ABSTRACT
In Summer 2020, our university organized a two weeks summer research experience for 16 recently graduated first-generation and underrepresented high school students who would be joining University as incoming freshmen in various STEM majors. The summer camp was originally planned to be in-person with students residing in the university dorm to receive an early university experience and plan for their college life. But due to COVID-19, it had to be changed to a completely virtual format. This was the first time the faculty were organizing a two weeks camp in a complete virtual format. In this work, we discuss the overall virtual camp experience, challenges faced to provide effective experience to students in the online format, and evaluate the program based on student's feedback. We found that frequent breaks, activities that include students move around for some physical activity, interactive lesson plans, good communication tools, better planning and information tools are required to organize an efficient virtual program. In summer 2022, we plan to have second cohort of summer research camp and use the experiences from 2020 to improve the program. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study is to explore how teachers describe the process of creating lesson plans that use drama-based instruction (DBI) in the classroom to engage students as well as how they describe their experience using DBI in the classroom to engage students. Fourteen teachers located in the state of Florida participated in this study. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) provided the theoretical framework for this study. Semi-structured individual interviews and two focus group discussions were the three data sources. The results revealed that DBI promotes student engagement, and all 21 participants have implemented lesson plans using DBI in their classrooms within the current or the last academic school year prior to COVID and have been teaching for a minimum of one year at the middle school level.Twelve themes were generated: 1. Before teachers create a DBI lesson plan, they reflect on their earlier teaching strategies;2. Teachers use their exposure to drama to create a DBI lesson;3. Teachers engage school administrators' to plan DBI lessons;4. Teachers use different strategies to create DBI lesson plans;5. Teachers revisit prior DBI challenges before implementing new lesson plans;6. Teachers use data from their experience using DBI;7. Teachers acknowledge that they need training to create DBI lesson plans;8. Teachers describe their experience of successful and failed attempts with DBI;9. Teachers describe students' behaviors and attitudes towards DBI;10. Teachers describe the most frequently used DBI components;11. Teachers describe the benefits they experience with DBI;12. Teachers describe the school's perception of DBI in the classroom. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
This study aims to improve English Language Teaching (ELT) student teachers' teaching practice process with comprehensive and diverse feedback from four different mentors (two national and two international) and to help them better prepare lesson plans and micro-teaching considering intercultural perspectives. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze quantitative data gathered from the scores of five lesson plans and micro-teachings. Qualitative data were obtained from the written feedback to lesson plans, oral feedback to micro teachings and interviews, and analyzed by content analysis. Results showed that mentees' lesson plan and micro teaching scores increased significantly over the semester and this was especially notable in mentees' first three lesson plans and micro teaching. All participants favoured the study activities and suggested that e-co mentoring should be implemented together with face-to-face mentoring in some periods.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to investigate preservice science teachers' views of distance STEM education and the related lesson-planning process. The study was designed as a qualitative case study. Study participants comprised 22 senior preservice science teachers from a public university in the Western Black Sea area of Turkey during the 2019-2020 academic years. An open-ended view form was used as a data collection tool in this study to reveal preservice teachers' views on distance STEM education and distance group studies when designing a lesson plan. The data collected by the study were analysed using the descriptive analysis methods. Being instructive, providing feedback to preservice teachers about homework and questions, improving both thinking and professional skills, and learning STEM and 5E lesson plan design were among those advantages of distance STEM education expressed by the preservice teachers. The preservice teachers also reported that the less-efficient nature of distance education and their experience of difficulties in communicating during the distance group studies as disadvantages of distance STEM education. This study is thought to contribute research in the field in both theoretical and practical sense.
ABSTRACT
In response to the COVID 19 pandemic, universities and colleges closed abruptly and teacher educators had little time to move instruction from face-to-face classrooms to digital learning environments. This sudden shift created a myriad of obstacles as instructors worked to retain pedagogically sound and effective instruction through online instruction--while also preparing novice teachers how to teach online themselves. Adding another layer of complexity is prospective teachers' lack of knowledge and hesitation regarding technology tools, as well as how to meaningfully integrate the tools into their teaching. Facing these challenges, we as literacy teacher educators, drew upon effective methods of teacher education, literacy practices and digital literacy to rethink the way we design lessons and assignments for our literacy methods courses. The framework we created for restructuring the integration of technology into courses can be duplicated across disciplines and guide instructors to reconceptualize their use of tech tools to re-envision face-to-face and digital instruction to expand learning outcomes.
