Vol 11 no 3 may 2015 by ijlter.org

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching And Educational Research

Vol.11 No.3

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is an open-access journal which has been established for the disChief Editor Dr. Antonio Silva Sprock, Universidad Central de semination of state-of-the-art knowledge in the Venezuela, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of field of education, learning and teaching. IJLTER welcomes research articles from academics, edEditorial Board ucators, teachers, trainers and other practitionProf. Cecilia Junio Sabio ers on all aspects of education to publish high Prof. Judith Serah K. Achoka quality peer-reviewed papers. Papers for publiProf. Mojeed Kolawole Akinsola Dr Jonathan Glazzard cation in the International Journal of Learning, Dr Marius Costel Esi Teaching and Educational Research are selected Dr Katarzyna Peoples through precise peer-review to ensure quality, Dr Christopher David Thompson originality, appropriateness, significance and Dr Arif Sikander readability. Authors are solicited to contribute Dr Jelena Zascerinska to this journal by submitting articles that illusDr Gabor Kiss trate research results, projects, original surveys Dr Trish Julie Rooney Dr Esteban Vázquez-Cano and case studies that describe significant adDr Barry Chametzky vances in the fields of education, training, eDr Giorgio Poletti learning, etc. Authors are invited to submit paDr Chi Man Tsui pers to this journal through the ONLINE submisDr Alexander Franco sion system. Submissions must be original and Dr Habil Beata Stachowiak should not have been published previously or Dr Afsaneh Sharif be under consideration for publication while Dr Ronel Callaghan Dr Haim Shaked being evaluated by IJLTER. Dr Edith Uzoma Umeh Dr Amel Thafer Alshehry Dr Gail Dianna Caruth Dr Menelaos Emmanouel Sarris Dr Anabelie Villa Valdez Dr Özcan Özyurt Assistant Professor Dr Selma Kara Associate Professor Dr Habila Elisha Zuya

VOLUME 11

NUMBER 3

May 2015

Table of Contents English-Medium Content Courses: Student Approaches and Strategies to Increase Comprehension Levels .......... 1 Darrell Wilkinson The Realities of Reconstitution: A High School‟s Tale ................................................................................................... 17 Todd Cherner Introducing Productive Pedagogies to Nigerian Mathematics Classroom through Collaborative Action Research Using a Community of Practice Approach ........................................................................................................................ 41 Dr. Iliya Joseph Bature, James Jonah Jackson, Aramide Kemi, Danladi Remkyes Shol and Nengak Sabo Blended VS On-Campus Learning: A Study of Exam Results in the Bachelor Degree in Nursing............................ 59 Bjørg F. Oftedal, Kristin H. Urstad, Venche Hvidsten and Brynjar Foss Dealing with Mixed-language Abilities in an English-Medium University Content Course .................................... 69 Natalie Close Supporting Cooperative Learning with Technological Tools ......................................................................................... 78 Asst. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Derya IŞIK and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gizem SAYGILI Video Annotation for Effective Feedback and Reflection on Micro-Lessons in a Collaborative Blended Learning Environment to Promote SelfDirected Learning Skills .................................................................................................... 88 C.P. van der Westhuizen Application of Contextual Learning to Improve Critical Thinking Ability of Students in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies Class .................................................................................................................................................. 109 Hasruddin, Muhammad Yusuf Nasution and Salwa Rezeqi

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 1-16, May 2015

English-Medium Content Courses: Student Approaches and Strategies to Increase Comprehension Levels Darrell Wilkinson Soka University Tokyo, Japan Abstract. Taking English-medium content courses is very challenging for speakers of English as a foreign language, and various factors contribute to the difficulty including the rate of speech that the lectures are delivered at, the technical vocabulary used, and the fact that the content itself is often difficult to comprehend in the native language let alone in a foreign language. This research investigates first-year Japanese university students‘ perceptions of one such course delivered at a private university in Tokyo. The strategies and approaches that students use in order to successfully understand and take part in an English-medium economics course are also examined. Qualitative research methods including observations, interviews, surveys and document checking were used to investigate the research questions. Data analysis showed that students found it difficult to understand the course content, especially the spoken component of the lectures, but used a number of strategies and approaches to increase comprehension. However, the participants showed a preference for the use of preprepared outlines, and pre and post-class peer discussions to better understand the course content. The results can serve as a guide for anyone involved in foreign language-medium content course design, especially teachers who wish to offer specific support to students enrolled on such courses. Keywords: content-based instruction; student strategies; Englishmedium instruction; language integrated learning

Introduction In recent years there has been an increasing trend amongst universities worldwide to offer content courses in a second language (Dale, 2012; Miichi, 2010; Pinner, 2013; Yamano, 2013). This teaching approach was first defined by Krahnke (1987) as content and language integrated learning (CLIL), which he describes ―as the teaching of content in the target language with little or no explicit effort to separately teach the language itself.‖ (p. 2). This trend has also gained significant popularity in the Japanese university context recently, with over 190 Japanese universities offering English-medium content courses in 2008 © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

(Miichi, 2010). The number of these types of courses further increased as a result of Japanese Education Ministry initiated programs such as the Global 30 project implemented in 2009, which resulted in an additional 150 courses being offered nationwide, and the Top Global University Project from 2014 (Wilkinson, 2015). The research project discussed in this paper came from an interest born out of a number of years of involvement with one such course in a private Japanese university in Tokyo. In the faculty of economics at the above mentioned university, students enrolled on a specific program receive a great deal of English skills training in order to not only improve their general English proficiency, but also to help them successfully take a number of English-medium economics content (CLIL) courses. All students are expected to come prepared, actively contribute to the course, and pass tests designed around the content. Preparation for the courses includes reading the chapters to be covered in the lecture a number of times, producing outlines of the chapters, and discussing the content with their peers in adjunct academic English classes. During the lectures, students are expected to take part in group discussions as well as occasionally providing answers to the lecturerâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s questions to the whole class. These Englishmedium content courses not only offer students an interesting learning environment, but also provide an effective method of consolidating and improving both their economics knowledge and English proficiency. In addition, the program aims to provide learners with the skills needed to study abroad or work in international contexts (Aloiau, 2008). Based on experience, it seemed clear that while understanding university-level content in English was very challenging for the students, they did a very admirable job. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light on the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; perceptions of (a) the English-medium content courses in general, (b) the materials and activities adopted to improve comprehension of the lectures, and (c) to discover the strategies that they used to successfully understand the lectures and complete the course requirements.

Content and Language Integrated Learning: A brief Overview As this teaching approach has been gaining popularity, especially in recent years, there are a lot of guidelines available for CLIL teachers regarding curriculum and materials design, for example, using visual aids, clearly organizing the content, and providing chances for peer support (Coyle, 2008; Dale and Tanner, 2012; European Commission, 2012). There is also a growing body of empirical research in support of CLIL, with many researchers citing evidence that a CLIL approach is effective in teaching both the content and target language (Coyle, 2008 and 2006; European Commision, 2012; Johnson & Swain, 1997; Lasagabaster, 2008; Richards and Rodgers, 2001; Snow, Met and Genessee, 1989; Yamano, 2013). However, as Marsh (2002) and many of the authors mentioned above point out, the cognitive burden involved in trying to understand course content in an second language (L2) can cause significant challenges to students in CLIL courses. Gaining sufficient levels of comprehension is seen as major hurdle for learners studying content in an L2, with issues such as vocabulary, speed of speech, and text difficulty being common challenges faced by students. Therefore, while there seems to be well documented benefits of adopting a CLIL approach, it also clear that such an ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

approach is challenging for learners, and they are therefore likely to need specific skills training and support if they are to be successful.

Skills and Strategies used with CLIL Although there has been vast amounts of research on listening in a second language, and some research carried out regarding the difficulties students experience with L2 medium content lectures, there is still a need for further, research. With regard to L2 lectures, research to date has largely focussed on the common features that exist in lectures such as naturally paced, lengthy, and complex spoken texts (Coulthard & Montgomery, 1981; DeCarrico & Nattinger, 1988; Montgomery, 1977; Murphy & Candlin, 1979; Olsen & Huckin, 1990; Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975). Some studies have examined what strategies students use to help increase comprehension and overall success, with notetaking, vocabulary study, and revision of content materials being common approaches (Benson, 1989; Flowerdew & Miller, 1992, 1995; Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Malley, Chamot and Kupper, 1989). The authors above have suggested that by structuring content lectures in a consistent way, and by providing learners with clear visual materials, lecturers can put learners at ease, and improve comprehension. However, the skills required in CLIL courses are very different to those needed in the language classroom, and some characteristics of CLIL courses which present specific challenges include issues such as the content rich nature, extended discourse, technical vocabulary, the speed of speech, and the large student numbers (Coyle, 2008; Dale & Tanner, 2012). Furthermore, while more and more language teachers are adopting an increasingly student-centred approach, CLIL courses by nature, are much more teacher-centred or led. In addition, common features often seen in language classes such as simplification of language and materials, reduced speech rates, and controlling the length of texts and spoken passages (Nation & Macalister, 2009; O'Malley, 1989; Widdowson, 2010) are traditionally not features of content courses. In traditional teacher-fronted lectures, content information is delivered at more natural speech rates, and discourse blocks are quite long; often lasting for several minutes at least. Therefore, the skills and strategy training that students need for success in taking CLIL courses may be very different than those commonly offered in language courses.

Gaps in the Literature As mentioned, much of the research has been aimed at providing content teaching professionals with guidelines on which instructional materials can be designed, for example, by choosing texts carefully, simplifying or annotating texts, utilizing visual materials, structuring classes and content clearly, and offering cooperative learning activities (Coyle, 2008; Dale and Tanner, 2012; European Commission, 2012). However, while some of the literature deals with specific activities or materials used by students in CLIL courses (Davidson, 2005; Loranc-Paszylk, 2009; Reiss, 2005; Wolf, 2005), there is surprisingly little qualitative data available on the topic. In addition, how learners perceive the activities which feature in this study, for example, outlining of content chapters used in the lectures, and using peers as a resource are not given specific focus.

With regard to outlining, this is a widely recommended activity or strategy to increase comprehension of reading materials, and while there have been some positive results reported in studies examining the effects of outlining on listening comprehension, most studies focused on outlining in the L1, and used teacher-prepared outlines (Tsubaki & Nakayama, n.d.). However, the process involved in outlining; reading the texts numerous times, looking up unknown vocabulary, identifying and organizing main points and supporting details, and then producing an outline which can serve as a guide during the lectures seems likely to be very beneficial, if not simply as a result of the time-on-task involved. However, as stated, little empirical research-based support is currently available, and studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; perceptions of outlines as a means to gaining higher comprehension levels of lecture content delivered in an L2 remains unexamined. Also, while the benefits of peer support have been noted by many, for example, Adapa (2015); Hattie (2009) and Topping (1996), student perceptions of peer support in a CLIL specific domain remain unexamined. Therefore, how often learners seek out peer support, and how they perceive its importance for successfully taking English-medium content courses is another area for which more empirical data is needed. In summary, there is little qualitative data providing insights into (a) how materials such as those mentioned above are perceived by learners, (b) the extent to which students use peers for support, or (c) what specific actions students take to improve their comprehension in CLIL courses.

Aims of the Study This study aims, through observation, interviews, surveys, and artefact checking, to identify which types of materials and strategies students find most beneficial, and why students make the choices they make. While there is some qualitative data available examining what learners think about CLIL courses (see Coyle, 2006, for a review of case studies), no studies examining the strategies that students utilize, or materials that they prefer to use in order to overcome the challenges of understanding university-level content in a foreign language could be found. Therefore, this paper aims to offer some relevant and new insights into Japanese learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; experiences and choices regarding content courses delivered in a foreign target language. It is hoped that the data gathered as part of this research will help highlight the type of skills training, both language and nonlanguage related, that students find beneficial, as well as identifying what materials and strategies students find useful. It is felt that the insights gained from this research will be of benefit to anyone involved in designing or teaching CLIL courses, especially at the university level.

Research Questions 1. What aspects of CLIL courses do students perceive as most challenging? (vocabulary, speed of speech, content complexity etc.) 2. Which materials and strategies do students adopt to overcome these challenges?

3. What are the students‘ views of the effectiveness of these materials in comprehending the lecture content?

Research Context The International Program (IP) is offered to economics majors at private university located in western Tokyo. According to Aloiau (2008), ―The IP is an intensive English-medium economics program that provides academic preparation for undergraduate and graduate study-abroad, and preparation for students‘ future employment in international contexts.‖ (p. 108). The program first develops student‘s English and study skills through academic English language classes offered in the first semester, then continues this in the subsequent three semesters while students also take economics content classes in English. In this way, the program aims to systematically build the students English writing, listening, reading, speaking, note-taking, and other skills which they need to achieve their short-term and long term goals. These goals include successfully studying economics in English in their current context, and then studying abroad for one semester or academic year in their third or fourth years, followed by working in international contexts (Aloiau, 2008). In the adjunct English language classes, all students are given substantial instruction and practice in making materials and using strategies that can help improve their comprehension levels during the English-medium lectures. As a result, all students come to the lecture having pre-read the chapter to be covered a number of times, highlighting key points, and having drafted a detailed outline of the chapter. These outlines are a mandatory part of the content courses, and in the early stages students are required to make a number of drafts. However, in the later stages, the number of required outlines is reduced, and students are given more freedom in deciding on how many drafts to do. The outlines, like the chapters themselves, are written in English, and while they are drafted outside of class, students are given time to discuss them with their peers in the English language classes. Students have also been instructed on, and given practice at discussing challenging content with their peers.

Participants The sample comprised of approximately 120 first-year Japanese university students majoring in economics, who were also enrolled on the second semester of the IP. The sample was made up of approximately equal proportions of female and male students. At the start of the research, students had completed one and a half semesters of intensive English training, but had taken only half a semester of English-medium content courses. All students had a minimum TOEFL ITP score of 440, and can be described as highly motivated.

Data Collection Observations. The researcher set out to observe the students in a ‗real world‘ lecture environment. It was felt that observations were needed, because simply giving students a survey, or carrying out interviews or focus groups alone would not produce accurate, detailed or holistic information. The observations took place in the main lecture theatre during the course of the content classes. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

There was approximately 120 students in each of the lectures observed. Audio recordings using a smart phone were taken and proved to be an invaluable asset when analysing the data. As Hatch (2002) and Spradley (1980) both observe, the level of participation, or participant positionality, is a key factor to think about when planning observations. In this research context the researcher can be classified as non-participant observer as he was neither a student nor teacher of the class. Interviews. It was felt that the data gathered from interviews would not only triangulate the observation data, but would add further insights in the students own words (see appendix 1 for the basic interview questions). Although it would have been ideal to interview a large number students, only three students volunteered. The interviews took place in a private office in the same building where the lectures were held. This location was chosen by the participants who were given a choice of the researchers‘ office, the library, or an on-campus meeting room. The participants were used to this setting as they often came to see their instructors in the same kind of office space and location. Of the various types of interviews discussed by Hatch (2002) and Spradley (1979), what has been termed as semi-structured interviews were chosen. Although the researcher came to the interview with a number of guiding questions, it was expected that new or extra information would come up which would require asking unplanned follow up questions, or indeed to even follow a whole new line of inquiry altogether. This actually turned out to be the case as all of the participants provided information that had not been considered, and the interviews went in somewhat unplanned, yet extremely interesting and informative directions. Surveys. A survey was administered to a convenience sample made up of the students enrolled on the researchers EAP course, and consisted of 12 male and 9 female students. The survey (see appendix 2) aimed to add more data and triangulate the information gained from the interviews. Artefact Checking. Data was further triangulated by examining studentproduced materials such as outlines, lesson notes, and annotations of course texts. The materials of all the students enrolled in the EAP class were collected and analyzed repeatedly over the course of the semester. Students also brought these materials to the interviews. This data enabled the researcher to see actual strategies and approaches used, and to correlate this with the observation and interview data. During the observation, it was possible to observe the students using their annotated chapters, outlines, and teacher handouts. Then, during the interviews, as participants referred to their use of such materials, the researcher was able to have them produce these materials to show what they had just described.

Data Analysis Although the data analysis carried out in this study used inductive and interpretive methods, the methodology probably best fits into what Hatch (2002) describes as ―Typological Analysis‖, and involved ―dividing the overall data © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

into categories or groups based on predetermined typologies or headings‖ (pp. 152-161). These headings came not only from the relevant literature, but also from contextual knowledge regarding the types of materials students had available, the types of skills training they had been given, and an understanding of some of the difficulties they faced based on previous casual conversations. The basic steps carried out were based on the advice given by Hatch (2002,) and can be described as follows: 1. Identifying typologies for analysis. 2. Transcribing the data, and then reading it while highlighting entries relating to my typologies. 3. Looking for patterns, relationships and themes. 4. Rereading the data and coding it. 5. Deciding if patterns are supported by the data. 6. Writing patterns out in simple, sentence-level generalizations. 7. Selecting data excerpts that support my generalizations.

Findings The interview excerpts and interpretations below do not represent all of the data or findings gained from this research, but are concerned with some of the major issues that were discovered relating to the research focus stated earlier. 1. Perceived difficulties During the interviews and as part of the surveys, I first asked participants how they felt about the course in general. All participants interviewed stated that the course was difficult but also useful and enjoyable, something which was mirrored in the survey responses. I then asked what in particular they found difficult, and there were two clear commonalties in terms of their responses: speaking speed, and answering questions. Some excerpts from the interviews which show the participants‘ reference to this can be seen below. P1, P2 and P3 refer to the participant number and the three periods (…) represent a break in the conversation such as pauses over two seconds, or comments not connected to the area being discussed in this paper. A. Professor’s speaking speed. All participants mentioned that they found the lectures difficult; especially in terms of understanding the professor‘s spoken content. These findings seem to correlate with much of the literature concerning the difficulties in CLIL lectures. P1:

P2: P3:

Understanding professor‘s speech difficult, is a little bit fast for me, it is difficult. I was really surprized because of high speed … In beginning I understand only 40 to 50%. Her speaking speed is very fast! I sometimes don‘t understand. … maybe understand 50% at beginning (teacher‘s name) speaks very quick, …, it is hard to hear, …, hard to understand, … so quick.

According to the survey results, 80% of the students stated that the speed of speech in the lecture was very quick and difficult to catch. Based on the © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

observations, the professor did not speak overly fast, and actually actively tried to slow speech during difficult concepts or content. However, the speech was delivered at a much more natural speed than many students may experience with their peers or English teacher, and I also wonder if it is more connected with the length of discourse blocks rather than solely speed of delivery. B. Answering questions. Another area of perceived difficulty expressed by two participants was concerned with answering questions in class. P1:

P3:

Professor asks some students questions about lecture or topic … it is difficult for me … we must answer … Sometimes we must answer quickly … content is difficult ... what to say, sometimes I am not confident …many students in class so I get nervous. Answering questions to Professor is also very difficult for me. … It is so nervous for me, so sometimes I cannot answer the questions, so, uh, difficult …must think and answer in English quickly.

Before the observation, this was not initially one of my areas of focus as I was unaware that students had to respond to teacher questions in front of the whole class. It was also not an initial focus of the interviews, but after the first two interviews I became interested in this issue and specifically asked the third interviewee whether she had answered questions during the course. In response, she stated that she had not been called upon, but was nervous about having to do so in the future. Again, the survey data correlates with the interviews; approximately 80% of students stated that they found it very difficult to answer questions in class. Many students mentioned the fact that they felt nervous answering questions in English in front of the many students present in the content course. During the observations, I was able to see students answering questions, and although they did seem nervous, they were generally able to provide clear and thoughtful answers to the questions posed, although the answers were more limited than one would expect from participants doing the same in their native language. 2. Strategy Use A. Use of pre-prepared materials. Before beginning this research, I was aware that the students have a variety of pre-prepared materials to use in the class such as outlines, highlighted and annotated text chapters, and teacher handouts. However, to what extent, and how the students use these was unknown. The specific questions asked included the following: 1. What do you do/use to help make it easier to understand the lectures? How do you prepare for the lecture? 2. Which materials are most useful and why? 3. When do you use/refer to these materials? 4. Do you add notes/questions to your outlines/chapters etc.? If so, when, where and why? In what language? © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Although the participants did mention the use of textbooks and teacher handouts, there was frequent reference from all participants to the use of outlines, some of which can be seen below. P1:

P2:

P3:

I uh, usually look at outline, and try to find the answer, or connect information there to allow me to give answer. I make the outline, I uh, write 3 or 4 drafts. I follow professor‘s speech on outline. I write questions on outline about points that I don‘t understand. I use outlines a lot for group discussions, I uh, I think many students do same. I often look at outlines in class. I use them (outlines) in lecture … and in group discussions. Outlines help to follow lecture … outline points and professor‘s talk is very similar … same order. The outline is good to understand the class. I follow the class and make notes and questions on outline. … This is good for me.

The fact that participants seem to value outlines highly, while not completely surprising, is encouraging in my role as a teacher because students devote a considerable amount of time to the drafting of outlines. Additionally, participants also commented on how they use these outlines, and common techniques such as making notes in the margins and writing questions about areas they do not understand were mentioned. Due to space constraints, not all of these excerpts have been included here. Again, observation and survey data supports the interview data as during the observations I was able to see students writing on their outlines, and just over 70% of students mentioned outlines in an open question (what materials do you use to help understand the lecture?) on the survey. B. Use of peer Support. A surprising finding was the fact that students appear to strongly appreciate, and actively seek, peer support. The reason this was surprising was due to the fact that in my experience as an EAP teacher, students have voiced a dissatisfaction, or lack of perceived value in peer activities such as peer editing of writing, or oral feedback on presentations, something which has been noted by authors such as Mangelsdorf (1992). The original questions posed were ―What do you do/use to help make it easier to understand the lectures?‖ and ―Which materials or activities are most useful and why?‖. The interview excerpts below highlight how participants appear to view peer support both in and out of the classroom. In class P1: Group discussion is good. … I can ask the question to my friends. They can help me if they know, uh, understand more than me Speaking about economics in English with group member help me understand what (professor) talked about Everyone have different understand points, or not understand points, so we can get different ... view points. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

P2:

P3:

I like group talking time … because I can get answers from other students. I can test my ideas … if my idea is OK or not, other student tell me. In group discussion time, we try to find … answer … together. … we talk about main points We have chance to discuss what she mention in class so far. … we talk about main points, ask questions each other … it is good. Sometimes my friends understand better than me so I can learn (from them).

It appears that participants‘ value the group discussion time as a valuable way of gaining better comprehension of what they have just heard. It seems that the participants understand that each student has differing levels of understanding about the various points raised in the lecture, and that through discussion they can improve their understanding by negotiating meaning together. These type of issues are noted in a detailed meta-analysis carried out by Hattie (2009) and the work carried out by Mangelsdorf (1992) amongst others. Based on the observations, students seem to regularly refer to their outlines or notes during discussions. The average results of a Likert scale survey question show that overall students rate in-class discussions as very useful (4.2 out of 5). Out of class As can be seen from the interview excerpts below, the data seems to indicate that students highly value and actively seek peer support outside of the class. P1:

P2:

P3:

Talking with friends in Japanese about content … talking about economics with friends after class help me understand better. We talk together before and after class, … review is good. I always talk with friends out of class. When I do this (talk with friends outside of class) I always understand I prefer talk to other students before talking to professor. Talk with friends after class is very good … I always try to do. If have time, (I talk with friends) after class every time. … can get many sides … many opinions. We have different understand points so (it) is good. … I like talking with friends about class. I speak to friends first. (before speaking to professor) They help me. It is best, better for me. … After talk with friends I understand, almost all.

As mentioned above, this point was quite surprising to me as it seems to directly conflict with students‘ feelings toward peer support, especially feedback in their EAP courses. It can also be seen above that the participants indicated that they prefer talking with classmates than to the professor, again this is different to my own experience as an EAP instructor where many students talk to me after class, or come to my office for advice. Due to the nature of the interaction above (outside of class), I was unable to observe this in practice, but all students stated on the survey that they regularly talk with other students in Japanese about the course content. However, they also indicated that they rarely use English outside of class to discuss the content, something that is a little disappointing as their English teacher. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

3. Which materials or strategies do participants most value? The excerpts below show some of the participants‘ comments which indicate that they seem to value outlines and peer support/cooperative learning as the most useful tools or strategies to help them gain better comprehension and success in their content course. Again, although the use of textbook, with annotations, was mentioned as being helpful, there were fewer comments, and it did not seem to rank so highly. Students also mentioned that they appreciated being given a printout of the lecture slides, but based on the interviews and observations, they did not appear to do an awful lot with these. In addition, none of the participants mentioned any listening strategies that they use to help gain better comprehension. Again, the observation and survey data previously mentioned supports the interview data below. A. Outlines 1: Very useful, uh most useful! After reading textbook, I understand maybe 50%, but after uh making outline, and discussing with classmates, I understand much better, maybe 70-80%. one time I was absent for 2 (EAP classes), so I only make one draft of outline, uh, then in lecture I really, uh, really could not understand so much …so I think outline is very useful. P2. Outlines are best for me to follow professors‘ lecture points. With outline, I can understand easily … Without outlines, I don‘t think I could understand, uh success in class, uh, or test P3: Outlining is very good. Uh, uh, after reading I understand, but um, not so well. But after outlining and discussing with classmates I understand better. I think without outlines, maybe I cannot follow class content. Outlines show me main points … and make me read … and think many times … and think about main …important points. Although pleasing from an EAP teacher point of view, these finding are not hugely surprising. This is because it stands to reason that if students spend considerable time reading the textbook in order to write multiple outline drafts, they should gain a good level of comprehension due to the time-on-task and skills integration principles (Nation and Macalister, 2009; Romero and Barbera, 2001). However, based on the interviews and observations, it seems that outlines not only help students to gain good comprehension of the content, but also serve as a point of reference in the class. The outlines provide students with a basic agenda, or a clear list of the main points that are being discussed in the lecture, and being able to read, follow and annotate the outlines while listening to the lecture seems to help the participants significantly. B. Peer Support (Cooperative Learning ) P1: P2:

Without friends I cannot pass … friends help me with all … outlines and questions. It (group discussion) is useful. … speaking about economics in English with group member help me understand what (professor) talked about. Everyone have different understand points, or not understand points, so we can get different ... view points.

P2:

I can ask the question to my friends. They can help me if they know, uh, understand more than me. When I do this (talk with friends outside of class) I always understand. (talking with friends) is very useful …We have chance to discuss what she mention in class so far. … we talk about main points, ask questions each other … it is good. Sometimes my friends understand better than me so I can learn (from them). If have time, (I talk with friends) after class every time. … can get many sides … many opinions. We have different understand points so (it) is good. … I like talking with friends about class. I speak to friends first. (before speaking to professor) They help me. It is best, better for me. … After talk with friends I understand, almost all. Then, I also ask friends about these points, uh, things I do not understand, I can ask them.

Again, although the participants mentioned the benefit of textbooks, outlines, and teacher handouts, when asked which activities, materials or strategies were most helpful, cooperative learning or peer support was repeatedly referred to in a positive light in both the interviews and surveys.

Discussion The data collected so far, although limited in terms of sample size, has highlighted a number of areas of interest, and has provided significant insights into the challenges students face during English-medium content lectures within the limited context discussed in this paper. First, the findings that learners perceive the speed of the spoken lecture content as one of the largest challenges is in line with previous literature concerning both listening in a foreign language in general (Ghada, 2012; Griffiths, 1991; McBride, 2011; Nation & Macalister, 2009), and in CLIL courses specifically (Benson, 1989; Flowerdew & Miller, 1992; Reiss, 2005; Tsubaki & Nakayama, n.d.). Even though it was clear from the observations that the professor had purposely slowed down her rate of speech significantly, all of the participants interviewed, and 80% of those who submitted the surveys, mentioned listening as a major challenge. Second, in this context, while small group discussions were incorporated into the content courses, the students were sometimes required to answer questions posed by the professor in front of the whole class. The students mentioned that they felt pressured to answer quickly, presumably as they felt everyone is waiting for them, and they intimated that talking in front of a large group was very nerve racking. This highlights some of the challenges that may be posed by the differences between content classes and language classes. While content classes often contain a relatively large number of learners, and are relatively teacher-centred (Flowerdew & Miller, 1992; Met, 1999) language classes usually contain far fewer students and are more student-centred, with many activities being based around pair or small group work (Nation & Macalister, 2009).

