Effects of Video Based Peer Observation on Summarizing From Multiple Sources

Our aim is to study how professional writing is taught and enacted among police students and police officers in Sweden, and also to study the text structure, content and function in the teaching in the police school as well as the professional texts at police stations.

Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. 2nd ed. Harlow: Longman.

Heffer, C., Rock, F. & Conley, J.M. (2013). Legal-lay Communication: Textual Travels in the Law. New York: Oxford University Press.

Holt, E. & Johnson, A. (2010).Legal talk. Socio-pragmatic aspects of legal talk: police interviews and trial discourse. In Malcolm Coulthard and Alison Johnson (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics 21–36. New York: Routledge.

Jönsson, L. (1988). Polisförhöret som kommunikationssituation. PhD Thesis, Linköping University.

Komter, M. (2006). From talk to text: The interactional construction of a police record. Research on Language and Social Interaction 39 (3): 201–228.

In an elementary school, with socio-constructivist based curriculum, we followed the development of an educational project on etiological tales, comprised of 7 year old students. Over the course of three months, 30 etiological tales from the Brazilian children's literature were read by the teacher. Five text production tasks were proposed, in which students, in pairs, “agreed on”, “created" and “wrote” etiological tales. Respecting the ecological characteristics of the classroom, we video recorded the five writing processes of one pair of students. This material allowed us real-time access to the writing process, that is, what the students spoke about while they were “agreeing on” the story (when the students talked and agreed on what the story would be about, before receiving a sheet of paper and pen) and the “writing” moment (when one student received the material to write the text and the other student began to dictate the story).

Considering the longitudinal, qualitative and dialogical nature of this material, in this paper we discuss the students’ comments about the title to be written on the sheet of paper. In all cases, the titles were written at the start of the “writing” moment. The titles written exhibited linguistic aspects (syntactic and lexical) and textual aspects (themes and characters) similar to the titles of etiological tales they were familiar with. However, the creation of the titles began when the students were “agreeing on” the story they were creating. The negotiation among the students about what should be the title of the tale created produced comments about choosing or not certain terms. These comments reveal how students establish and maintain the textual unity, favoring the metatextual and metalinguistic reflection regarding the text in progress.

Moreover, the analysis of these comments allowed us to identify two other important aspects in the creative process of this textual genre, under these didactic conditions: a) the presence of elements offered by other literary genres; b) the constant interference of lexicons and scientific concepts stemming from science teaching, especially the textbook used in the classroom.

The identification of such literate universes in the construction of these titles suggests that these students’ creative writing depend on the literary texts they have read, as well as the scientific texts they are familiar with. This inter-relationship between literary knowledge and scientific knowledge appears to have been established based on the “explanatory” nature of the literary textual genre “etiological tales”. The comments of each student differ by the knowledge they possess about the writing process and the “scientific” information retrieved from semantic memory, eventually integrated into the fictional narrative created.
Keywords: fictional narrative, science, textual creation, classroom, school literacy.
References
BORÉ, Catherine. (2006) L'écriture scolaire de fiction comme rencontre du langage de l'autre. Revue Repères: recherches en didactique du français langue maternelle. Université Paris, p. 37-60.
CALIL, Eduardo (2012) The Gluttonous Queen: dialogism and memory in elementary school writing. Bakhtiniana, v.7, p. 24-45.

L1 reading and writing in a multilingual and technological context in secondary education.

Daniel Cassany i Comas

Abstract: Keynote day 2

After discussing some theoretical and practical difficulties with the authors’ past approaches for promoting emancipatory education, this paper argues for elaborating on the notion of dialogic literacy (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2005) within a context of participatory culture (Jenkins et al., 2009) as a point of departure for defining goals, practices and curricula in language education.

