We found 48 results that contain "theory"

Title: Translingual Theory in Action, and in Support of Multilingual LearnersPresenter: Joyce MeierCo-Presenters: Cheryl Caesar (WRAC); Ayman Mohamed (LILAC); Shannon Quinn (LILAC)Date: May 11th, 2023Time: 11:30 am - 12:30pm

Description: Representing what is now called the “translingual turn,“ teacher-scholars argue for an instructional approach that leverages the full range of students’ linguistic resources. Raising awareness of the complex relationship between language and power, translingualism frames languages as in flux rather than fixed; its pedagogy raises students’ awareness of the linguistic choices they make. In this panel, four CAL Inclusive Pedagogy Fellows come together to discuss how translingual pedagogies can transform our teaching – especially of international and/or multilingual students. Two professors from the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures introduce participants to translingual theory and to some of its implications for the second-language classroom, then the other two teachers (from the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures) discuss how they have enacted this theory in their teaching of multilingual learners. In considering how translingualism might pose particular challenges to teachers of specific disciplines, the presenters will also share a series of animated videos made by a team of multilingual students, which both unpack the “invisible classroom” in terms of the challenges such students face and propose several pedagogical solutions, through a translingual lens.

Topic Area: DEI
Presented By: Nicole McCleese
Abstract:
In 2020 feminists have theorized the pandemic in two public feminism examples of note. First, in an MLA webinar, “Medicine, Narrative, Pandemic, Power,” where Paula Krebs facilitated a discussion between Rita Charon and Aakritii Pandita about narrative medicine as an anti-racist praxis for recalibrating the power relationship between minority patient and doctor. They discussed current impediments to health disparities, and Charon stressed the importance in graduate school humanities education and medical students training in Narrative Medicine and Social Medicine for interdisciplinary events to changing health disparities. Similarly, the feminist theory journal, Signs, responded with “COVID-19 and the Language of Racism.” As an Adams Academy Fellow and NICE Fellow in 2020, I responded to health disparities concerns through the lens of black feminist scholarship on health studies to develop an upper-level feminist theory course in literary studies using crip methods for literary and cultural analysis, “Crip Narrative Medicine.” Course modules include: “Revisiting Charon’s Narrative Medicine with Crip Theory in COVID-19,” “Bodies in Short Fiction Crip Theory,” “Dementia and Supercip Narratives,” “Embodying NYC and Detroit” and “Crip Indigeneity.” This informative panel, positioned at the intersections of anti-ableist and anti-racist pedagogy, features inclusive English undergraduate student presentations as part of an interdisciplinary public feminism course project on “Black, Feminist, Queer, Crip Narrative Medicine.” By bringing together black feminist scholarship on medicine and disability, through the course learning objective on crip methodologies, students will share research on new media, film, literature, and critical theory.

Topic Area: DEI
Presented by: Emily Abrams
Abstract:
Dolmage (2017) argued that postsecondary education promotes ableism more than most cultural institutions. Noting that “disability has always been constructed as the inverse or opposite of higher education” (p. 3), Dolmage described how ‘academic ableism” erases disabled students and maintains practices that create and maintain the inferiority of disabled people. The purpose of this information session is to apply crip theory (Kafer, 2013; McRuer, 2006) through the use of personal narrative to expose the academic ableism that shaped postsecondary education’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and, more so, to offer accessible practices regarding teaching and learning for disabled college students moving forward. Crip theory presents disability as fluid and challenges dominant discourses that define normalcy. Specifically, crip theory challenges the discourse of compulsory able-bodiedness/mindedness that pushes people toward an unobtainable normalcy, determining who is disabled and therefore less worthy. I will use my own personal experiences as a disabled student and educator to ground my discussion of these topics. I will offer suggestions that go beyond accommodations to discuss access as the practice of solidarity toward liberation in the disabled community that aims to enact disability justice (Mingus, 2011)

Educational Videos: Best Practices
This document uses learning theory and research to suggest best practices in creating educational videos.
Audio

Don’t read out loud. If you want to create a script, do it. Read it a few times. Put it away and try and speak as naturally as possible when you record. You won’t (and shouldn’t) stick to the script word for word while recording, but it should help you sound articulate without reading from a script.
Don’t speak too slowly. Research shows that speaking slowly results in learners thinking the speaker is less credible and having less interest in the materials. Speaking slower does not increase retention (Simonds, Meyer, Quinlan & Hunt, 2006).
Keep language informal. Speak in a conversational way, avoiding jargon, technical terms, and “academic-speak.” Put concepts in your own words. Use first and second person (I, you) to create a personal connection. This is referred to as the personalization principle in multimedia learning theory (Mayer, 2009).

Visuals

Change visuals often. If you are recording a screen-share of Power Point, use more slides and change the slides more frequently, spending less time on each slide. Visuals (photos, images, and diagrams) are better than words.
Omit needless words. On PowerPoint, that is. Use more images than words because people learn better when they hear the words and see images. This is referred to as the redundancy principle in multimedia learning theory (Mayer, 2009).
Include your face? Maybe! This could help create a connection with learners and help you retain viewer attention by letting you switch between a visual and an image of the speaker. Research shows students may prefer seeing your face, but it doesn’t necessarily help them learn (Kizilcec, Bailenson, & Gomez, 2015).
Recording via Zoom? Select options to record both the active speaker and the shared window (Power Point) so that you can edit the video in a way that includes both. You can do this in Zoom Settings by using Zoom Cloud Recording and selecting to “Record active speaker, gallery view, and shared screen separately.”
Informal settings are fine! High quality production backgrounds don’t engage learners more. Relax and find that balance of professional yet personal (Guo, Kim, Rubin, 2014).
Use tablet drawing. Learners are more engaged by Khan-style videos that show “live” drawing than by static images (Guo, Kim, Rubin, 2014). If you have the tools to do this, great! If not, consider using annotation tools in Power Point.