In terms of which strategies and materials students find most useful to help them, students repeatedly cited the perceived effectiveness of self-created outlines. The use of outlines was identified many times in the space of the interviews, and open ended survey responses also highlighted the positive view of outlines as a tool for gaining a better understanding English-medium content. In addition, studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; use of outlines was observed during the observations, and after examining the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; actual outlines, it was evident that they were using them effectively during the classes. Tsubaki & Nakayama (n.d) reported positive quantitative listening comprehension gains in a CLIL course as a result of outline usage, and the qualitative data provided in the current study offers further support for outlines as an effective method of increasing comprehension in CLIL environments. It appears that the cyclical nature of the drafting process, the skills integration (reading, writing, speaking and listening), and the considerable time-on-task are important factors (Romero and Barbera, 2001; Loranc-Paszylk, 2009; Nation and Macalister, 2009). While outlines were clearly perceived positively, it also appears that the participants see the benefit of having multiple sources of information including textbooks, teacher hand-outs, and lecture slides as discussed by Dale and Tanner (2012), Flowerdew and Miller (1992), and Guerrini (2009). Another point which was raised a number of times by the participants was the value placed on peer support or collaborative learning. It appears that the participants very much value their peers as resources, which is to say that they feel their peers can help them gain much better comprehension levels and a deeper understanding of the content. Again, this is in line with previous research discussed by Hattie (2009) and the work carried out by Mangelsdorf (1992) and Topping (1996).

Limitations and Future Directions As mentioned, the data collected is very limited, therefore, while this study has unearthed some interesting data and findings, a much larger number of observations, interviews and artefact collection and analysis is needed. Future observations, interviews and surveys, preferably carried out in a variety of English-medium content course contexts, would offer much more data regarding how students perceive such courses, and what materials and strategies they find most useful for success in content courses delivered in a nonnative language. Within the current context, by carrying out a larger longitudinal study, tracking students as they move through the various courses over a three to four year period, much more detailed and holistic data could be collected regarding perceptions and strategy use.

Conclusion As seen above, some interesting initial findings have been generated concerning CLIL courses. The participants in this study confirmed that listening to content lectures in a second language is difficult, especially due to the rate of speech. They also showed strong preferences and positive attitudes for the use of selfprepared materials, namely outlines, and seeking out peer support in order to overcome the challenges they faced during the courses. However, in order to get ÂŠ 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

a more detailed, holistic, and clearer picture of what is going on in this particular context, more observations, interviews, surveys, and artefact analysis needs to be carried out. In addition, in order to fill a gap in the literature, more qualitative research in the field of CLIL is needed to shed more light on students‘ perceptions and strategy use in a wide array of contexts.

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Johnson, R. K., & Swain, M. (1997). Immersion Education: International Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. Krahnke, K. (1987). Approaches to Syllabus Design for Foreign Language Teaching. New York: Prentice Hall. Lasagabaster, D. (2008). Foreign Language competence in content and language integrated courses. The Open Applied Lingustics Journal, 1, 31-42. Loranc-Paszylk, B. (2009). Integrating reading and writing into the context of CLIL classroom: Some practical solutions. International CLIL Research Journal, 1(2), 4753. Mangelsdorf, K. (1992). Peer reviews in the ESL composition classroom: What do the students think?. ELT journal, 46(3), 274-284. Marsh, D. (2002). Content and Language Integrated Learning. The European Dimension. Jyväskyla:University of Jyväskyla Press. McBride, K. (2011). The effect of rate of speech and distributed practice on the development of listening comprehension. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 24, 131-154. Met, M. (1999). Content-based Instruction: Defining Terms, Making Decisions. National Foreign Language Center, Washingon D.C Miichi, K. (2010, 7, 17). More colleges offer courses taught in English. The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved October, 25, 2010, from http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201007160463.html Montgomery, M. (1977) Some aspects of discourse structure and cohesion in selected science lectures. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Birmingham. Murphy, D.F. and Candlin, C.N. (1979) Engineering lecture discourse and listening comprehension. Practical papers in Language Education 2:1-79. Lancaster: University of Lancaster. Nation, I. S. P., & Macalister, J. (2009). Language curriculum design. Routledge. Olsen, L.A. and Huckin, T.N. (1990) Point-driven understanding in Engineering lecture comprehension. English for Specific Purposes 9:33-47. O'Malley, J.M., Chamot, A.U. and Kupper, L. (1989) Listening comprehension strategies in second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics 10/4:418-437. Pinner, R. (2013). Authenticity of Purpose: CLIL as a way to bring meaning and motivation into EFL contexts. In Robertson, P. and Adamson, J (Eds). The Asian EFL Journal Special Edition: CLIL in Asian Contexts: Emerging Trends, 15 (4), 8-35. December 2013. Reiss, J. (2005). Teaching content to English language learners. Strategies for secondary school success. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Romero, M., & Barberà, E. (2011). Quality of e-learners‘ time and learning performance beyond quantitative time-on-task. The International Review of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 12(5), 122-135. Sinclair, J. McH and Coulthard, R.M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse: the English used by Teachers and Pupils. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Topping, K.J. (1996). The effectiveness of peer tutoring in further and higher education: A typology and review of the literature. Higher Education, 32 (3), 321-345. Tsubaki, M. and Nakayama, K. (n.d.). The Effect of Using Outlines as an Advance Organizer on EFL Students‘ Listening Comprehension of a Lecture. TUJ Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 14. Accessed on May 20 from http://www.tuj.ac.jp/tesol/publications/working-papers/vol14/tsubakietal.html Widdowson, H.G. (2010). Defining Issues in English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

University Press. Wilkinson, D. (2015). Educational Reforms and Development in Japan: Language and Culture Education for Global Competitiveness. International Journal of Higher Education Management (IJHEM), 1 (2), 1-11. February 2015. Wolff, D. (2005). Approaching CLIL, in Project D3 - CLIL Matrix - Central workshop report 6/2005, Graz, Austria: European Centre for Modern Languages, 10-25. Yamano, Y. (2013). Utilizing the CLIL Approach in a Japanese Primary School: A Comparative Study of CLIL and EFL Lessons. In Robertson, P. and Adamson, J (Eds). The Asian EFL Journal Special Edition: CLIL in Asian Contexts: Emerging Trends, 15 (4), 8-35. December 2013.

Appendices Initial Interview Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What are you overall impressions/feelings about your lectures? What is the most difficult part of the lectures? What do you do/use to help make it easier? How do you prepare for the lecture? Which materials are most useful and why? Do you add notes/questions to your outlines/chapters etc.? If so, when, where and why? In what language? 6. How do you feel about the discussions? 7. How do you feel about reporting to your professor (in front of whole class)? 8. Do you use the materials during these times? 9. Do you ever ask questions to the teacher? 10. What other things do you do to help you better understand the lecture content?

Survey Items 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What are your overall impressions of the class? What do you find most difficult in the lectures? What do you do/use to help make it easier? How do you prepare for the lecture? How do you feel about answering questions in front of the whole lecture class? Which materials or activities are most useful and why? How useful do you find the in-class discussions in helping you better understand the course content? Not at all useful Very useful 1 2 3 4 5 How often do you discuss the lecture content with other students outside of class in English? Never Sometimes Every Week 1 2 3 4 5 How often do you discuss the lecture content with other students outside of class in Japanese? Never Sometimes Every Week 1 2 3 4 5

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 17-40, May 2015

The Realities of Reconstitution: A High School‟s Tale Todd Cherner Coastal Carolina University Conway, South Carolina, United States

Abstract. During the first decade of the 21 st century, the number of US schools required to restructure according to the policies of the No Child Left Behind Act increased annually. In response, educational researchers worked to identify best practices for school restructuring; however, they were unable to find a single set of effective strategies. Instead, they recommended that strong school leadership and sustained school improvement reforms are used. To illustrate the multitude of challenges restructuring schools face, this article uses narrative to chronicle Tyson Douglas High School‟s experience. The narrative takes readers through the school‟s first year of restructuring and provides them with test score data for the following two years to show the effectiveness of its restructuring. Because Tyson Douglas High School‟s restructuring did not increase student achievement significantly, the author concludes by presenting a research-based alternative strategy for school restructuring. Keywords: School Restructuring; Education Reform; English Teachers; Education Policy; Reconstitution

Introduction There were 3,558 U.S. schools required to restructure during the 2009-2010 school year because of low student achievement on high stakes accountability tests (Hassel et al., 2010; US Dept. of Commerce, 2011). Two years later, that number more than doubled to 7,643 schools required to restructure (US Dept. of Education, 2012). Were it not for the federal government issuing state waivers from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act‟s (ESEA) accountability system (US Dept. of Education, 2013), that number would have continued to grow annually (Alexander, 2006; Hess & Gift, 2009). During the accountability era of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that preceded the issuing of accountability waivers from ESEA, a school that posted low student achievement marks on high stakes accountability tests for five or more consecutive years was required to restructure, and researchers have spent a considerable amount of energy working to identify best practices for school © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

restructuring (Center for Comprehensive School Improvement and Reform, 2009). Though time, effort, and money have been used to analyze best practices, researchers are yet to identify a specific set of strategies that will guarantee a school successfully restructures (Brady, 2003; Newman & Wehlage, 1995; Scott, 2006). Rather, they have identified that using multiple, sustained reforms to restructure a school will likely be more effective to improve student achievement quickly and significantly than employing a single, comprehensive strategy, so long as there is strong leadership to guide the restructuring (Arkin & Kowal, 2005; Brady, 2003; Hess & Petrilli, 2007; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005; Steiner, 2005). However, the education policy proposed in the Blueprint for Education Reform (BER) and supported by President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan through their Race to the Top competitive grant program and issuing of accountability waivers from ESEA does not reflect these findings (US Dept. of Education, 2011). Instead, the BER continues to support NCLB-era school restructuring strategies (Cherner, 2011), and one of these strategies educational stakeholders oppose is the school “turnaround” model. In what follows, I first explain the process of school turnaround and offer critiques of it. Next, I present a case study of school turnaround to exemplify why it is such a layered, complicated, and overall ineffective school restructuring strategy. I then close by offering an alternative school restructuring strategy.

Background: The Process and Critiques of School Turnaround The concept that a low performing school can be “turned around” to improve student performance is not a new idea (Hess, 1991; Newman & Wehlage, 1995), and Brady (2003) outlined four common steps schools take as part of a turnaround process. First, a school must be identified as underperforming based on its student achievement as documented by students‟ high stakes test scores. Second, decision makers at the state and district levels select the school turnaround strategy and grant permission to begin reconstitution. “Reconstitution is the term generally used for the school restructuring approach that features the removal of incumbent administrators and teachers (or large percentages of them) and… [replaces them] with educators who presumably are more capable of improving school performance” (McKeon, 2009, p. 2). As reconstitution starts, the entire school‟s staff – including teachers, administrators, and support personnel – is given notification that they no longer have jobs at the school once the school year ends. However, if they would like to remain working at the school, they are invited to reapply for their jobs. Third, the school‟s leadership team is usually replaced, and new school leadership is recruited. Finally, once in place, the new leadership team begins selecting the teachers and other staff members they want to return to the school and hires replacements for those who were not asked to return. At this point, the school‟s new leadership team begins implementing other school reforms – such as revising the curriculum, overhauling the school‟s governance structure, and providing professional development (PD) to teachers among other possible reforms – with the goal of increasing student achievement. Notable school turnaround attempts during the last decades of the 20th century that informed NCLB‟s school restructuring policies include the experiences of Chicago Public Schools, New York City Department of Education, and San Francisco Unified © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

District Schools (Kowal & Ayscue, 2005; Mintrop & Papazian, 2003; Rudo, 2001). However, in each of these instances, there is little consensus about the effectiveness of using the strategy, and much criticism of it exists. From a legal standpoint, Spitser (2007) critiqued NCLB‟s school turnaround policy because its wording is not exact. “The language of NCLB itself leaves a great deal of room for interpretation – for example, while schools may replace staff „relevant to the failure‟ of the school… the Act contains no definition of or standards for defining „relevant.‟” (p. 1342). In his argument, Spitser cites the lack of definitive language in NCLB as problematic because it does not define a method for evaluating teachers or prescribe a method for administrators to evaluate a teacher‟s contributions to their school‟s achievement. Should an administrative team solely use test scores to evaluate a teacher‟s worth, or would it be fairer to incorporate classroom observations and consider the professional service a teacher provides to the school as well? Spitser stated “it is unclear what evidence a school district would be able to muster to show that the teacher was relevant to the failure of the school” (p. 1353). Because of these ambiguities, NCLB did not provide clear guidelines about how teacher evaluations should be conducted when a school reconstitutes its staff. Additionally, hiring released teachers‟ replacements is cumbersome. NCLB required that schools hire only highly qualified teachers. Highly qualified essentially means teachers have earned a bachelor‟s degree and passed a rigorous state test in their field (Steffan, 2004). Therefore, requiring administrators to hire released teachers‟ replacements is challenging because a ready supply of highly-qualified teachers waiting to be hired by a school going through restructuring is seldom available (Bardy, 2003; Spitser, 2007; Rice & Malen, 2010). Subsequently, administrators struggle to make all their needed new hires by the start of the academic year (Levin & Quinn, 2003), which results in them hiring inexperienced teachers who are unprepared to teach in challenging schools. These teachers spend their first years in the classroom “surviving” and not contributing to reforming the school (Mac Iver, et al., 2003). Next, the use of standardized test scores to evaluate teachers working in lowperforming schools is problematic because of possible cultural biases (Kohn, 2000; Menken, 2008; Visone, 2009). Standardized tests are written from the perspective of White, middle class Americans who are native English speakers (Spitser, 2007; Kincheloe, 2003). As such, schools identified for restructuring are typically urban schools that enroll significantly higher percentages of minority and low-income students than suburban schools (Center on Education Policy, 2008). These elements combine to disadvantage teachers in lower performing urban schools because the schools where they teach are predominantly populated with minority students and non-native English speakers who traditionally score lower than their peers in suburban schools on high stakes assessments (Anyon, 2005; National Center for Policy Analysis [NCPA], 2004). When comparisons between suburban and urban schools are made, teachers in urban schools are more likely to lose their jobs because of reconstitution.

Fourth, because NCLB required schools to achieve adequate test scores for two years before being released from its restructuring policies, teachers in restructuring schools are pressured to narrow their curriculum to tested content (Anagnostopoulos & Rutledge, 2007; Crocco & Costigan, 2007; Mac Iver, et al., 2003). This instructional practice is not developing 21st century skills students need to be ready for college or a career (Schoen & Fusarelli, 2007). Instead, students are largely learning only how to pass high stakes accountability tests. Therefore, as long as a maximum is put on test scores, it is likely teachers will continue to narrow their curriculum, and school turnaround reinforces this cycle (Mintrop & Trujilio, 2005; Zena, 2001). After being federal law for over a decade, researchers oppose and express severe caution when employing the turnaround strategy to restructure a school. In their review of school reconstitution literature, Rice and Malen (2010) stated “evidence to date suggests that school reconstitution is a risky strategy... [and] calls for restraint in the deployment of this strategy until we have a stronger theoretical and empirical understanding and justification of this reform” (p. 9). Brady (2003) stated school turnaround “can work and has worked in some instances, but its success rate is limited” (p. 29), and Stuit (2010) concluded “it is easier to close a low-performing school than to turn one around” (p. 10). To illustrate the challenges that concern researchers about school turnaround, I will present a case study of the strategy in action. This case study of Tyson Douglas High School‟s (TD) restructuring experiences will help fill the void created by a dearth of qualitative narratives about the experiences of school structuring. Through this case study, I illustrate the multiple reform strategies and challenges a school faces when using the turnaround strategy to restructure.

Methodology I used qualitative research methods for this project because it allowed me to use my participants‟ words, emotions, and perspectives to study their lived experiences (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Marshall & Rossman, 2011). As I analyzed TD‟s restructuring, I found that it affected teachers in multiple ways, and it was important I used their words to describe their experiences. Central to my work, then, is that humans live “storied” lives, meaning humans use stories to share their lived experiences (Bell, 2002; Carr, 1986; Reissman, 2001). For example, when people are asked how their day was, they are likely to tell a story about their experience and not just respond with a simple “good” or “okay.” In this way, the stories humans tell become a phenomenon that can be studied, and stories can be used to deconstruct a person‟s experience with a specific phenomenon (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). In my work, the phenomenon I studied was teachers‟ experiences with school restructuring as chronicled by my participants‟ stories.

Data Collection and Analysis To collect and triangulate data, I conducted in depth interviews with five participants, studied historical documents about TD, and analyzed TD‟s test

scores and student demographics (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996; Glense, 1996, Merriam, 2009). Interviews. I conducted interviews with each of my participants that lasted 60-90 minutes each and centered on my participants‟ experiences working at TD while it restructured. Due to the political nature of my study, it was challenging to recruit participants to be interviewed. Many teachers I asked to be part of my study told me that they did not want to make their story public for fear of potentially losing their job. However, because I had spent considerable time in TD supervising English interns from a local university who were completing a teacher licensure program, I was able to use the relationships I built mentoring pre-service teachers to recruit participants. The participants who agreed to be interviewed individually included three English teachers who taught at TD (there were seven in the English department), TD‟s assistant principal, and a teacher who was released due to the reconstitution. (The other released teachers I contacted were either not geographically accessible or they would not allow me to interview them.) I conducted the interviews with TD‟s three English teachers in their classrooms, and I interviewed the assistant principal in her office. The teacher who was released by TD was interviewed in her home. Because TD was on the 4x4 block schedule, each teacher taught three 90-minute periods a day, had a 90-minute planning period plus a 30-minute lunch break. Their average class roster was between 15-20 students. Understanding who my participants were at the time of their interview is essential to understanding their experience with TD‟s restructuring. Carmen was the administrator who the county made responsible for planning and implementing TD‟s school restructuring. Carmen is a White, middle-aged woman with over 15 years of experience in public education. Carmen was a high school English teacher during the 1990s in a high performing Southern high school before being promoted to assistant principal. For personal reasons, Carmen moved out of state in 2004 and was hired as an administrator at a school in the same school district as TD before being transferred to TD in 2006. In her interview, Carmen disclosed that she was personally recruited by the county‟s superintendent and director of curriculum to lead TD‟s restructuring and welcomed the professional challenge. Pat, a White woman in her sixties, had over thirty years of experience in education, and she came to TD in 2001. Pat holds advanced degrees in education, but she did not want me to provide a detailed description of her to protect her identity. Pat taught senior English at TD, and she said “I specifically wanted to work with seniors to prepare them for college level English.” I included Pat because she lost her job due to TD‟s reconstitution, and she explained she was still confused about it even three years after it happened. Floyd, a White male in his forties, was included because he worked at TD before and during its restructuring. Floyd served a dual role for the school, teaching junior English half of the day and serving as a Lead Teacher for the other half. As a Lead Teacher, Floyd was responsible for mentoring early career teachers and tracking student achievement data. To mentor teachers, Floyd would wait © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

until a teacher approached him for help and he would meet with the teacher individually to identify his/her strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. Next, Floyd would observe the teacher‟s instruction for at least two classes before providing feedback about strategies he thought could increase that teacher‟s effectiveness in the classroom. To track student data, Floyd made detailed spreadsheets of students‟ performance on practice assessments modeled after high stakes accountability tests. Floyd would analyze student performance and then report to teachers where they should focus their instruction Marie and Gwen were both White females in their mid-twenties. Both women had just earned their graduate degree in English education from a large university in the spring of 2008 and were hired by TD the following summer to replace teachers who lost their jobs because of TD‟s reconstitution. Marie taught junior English classes and Gwen taught sophomore English classes. At the time of their interviews, Marie and Gwen were close friends and were both completing their second year teaching at TD. To guide my interviews, I used a protocol that featured three open-ended questions to ensure I addressed the same topics with each participant (Glense, 2006). The questions from my interview protocol included: 1. What are you beliefs about school restructuring? 2. How have you been impacted by TD‟s restructuring? 3. What reforms did TD use to restructure and how effective were those reforms? Interviews were digitally recorded and I took extensive notes during them (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). After each interview, I transcribed the recording and emailed it to participants for member checking purposes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Additionally, I included any clarifying questions based on my notes and interview transcription (Glense, 1996). After each participant reviewed my transcription and answered any clarifying questions, I began my data analysis procedures. To code the data, I used three layers. My first layer involved reading each transcript to identify in vivo codes, which were significant words and/or phrases my participants said about their experiences (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). Next, I applied my own sociologically constructed codes to label my understanding of the interviews (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). Because analyzing interview data is an interpretive act, my own experiences as a high school English teacher, as a researcher who studies school restructuring, and as a mentor of student teachers in TD influenced my conceptualization of my participants‟ comments (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Therefore, when a participant referenced, for example, having to “sit through” a PD session,” I thought of my own experiences with PD sessions and how I found myself enduring them opposed to learning from them. In this way, these connections and conceptualizations framed how I moved from in vivo codes to sociologically constructed codes. For my third layer of coding, I grouped the in vivo codes with the sociologically constructed codes into categories that included (1) Reconstituting TD, (2) Providing Effective Classroom Instruction, (3) Fallout from © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

School Reconstitution, (4) Adding Rigor to the Curriculum, and (5) Structural Reorganization. These categories became my narrative‟s themes. Historical Documents. Because I sought to understand what happened to result in TD being required to restructure, I needed to put together a historical context of the school since it was founded in the late 1800s (Miller & Dingwall, 1997). To do so, I gathered newspaper articles, visited local libraries, searched the internet, and explored TD‟s storehouse where it keeps its memorabilia from yesteryear. Overall, I found hundreds of newspaper articles about TD starting in the 1920s and continuing through modern day. The topics of the newspaper articles reported on TD‟s athletic teams, parent nights, club activities, racial tensions, school reforms, parent and community involvement, and academic achievement. The local libraries had indexed reports on TD‟s academic achievement and minutes from the school board meetings. Additionally, the libraries had books that chronicled historical happenings in the local community, which included information about TD. Using search terms such as “history of TD,” “community of TD,” and “legacy of TD,” I was able to find three websites that described what it was like attending TD throughout the 20th century and information about how TD was founded. One of the websites was created by a TD alumnus, and the other two websites listed encyclopedic information about TD. Finally, investigating TD‟s storehouse where TD houses memorabilia it no longer has room to display, I was able to touch trophies that TD‟s past athletic and academic teams had won, read graduation announcements, and peruse decades old yearbooks. Visiting the storehouse allowed me to physically interact with TD‟s past and I gained a sense of the pride its graduates felt. Student Demographic and Test Score Data. I used the Tennessee Department of Education‟s (2013) website to analyze TD‟s test score and student demographic data from 2005-2012. Data provided demographic information about students who attended TD, student performance on the high stakes math and reading/writing tests, and graduation rates. Evaluating test score data allowed me to see trends in student achievement that warranted TD having to restructure and assess if TD‟s restructuring resulted in any increases of student performance on high stakes tests. The student demographic data allowed me to make comparisons between students who attended TD, its county, and Tennessee using students‟ race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English language proficiency, and special education status. Ensuring Validity I used three different data sources – interviews, historical documents, and test score and student demographic data – to methodologically triangulate my data (Guion et al., 2011). Having diverse data sets allowed me multiple lenses to study TD‟s restructuring (Chenail, 1997; Denzin, 1978). To build interview validity, I used member checking (Glense, 2006). After conducting and transcribing each interview, I sent it along with any clarifying questions back to the corresponding participant. Once my participant confirmed I correctly transcribed the interview and answered any clarifying questions I had, I analyzed the interview data using the previously described process. Once the interview was analyzed, I then weaved together the data from the interviews, © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

historical documents, test scores, and student demographics to tell the story of TD‟s restructuring. To member check at this stage, I emailed the completed narrative to each participant, and pseudonyms were used in the narrative to add a layer of confidentially for my participants and to my work. At this point, my participants confirmed that I accurately represented their experience.

Context of Tyson Douglas High School TD is an urban high school located in the southern city of Henley (pseudonym) that was required to restructure beginning in the 2007-2008 school year. Originally, TD was two separate schools: Tyson High School and Douglas High School. Tyson High School served predominantly African-American students since the late 1800s and was an active member of its local community, and Douglas High School served predominantly White children since the 1950s and was founded by the county because of a population boom following World War II. To be in compliance with federal school integration laws, the two schools merged in 1968. After the integration, TD served predominantly Black students because the White students chose to transfer to other county schools, and by the 1980s TD was labeled a low-performing school. The county responded in the mid-1990s by spending millions of dollars to renovate TD‟s buildings and established it as the county‟s performing arts magnet school for dance, music, and theatre. However, even with the new buildings and magnet program, TD did not attract a significant amount of new students and the school continued posting low student achievement. There are no records to suggest that new teachers were recruited to TD or that its current teachers received PD to support them effectively teaching in a magnet school. As such, these renovations seem to be cosmetic and not programmatic. In the spring of 2007, NCLB required TD to restructure after not posting adequate test scores for five consecutive years. Table 1 displays TD‟s 2006 and 2007 test score data in math and reading/writing and its graduation rates. Table 1. Comparing TD‟s 2006 and 2007 Student Achievement Data in Math and Reading/English Language and Graduation Rates by Student Subgroup against State Target and Average Scores* Criteria

2006 Math 75%

2007 2006 Math Reading/ Writing 75% 90%

2007 Reading / Writing 90%

2006 Graduation Rate 90%

2007 Graduation Rate 90%

State Target State Average

83%

85%

91%

TD Average

72%

79%

85%

76%

68.7%

67.8%

AfricanAmerican

71%

77%

84%

76%

White

81%

86%

84%

Low SES

71%

75%

84%

74%

Special 32% 66% 46% 42% Education * Data retrieved from Tennessee (http://tn.gov/education/)

Department

Education

The data in Table 1 displays that as an entire school TD did earn the test scores needed to satisfy NCLB‟s test score requirements in math but not in reading/writing in 2007. Moreover, because NCLB required that all student subgroups demonstrate proficiency on tests, the low test scores in math made by TD‟s special education student population prohibited TD from meeting NCLB‟s testing requirement. Additionally, written into NCLB is a “Safe Harbor” clause that allowed for schools to bypass some of NCLB‟s testing requirements if certain criteria are met: A school that falls short of the… [test score requirement] for a subgroup of students will avoid being identified for improvement under the safe harbor provision if (a) the percentage of students who score below the proficient level [on one assessment] has decreased by at least 10% from the year before, and (b) there is improvement for the subgroup on other indicators [other indicators includes metrics such as graduation and attendance rates] (Linn, 2003, p. 17). TD‟s students did not earn the scores necessary for the school to qualify for safe harbor when comparing TD‟s student achievement data from 2006 to 2007. No student subgroup experienced the necessary gains on the math or reading/writing exams to qualify for safe harbor. When comparing TD‟s student achievement and graduation rates from 2006 to 2007, student test scores in reading/writing and graduation rates dropped in every category. Therefore, TD did not post the student achievement scores required to meet NCLB‟s testing requirements or safe harbor provision and subsequently had to restructure. As compared to its county and state, TD has a significantly larger AfricanAmerican and low socioeconomic (SES) student populations and a significantly smaller White student population than its county and state, and Table 2 displays the TD‟s student demographic in the year it was officially required to restructure. Table 2. The Demographics of TD‟s Students for 2007 as Compared to its County and State* Student Subgroup African-American Asian/Pacific Islander Hispanic White

TD 90.6% 0.2% 0.7% 8.4%

County 14.7% 1.9% 2.8% 80.3%

State 24.8% 1.6% 4.6% 68.8%

Low SES 90.4% *Data retrieved from Tennessee (http://tn.gov/education/)

41.2% Department

54.7% Education

These statistics reflect the migration of White students away from TD that occurred following the 1968 integration of Tyson High School and Douglas High School. TD‟s demographics also reflect that schools with large populations of minority students are more likely to be required to restructure than schools with large majority student populations (Anyon, 2005; Center on Education Policy, 2008; NCPA, 2004; US Department of Education, 2012). As such, TD began its process of school restructuring following the 2006-2007 school year.

