Camtree Research Reports - Main Collection

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14069/31

This is the default collection of reports within the Camtree Main Community.

At present, all reports are submitted to this collection; as the number of reports in the library grows, additional sub-collections may be established.

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Can whole class discussion effectively prompt self-reflection on personal opinions? A T-SEDA inquiry in Québec
(Camtree: the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange, 2024) Boissard, Bénédicte; Audet, Geneviève
Background and purpose: Trial research was conducted to address the need for professional development in dialogic practices among teachers and to explore the implementation of the T-SEDA toolkit in the French-Canadian context, aiming to improve educational dialogue and enhance students' critical thinking skills through dialogue. Aims: The objective of this research had a dual purpose: first, to improve educational dialogue in Contemporary World classes in Québec, and second, to investigate how the implementation of educational dialogue, supported by the T-SEDA toolkit, could enhance students' critical thinking skills, particularly in the context of taking a position on contemporary world issues in secondary schools. Study design or methodology: The trial research aimed to study the T-SEDA toolkit's impact on dialogic teaching practices among secondary school teachers in Quebec. Three teachers, selected for their interest in discussion-based activities, willingly participated after being approached by their professional development leader. This paper presents a practitioner study focused on improving critical thinking in Contemporary World classes. Approximately 120 secondary 5 students from a public school north of Montreal participated. The teaching sequence comprised six 75-minute lessons, designed for whole-class discussion and gathering evidence of students' thoughtful consideration of alternative perspectives and potential opinion revision. A worksheet tracked students' initial opinions, interesting discussion points, changes in opinion, and self-reflection, emphasizing the use of T-SEDA's sentence stems. Findings: While there were no formal metrics in place to assess the effects, the teacher's impressions and recollections point towards improvements in both the quantity and quality of student contributions, as well as their effective use of dialogue. Based on the evidence from student worksheets, it appeared that most students engaged in reflection on the subject, lending support to the potential benefits of educational dialogue in stimulating a reconsideration of their opinions. Students expressed satisfaction with the opportunity to re-evaluate their perspectives and amend their arguments following the discussion. Conclusions, originality, value and implications: Students found the activity enjoyable and meaningful, leading the practitioner to consider incorporating more whole-class dialogue. Students' engagement and proper use targeted talk moves indicate that dialogue can be taught and can contribute to fostering critical thinking and perspective-taking among students. The adoption of a dialogic approach in the Quebec school system holds potential for substantial benefits and warrants greater acknowledgement and endorsement.
T-SEDA trial in a French-speaking context: setting up educational dialogue in secondary 4 Québec-Canada history courses
(Camtree: the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange, 2023) Boissard, Bénédicte; Bellefleur, Mélanie; Fleury, Patricia
Background and purpose: Educational dialogue is not widely spread in the French-Canadian context. Trial research was needed to help teachers develop their knowledge of educational dialogue and dialogic teaching practices. Aims: The main objective was two-fold: first, to enhance educational dialogue in history classes in a secondary school in Quebec, and second, to assist students in making their reasoning explicit and challenging ideas during whole class discussions. Design or methodology: Drawing upon the T-SEDA inquiry process, this paper presents the findings of a practitioner study driven by the identified scarcity of educational dialogue opportunities within history classes. A formal trial research was conducted to examine the reception of T-SEDA materials among teachers in the Quebec school context and its impact on the development of their dialogic teaching practices. Three secondary teachers, who had expressed interest in incorporating discussion-based activities in their classes and were approached by their PD leader, participated in the trial. Six classes of secondary 4 students aged 15-16 years old, with a total of approximately 170 students, from a public school located north of Montreal participated in this research. A lesson was designed to incorporate features that would promote educational dialogue such as the presence of talking points and ground rules. In-class observations were made and were practitioner-lead. To support students, resources were produced and include diagram for illustrating ground rules and a think-pair-share worksheet. Findings: Incorporating talking points and ground rules may be insufficient to engage students in educational dialogue when taking ownership of the T-SEDA toolkit. When students are supported through the think-pair-share strategy and a paper-pencil worksheet, dialogue was shown to be more spontaneous and have the desired characteristic such as reasoning and challenging claims. Conclusions, originality, value and implications: When expressing and sharing ideas publicly are not part of the classroom culture, it may be hard to incorporate dialogue into lesson planning. Thinking alone and sharing in small groups before whole class discussion seemed to facilitate the process. Developing appropriate scaffolding resources for practitioners could be an interesting lead for future design-based research.
Teenage boys’ engagement and disengagement with pleasure reading: a case study