The authors suggest that a connected classroom – i.e., integrated within a technology-rich environment – can be a place where students become ‘apprentices in participation’ to some portions of the adult world. However, a number of competences that are useful for understanding and interacting with other people and cultures are seldom part of the background of language educators. For example, a body of interdisciplinary research has furthered our understanding of collaboration and conflict between individuals and groups by explaining, for example, how value systems can differ deeply within and between cultures (Haidt, 2012); how people may behave dishonestly, but still need to regard themselves as decent (Ariely, 2012); how people are prone to rationalize their behaviour, to the point of cheating others and even themselves (Trivers, 2011); how language is used as a tool both for collaborating and for creating barriers between groups (Pagel, 2012); how transforming knowledge into action is a complex process that requires and creates social capital (Innes & Booher, 2010).

Moreover, legitimate participation in public discourse requires some hard knowledge of facts and methods, as well as disposition to apply it to real-life interdisciplinary contexts.

The final discussion focuses on challenges for designing language and interdisciplinary curricula with dialogic literacy as key learning goal.
Keywords: emancipatory education, dialogic literacy, participatory culture, connected classroom, interdisciplinarity
References:

Ariely, D. (2012). The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone–Especially Ourselves. New York: Harper.

Bereiter, C., & Scardamalia, M. (2005). Technology and Literacies: From Print Literacy to Dialogic Literacy. In N. Bascia, A. Cumming, A. Datnow, K. Leithwood, & D. Livingstone (Eds.), International handbook of educational policy (pp. 749–762). Dordrecht: Springer.

Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind. Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. London: Penguin.

Innes, J. E., & Booher, D. E. (2010). Planning with complexity: An introduction to collaborative rationality for public policy. London: Routledge.

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., Clinton, K. & Robison, A. J. (2009). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Pagel, M. (2012). Wired for culture: origins of the human social mind. New York/London: Norton/Penguin Press.

Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Trivers, R. (2011). Deceit and self-deception: fooling yourself the better to fool others. London: Allen Lane.

The use of the observational learning in enhancing Hong Kong Grade 5 students’ Chinese argumentative structuring abilities

Wai Ming Cheung
Abstract: Argumentative writing has a highly hierarchical structure, and structuring is one of the important abilities involved in the students’ argumentation process. While the learning of text structure is important, few researches have paid attention to text structure in the process and products of writing. Following the Western studies which have explored the use of observational learning in writing studies in text process and writing products, the present study explored if observational learning can be used to enhance the argumentative structuring abilities in Grade 5 Chinese students in Hong Kong. The study was guided by the theoretical framework of Learning Study, a hybrid of Lesson Study and designed experiments. This study reported the second cohort of a series of Learning Studies conducted in a local primary school in Hong Kong. Student participants included 122 Grade 5 students (aged 10-12 year old) and their 2 teachers across two years. To analyze the effect of observational learning on students’ learning, a total of four classes from two cohorts (Class 5A and 5B from 2009-2010, and Class 5A and 5B from 2010-2011) from the same school were selected for analysis in this study. Observational learning, which was not used in the first cohort, was incorporated into the teaching in the second cohort. Towards the end of the study in the each cycle, students produced argumentative speeches in groups. Independent sample t-test revealed that students’ in the second cohort were significantly higher than the first in developing an interesting opening of the text (t(26)=2.80, p=.01), organization and structure of the evidence and supporting arguments (t(26)=3.03, p<.01) and the appropriateness of the concluding statements in the text (t(26=2.89, p<.01)). The lessons involved were analyzed with reference to the Variation Theory. The analysis has provided insights to our understanding of the effective use of observational learning as a pedagogy to link up reading, writing and oracies that have driven the learning in the argumentative structuring abilities in students.
Keywords (3-5 words): argumentation structuring, observational learning, learning study, L1, Chinese

References

Purpose: This study explored how an adventurous fairy tale was employed in literary learning in a heterogeneous classroom. It is believed that students empowered by educational experience can develop a higher level of motivation on learning. Research questions include how the reading/writing and writing/oral connection enhanced Chinese learning ability of EM students.

