27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching
Poster
Developing Subject Specific Didactic Models – Tools for Teaching Practice and Didactic Comparison
Miranda Rocksén, Marlene Sjöberg, Eva Nyberg, Maria Åström
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Presenting Author: Rocksén, Miranda
International developments in didactic research provide new approaches to understand the breadth and depth of teaching as a professional activity including its scientific base (Ligozat & Almqvist, 2018). Examples are didactic models and modelling (Sjöström, 2018; Wickman et al., 2018), comparative didactics across school subjects and the idea of a general subject didactics (Vollmer, 2021). Common are the efforts these approaches show to provide synthesis of didactic research as well as to contribute to the professional language shared between teachers and researchers. These overarching efforts are shared by the project reported in this study. The study is part of a national investment on practice-based research. In this two-year collaborative project between academia, preschool and school, the focus is on the teaching of science in a school area with a high degree of multiculturalism. The purpose of the project is to, in collaboration between preschool, school and university, develop subject didactic models, useful for teaching in preschool and in biology, physics and chemistry during the early years of primary school.
The project uses activity theory (Engeström, 1987, 2005, 2011) as an overall theoretical framework. Activity theory describes relations between different actors, actions and outcomes in developmental work processes. The theory shares a socio-cultural perspective and describes human activities shaped by historical and cultural contexts in terms of activity systems. The activity system shows actions that are made possible with the help of tools, rule systems and the division of labor included. An analysis based on activity systems, oscillates between using a longer historical time perspective on an entire system, and using a shorter time perspective on targeted actions of individual actors. Outcomes from this project are three subject specific didactic models; one focusing children’s interest with natural objects, one focusing work with multimodal and semiotic spaces for developing children’s’ language competences, and one focusing the use of mind maps and concept maps in the early years of school. They are understood as embedded in a meaningful context of activity for the participants. Moreover, the ambition to unite preschool - school within the same project gives rise to resistance in all three activities - preschool - school - teacher education. The project makes visible contradictions between activities, roles and difficulties in delimiting and defining natural science content, and actions initiated in relation to this by various actors.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedParticipants were a group of teachers from one preschool and the neighboring school, and a group of teacher educators and researchers. Data collection through documentation of the project group's meetings, through observations in the teaching practices, through interviews with children, pupils and student teachers. This was done using audio and video recording, photographs, and field and logbook notes of participating teachers, researchers and student teachers. During the first two years, the project group conducts three joint work meetings per semester. These meetings are documented through audio recording and are included in the study's data material. The data collection was done in relation to the problems, issues and challenges in relation to children's and pupils' knowledge, that were initiated and identified by the teachers. During the data collection themes about water, planets in space, soil and earthworms, and matter and air, were part of the teaching. The iterative work process included identifying questions, exploring these empirically, and developing theoretical models, that were triangulated in the project group, analysed and revised. Eventually this resulted in sub studies developing theoretically and empirically based subject didactic models. Subject didactic models were based in different theories, (i.e Dewey’s aesthetics, multimodal social semiotics, and socio-cultural link-making) and illustrated possible structures for how to approach the teaching and learning of the specific subject area or topic. The analytical focus here, is both on the didactic models themselves and how they contribute to childrens interest and learning, and on the project itself and how changes in practices and activities were enabled and hindered in the project.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn this project, didactic models are developed for the purposes of teaching and learning of science topics and areas, in pre-school and the early years of schooling. The project make available three subject didactic models which may be used as tools in teaching practice, for planning, conducting and evaluating teaching. The models are also useful in didactic comparison across subjects and enable theoretically based approaches to delimited topics. Moreover, in this project the ambition to unite preschool - school within the same project gives rise to resistance in all three activities - preschool - school - teacher education. The project makes visible contradictions between activities, roles and difficulties in delimiting and defining natural science content actions initiated in relation to this by various actors. By the tight connections between research, school- and preschool practice and teacher education, the project represents one way to strengthen the professional language and scientific base of teaching and learning practices in school and preschool, not only by the research results, but also by the approach to research collaboration. The study contributes knowledge and understanding about conditions for teaching science in multilingual preschools and to discussions about how teaching science in preschools can be strengthened and developed.
ReferencesEngeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding : an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research Diss. Helsinki : Univ.].
Engeström, Y. (2005). Putting activity theory to work : contributions from developmental work research. Berlin : Lehmanns Media, LOB.de.
Engeström, Y. (2011). From design experiments to formative interventions. Theory & psychology, 21(5), 598-628.
Ligozat, F., & Almqvist, J. (2018). Conceptual frameworks in didactics–learning and teaching: Trends, evolutions and comparative challenges. In (Vol. 17, pp. 3-16): Sage Publications Sage UK: London, England.
Sjöström, J. (2018). Didaktik i integrativa lärarprofessionsämnen. Studier i læreruddannelse og-profession, 3(1), 94-119.
Vollmer, H. J. (2021). Powerful educational knowledge through subject didactics and general subject didactics. Recent developments in German-speaking countries. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53(2), 229-246.
Wickman, P. O., Hamza, K., & Lundegård, I. (2018). Didaktik och didaktiska modeller för undervisning i naturvetenskapliga ämnen. Nordic Studies in Science Education, 14(3), 239-249.
27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching
Poster
Values in Democracy Education - Integrating a Joint Study Program in Teacher Education to Foster Teacher Students’ Competencies and Beliefs
Stefanie Schnebel1, Marion Susanne Visotschnig1, Mareike Brehmer2, Nataliia Demeshkant3, Kristin Endresen-Maharaj2
1University of Education Weingarten, Germany; 2University of Agder, Norway; 3Pedagogical University of Krakow, Poland
Presenting Author: Visotschnig, Marion Susanne
International crises and developments in European societies, have brought renewed awareness, that value education for democracy in schools is crucial for democratic societies. Therefore, the curricula in several European countries strengthened topics of democracy education. Teachers’ competencies and beliefs form an important variable in the actual realisation of these objectives. Empirical studies show that future primary school teachers need a better understanding and teaching methods of democratic principles and values learning to cope with rapid social changes, the emergence of new social and individual needs, especially with regard to diversity and tensions in primary school. This is why universities of initial teacher education can offer opportunities for creating these competencies by means of active professional interchange and guided experiences of trans-national understanding (Kolb, 1984).
To address these challenges, the joint Erasmus+ project ValiDE - Values in democracy education - enhancing competencies and beliefs of teacher students through a joint study program (KA220-HED - Cooperation partnerships in higher education) was initiated in three partner universities. Partners are the University of Education Weingarten (Germany), the University of Agder (Norway) and the Pedagogical University of Krakow (Poland). The project implements a joint exchange study program within the framework of teacher training at these universities, which focuses on reflection and discussion of democratic values in a tri-national group of teacher students. The participants also collaboratively elaborate teaching scenarios on democratic values education. The project will be matter of two research questions: (1) What national curricular differences in values education can be found? (2) In what respect do the students show changes in beliefs, attitudes and competencies regarding values education in due course of the exchange program?
The core idea of ValiDE is mainly based on an international exchange to foster competencies and beliefs. Every year a fix group of teacher students from Poland, Norway and Germany stays at each of the participating universities for one week and receive input, visit schools and work on didactical tasks. The teacher students also take part in workshops of three NGOs, one in each country to deepen their experience in different perspectives of democratic values. The NGOs add special competencies in the fields of democracy education, human rights education and ethical/interreligious education. With this approach, the project ValiDE responds to needs in the areas of: (A) student teacher mobility: teacher education for democracy needs partners from outside the own cultural community. It calls for experience of language barriers and own cultural difference and for tasks to collaborate in transnational groups. (B) placing democracy learning and dealing with democratic values in the everyday classroom of diverse social reality and the need of fostering teachers’ competencies in this area.
The poster shows how the intervention and the research design are conceived and reports the pilot study’s preliminary findings about students' goals and expectations at the beginning of the exchange.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe first step was to (1) analyse the existing curricula and (2) explore the changes in beliefs, attitudes and competences that are to be expected from the course intervention. Additionally, a literature review on the empirical evidence concerning the differing values concepts in teacher students is carried out.
