Educational Advances (Asynchronous Session)
Higher Education and the Possibilities for Curriculum Construction in a Multicultural Perspective: Resilience and Social Change View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ana Ivenicki
This study considers a case of multicultural educational projects developed by a federal university in Brazil in partnership with local educational authorities in Brazilian municipalities. The projects aim to imbue curriculum with dimensions of resilience in the face of crises and social inequalities, so as to promote social change. They were geared towards a collective construction of curricular guidelines in a multicultural perspective that has taken identity as their main axe. They articulated areas and disciplines of the curriculum towards both valuing the distinctive historical identities of the municipalities, as well as were imbued by postcolonial and decolonial approaches that challenged prejudices and stereotypes towards marginalized identities on the lines of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and other identity markers. The methodology was that of action research, with a discourse analysis of the perspective that informed the curricular construction. Results show the potentials and challenges of multicultural, interdisciplinary curricular projects in the context of increasingly multicultural societies such as the Brazilian one, hopefully contributing towards comparative and international reflections in this area.
Opportunities for Access, Equity, and High Quality Programs: Hope and Resiliency In Early Childhood Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marisa Macy
Learning begins long before a child enters the doors of a school. Unfortunately, high quality inclusive educational program are often lacking. Young children with disabilities are increasingly served in inclusive early childhood environments. It is imperative that children have access to effective teaching practices that meet their special needs. The effort to include young people with disabilities has undergone a shift over the past four decades from working for individual rights and access to inclusive services and programs, toward creating quality inclusive services and programs. Among the many barriers to quality early childhood programs, two barriers stand out as continuing to need attention in the 21st century. The first barrier is the quality of inclusive settings. The Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study Team (1995) reported in their evaluation of U.S. early childhood programs most were rated as having "poor to mediocre" quality. Children with disabilities are often placed into early childhood programs where the primary teacher or provider has limited training in working with diverse groups of children. The second barrier is the manner in which child learning is facilitated. A typical inclusive classroom represents a wide range of young learners. With group designed programs and classrooms, professionals are not always equipped with tools to meet individual educational and developmental needs of children. Quality inclusive early childhood programs are places where teachers know and use effective teaching strategies designed to maximize development and learning (Bricker, 2000). This session shares information about early childhood inclusion.
Professional co-Development Groups: A Mechanism Promoting Interdisciplinary Work in Social Work and Special Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marie-Pierre Baron, Carole Côté, Nathalie Sasseville, Dominic Bizot, Doucet Manon
Educational and social problems experienced by children and their families are increasingly complex (Beaumont, Lavoie and Couture, 2011) and require the participation of several professionals, including teachers and social workers. It is in response to those needs related to professional practice that professional co-development groups were implemented in the initial training of teaching Special Education and of Social Work. These groups provide a space and time for discussions where the sharing of knowledge and experiences encourage questions, promote collaboration and bring together different point of view among various partners in order to explore innovative and efficient avenues of intervention with children facing difficulties and their families (Payette, 2001). The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how this mechanism can support interdisciplinary collaboration. For three months, students intervened with children and their families and, with focus groups, their visions on interdisciplinary collaboration and professional co-development groups were collected and qualitatively analyzed (Nvivo). The results of this research highlight various contributions of professional co-development groups, particularly related to efficiency, sense of belonging, strengthening of the professional identity and assistance skills.
Motivation as a Tool for Improving English Language Learning in Primary Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ana M. Perez Cabello
The main aim of this work is to offer a proposal to care about the different motivational aspects of students. This proposal has been created for different English lessons in Primary Education to reduce difficulties caused by the lack of motivation. This work proposes students´ needs to be taken into account and considers the different educational factors that can affect their learning. Some of them are related to the methodology carried out, type of resources, classroom environment, the use of English, and students’ expectations. Because of all these factors alternative activities have been planned in order to enhance positive effects on students. As a result, the development and proficiency of English language can be improved.
Featured Lived Experiences of Faculty Members In Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines Amidst COVID-19 View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mary Grace Villaflores
With the current onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions (HEIs) in most countries have shifted from the traditional to online mode of delivery. This study reports the findings of a survey examining the online teaching experiences of faculty members in HEIs and how the pandemic impacted the faculty work within the higher education setting. Findings reveal that there were various techniques and preparations employed by the faculty members in order to conduct an effective and efficient remote and online learning experience for their students. Remote online learning also offers faculty members more options for engaging instructional activities. It allows them to be more resourceful considering that they cannot meet in person with their students as with the traditional teaching mode. Despite the constraints and restrictions in conducting classes online, such as poor internet service, restricted contact between teachers and students, to name a few, most of the respondents, nevertheless, assessed themselves to be still efficient and effective as teachers.