The Story of Tyson Douglas High School’s Restructuring When NCLB required a school to restructure, the school had to select and implement one of NCLB‟s outlined strategies. However, education researchers strongly suggest schools use multiple reforms because there is no “one-size-fitsall” silver bullet for school restructuring (Brady, 2003; Newmann & Wehlage, 1995), and TD implemented multiple school restructuring strategies. The restructuring strategies TD selected included NCLB‟s school turnaround option combined with replacing TD‟s principal and administrative team, providing teachers with PD, realigning course offerings, and overhauling the school‟s structural organization. The following is a story of how TD implemented these restructuring strategies and how TD‟s English teachers reacted to them. Over the summer of 2007, county officials decided TD would implement school turnaround. The literature about school restructuring strongly supports changing school leadership to ensure a dynamic and innovative principal and administrative team are in place to effectively lead the school through the reconstitution and restructuring processes (Hassel, et al., 2010), and the county changed TD‟s leadership during the 2007-2008 school year. To make the leadership change, the county‟s superintendent and director of curriculum first recruited Carmen to be TD‟s curriculum principal charged with planning and leading the restructuring effort in the fall of 2007, and the county replaced TD‟s then head principal with Principal King in the spring of 2008. During these leadership changes, Carmen explained TD‟s teachers had “no idea what we are doing [about restructuring the school]... there was a lot of anxiety, a lot of anxiety.” Carmen commented that the teachers were not informed about the county‟s plan to change TD‟s leadership; rather, the county just made the changes. Carmen said, “On a Friday he [the former principal] was removed and on the Monday Mr. King was here.” However, once TD‟s leadership was changed, Carmen and King began working to reconstitute TD‟s faculty and staff. Reconstituting TD: The First Layer of School Turnaround NCLB‟s description of school turnaround does not give any specific guidelines or procedures about how to reconstitute a staff. Therefore, Carmen and King had to develop their own process, which Carmen described.

We had to give letters to everyone on the staff... that they were being let go eventually, but that they had the opportunity to reapply for their job. There was no guarantee that they would get it, but they could certainly reapply. So, at that point, it was the first of May, the middle of May, Mr. King and I started interviewing, and we interviewed 100, approximately 100, people within a three-week period of time. It was just boom, boom, boom. According to the teachers, the rush to reconstitute the school, and to interview the staff, affected their interview experiences. Pat, an English teacher not asked to return, said it was “one of the most bizarre interviews I‟ve ever had. I showed up on time, the people who were interviewing [me] were not present... when they finally showed up, they brought their lunches and they ate lunch while they talked to me.” Floyd, another English teacher who was asked to return, said, “It [the interview process] was strange. Um, you know, just because everyone knew what was going on, and everyone had their interviews scheduled, and you‟d go down, and it, it just had a weird, uh, feeling to it.” According to Pat and Floyd, when the reconstitution process was implemented, it did not feel respectful or genuine. Rather, it felt awkward and rushed, likely because of the hurry Carmen and King were under to reconstitute the school. In fact, Carmen questioned how effective she and King were in evaluating teachers when she said, “I knew nothing of the existing teachers other than test scores.” In no way could Carmen and King acquire a realistic estimation of a teacher‟s worth based on a quick interview and a glimpse of his or her students‟ test scores, especially since both Carmen and King had been at TD for less than one year. However, to help her better assess each candidate she interviewed, Carmen asked each interviewee to define term rigor as it related to teaching. In response, Carmen made determinations about the teacher. Carmen said: „To give more work,‟ [or] „To give extra homework,‟ most of the people that gave that response didn‟t get rehired. Then there was some who said, „It doesn‟t mean to give more work, it means to go deeper. It means to create more critical thinking opportunities.” You know, people who clearly knew what rigor was. From Carmen‟s perspective, teachers‟ conceptualization of rigor was the key point if they would or would not be rehired. Carmen felt this way because her belief was that the academic rigor across the entire school had to be raised if student achievement on the high stakes accountability tests was to increase. Following the interviews, Carmen and King had the responsibility to inform teachers if they were rehired or released, and Carmen described that process. “I think, [it was] the second to the last day of school, and they [human resource personnel from the district] gave them all [TD‟s faculty and staff who had reapplied for their job] envelopes, manila envelopes in the [school‟s] library that said „you‟ve been rehired‟ or „you‟ve not been rehired‟.” About how the released teachers responded to finding out they no longer had a job, Carmen said, “some people were pretty upset. Uh, some people had nasty things to say. Others were like, „Great, I didn‟t want to come back here anyway.‟” Pat, who was released, © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

said the whole process and news was “simply demoralizing.” In fact, Carmen concurred with Pat and expressed remorse about how the teachers were informed. “If I knew then what I know now, I would have never allowed that kind of process to happen in a building I was in. I felt like it was very impersonal, very, um, it didn‟t sit well with me.” Overall, Carmen reported that she and King released 40% of TD‟s staff, and she said the reason they did not release everyone was because “no one is going to know the nuances of this school, the culture of this school.” In this instance, Carmen paid respect to the history of TD and its culture, but her decision to retain 60% of TD‟s original staff caused her and TD‟s new staff problems. In retrospect, Carmen said, “If I knew then what I know now, I would have reversed that. I would have kept 40% and hired 60% new.” During the summer of 2007, Carmen and King recruited replacements for the released teachers. Gwen, an English teacher who was hired at this time, said, “They didn‟t tell me a lot about that [TD being restructured]. They told me they were hiring a lot of new teachers and that they were more interested in hiring the new teachers because they knew they could shape them to become what they needed.” According to Gwen, Carmen and King withheld important details about TD and its restructuring process. The only details Gwen reported receiving was that Carmen and King were interested in new teachers because the new teachers would come into TD without any experience, which would allow Carmen and King to form them into any type of teacher they wanted, and Carmen corroborated that in her interview by explaining new teachers would give TD what she “wanted, a fresh start.”

Providing Effective Classroom Instruction: Training TD’s Teachers Following the summer, King and Carmen opened the first year of TD‟s restructuring by having its teachers attend 10 days of mandatory PD. This PD required TD‟s teachers report back to school 10 days before teachers in any other school in TD‟s county reported back. The reason King and Carmen could make this PD mandatory was because the reconstitution required all of TD‟s teacher to sign new contracts containing an extended time clause that added 15 more working days to their school calendar. (Teachers were monetarily compensated for their additional work.) This entire time was reserved for PD. During the 2007-2008 school year, teachers spent 10 of those days in PD sessions before the year began, and they spent five additional days in PD sessions during the school year. Carmen explained that the county outsourced the PD to an educational management organization (EMO). Teachers did not provide input about the PD‟s topics, but the PD focused on instructional techniques aligned to the work of Marzano‟s (2004) Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Carmen said it was a “huge relief” to have the EMO responsible for the PD because “there needed to be a tremendous amount of PD done here.” Plus, Carmen explained that she and King still “had to learn the culture of the school” and did not have the time to facilitate the PD, and Floyd made very positive comments about the PD. It [the PD] made me even more excited and from that standpoint I left... really fired up because they were teaching the whole staff new © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

strategies... [including] gallery walks, gosh, all of Marzano‟s strategies, I mean, we just started tearing them up. They modeled for us at PD and then we talked about how we can apply it to our classroom. However, Floyd‟s excitement was not reflected by the newly hired teachers. Gwen said the PD facilitator “just had a few methods that were just how to get kids engaged, or how to encourage kids to think about what they are learning, to communicate or share what they are learning... he acted like think-pair-share was the newest and hottest thing.” Marie, another new English teacher, said: It [the PD] really was, a flashback to grad school, so everything that the other teachers were learning for the very first time, I had just finished in graduate school. So, I, I was trying to walk on eggshells and not seem bored because I was trying to not give the impression that I was not above this or anything. Even though Gwen and Marie had a negative impression of the PD, Floyd said “I saw immediately a difference in the students because [when] they came into class, first of all, they would know how to do the strategies already because they had done them in three or four classes, so they knew the process and the protocol.” However, as the school year progressed, teachers stopped using what they learned in the PD sessions. After having spoken highly about the quality of the PD and the effect it was having on TD‟s students, Floyd lamented that a walk-through initiative begun by TD‟s administrators to ensure teachers were using the strategies taught in the PD session was not sustained. About the walkthrough initiative, Floyd said: They just walked through [our classrooms] and looked at what strategies we were doing. We were hanging our lesson plans on the door, we had to put which Marzano strategies we were going to use those days, and they would come and look and check, and I mean, it was amazing. I was like „yes, this is the change, this is it‟ ... um, but, there was just enormous backslide after the first few months. One reason for “the backslide” may have been the pressure Carmen and King were under to improve TD‟s student performance. Although Carmen said no specific deadline was put on them, they “were expected to really transform this school quickly,” and that required them to attend multiple meetings with the superintendent, plan how the school would be reorganized into small learning communities (SLCs), and monitor students‟ assessment scores. As such, these tasks took time away from TD‟s administrators being able to monitor teachers. Additionally, they had the obstacle of mending together a staff that had been torn apart by the reconstitution. Moreover, this division was a challenge that TD never conquered during its first year of restructuring, and it affected TD‟s new teachers and school reforms.

A Divided Staff: Fallout from School Reconstitution As all of TD‟s teachers returned for the open of the 2007-2008 school year, my participants reported there was an obvious staff divide. Gwen said, “There was certainly an old staff-new staff kind of thing... it was kind of apparent that we all © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

[the newly hired teachers] had something to prove I guess. You know, we were supposed to come in and save the school, and that we are supposed to save it from them [the teachers who survived the reconstitution].” The idea that the new teachers were hired to “save the school” likely developed from the perspective that the old staff‟s incompetence resulted in TD having to restructure, and it was the new staff‟s responsibility to ensure that did not happen again. Marie said about the staff divide, “It‟s older [teachers] against younger [teachers]. It‟s „new to the building‟ against „been in the building a long time‟... I mean, it‟s a very clear, clear divide.” To further explain, Marie made a verbal comparison of TD‟s Old and New teachers in her interview as represented in Table 3. Table 3. A Comparison of Old and New TD Characteristic Motto

TD’s Old Teachers “We get by and no one bothers us”

TD’s New Teachers “They are going to do whatever is thrown at them, and they are going to try to make the school successful however they can”

Race

“African-American”

“The majority of us are White”

Age

“45-50”

“Younger, under 35 for the most part”

Teaching Experience

“Most have over 10 years experience”

“Relatively new to teaching, with five or less years experience”

Education

“Do not have master‟s degrees and have not been through a [traditional] teacher education program”

“Everyone that was hired after the reconstruction had to have a master‟s degree”

Route to Certification

“Certified through an alternative license program”

“Came in through a traditional college of education teacher program”

Emphasis

“Athletics”

“Academics”

According to Carmen, having a divided staff resulted in Old TD teachers being “very resistant” to implementing school reforms, including her decision to “collapse the tracks.”

Adding Rigor to the Curriculum: Reforming the Academic Tracks “Collapsing the Tracks” is a term Carmen used to mean TD went from offering fundamental, regular, college-placement (CP), and honors courses to only offering CP classes. Carmen explained that it was not because the kids in the © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

lower-tiered tracks were less intelligent; they were just unmotivated because “they just had never been expected to do anything. So we eliminated all fundamental classes.” By collapsing the tracks, it was an attempt to increase TD‟s academic rigor. No longer could a student attend classes with low expectations. Rather, the idea behind collapsing the tracks was that students would be required to take classes with higher expectations that would better prepare them for academic success, college, and the workforce. However, new and old teachers responded negatively to this change. Collapsing the tracks affected teachers differently based on their experience. For example, Floyd explained that once teachers get “promoted” because of seniority, they get “rewarded” by teaching mostly juniors and seniors. Because TD was struggling with student dropout rates, the quality of students increased as they got to 11th and 12th grade because the students who were not academically successful typically dropped out of TD by this time. Floyd saw this practice as unfair because it hurt TD‟s newly hired teachers, who mostly taught younger students, In regards to the challenges that resulted from collapsing the tracks, Gwen said she was told she could “meet all their [her students] needs through differentiation. Whatever that meant... To differentiate instruction was something I‟ve always heard about, and, you know, loosely attempted in my internship... [but] no one tells you or prepares for how to differentiate for every student in your classroom.” Marie added: I was really, really, really shocked by the fact that I was teaching a class that was totally mixed in ability, and it was a CP class, but that some of the students were soooo low. They were elementary level in their reading, and then I had students, my higher students, were struggling with even grade-level [texts], and I was really confused about how I was supposed to meet all their needs... I was told to just „differentiate‟ for them, and I am still trying to figure out what that means. Some people have large print, some people have different assignments, some people have different tests, some people are only required to do part of their work, or some people are required to do something else. So every class day is kind of like a smathering of what‟s going on. So, I‟ve got better in that, but I had no idea. Because TD‟s more experienced teachers were given older, higher achieving students to teach even after the school reconstituted, the burden fell to TD‟s less experienced teachers to teach the more challenging classes and lower achieving students. When they voiced their concerns about meeting the needs of their students, Gwen and Marie were told to differentiate their instruction; however, because they were new teachers, Gwen and Marie were still learning how to effectively differentiate their instruction and the PD they received during the previous summer did not offer them any methods for differentiating instruction. In this way, Carmen‟s decision to collapse TD‟s academic tracks may have actually hurt TD‟s newly hired teachers and the instruction their students

received. The other major restructuring initiative launched during the 2007-2008 school year was to redesign TD into SLCs.

Structural Reorganization: Rethinking TD’s School Design A high school redesigning itself into SLCs is attempting to increase student achievement by breaking itself down from being a faceless, intimidating comprehensive high school to one where students gain an identity (Nieto, 2000). Oxley (2001) defined SLCs as “an interdisciplinary team of teachers that shares a group of no more than 500 students for a large part of their instructional time in a physical space dedicated to their collaboration” (p. 7). Marie explained TD redesigned into SLCs because “one of the main goals was to keep the classroom ratio small in order to both build relationships with students and to individualize instruction because we knew, with our clientele that we are working with, a lot them are not on grade level.” To organize TD into SLCs, Carmen reported they started by creating a 9th grade SLC in 2007-2008 and then TD would add two more SLCs for students in 10th-12th grade the following years. Carmen explained “The reason we went with this model was that in 9th grade they‟d be so tight [because]... they‟d have the same principal, the same counselor, the same Project Grad person, all the way through for three years to develop the relationship piece that is super important here.” After having the SLCs implemented for the first year, Carmen reported positive results: We got the right administrator, Lead teacher, we got this team of teachers and they‟re all upstairs in one hallway. And they [freshmen students] are pretty much sequestered up there unless they go to an elective. And they‟ve taken those kids, they‟ve transformed those 160 kids from coming in here, and they didn‟t care about what really happened or classes or anything else to conversations that I‟m hearing going on up there, „how many honors classes can I take?‟ „Can I take an AP class when I‟m in 10th grade?‟ And we, you never heard conversations like that. Though Carmen was still new to TD, she identified a changing culture at TD based on her observations of what she saw happening in the 9th grade SLC. For example, Carmen went from seeing students entering TD and not being engaged in their academic work to asking about advanced classes they can take the following year. Carmen cited the move to SLCs as a main success of TD‟s restructuring. However, Carmen was only able to provide anecdotal stories to justify the effectiveness of TD‟s SLCs, and other teachers saw the SLCs as working against developing students‟ abilities to be successful in college. Gwen reported: They are not autonomous, they are not self-directed, they are not able to solve their own problems. They have received all these supports because of the restructuring money [such as]... the SLC principal, they have administrative assistant for that persons, they have a Lead teacher, they [students] have someone to come get them and say „turn in this work to Mrs. Gwen‟ they don‟t have that [in college]. They have it all through their, their senior year, we do all this work to get them graduated and © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

then they go to college, and, uh, they struggle because there are none of the supports in college. From Gwen‟s point of view, the SLCs were actually working against preparing students for college success by only coddling students until they graduated. Essentially, Gwen saw the SLCs as setting students up for failure once they leave for college. However, Marie saw the SLCs in a more positive light. Marie saw SLCs as being efficient, autonomous communities within TD. Marie said, “I get great reports from teachers working with the freshman... When there is a problem, they are able to handle it immediately because they are all on one hallway, the administrators can get there if need be or pull a kid out and talk to them.” From Marie‟s perspective, she keyed on how the 9th grade is self-reliant and makes TD more productive. No longer were TD‟s administrators searching for students; rather, because of the close proximity the SLCs provided, it allowed for TD‟s administrators do their job more efficiently.

Where are they now: A Participant Epilogue Education researchers strongly support sustaining school reforms, which includes keeping the same personnel in position for multiple years (Datnow & Stringfeld, 2000; Fullan 2001). In TD‟s scenario, this was not the case. Following the 2010-2011 school year, the county transferred Carmen from TD and installed her as the head principal in a different, higher-performing high school after she had planned and implemented the first years of TD‟s restructuring. During that same summer, Marie transferred from TD and became the English department head at the county‟s new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math magnet school. Additionally, Floyd applied for and received a new position at a different high school in the same county. In his new position, Floyd became that school‟s Lead teacher and no longer spent half his day in the classroom. One year later, Gwen transferred from TD and joined Floyd at his new school. This personnel movement corroborates previously conducted related to high teacher turnover that low-performing schools experience (Desimone, 2002; Sindelar et al., 2006).

Effectiveness of TD’s Restructuring For a school to successfully restructure and return to good standing during the era of NCLB, it has to post proficient test scores on high stakes assessments for two consecutive years as determined by its state. In the years following its restructuring, TD failed to post the test scores it needed as displayed in Table 4. Table 4. Comparing TD‟s 2008 and 2009 Student Achievement Data in Math and Reading/English Language and Graduation Rates by Student Subgroup against State Target and Average Scores* Criteria

Math Math 2008 2009

Reading/ Writing 2008

Reading/ Graduation Writing Rate 2009 2008

Graduation Rate 2009

State Target

83%

93%

90%

83%

90%

State Average TD Average AfricanAmerican White

87%

89%

93%

94%

76%

62%

90%

88%

75.2%

74.9%

75%

63%

89%

87%

76.9%

76.5%

88%

55%

90%

96%

55%

58.8%

Low SES

76%

59%

88%

85%

Special 39% 22% 54% 79% Education *Data retrieved from Tennessee Department (http://tn.gov/education/)

Education

When looking across Table 4‟s data, TD‟ student achievement fell in both math and reading/writing in 2008 and 2009. In math, TD‟s average student achievement data fell by 14 percentage points and TD‟s average student achievement in reading/writing fell by two percentage points. Additionally, TD‟s graduation rate remained stagnant. Looking at these indicators, TD‟s restructuring efforts did not effectively result in improved student achievement.

Discussion As a nation, we made a promise that all citizens are entitled to a quality education (US Dept. of Education, 2010). However, school restructuring efforts that become policy but do not result in significant increases in student achievement undermine our ability to fulfill that commitment. If we are going to successfully restructure schools, we should use strategies that support teachers, not fire them. In that notion, I propose an alternative school restructuring strategy.

Partner Schools Drawing from the literature about professional learning communities (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2010) and teacher mentor programs (Barrera et al, 2010; Moir et al., 2009), I propose a partner-school restructuring model where lowperforming and high-performing schools in the same county would create a “teacher-exchange” program. Instead of a reconstitution scenario where teachers who were deemed “ineffective” may be at jeopardy for losing their jobs, selected teachers from the low-performing school would transfer into a higher performing school in the same county for two years. In their new school, the selected teachers would be assigned classes to teach and a mentor teacher. With their mentors, the selected teachers would study best teaching strategies (Marzano et al., 2004), conduct action research (Kincheloe, 2003), and use reflective practices (Brubacher, et al., 1994) while teaching at their partner school. Additionally, the selected teachers would be required to learn how to collaborate across the curriculum, analyze student test data, and engage any other school-wide initiatives. The intent then is to build the selected teachers‟ instructional skill levels and conceptualizations of how an effective school

works. That way, when they return to their school after two years, they will have a stronger teaching foundation. To work effectively, teachers from the higher performing school would then transfer into the lower performing school for two years, which may require the use of monetary incentives. As these teachers join the lower performing school‟s faculty, they would be assigned classes to teach and be asked to share their best teaching strategies through instructional workshops and/or classroom demonstrations. Additionally, after spending 6-12 months becoming part of the lower performing school‟s culture, these teachers would recommend to the principal specific reforms that could be implemented to increase student learning, teacher effectiveness, and school-wide collaboration. The remainder of their time in the lower-performing school would be used to develop a plan for implementing specific recommendations that the principal agreed to and begin executing them. The benefits of this restructuring model as opposed to the turnaround model include: 1. Teachers from both higher and lower performing schools will have a unique experience that will most likely strengthen their teaching practices; 2. Teachers from lower performing schools will be provided support in how they can improve their instruction instead of being released; 3. Lower performing schools that previously implemented the turnaround strategy would not have to scramble to hire inexperienced teachers to replaced released teachers; 4. Collaboration will be emphasized opposed to top-down reform agendas; 5. The cost of incentivizing teachers from higher performing schools to transfer into lower performing schools is likely negligible compared to the cost of hiring and training a cadre of rookie teachers; 6. By having teachers from higher performing schools teach in lower performing schools, it will likely increase their conceptualization of lower performing schools and the challenges they face. When looking back at TD‟s experiences with school restructuring, Carmen and King were put in a situation where they had to make quick decisions about releasing teachers, and individual support for newly hired teachers who were struggling with differentiating their instruction to meet the needs of their students was not offered. Moreover, the overall result of TD‟s restructuring efforts was not increased student achievement; rather, it was that TD‟s English teachers and assistant principal left while student achievement remained stagnant, at best. If the goal of turning around schools is to increase student achievement, an approach that supports teachers and students needs to be used to restructure schools. The proposed “teacher exchange” program takes that aim, and the current school turnaround strategy does not.

Limitations My study was limited to the data I gathered from my participants, the historical documents I found, and the information posted online. I was not privy to the actual meetings between the district and TD‟s administrators, and my © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

involvement with TD began after the school had been restructuring for three years. Additionally, I delimited my study to only TD‟s English teachers, which made my pool of potential participants smaller. Also, when working with narrative, researchers tend to become part of the story and I was no exception (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). As I worked through the data, I was the individual who ultimately chose the quotes, events, and happenings to include, not my participants. My own experiences of being a former English teacher in a low performing school and working as a mentor for interns who completed their student teaching experience at TD informed how I viewed TD‟s restructuring and the work of my participants.

Conclusion School restructuring is not an easy process, and there are no “correct” methods to turnaroud a school. Moreover, to determine which strategies actually were useful when a school does successfully restructure is comparable to trying to get the egg out of a cake once it has been baked. In my study, I discussed how TD used multiple school improvement initiatives to help it restructure, but none of my participants keyed in on one specific strategy that was “the” strategy to improve student achievement, and TD‟s test score data suggests that none of the school reform strategies were effective. Additionally, the teacher attrition rate TD experienced suggests TD‟s restructuring did not result in it becoming a place where teachers wanted to work. As such, I offered “Partner Schools” as an alternative model for school restructuring, which emphasizes growth, support, and understanding for teachers and low performing schools. As education policies continue to use test scores to evaluate the effectiveness of schools and teachers, we must go about the work of transforming low performing schools into higher performing schools by using reforms that are caring to our teachers and students.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 41-58, May 2015

Introducing Productive Pedagogies to Nigerian Mathematics Classroom through Collaborative Action Research Using a Community of Practice Approach Dr. Iliya Joseph Bature, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, NSW, Australia James Jonah Jackson, Aramide Kemi, Danladi Remkyes Shol and Nengak Sabo, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Nigeria

Abstract. In this paper a group of four mathematics student-teachers came together to improved their teaching through a community of practice. They adopted one dimension each of the four dimensions that makes up the Productive Pedagogies framework to setup their classroom teaching practice. The findings of the study suggest that the four teachers achieved a great deal of success in their effort to improve their classroom teaching. Also Productive Pedagogies could be an important tool in improving the deplorable mathematics classroom in Nigeria particularly at the secondary school level. From the findings of this study the researcher conclusion suggested that, for effective mathematics classroom teaching, teachers are advised to adopt the Productive Pedagogies framework as an instrument for achieving quality classroom instruction. It is also suggested that collaboration among teachers should be encouraged. This will help the teachers work in groups and provide opportunity for teachers to talk about their teaching practices, criticise and model one another‘s thoughts and perceptions about classroom teaching. Keywords: Productive Pedagogies; Quality classroom Instruction; community of Practice

Introduction When the word ‘pedagogy’ is used, it connotes a range of methods of organising ideas that teachers adopt to bring about quality classroom teaching. Mathematics educators in more than six decades had made concerted effort in addressing different perspectives to mathematics and its classroom instruction. © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

