The paper reflects the real needs and priorities within foreign language teaching at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS), which include the reduction of the lecturer´s direct teaching load and the use of modern ICT technologies within e-learning courses offered to students of all forms of studies. For the purposes of the research, the e-learning Business English course was developed. The objective of the research was to find out students´ opinion on e-learning based on the frequencies of their responses and on their qualitative signs. The research was conducted in accordance with the long-term aim of the CULS Prague, as well as in accordance with the language policy of the European Union, with the national policy of language education and with the long-term aims of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.
This study reports on Egyptian science teachers’ experiences in collective action research projects with a focus on education for sustainable development (ESD). Science teachers were enrolled in a study course “Teaching Strategies” that had been revised with a focus on sustainability. The course was introduced in the spring semester of the academic year 2011/2012. Throughout the course, 29 teachers worked in groups to develop projects that promote sustainable development through classroom teaching practices that encourage involvement with local communities around school premises. The framework that guided the study was based on experiential, constructivist and transformative learning theories known collectively as ‘ExConTra’. A mixed methods methodology was used where teachers’ responses to three open-ended reflective questions produced qualitative data that were analysed by identifying themes and patterns. The author developed two quantitative instruments: a Concept Mapping Rubric and a Sustainable Development Questionnaire. The former was to probe the cognitive organisation participants had in relation to the concept of sustainable development before and after developing the action research projects. The latter instrument was used to identify participants’ attitudes towards teaching for ESD and their knowledge of classroom pedagogical practices. Statistical data analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences indicates that teachers in their post-tests had developed: better cognitive organisation for the concept of sustainable development; positive attitudes towards teaching for sustainable development and ESD classroom teaching practices. Involvement in the action research projects where teachers were experiencing, reflecting, conceptualising, constructing, acting and transforming within the context of ESD may be responsible for these results where there are promises to help achieve successful implementation to include ESD in science education.
Speaking English with inappropriate intonation, which can impede communication and cause misunderstandings, is a characteristic of the speech of many university English majors in Vietnam. A study was carried out using participant action research, with the aim of improving Vietnamese learners’ intonation. The participants were fourteen second-year English major volunteers from a university in Vietnam. The study was implemented in two cycles of 12 two-part sessions, including one-hour group discussions and 90-minute sessions devoted to intonation learning strategies. The data include journals written by participants after each session; 30-minute interviews done at the beginning of the study; and recordings for pre- and post-tests. The Praat program was used for analysing intonation contours. Two native speaking judges rated learners’ ability to recognize and produce three tones (rising, falling, falling-rising), tonic syllables and intonation patterns to express their intended ideas. The results of the tests showed that the students’ intonation improved by approximately 30 percent. Qualitative data from the learners’ journals and the discussion sessions indicated that participants had learned to employ learning strategies. The two most popular strategies were to practise naturalistically (particularly, shadow talking) and to represent tones in memory. The study demonstrated that certain learning strategies can be developed to enhance the learning of intonation.
This aim of this article is to present the research process using the action research method in the project titled “Development of the empowerment of educators and beneficiaries in the field of youth at risk and social exclusion” implemented within the Erasmus Plus programme in which the author of this article participated. The process of operationalisation of the social exclusion category and the characteristics of the methodology of action research were performed in this article. The project objectives were set out and the team appointed to carry out the research on the issue of the development of the empowerment of educators and beneficiaries working with adults at risk of social exclusion was described. The article subjects the research process implemented by the team of investigators to analysis and identifies the turning points in this process. Conclusions concerning the specificity and usefulness of action research in searching for social practice solutions in the field of social exclusion have also been provided on the basis of practical experience.