ABSTRACT
To facilitate people using mathematical reasoning to compare risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the COViD-TASER (Creation of Visualizations of Data: The Application of STEM Education Research) research team to create the COVID-19 Relative Risk Tool (RRT). The RRT uses an interactive bar chart to display COVID-19 infection and vaccination risks alongside more familiar risks like driving, contracting breast cancer, playing soccer, and skydiving. To involve students, the authors developed and tested elementary, middle, and high school lesson plans that use the RRT. Each lesson is aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM, NGA Center and CCSSO 2010) for both content and mathematical practice, and each plan pursues two goals: (1) making comparisons of relative size of quantities, and (2) interpreting these relative sizes to understand COVID-19 data. For teachers who wish to incorporate more real-world contexts in the mathematics classroom and are unsure of how to start, the authors hope that their structured, pretested lessons plans provide a starting place for to help students make connections between the classroom and their everyday lives.
ABSTRACT
In this study, the impact of activity designing experiences with Web 2.0 tools on prospective math teachers was examined. The aim of the study was to examine the impact of activity design experiences organized with Web 2.0 tools in the mathematics teaching course on the technological pedagogical content efficacy of prospective teachers, their attitude towards teaching technologies, and rapid content development self-efficacy with Web 2.0 tools. In the study, a nested mixed method was employed. In the study conducted with 33 prospective teachers from the primary mathematics teaching department, the quantitative data was collected using the scales "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge", "Self-Sufficiency for Web 2.0 Rapid Content Development" and "Attitude to Teaching Technologies". Qualitative data was collected using an interview form. Within the scope of the distance education and "Teaching numbers" course, different Web 2.0 tools were introduced for a period of 10 weeks, and it was presented how to create activity examples that could be used in mathematics teaching. According to the quantitative results, the prospective mathematics teachers' self-efficacy increased for rapid content development with Web 2.0 tools. In addition, it was observed that the "Attitude towards Teaching Technologies" scale had a significant effect on the sub-dimensions such as believing in the use of teaching technologies in lessons, enjoying the use of teaching technologies in lessons, and not enjoying the use of teaching technologies. In line with the opinions of prospective mathematics teachers, it was concluded that the study raised awareness about technology integration, enabled content production with Web 2.0 tools, and developed positive attitudes, new knowledge, and skills about technology.
ABSTRACT
The consequences and affordances of online teacher education remain understudied, even as it promises greater accessibility. The COVID-19-related pivot to emergency remote teaching offered a novel opportunity to study how practice-based teacher educators transitioned courses online. This multiple case study of six graduate student instructors examines the effects of transition on four pedagogies of practice-based teacher education. We discovered that: (1) representations, (2) approximations of practice could be adapted with minimal disruption. However: (3) enactments could be transitioned only with loss and cascading effects that impacted, (4) reflections on practice. These findings can promote teacher educators' awareness of how to create intentionally designed online practice-based teacher education courses. [This is the online version of an article published in "The New Educator."]