For example notable researchers like Ernest (1991), Freudental (1978) and Skemp (1976) thought of mathematics in a fallibilistic terms. Davis, Maher and Noddings (1990) and Glasersfeld (1987) thought of mathematics learning in a constructive process. Lave and Wenger, (1991) thought of mathematics teaching and learning through situate knowledge. And finally, Lerman (1996) and Steffe and Thompson, (2001) had also debated the commensurability of constructivist and sociocultural learning theories which also suggested that the concept of the philosophical and the epistemological development of mathematics and its teaching and learning. Looking back over these years one might infer that these learning theories that are highly influential in addressing the teaching of mathematics as keys to the development of strategies for a drastic changes to mathematics classrooms (Jaworski, 2006). This had led to the maturity of the theoretical considerations of mathematics education discipline in the developed and the developing countries. However, the position of mathematics teaching has remains theoretical and underdeveloped (Jaworski, 2006) particularly in Nigerian mathematics classrooms where the traditional teacher-centred teaching still prevail (Azuka: 2006; Kaka, 2007; Odilli: 2006). Generally, several teaching techniques and or frameworks exist in literature that supports the development of theoretical underpinnings in relation to mathematics, Mathematics education and Mathematics classroom practice (Atweh, 2007). For example, first, the use of multi-tiered scale by teachers to demonstrate their level of expertise in achieving quality student outcome during mathematics classroom teaching (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) commonly referred to as Bloom Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956). Second, the ” Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences” which believed that “We are not all the same, we do not all have the same kinds of minds, and education works most effectively for most individuals, if...human differences are taken seriously" (Gardner, 1995, p.208). Third, the Debono‟s thinking Hats; which provides a model to help students think critically (de Bono, 1991). And finally, the Myer-Briggs Personality Types which burthened on how a designed personality test can assist a person identify some significant personal preferences in thinking about learning (Briggs Myers, McCaulley, Quenk, & Hammer, 1998). These different frameworks possess some characteristics that may be similar to one another. However, none of these frameworks and strategies contains prescriptive teaching tools for the teacher. According to Atweh (2007) these teaching techniques or what he called tools are “used for reflection for teachers to critique their own pedagogy in order to designed alternative pedagogies” (p.98). Similarly, Atweh when further to suggest that none of these framework or teaching techniques is content based. Atweh noted that the educational research base on which these tools or framework of teaching are built are perhaps limited and © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Focus more on higher order thinking and intelligence, constructed under the individualistic models of learning…, they don‟t take into account the social dimension of learning…, While some of them might acknowledge individual differences in thinking style and preference to learning, they do not account for the effects of student background and their social context. (p.98) Productive Pedagogies is an example of one of the attempts made by teacher educators and mathematics teacher educators to integrate research findings on effective teaching from a variety of areas to mathematics classroom practice, within education itself, and to classroom instruction. Specifically, Productive Pedagogies is a product of a long study on school reform undertaken in Queensland, Australia (Lingard, Ladwig, Mills, Bahr, Chant, Warry, Ailwood, Capeness, Christie, Gore, Hayes, & Luke, 2001). The basic aim of the framework was to enhance the quality of classroom teaching. It refuses the idea placed on a teaching environment that defined quality education in terms of students’ outcomes demonstrated in a standardized test of basic skills (Zyngier, 2005). It however, defines students outcomes in terms of a set of standards based on some powerful, important ideas and concepts which could be related to the students’ experiences and the environment around them (Atweh, 2014, Zyngier, 2005). This suggests that Productive Pedagogies framework is concerned with how to help students learn and how to enhance both their academic and social behaviours during classroom instruction. The developers of Productive Pedagogies framework (Lingard et al. 2001) postulated four dimensions which described and characterised what could be termed quality teaching (Atweh, 2014). These includes; Intellectual Quality, Connectedness, Supportive Classroom Environment, and the Recognition of Difference. Each dimension was further described by a number of elements (Lingard et al. 2001). A brief description of the dimensions suggests that Intellectual Quality is an important dimension in achieving quality classroom teaching. Previous research studies suggested that high Intellectual Quality classrooms assist in improving students’ performance during classroom instruction (Boaler, 1997; Hayes, Mills, Christie, & Lingard, 2006). Connectedness attempts to make mathematics more relevant to students’ life by connecting students’ life experiences either at home or in the society with their lives in school (curriculum and content) or other school subjects. This attempt is with the view to making mathematics more ‘relevant’ and providing students with more meaningful life experiences (Atweh, 2007). The Supportive Classroom Environment dimension is needed to create and enabled learning environments involving support and engagement in order to foster high Intellectual Quality and Connectedness. Finally, on Recognition of Difference, Hayes et al. (2006) was of the view that teachers should give more emphasis to recognize the diversities that exist among students with different cultural backgrounds and beliefs during classroom instruction in order to provide an equitable outcome for all students. The framework has become a focus of research and curriculum development efforts for some years now. This is demonstrated in several projects around the © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

world. For example, in its efforts to improve achievement and interest in the study of mathematics and other subjects across all school levels, the Queensland State Government initiated the New Basic Project in 2001 (Department of Education, Training and Employment, 2001). The New Basics Projects provided new curriculum organisations, authentic assessment tasks, and a framework for designing teaching called the Productive Pedagogies (Tanko & Atweh, 2012). Similarly, Zingier (2005) indicated that the Productive Pedagogies framework has been adopted in many states and regions across Australia as in New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria. Gore, Griffiths and Ladwig, (2002) also used Productive Pedagogies to prepare a series of professional development activities for in-service teachers. There are several other research studies that have utilised the Productive Pedagogies framework in teacher education across the globe. For example, Alsharif and Atweh (2012) in Saudi Arabia modelled the Productive Pedagogies framework in preservice teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;- education programs to develop their pedagogical practices during their field experience. Tanko and Atweh (2012) used the Productive Pedagogy framework to improve the teaching and learning of practical numeracy with adult learners in United Arab Emirates. Similarly, Productive Pedagogies framework had been used to introduce social justice practices in classroom instruction (Bacon, 2012; Bartel, 2012; Tanko, 2012). Other studies used the Productive Pedagogies framework to increase preservice teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; awareness of teaching pedagogies that could improve classroom engagement, participation, and to implement critical reflection among teachers and students (Aveling & Hatchell, 2007; Sorin & Klein, 2002; Wilson & Klein, 2000; Zyngier 2005). Though, certain principles of Productive Pedagogies had been explored by Nigerian educational researchers. There is no evidence in literature that the concept had been explored as a whole in Nigeria classrooms. For example, Bature and Bundot (2009) worked on setting the classroom climate for effective mathematics classroom instructions which could be regarded as the Supportive Classroom Environment of Productive Pedagogies. Similarly, Kalu (1997) worked on classroom interaction patterns among secondary schools students during classroom instruction which could be regarded as substantive conversation of Intellectual Quality dimension of Productive Pedagogies. While Ajunwon (2012) worked on socio-cultural identities found in different students especially in mathematics classrooms which could be viewed as inclusivity of the Recognition of Difference dimensions of Productive Pedagogies In this current study, the researchers adopted the Productive Pedagogies framework because on the following potentials. First, the Productive Pedagogies framework is believed to provide opportunities for individual teachers to reflect on their own lessons, either at the planning stage or after conducting the class, using the four dimensions of the framework (Atweh, 2007). The teacher can ask herself/himself whether the lesson demonstrated high quality content in its presentation or whether the lesson provided enough support to students, or whether the increase recognition of differences among ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

students such as social and cultural groups in the classroom helped improved students learning and engagements. Second, Productive Pedagogies framework is believed to have the potential of helping teachers’ obtain or provide critical colleagues’ comments on each other’s’ classroom teaching. This allows the teacher and the classroom observer to enter into substantive conversation about teaching and practices. It also has the potential to be used in collaborative planning for the curriculum in the school for one level in one subject, or across levels and subjects. Third, the researchers believed that the Productive Pedagogies framework can be used for the professional development of Mathematics teachers and as a form of induction to both preservice and inservice teachers in the schools, which could be useful strategy for giving feedback to teachers for discussions about promoting good and quality classroom teaching. Fourth, the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study pointed to certain conditions that make the research on Productive Pedagogies open to other social settings. First, they assert that: - each dimension of Productive Pedagogies is readily defended in an ideal setting and in the context in which it was developed. However, this depends on the prevailing circumstances surrounding the classroom in terms of classroom environments and other socio cultural forces. This makes the research on Productive Pedagogies open to further investigations particularly in other social-cultural environments. Second, the four dimensions of Productive Pedagogies may be good enough for students to do well in school; there is however, no quality evidence to believing that all the dimensions are equally required for success in all socio-cultural settings (Lingard at al. 2001). Third, different classroom activities may reflect some of these dimension more than others (Atweh, 2007) for example, some classes may demonstrate low level Intellectual Qualities, while others demonstrate high level of Intellectual Quality with the attempt to connect learning to students’ life experiences. Therefore, one may conclude by saying that, Productive Pedagogies may work in one environment and fail to work in other environments depending on the prevailing circumstances surrounding the environment. This informed the need for this research to investigate the process and the effect of introducing Productive Pedagogies into Nigerian secondary schools mathematics classrooms with the aim to improving mathematics teachers’ classroom teaching. This paper discusses how Productive Pedagogies framework was introduced to four mathematics teachers in an attempt to improve their teaching practices in a community of practice or through an approach called Collaborative Action Research. The following research objectives were adapted to this research. 1. To determine the teachers implementation of Productive Pedagogies framework during their classroom instruction. 2. To determine the improvement observed in the teachers classroom instruction using the Productive Pedagogies Classroom Observation Manual developed by the Queensland School Reformed Longitudinal Study.

3. To determine the perception of the teachers on the role of Productive Pedagogies in improving their teaching practice using the community of practice.

Methodology This research adopted the Collaborative Action Research approach to investigating the classroom teaching of four teachers working in the community of practice to improve their teaching using Productive Pedagogies framework. Collaborative Research is a form of research that is authentic and meaningful to teachers. It is conducted by teacher in their own classroom, to identify their challenges and find possible solutions to such classroom problems. It helps the teacher to pick up issues suggested in academic circles, and weave them in his own classroom to uncover new strategies to be used to improve his/her teaching practices (Ferrance, 2000, p.13; Johnson and Button, 2000; Sagor, 2004 ) Four preservice mathematics teachers of Jimmy, Jackson, Jerry and Jennie (pseudonyms) were conducting their final year research project in a community of practice. They decided to each pick one dimension of the Productive Pedagogies framework to set their classes in their effort to achieve quality classroom teaching. These four teachers decided to adopt the Productive Pedagogies Classroom Observation Manual developed by the Queensland School Reformed Longitudinal Study commissioned by the Education Queensland (2001) as an observational tool during their classroom instruction. The 24-page manual contains explanations and examples of all 20 elements (see Appendix) of the Productive Pedagogies along with a 5 point Likert type scale. The teachers used the elements and the dimensions of Productive Pedagogies as outlined in the Productive Pedagogies Classroom Observation Manual to determine their level of implementability of the framework during their classroom instruction. The data generation period was divided into three cycles of two weeks. After each data collection session the teachers will meet for a period of another two or more hours to reflect on their practice, discuss the challenges they faces and possible solutions proffered before progressing into the next cycle or section. The quantitative data generated during the research were used by each of the participating preservice teachers for their final year research project. However, for this paper, the qualitative data collected were coded using the grounded theory approached to data analysis. While the quantitative data which constituted the major data used were collated and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics to determine the improvement of each of the participating teachers across the three cycles or sections.

Result

The results of the classroom teaching of the four mathematics teachers were analysed independently. This is because the teachers adopted different dimensions of the Productive Pedagogies framework to improve their classroom instructions. Secondly, since they were working in a community of practice, the picture of how each of the teachers implemented his/her dimension needed to be analysed separately.

Response to Research Objective 1 To determine the participating teachers implementation of Productive Pedagogies framework during their classroom instruction using the Productive Pedagogies Classroom Observation Manual developed by Queensland School Reformed Longitudinal Study.

Meta Language Knowledge as Problematic Substantive Conversation

cycle 1 cycle 2

Deep Understanding

cycle 3 Deep Knowledge Higher Order Thinking 0

Figure 1: Jimmy’s Classroom Instruction. The Figure above described the implementation of Jimmy’s classroom instruction using the Intellectual Quality Dimension of Productive Pedagogies. The Intellectual Quality dimension has six elements: - Metalanguage, Knowledge as Problematic, substantive conversation, deep knowledge, deep understanding and higher order thinking. See table in appendix. The figure suggested that Jimmy’s implementation in each element show a progressive improvement from cycle to cycle. From the figure, Jimmy demonstrated competences in all elements on the three cycles with particular improvement in higher order thinking and substantive conversation in cycle three. However, Knowledge as problematic was the elements with least competence in implementation particularly in cycle 3. The progressive improvement could have been achieved as a result of the reflections meetings after each cycle.

Problem Based Curriculum

Connectedness to the world cycle 1 cycle 2 Background Knowledge

cycle 3

Knowledge integration

Figure 2: Jacksonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Classroom Instruction: The figure above demonstrated the implementation of Jacksonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classroom instruction using the Connectedness dimension of Productive Pedagogies. The connectedness dimension which is also called relevance has four elements: - Problem Based curriculum, connectedness to the world, Background knowledge and Knowledge integration as stated in the appendix below. The figure suggested that Jackson had a progressive improvement in all the elements of Connectedness with particular improvement in connectedness to the world and problem based curriculum. This suggested that Jackson pays particular attention to helping his students solved real life related problems. He also gave them the freedom to solved high intellectual quality problems that had varied approaches to solution. Background knowledge and knowledge integration where the list implemented elements in Jackson classroom practice. Perhaps reasons to these could be adduced to his inability to relate his mathematics content to other subjects as observed by his colleagues. This notwithstanding does not imply that he did not relate them well but rather they were not rated as high as the other elements in his dimension. However, this progressive improvement in Jackson classroom instruction in all the elements perhaps was as a result of the reflective meetings between the teachers during the research period. This period was dedicated to discussing the challenges faced in the previous cycles and how best it could be achieved in the next cycle.

Explecit quality performance criteria Students Direction Cycle 1

Self-regulation

Cycle 2 Cycle 3

Academic Engagement

Social Support

Figure 3: Jerry’s Classroom Instruction: The figure above demonstrated the implementation of Jerry’s classroom instruction using the Supportive Classroom Environment dimension of Productive Pedagogies. The dimension has the following elements as described in the table below: - explicit quality performance criteria, students’ direction, self-regulation, academic engagement, and social support. The figure demonstrated improvement in Jerry’s classroom instruction from cycle to cycle. The figure also revealed no improvement in social support between cycle 1 and cycle 2. It was also observed that there was a high level of students’ self-regulation in cycle 3. However the students did not fully have the control of the classroom activities as students’ direction was shown to be least implemented in cycles 1 and 3. This does not implies that Jerry did not improved in his implementation but rather some elements were better implemented that others. The implementability of the elements and their effectiveness was as the result of the explanations given in Jimmy and Jackson classroom instruction. There was a very high observation on self-regulation also in Jerry classroom instruction in cycle 3. This perhaps was as a result of the topic Jerry was handling coupled with the reflection meetings.

Group Identity

Active citizenship cycle 1

Inclusivity

cycle 2 cycle 3

Naratives

Cultural Knowledge

Figure 4: Jennie’s Classroom Instruction: The figure above demonstrated the implementation of Jennie’s classroom instruction using the Recognition of Difference dimension of Productive Pedagogies. This dimension is divided into 5 elements thus: - Group Identity, Active citizenship, Inclusivity, narratives and cultural knowledge The figure demonstrated that Jennie had a progressive improvement in the implementation of Recognition of Difference dimension of Productive Pedagogies, with particular improvement in active citizenship in cycle 3. This suggests that Jennie recognises the differences that exist among students in her classroom and uses them to improve her classroom instruction. Active citizenship was observed to be higher than all other elements in Jennies’ classroom practice might be as a result of the preservice provides a more democratic setting in her classroom instruction. As discuss above, other factors that could influence her performance were not far from what is said about the other researchers.

Response to Research objective 2 To determine the improvement observed in the participating teachers classroom instruction using the Productive Pedagogies Classroom Observation Manual developed by Queensland School Reformed Longitudinal Study

Jimmy

Jerry cycle 1 cycle 2 Jackson

cycle 3

Jennie

Figure 5 Participating teachers improvement in classroom instructions. Figure 5 above demonstrated the improvement of all the participating teachers across the cycles. The figure above demonstrated the picture of the participating teachers’ classroom instruction across cycles which suggested improvement in classroom teaching of all the teachers across the cycles. Their performance across cycles also suggested uniform performances as they fall within the same range in all the ratings except in cycle one where Jerry’s performance was a bit better than the other teachers. Factors that are likely to bring about better performance among the teachers perhaps could be as a result of the years of teaching experiences or the dimensions selected for the research. However, all the preservice teachers showed potentials in their effort to improve their classroom instruction. Uniformity in their performance could also be as the result of the reflection meetings as stated in research objective 1 above.

Response to research objective 3 To determine the perception of the teachers on the role of Productive Pedagogies and Collaborative Action Research in improving their teaching practice using the community of practice. Data collected suggested that the use of Productive Pedagogies framework was not the only factor that helped improve the teaching effectiveness of the preservice teachers. The teachers were of the view that discussions held after each cycle during their reflection meetings contributed a lot to helping them see the concept of Productive Pedagogies and its implementations in new dimensions. The reflection meetings gave them the opportunity to look back on what they did which helped them look forward on what they needed to do to © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

improve their practice in the next cycle. For example, one of the teachers was of the view that, The way the program was structured emphasises very challenging learning objectives, we received and provided support to one another, and not only is feedback given throughout the program but we actively sought for it, not only from the researcher, but also from colleagues. (Jerry: Research Journal) Another teacher said, The experiences of discussing with colleagues help my problem solving skills, it provided opportunity for cooperative learning, and there is an enhanced level of immediate feedback from colleagues during the implementation, particularly, during reflection meetings. (Jennie: Research Journal) Similarly the preservice teachers suggested that the framework help reduced the domineering approach to teaching, commonly observed in most Nigerian mathematics classrooms. For example one of the teachers was of the view that, The setting that makes mathematics teachers have the monopoly of knowledge and students depending on them for everything does not portrayed good Productive Pedagogies classroom. But in a situation where we are teachers and we are students; makes our students relax..., the teacher brings the knowledge and the students analysed and discussed it … this tends to boast my student‟s confidence and encouraged independent learning among them. (Jennie: Research Journal) From the comment of the preservice teacher above suggests that using the Productive Pedagogies framework in mathematics’ classroom help reduced the mathematics phobia that is commonly observed among secondary school students in most mathematics classrooms in Nigeria. Every member of the classroom community has a role to perform during the classroom instruction as against the teacher centred instruction that had pervaded most of the Nigerian mathematics classrooms for decades. Jackson acknowledged this by saying, My classroom used to be like a graveyard as students dare not talk, but to my amazement as I introduced Productive Pedagogies framework in my class, the class naturally became interactive, the students interacted in their groups, before you know, the solution to the problem is gotten. (Jackson: Research Journal)

Conclusions The findings of the study suggested that the used of Productive Pedagogies framework by the teachers improved their teaching effectiveness. It brought about positive changes in their classroom instructions. This was demonstrated in figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The figures showed positive improvement from one cycle to the other. This improvement according to the teachers was as a result of adopting the Productive Pedagogies framework in their classroom teaching as observed in research objective 3. These tallies with the findings of most notable © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

researchers on Productive Pedagogies which were of the view that Productive Pedagogies framework had been used to help mathematics teachers improved their mathematics classroom instruction (Bacon, 2012; Bartel, 2012; Tanko, 2012). Other researchers also observed that the Productive Pedagogies framework could also be used to increase teacher awareness of teaching pedagogies that could improve classroom engagement and participation. This helped bring about critical reflection among teachers and their colleagues on their teaching practices (Aveling & Hatchell, 2007; Sorin & Klein, 2002; Wilson & Klein, 2000; Zyngier 2005). On using Productive Pedagogies as a tool for improving mathematics classroom instructions, the findings of the study suggest that Productive Pedagogies seems to be an important tool for effective classroom instruction as it makes teachers and students responsible for what goes on in the class during classroom instruction. Every member of the classroom community has a role to play during the classroom instruction as compared to the traditional teacher-centred approach that has dominated most Nigerian mathematics classrooms (Azuka: 2006; Kaka, 2007; Odilli: 2006). These findings also coincided with the findings of Atweh (2014) who asserted that Productive Pedagogies can be used to improve mathematics teachers teaching effectiveness, because they provide a vocabulary for teachers and their students to interact during classroom instruction. Similarly, the findings of the study also suggests that it was not only the use of the Productive Pedagogies framework alone that helped improve their teaching effectiveness, but that, the discussions held after each cycle during their reflections meetings contributed a lot to helping the teachers see the concept of Productive Pedagogies and their implementations in new dimensions. The reflection meetings gave them the opportunity to look back on what they did, which helped them look forward to what they needed to do to improve their practice. This supports the Collaborative Action Research principles of reflections which postulate that reflection helps improved teachers performance during classroom instruction, provides opportunities for teachers to discuss problems observed and suggest possible ways to resolve them (Sagor, 2004). This also suggested that collaboration among teachers provide opportunity for teachers to talk about their classroom instruction and also provides a framework for reflection after classroom instruction with colleagues (Aveling & Hatchell, 2007; Sorin & Klein, 2002; Wilson & Klein, 2000; Zyngier 2005). Similarly, studies has also demonstrated that participating in Collaborative Research has been found to be one of the most important tools for effecting positive changes in teachers’ classroom instruction. This is exemplified by teachers’ improvement in their practice, self-reflection, improved students overall learning and enhances mathematics teachers’ classroom teaching effectiveness (Ferrance, 2000; Johnson & Button, 2000; Ross, Rolheiser, & Hogoboam-Gray & Campbel, 2002; Sax & Fisher, 2001). In conclusion the findings of this study suggest that, for effective mathematics classroom teaching, teachers are advised to adopt the Productive Pedagogies © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

framework as a tool for achieving quality classroom instruction. It is also suggested that collaboration among teachers should be encouraged. This will help the teachers work in groups and provide opportunity for teachers to talk about their teaching practices, criticise and model one another‘s thoughts and perceptions about classroom teaching.

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de Bono, E, (1991) "Why Do Quality Efforts Lose Their Fizz?" Quality is No Longer Enough, The Journal for Quality and Participation, September 1991 Department of Education Training and Employment (2001) New Basis. Education Queensland, (2001) “Productive Pedagogies Classroom Observation Manual”. The original booklet was from the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (QSRLS) commissioned by Education Queensland. Ernest, P. (2000). The Teaching and Learning of Mathematics’, in Koshy, V., Ernest, P. and Casey, R. Eds. Mathematics for Primary Teachers, London: Routledge, 2000: pp. 3-20. (ISBN 0415200903). Ferrance, E. (2000). Themes in education: Action research. Brown University: Educational Alliance, 1- 34. Freudenthal, H. (1978). Weeding and sowing: Preface to a science of mathematical education. Dordrecht: Reidel Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Glasersfeld, E. von (1987). ‘Learning as a constructive activity.’ In C. Janvier (Ed.), Problems of representation in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Hillslade, NJ: Erlbaum. Gore, J. M., Griffiths, T., & Ladwig, J. G. (2001). Productive pedagogy as a framework for teacher education: Towards better teaching. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Fremantle, Western Australia, Gray J.& Campbel-Evans G (2002). Beginning Teachers as teacher-Researchers; Australian Journal of Teacher Education Volume 27| Issue 1 Article 4, 2002 Hayes, D., Mills, M., Christie P., & Lingard, B. (2006). Productive Pedagogies: Teacher, and schooling making a difference: Productive Pedagogies, Assessments and Performance. Allen and Unwin 83 Alexander Street, Crows Next NSW 2065, Australia, 32-81. Johnson, M., & Button, K. (2000). Connecting graduate education in language arts with teaching contexts: The power of action research. English Education, 32, 107-126. Jaworski B. (2006). Theory and practice in mathematics teaching development: Critical inquiry as a mode of learning in teaching. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 9, pp. 187-211. Kaka, M. O. (2007). Games assisted instructional materials – A strategy for enhancing students’ achievement in integrated sciences. Journal of Research in Curriculum and Teaching, 2 (1), 120 – 128. Kalu, I. M. (1997) Classroom interaction patterns, teacher and student characteristics and students‟ learning outcomes in Physics. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lerman, S. (1996). Inter-subjectivity in mathematics learning: A challenge to the radical constructivist paradigm. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 27(2), pp. 133-150. Lingard, B., Ladwig, J., Mills, M., Bahr, M., Chant, D., Warry, M., Ailwood, J.,Capeness, R., Christie, P., Gore, J., Hayes, D. & Luke, A. (2001). The Queensland school reform longitudinal study. Brisbane: Education Queensland. Montessori, M. (2003). Montessori Method Book .Berne Nobles

Newmann, F. M. and Associates. (1996.) Authentic Achievement: Restructuring Schools for Intellectual Quality, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Odilli, G.A. (2006). Mathematics in Nigeria Secondary Schools; A teaching perspective. PortHarcourt; Rex Charles & Patrick. Piggott, J. (2004,). Developing a Framework for Mathematical Enrichment. Conference Proceedings, "Critical Thinking", University of the West Indies, Trinidad. Ross, J., Rolheiser, C., & Hogoboam-Gray, A. (1999). Effects of collaborative action research on the knowledge of five Canadian teacher researchers. The Elementary School Journal, 99 (3), 255-274. Sagor, R. (2004). The action research guidebook: A four-step process for educators and school teams. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sax, C., & Fisher, D. (2001) Using qualitative action research to effect change: Implications for professional education. Teacher Education Quarterly, 28 (2), 7180. Skovsmose, O. & Borba, M. (2004). Research Methodology and Critical Mathematics Education. In Paola Valero & Robyn Zevenbergen (Eds.), Researching the SocioPolitical Dimensions of Mathematics Education. Issues of Power in Theory and Methodology. Mathematics Education Library Dordrecht: Springer., 35, pp. 207226. Skemp, R. (1976). Relational Understanding and Instrumental Understanding. Mathematics Teaching, 77, 20-26 Sorin, R., & Klein, M. (2002). Walking the walk and talking the talk: adequate teacher preparation in these uncertain times? Paper presented to AARE, Brisbane, Australia Steffe, L. P. & Thompson, P. W. (2000). Interaction or Intersubjectivity? A Reply to Lerman. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 31(2), pp. 191-209. Tanko, M. G. (2012). Teaching practical numeracy through social justice pedagogy: case study of Abu Dhabi womenâ&#x20AC;&#x;s college (unpublished Doctoral dissertation), Curtin University, Perth Australia. Tanko M. G. & Atweh B. (2012) Using Productive Pedagogy to Improve the Teaching and Learning of Practical Numeracy with Adult Learners. Journal of Education and Practice 3(16), pp. 88-95 Valero, P. (2009). Mathematics education as a network of social practices. Invited keynote lecture at the 6th Conference of the European Society for research in Mathematics Education (CERME6) (forthcoming proceedings). University Joseph Fourier, Lyon, France. Wilson, E. & Klein, M (2000). Promoting Productive Pedagogies: Preservice Teacher Education for New Times in Queensland State Schools. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education. Sydney. Zyngier, D. (2005). Choosing our ideas, word and action carefully: is the language of Productive Pedagogies intelligible for pre-service teachers? Issues in Education Research, 15(2), 225-248.

Appendix The Dimensions of Productive Pedagogies and their Associated Elements Summarised by Atweh (2007) ELEMENTS OF DESCRIPTION PRODUCTIVE PEDAGOGIES INTELLECTUAL QUALITY Higher Order Involves transformation of information and ideas. This transformation occurs Thinking when students combine facts and ideas to synthesize, generalise, explain, hypothesize or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation. Deep Deep knowledge is concerned with the central ideas of a topic or discipline Knowledge which are judged to be crucial to it. Deep Deep understanding is indicated when students grasp relatively complex Understanding relationships between the central concepts of a topic or discipline. They can produce new knowledge by discovering relationships, solving problems, constructing explanations and drawing conclusions. Substantive There is considerable interaction among students, and between teacher and Conversation students, about the ideas of a substantive topic. The interactions are reciprocal and promote shared understanding Knowledge as This involves an understanding of knowledge not as a fixed body of Problematic information, but rather as being constructed, and hence subject to political, social and cultural influences and implications Meta-language Such instruction incorporates frequent discussion about talk and writing, about how written and spoken facts work, about specific technical vocabulary and words, about how sentences work or donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work (syntax, grammar). SUPPORTIVE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT Student Students influence the specific activities or tasks they will do in a lesson or Direction how they will undertake them. Social Support Social support is characterised by an atmosphere of mutual respect and support between teacher and students, and among students. Academic Students are engaged and on task. They show enthusiasm for their work by Engagement raising questions, contributing to group activities and helping peers Self-Regulation The direction of student behaviour is implicit and self-regulatory Explicit Quality The criteria for judging the range of student performance is made explicit. Performance Using tools such as rubrics. Criteria CONNECTEDNESS Knowledge This occurs when explicit attempts are made to connect two or more sets of Integration subject area knowledge. Background Opportunities are provided for students to make connections between their Knowledge own background knowledge and experience and the topics, skills and competencies they are studying and acquiring Connectedness This describes the extent to which the lesson has value and meaning to the World beyond the instructional context, making a connection to the wider social context within which students live. Problem-Based Such curriculum is one in which students are presented with specific Curriculum practical, real or hypothetical problems to solve. Problems are defined as having no single correct solution, requiring the construction of knowledge by the students and requiring sustained attention beyond a single lesson. RECOGNITION OF DIFFERENCE ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Cultural Knowledge Group Identity Narrative

Inclusivity

Active Citizenship

A range of cultures, an acknowledged and given status. Cultures are valued when there is implicit appreciation of beliefs, languages, practices and ways of knowing. Teaching practices build a sense of community and identity. The use of narrative in lessons involves an emphasis both in teaching and in student responses or personal stories, biographies, historical accounts and literary and cultural texts. Inclusive classroom practices intentionally acknowledge, support and incorporate the diversity of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; diverse backgrounds, experiences and abilities. This element involves acknowledging that in a democratic society all individuals and groups have rights and responsibilities.