Action research (AR) as a research method has been recommended in the process of educating foreign language (FL) teachers as well as developing their teaching skills for decades. Many teacher education experts, including Elliott (1991) are of the opinion that the method contributes to teachers’ professional develpoment as they can extend their theoretical knowledge of the processes of learning and teaching through gaining the practical knowledge. Moreover, action research evokes the need for reflection upon one’s teaching activities. One may wonder whether FL teacher-practitoners apply AR in their teaching and how, if at all, it influences their classroom teaching. In order to learn about it, the author of the article conducted a questionnaire which provides interesting information about FL teachers’ attitude towards AR. The article aims at promoting AR as well as encouraging FL teachers and teacher-trainees to use the method in their work.
The Project “Sheep” resulted from the special educator and ethnologist cooperation, as addressing the need for using an experience and place by representatives of different scientific areas, the purpose of which was to combine professional competence in innovative teaching. The main goal was to raise funds to buy a sheep, then entrust it to the experienced shepherd from Koniaków who wanders along the Carpathians and reconstruct the old way of grazing. At the same time, the participation in this project has been used as an excellent opportunity to talk about building the local identity and cultural heritage values of the region and disabled people. This project also concerned people who are often barely visible in the human herd-people with disabilities.
The purpose of this article is to show how action research is used as a research method in foreign language didactics. Six articles have been chosen from refereed journals and analyzed in respect to such categories as research questions and problems, research aims, the relationship between research participants and researcher, research procedures, data collection methods, results and research quality. This initial analysis reveals that action research studies (1) do not easily fall into one distinct research paradigm, (2) can be both quantitative and qualitative, or mixed, (3) collaboration of research participants is often very limited, and (4) there are problems with quality criteria.
This article analyses the conformity of the educational action research (EAR) process for the improvement of selected competencies that will be necessary in the near future for each active and responsible person. The most requested competencies in the near and midterm future are determined in accordance with near future structural requirements of labour demand, determined by international organoizations. The contribution is based upon the outcomes of the action research carried out in the internet environment, by Bachelor students majoring in information technologies at Riga Technical University, Latvia. Working in groups, they supplemented each other’s ideas, developing living theories. The content analysis of the students’ supplementary submissions and living theories was carried out to identify the features indicating the development of student actions towards the improvement of the most necessary competencies in the near future. To accomplish the objective of action research, at first, the most requested competencies in the near and midterm future were determined. Then the changes of the features, mentioned during the three action research cycles were identified. Finally, the most important features of the students’ actions indicating the development of two of key competencies, namely, Novel and adaptive thinking and Design Mindset, were identified. Perfection of referred competencies is viewed as the substantial part of education for sustainable development (ESD). The conclusions were drawn about the development of students’ competencies according to the future needs identified during the action research process on the internet.
A reflective case study approach, including focus interviews, reflective/reflexive journals and analysis of project-based works of 30 pre-service teachers participating in an undergraduate course was employed to investigate the discrepancy between the teachers' constructivist conceptions and the actual practice. The identified discrepancy seemed to be an outcome of the difficulty translating constructivism into teaching practice, but also of the misleading conception of constructivism as a homogeneous philosophy. Through reflective practice, participants were able to deconstruct and reconstruct their theories and practices of teaching in more emancipatory ways addressing issues of education for sustainable development (ESD). This case study helped understand the nature of change process towards teaching and learning for more sustainable futures.
English for Legal Purposes (ELP) appears to be gaining popularity and acquiring a new dimension in many countries. An increasing number of legal professionals (i.e. law students and legal practitioners) consider their General English satisfactory but desire to learn the language of their professional domain, as they believe it will bring them improved job prospects in the future. There are some aspects of ELP teaching that can be both a hindrance and a challenge for ELP teachers. These include the lack of curricula for teaching Legal English at tertiary level institutions and the restricted number of teaching resources and guidelines with reference to teaching Legal English available on the market. This article draws on the outcomes of a three-year research project, which was undertaken to design, implement, and evaluate an ELP programme for adult professionals. The research project was conducted among 293 legal professionals in Poland and took the form of an action research model - a research tool that is not often exploited by scholars despite its unquestionable value
Pedagogical translanguaging has been extensively researched over the past decade. Yet, little is known about the attitudes of students towards this practice. Students constitute an integral part of classroom interactions and their learning process is significantly affected by teachers’ classroom discourse. This action research (AR) study, situated in a Chinese university Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) reading classroom and aided by lesson recordings and two sets of questionnaires, explores the translanguaging strategies employed by the teacher as well as the students’ attitudes to such strategies. Through incorporating feedback collected from students regarding the teacher’s modifications of language use, the study has demonstrated how the teacher mobilizes her full linguistic resources, in the form of translanguaging, to achieve pedagogical outcomes, which eventually leads to the establishment of a mutually beneficial classroom ecology. The study also indicates that advanced EFL learners, highly motivated to improve language proficiency and acquire subject content unanimously reject the traditional monolingual approach to teaching. The findings call for further research into the impact of pedagogical translanguaging on students’ learning process in multilingual classrooms.