A Correlational Study of Elementary Students’ Academic Performance towards Self-Regulated Learning Strategies and Conceptions of Learning View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lois Tambuyat
This correlational study examined relationships between academic performance to students’ self-regulated learning strategies and conceptions of learning for 87 students from 4th to 6th graders. To know the students’ conceptions of learning and self-regulated learning strategies, Purdie and Hattie’s (2002) questionnaire and Motivated Learning Strategies Questionnaire that was developed by Pintrich, Smith, Garcia and Mckeachie (1991) were administered in elementary students of a private school in Manila. The students’ academic achievement was also measured. The results showed a significant relationship between academic performance to conceptions of learning and self-regulated learning strategies. All self-regulated learning strategies have an effect to the academic performance of the students, however it was revealed that “rehearsal” has the most influential factor to achieve better academic performance. Additionally, among different conceptions of learning, learning as remembering, using, and understanding affects the most students’ learning.
How Corporations Affect Society at a Spiritual Level View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jayant Athavale, Sean Clarke
Ask any B-school graduate about the main aim of a corporation and the most likely answer would be enhancing shareholder value. The push for sustainable development in corporate culture has been a welcome change, but the concept of shareholder value is so engrained in a corporate’s collective psyche that it will always be the primary goal, often to the detriment of society and the environment. The team at the Maharshi University of Spirituality has 38 years of spiritual research experience and has undertaken extensive research into how spiritual dimension affects people’s lives. It was found that while sustainable development is a noble concept, it is just a step towards the larger altruistic spiritual role that corporates should pursue. In line with ancient Indian culture, a basic requisite for any entity should be to increase spiritually positive notions in people and the environment, or at the very least not add to the negative. Unfortunately, this understanding has been lost over time and is not included in B-school curricula. This paper elaborates on a few examples of how corporates consistently ignore these spiritual rules in various fields such as entertainment, food, beverages, jewellery, and garments to the detriment of society.
Working with Unaccompanied Minors in the Context of Informal Second Language Education in Greece View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eleni Karantzola, Roula Kitsiou
We present data and reflections from working with unaccompanied minors in the context of a hosting center in Athens during the pandemic (June 2020 - June 2021). More specifically, we refer to methodological and practical choices concerning design and implementation of language literacy interventions in an informal learning environment that is fluid and transcultural. We focus on a specific language literacy event that includes Arabic-speaking minors and we explore classroom interaction through rhizomatic diagramming practices (De Freitas, 2012). By analysing ethnographic data (photos, fieldnotes, field narratives and reflexive designs) we map the translanguaging space (Wei, 2018) that is performed in a specific literacy event, problematizing thus language use and power relations in this specific context. Our findings point out that informal second language education approached rhizomatically could shed light on aspects of the learners’ diversity, social and educational needs that may usually remain invisible. We argue that there is much more to take into consideration concerning learners’ linguistic repertoires and learning trajectories through a present informed both by learners’ past and their here-and-now performances employing a chronotopic approach (Blommaert 2015; Blommaert & De Fina, 2017) to literacy events, if we are to offer inclusive and culturally responsive language education across formal, informal, and non-formal educational contexts.
Effect of Education on Healthy Food Demand: An Almost Ideal System Approach View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Wasana Kalansooriya
Diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are growing concerns in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this study, I explore how individuals’ education affects household food demand behaviour in choosing healthy and unhealthy food in Sri Lanka, an LMIC. I used data from Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) carried out by the department of census and statistics in Sri Lanka in 2016, and I categorized food into fourteen food groups as healthy and unhealthy according to the food guidelines relates to diabetes and hypertension. Then I estimated the food demand elasticities for each food group using a Linear Approximation Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS) while applying a two-step estimation procedure to avoid the zero consumption problem. The preliminary results indicate that educated household heads allocate significantly lower shares of expenditures on unhealthy food such as high GI cereals, red or processed meat, sugar, fat and oil and confectionaries, as well as some healthy foods such as lean meat, eggs and vegetables compared to less educated housholds. The elasticity coefficients also suggest that households with educated household heads spend more on most healthy food and less on some unhealthy food with their income increase; however, they still show higher income elasticities for some unhealthy foods. Hence the study concludes that education makes mixed impacts on household healthy food demand. It contributes to making the correct decisions towards healthy consumption but not reducing the harmful ones.