(1) The core curricula for primary education in Poland, Norway, and Germany (Baden-Wuerttemberg) are analysed abductively. Firstly, lexicometric and concordance analysis (Dzudzek et al., 2009) will be applied to identify the prevalent values in each of the curricula and the context they appear in. Secondly, thematic analysis (Clarke, Braun, Terry & Hayfield, 2019) will be used to link the conceptualisations behind values in each of the curricula. The results will be interpreted in relation to the model of competences required for democratic culture and intercultural dialogue (Council of Europe, 2016).
(2) The student exchange programme is evaluated using different approaches of data collection including a logbook with the same open questions (t1 – t4: at the beginning and after each week of the exchange) that shows teacher students’ beliefs and aims connected to democratic values and value education pre-post the study exchange program.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsConceptual outcomes: We expect the project to have outcomes in several dimensions of the aims we address: We create an exchange program, comprising formal and informal learning activities, that is going to last for the future and offer the opportunity of intercultural project learning on the topic of democracy and values education year by year. The whole concept in theory and practice is going to be worked out as a ready to use handbook for other institutions of teacher education, for institutions of primary teacher further education and in the material part, integrating the student work output, even for primary school teachers themselves. This handbook is going to comprise theory, evaluated learning activities on staff level, the curriculum for the university seminar, the exchange course learning activities, learning material for the teacher students, descriptions for teachers, lessons, (practically tested) activities and material for use in primary schools and material for awareness, self-reflection and intercultural communication.
Pilot study: Preliminary findings about students' goals and expectations at the beginning of the exchange: The participating student teachers are given a logbook with similar questions at the beginning and at the end of the exchange program. They also are supposed to reflect on their specific learning experiences after each week during the program. To get to know about from which points of view the participants started into the program they were asked in open questions to mention (1) their main reasons to join the program, (2) their expectations for the three-week program, (3) their aims to learn, (4) their points to avoid. The preliminary results of n=7 logbooks to these questions are reported in the poster. The thematic text analysis (Clarke, Braun, Terry & Hayfield, 2019) is used to run a qualitative analyse of the self-reported student teachers’ views.
ReferencesCouncil of Europe (2016). Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture – Volume 1 Model. Council of Europe Publishing. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://rm.coe.int/a-model-of-the-competences-required-for-democratic-culture-and-intercu/16809940c3.
Dzudzek, I., Glasze, G., Mattissek, A. & Schirmel, H. (2009). Verfahren der lexikometrischen Analyse von Textkorpora [Methods of lexicometric analysis of text corpora]. In Glasze, G. & Mattissek, A. (Eds.) Handbuch Diskurs und Raum: Theorien und Methoden für die Humangeographie sowie die sozial- und kulturwissenschaftliche Raumforschung [Handbook discourse and space. Theories and methods for human geography as well as spatial research in the social and cultural sciences]. 2. Ed. Transcript.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching
Poster
Kazakhstani EFL Teachers' Second/Foreign Language Writing Apprehension and Its Effect on Their Teaching
Nurzada Yermaganbetova
Nazarbayev Intellectual School, Kazakhstan
Presenting Author: Yermaganbetova, Nurzada
This study investigated second/foreign language writing anxiety among Kazakhstani EFL teachers. After implementing the new educational policy regarding trilingual education, English is taught as a foreign language and used as a medium of instruction in secondary education of Kazakhstan. As EFL teachers are non-native speakers of English, they can be prone to anxiety in language classroom, especially in the context of writing due to its productive and complex nature.
Writing anxiety refers to a person’s predisposition to avoid writing tasks. It is specific to written communication and characterized as an individual’s tendency to avoid the situations and environment that may involve writing followed by its evaluation (Daly, 1978), due to the constant feeling that they are either not ready to write or not good at writing (Jawas, 2019, p.714).