ABSTRACT
In this article, the authors describe the redesign of a first-semester Spanish course at the United States Air Force Academy due to the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent transition from traditional, face-to-face instruction to fully online language teaching during the fall of 2020. More than 200 learners were enrolled across 11 course sections that were taught by eight different instructors who were required to use the same syllabus, learning platforms, lesson plans, and assessments under the supervision of a course director. The developers integrated a series of pedagogical interventions--such as online integrated performance assessments, lessons and content that were infused with open-access, authentic materials, and a digital storytelling project--to ensure that students engaged in three modes of communication within a meaningful cultural context. The instruction of culture, intercultural communicative competence, and pragmatics figured predominantly into the course design, which could be replicated by instructors who wish to teach language communicatively online.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed students to increased social-emotional stressors and instigated an emergency pivot to online teaching and learning. In doing so, it highlighted the need for effective social-emotional learning (SEL) programming in online learning environments. In response, this study explored how to adapt a widely used, traditional, school-based SEL program for online delivery. This small study describes a partnership between SEL researchers and educators that identified lesson components that were problematic for online delivery, designed potential online adaptations, and tested the feasibility of those online adaptations in an online learning context. Lesson review data, observational data from lesson rehearsals, as well as interview data were collected from teachers and counselors who teach SEL in schools across the US. Descriptive and thematic coding of the qualitative data indicated teacher-reported online delivery issues fell into six major categories: 1) partner work, 2) small-group work, 3) whole-class discussions, 4) role-playing, 5) physical movement, and 6) student handouts. For each of these six categories, at least five adaptation options were generated, allowing teachers choice and variety as well as developmental attunement when adapting instructional practices for online delivery. Taken together, the results of this study culminated in the creation of a toolbox of online adaptations that teachers can use when converting common instructional practices from face-to-face teaching to online, distance teaching. This study contributes to the underdeveloped research literature on online SEL teaching and learning by providing recommendations that are teacher-generated and tested, applicable to other SEL and academic programs, and practical for educators to implement.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to present a case on blended learning that can be utilized for high school music classes and to explore the objective and future direction of high school music courses. It designed a project music class that compromised the procedure of blended learning using the ADDIE model, and then conducted five courses for the first grade focusing on the life area and for the second grade focusing on the expression area, respectively. After class, teacher self-assessment and an open-ended student survey were conducted. The results of the case study are: first, a well-designed blended learning class can expand the scope of music classes by reinterpreting the curriculum's achievement standards. second, adopting blended learning is very important for people to be in line with the direction of future education of everyday art both online and offline. And third, most students positively evaluated the project music classes that were done either offline (in class) or online (interactive distance learning) biweekly. © 2022 Korean Music Education Society.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study is to explore how teachers describe the process of creating lesson plans that use drama-based instruction (DBI) in the classroom to engage students as well as how they describe their experience using DBI in the classroom to engage students. Fourteen teachers located in the state of Florida participated in this study. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) provided the theoretical framework for this study. Semi-structured individual interviews and two focus group discussions were the three data sources. The results revealed that DBI promotes student engagement, and all 21 participants have implemented lesson plans using DBI in their classrooms within the current or the last academic school year prior to COVID and have been teaching for a minimum of one year at the middle school level.Twelve themes were generated: 1. Before teachers create a DBI lesson plan, they reflect on their earlier teaching strategies;2. Teachers use their exposure to drama to create a DBI lesson;3. Teachers engage school administrators' to plan DBI lessons;4. Teachers use different strategies to create DBI lesson plans;5. Teachers revisit prior DBI challenges before implementing new lesson plans;6. Teachers use data from their experience using DBI;7. Teachers acknowledge that they need training to create DBI lesson plans;8. Teachers describe their experience of successful and failed attempts with DBI;9. Teachers describe students' behaviors and attitudes towards DBI;10. Teachers describe the most frequently used DBI components;11. Teachers describe the benefits they experience with DBI;12. Teachers describe the school's perception of DBI in the classroom. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
