(2015). Socio-Psycho-Pedagogical Support of Migrant Children Adjustment in Educational Institutions, International Education Studies. The article deals with the problem of migration, the formation of cultural identity and the establishment of intercultural dialogue at various levels of adjustive interaction from the perspective of the need to implement the socio-psycho-pedagogical support to migrant children when adjusting in educational institutions. Analysis of foreign and domestic research on the issue of migrant children and their adjustment to the new socio-cultural living environment, as well as identification of cultural identity formation aspects from the perspective of the impact of various environmental factors, led to the formulation of the research goal, namely, the organization of socio-psycho-pedagogical support for adjustment of migrant pre-school-age children. The formulated goal is realized with the help of two interrelated tasks: creating of socio-pedagogical conditions for the successful adjustment of migrant children, as well as the organization of volunteer groups of students, who are able and willing to carry out work on the adjustment of migrant children into the other-cultural environment. According to the authors, the optimal means of solving this problem is project activities that assume getting familiar with the traditions of Russian culture, fostering the skills of constructive engagement, and forming tolerance in migrant children. Means to form cultural identity of migrant children include folktales, games, toys and animated movies, used during the adaptive interaction between a child and an adult. The result of the project implementation has bilateral perspective: it allows solving not only the problem of adjustment of migrant children, but also helps student volunteers in getting hands-on experience of working with children, as well as expanding the ethnic and cultural horizons of future teachers. Presented statistical data reflect the peculiarities of the adjustment process in migrant children in the Russian Federation, including the Orenburg Region, as a border territory. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Migrant Children, Student Adjustment, Acculturation
(2005). Teaching, Learning, and the Development of Leadership Skills through Constructive Engagement, Journal of Faculty Development. This study seeks to determine the level of acceptance of the Constructive Engagement Method (CEM) as a teaching, learning, and leadership skills development model. Employing a modified debate format, constructive engagement requires active student participation, even among the most introverted of students, and it fosters a learning environment conducive to in-depth understanding by teaching students a number of valuable skills. Using two separate groups of students comprising respectively an undergraduate and a graduate class, the researchers found broad expressions of satisfaction with the CEM model. Also identified were concerns that centered on process and evaluation issues. The results of this study suggest a significant opportunity exists for developing CEM as an integral part of both undergraduate and graduate curricula. [More] Descriptors: Leadership, Debate, Student Participation, Leadership Qualities
(2018). Mathematics Teachers' Conceptions about Modelling Activities and Its Reflection on Their Beliefs about Mathematics, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. The current study examines whether the engagement of mathematics teachers in modelling activities and subsequent changes in their conceptions about these activities affect their beliefs about mathematics. The sample comprised 52 mathematics teachers working in small groups in four modelling activities. The data were collected from teachers' Reports about features of each activity, interviews and questionnaires on teachers' beliefs about mathematics. The findings indicated changes in teachers' conceptions about the modelling activities. Most teachers referred to the first activity as a mathematical problem but emphasized only the mathematical notions or the mathematical operations in the modelling process; changes in their conceptions were gradual. Most of the teachers referred to the fourth activity as a mathematical problem and emphasized features of the whole modelling process. The results of the interviews indicated that changes in the teachers' conceptions can be attributed to structure of the activities, group discussions, solution paths and elicited models. These changes about modelling activities were reflected in teachers' beliefs about mathematics. The quantitative findings indicated that the teachers developed more constructive beliefs about mathematics after engagement in the modelling activities and that the difference was significant, however there was no significant difference regarding changes in their traditional beliefs. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Mathematics Teachers, Teacher Attitudes, Beliefs
(2019). Speech and Language Therapists' Views on Parents' Engagement in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. Background: Parents' play an essential role in Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) as the primary agent of intervention with their child. Unfortunately, speech and language therapists (SLTs) report that parents' engagement is challenging when conducting PCIT. Although focusing on and stimulating the engagement of parents, when needed, can increase the success of PCIT, little is known about what factors influence parent engagement. Aims: To explore SLTs' views about the factors that facilitate or pose barriers to parents' engagement in PCIT. Methods & Procedures: A secondary analysis of 10 interview transcripts about SLTs' views on delivering PCIT with parents of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) was conducted. Codes from the original analysis where checked for their