International Journal of Learning, teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 59-68, May 2015

Blended VS On-Campus Learning: A Study of Exam Results in the Bachelor Degree in Nursing BjĂ¸rg F. Oftedal, Kristin H. Urstad, Venche Hvidsten and Brynjar Foss

Department of Health Studies University of Stavanger, Norway Abstract. Blended learning is a pedagogical method combining classroom learning and online learning. For this purpose, various digital and web-based learning tools have been developed. Although the benefits of blended learning are extensive and valued by many students, there is a growing need to explore how blended learning might affect learning outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare learning outcomes between students receiving blended learning and the conventional, on-campus approach. The study had a descriptive quantitative design. The data was collected from the exam database at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The study included all nursing students enrolled in 2009 and 2010 attending the three-year on-campus program or the four-year blended learning program. Results show that students engaged in blended learning perform at least as well on theoretical exams as the on-campus students. This indicate that students in blended learning are just as capable of doing well in nursing program as students in an on-campus program. Nevertheless, further research should focus on larger sample sizes combined with other methodological approaches in order to explore the impact of blended learning more deeply. Keywords: Blended learning; Bachelor in nursing; Learning outcome; Quantitative method

Introduction Blended learning, the systematic integration of traditional classroom learning combined with digital learning solutions, is a relatively new pedagogical method in higher education (Galy, Downey, & Johnson, 2011; Hsu & Hsieh, 2014; Percival & Muirhead, 2009). Blended learning thus causes changes in learning patterns and practices and may represent a paradigm shift in which the emphasis of the academic institution changes from traditional teaching to active learning (Lopez-Perez, Perez-Lopez, & Rodriguez-Ariza, 2011).

Blended learning has become widespread among students because of its potential for providing more flexible and asynchronous learning activities, offering some of the conveniences of campus courses with the complete face-toface contact (Means, Toyama, Murphy, & Baki, 2013). For this purpose, various digital learning tools have been developed including learning management systems (LMS) (Burgess, 2003; Galy et al., 2011), rich media solutions such as Mediasite (Blevins & Elton, 2009; Harvel & Hardmann, 2012; Vasu & Ozturk, 2008), e-compendiums (Foss, Oftedal, & LĂ¸kken, 2013) and podcasts (Delaney, Pennington, & Blankenship, 2010; Evans, 2008; Foss et al., 2013). Prior studies indicate that blended learning has many positive effects. For example, some authors have reported that blended learning increases students motivation for learning, reflection, and collaboration; reduces dropout rates; and eliminates geographical barriers (Du et al., 2013; Hsu, 2012; Lopez-Perez et al., 2011). In addition, studies reveal that students are more satisfied with blended learning because of the flexibility and accessibility it affords, as well as the opportunity to be more active in the learning process because of various digital learning tools e.g. games (Hsu, 2012; Korhonen & Lammintakanen, 2005; Lim & Morris, 2009; Smyth, Houghton, Cooney, & Casey, 2012; Wu, Tennyson, & Hsia, 2010). Although the promises of blended learning are extensive, some studies have highlighted the negative effects of blended learning. These include technical difficulties, studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; feelings of isolation, students becoming overwhelmed, and the feeling that on line tools are too invasive in their everyday lives (Smyth, 2012). Nevertheless, according to a meta-analysis, most research in this area tends to focus on students experiences (Means et al. 2013). Therefore, more research about how the blended learning program affects exam results when compared to ordinary on-campus programs is recommended (Means et al., 2013).

Aim The aim of this study was to compare learning outcomes between students receiving blended learning and a conventional, on-campus approach. This was performed by comparing students exam results in all the theoretical subjects for the three-year, on-campus bachelor degree in nursing, with students exam results for the four-year, blended learning bachelor degree in nursing.

Study Context In 2009, a University in Norway initiated a four-year blended learning program for the bachelor degree in nursing. The curricula was introduced as a supplement to the conventional three-year, on-campus bachelor degree in nursing. The curricula of nurses in blended learning are based on both theoretical courses and practical training. While all practical training is done on campus and in hospital/primary health care, the course contents are organized and provided by the local learning management system (LMS) and various elearning tools including, streaming, podcast, video and e-compendiums (see below).

Description of Education Programs The two education programs are based on identical curricula and exams as well as lecturers and assessment examiner and carries 180 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits. However, the timelines and learning tools differ. The on-campus education is a full-time study that spans three years. The learning tools were weekly auditorium lectures, textbooks, and the local LMS. The exams were traditional paper and pencil tests for both groups. The blended learning education program is a part-time study over four years, and the lectures only take place for four weeks during each semester. Beyond the lectures, the remaining time of the semester involves self-study. The learning tools included are textbooks, LMSs, and e-compendiums. The e-compendiums constitute a major part of the blended learning tools and was developed to substitute for lectures and provide support for and complement the courses. The e-compendiums are PDF rich-media files that contain the lecture as a written text supplemented with figures, photos, animations, audio files, interactions, and a short multiple-choice test (Foss et al, 2013). In addition, highlighting of text, personal notes (including voice notes) and search functions are embedded. The audio files from the e-compendiums were made available as podcasts on iTunes U. Students were thus able to save the podcasts to their PCs or mobile devices. The podcasts were accessible as audio files only (mp3 files) and enhanced versions were available that also included the graphics of the ecompendiums (Foss et al. 2013).

Methodology The study had a descriptive quantitative design. The data was collected from the exam database of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Samples The study included all nursing students enrolled in 2009 and 2010 attending the three-year on-campus program (OCP) or the four-year blended learning program (BLP) (Table 1). In 2009 and 2010, 16 students with a median age of 28, and 24 students with a median age of 35, respectively, enrolled in the BLP, whereas 198 students with a median age of 21, and 238 students with a median age of 21, respectively, enrolled in the OCP. For students who began in 2009 and who were 19-20 years old, the lowest secondary high school scores were 33.8 and 38.3 for BLP and OCP students, respectively. For students who were 21 years or older and enrolled in 2009, the lowest scores were 48.8 and 43.0 for BLP and OCP students, respectively. Among OCP students, those who enrolled in 2010 had the lowest scores of 37.7 and 41.6 for the age range of 19-20 and the 21 years old and older range, respectively. All students who applied and were qualified to the BLP were enrolled in 2010, and therefore, no lowest enter mark is registered.

Table 1: Characteristic of the sample BLP students OCP students 2009 2010 2009 2010 Enrolled (n) 16 24 198 238 Age (median) 28 35 21 21 Lowest enter mark score* ≤ 20 year** 33.8 0*** 38.3 37.7 ordinary 48.8 0 43.0 41.6 * The lower secondary school enter mark. **Applicants younger and above 21 years are subject to different admission requirements *** All BLP students were enrolled in 2010, and no lowest enter mark was registered

Analysis The descriptive analysis in this study consists of exam marks for theoretical subjects in the two study programs. The mark scale ranges from A to F, where A is the best score and F is a failing grade. Whereas the majority of the students passed the exam on their first attempt, some students required two or three attempts to pass. This explains why the number of students who completed the exams differed compared to the number of enrolled students (Table 4). All attempts of the exams are included in the analysis.

Results In this study, we compared the exam results of BLP and OCP students who enrolled during the academic year 2009 and 2010. The nursing program contains ten theoretical subjects. The average marks on each of these subjects are presented in Table 2. Table 2: Average marks on each theoretical subject for BLP and OCP Course

Course title

BSN 140: BSN 142: BSN EX: BSN 143: BSN 240: BSN 241: BSN 242:

Fundamental of nursing

BLP 2009 2010 C C

OCP 2009 2010 D D

Natural and medical science – part 1

Philosophy of nursing

Nursing and Social studies

Nursing - acute, critical and chronic illnesses Natural and medical science – part 2

Nursing - organisation and management

BSN Nursing - health promotion and user 340: involvement BSN Theories and Sciences in nursing 341: BSN Bachelor thesis BAC: na = not available

By converting the exam marks into numbers, in which the exam mark A corresponds to a 6, B to a 5, and so forth we found that the average score of OCP students was 3.4 for 2009 and 3.6 for 2010 students (Table 3). The BLP students of 2009 had an average mark of 4.0 and the BLP students of 2010 had an average mark of 3.7 (Table 3).

Table 3: Marks converted into numbers Course Course title Code BSN Fundamental of nursing 140 BSN Natural and medical science – part 1 142 BSN EX Philosophy of nursing BSN Nursing and Social studies 143 BSN Nursing - acute, critical and chronic 240 illnesses BSN Natural and medical science – part 2 241 BSN Nursing - organisation and 242 management BSN Nursing - health promotion and user 340 involvement BSN Theories and Sciences in nursing 341 BSN Bachelor thesis BAC Averag e Mark na = not available

BLP

OCP

2009 4.0

2010 4.0

2009 3.0

2010 3.0

4.0

3.0

4.0 3.0

na 4.0

4.0

3.0

4.0

3.0

4.0

3.0

4.0

3.0

5.0

4.0

5.0

4.0

3.7

3.4

3.6

Figure 1 illustrates the average exam marks of the 2009 and 2010 students for each subject and compares BLP and OCP. The results show that the average marks are identical for the two groups for one out of the nine subjects (BSN EX not included, see Table 3), whereas BLP students do better on six subjects and OCP students do better on two single subjects.

Figure 1: The average marks of 2009 and 2010 students on each subject. Black = BLP, grey = OCP, 1 = mark F, 2 = mark E, 3 = mark D, 4 = mark C, 5 = mark B, 6 = mark A. In addition to studying the exam marks of each subject, we also studied the failure rates of the two student groups. As presented in Table 4, the failure rates of natural and medical sciences (BSN142 and BSN241) were somewhat higher for the BLP students compared to the OCP students. The average failure rates for Natural and medical science – part 1 (BSN142) for the 2009 and 2010 students is 44.2% for BLP students and 30.0% for OCP students. For Natural and medical science – part 2 (BSN241), the same numbers were 22.5% and 17.1%, respectively. On the other hand, for the subjects BSN140, the average failure rate for OCP students was 15.8%, whereas all BLP students passed. For BSN143, the average failure rate for OCP students was 17.8%, whereas it was 20.0% for the BLP students. Thus an unambiguous pattern of failure rates was not detected among these two students groups.

Table 4: Exam failure rates (n=fail) and students attending the exams (n=total) Course Code

Course title

BSN 140 BSN 142 BSN EX

Fundamental of nursing Natural and medical science – part 1 Philosophy of nursing

BSN 143 BSN 240

Nursing and Social studies Nursing - acute, critical and chronic illnesses Natural and medical science – part 2 Nursing - organisation and management Nursing – health promotion and user involvement Theories and Sciences in nursing Bachelor thesis

BSN 241 BSN 242 BSN 340 BSN 341 BSN BAC

BLP 2009 n n fail total 0 16

OCP

n fail 0

2010 n total 24

n fail 27

2009 n total 90

2010 n n fail total 42 238

201

259

204

189

192

175

187

228

163

183

148

191

175

183

152

163

na = not available * = Sum of BLP of 2009 and 2010.

Discussion The aim of this study was to compare learning outcomes between students receiving blended learning and those engage in a conventional, on-campus approach. This was performed by comparing the students’ exam results in the theoretical subjects for the three-year, on-campus bachelor degree in nursing (OCP), with students’ exam results for the four-year, blended learning bachelor degree in nursing (BLP). The results showed that in the nine theoretical subjects, BLP students achieved higher exam marks than OCP students on six exams, OCP students achieved higher exam marks than BLP students on two exams, and the last were equal on average. These results show that BLP students are doing at least as well as OCP students on theoretical exams in this nursing program. This is further supported by the average exam marks for BLP and OCP students thus illustrating that for BLP students who enrolled in 2009 and 2010, the average exam marks were 4.0 and 3.7, respectively, and for OCP students who enrolled in 2009 and 2010, the

average exam marks were 3.4 and 3.6, respectively. The total average of 2009 and 2010 results thus show that OCP students have a mark average of 3.5, whereas BLP students have an average mark of 3.8. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that BLP students are doing just as well as OCP students on theoretical subjects. This result is in line with a meta-analysis study, which found that students in blended learning conditions performed modestly better than those receiving traditional, classroom-based learning models (Means et al., 2013). Another factor that supports this suggestion is our finding that there are no unambiguous patterns of differences in failure rates between BLP and OCP. Therefore, the results are probably not explained by different failure rates. Although the curriculum exams and assessment examiner are the same, the most obvious differences between BLP and OCP are the learning methods and pedagogical tools. Whereas OCP students are closely follow up and supervised on campus and are able to interact with the lecturers, this is only the case for three or four weeks per semester for the BLP students. Thus, the BLP students are significantly more independent in their study. However, this may in fact be to their advantage. Previous reports show that one of the predictors of good exam marks is time for self-study (Schmidt et al., 2010), which is central in blended learning. In addition, the digital learning tools promote flexibility, active learning and meet the students expectations of e-learning. This is supported in a previous study (Foss et al. 2013), which found that students scored the e-compendiums as the best learning tool compared to other elearning tools and traditional learning methods, such as lectures and textbooks. Thus, the students of the blended learning nursing program have a certain level of control over what is being lectured, and the potential disadvantage to not joining lectures are minimized. These reflections are further supported in several studies that have suggested that students who value being empowered and control their learning process prefer blended learning (Osguthorpe & Graham, 2003; Windle, McCormick, Dandrea, & Wharrad, 2011). In addition, at least a subset of the BLP group, and maybe a majority, are older students who may be more dedicated to their studies. Based on our data we found that the secondary lower marks are higher for 2009 BLP students aged 21 years or older (48.8) than for 2009 OCP students (43.0). Unfortunately, the results from BLP enrolled in 2010 were not available due to the fact that all applicants were enrolled. Thus, we do not see the complete picture here. Yet, based on the available data, a possible interpretation may be that BLP students are older and do better on secondary education levels and are therefore better prepared for higher education. Furthermore, it may be suggested that blended learning offers pedagogical style and structure that fits older students who are in need of flexibility and convenience in order to balance their studies with other tasks and obligations in their lives. These reflections are in accordance with previous research that has highlighted that students prefer educational tools and structure that promotes flexibility (Korhonen & Lammintakanen, 2005; Rovai & Jordan, 2004). However, obviously, more research is needed to clarify what determines high exam results among BLP and OCP students in nursing education.

Methodological limitations Some methodological limitations of the study should be acknowledged. Firstly, the number of students in the blended learning program are fewer compared to the number of students in the on-campus program. Consequently, the difference in sample sizes of these two groups limits the possibilities for generalizing our study findings. Second, our data from a single university population may mirror the institutional features in the study results. Therefore, the generalization of the findings must be interpreted with caution. Thirdly, the exam results of the OCP might include students that were not enrolled the year they are categorized in this study, as some students are taking an accounting exam during the year after the program. This is specific to the OCP student. Yet, these students most likely do better than students taking the exam for the first time. We therefore argue that the exam results of our OCP are not better than what is presented in our tables.

Conclusion In this study, we compared the exam results of theoretical subjects in our nursing education program between students in a blended learning program and students in an on-campus program. The overall results indicated that students in a blended learning program do as well or better than the students in the on-campus program on their exams. We therefore assume, based on theoretical subjects that students in a blended learning program are just as capable of doing well in our nursing education program as students in an oncampus program. Consequently, we recommend that higher education might consider using blended learning more systematically in nursing education. However, further research should focus on larger sample sizes and additional outcome measures combined with other methodological approaches in order to explore the impact of blended learning more deeply.

References Blevins, A., & Elton, C. W. (2009). An Evaluation of Three Tutorial-creating Software Programs: Camtasia, PowerPoint, and MediaSite. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 6(1), 1-7. doi: 10.1080/15424060802705095 Burgess, L. (2003). WebCT as an E-learning tool: Study of technology students' preceptions. Journal of Technology Education, 15(1), 6-14. Delaney, E., Pennington, N., & Blankenship, M. B. (2010). The role of podcast lectures in associate degree nursing programs. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 5(2), 54-57. doi: 10.1016/j.teln.2009.08.004 Du, S., Liu, Z., Liu, S., Yin, H., Xu, G., Zhang, H., & Wang, A. (2013). Web-based distance learning for nurse education: a systematic review. International Nursing Review, 60(2), 167-177. doi: 10.1111/inr.12015 Evans, C. (2008). The effectiveness of m-learning in the form of podcast revision lectures in higher education. Computers & Education, 50(2), 491-498. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2007.09.016 Foss, B., Oftedal, B. F., & LĂ¸kken, A. (2013). Rich media e-compendiums: A new tool for enhanced learning in higher education. European Journal of Open, Distance and ELearning, 16(1), 102-114.

Galy, E., Downey, C., & Johnson, J. (2011). The effect of using E-learning tools in online and campus-based classrooms on student performance Journal of Information Technology Education, 10, 209 - 230. Harvel, G., & Hardmann, W. (2012). A comparison of different communication tools for distance learning in nuclear education. Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, 6, 20-33. Hsu, L.-L. (2012). Qualitative Assessment of a Blended Learning Intervention in an Undergraduate Nursing Course. Journal of Nursing Research, 20(4), 291-299. doi: 10.1097/jnr.0b013e31827363bc Hsu, L.-L., & Hsieh, S.-I. (2014). Factors affecting metacognition of undergraduate nursing students in a blended learning environment. International Journal Of Nursing Practice, 20(3), 233-241. doi: 10.1111/ijn.12131 Korhonen, T., & Lammintakanen, J. (2005). Web-based learning in professional development: experiences of Finnish nurse managers. Journal of Nursing Management, 13(6), 500-507. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2934.2005.00556.x Lim, D. H., & Morris, M. L. (2009). Learner and Instructional Factors Influencing Learning Outcomes within a Blended Learning Environment. Educational Technology & Society, 12(4), 282-293. Lopez-Perez, M. V., Perez-Lopez, M. C., & Rodriguez-Ariza, L. (2011). Blended learning in higher education: Students' perceptions and their relation to outcomes. Computers & Education, 56(3), 818-826. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.10.023 Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., & Baki, M. (2013). The Effectiveness of Online and Blended Learning: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature. Teachers College Record, 115(3). Osguthorpe, R. T., & Graham, C. R. (2003). Blended learning environments. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 4(3), 227-233. Percival, J. C., & Muirhead, B. (2009). Prioritizing the implementation of e-learning tools to enhance the learning environment. Journal of Distance Education, 23(1), 89-106. Rovai, A. P., & Jordan, H. M. (2004). Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 5(2). Schmidt, H. G., Cohen-Schotanus, J., van der Molen, H. T., Splinter, T. A. W., Bulte, J., Holdrinet, R., & van Rossum, H. J. M. (2010). Learning More by Being Taught Less: A "Time-for-Self-Study" Theory Explaining Curricular Effects on Graduation Rate and Study Duration. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 60(3), 287-300. Smyth, S., Houghton, C., Cooney, A., & Casey, D. (2012). Students' experiences of blended learning across a range of postgraduate programmes. Nurse Education Today, 32(4), 464-468. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2011.05.014 Vasu, M. L., & Ozturk, A. O. (2008). A Rich-Media Solution for Distance Education: A Review of MediaSite. Social Science Computer Review, 26(4), 528-533. doi: 10.1177/0894439308317652 Windle, R. J., McCormick, D., Dandrea, J., & Wharrad, H. (2011). The Characteristics of Reusable Learning Objects That Enhance Learning: A Case-Study in HealthScience Education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(5), 811-823. Wu, J.-H., Tennyson, R. D., & Hsia, T.-L. (2010). A Study of Student Satisfaction in a Blended E-Learning System Environment. Computers & Education, 55(1), 155-164.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 69-77, May 2015

Dealing with Mixed-language Abilities in an English-Medium University Content Course Natalie Close Dokkyo University Tokyo, Japan

Abstract. Recently many universities in Japan have been increasing the number of content classes offered in English. From a teaching perspective, these classes come with a variety of challenges, perhaps the most significant being the teaching of university level content to groups of EFL students with very different linguistic abilities. These challenges are further complicated when the classes are also offered to nativespeakers of English. This paper aims to address some of these issues, and offer some solutions in the form of a range of activities that were developed for a specific course at a university in Tokyo. Keywords: content-based instruction; English-medium instruction; language-integrated learning; mixed-abilities, differentiated learning

Globalization and the Increasing Need for English The ever-increasing level of globalization has increased the need for speakers of other languages to gain competency in English, with some stating that it is now a prerequisite of gaining successful employment opportunities in the global business sector (Kung, 2013). Therefore, there has been a global increase in the number of people learning and using English world-wide, a fact which is evident by the increased demand for English as a foreign or second language (ESL and EFL) courses around the globe (McKenzie, 2010). In part due to previous research based support (Johnson & Swain, 1997), and supported by linguistic theory (Krashen, 1985), one key educational movement is an increasing focus on content and language integrated learning (CLIL), a term first put forward by Krahnke (1987). This approach is seen to help learners gain the language and content knowledge needed for global business and academic needs. As discussed later, this is a trend which is currently gaining popularity in the Japanese university context.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) CLIL has been defined by Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols (2008) as a “dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for learning and teaching of both content and language” (p. 9). The popularity of using a target foreign language as the medium of instruction to teach both content and language started in Canada with a French immersion program, which resulted in both improved French proficiency and content knowledge (Johnson & Swain, 1997). There have been many advantages put forward for students learning content in another language including its pedagogic effectiveness in terms of both content and language gains, and motivational effects (Wilkinson and Yasuda, 2013). Although a CLIL approach has been shown to be effective, some research has highlighted the superior efficacy of achieving second language acquisition through a combination of language specific instruction, and foreign language CLIL courses (Swain, 1986). The skills and language gained from language specific instruction such as discussion skills are often seen to be integral to success in many CLIL courses. Nunan (1989), for example, argues that when using the second language (L2) to acquire content knowledge, learners are often required to use the language for communication in the classroom, where the focus is not on language itself, but on demonstrating knowledge of what has been heard, and to further discuss the concepts brought up. Therefore, some programs offer students English instruction while taking English-medium courses (Aloiau, 2008), while others such as the one described in this paper provide English training first, then offer CLIL courses later with no further EFL support.

CLIL in the Japanese University Context. Within a Japanese context, there has been a remarkable growth in the number of universities offering content classes in English. As of 2008, approximately 190 Japanese universities were offering English-medium academic content courses; a large increase compared to a few years previously (Miichi, 2010). This is a trend which has continued with the recent government-lead implementation of initiatives such as the Global 30, and Top Global University Project. For example, the Global 30 program alone, which was started in 2009, created an additional 155 English-only degree programs in Japan (Wilkinson, 2015).

Challenges of Mixed Abilities in CLIL Courses Being a relatively new phenomenon there is little advice outlining ways in which these classes can be taught, especially with regard to teaching CLIL courses to mixed language ability students. This paper aims to look at how one such class was taught in a private university, describing the activities and approaches that were used, and what the students‟ perceptions of these were. It is hoped that this paper will offer real ways in which content courses containing students with markedly different backgrounds and language levels can be designed and run, and highlight some of the benefits such classes have for both English language learners and native speakers.

As a major goal of the Global 30 and Top Global University Projects was to increase the number of international students choosing to study at Japanese universities (MEXT, 2014, Shimamura, 2013), it can be assumed that a number of the newly created English-medium content courses in Japan will contain a mix of both Japanese and international students. There was evidence of this before the implementation of the above two initiatives (Aloiau, 2008; Miichi, 2010), so it follows that this situation has increased. If this is the case, the linguistic ability in the target language of the students is likely to vary significantly, therefore, the level of difficulty of the courses and the kind of support students need will be very different (Anderson, 1993; Hess, 2001). In addition, as these content courses are rarely streamed into language ability levels, not only will there be significant differences in the language proficiency between the international and Japanese students, but differences will likely exist between the Japanese students themselves. In fact, the activities described in this paper below came from a practical experience of this situation from teaching English-medium content courses at a Japanese university in Tokyo. The course contained a number of native speakers of English (approximately 50% of those registered for the course), who not only had no linguistics problems regarding the medium of instruction (English), but who had already experienced taking numerous university lecture courses in English. On the other hand, the Japanese students enrolled on the course had no previous exposure to English-medium content courses, and had significantly different language proficiencies; something which was evident from class observations, as well as their varied standardized test scores (TOEIC). Therefore, it quickly became clear during the first offering of this course that the significant differences in English proficiency, and the varied experience levels of taking English-medium courses was going to cause serious challenges to both the lecturer and the students. As a result, the curriculum was quickly reassessed and a number of activities, approaches and materials were designed and adopted in order to offer all students an achievable, rewarding and interactive experience. It was hoped that changes made would increase the content knowledge and cross cultural communication ability of all students, while also providing ample language learning opportunities for the non-native speakers of English. While not exhaustive, the main approaches, activities and materials are described below, and where appropriate, studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; perceptions and feedback gained through observations, surveys, and informal interviews are also provided.

Case Study The content class in question contained about 35 students, half of which were Japanese and about half who were foreign exchange students at a private university in central Tokyo. Building on the research interests and experience of the teacher, the course provided a general introduction to Japanese culture entitled â&#x20AC;&#x17E;Japan Studiesâ&#x20AC;&#x;. The class offered the foreign exchange students an insight into Japanese culture, and provided the Japanese students with a chance

to study about their own culture in English; improving their language ability along the way. Even though approximately 50% of the students were Japanese, many did not have a strong knowledge of their own culture and certainly would struggle explaining some aspects of their culture in depth in an academic setting, be it in Japanese or English. The class was originally created in order to give third and forth year students an opportunity to study in English. Prior to the creation of this class, only first and second year students at this university received English education, in the form of first year comprehensive English classes, and second year classes aimed at discussing Japanese culture in English. The second-year course focused on the language needed to describe Japan and its culture, as well as more practical skills such as summary and response essay writing and discussion skills.

Students Generally the students could be divided into two distinct groups, each of which contained their own sub-divisions. On a basic level, the class was made up of 23 Japanese students and 27 foreign exchange students; however, within these two groups there were varying levels of both content knowledge and English abilities. As far as the Japanese students were concerned, the class, „Japan Studies‟, was designed to build on their experiences of the first two years of English education and move into actual content education in English. Therefore this class attracted those who were most interested in continuing with their English education. However, the students were at a variety of English levels ranging from lowerintermediate to „returnee‟ students with near-native English competency. During the qualitative data collection, all of the non-native and non-returnee students indicated during interviews and on surveys that they had a range of difficulties with studying academic content in English. For some, there were problems with the level of materials, as all of the reading and articles required were of native academic level. Others faced difficulties in discussions, and felt a lack of ability to forcefully participate in debate, especially with native-level speakers. In addition, many of the Japanese students were uncomfortable in expressing their opinions in large groups. Based on observations from their previous English class, they felt capable within the confines of a small English language class, however in a class of sixty students of mixed abilities and nationalities, many felt reluctant to participate in some activities at first. Other linguistic challenges highlighted during the data collection included the speaking speed of the lecturer, and difficulty with the content vocabulary. The foreign exchange students, who came from a variety of countries and majors, with about half of them coming from the United States, and the rest from Europe and Asia, faced a different set of challenges. Although about a third of the foreign students were English as a second language speakers, their English language skills were near to native-speaker level, therefore, English ability was not a major challenge. However, the content itself was challenging as most of the foreign exchange students had previously never studied about Japan and therefore had limited knowledge of Japanese culture and history. The majority

of the foreign exchange students came from business or international relations majors so the content was quite new for them. This meant that time had to be spent in class describing basic cultural ideas and concepts, which the Japanese students were well aware of. In addition, because of the native or near-native English level of the exchange students, there was a risk that the pace of the class, level of vocabulary, and amount of content covered could be below what they were used to, and therefore perceived as too simple or boring. As can be seen from the above information, a key challenge from a teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x;s perspective was that the class was made up of students from a variety of backgrounds and English abilities, with each group having their own strengths and weaknesses regarding the content course they were taking. It was felt that these issues needed to be tackled in order for the class to be as successful as possible for all students. The main challenge seemed to be with presenting materials which were not too high level or taxing for the Japanese learners, but that would not be so low as to de-motivate the native speakers. Therefore, the activities, materials, and approaches described below were developed to deal with the challenges described thus far.