On March 17, 2020, Governor Asa Hutchinson closed all public schools in the state of Arkansas to on-site instruction through March 30 in an effort to contain the spread of the novel Coronavirus. With schools closed, teachers and students made the pivot to online learning. School closures changed the way teachers prepared and delivered lessons. Changes in instruction varied from school building to school building, district to district, and teacher to teacher based on location, available equipment, and individual teacher technological skill sets. This scoping review examines the perceptions of teachers on the effectiveness of lesson planning and content delivery during times when on-site learning is not possible. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Using a project management lens and agile methodologies to enhance student employability skills and innovation Society values the vital role scientists and engineers play in solving urgent, real-world problems such as developing COVID-19 vaccines. The NGSS framework for Engineering Design articulates specific practices and disciplinary core ideas that work in conjunction with other science standards to equip today's youth to be solvers of tomorrow's problems: asking questions, defining problems, and developing and optimizing solutions (NGSS Lead States 2013). The Agile framework and classroom application Although Agile methods maximize team efficiency and the spirit of failing fast as an industry standard, teachers are generally not formally experienced with its processes and nomenclature. Benefits of sprint planning are that each student leaves the meeting knowing what specific priorities the team is responsible to complete together.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to discover how a virtual learning opportunity using various digital tools influenced professional development for teachers in a rural school district. The qualitative study was conducted through virtual interviews and participant lesson plan submissions and was aligned with the Technology Integration Matrix. The case study included participation in a virtual professional learning opportunity for K-12 educators on the topic of digital tool use, with an interview at completion focusing on engagement and implementation of learned tools as a result of the virtual learning experience. Participant submission of lesson plans were reviewed to determine perceived implementation of technology in a K-12 classroom because of the virtual professional learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine preservice music educators' (PMEs) perceptions of a semester-long fieldwork experience first delivered in person and then asynchronously online. Using the community of inquiry (CoI) framework, I analyzed the PMEs' perceptions of their teaching presence in both fieldwork experiences. Participants cited benefits and challenges with lesson plan organization, in-person and asynchronous instruction, and building consensus about effective teaching. Notably, the asynchronous fieldwork provided a non-reactive environment where the script and delivery of content took precedent over a rehearsal mindset, which was more responsive and occurred during the in-person fieldwork. Based on these findings, music teacher educators might consider asynchronous fieldwork when in-person fieldwork is unavailable or as a stepping stone to prepare PMEs for in-person fieldwork experiences.
ABSTRACT
The educational disruptions caused by COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 were vast. Schools utilized a variety of instructional methods from paper packets to varying amounts of online synchronous and asynchronous instruction. One Nashville independent elementary school provided lesson plans each day for students to complete, with the assistance of their parents, largely asynchronously. To combat the difficulties encountered by families with two working parents and children frustrated by this type of learning, a zoom-conference based class consisting of three second grade children was created. Each day Monday through Thursday the children were presented a hands-on engineering design challenge that utilized materials found in their homes. The children had not been previously exposed to the engineering design process (EDP). The theoretical framework for this study lies in the areas of engineering identity as well as teamwork and feedback through engineering discourse. The research questions for this study were the following: 1) What are the impacts of teaching the engineering design process online via zoom conference on development of children's ability to use engineering discourse? Are students able to master the steps of the engineering design process? How do students learn to receive and implement feedback from their peers and the teacher over zoom? How is teamwork affected as compared to in-person experiences? 2) If any how do children develop their engineering identity through a series of zoom conference-based engineering design challenges? To answer these questions, data were derived from recordings of the online sessions and observations of student behavior and statements, the PowerPoint slides that were used to facilitate the course, photos and videos created by parents of the students' designs, and interviews with the children. Qualitative data analysis followed an inductive approach. The utilization of multiple data sources allowed for a complete picture of what is taking place during the sessions and how it impacted the children's understanding and practice of the engineering design process. The children became very facile with the EDP and its steps. They looked forward to the design challenge each day, often using it as motivation to get through their required schoolwork before starting the challenge. At times they struggled to give and especially to receive feedback from their peers, particularly when it involved criticism. All three children reported believing that they are an engineer, an indicator of a forming engineering identity. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
ABSTRACT
As a compulsory approach in shaping pre-service teachers for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), microteaching is either essential and challenging. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift from offline to the online microteaching course had occurred. This major shift drives the change of planning science lessons. Our research examined how pre-service science teachers designed and reflected their planning on a 30-minute microteaching unit. The participants of our study were four groups of pre-service science teachers that consisted of five students. The participants were pre-service science teachers from two national universities in Indonesia that were chosen by purposive sampling. The data was collected through the lesson plan, self-reflection to the lesson plan, and group discussion. We conducted both qualitative and quantitative analysis on research data for content analysis. The qualitative analysis dealt with the themes and patterns of the theme, while quantitative analysis dealt with the duration and frequency of the theme. Based on the analysis, the single domains such as CK, PK, TK were shown in the lesson plan. However, the complex domain of TPACK was rarely seen. The group discussions revealed that teacher educators need to become specific and explicit about which technology is being infused to support learning. It is significant to enhance the TPACK during planning in online microteaching classes and conduct further study of the implementation of this planning in the lesson. © 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.