Focused Discussions IV
For work that is best discussed or debated, rather than reported on through a formal presentation, these sessions provide a forum for an extended “roundtable” conversation between an author and a small group of interested colleagues. Summaries of the author’s key ideas, or points of discussion, are used to stimulate and guide the discourse.
Cultural and Conceptual Change: Evolution in the United States as a Model for Impacting Science Literacy Worldwide
Focused Discussion Amanda Glaze
What does it say about classroom learning when a majority of the United States populace does not accept evolution? Somewhere between university studies and entry into the classroom, something is influencing teacher decisions about evolution, something that determines what they teach their students and how. Understanding this process is the key to designing pre-service teacher curriculum that enhances understanding, encourages teaching of evolution, and provides support to do so confidently and accurately. This study sought to examine the lived experiences of pre-service science teachers as they prepared to enter the classroom as teachers. To do so, interviews were conducted among individuals who were sorted based on their levels of acceptance of evolution. These interviews provided insight into the cultural and personal experiences that shape ideas about evolution, teaching evolution, and the nature of science itself among students in a rural teaching college in the Southeastern United States, a region where evolution controversy is openly contentious. While the United States stands at the opposite of many other first tier nations in this position, what we have learned about culturally responsive approaches to teaching, learning, and teacher education applies across fields to all areas where there is public misconception, including climate change, science and religion, and cultural divergence from scientific positions.
English Language Education Policies Reform in China and the Effects of Confucianism
Focused Discussion Xue zi Han
English Language Education policies in China have been discussed and studied for decades. Meanwhile, Confucianism functions as the key term as it affects learners and teachers in China while it is rarely considered together with policy reform. By reviewing previous English language reform policies in China by following the timeline, this paper also develops its own three-layer framework to assist the illustration. To consider the impact of sociocultural values and understand the details of the recent educational reforms, this paper aims to be more inspiring and to seek hidden answers by digging deep into the routes of traditional, cultural habits and historical development.
Mathematics Education Innovation: A Look at Developmental Mathematics Practice and Pre-Calculus Redesign
Focused Discussion Hongde Hu, Alysia Goyer
The California State University (CSU) system announced in the summer of 2017 that non-credit bearing remediation will be phased out and replaced with co-requisite approaches. In response to the CSU’s policy change and to improve the success-rate of the entry-level mathematics courses, especially Pre-Calculus for the STEM major students, we develop an innovative model pairs an existing parent course with a one-unit supplemental course to provide a variety of interventions and practices to support students at California State University, Monterey Bay. In this discussion, we will discuss the model, which divides instruction among faculty, teaching assistants, and tutors, that actively moves students from classroom work, to group work, to homework, to exams.
Personal Narrative as a Scaffolding Tool for Professional Learning and Performance Improvement
Focused Discussion Vera Leykina
This session introduces the concept of a personal narrative as a scaffolding tool for collaborative professional learning. This approach may be applied to a group of teachers, nurses, social workers, or other professionals working with people which they have no previous experience of servicing. Often, well-trained specialists encounter groups of population with unknown needs. The training approach presented here is an application of Sociocultural Learning Theory to professional adult learning. Session participants will be able to identify possibilities for scaffolding of professional learning and will begin constructing personal narratives as scaffolds applicable to professional learning and growth in their areas of expertise. The approach to be presented is based on the Sociocultural learning theory. The participants will learn about personal narratives as scaffolding tools by experiencing, analyzing, and constructing them.
The Benefits of Combining Visual Mapping Techniques with the Principles of Excellent Teaching and Learning
Focused Discussion Hanna Miller
Visual mapping techniques are nothing new in education. We have long used them to explain, model, demonstrate teacher thinking and check student understanding. We use specific "thinking maps," each underpinned by their own thinking process to drive improvements in teaching and learning across all phases and curriculum areas within our Trust. Despite the differing contexts, the shared language of ‘thinking maps’ across each school has provided students of all ages with a language to communicate and develop their thinking and understanding and has allowed teachers to show clearer relationships between concepts and topics. There have been clear avenues to use the maps to improve metacognition and memory in the classroom, link mapping to quality questioning and engage students in difficult subject knowledge. This session would share the best practice but also the pitfalls and how they were overcome.
Social Difference in Digital Spaces
Focused Discussion Ebony Perez, Alexandra Kanellis, Nancy Wood, Holly Atkins
Digital spaces can be utilized in a myriad of ways to engage students in learning how to engage and advance social issues in their chosen field of study. Technology allows faculty to develop innovative pedagogical strategies to foster a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of oppression and marginalization that exist. Furthermore, digital spaces provide the opportunity to expose students to simulated experiences, provide resources, and live feedback and consultation. In this discussion, participants will be introduced to some of the unique approaches faculty in three different disciplines maneuver digital spaces to help students foster critical self-awareness, manage personal values to engage in ethical praxis, and develop knowledge and skills to promote social justice in their respective fields of study.