Course structure and content As a result of observation, end-of-semester surveys (anket), and interview feedback obtained during and after the first year, the course was structured as described below. The changes were made in order to assist the students as much as possible with both content and language. From the second year, each class contained the same basic set of activities including a lecture given by the teacher, comprehension and discussion questions, and student presentations. In addition, students were expected to produce two written assignments in each semester; a presentation report and an article summary and response. Lectures. Each week a short lecture of approximately 30 minutes, accompanied by a handout with gap-fills and questions, was delivered by the teacher. The aim of the gap-fill activity was to ensure that the students were fully engaging with the material by filling in missing information from the lecture slides. The spoken part of the lecture included much more information than was present on the slides, which meant that the students had to take notes as well. The purpose of this was to engage all of the students according to their individual level. Students with lower English ability could focus on the gap fill and try to fully understand the meaning of the slides. For those with higher ability, listening to the lecture provided further, more in-depth information. Also, for students with limited knowledge of Japan, the lecture provided further background information, which wasn't necessarily needed by the Japanese students, but was advantageous to many of the foreign students. Comprehension and Discussion Questions. The questions following the lecture had two main purposes; comprehension checking and critical thinking. First, there were comprehension questions designed to test the students understanding of the material. These questions were aimed more at the students who didn't have English as a first language; however, they were still relevant for

all of the students. All students were given the option not to do the comprehension questions if they felt that they had fully comprehended the lecture. However, the students were reminded that the mid-term and final tests were based on the comprehension questions and therefore it was a useful exercise for everyone. The second kind of question were critical thinking or discussion questions aimed at allowing the students to think about the content in a broader sense and place it within a wider framework of thinking (Nunan, 1989). These discussion questions were added in the second year of the program at the request of the foreign exchange students who wanted to engage more with the topics. All of the students had the opportunity to make requests for the course in the end-ofsemester surveys. These requests were assessed by the teacher and added where appropriate. All of the students were expected to use the discussion questions, however, they were not checked in class as each groupâ&#x20AC;&#x;s discussion went in different directions. Instead, the teacher monitored and contributed in sweeps of the class. The discussion questions offered an opportunity for the students to discuss with their peers in small groups. The groups were self-selected and most students chose to mix both foreign exchange students and Japanese students. This was recommended by the teacher at the start of the course as a way of evening various abilities; those with higher English levels but less knowledge of Japanese culture could mix with people with lower levels of English but greater knowledge of Japanese culture. As a result of both the comprehension and discussion questions, the students were able to help each other with their own difficulties. Many of the Japanese students initially struggled with participating in discussions, especially with students who were used to a more forceful approach to academic discussion. With the help of the teacher, the foreign exchange students were encouraged to invite responses from the Japanese students, and the Japanese studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; confidence to speak in groups with their peers increased. Both groups of students were also very much interested in the personal experiences of their peers, and therefore all students could place the academic content within a more personal framework, as well as learning about other cultures. Presentations. In addition, the students were expected to conduct independent research in groups and present their findings to the class. The students were able to choose their own groups with a signup sheet system; however, most of the students seemed to choose according to the presentation topic as opposed to simply working with a friend. This resulted in many of the groups being made up of a mix of Japanese and foreign exchange students. While mixed groups worked well for the discussions, overall this system didnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t work as well as expected for the presentations. In many cases the native speaker seemed to have done more work because of their ability to read and speak English more fluently. Therefore in the future mono-background groups would encouraged to ensure that all of the students were participating fully. During the course, in the case of foreign-student-only and Japanese-student-only groups,

the presentations were of a higher standard and more fully researched. This may be due to the fact both students had to contribute a full workload as opposed to most of the work being done by just one student. Homework. Finally the students were expected to read an article provided by the teacher and write a summary and response essay based on their reading. The Japanese students had learnt this style of writing in the previous year, and therefore were familiar with the format and organization, but many of the foreign exchange students were unfamiliar with both the rhetorical pattern and the formal aspects of academic writing. Therefore the teacher provided brief training on academic writing format and expectations. Due to the different workload that this activity represented to the native and non-native speakers of English, the foreign exchange students were expected to write a longer assignment than the Japanese students. However, as many of the foreign exchange students had little experience of writing summary-and-response essays, many struggled to summarize the main points of the article sufficiently. The challenge for the exchange students of being able to write a correctly formatted and organized summary, versus the challenge of reading a nativelevel paper for the Japanese students, represented different but equivalent workloads. When it came to marking these papers, the varying difficulties and achievements of the two sets of students could be clearly seen, and therefore offering different levels of requirements was appropriate to the situation.

Discussion By adopting a more flexible, student-centered, and differentiated approach, many of the challenges presented by having native English speakers and English learners of varying abilities taking English-medium content lectures together were successfully overcome. By drawing on the different levels of knowledge, language ability, and academic skills, all of the students were able to help each other to gain the most from the class. In the case of the Japanese students, they were able to actually use their English with their peers in a real situation. After being able to discuss and critically examine the course content with their peers, many of the Japanese students expressed a desire to continue with their English studies so that they could improve their conversational abilities. For the foreign exchange students, having access to people of their own age who could describe their culture and place the academic content within a real context was a great advantage. Not only could the Japanese students help them with understanding Japanese culture, but they could also form cross-cultural friendships. Many of the foreign exchange students commented that in their other classes they were only surrounded by other foreign exchange students. Therefore, having an opportunity to work with Japanese students was very advantageous. Overall, by adopting a flexible approach which blends some common EFL approaches with the delivery of authentic content, challenging and enjoyable CLIL classes were offered, even when dealing with hugely different cultural backgrounds and linguistic abilities.

Conclusion As can be seen from the above case study, there are many challenges when teaching English-medium content classes to non-native English speakers. These challenges are further complicated when the student body represents a mix of native and non-native level English speakers who come from different backgrounds and academic majors. This case study shows that through a variety of activities these challenges can be overcome, so that all the students are able to gain from the experience. Given the advantages that were gained by both the Japanese and foreign exchange students, it is worth the time and effort needed to develop activities and a flexible, more student-centered approach that can help each group improve academically and linguistically. It is hoped that the methods described above can offer a base upon which further activities can be developed in the field of CLIL.

References Anderson, F. (1993). The enigma of the college classroom: Nails that donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t stick up. In P. Wadden (Ed.), A handbook for teaching English at Japanese colleges and universities (pp. 101-110). New York: Oxford. Aloiau, E. K. W. (2008). The Design of the International Program English Curriculum. The Soka Economic Studies. 37, March 2008. 107-127. Hess, N. (2001). Teaching large multilevel classes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Johnson, R. K., & Swain, M. (1997). Immersion Education: International Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. Krahnke, K. (1987). Approaches to Syllabus Design for Foreign Language Teaching. New York: Prentice Hall. Krashen, S. D. (1985), The Input Hypothesis: Issues and implications. New York, NY: Longman. Kung, F. (2013). The More the Merrier? Bilingualism in an Academic Perspective: Exploring the Implementation of English-medium Instruction in Taiwanese Tertiary Education. In Robertson, P. and Adamson, J (Eds). The Asian EFL Journal Special Edition: CLIL in Asian Contexts: Emerging Trends, 15 (4), 8-35. December 2013. McKenzie (2010). Relevant Language Attitude Research. The Social Psychology of English as a Global Language, 10, 41-71. Springer Netherlands. Mehisto, P., Marsh, D. & Frigols, M. J. (2008). Uncovering CLIL. Oxford: MacMillan. Miichi, K. (2010, 7, 17). More colleges offer courses taught in English. The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved October, 25, 2010, from http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201007160463.html N.A. (2014).National University Reform Plan (Summary). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).Tokyo. Accessed on November 7th, 2014 from http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2014/01/23 /1343591_1.pdf Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communication Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. Shimamura, H. (2013). Global 30 Universities. The Japan Times, Sept. 30. 2013. Accessed on Nov 10th from http://info.japantimes.co.jp/ads/pdf/20130902_global_30_ universities.pdf Swain, M. (1986). Two Ingredients in the Successful Use of a Second Language as a Medium of Instruction in Hong Kong. Educational Research Journal, 1, 1-6.

Wilkinson, D. (2015). Educational Reforms and Development in Japan: Language and Culture Education for Global Competitiveness. International Journal of Higher Education Management (IJHEM), 1 (2), 1-11. February 2015. Wilkinson, D. and Yasuda R. (2013). The international program: curriculum design and assessment for an English-medium economics program. In Robertson, P. and Adamson, J (Eds). The Asian EFL Journal Special Edition: CLIL in Asian Contexts: Emerging Trends, 15 (4). 347-354. December 2013.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 78-87, May 2015

Supporting Cooperative Learning with Technological Tools Asst. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Derya IŞIK Bartin University Bartin, Turkey Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gizem SAYGILI Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey

Abstract. Criterias of Cooperative learning include positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual performance, social skills and group processing. Many techniques can be used with cooperative learning method such as learning together & alone, teams-games-tournaments, group investigation, constructive controversy, jigsaw, student teams achievement divisions, team accelerated instruction, cooperative learning structures, cooperative integrated reading & composition. The aim of this study is to evaluate the support of cooperative learning with technological tools. For this purpose, supporting of the elements and techniques of cooperative learning with the technological tools is discussed and various proposals are put forward in line with previous research results. Keywords: Cooperative Technological Tools

Learning;

Elements

and

Techniques;

Introduction The use of technology in educational environments has increased considerably, especially today in Turkey due to Fatih project conducted by the Ministry of Education. It is estimated that technology will be used more frequently in educational environment in the future (Bulun et al, 2004). Therefore, during the period in which educational politics are decided, there are considerable efforts to create opportunities and provide environment for students to develop their knowledge and skills related to the usage of technological devices. As it is known, the technological tools are used in education and training environments for reasons such as to enrich the materials used with multimedia elements, to easily carry the materials created to the classes, to share with their students, to make corrections, to make materials comply with the situation and the requirements, to provide more effective learning for students by establishing © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

material-student interaction, to facilitate classroom management, to increase interest and curiosity of the students to the subject of the lesson and to improve their attitudes towards the course (Isik & Cukurbasi, 2012). These uses support the teachers in the implementation of constructivist approach. Constructivist approach is an educational philosophy, which specifically focuses on the mind of the student, is based on the development of mental skills and argues that “the person's knowledge is occurred by his/her interaction with the environment’’ (Bagci Kilic, 2001). According to the constructivist approach, students’ learning depends on their previous information, cognitive ability and environment. Learning is dependent on the environment because according to the constructivist approach learning consists of our experience in the real world (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992). Learning depends on the person's cognitive abilities because learning occurs by active efforts of individuals and information is structured in mind (Gunes, 2013). These items should not be ignored in the regulation of the educational environment. One of the most effective ways to use these items in educational environment is determining an effective teaching method. One of these methods is cooperative learning. Slavin (2010) defines cooperative learning as arrangement in educational environments made by teachers to provide students to learn academic content by helping each other in small groups. Cooperative learning method provides an environment in which students apply their knowledge and skills to support and enrich each other’s learning (Fisher & Frey, 2013). The aim of this study is to discuss the support of cooperative learning with technological tools. For this purpose, supporting of the elements and techniques of cooperative learning with the technological tools is discussed and various proposals are put forward in line with previous research results.

Elements of Cooperative Learning and the Use of Technological Tools There are five basic elements separating the cooperative learning from group work and the works done by the student teams can be defined as collaborative learning only if these criterias are met. In this section, it explains that what are these elements (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1994, Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1998, Felder & Brent, 2007, Johnson & Johnson, 2009) and what can be done to meet these criterias in technology-supported environments. 1. Positive Interdependence: The basis of cooperative learning is constituted by the success of the student inspired by the group members’ success. Students should learn together, should develop products together, each student must have their own tasks in the group; product of group should be subject to fulfillment of the duty of each member. Positive interdependence should be established between students for the formation of this condition. It can be provided by an award, resources, roles and tasks commitment. Award interdependence can be provided by giving extra points to the group in which each member succeeds over 90%. Ensuring award interdependence is easier due © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

to the fact that the test results can be evaluated quickly if individual or group works are done using the technological devices. Resources interdependence can be provided by giving a part of the tasks to be completed to the each member in the group. In the cases that collaboration is provided by technological tools, documents that ensure the fulfillment of the task (such as word files, presentations, programs) can be delivered to members of the group separately. Thus, group members can work combining the available documents. Roles interdependence can be provided by giving tasks such as readers, controllers, printer to members of the group. To provide roles interdependence in environments that is supported with technological tools, each student is given or asked to prepare documents related to their task. Tasks interdependence can be provided by giving tasks to each member of the group to complete their own task after they succeed the task of the previous group member. In collaborative environments that technological tools are used, tasks interdependence can be provided by differentiating each member’s task into researching, making presentation, creating the final report and so on. 2. Face-to-face Promotive İnteraction: Students working together in groups in order to improve themselves encourage, support, help each other and provide feedback about the performance of the group friends with verbal and nonverbal responses. Cognitive processes such as explaining how to solve problems, teaching what they know to the group friends, establishing connection with the past learning and interpersonal processes such as changing someone else's thoughts, results, models and facilitating the learning process are used in the group. Students know the characteristics of each better. Elements used with technological tools such as video conferencing, e-mail, blogs, and social media will enable students to communicate synchronous and asynchronous and so, communication will be liberate aspect of time and place, and students will be able to communicate anywhere and at any time of the day they want. 3. Individual and Group Accountability: Identifying and evaluating the performances of the individual and the group is another element forming the basis of collaboritive learning. Students’ contributions to the group product can be determined by giving individual test as well as observing what they do in the group. This can be done more easily in environments that technological tools are used. Giving individual tests and assessing process can be easier than performing them on paper. Performance of the members within the group can be determined by recording during the fulfillment of the group tasks. The recording of individual tasks of students within the group and determining the contribution to group product are easier in this way. Additionally, the purpose of cooperative learning is making each individual in the group progress by allowing them to teach each other. Development of students' individual performance can also be observed easier by recording the group process. 4. Social Skills: Another important element of cooperative learning is acquisition and the use of social skills by students. Students should be made aware of about social skills such as leadership, decision making, building trust, communication and conflict management and provided to use these skills. © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Guiding students who have problems, determining the elements required for the solutions are facilitated especially by the recordings of the communications between the students provided by technological tools. 5. Group Processing: Students are to contribute to the development of both themselves and the group friends by making their intra-group transactions in collaborative work environments. In this regard, it is important that the work is performed by the students and the level of fulfillment of the students and the contribution to the group product are determined by teachers. In this step, students should observe the behavior of each other within the group, establish effective ones and ensure that they continue, identify those that are ineffective and disrupt the group process and decide what to do to correct them. In collaborative learning environments that technological tools are used, it is easier to examine and identicate what behaviours are effective or not due to the fact that the students’ group process is recorded.

Cooperative Learning Techniques and Use of Technological Tools Cooperative learning methods and techniques can be used for facilitating the learning process of the students in classes, making them direct their own learning, providing support to each other in the group, improving student’s achievements and attitudes, developing their study skills in a cooperative way, ensuring a constructive classroom and providing them social skills.

Table 1. Modern Methods of Cooperative Learning (Johnson, Johnson & Stanne, 2000)

Researcher-Developer Johnson & Johnson DeVries & Edwards Sharan & Sharan Johnson & Johnson Aronson & Associates Slavin & Associates Slavin & Associates Kagan Stevens, Slavin, & Associates

Date Mid 1960s Early 1970s Mid 1970s Mid 1970s Late 1970s Late 1970s Early 1980s Mid 1980s Late 1980s

Method Learning Together & Alone Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT) Group Investigation Constructive Controversy Jigsaw Procedure Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) Team Accelerated Instruction (TAI) Cooperative Learning Structures Cooperative Integrated Reading & Composition (CIRC)

The characteristics of the techniques used for cooperative learning are (Johnson & Johnson, 1988, Slavin, 2010, Ekinci, 2011, Doymus & Dogan, 2011): a. Learning Together: In this technique, developed by Johnson & Johnson, learning objectives are determined primarily. Class is arranged for the groups to work, which are heterogeneously formed. Teaching materials are offered to students and individual assessment is definitely realized at the end of the group work. Topics are presented to the students in technological environments and their cooperation is ensured with the use of computer in this technique. Since it requires synchronic work, video © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

conferencing, teleconferencing, and instant messaging tools can be utilized which allow synchronous communication. Realizing individual assessment is one of the most important factors in this technique. By realizing this assessment in the online environment via technological tools, it both enables a student to immediately see the results of the assessment and reduces the assessment time and labor of teachers. At the same time, records of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; achievements are kept easier, more realistic and detailed interpretations can be done by monitoring their developments by performing evaluations considering their previous achievements. In this case, the precautions to be taken related to the achievements of the students will be determined or it will enable them to act realistically and avoid wasting effort. b. Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT): In this technique, developed by DeVries & Edwards and used for evaluation of the course, students form heterogeneous groups, after the teacher ends lecture. Each group prepares within itself for the tournament by using materials related to the subject discussed. The two groups of similar levels go to tournament table and the tournament begins. Groups score points with the correct answers given to the questions. Successful group in the tournament competes with a group with a higher level of competency in the following days. The websites, created, facilitate the work of the teachers in using this technique. The teachers who register such websites as a user can prepare multiple choice or gap filling exams including items such as image, text, and audio. The teacher can enable all the students in class to see the questions via projector by connecting to this system in the classroom environment. Students can give the answer of their group by connecting to the system via their own mobile devices. System checks the answers for each question at the end of the period specified by the teacher and sends feedback to students' mobile devices. In addition, at the end of each question, the ranks are specified by projecting the scores gained by students or groups and the total scores. Since the system saves the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; score in the previous tournaments, it helps the teachers match the groups of similar levels of achievement before the lesson. The teacher's workload is reduced with the use of this technology and it eases the use of the technique in the class. c. Group Investigation: This technique was developed by Sharan & Sharan. It is a learning technique in all the steps of which students take an active role. In this technique, teachers determine the main issues, students do so for the sub-topics in the classroom, and students, who have determined the same sub-topic, form a group. Students create a research plan on the subject they have determined, and they prepare and present a research report together in class at the end of the study. During the evaluation process, in addition to receiving the evaluation of other groups, the group assessment or individual assessment can also be realized. In this technique, based on that students conduct a research and present their research findings to the class, technological tools can be effectively used ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

in the process of quickly and effectively accessing and recording the resources during the investigation. It facilitates students to interpret what they have learned by using the information and documents accessed and prepare presentations in order to present them to the class. d. Constructive Controversy: In this technique, developed by Johnson & Johnson, students' research, listening to opposing views, understanding and persuasive skills are developing. Students form groups which advocate two opposing views about the research subject, determined by the teacher. The purpose of the discussion in the classroom is listening to and understanding other groups as well as defending their own opinion. The students are given the opportunity to research during the discussion, too. It would be a discussion without the winning side, and ends with the determination of consensus of students. In this technique, it is important that students quickly reach the information resources and use them to change the idea of the opposing group. The utilization of the technological tools at this stage will enable students both to question their own ideas and to check the accuracy of the opposing group's opinions. e. Jigsaw Techniques: After the first technique, developed by Aronson & Associates, Jigsaw II, Jigsaw III and Jigsaw IV were developed, however the basic elements of all the techniques are the same. A group is created to work on a topic in this technique. Each member is provided with their own sub-topics. Students who have the same subtopic meet to form groups of experts. Expert groups search on their subject, specialize on the subject. Then, each member returns to their group and informs their group friends, the report or presentation is prepared as the group product. Group or individual assessments can be made in the assessment process. In the expert group, it is important that students receive indepth information about their topics and specialize in their topics. At this stage, technological tools will help students reach different information sources. After the specialization phase, students are required to give information to their group friends. At this stage, the use of the presentations prepared by expert groups with the help of the technological tools will prevent the individual differences in the information given to the groups. That groups present their presentations prepared with the contributions of the expert group members with the help of the technological tools will save students from the constraint of explaining their knowledge just verbally and prepare a base to use multimedia elements such as picture, audio and video. In this case, students will use their mental skills to transform the knowledge into different forms, in this way it will both provide students with opportunities to improve their mental skills and enable an effective learning. f. Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD): In the technique developed by Slavin & Associates, after the submission of content by teachers, students try to cover each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shortcomings and prepare ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

themselves for the exams which will be held. Then individual assessment is made and group score is determined by the points each member of the group has. According to the previous success of the group, their progress is observed and the award is given to the group exceeds a certain criteria. It is easier for students to acquire knowledge, research the knowledge they acquired in-depth, reach to the different forms according to individual differences with the help of technological tools. Besides technological tools help implementation and evaluation of the individual test be easy and they facilitate forming and monitoring of the group points. g. Team Accelerated Instruction (TAI): In the technique developed by Slavin & Associates, subtopics students will work on are determined by a pre-test. Each member studies a subtopic appropriate for their levels individually but gets help from the members of the group when needed. Members are evaluated by follow up tests at the end of each sub-topic. Students who fail the follow up are assisted by a teacher. Students who are successful in follow up test are given unit test, and group score is determined by points of the group members. Awards will be given to groups that meet specific criteria. The use of this technique is facilitated with the technological tools as it contains branched preparation of training content and also it ensures studies that can be carried out according to the individual differences of different students. With the help of technological tools, determining the level of each students, providing students study on contents appropriate for their levels, implementing and evaluating the follow-up, helping students that have failed, implementing and evaluating the unit tests to the students who have succeeded, generating group points become easier and so, workloads of the teachers are reduced and classes are more productive as the teachers only focus on guiding the students. h. Cooperative Learning Structures: In this technique developed by Kagan, submitting the contents and determining the subjects are carried out through classroom discussion. Each group selects a topic and subtopics are decided for each member of a group. Each member informs the group friends with presentation about their subject as a result of individual studies. Then the group makes the group presentation in the classroom. Either group assessment or individual assessments can be made during the evaluation process. In this technique, technological tools can provide students researching each subject of them, accessing to resources, and preparing the presentation they will perform to the group friends. By fulfilling the duties of every member in the group, the ground for students to prepare the group presentations and perform it to the students in the class are provided. The use of technological tools in the assessment process ensures quick and easy evaluation. i.

Cooperative Integrated Reading & Composition (CIRC): This technique was developed by Stevens, Slavin & Associates. This technique is mostly

used in the literacy education. Students study on meaningful reading and writing skills with activities such as reading aloud, making predictions about what they read, ask questions, summarizing, and essay writing in pairs. Group members complete the shortcomings of the other and they provide their own learning, as well. Implementation of this technique with the support of the technological tools provides different facilities in different phases. In reading instruction, sound recording is made during students reading aloud and it will enable them to listen themselves and identify deficiencies in pronunciation. Writing for note taking and audio recording tools can be used in the activities such as making predictions about what they read, summarizing and asking questions. It provides oppurtunities for students to communicate with each other regardless of the time and place and allows students to continue their study in outside school times. In the process of developing writing skills, in addition to doing exercises about writing essays, doing writing studies using the tools of instant messaging or mailing improve students writing skills to express themselves

Conclusion There are benefits of the cooperative learning in terms of increasing the studensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; academic success and gaining social skills. Because the students are actively involved in the learning environment, direct their own learning, combine the new informations with the previous ones, their academic success improves, their ability to reach information resources develops, their attitudes are affected in a positive way, their self confidence fosters, their communicative and writing skills improve, they gain cognitive and social skills. On the other hand, with the usage of cooperative learning, teachers have the opportunities to use current methods of evaluation and their responsibilities for the class management are reduced. (Hannigan, 1989, Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991, Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1994, Johnson, Johnson & Stanne, 2000, Simsek, Simsek ve Esen, 2009, Shindler, 2009). Besides, with the use of cooperative learning, teachers may encounter some situations that need to be taken precautions during the planning and the implementing process of the course. There may be some students who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fulfill their tasks in the group, in some groups all the work load may be left to a couple of students and students who have no contribution for the group may gain unearned advantages, ineffective students courage may be affected badly in the groups which has different students of different success levels, some students may want to come into prominence and the problems within the group may lead conflicts in the classes. (King, 1993, Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1994, Mulryan, 1994). Teachers can produce more convenient solution to many problems with the use of technological tools in the teaching environment. Technology-supported collaborative learning environment allows producing projects which they study together in computer, mobile learning tools and internet assisted environments (Ozdamli & Uzunboylu, 2008). Students can continue to work independently of time and space. In particular, simultaneous ÂŠ 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

virtual classroom tools offer versatile communication opportunities to learners by providing mutually among users simultaneous video, voice and data communications in an online environments (Cinar et al, 2011). Technology-supported collaborative learning environments facilitates teachers’ planning, tracing the process, the teacher’s intervention when necessary usage of all resources. Zhi & Liu (2007) stated in their study that technology-supported cooperative work environments facilitate reaching statistical informations related to students for the teachers and teachers are satisfied with it. The creation of positive interdependence within the group, evaluation of individual performance, ensuring interaction, the development of social skills and monitoring of group process can be made more easily thanks to the technological tools. Johnson & Johnson (2013) reported the opinion that it is beneficial in many aspects of the use of cooperative learning environment as used in the training of technological tools that make our lives easier. All these considerations show that supporting collaborative learning with technological tools would be useful.