(Camtree: the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange, 2022) Illahibaccus-Sona, Shaima B
Background and purpose Teenage boys’ growing disengagement with pleasure reading is an exacerbated educational concern in Mauritius, a multilingual island nation located on the African continent. Aims This study investigated the effectiveness of literature circles and their inherent strategies in enhancing twelfth graders’ perceptions of their reading abilities. Study design or methodology The sociocultural theory of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) and non-natives language acquisition theory (Krashen, 1989), were applied to the unstructured qualitative case study methodology that this study adopted to elicit in-depth understanding of the examined phenomenon from the viewpoints of the observed. Data was gathered from twelve observed and sound recorded literature circles, informants’ reflective diaries and their participation in a focus group discussion. Findings The findings revealed that the informants had enchanting reading experiences with literature circles. The informants demonstrated strong engagement in critical reasoning and intertextuality where they establish multiple connections across literature and their individual experiences with reality during the reading discussions. Reading genres such as local fiction, sport-page, geographic travel magazine and self-help were the informants preferred genres. Literature circles enhanced the latter’s reading desire, text analysis skills and language development, particularly, vocabulary, spelling accuracy, reading fluency and sentence formation. However, the twelve literature circles were insufficient for the informants to grasp grammar precision and avert word for word translation from Mauritian Creole, their native language to English. Implications This study implicates the need to forge new lines of enquiry in regards to how pleasure, playfulness and seriousness can be manifested during teaching and learning processes at school. Implications also include the centrality of having a more sophisticated knowledge base about the impacts, impediments and varying experiences of boys as readers at school and in society. This urges the inclusion of a literary policy which dedicates time slots for pleasure reading in schools.
Developing meaningful child-led class discussions: centring children in classroom dialogue to motivate learning and encourage oracy development
(Camtree: the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange, 2022) Connolly, Liam
Background and purpose: This inquiry was designed to move away from a teacher-led classroom discussion model and to centre the children, allowing them the opportunity to develop their oracy and dialogue skills. Aims: The aim of this inquiry was to accentuate such dialogue while embedding purposeful child- led learning in different subject areas. Self-assessment was carried out following each discussion for the children to metacognitively engage with the development of their skills and the impact of oracy across their learning. Study design or methodology: I carried out this action research project with my year 3 class. Each week, I showed the children a statement or question. I sat and observed without participating. The pre-established talk rules and teacher-created sentence stems applied. The whole class then completed a self-assessment through further discussion. Findings: The children leading their discussions with certain scaffolds made the outcomes purposeful and the children were motivated to carry implications of the discussions to their learning. The talk was mostly meaningful and diplomatically-organised. In the context of the child- led discussion, some individual children who previously were less vocal in classroom talk became talk leaders, while others chose to participate more subtly. The children were more likely to respond to each other than when the discussion was teacher-led and used the sentence stems more robustly. Conclusions, originality, value and implications: The inquiry helped me as a practitioner to shift from a tightly-managed, adult-led talk model to one that empowers children to respond to and share ideas with one another and then apply those ideas to different areas of learning. This latter point is one I have so far seen in limited amounts, but could be developed further with carefully chosen talk stimuli and the continued embedding of child-led learning. Moving forward, I aim to embed this child-led discussion seamlessly within classroom learning.
Cultivating year 9 English as a Foreign Language oracy skills in a Norwegian classroom
(Camtree: the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange, 2022) Vatne, Elisabeth
Background and purpose: We were becoming more aware of the importance of designing and planning activities where pupils can practise their oracy skills. Teachers have to give pupils the opportunities and the time to practise their oracy skills in the classroom, and we wanted to explore different tools to support this. Aims: We chose to look at how different tools, such as sentence starters, talking points, roles and café dialogue, can help pupils to participate in group and plenary conversations in English. Study design or methodology: We conducted three research lessons in one year 9 class. Findings: We found that these tools helped to increase the number of pupils who participated in the conversations in English. The interviews and questionnaires we conducted confirmed our observations: the pupils found most of the tools helpful, especially the talking points, roles and café dialogue. Conclusions, originality, value and implications: This research underscores the importance of considering the way that pupils communicate in the classroom and of giving them the tools they need in order to include everyone. All pupils seemed to benefit from the tools that we provided, but in different ways and to varying extents.

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