Many memorials are located in the area of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Every day these places are speechless witnesses for the exchange of opinions, successes, failures and also enchantments, emotions and discords of the generations of students, who many a time are not aware of their existence. Meanwhile they came into being for reminding of the people and events that marked themselves in the history of Alma Mater in Toruń. Moreover they want to prompt to broaden knowledge about them. With the aim of restoring the memory of the places of Nicolaus Copernicus University there was organized a scientific-educational project: Nicolaus Copernicus University students towards the places of (non)memory. During this project (8 June 2012) the location-based game, under the same title, was carried out. This venture joined historical content with the pedagogical method of its modern transfer. This idea was designed to popularize knowledge about the memorials of Nicolaus Copernicus University. In addition to this, participants could create their civic competences and could get new experience, which can be a foundation of their academic identity. Project was based on the methodological framework of the action research.
The article describes research and actions which the author has taken in the shelter for homeless women in Łódź. The main question is how this kind of procedure, which is applied in feministic and action research focused version of anthropology, is justified. This perspective is close to the critical science. The author analyses and describes how the shelter is functioning. She bases her observations on and relates them to Miranda Fricker’s concept of the hermeneutical injustice and other related notions, such as epistemological inequality, cognitive disability and discursive disability. The author discusses her own activities and puts emphasis on an agency, which characterises her research choices.
In this article, I elaborate on some ethical and methodological doubts that have emerged in the course of my ethnographic fieldwork. They relate to the process of constructing the field, moments of collective experimentation, and the process of developing long-term relationships between the ethnographer and his or her interlocutors. I show how the stage of constructing the field may be uncertain and contingent, yet at the same time crucial for understanding the studied phenomena. I then explain how some forms of closeness and friendship in the field may be also transform into common social and artistic projects. Finally, I reflect on deeper ethical tensions related to authorship and authorization during the writing-up stage of research. I argue that some forms of collaboration in the field lead both towards a form of shared authorship and to the necessity to make our interlocutors’ identity anonymous and invisible.
Dorota Prysak, The objectification of adulthood of persons with deeper and deep intellectual disability. Interdisciplinary Contexts of Special Pedagogy, no. 26, Poznań 2019. Pp. 237–254. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-391X. e-ISSN 2658-283X. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/ikps.2019.26.11 The adulthood of persons with deeper and deep disability continues to be a challenge not only for specialists and parents or caretakers of the indicated group of persons, but also for us as a society. The objective of the article is the presentation of effects of activities experienced by adults with deeper and deep intellectual disability while inhabitants of a social nursing home. One of the main effects of the mentioned activity is objectification. In the discussed case, the objectification is the effect of lack of trust or limited trust in their potential, which can become a factor of manipulation. The research material used in the present study constitutes personal experiences gained while working with persons with deeper and deep intellectual disability, their caretakers, parents and other specialists working with them, acquired through participation in diverse activities/ projects aimed at them. Free, narrative discussions as well as focused discussions were conducted with representatives of the indicated groups (save for persons with deep, and in certain cases, significant intellectual disability). The analysis of the research material was conducted according to the action research methodology.