References Bagci

Kilic, G. (2001). Oluşturmacı Fen Öğretimi (Constructivist Science Teaching).Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice. Sayı: 1. [9-22]. Brandt, R. (1987). On Cooperation in Schools: A Conversation with David and Roger Johnson. Educational Leadership, 45, 14-19. Bulun, M., Gulnar, B., & Guran, S. (2004). Egitimde Mobil Teknolojiler. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – TOJET, 3 (2), 165-169. Cinar, M., Tuzun, H., Yildirim, D., Akinci, A., Kalayci, E., Bilgic, H. G., & Yuksel, Y. (2011). Uzaktan Egitimde Kullanilan Eszamanli Sanal Sinif Araclarinin Karsilastirilmasi. XII. Akademik Bilisim Konferansi, 2-4 February 2011, Malatya: Inonu Universtiy. Proceedings, 451-456. Doymus, K., & Dogan, A. (2011). Isbirlikli Ogrenme Yontemi. Ogrenme Ogretme Kuram ve Yaklasimlari, Ed. Buyukalan Filiz, S. 145-170. Ankara: Pegem Akademi. Duffy, T., M., & Jonassen, D., H. (1992). Constructivism and the Technology of Instruction: A Conversation. USA: Psychology Press. Ekinci, N. (2011). Isbirligine Dayali Ogrenme. In the Egitimde Yeni Yonelimler, Ed. Demirel, O. (5th Ed.). Ankara: Pegem Yayıncılık. Felder, R. M., & Brent, R. (2007). Cooperative Learning. In the Active Learning: Models from the Analytical Sciences, Ed. P.A. Mabrouk. 34–53. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society. Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2013). Better Learning through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility. (2nd Ed.) . Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Gunes, F. (2013). Turkce Ogretimi Yaklasimlar ve Modeller. (Turkish Teaching Approaches and Models). Ankara: Pegem Akademi. Hannigan, M. R. (1989). Cooperative Learning in Elemantary School Science. Educational Leadership, 47, 25. Isik, A. D., & Cukurbasi, B. (2012). Egitimde Tablet Bilgisayarin Kullanilmasi (Using of Tablet Computer in Education). 6th International Computer and Instructional Technologies Symposium, 4-6 September, Gazientap: Gaziantep Üniversitesi. Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1988). Critical Thinking through Structured Controversy. Educational Leadership, 45 (8), 58-64. © 2015 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1989). Toward a Cooperative Effort: A Response to Slavin. Educational Leadership, 46, 80-81. Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). Making Cooperative Learning Work. Theory into Practice, 38 (2), 67-73, DOI: 10.1080/00405849909543834. Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2013). Cooperation and the Use of Technology. In the Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (4th Ed.), Ed. J. Michael Spector, M. David Merrill, Jan Elen, M. J. Bishop (pp 401423). New York: Springer Science & Business Media. Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T. & Holubec, E. J. (1994). The New Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom and School. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T. & Smith, K. A. (1998). Cooperative Learning Returns To College What Evidence Is There That It Works? Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 30:4, 26-35, DOI:10.1080/00091389809602629 Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R., T. & Smith, K., A. (1991). Coperative Learning: Increasing Colege Faculty Instructional Productivity. Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development. Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R. & Stanne, M.B. (2000). Cooperative Learning Methods: A Meta Analysis. The downloaded at <http://www.ccsstl.com/sites/default/files/Cooperative%20Learning %20Research%20.pdf> on 02/11/2014. King, L. H. (1993). High and Low Achievers’ Perceptions and Cooperative Learning in Two Small Groups. The Elementary School Journal, 93, 399-416. Mulryan, C. M. (1994). Perceptions of Intermediate Students’ Cooperative Small-Group Work in Mathematics. The Journal of Educational Research, 87, 280-291. Ozdamli F. & Uzunboylu, H. (2008). Ogretmen Adaylarinin Teknoloji Destekli Isbirlikli Ogrenme Ortamina Yonelik Tutumlari. The downloaded at <http://ietc2008.home.anadolu.edu.tr/ietc2008/68.doc> on 14.12.2014. Saban, A. (2009). Ogrenme-Ogretme Sureci. (5. Bs.). Ankara: Nobel Yayıncılık. Shindler, J. (2009). Transformative Classroom Management: Positive Strategies to Engage All Students and Promote a Psychology of Success. USA: John Wiley & Sons. Simsek, U., Simsek, U., & Esen, M. F. (2009). The Place and Importance of Cooperative Learning in the Globalizing World. In: 1st International Symposium on Sustainable Development, June 9-10, 2009, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slavin, R. E. (2010). Instruction Based on Cooperative Learning. In the Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction, Eds. R Mayer and P Alexander. London: Taylor & Francis. Zhi, E., & Liu, F. (2007). Colloquium. Developing a Personal and Group-Based Learning Portfolio System. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38, 6, 1117-1121.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 88-108, May 2015

Video Annotation for Effective Feedback and Reflection on Micro-Lessons in a Collaborative Blended Learning Environment to Promote SelfDirected Learning Skills C.P. van der Westhuizen North-West University Potchefstroom, South Africa

Abstract. This article discusses the process and findings of a study in which Video Annotation (VideoANT) and a Learning Management System (LMS) were implemented together in the micro-teaching lessons of fourthyear Geography student teachers at a university in South Africa. The aim was to ensure adequate feedback and reflection for each student, since this is, in general, a shortcoming of micro-lesson facilitation. VideoANT is an online environment-synchronising web-based video with timeline-based text annotations, and it was imported and managed in the university‟s LMS known as eFundi. The web videos of the students‟ micro-lessons on VideoANT were made accessible by the lecturer according to a rotational time schedule managed in eFundi. This enabled students to assess fellow students‟ micro-lessons in a collaborative blended learning environment, as well as to adequately reflect on their own lessons. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected and the results indicate that Geography student teachers held positive views of these technology applications for micro-teaching in particular and their teaching careers in general. This video method also proved to contribute to the students‟ self-directed learning (SDL) skills. Keywords: Micro-teaching; Micro-lessons; Video annotation; Technologies in education; ICT in Geography education; Web 2.0 technologies; Webbased technologies

Introduction The integration of web-based technologies can promote student learning and facilitate the development of lifelong learning skills such as collaboration, creative thinking, metacognition and knowledge construction (Lin & Overbaugh 2013) – all of which are important for fostering self-directed learning. Web-based technologies afford teacher educators and teacher students‟ creative and

collaborative choices, as well as easy access to and interaction with ICT tools and global information. The universal and flexible nature of Web 2.0 tools that are mainly collaborative in nature, promote deeper understanding, solve problems creatively and transform thinking, all by using appropriate technologies. (Nelson 2007; Hemmi et al. 2008; Saeed et al. 2009; King 2011). As part of their training, pre-service teachers usually receive feedback about their micro-lessons from peers and lecturers after their micro-teaching sessions, but sometimes they may have to wait for such feedback for up to a week. During practice teaching, they can also receive feedback from the supervising senior teachers and lecturers. However, this approach has two limitations. Firstly, in most teacher-training programmes around the world (Airasian 1993; Wu and Lee 1999; Fernandez and Robinson 2006; I‟Anson et al. 2003), student teachers receive limited feedback because of time constraints and limited class time. Secondly, pre-service teachers have limited opportunities to reflect on their own teaching and micro-lessons. Reflection is an essential skill that they must develop and hone during their pre-service training (Kettle and Sellars 1996; Amobi 2005). Without proper reflection, student teachers will miss out on, among others, opportunities to recognise the limitations of their personal assumptions or to acknowledge and adopt new perspectives (Lee and Wu 2006). Therefore, Frick et al. (2010) emphasise the importance of teacher educators creating opportunities and facilitating experiences that will develop the student teacher‟s capacity to reflect on his/her own practice. Research on the application of video recordings to enhance micro-teaching in teacher training used to be limited to Brent and Thomson‟s Video-taped microteaching (1996). Grossman (2005) later predicted that developments in video annotation tools would make video reflection increasingly viable and accessible. Recently, interest in using video to facilitate teacher reflection has increased significantly (Springer 2008; Trip and Rich 2012). Video annotation tools offer the potential to support both reflection on and analysis of one‟s own teaching. These tools provide potentially important methods for scrutinising instructional decisions within a specific context (Stevens 2007; Roblyer and Doering 2013). According to Rich and Hannafin (2009), video analysis programs such as TransanaTM (www.transana.org), DIVERTM (diver.stanford.edu), ConstellationsTM (orion.njit.edu), StudioCODE and VideoANT provide significant data-mining capabilities, good management opportunities and finegrained analysis and reporting opportunities. They also mention other video annotation tools with different functions, namely VAST, VITAL, the VAT, VideoTraces, VideoPaper, MediaNotes, and Studiocode. Regarding Geography teacher training, the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Centre for Geographic Education at Texas State University recently developed an online video-based professional development in Geography teacher training with great success (Boehm et al. 2012). However, most of the research that is limited to teacher training and micro-teaching focuses on self-analysis and self-reflection (Rich and Hannafin 2009), or on student teachers who received only single peer and teacher feedback (Colasante 2011).

At our University, we identified the need to combine collaborative student assessment, feedback and reflection with a video annotation program such as VideoANT, as well as with the managerial capabilities of a Learning Management System (LMS). This article discusses the results of a case study in which these web-based technologies (VideoANT and the university‟s LMS) were implemented in the micro-teaching methodology class of fourth-year full-time Geography student teachers (BEd degree). The outlay of this paper is as follows: Firstly, the conceptual-theoretical framework regarding the application of micro-teaching, as well as the possible advantages of collaborative learning in micro-lessons for teacher education will be put in context. Secondly, theoretical advantages of the application of webbased technologies for micro-teaching will be discussed. This will be followed by a description of the method of research, including an intervention section that provides more detail about the operation and utilisation of the two web-based technologies, both separately and in conjunction with each other. The paper is concluded with a discussion of the results and findings regarding students‟ perspectives and experience of VideoANT, whether it effectively addressed the said limitations of micro-teaching in a collaborative way, and whether this video method has in any way promoted students‟ SDL abilities or skills in this collaborative blended learning environment.

Micro-Teaching As student teachers in many training programmes complete their practical teaching with inadequate supervision and little or no feedback, the relative merits and economy of micro-teaching are quite apparent. According to Lee and Wu (2006) it is important that pre-service teachers should receive as much feedback as possible from their practice teaching. Micro-teaching is a common practice in teacher education and originated as a training technique in the United States in the 1960s. It is a shorter version of a school lesson – approximately eight to ten minutes long – and presented by a student teacher to a smaller group of classmates with the aim of providing student teachers with hands-on, learner-centred teaching experiences (Grossman 2005). Literature describes micro-teaching as a scaled-down, simulated teaching encounter designed for the training of student teachers and regarded as a beneficial and an accepted element of student teacher education. Micro-teaching can provide student teachers with a number of benefits: engaging in the critical examination or assessment of student teachers‟ lesson presentations (Lim and Chan 2007); critically examining or reflecting on the strengths and limitations of each (Lim and Chan 2007); providing hands-on knowledge and insight regarding effective practice for the trainee to reflect upon (I‟Anson et al. 2003); introducing students to the different roles of a teacher (Amobi 2005); teaching them about the importance of planning, decision making, and the implementation of instructional methods and strategies (Gess-Nwsome and Lederman 1990); gaining valuable experience of lesson planning (Bell 2007); enabling students to develop and improve teaching skills (communication, public presentation, etc.) (Benton-Kupper 2001); and building practical teaching © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

confidence (Brent and Thomson 1996). According to Amobi (2005) and BentonKupper (2001), students themselves find micro-teaching to be a useful and enriching training tool (Amobi 2005; Benton-Kupper 2001). From the literature it is evident that the implementation of micro-teaching in the training curriculum enables both student teachers and lecturers to engage in dialogue and discussion regarding connections between theories of teaching and practical micro-teaching experiences (Allen and Wang 2008). Benton-Kupper (2001) emphasises that feedback to students should be detailed rather than general in nature. She describes detailed feedback as supportive and constructive, and as providing suggestions that can be used to improve student teachers‟ teaching strategies and methods. Darling-Hammond et al. (2005) mention that “students develop an analytic framework to assess the microteaching performances of their peers”. The critical examination or assessment of student micro-lesson presentations during micro-teaching is in line with Lim and Chan‟s (2007) view that “to critically examine or reflect on the strengths and limitations of each approach may restructure students‟ existing beliefs and encourage them to adopt new instructional practices that are consistent with their pedagogical beliefs”. Studies indicate that feedback serves as the “content for and quality of reflection” (Amobi, 2005). This content enables student teachers to reflect on micro-teaching experiences, which leads to changes in selfperception and subsequent behaviour (Amobi, 2005; Benton-Kupper, 2001). Advantages of collaborative learning in micro-lessons for teacher education Fernandez and Robinson (2006) highlight the importance of collaboration among student teachers when they plan and present micro-teaching lessons and reflect on them afterwards. Successful collaboration, according to Strijbos et al. (2004), requires the careful design of the learning environment with a view to stimulating group interaction, and the provision of scaffolding (leadership and support) by the facilitator to promote students‟ understanding. Jianhua and Akahori (2001) point out that optimum collaborative learning performance occurs where collaboration between students is well supported by technology. Learning is thus a social activity and peers play an important role in encouraging mutual learning (Jia 2005). Collaborative learning is also viewed as the result of a persistent attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem (Rochelle and Teasly 1995). This leads to a deeper level of learning, critical thinking, shared understanding and long-term retention of the mastered material (Kreijns et al. 2003). Collaborative learning in micro-teaching offers a space in which group members can evaluate and reflect face to face on their own and fellow group members‟ micro-lessons to help improve the quality of their learner-centred micro-lessons. The discussions and reflection between group members provide excellent opportunities to engage in pedagogical reasoning that, according to Young and Birds (2009), helps students move toward a mastery of teaching. Savery and Duffy (1995), as well as Sawyer (2006), emphasise that interacting groups do not only provide feedback, but also support and monitor one another‟s work. © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Regarding teacher training, Krajcik et al. (1994) argue that teachers construct their knowledge through social interaction with peers in the form of ideas applied in practice, and through their reflection on and modification of such ideas. Grossman and McDonald (2008) suggest that pedagogies in teacher training need to approximate practice in such a way that prospective teachers can engage in “intensive, focused opportunities to experiment with aspects of practice and then learn from those experiences”. The application of specifically focused Web 2.0 technologies such as video recording and annotation can effectively result in micro-teaching being more reflective, either collaboratively or individually, thus addressing the two limitations mentioned in the introduction. The syndication, authoring capabilities and technology infrastructure of Web 2.0 technologies and their associated applications provide the higher education community with authoring and community-building capabilities, the pedagogical implications of which are still largely unexplored (Hemmi et al. 2008). Integration of web-based technologies and collaboration to propel micro-lesson learning objectives As web technologies have grown and become more versatile, they have revealed more adaptable paths and opportunities for learning and assessment. With regard to the conventional role of learning, learners have moved away from their former passive position towards becoming active facilitators of the learning mechanisms. In the era of Web 2.0 technologies, learning has becomes synonymous with collaboration, and learning activities accordingly constitute a society of collaboration (Lin & Overbaugh 2013). Jianhua and Akahori (2001) were among the first researchers to concur that optimal collaborative learning performance should integrate Web.2.0 collaborative learning environments and classroom-based collaborative learning activities. According to Fernandez and Robinson (2006), students view collaboration as a highly important learning tool in micro-lessons. Luttenburg and Bergen (2008) indicate that participants welcome the sharing of different points of view and the feedback contributed by group members. Wu and Kao (2008) also state that student teachers are usually satisfied with the peer assessment activities supported by the streaming video system and that they consider the mark video feature useful for providing more specific comments about a peer‟s teaching. This supports the suggestion by Jonassen et al. (2003) that technology should be a partner in the teaching and learning process as it engages and supports reflective thinking. The application of Web 2.0 technologies fits the context of a social constructivist learning environment and examples include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video-sharing sites, hosted services, instant messengers (IM), web applications, podcasts and vodcasts (Saeed et al. 2009; Roblyer and Doering 2013). From the literature it is also evident that the skilful integration of applicable technologies can promote student learning, facilitate the development © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

of lifelong skills and ultimately foster SDL. The lecturers of student teachers may also appropriate new uses for technologies according to specific content needs and curricular goals (Nelson 2007; Hemmi et al. 2008; Saeed et al. 2009; King 2011). In order to integrate Web 2.0 technologies in their training programmes, teacher educators should create well-designed web-based activities that are applicable to specific curriculum standards, embody ownership of choice and provide time for student and teacher assessment and reflection (Nelson 2007; King 2011). For the purposes of the current study, VideoANT was implemented during Geography micro-teaching sessions. VideoANT allows users to make timelinebased textual comments in synchronisation with an on-line video (see Figure 1). It is ideal for peer assessment and provides feedback or facilitated peer reviews (Hosack et al. 2009). When managed within an LMS, it provides an effective training opportunity for student teachers.

Empirical research Research objectives and design The first objective of this study was to determine final-year student teachers‟ perceptions and experience of the contribution made by the video annotation technology VideoANT – as managed and made accessible within the university‟s LMS (named eFundi) – to achieve the learning outcomes of microteaching in Geography methodology in a collaborative way. As a second objective, it was important to determine if this video annotation method in any way enhanced the students‟ level of self-directedness in general as well as their SDL skills in particular. The research question could in this instance be answered best by a case study evaluation, as “the case study method fills a distinctive niche as an evaluation tool” (Yin 2012). A case study is bound by time and activity (Creswell 2009) and suggests being distinctive with regard to place, time and participant characteristics (McMillan and Schumacher 2010). In addition, Merriam (2009) points out that the “case study has proven particularly useful for studying educational innovations, evaluating programmes and informing policy”. Pragmatism was employed as the philosophy underpinning this study. Context The present study was conducted in the context of a teacher education programme offered at a university in South Africa. The Faculty of Education Sciences at this university offers two modes of delivery, a four-year BEd degree, as well as a one-year Post-Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE). The learning outcomes of the fourth-year methodology module in Geography inter alia comprise micro-lessons, in other words students are afforded the opportunity to present to fellow students a short version of a lesson (±10 minutes as a micro-lesson) that is video-recorded and assessed by peers and lecturers. The micro-teaching sessions are introduced approximately six weeks © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

before the students leave for practical teaching in schools during the first semester. There are roughly four to five weeks available for micro-teaching. Participants All the 2013 fourth-year BEd Geography methodology student teachers (N=20) took part in the study. Instrumentation, data collection and analysis procedure A mixed-method approach that involved collection and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data was used (Cresswell 2008). The researchers employed the following qualitative and quantitative data collection methods:  A questionnaire with 25 Likert-scale questions was administered to the students to determine how they perceived, experienced and valued these technologies for Geography micro-teaching. The questionnaire also included open-ended questions on any positive or negative aspects regarding the workability of this video method operated in eFundi, as well as some questions about the collaboration between the students in a group context.  Semi-structured interviews were conducted with some of the students in a focus group that had been compiled from different class groups (n = 6). The aim of these interviews was to evaluate the contribution that the technologies involved made to micro-teaching in particular and to teacher training in general.  To determine the students‟ level of self-directedness in learning we used Williamson‟s (2007) Self-Rating Scale of Self-Directed Learning (SRSSDL). The SRSSDL was developed to measure the level of self-directedness in one‟s own learning, and it consists of 60 items categorised into the following five areas of SDL: Awareness: Twelve items that relate to learners‟ understanding of the factors that contribute to their becoming self-directed learners. Learning strategies: Twelve items that explain the various strategies selfdirected learners should adopt in order to become self-directed in their learning processes. Learning activities: Twelve items that specify the requisite learning activities in which learners should actively engage to become selfdirected in their learning processes. Evaluation: Twelve items that reveal learners‟ specific attributes so as to help monitor their learning activities. Interpersonal skills: Twelve items that relate to learners‟ skills in interpersonal relationships, which are a pre-requisite to their becoming selfdirected learners. In our study, a five-point Likert scale was used to rate each item, with 5= always and 1= never. All items were positively stated and a maximum score of 300 and a minimum of 60 could be obtained. According to Williamson (2007) a score between 60 and 140 is defined as low and definitive guidance © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

from the facilitator is still needed. A moderate SDL score lies between 141 and 220, which implies that there are still areas in respect of selfdirectedness that need improvement. A high score of between 221 and 300 indicates effective SDL (see Table 2). Reliability and Data Analysis The present research formed part of a larger research project on SDL conducted at this University. Within the large project, we utilised the SRSSDL (n=403) and Cronbach‟s alpha coefficients (Anastasi, 1988) for the five categories of the questionnaire. Their values ranged from 0.76 to 0.88, which implies that they do not only correlate highly with the Cronbach alpha coefficient reported by Williamson (2007), but also that the SRSSDL is reliable within this South African context. Our quantitative analysis of data was conducted by means of descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means and standard deviations. The questionnaire was based on a five-point Likert scale with (1) indicating strong disagreement with the statement, and (5) indicating strong agreement. The internal consistency for each group of questions (grouped together to best respond to the different research objectives) was estimated using Cronbach‟s alpha coefficient. According to Nunnaly (1994), a scale with a computed alpha greater than 0.70 is considered to have an acceptable level of internal consistency, especially for cognitive or ability tests. However, since Field argues that it is realistic to expect values below 0.70 because of the diversity of the constructs being measured, a value of greater than 0.60 was also considered internally consistent in these instances (Field 2009). For this study, Cronbach‟s alpha coefficients of 0.674 and 0.631 were calculated for the research objectives identified in 3.1. Furthermore, unidimensionality and descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means and standard deviations were applied where necessary. For the qualitative analysis, a process of inductive coding was employed, which followed the sequence of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The questions asked during the interviews guided the coding process, but new codes emerged from the answers to open-ended questions and hence led to new insights. Code generation was handled manually and required continuous metacognitive reflection. For the SRSSDL, a mean score per category was obtained for the pre-test as well as the post-test. T-tests were used to analyse the differences in the responses of the students in the pre- and post-test. Effect sizes (Steyn 2002) were also calculated to determine whether practically significant differences had occurred between the pre-test and post-test. Seeing that a random sample was not used, p-values and statistical significance could not be reported. The effect size (dvalue) indicated the practically significant differences between the two mean scores (pre-test vs. post-test), where 0.2 indicated a small effect, 0.5 a medium effect, and 0.7 a large effect that was of practical significance.

Instructional procedures At the University concerned, four scheduled contact sessions per week are offered in the Geography methodology module for the fourth-year BEd and PGCE student teachers in a semester course. Two of these sessions are used for theoretical studies and two (in this case a double period) for micro-teaching. In the theoretical studies the focus is on teaching and learning theory, strategies, methods and teaching aids, as well as on assessment strategies and methods in Geography teaching and learning. For the micro-teaching part, students have to design learner-centred instructional lessons that are embedded in the socioconstructivist approach. The purpose of the micro-teaching sessions is for the student teacher to demonstrate the ability to integrate content, methodology and pedagogy, as covered in the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Geography. Students are expected to present at least one properly assessed micro-lesson (± 10 minutes) per semester. As part of our study, students were instructed to select themes for microteaching as prescribed in the NCS for Geography teaching according to their specific specialist phase, i. e. intermediate, senior or Further Educational Training (FET). Each student had to design a learner-centred 10-minute microlesson in collaboration with the other four members of his/her group. (A microlesson normally consists of three prominent phases – a creative introduction phase, a teaching and learning phase with an applicable teaching/learning strategy, and finally, a reflection and consolidation phase.) The lesson was subsequently presented in a class setup to the group who acted as the „learners‟, and it was video-recorded by a fellow student or assistant. The presenting students were expected to make use of teaching aids such as PowerPoint, transparencies, worksheets, posters, models, role play, educational games, etc. The main focus of the micro-lesson was to see whether the student succeeded in implementing learner-centred instructional strategies and activities that would not only ensure the active involvement of the learners in the learning process, but also promote and facilitate communication and collaboration among learners in the class. The recorded micro-lessons were then uploaded in VideoANT and embedded in eFundi (see Figure 2), from where they were made accessible to fellow students according to a predetermined assessment schedule (see details later in this article). The students then assessed one another‟s micro-lessons (group-by-group assessment as illustrated in Figure 3) on VideoANT by adding comments or recommendations at specific lesson moment – indicated by a marker on the video timeline (see Figure 1).

Intervention

VideoANT 2.0 beta VideoANT is an online application tool – designed by Hosack, Miller and Ernst (2009) from the University of Minnesota – that synchronises web-based video with an author‟s timeline-based text annotations. VideoANT was designed to engage learners by supporting interactions between students, instructors, and

the video content. This application allows students to tag specific portions of a video on which they wish to make a comment or give feedback (Hosack et al. 2009). VideoANT can be accessed via the web address http://ant.umn.edu/vae.php (a newer version is available at http://ant.umn.edu). For the proper operation of videos in VideoANT, it is preferable to access them in flash Video (*.flv) format. The videos (usually in *.MOD, *.MPEG or JPEG format) must be compressed and converted to a *.flv file (a common flash player video). A variety of products for this purpose can be found on Google as free versions, such as the Riva FLV encoder or Format Factory. With this software, it is for example possible to compress a 120 megabyte (MB) video file six to ten times to approximately 12-20MB, which is much easier for web operation. Figure 1 shows the different attributes and functions that VideoANT offers. The video can be viewed on the left of the VideoANT screen with the play and pause buttons underneath. On the timeline at the bottom of the screen, markers and corresponding comments/remarks can be added at any place by clicking the Add a Marker to this Timeline button, which then correlates with the comments column to the right of the screen. On clicking this button, the video pauses and a pin or marker appears on the timeline of the video to which the comment corresponds. This ability of VideoANT is seen as extremely valuable for the purpose of micro-lessons. The viewer can also slide the video forwards and backwards by clicking and dragging the timeline with the mouse for quick browsing through the video. A group‟s own video of their micro-lesson can be made viewable to them but will not be editable. Viewing is possible by activating the VIEW link of VideoANT in each group‟s eFundi site. It only allows the group members to view the comments (see Figure 2 that shows the VideoANT embedded in eFundi without the Add a marker to the timeline button).

Figure 1 Screen shot of VideoANT in operation (video on the left, comments column on the right and timeline with markers that indicate the corresponding place of the comment) © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

To manage these videos according to an assessment schedule between the groups, it is necessary to upload and access them through an LMS, in this instance eFundi. eFundi as the University’s LMS with VideoANT eFundi is the university‟s name for Sakai (http://www.sakaiproject.org/), a web-based collaboration and learning management system (LMS). Being an elearning education system based on the web, eFundi typically uses Web 2.0 tools for two-way interaction, and includes a content management system. An LMS is also known as a Course Management System (CMS). VideoANT can be more proficient if accessed, operated and managed within eFundi. To make VideoANT operational in eFundi, the appropriate links have to be added to the tool list in the left-hand column of eFundi. The customisable web content function that is available in the edit tools option underneath the site info tool on the LMS should be used to give the video your name of choice. This web content or customised name of the VideoANT video will then appear as a choice in the left-hand toolbar of the eFundi website (see examples of added toolbar options in Figure 2, such as Own Lesson 4 and Assess+Edit 2deLes).

Use of VideoANT in a collaborative context managed by eFundi The class of 20 students was divided into four groups of five. The micro-lesson experiences stretched over a period of five weeks to enable each group member to present a micro-lesson – one lesson per group per week. Thus four microlessons were recorded per week (one per group), which needed to be assessed by two other groups each week (see Figure 3). We created a website for each group in eFundi – there they were able to view the videos of their own microlessons with the annotations (comments made by other groups) and to moderate and evaluate other groups‟ micro-lessons at allocated times (see Figure 3). The assessment opportunity was made available in the left-hand toolbar list of each group‟s eFundi site on different days of the week as it was turned on and off by the lecturer (see left-hand toolbar in Figure 2).

Figure 3 Collaboration and group-by-group assessment on a rotational schedule

In each week, the following sequence of day-to-day activities took place on each group‟s website in eFundi:   

DAY 1: The micro-lessons were recorded. DAY 2: According to a rotational system, each group received a microlesson to assess. DAY 3: To ensure detailed and fair assessment of micro-lessons, the assessed lessons of DAY 2 were rotated (managed by the lecturer in eFundi) to a next group. They had to evaluate and moderate the assessments made by a previous group by indicating whether they agreed or disagreed with

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the comments made, and they could also make their own assessments where necessary. These options were made available or unavailable by the lecturer by editing the toolbar choices on each group‟s eFundi website. (See the highlighted comment in Figure 3 where Group 2 commented on the comment made by Group 1. Also see the left-hand toolbar in Figure 2 for options made available.) All the recordings of DAY 1, assessments of DAY 2 and moderations of DAY 3 had to be done outside of class time. During contact sessions the lecturer continued with normal course work. 

DAY 4 (usually a Thursday or Friday) comprised the class session (preferably a double period) of micro-teaching. The videos of all four microlessons were played to the whole class via VideoANT (within eFundi), and the program showed all the assessments and moderations made by the groups during the week. This class session allowed for further discussions, reflections and the lecturer‟s input, and it gave the respective groups the opportunity to „defend‟ their micro-lessons where/if necessary. This ensured that the comments made on VideoANT as well as in the class sessions were constructive and properly debated, and that they contributed to an effective learning experience of the student teachers in their Geography micro-lessons.

In the course of the five weeks, every group member got an opportunity to present a micro-lesson, have it assessed by two other groups, as well as listen to the class discussion and the lecturer‟s input on his/her micro-lesson. In total over the five weeks, each group presented five lessons (one by each member), assessed/moderated ten lessons in a group context (two lessons per week from two different groups), and listened to most of the lessons during the joint class sessions on DAY 4 (including the comments and input of the lecturer and all class members). All five annotated micro-lessons (one for each group member), remained available on each group‟s eFundi website for them to view and reflect upon in their own time. This enabled them to look at other additional information that was available in the video recording, such as the presenter‟s appearance, mannerisms, teaching skills, etc.