Anxiety in foreign language classroom is commonly related to second language learners. However, the global practice demonstrates that non-native language teachers are also exposed to anxiety in the EFL classroom. In other words, despite being advanced users of English, it is common for teachers to feel writing anxiety. A number of studies have examined the relationship between teachers’ writing anxiety and their teaching practices in L1 contexts (Gere, Schuessler and Abbott, 1984; Bizzaro & Toler (1986). Research shows that a teacher plays a crucial role in shaping students’ attitudes towards writing (Palmquist and Young, 1992) and anxiety confronted by teachers might adversely affect not only teaching process but learning process as well (Aydin, 2021). Teachers’ writing anxiety have debilitative impact on their teaching behaviors, including, for instance, ineffective instructional strategies and anxiety- generating responses to students’ work (Ada and Campoy, 2004). Furthermore, teachers' writing anxiety may be reflected on the way how teachers assess learners’ written work (Claypool, 1980, cited in Atay and Kurt, 2006, p.102).
Due to the dynamic nature of language, non-native English teachers remain learners of the target language. As a result, English teachers may encounter stressful working conditions caused by language-related anxiety in the classroom, which are detrimental to the overall language teaching and learning processes (Horwitz, 1996; Aydin 2016). Some teachers, however, are prone to feel uncomfortable discussing their worries about language anxiety since it may be considered to be unprofessional among their peers.
A variety of factors such as English proficiency, the lack of educational resources and teacher- student relationship contribute to teacher anxiety, which might cause negative effects on teachers’ self-confidence, classroom behavior and teaching approaches(Horwitz, 1996; Roger and Suzuki, 2014; Aydin, 2016). Horwitz (1996) claimed that non-native English teachers experience language anxiety in foreign language classroom because they still remain language learners. However, Aydın (2016) argues that language anxiety in the teaching context cannot be considered the same phenomenon as the learners’ anxiety and thus anxiety among teachers is an important variable to consider. Yet research on L2 language anxiety was mainly conducted in the learning context, but studies focusing foreign language anxiety among teachers, and moreover the ones considering foreign language writing anxiety of language teachers remain in paucity.
The purpose of the study is to investigate the experience of second language writing anxiety(SLWA) among English teachers and explore the range of factors leading to SLWA that might influence their teaching and consequently their students’ academic performance of writing skills as well.
1.5 Research questions
1. What are the possible factors causing second language writing anxiety among English teachers in the classroom?
2. What are the teachers’ beliefs about the effect of their second language writing anxiety on their teaching practice and students’ learning process?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedData were collected from EFL teachers who teach English as a foreign language at Kazakhstani Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. In this regard, they may be considered to be proficient in English.
The subjects comprised 3 male and 37 female teachers and their ages showed variation from 23 to 55, the majority of teachers are in their 30-s. The first language of the participants is Kazakh or Russian and they all had learned English as a second or foreign language.
This study was based on the design called an explanatory sequential mixed methods which involves collecting quantitative data first and followed by qualitative data collection. More specifically, the first phase concerns quantitative findings that help determine the target sample for the detailed investigation of the topic.
A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data for the study. EFL teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire on second language writing anxiety. The questionnaire items were devised adapted from FLTAC (Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety Scale) questionnaire devised on the basis of quantitative research instrument on examining FLTA by Kim and Kim (2004).
The questionnaire was analyzed using the descriptive statistics. It consists of 26 items that should be answered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'. All these items were divided into thematical categories depending on the topic of questions such as self-perceptions of L2 writing proficiency, teaching inexperience, lack of knowledge in grammar and vocabulary, fear of negative evaluation.
A semi-structured interview was used to collect qualitative data for the study. Research interviews are designed to study people's opinions, experiences, and beliefs about specific subjects (Gill et al., 2008) and are regarded as an effective tool for extracting more detailed data or gaining a thorough understanding of the subject.
Once the interview material were ready, the researcher applied the thematical approach to data analysis. Creswell (2014) highlighted the usefulness of the thematic approach in qualitative research, since it allows the researcher to explore the data thoroughly. The researcher identified the quotes in the interviews which had meaning and were related to the main research questions, then all the quotes were indicated by the codes. The codes were generated into the subthemes and as a final step into the general themes. The researcher identified three main themes themes: 1) teachers’ perceived self-efficacy as writers; 2) teachers’ perceived self-efficacy as teachers of writing; 3) psychological challenges.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsEFL teachers are prone to experience second language writing anxiety in the context of teaching and learning. The main anxiety-provoking factor is that non-native teachers’ self- efficacy in writing which negatively affects their own writing quality and teaching practice as well. Secondly, fear of evaluation, particularly by their non-native and native speaker colleagues, is another factor that causes writing anxiety.