relevance to parents' engagement by the first author. Potential themes were identified iteratively with all authors. Outcomes & Results: Four themes were identified in the SLTs' description of their experiences with the engagement of parents: mutual understanding, creating a constructive relationship between the SLT and parent, parental empowerment, and barriers. It became clear that SLTs were focusing on different aspects of engagement. Conclusions & Implications: This study makes an initial contribution to our understanding of SLTs' view of parents' engagement and about what stimulates parent engagement or effects disengagement. SLTs play an important role in supporting parents to engage and stay engaged with therapy. Training SLTs on how best to engage parents, focusing on mutual understanding, creating constructive relationships between the SLT and parent, parental empowerment, and barriers, is necessary. However, more research is needed on how to train relevant skills in SLTs. Clearer definitions of engagement would improve understanding and judgements about how best to support parents. [More] Descriptors: Allied Health Personnel, Speech Language Pathology, Attitudes, Parents
(2012). Needs and Nonviolent Communication in the Religious Studies Classroom, Teaching Theology & Religion. Religious studies classrooms are microcosms of the public square in bringing together individuals of diverse identities and ideological commitments. As such, these classrooms create the necessity and opportunity to foster effective modes of conversation. In this essay, I argue that communication attuned to shared human needs–among them needs for safety, respect, and belonging–offers a transformative response to the potential self-silencing and peer-conflict to which religious studies classrooms are prone. I develop this claim with reference to the research on teaching religious studies conducted by Barbara Walvoord and the pedagogy of theologian and Swarthmore University President Rebecca Chopp in formulating an "ethics of conversation" with her students. Building on this foundation, I make a case for developing an "ethos of conversation" in the religious studies classroom based on psychologist and peace activist Marshall Rosenberg's method of "nonviolent communication." While addressing the roles of conflict and toleration in the classroom through the perspectives of Alasdair MacIntyre and Jeffrey Stout, I argue that Rosenberg's approach to communication is a powerful asset to education that models constructive engagement in the macrocosm of civic life. [More] Descriptors: Religion Studies, Role Conflict, Conflict, Ethics
(2009). Science in the News: An Evaluation of Students' Scientific Literacy, Teaching Science. Understanding and evaluating reports of science in the media is frequently stated as an attribute of a scientifically literate person, with some researchers suggesting it should be fundamental to any study of scientific literacy. Constructive engagement with science news briefs requires individuals to understand the terms used, take a critical stance and to make links from the report to the broader science discipline and social context. Yet the research reported in this paper indicates that more than fifty percent of the first-year university students surveyed did not demonstrate the ability to critically engage with science reported in the news. The students demonstrated minimal engagement with the reported methods and a lack of sensitivity to the fact that scientific research takes place within a social community. The findings of this study highlight the need for explicit teaching, with appropriate scaffolds and modeling to develop students' ability to critically engage with science news reports. [More] Descriptors: Scientific Research, Scientific Literacy, Social Environment, Evaluation
(2016). Engagement in Structured Social Space: An Investigation of Teachers' Online Peer-to-Peer Interaction, Learning, Media and Technology. With a growing number of teachers engaging online with their peers, online social spaces are increasingly highlighted as playing a key role in teachers' professional learning and development. However, while academic and professional discourses tend to focus on the benefits and weaknesses of teachers' engagement in online social spaces, little attention has been given to the spaces themselves. Rooted in essentialist or instrumentalist assumptions about technology, these spaces are often conceptualised as neutral contexts, free from values, structures, and agendas that simply facilitate interaction. However, presenting data gathered during a year-long digital ethnography of three such spaces, this paper argues that they are in fact highly complex social environments that contain embedded structures relating to technical design and functionality, dominant discourses, and the agendas of parent organisations. Such structures shape user engagement and have a constructive influence over the ways in which teachers think about their subjects and themselves as professionals. Therefore, it is argued that in order to understand fully the place online social spaces could or should have in teachers' professional lives, the complex online environments in which teachers engage and the relationship between structure and agency must be analysed. [More] Descriptors: Computer Mediated Communication, Educational Technology, Communities of Practice, Teacher Collaboration