Findings and discussion All the student teachers were pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of VideoANT, they thought it to be an excellent teaching and learning aid, and they remarked on how easily it operated for the assessment of micro-lessons. The following qualitative data gained from the open-ended questions of the questionnaire provided support and triangulation possibilities with regard to the quantitative data. The respondents remarked inter alia: “Excellent aid for effective learning” and “Programme is easy and simple to use even on a beginner level”. From the interviews, John (pseudonyms are used for all participants) commented as follows on the easy accessibility and simple operation of VideoANT: © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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I think the big thing with VideoANT is that the programme was so easy to use; nobody could have said they could not operate it, could not get it right, struggled, etc… I think you really don‟t have to be very skillful [sic] with a computer to use the programme correctly. To emphasise their positive attitude towards the VideoANT method, Diane said that she and her fellow group members were very satisfied with the way VideoANT and eFundi managed this exercise with micro-lessons. They were also impressed by the number of assessments and reflections made possible by these technologies within a short period of time: ...Now we record all lessons in one day, assess two lessons according to a time schedule on eFundi in our own time on our computers, whilst we can monitor our own lessons being assessed, as well as watch and discuss them again during the class session, all in one week, and over four weeks it is a lot of lessons to learn from. The Geography students’ perception and experience of the effectiveness of the VideoANT method for collaboration Questions 8, 9, 10, 19, 22 and 25 from the questionnaire, which deal specifically with how the student teachers perceived and experienced the VideoANT method‟s effectiveness for collaborative learning were grouped together in response to the second research objective. The students‟ responses are presented in Table 1. The computed value of Cronbach‟s alpha coefficient for this group of questions was 0.631 and according to Field (2009), points to an acceptable level of internal consistency. Table 1: The students’ perception and experience of the VideoANT method as effective for collaborative learning and promoting SDL (n=18) 5-point Likert Scale: 1 = strong disagreement, 5 = strong agreement

No.

Mean

The collaborative working method in group context was always effective.

Question

4.2

The collaborative working method made the work easier.

4.2

10. Everybody in the group worked well together and carried his/her part of the responsibility.

11 4.3

19. The use of VideoANT and eFundi made group work more effective.

22. VideoANT and eFundi as technology aids enhanced self-directed learning.

10 4.5

25. VideoANT and eFundi as technology aids effectively supported collaborative learning.

13 4.7

4.3

Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.631 (average for the six questions) Average of six questions = 4.4 with a standard deviation of 0.45

From Table 1 it is evident that the majority of evaluations scored a 5 or 4 on the Likert scale, which implies strong agreement or agreement with the statements. The only exceptions were questions 8, 9 and 10. Nevertheless, the average mean for the six questions together is still 4.4 (see bottom of Table 2). In respect of questions 8, 9 and 10, Payne and Monk-Turner (2006) remark that students are © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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often inexperienced at working collaboratively; they have difficulty meeting in groups because of conflicting schedules and priorities; they are intimidated by the amount of work and organisation involved in collaborative learning experiences; and they are often frustrated by other students who do not carry their weight. Furthermore, Table 1 reveals that almost all the students (17 who strongly agreed or agreed) reported that they believed that the VideoANT method ultimately enhanced SDL. In fact, all the students (18) strongly agreed or agreed that this video method effectively supported collaborative learning. Fifteen of the 18 students also felt that this method made group work more effective. According to Diane, they were very satisfied with the way eFundi and VideoANT helped manage the collaboration: …Moreover, we each effectively gave four lessons because we were part of a group and helped the presenter on the planning of lessons. Furthermore, VideoANT was not time consuming, it helped to do the assessment quickly and efficiently. The above remark emphasises Amobi‟s (2005) viewpoint that good feedback serves as the “content for and quality of reflection”. Moreover, the VideoANT method optimally supported the effective collaboration between group members despite the fact that they could not always come together. This fact was best testified to by Marli: When the group can‟t get together to do the micro-lesson assessment of another group, we each did it on our own…while the other group members could add comments or edit each other‟s comments on their own time until all agreed on the final assessment…. To this, Sam added: …you could access VideoANT wherever you were at a computer which could get internet access to login to eFundi. The most commonly mentioned advantage of VideoANT was that students were able to reflect more thoroughly on their own micro-lessons, which helped them to improve their lessons more than other methods do. This correlates with Lee and Wu‟s (2006) viewpoint of the value of reflection. Marli again summarised this aspect the best: Everybody has a different way of teaching, and with the help of this technology you could see everybody‟s lessons and implement what you‟ve learned from others in your own lesson… The Geography students’ perception and experience of the ability of the VideoANT method to promote SDL skills The scoring range in Table 2 indicates the respondents‟ level of self-direction in learning, based on their individual scores and the corresponding interpretation according to Williamson‟s (2007) SRSSDL, which were developed to measure the © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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level of self-directedness in a student‟s own learning. Table 2: Scoring range of the 2013 fourth-year LASD411 students to indicate their level of SDL and the interpretation of their scores according to Williamson (2007) Scoring range and level of selfdirected learning

Pre-test total score

Post-test total score

141-220 Moderate

(n=9) Ave = 204.7 Mean = 3.41

(n=4) Ave =207.3 Mean = 3.45*

221-300 High

(n=11) Ave = 237.2 Mean = 3.95

(n=15) Ave = 239.1 Mean = 4.00

Whole Class (n=20) Ave = 223 Mean = 3.72

Whole Class (n=19) Ave = 232 Mean = 3.90

60-140 Low

Interpretation according to Williamson (2007)

Guidance is needed from the teacher. Any specific changes necessary for improvement must be identified and a possible re-structuring of the methods of learning must be suggested. This is half way to becoming a selfdirected learner. Areas for improvement must be identified and evaluated, and a strategy must be adopted with teacher guidance when necessary. This indicates effective self-directed learning. The goal is to maintain progress by identifying strengths and methods for consolidation of the students‟ effective self-directed learning.

The test results of the fourth-year students in the current study showed that no one scored in the lower range. In the pre-test, nine students achieved a moderate score for their level of SDL. Remarkably, in the post-test, five students migrated to the high level, three remained in this category, and one migrated down from the high level. This left the moderate level with four students, while the highlevel category increased from 11 to 15 students. The mean of both the moderate and high categories also increased slightly in the post-test. This indicates that the use of the video method in this methodology class could have assisted in increasing the level of self-directedness of the whole class, which is emphasised by the fact that the overall mean of the whole class increased from 3.72 to 3.90. Thus (according to Williamson‟s interpretation), only four students in the class would in the end need guidance for improvement in becoming more selfdirected. As indicated earlier, the computed coefficient alpha in all five areas indicates sufficient correlation. For establishing the construct validity, a known-groups technique was used; it was observed that the average scores for the pre-test and post-test was 223 and 232 respectively. The students‟ post-test scores were higher than their pre-test scores, which suggests that overall the students improved their SDL skills. Regarding the five broad areas of SDL, the students tested as follows in the preand post-tests (see Table 3 for paired sample statistics). The students‟ responses to the SRSSDL were summarised in frequencies and percentages. The responses of both the pre- and post-test of the students were summed up in order to obtain the average scores.

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Table 3: Measured changes between the pre-test and post-test results in the five broad areas of the SRSSDL for the fourth-year LASD411 students of 2013 Paired areas of SDL

Mean

Standard deviation

Effect size (d-value)

Awareness (pre-) Awareness (post-)

3.97 4.02

20 19

0.38 0.45

0.12

Learning strategies (pre-) Learning strategies (post-)

3.82 3.73

20 19

0.39 0.43

0.22

Learning activities (pre-) Learning activities (post-)

3.55 3.70

20 19

0.52 0.42

0.29

Evaluation (pre-) Evaluation (post-)

3.48 3.79

20 19

0.40 0.44

0.80

Interpersonal skills (pre-) Interpersonal skills (post-)

4.07 4.12

20 19

0.36 0.41

0.15

According to Table 3, the fourth-year student teachers improved in all areas except for the Learning strategies area where a slight decline was noticed. However, this proved to be not practically significant with a small d-value of 0.22. Because of the evaluative character of this video method to support assessment, reflection and feedback on micro-teaching in the Geography methodology class, it is not surprising that there was a practical and significantly large effect in the Evaluation area of the student‟s self-directedness. According to Table 3 it was precisely the Evaluation skills of the students that tested lowest in the pre-test, but improved most in the post-test. According to Figures 4 and 5 that show the responses of the students in the broad areas of the SRSSDL in the respective pre- and post-tests, it is clear that there was a significant improvement in the Evaluation skill area, as the „often‟ choice increased from 35% to 49.1%. Besides the improvement of Evaluation and Learning activities skills all the other broad areas stayed more or less the same. Furthermore, according to these graphs, there was an overall decline in the „seldom‟ and „never‟ choices from the pre-test to the post-test, not only for the Evaluation skills, but in all the broad areas of the SRSSDL. Furthermore, from a breakdown of the dataset, the effect size (d) for the students who scored in the „moderate‟ SDL category in the pre-test was as high as 3.65 in the post-test, as the mean size of their Evaluation skill improved from 3.1 to 3.7, followed by the Learning activities broad area which had a d-value of 0.73. The improvement of the Learning activities as one of the broad SDL areas is noticeable. All over, the broad areas of the SRSSDL remained fairly moderate to high.

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60 50

Always Often 44.2

35 32

30 25

Seldom

33.7

Never

28.3

Sometimes

41.7

24.2 24.6

20.8

20 10

5.8 2.92.1

17.9

16.7

14.2

14.6

4.6 2.1

3.7

0.8

0 Awareness

Learning Strategies

Learning activities

Evaluation Interpersonal skills

Figure 4: Fourth-year student teachers’ pre-test responses to broad areas of the SRSSDL (in %)

60 50

Always 49.1 44.3

Often

46.5

43.9

Sometimes

40.4

40 30.3

Never

24.6

23.2 19.3

18.4

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35.1

32.9

31.6

19.3 15.4

10 1.30.9

4.4 1.8

6.6

5.3 1.8

0.9

1.81.3

0 Awareness

Learning Strategies

Learning activities

Evaluation

Interpersonal skills

Figure 5: Fourth-year student teachers’ post-test responses to broad areas of the SRSSDL (in %)

Conclusion The students involved in this case study felt that this video method (VideoANT in conjunction with eFundi) supported micro-teaching optimally. They rated it an excellent teaching and learning aid to improve micro-lessons because of the greatly increased reflection, feedback and assessment opportunities that it offers. From the students‟ point of view, it was a great asset to be able to watch and rewatch their micro-lessons and to again evaluate the comments made by fellow © 2015 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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students in respect of exact moments in the video. The students were equally impressed with the benefits of working together in groups. The VideoANT and eFundi technologies proved supportive in achieving the learning aims of microteaching, in improving the students‟ teaching skills in general, as well as in empowering them to do sufficient and effective reflection and self-reflection. Using this method also seemed to help improve the students‟ self-directed learning skills in general, but it was their evaluation skills in particular (one of the five broad areas of the SRSSDL) that were improved most significantly (this area was tested as the lowest SDL skill in the pre-test). It was precisely the selfdirected learning skill that was most repeated and trained with the VideoANT method, and Jacques valued this method by saying that many assessments could be made in one week …and over five weeks it is a lot of lessons to learn from.

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Grossman P 2005. Research on pedagogical approaches in teacher education. In M Cochran-Smith, KM Zeichner (Eds.), Studying Teacher Education (pp. 425-476). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Grossman P, McDonald M 2008. Back to the future: Directions for research in teaching and teacher education. American Educational Research Journal, 45: 184-205. Hemmi A, Bayne S, Landt R 2008. The appropriation and repurposing of social technologies in higher education. Journal of Computer-Assisted Learning, 25: 19-30. Hosack B, Miller C, Ernst D 2009. VideoANT: Extending video beyond content delivery through annotation. In T. Bastiaens et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (pp. 16541658). Chesapeake, VA: AACE (Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/32696 on 2010/05/14). I‟Anson J, Rodriques S, Wilson G 2003. Mirrors, reflections and refractions: the contribution of microteaching to reflective practice. European Journal of Teacher Education, 26(2): 189-199. Jia Y 2005. Building a web-based collaborative learning environment. ITHET 6th Annual International Conference, July 7-9, Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic. Jianhu Z, Akahori K 2001. Web-based collaborative learning methods and strategies in Higher Education. International conference on Information Technology-based Higher Education and Training. July 4-6, Kumamoto, Japan. Jonassen DH, Howland J, Marra J,. Marra RM 2003. Learning to solve problems with technology. A constructivist perspective. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/ Prentice Hall. Kettle B, Sellars N 1996. The development of students‟ practical theory of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 12(1): 1-24. King R 2011. Metacognition: Information Literacy and Web 2.0 as an Instructional Tool. Currents in Teaching and Learning, 2(3): 22-32, Spring. Krajci k JS, Blumenfeld PC, Marx RW, Soloway E 1994. A collaborative model for helping middle school science teachers learn project-based instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 94: 483-497. Kreijns K, Kirschner PA, Jochems W 2003. Identifying the pitfalls for social interaction in computer-supported collaborative learning environments: A review of the research. Computers in Human Behaviour, 19(3): 335-353. Lee GC, Wu C-C 2006. Enhancing the teaching experience of pre-service teachers through the use of videos in web-based computer-mediated communication (CMC). Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 43(4):369-380. Nov. Lim CP, Chan BC 2007. Microlessons in teacher education: Examining pre-service teachers‟ pedagogical beliefs. Computers & Education, 48: 474-494. Lin S, Overbaugh R 2013. Autonomy of participation and ICT literacy in a self-directed learning environment (SDLLE). Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 47(1): 97-109. Luttenberg J, Bergen T 2008. Teacher reflection: the development of a typology. Teachers and teaching, 14(5/6): 543-566. McMillan JH, Schumacher S 2010. Research in education. Evidence-based inquiry. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson. Merriam SB 2009. Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Nelson K 2007. Teaching in the digital age: Using the Internet to increase student engagement and understanding. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Nunnally J, Bernstein IH 1994. Psychometric theory. 3rd ed. New York, McGraw-Hill. Payne BK, Monk-Turner B 2006. Students‟ perceptions of group projects: The role of race, age, and slacking. College Student Journal, 40: 132-139.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 109-116, May 2015

Application of Contextual Learning to Improve Critical Thinking Ability of Students in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies Class

Hasruddin, Muhammad Yusuf Nasution and Salwa Rezeqi Biological Education, State University of Medan North Sumatera, Indonesia

Abstract: This study is aimed to improve students' critical thinking skills through the application of contextual learning in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies Course. Classroom Action Research was conducted in Biology Education Study Program of State University of Medan. The subjects were 60 Biology Education students, which were determined by purpossive sampling. Critical thinking skills data was obtained through the analysis of student questions during students’ journal presentation. The data were also collected through observation and documentation of student journals which then analyzed based on its percentage. The results showed that there was a 18.5% increase in the critical thinking skills from the first to the second cycle after applying contextual learning in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course. Keywords: Contextual Approach, Critical Thinking, Journal Learning, Question.

Introduction Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies, weighs as many as three credits, is one of the courses included in Biology educational field study. This course is taught to biology education students’ in the fifth semester. By attending this course, students prepare themselves with a preliminary understanding, that can be used when they attend Biology Lesson Planning, Micro Teaching, Evaluation Process and Biology Learning Outcomes and Research Methods in Biology Education courses in the future. These courses are aimed to construct student competence as biology teacher candidates, and can be taken by students following the fifth semester. According to Hall, et all (2008), teaching is a professional job, so the pre-services teacher, taking class in educational training program, need to prepare themselves better with regard to learning the ins and outs.

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Course Content and Learning Strategies of this subject concerns about the philosophy of learning, learning theories, strategies, approaches, methods, models, learning styles, media, teaching materials, and teaching aids in biology learning. Lecture methods are currently running on commonly used methods such as lectures, discussions, paper assignments, and the search for learning resources via internet. The data showed that learning outcomes of students in this course were generally still considered mediocre, in which on the average, were categorized into grade C (68.45%), followed by B (19.58%), with the rest (1.12%) earned an A, after taking this course. This data is important because Ginnis (2007) suggests that acquisition of such values can be used as feedback in the learning process to improve learning approach in the future. Students were observed to possess negative behavior that considered unproductive for their improvement during this course, such as inability to promote questions during learning process, less creative work, followed with less demonstration of critical thinking skills. Results of quiz distribution during meetings to see the acquisition of skills in one or two basic competencies, showed that students do not obtain satisfactory results. In general, average obtained quiz score, from a maximum of 100 the acquisition value is only 68 or still are under 70. It is believed that with one or two numbers of lecture material repetitions, then the students can be expected to improve their critical thinking skills. If this is allowed to continue, otherwise, there will be the barriers in terms of time use in repeating the subject matter, as experienced by researchers. Thus, it is necessary to study an innovation by making students become more active in learning. In contextual learning theory, students are in the learning process or usually called learning by doing. Students just not merely receive materials from the professors, but the students, through learning by doing are able to master the subject matter well and can apply it in everyday life. Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies need to be turned to the foundation of contextual learning in which students actively construct their own knowledge, able to think critically and have the independence in learning. In addition, students need to have the life skills and ability to work together, the ability to communicate, the ability to be a diligent learner, and able to take the right decisions in solving real life problems. Therefore, in Biology Teaching and Learning class there is a need to study on an appropriate innovative approach. Smith (2010) said that Contextual Teaching and Learning in a conception of teaching and learning helps teachers relate the content of subject matter to real world situations. On the other hand, CTL defined the concepts as an innovative instructional process that help students connect the content they have learned to the life context in with that content colud be used. Hutson (2011) said that CTL is defined as a way to introduce content using a variety of active learning techniques, designed to help students conduct what they already know to what they are expected to learn and to construct new knowledge from the analysis and synthesis of this learning process.

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In the case of Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course, it is still not much to change the way students learn form the semester of the previous academic year. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an innovative approach the quality of this lecture, by applying contextual learning, and practicing various teaching methods such as problem-solving methods, guided discovery, field trips, simulations of active learning, critiquing various learning models that are presented in the form of animation, critical analysis, and student journal reading. Wishler (2013) explained that contextual learning is an active learning design which provides a way to introduce the learning content with the variation of active learning to help students connect with their learning world. The importance of the application of contextual learning in studying Biology Teaching and Learning Strategy is that the student is given with material that has been long studied. Contextual approach will be basically improve student learning. In this case, students become an active participants through the learning process. Lecturer acts as a facilitator that enables students to optimize their learning ability. Indeed, this approach is not a new approach, since the introduction by John Dewey in 1916. For biology education students who would be a teacher, the learning is not enough to simply memorize the material. Furthermore, students are invited to practice learning by doing. It is expected through the course, studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; critical thinking skills can be improved. According to Harrell (2004) philosophers generally agree that one aspect of critical thinking is the ability to analyze, understand, and evaluate an argument. Critical thinking skills are deemed important because they enable students in dealing effectively with social, scientific, and practical problems (Shakirova, 2007). Simply put, as explained by Snyder and Snyder (2008), students who are able tothink critically are able to solve problems effectively, because merely having knowledge or information is not enough. To be effective in the work place students must be able to solve problems to make effective decisions; thus, theymust be able to think critically. Critical thinking is defined as the process of decision-making that encourages self-regulation aimed at solving problems and making the right decision or the "engine" that drives how to decide what to do or believe in a certain context. Critical thinking includes behavioral tendencies (eg, curiosity, openmindedness) and the skills of analysis, conclusions, and evaluation. This study aims to answer how much improvement students' critical thinking skills by applying contextual learning in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course.

Methods The present Classroom Action Research was conducted in Biology Education program, State University of Medan. The execution time was for one semester or six months. The subjects of interest were 60 Biology Education students. Subjects were determined by purposive sampling. The entire subject of research consist of 11 male students, with the rest 49 female. Students enrolled in this study actually counted as many as 51 students, but there were the additional 9 students which we transferred from non-educational biology program.

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The study design was a classroom action research. This classroom action research was developed based on the findings earlier lectures it is expected that after attending Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course, students can improve the quality of their thinking. The steps of study consisted of two cycles. Research cycle is determined based on the basic competencies that were taught in the Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course. Cycle I: The first cycle was consisted of Planning Phase, Actions Phase, and Observation/ Evaluation, Phase and Reflection Phase. Planning stage included: reviewing, analyzing, and developing course materials of Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies. Action Phase: Simulating the lecture material by giving problems in soft-copied form to be discussed by students in cooperative group work Learning. Students also perform critical analytical study of impressions, delivered during the learning. Students also do a critical analysis of the source books (literature), and write student learning journal individual. Observation/Evaluation Phase: the phase took place on the course meetings and was done by an observer from members of the research team. All questions and activities of student learning were recorded through observation sheet. Reflection Phase: Measuring the achievement of the learning process and products such as critical thinking skills. Based on the results of the first cycle of this reflection the process can be continued to Cycle II. Cycle II: In the second cycle, the phase included performed Planning Phase, Actions Phase, and Observation/Evaluation Phase, and Reflection Phase. Planning Phase of this cycle consist of review, analyze, and action on the results of the first cycle of reflection into the course design when the problem was encountered by the students. Students pose a problem which is obtained from the internet, and textbooks. The issues raised during this term are ranged from Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course materials that they deem to be solved. Action Phase: Simulate the problem of student learning and the solution was made or done together in groups of cooperative Learning. Students also perform critical analysis of source book and student journal writing, each was done in a separate notebook. Observation/Evaluation Phase: The phase took place when observations by two observers from members of the research team was done. All questions and learning activities of students were recorded at the end of the second cycle. Reflection Phase: Measuring the achievement of the learning process and products such as students critical thinking skill. Lecturers also corrected student journal as part of the reflection. The results obtained at this stage of reflection would be used as a reference in planning the next cycle (cycle III) but if there is a significant increase in research, the process would be halted in the second cycle.

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Findings The data of this study were obtained form critical thinking skills and social proficiency. Other supporting data is in the form of students activity in asking questions. Critical thinking skills is analyzed through the examination of student questions during presentation. Social proficiency were analyzed from a distributed questionnaire. Data were collected through the observation and questionnaire analysis using percentage techniques. The data collection and analysis of data in the first cycle and the second cycle obtained as follows in Table 1. Table 1: Critical Thinking Ability

__________________________________________________________ No.

Range

Value Category

Cycle I Cycle II _______________________________ F % F % __________________________________________________________________ 1. 90-100 Exellent 6 10.0 14 23.3 2. 80-89 Good 25 41.7 28 46.7 3. 70-79 Moderate 28 46.7 18 30.0 4. < 70 Not Critical 1 1.6 0 0 ___________________________________________________________________

Table 1 shows that there is an increase in the critical thinking skills of students in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course with the application of contextual approach.

Result and Discussion Critical thinking skills of students in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course can be enhanced by applying contextual learning. Students' critical thinking skills can be improved for logical reasons that the introduction of a contextual approach in directing students into realistics thinking according to real life conditions. Various theories of learning is that learned can be implemented on lecture material. This makes it a challenge for students in applying it to everyday life. Subject matter becomes more meaningful for students with application of problem solving and through the process of inquiry and cooperative group work. This makes the students, becoming more diligently to asked question during the group presentation. The average student questions counted as much as 5 questions, making students become more motivated to learn. This is in line with the opinions of Wishler (2013) declaring the interaction in the learning process, in which students will be challenged and motivated in their learning. Besides that, students were trained to think in an advanced organization, this is also in line with Shihusa and Keraro (2009) which states that student motivation were higher after applying advanced thinking organizer. Smith (2010) said that the subject matter can be delivered using the CTL pedagogical model while also build critical and problems solving skills. Contextual learning provide a stimulus to the brain for processing materials meaningfully. In this case, students gain an advantage in applying the material

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in the context of their daily lives as part of the family and community members . Students in this case are not only able to master the concepts well, but further, that they can explore the material better. They can do this because they are involved in the learning process directly, explain the materials, tell it, or even deduce what they serve. This is in line with the view of Johnson (2002) which states that the student will be able to explain in broad and deep subject matter by applying the contextual approach. Students in this learning activity do not just memorize Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies concepts, but can also appreciate the subject matter well. Through this contextual learning, students will be able to demonstrate their ability in classroom discussions. They will increase the vocabulary knowledge of the various sources of relevant literature, or from their previous experience. Thus, the students will try to connect concepts they had obtained previously with what they learned that day, accommodating unique learning they have. Prashing (2004) states that everyone has indeed a unique style of learning, thinking, and working. Students not only receive course materials based on what the lecturer said, but constructs the subject matter from time to time in his mind. In view of this, students build and create knowledge by trying to give meaning to his knowledge according to his experience. Ginnis (2007) states that constructivism is the process of building or construct new knowledge in the cognitive structure of students based on experience. Critical thinking skills include solving problems, making decisions, and separate opinions with facts on science. Through contextual learning, students can criticize biology learning problems in school. The improvement of students' critical thinking skills through the application of contextual learning can be understood as the students will be active in finding a variety of learning resources. Students social ability will be encouraged through inquiry, cooperating, and cooperative group work. The use of various multi-method allows students to be active in the learning process. This is in line with Hall and Kidman (2004) which states that contextual learning make the atmosphere becomes centered on student learning and faculty can develop the ability. Students are trained to be a critical thinker to all courses when contextual learning is applied. This is in line with the opinion of Fisher (2009) which that the ability to think criticallis described as an active process that involves the role, played by the metacognitive thinking about thinking itself. Students become more creative in thinking. Through contextual application, students are allowed to communicate and share ideas while experiences and work together to solve problems. In a community learning activities or learning community by Suryawati (2010), students work better in group than working individually. Besides that, studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; softskill will also be formed through the learning activity. Learning community create conditions that allow one student to learn with other students. Some examples of

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soft skills can be formed through this learning activity, according to Smith (2010), namely: (1) There is a sense of responsibility and cooperation between members of the group to give and take; (2) There is a willingness to accept the opinions of others; (3) There is a willingness to respect the opinions of others; and (4) There is a sense of responsibility of the group, all members of the group have the same responsibility. Through contextual learning, students have increased activity in learning. They in turn become a speaker in front of the class presenting lecture material. At the time of question and answer, many students were observed to actively raised their hands to promote question. Classroom atmosphere become more alive. Although teaching process are in the middle of the day students still look excited. In fact, often times be increased because it is still fun to student to conduct a question and answer session through the dialogue. Along with that, students were seen to possess thehabit in conducting a social inquiry. This is in line with Zumdani (2014) explanation that in the social inquiry, students can collaborate and be more successful in achieving their academic achievement. Students have asked qualified questions when debriefing process takes place. Students promoting question activities were better in the second cycle; with so many questions asked by students in the learning process. This showed that they really enjoy learning. Using questioning techniques that improve student learning, the development of problem solving, and higher-order thinking skills (Suryawati, 2010) can be achieved. Students were more likely to be able to develop the scientific ability, which is in line with the opinions by Balaney (2013) that with student centered approach, students can significantly improve critical thinking skills. Promoting questioning in learning is seen on the lecture activities to encourage, guide, and assess the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to think (Suryawati, 2010). Smith (2010) states that in a productive learning, activities asked to: (1) Digging information, both administrative and academic; (2) Check for student understanding; (3) Generating a response to the student; (4) Knowing the extent of the student 's curiosity; (5) Knowing the things that have already known to the students; (6) Focusing attention on a desired student lecture; (7) To raise more questions from students; and (8) to refresh students knowledge. Haynes (2003) and Bailey (2003) emphasized the importance of asking the right questions for students to stimulate critical thinking skills, while Hemming (2000) explained the focus on integrating questioning techniques into class discussions to support an educational environment is important where students can demonstrate and practice critical thinking skills.

Conclution Based on the results and discussion of research it can be concluded that students' critical thinking skills was improved by 18.5% after applying contextual learning in Biology Teaching and Learning Strategies course.

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