Methodology: Fifty-eight Grade 9 EM secondary school students and 30 local Grade 6 primary school students were recruited in the study. The reading/ writing connection (Olson, 2007) was employed to enhance the reading abilities of L1 and L2 learners using adventurous fairy tales of English and Chinese cultures and representations. Students were requested to write in Chinese the well-known story Alice in the Wonderland with their own cultural twists. Four versions of the highest quality, namely Indian, Korean, Nepalese and Turkish, were printed in big picture books. This was followed by using the writing/oracy connection (Reutzel & Cooter, 2012), where 29 EM students participated in service learning and shared the stories in Chinese to 60 children in a kindergarten. Storytelling strategies such as role play were employed to facilitate the illustrations.

Results and Discussion: The reading/writing connection resulted in multiple versions of Alice with many different cultural backgrounds and a significant increase of idea units in writing (Cheung, Tse & Tsang, 2001). Student questionnaire showed that L2 students improved significantly from having confidence in using Chinese to tell the 4 versions of Alice, clearly telling the problem and the solutions of the story. This showed that participants who used Chinese language outside the classroom have overcome FLA than those students who had learnt a language solely through classroom instruction. Chinese literary activities could be an enjoyment to EM students.

Cheung, W. M., Tse, S. K., & Tsang, W. H. (2001). Development and validation of the Chinese creative writing scale for primary schools students in Hong Kong. Journal of Creative Behavior, 35 (2), 1-12.

Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70, 125-132.

Melendez, W.R., & Beck, V. (2013). Teaching young children in Multicultural Classrooms: Issues, concepts, and strategies. Belmont: Wadsworth.

Olson, C.B. (2007). The Reading/ Writing connection: Strategies of teaching and learning in the secondary classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Reutzel, D.R., & Cooter, R.B. (2012). Teaching Children to Read: The teacher makes the difference. Boston: Pearson.

Research Question: This study explored the effectiveness of the use of hypertext (Braaksma, Rijlaarsdam, Janssen, 2007) and mind­map (Mento, Martinelli, & Jones, 1999) in enhancing Grade 5 students’ literacy strategies and self­efficacy in informational text reading in HK. 
Method: Teachers and the researchers were guided by the theoretical framework of Learning Study (Marton & Lo, 2007) and formed a study team to resolve the learning difficulties of expository reading systematically. In this study, 115 Grade 5 students and 4 language teachers were recruited. The study team developed a digital platform to help discern the critical features of texts related to Chinese cultural heritage using the Variation Theory (Marton & Tsui, 2004). By turning the texts of the textbook into hypertexts in this digital platform (Chan, Cheung, & Lam, 2013), the gap between technical, specialized vocabulary in expository texts and the high concept load in a single paragraph might be bridged. On one hand, the students could use the digital platform to access various online sources to find out meaning, examples and illustrations of these vocabularies like “hands­on” experiences. On the other hand, the hypertexts are by nature hierarchically structured and students used online mind­map to recognize organizational text structures with main points and subordinate propositions and relationships between these elements.

Results: After the intervention, students’ self­efficacy in reading expository text improved significantly (t(115)=13.51, p>.01). The beneficial effects on learning outcomes in the reading assessment will be reported. Finally, we will describe implications for new research activities. This study shed light on providing insights to researchers and teachers to understand the effective strategies and the use of hypertext in teaching expository texts.
References

Braaksma, M., Rijlaarsdam, G., & Janssen, T. (2007). Writing hypertexts: Proposed effects on writing processes and knowledge acquisition. L1 - Educational Studies in Language Literature, 7(4), 93-122.

Chan, S.W.Y., Cheung, W.M. & Lam, J.W.I. (2013). Teaching for All: Using Digital Literacies to enhancing Chinese Character Recognition of Ethnic Minority Students in Hong Kong. Paper presented at the Ninth International Association for the Improvement of Mother Tongue Education International Conference, Paris, France.

Marton, F., & Lo, M. L. (2007). Learning from "The Learning Study". The Journal of Research in Teacher Education, 14, 31-46.

Marton, F., & Tsui, A. B. M. (2004). Classroom Discourse and the Space of Learning. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Mento, A. J., Martinelli, P., & Jones, R. M. (1999). Mind mapping in executive education: applications and outcomes. Journal of Management Development, 18(4), 390 – 416.