(2019). Enhancing Chinese College Students' Transfer of Learning through Service-Learning, Studies in Higher Education. Service-learning (SL) is a form of experiential education which promotes student learning through community service and critical reflection. This study aims to examine the effect of SL on Chinese college students' transfer of learning and to explore the psychological mechanism of such effect. In Phase 1 with 186 Chinese college students, the SL group performed better in the quality of transfer but worse in the quantity of transfer than the traditional group. In Phase 2, survey data from the SL group demonstrated that constructive cognitive conflict had positive effects on behavioral engagement and transfer of learning; behavioral engagement fully mediated the relation between cognitive conflict and transfer of learning; and gender moderated the relation between cognitive conflict and behavioral engagement. This study answered whether and why SL could promote Chinese college students' transfer of learning. It has significant implications for promoting SL in reforming current teaching practice in China. [More] Descriptors: Service Learning, Educational Change, Foreign Countries, Teaching Methods
(2011). Narrative Policy Analysis and the Use of the Meta-Narrative in Participatory Policy Development within Higher Education, Higher Education Policy. Narrative policy analysis is examined for its contribution to participatory policy development within higher education. Within narrative policy analysis the meta-narrative is developed by the policy analyst in order to find a way to bridge opposing narratives. This development can be combined with participants deliberating in a policy process, working with the meta-narrative to resolve the policy issue. The provision of a meta-narrative by the policy analyst or participants involved in a policy development process can facilitate the deliberation occurring about a counter narrative. These possibilities are examined within a policy development process occurring within a university. Meta-narratives were proposed as a means of reconciling institutionally dominant narratives of graduate attributes and disciplinary views on important aspects of these attributes. These meta-narratives paved the way for constructive engagement and discussion on the notion of graduate qualities. Although these meta-narratives were developed by a policy analyst and communicated to the academic community, individual academics and their faculties were given the opportunity to develop their own versions of the policy. I argue that the development of a meta-narrative by either the policy analyst or by the participants in a policy development process can enhance the pursuit of participatory policy development within a university. [More] Descriptors: Higher Education, Policy Formation, Policy Analysis, Educational Policy
(2017). Shaping and Being Shaped by Environments for Learning Science: Continuities with the Space and Democratic Vision of a Century Ago, Science & Education. Environments of learning often remain unnoticed and unacknowledged. This study follows a student and myself as we became aware of our local environment at MIT and welcomed that environment as a vibrant contributor to our learning. We met this environment in part through its educational heritage in two centennial anniversaries: John Dewey's 1916 work "Democracy and Education" and MIT's 1916 move from Boston to the Cambridge campus designed by architect William Welles Bosworth. Dewey argued that for learning to arise through constructive, active engagement among students, the environment must be structured to accommodate investigation. In designing an environment conducive to practical and inventive studies, Bosworth created organic classical forms harboring the illusion of symmetry, while actually departing from it. Students and I are made open to the effects of this environment through the research pedagogy of "critical exploration in the classroom," which informs my practice of listening and responding, and teaching while researching; it lays fertile grounds for the involvement of one student and myself with our environment. Through viewing the moon and sky by eye, telescope, airplane, and astrolabe, the student developed as an observer. She became connected with the larger universe, and critical of formalisms that encage mind and space. Applying Euclid's geometry to the architecture outdoors, the student noticed and questioned classical features in Bosworth's buildings. By encountering these buildings while accompanied by their current restorer, we came to see means by which their structure and design promote human interaction and environmental sustainability as intrinsic to education. The student responded creatively to Bosworth's buildings through photography, learning view-camera, and darkroom techniques. In Dewey's view, democracy entails rejecting dualisms endemic in academic culture since the Greek classical era. Dewey regarded experimental science, where learners are investigators, as a means of engaging the world without invoking dualism. Although Dewey's theory is seldom practiced, our investigations cohered with Deweyan practice. We experienced the environment with its centennial philosophy and architecture as educational agency supportive of investigation that continues to evolve across personal and collective history. [More] Descriptors: Science Instruction, College Students, Universities, Educational Environment
(2012). Miss, What's My Name? New Teacher Identity as a Question of Reciprocal Ontological Security, Educational Philosophy and Theory. This paper extends the dialogue of educational philosophy to the experience of beginners entering the teaching profession. Rather than impose the ideas of any specific philosopher or theorist, or indeed official standard, the exploration presented here owes its origins to phenomenology and the use of grounded theory. Working from a narrative data base and focussing on the knowing of name in the first instance, the authors develop their emergent ideas on self and identity in relation to children taught, through connection to a wider literature that includes reference to Giddens, Illeris, Deleuze and Heidegger, for example. The paper is thus also an exercise in suggesting that research on practice by academics working in professional education, who are non-philosophers, can lead to constructive and relevant engagement with philosophy in developing theory from and about about practice, even though the approach, in the initial stages, may well be serendipitous and eclectic in nature. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Grounded Theory, Teaching (Occupation), School Culture
