning environment. The residents perceived this as supporting learning and patient safety. Further studies can be designed to confirm these results in a quantitative setting. Trial registration This study was not interventional, therefore was not registered.

Creating a positive learning environment in the online classroom with Flipgrid

The pandemic has made more clear than ever that health issues impact education and that schools play a key role in supporting the wellbeing of learners. As emotion and cognition are interconnected, educators should use educational strategies that generate positive emotions so that learning is associated with pleasure. The aim of this study was to investigate if a warm-up activity with Flipgrid could contribute to creating a positive learning environment in the online classroom in Covid-19 time. Flipgrid is a free platform that allows video-based asynchronous discussion. It fosters educator-student contact, cooperation among learners, active-learning techniques and student engagement. A total of 37 MA students participated in the study. Informants were selected by non-probabilistic sampling. The data collection strategies were observation during the Flipgrid warm-up activity, a Moodle survey, and the institution student satisfaction survey. Students’ engagement was high and participants’ attitude on their responses was mostly positive or neutral. The warmer was highly rated in terms of creating a positive learning environment by the participants, and informants wrote positive remarks about their experience using the platform. The results suggest that a warm-up activity with Flipgrid is an effective educational strategy to generate positive emotions during the pandemic. Finally, the limitations of the study are addressed, and some directions for future research are proposed.

A meme-based approach for enhancing student engagement and learning in renal physiology

As educators around the world are exploring new approaches to keep students involved in remote learning during the pandemic, we investigated the utility of memes in promoting engagement in the online environment. Medical students enrolled in human physiology course at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sohar, Oman were provided with an option to create memes related to the learning outcomes in renal physiology. 146 out of 280 students chose to create memes (52%) and the remaining students chose to submit either a labelled diagram or a concept map. Students uploaded their work in the discussion forum of the learning management system. All students enrolled in the course were given an opportunity for interaction with the uploaded content by commenting and upvoting thereafter. Students were requested to give anonymous feedback on their experience specifically on the activity related to memes. Feedback received from 142 out of 280 students through anonymous comments were subjected to thematic analysis. Based on the analysis of the data, we found that memes elicited interest in the topic, facilitated peer interaction, simplified complex ideas, enhanced retention of associated concepts and fostered a positive learning environment.

DEVIATING FROM LINGUISTIC CORRECTNESS IN THE AUTHENTIC INPUT OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Students often lack the desired authentic input in the classrooms and that is why they so often expose themselves to it by watching films, TV series or listening to popular music. This inspired our research and we decided to analyze the errors that can be found in the authentic input, which is a frequent occurrence in songs. The aim of this paper is to analyze the most popular songs at the moment, precisely those with more than one billion views on YouTube, and to answer the question if the most popular music in the world is in some way a reliable authentic input tool. We were primarily focused in our analysis on basic rules of syntax in lyrics. In the end, we analyzed 164 songs where 91 songs were linguistically correct and 73 songs linguistically incorrect. It means that more than 55 percent is correct and 44 percent incorrect. After analytic, descriptive and statistical analysis of incorrect songs, we came to a total of 230 errors divided into three categories: sentence structure (97 errors), subject-verb agreement (80 errors) and multiple negations (53 errors). We conclude that the most popular music is definitely the valuable and interesting tool, but linguistically not the reliable authentic input tool without incorporating it into classroom teaching and learning which can together with grammars, course books, dictionaries and other more reliable means for studying English influence a positive learning environment, students’ motivation and correct linguistic ‘feel’. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0843/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Engaging Instructions in History Classrooms: Exploring University Teachers' Perceptions and Practices

This interview study aimed to explore the perceptions and practices of the university teachers regarding student engagement in History & Pakistan Studies classrooms. Data were collected from four PhD professors from a public sector university. A qualitative research design was used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis was done to extract findings from the qualitative data. The finding is arranged into three themes, i.e., student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. The finding suggested that teachers use different strategies and practices to improve student engagement. Moreover, teachers used different practices to make their classes interesting. It is reported that having a cordial teacher-student relationship is beneficial for enhancing student engagement level and overall performance at the postgraduate level of education. Effective classroom management plays a significant role in creating a positive learning environment for engaging instruction.

Empathy Levels Among Veterinary Medicine Students in Colombia (South America)

Empathy plays an important role in veterinarians’ relationships with their patients, clients, and colleagues. Because it relates to greater clinical competence and facilitates the acquisition of information for diagnosing, prescribing therapies, and identifying and treating animal pain, empathy is an essential competence to be strengthened during professional training. The objective of this study was to evaluate the empathy levels of veterinary medicine students toward people and animals and to identify associated factors. The animal empathy scale and the Davis interpersonal reactivity index were applied through an electronic survey to first-, third-, and fifth-year students ( n = 559) in three veterinarian medical schools in Colombia. A principal components analysis was performed to identify composite scores of human and animal empathy levels. The empathy toward humans total score ranged from 0 to 112, and the empathy toward animals total score was between 22 and 198. The average empathy scores for students were 89.67 ± 9.02 (mean ± SD; range: 60–115) and 115.01 ± 13.41 (mean ± SD; range: 67–165), respectively. The results suggest that empathy scores toward people are acceptable. Gender, university, program type, age, year of study, and diet were significantly associated with empathy levels toward animals. It is proposed that levels of empathy toward animals be strengthened by fostering a positive learning environment, developing ethical and animal welfare competencies, and increasing empathetic contact and hands-on experience with animals during the curriculum.