During the interviews, all seven participants admitted they feel unconfident about their own writing skills because their writing skills are not well-developed. Teachers’ low self- efficacy in writing leads to their low self-esteem in their professional practice of teaching writing skills. It means that if the teachers are not confident about their own writing skills, they do not believe that they can develop their learners’ writing skills properly. Consequently, they become prone to anxiety in relation to their own writing skills that may result in other type of worry which can be regarded as teaching anxiety. These findings can be supported by Daisey (2009) who states that self-efficacy of teachers about their own writing abilities affects their beliefs about their ability to teach writing.
During the interview, participants shared their beliefs how their writing anxiety may impact their teaching practice and students’ learning process. Most of the participants acknowledge that their second language writing anxiety leads to teaching anxiety which may negatively impact their overall teaching practice. This means, teachers encounter anxiety not only in writing but in teaching the target skill as well. This finding can be explained by Horwitz’s (1996) claim which stated that when teachers experienced foreign language anxiety while they were learners, probably they would have foreign language teaching anxiety later. Ada and Campoy (2004) claimed that if the teachers lack writing abilities, then they are more likely to feel anxiety while teaching.
ReferencesAda, A.F., & Campoy, F.I. (2004). Authors in the classroom: A transformative education process. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Aida, Y. (1994) ‘Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope's construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of Japanese’, The Modern Language Journal, 78(2), pp.155-168.
Cheng, Y. (2002) ‘Factors Associated with Foreign Language Writing Anxiety’, Foreign
Language Annals, 35(6), pp.647–656. doi:10.1111/j.1944-9720.2002.tb01903.x.
Cheng, Y.-S. . (2004) ‘A measure of second language writing anxiety: Scale development and preliminary validation’, Journal of Second Language Writing, 13(4), pp.313–335. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2004.07.001.
Cheng, Y., Horwitz, E.K. and Schallert, D.L. (1999) ‘Language Anxiety: Differentiating Writing and Speaking Components’, Language Learning, 49(3), pp.417–446. doi:10.1111/0023-8333.00095.
Claypool, S. H. (1980). Teacher writing apprehension: Does it affect writing assignments across curriculum?
Choi, S. (2013). “Language anxiety in second language writing: is it really a stumbling block? “ Second Language Studies, 31(2), 1-42.
Creswell, J. W. (2014) Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
Creswell, J.W. and Plano Clark, V.L. (2011) Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. 2nd Edition, Sage Publications, Los Angeles.
Daly, J. A. and Shamo, W. (1978) ‘Academic Decisions as a Function of Writing Apprehension’, Research in the Teaching of English, 12(2), pp. 119–126.
Daly, J.A. and Miller, M.D. (1975) Apprehension of Writing as a Predictor of Message Intensity. The Journal of Psychology, 89 (2): 175–177. doi:10.1080/00223980.1975.9915748.
Daly, J. A., and Wilson, D. A. (1983) ‘Writing Apprehension, Self-Esteem, and Personality’, Research in the Teaching of English, 17(4), pp. 327–341.
Daud, N.S.M., Daud, N.M. and Kassim, N.L.A. (2016) ‘Second language writing anxiety: Cause or effect?’, Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 1(1), pp. 1–19.
Daysey 2009The Writing Experiences and Beliefs of Secondary Teacher Candidates
Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Genc, E. and Yayli, D. (2019) The Second Language Writing Anxiety: The Perceived Sources and Consequences. Pamukkale University Journal of Education, 45 (45): 235–251. doi:10.9779/puje.2018.231
Gere, A. R., Schuessler, B. R., & Abbott, R. D. (1984). Measuring teachers’ attitudes toward writing instruction . In R. Beach & L. Bridwell (Eds.), New directions in composition research (pp. 348-361). New York: Guilford.
Horwitz, E.K. (1996) ‘Even Teachers Get the Blues: Recognizing and Alleviating Language Teachers’ Feelings of Foreign Language Anxiety’, Foreign Language Annals, 29(3), pp. 365– 372. doi:10.1111/j.1944-9720.1996.tb01248.x.
|