(2007). Constructive Engagement with the Corporation, Academe. Many of the gravest concerns that critics of corporate culture have about the consequences of academic-corporate relationships are built on little more than ill-informed speculation, fueled by a lack of direct engagement with corporations. The solution to knowledge gap–and the key to liberation from fears of "creeping corporatization"–may actually involve more connections with industry, not fewer. The possibility of using partnerships to develop a more nuanced understanding of corporate counterparts led the author to spend over a year studying the dynamics of the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program in Business, a cross-sector collaboration involving universities, companies, a federal government agency, and a nonprofit organization that coordinates the initiative. In this article, the author talks about the LEAD program which points to several practical ideas for moving the dialogue on academic-corporate relationships to a higher plane, one that goes beyond "mine and thine" territorial interests, and its example which suggests that collaborations can provide spaces in which to challenge long held assumptions, reset thinking, and recognize areas of greater compatibility. The author also discusses ways of working with business interests in which academic institutions can constructively engage with corporations. [More] Descriptors: Organizational Culture, Business, Corporations, Higher Education
(2019). Adolescent Civic Engagement and Perceived Political Conflict: The Role of Family Cohesion, Youth & Society. Adolescents are often exposed to the lasting effects of political conflict. Complementing existing research on negative outcomes in these settings, this article focuses on the role of the family (N = 731 mother/adolescent dyads, 51% female, M = 14.72, SD = 1.99, years old at Time 1) in promoting constructive youth outcomes in response to perceived conflict in Northern Ireland. Exploratory factor analyses revealed two related forms of youth civic engagement: volunteerism and political participation. Structural equation modeling revealed that compared with males, female adolescents reported more volunteerism. Older adolescents reported higher political participation and lower volunteerism. Moreover, over three time points, the primary model test revealed that the impact of perceived political conflict on adolescent volunteerism and political engagement was partially mediated by family cohesion. These findings suggest that amid protracted political conflict, the family may be a key factor underlying adolescents' contributions to post-accord peacebuilding. [More] Descriptors: Citizen Participation, Political Attitudes, Conflict, Family Relationship
(2019). The Centrality of Teaching Presence: Using Multiple Modes to Facilitate Collaborative Active Engagement in a Synchronous Teacher Online Learning Community, Journal of Interactive Learning Research. This 10-week, descriptive case study situated within a Masters course of practicing teachers investigated how the teaching presence of a synchronous online learning community facilitated participant active engagement through interaction. Results indicate that while the platform's modes can facilitate some form of interaction when used independently of each other, the teaching presence of the class facilitated an interdependence of the platform's different communicative tools to create an improved environment for active engagement through collaboration. Consequently, the synchronous online course used multiple semiotic modes to collectively engage around course curriculum through two different paths: Interactive Lecture and Interactive Discussion. These findings indicate that the instructors' teaching presence helped shape the course into a learning community in which educators engaged in constructive exchanges, in real time and through various modes, about course content. [More] Descriptors: Teacher Collaboration, Communities of Practice, Teacher Participation, Synchronous Communication
(2019). Chinese Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Mobile Learning: Conceptions, Learning Profiles, and Approaches, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. Close links between students' conceptions of and approaches to learning were established in the past research. However, only a few quantitative studies investigated this relationship particularly with regard to mobile learning (m-learning). The correlation between learners' conceptions and approaches to m-learning was analysed using a partial least squares analysis applied to data obtained from a sample of 971 undergraduate students in China. The results indicated that students' conceptions of m-learning could be classified into reproductive, transitional, and constructive levels. Students may hold multiple m-learning applications than a predominant one; hence, examining m-learning as one monolithic entity may provide limited information. Latent profile analysis identified four learning profiles based on students' preferred m-learning applications: passive, mixed, surface-supportive, and high-engagement.. Moreover, a general trend was observed, whereby students with reproductive and surface-supportive learning profiles showed a tendency to adopt surface approaches, whereas those expressing constructive and mixed learning profiles were more inclined to adopt deep approaches. Interestingly, students with transitional conceptions and high-engagement learning profiles tended to take both surface and deep approaches. [More] Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Student Attitudes, Telecommunications, Handheld Devices