This study investigates whether Facebook would be an ‘effective and easy’ teaching tool in ESL classes in South Korean universities. Using a teacher’s diary, action research was conducted. The study indicated that Facebook is not different from other new teaching tools; the teacher must familiarize him/herself with the tool to use it confidently. Second, a student’s ‘lazy factor’ is quite problematic in the learning process. Lastly, action research and a teacher’s journal can increase teacher’s self-accountability.
Assisted reproduction (ART), particularly that performed using donated gametes, increases the prospect of healthy babies being delivered to increasing numbers of people striving for parenthood. The psychosocial, ethical and legislative issues related both to the donation and receipt of gametes are perceived as extraordinarily complicated. In 2009, a research project aimed at mapping the issues was drawn up and implemented in the Czech Republic. The project should have provided material for consultation purposes, for the work of ethical and legislative bodies, and for better interdisciplinary and international communication in reproductive medicine. Work on the project was affected by several unforeseen events, particularly by the drafting and adoption of a new law on ART (to which the project was initially to have contributed material once concluded). The article describes the dynamic and structural changes occurring within the project due to drafting of the bill as well as the changes and consequences resulting from other circumstances related to the topic researched.
This paper explores how a group mentoring solution for university teachers' professional learning and ICT use in teaching was implemented in one research university in Finland and how this guidance model was developed through the action research cycles. The starting point of the action research was to make the processes of information and knowledge sharing in the academic community more visible and to examine how to better support university teachers for adopting ICT in teaching and learning. The project provided communicative spaces for knowledge sharing through series of group mentoring workshops in two pilot departments during one academic year. The applied knowledge sharing and group mentoring model is a combination from Propp's (1999) CIP model and from Nonaka's and others' (2000) knowledge creation scheme. The paper presents the strategies used for constructing and piloting the group mentoring model and discusses some of the key obstacles what emerged when guiding the collective information and knowledge sharing in the academic work and teaching culture.
The text concerns the potential area of cooperation between anthropologists, architects and local community, who lives in space that is to be projected. The city of Łódź faces several urban, economic and political obstacles and problems. The article presents the project, the aim of which was to show that the architecture as a discipline should care about the users of space and ask them about their needs and make them the members of a revitalization project. Therefore, cultural anthropology with its fieldwork methodology is a chance to hear what the people say about the place where they live or would like to live. The authors plan to conduct action research among the inhabitants of Łódź’s backyards and to create a participatory design, which is also aiming at improving civil attitudes.
W artykule zaprezentowano rozważania dotyczące międzypokoleniowego projektu edukacyjno-badawczego pt. „Przywracanie Pamięci Miastu”. Projekt ten realizowany był przez Toruński Uniwersytet Trzeciego Wieku w partnerstwie z Wydziałem Nauk Pedagogicznych Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu w ramach programu „Patriotyzm Jutra”, który został ogłoszony przez Muzeum Historii Polski i sfinansowany przez Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego. Przedsięwzięcie to opierało się na koncepcji miejsc pamięci Pierre’a Nory i nowoczesnej wizji patriotyzmu, a w warstwie dydaktyczno-metodologicznej osadzone zostało w ramach badań w działaniu, co umożliwiło łączenie treści historycznych z pedagogiczną metodą ich nowoczesnego przekazu. W tekście ukazano cele i efekty projektu, a także opisano jego przebieg i podjęte w jego ramach działania.
EN
The article presents reflections on the intergenerational educational-research project entitled “Restoring the Memory of the City”. This project was carried out by the University of the Third Age in Toruń in partnership with the Faculty of Education of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń within the “Patriotism of Tomorrow” framework announced by the Polish History Museum and financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. This project was based on Pierre Nora’s concept of memorial sites and modern vision of patriotism. In didactic-methodological layer it was embedded within the framework of action research, thereby allowing to combine historical contents with pedagogical method of their modern transfer. The text shows the objectives and results of the project. Also, it describes its course and activities undertaken throughout its duration.
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