This study aims to explore the relationship of home- and school-based literacy environments and literacy resources with voluntary reading by South Korean (hereafter, Korean) elementary students (grades 4, 5, and 6). Voluntary reading refers to free selection of books (texts) at students’ own pace for their own purposes (Krashen, 1993). Due to the important role of voluntary reading in literacy development, many instructional recommendations are suggested, including Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), Drop Everything And Read (DEAR), and Independent Reading (Fisher, 2004). Research suggests that students’ voluntary reading practices are important for at least four reasons: increasing vocabulary growth (Swanborn & de Glopper, 1999), facilitating reading motivation (Yoon, 2002), predicting later reading achievement (Wang & Guthrie, 2004), and reducing achievement gaps in literacy (Allington et al., 2010). Despite the significant role of voluntary reading, less is known about which factors influence Korean elementary-school students’ voluntary reading practices. Based on the theoretical frameworks of home- and school-based literacy (Heath, 1983; Hull, & Schultz, 2001), we investigate how home- and school-based literacy environments influence students’ voluntary reading practices.

Two research questions are addressed: first, how many books do Korean students read voluntarily per month? Second, how do home and school environments and literacy resources (e.g., numbers of books, location of available libraries) influence students’ voluntary reading practices? The first question relates to estimating Korean students’ overall amount of voluntary reading. The second question consists of three different measures: (1) home environments (e.g., family literacy behaviors, parental literacy education), (2) school environments (e.g., teachers’ encouragement, literacy instruction), and (3) literacy resources (e.g., available books in school library and home, frequency of library use).

As a second-year study in the Korean outside-of-school literacy project, we used Korean Outside-of-School Literacy Questionnaires (KOLQ; Chung et al., 2013) that had been developed in 2013. A total of 3,660 students and 3,460 parents and legal guardians who participated in the study in May 2014 filled out the questionnaires. Both students’ and parents’ responses were addressed, collected, and analyzed. Parents’ responses were matched to their children’s responses for the purpose of statistical analyses. Regression analyses were used to estimate the significance of the home, the school, and literacy resources in students’ voluntary reading practices.

There are two findings of this study. First, Korean elementary-school students voluntarily read 39 books per month, on average. The amount of voluntarily reading of books decreases with student grade levels. These patterns are not significantly different between sexes. Second, the amount of voluntary reading is predicted by literacy resources and home and school environments. When controlled for other variables, literacy resource factors are the most significant factors that account for students’ voluntary reading practices. Parental support, including recommendation of books and frequency of discussing book with children, are also good indicators for students’ reading practices. In terms of school environment, students are likely to read more books when teachers provide voluntary reading opportunities and when students experience in school that reading is fun. However, these research results should be interpreted with caution due to small and moderate effect sizes. Detailed results, significance, and limitations will be discussed.

Allington, R. L., McGill-Franzen, A., Camilli, G., Williams, L., Graff, J., Zeig, J., & Nowak, R. (2010). Addressing summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students. Reading Psychology, 31(5), 411-427.

Chung, H-S., Min, B-G., Sohn, W-S., Jeong, H-S., & Kim, J-J. (2013). Frequency of South Korean elementary students’ Out-of-school literacy practices, reasons for them, and their self-evaluation [Published in Korean]. The Education of Korean Language, 32, 225-272.

Fisher, D. (2004). Setting the “opportunity to read” standard: Resuscitating the SSR program in an urban high school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(2), 138-150.

Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge University Press.

Hull, G., & Schultz, K. (2001). Literacy and learning out of school: A review of theory and research. Review of educational research, 71(4), 575-611.

Krashen, S. D. (1993). The power of reading: Insights from the research (p. 33). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Swanborn, M. S., & de Glopper, K. (1999). Incidental word learning while reading: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 69(3), 261-285.

Wang, J. H. Y., & Guthrie, J. T. (2004). Modeling the effects of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amount of reading, and past reading achievement on text comprehension between US and Chinese students. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(2), 162-186.

Yoon, J. C. (2002). Three decades of Sustained Silent Reading: A meta-analytic review of the effects of SSR on attitude toward reading. Reading Improvement, 39(4), 186-95.