Content Considerations

Leave off speaker intros and objectives. This type of material can be presented in the description or in the materials preceding the videos. Jump straight into the content. This helps you keep videos short.
Keep it short. Research with MOOCs suggests 6 minutes or less is optimal (Guo, Kim, Rubin, 2014). In addition, it is harder for learners to use a longer video to review specific content. Keeping videos under 6 minutes isn’t a hard rule, since context matters, but shorter usually is better.

Hosting Considerations

Provide background information. Introduce the topic, the speaker, and tell the learner how long the video will be in the video description or in the material preceding the video.
Provide a take-away for more technical content. An example would be a fact sheet or a fillable PDF form with a note-taking outline that learners can fill out while watching and then download and save.
Consider interactive videos. Camtasia lets you add simple interactions to your videos to keep your viewers engaged. MediaSpace allows for interactions as well.

Before, During, After

Frame videos with a task before, during, and after. If you are hosting the video in an online course, have your viewers do something related to the topic before watching it to activate their background knowledge and build schema. Give them a task to do while watching the video, and then give them a task after to check their comprehension or to relate the content to their life experiences. Some basic examples are below.





Before


During


After





Discuss a question about the topic in a forum




Listen to answer specific question(s)




Transform the material into another form (perhaps write a summary)






Reflect on the topic by considering a question




Take notes




Answer comprehension questions






Read related content




Complete a partially filled-out outline




Discuss the topic in a forum






Take a poll related to the topic and notice how your peers answered




Fill in a chart or graphic organizer relating to the content




Share an experience from your life that relates to the material






Learn related vocabulary




Write down one thing you heard that is new and one thing you heard that you already knew




Apply what you have learned by responding to a posted scenario





 
Final Thought: Not everything needs to be a video.
Not everyone likes video. Presenting materials in different ways and including variety is important. Some material is better read, or presented as a job aid, a table, or a visual. In addition, making a change to a produced video is much more difficult than updating text. Be strategic in choosing how to deliver information.
References
Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of MOOC videos. L@S 2014 - Proceedings of the 1st ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556325.2566239
Kizilcec, R. F., Bailenson, J. N., & Gomez, C. J. (2015). The Instructor’s Face in Video Instruction: Evidence From Two Large-Scale Field Studies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(3), 724–739.
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Simonds, B. K., Meyer, K. R., Quinlan, M. M., & Hunt, S. K. (2006). Effects of instructor speech rate on student affective learning, recall, and perceptions of nonverbal immediacy, credibility, and clarity. Communication Research Reports, 23(3), 187–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824090600796401
 
 
 

Andragogy is a useful framework for talking about adult learning. While no theory is perfect, andragogy, as presented by researcher Malcolm Knowles, provides educators of adults with much food for thought regarding how adults learn, and, in turn, how we can facilitate their learning. 
Most theories, including this one, are basing assumptions on an ideal learner. In the case of andragogy, much of the theory assumes that adult learners are self-directed and motivated, and this is not always the case. Here's a short elearning module on Andragogy, and a chart of assumptions and their applications, below. 
Andragogy:  The Art and Science of Helping Adults Learn




Assumption


Explanation


Application




Need to know
“Do I need to know this?”
 


Meaningful learning happens when teachers know the learners enough to be able to show them why they should care.  


Help adults understand why they need to know something. Use diagnostic self-assessments to reveal the gaps in their knowledge and share these results with them (individually).
Think of the learners and learn about them beforehand. Who are they? What are their needs? What is their context? Start with where THEY are on the topic, not where you are. Focus on what they NEED and not just on all you know.




Self-concept (self-directed)
“Is this my choice to learn? Am I in control of learning it?”
 


Adults need to feel self-directed and be seen by others as such. They want to take responsibility for their own learning and feel like it is a choice. Adults are rich in life experiences and they are partners in the learning process. This can create a problem: If an adult walks into a situation labeled as “training” or “education,” and is treated like a student, they may take up the attitude of a kid in school: passive, with a “teach me” attitude.


Do not let participants slip into the “teach me” attitude of a passive child in school.  Make it clear that the burden of learning is on them. Let them have choices. Use self-study or group collaboration projects that involve minimal instructor intervention. Ask participants to help set learning objectives. Think of yourself as a facilitator, and set up the instructional space as such.




Readiness & relevancy
“Do I need and want to learn this?”
 


Adults typically become ready to learn when they experience a need to cope with a life situation or perform a task.
Make learning timely. Adults are concerned with what they need to know RIGHT now. People want to learn something when they are ready to and need to learn it.


Teach them what they need at the right time.
Having online self-access materials aligns well with this principle, since the learner can then learn what they need at the time they need to.
Use realistic scenarios, stories, and problems to introduce concepts.




Experience as foundation
“What do I already know about this? How does it relate to my experiences?”
 


The older we get, the more life experiences we have. These experiences shape us as people and shape how we learn. Adults have more life experience than children do, and are more apt to define themselves through these experiences.
Life experiences form the lens through which new information, or learning, must pass. When the two are in harmony, it helps learners understand and integrate the new information into their mental representation of the world.
When new information does not fit in with their life experiences, this can block learning.
 


Often learners themselves are your best resource for teaching. Use techniques that tap this resource:

Group discussions
Peer teaching
Simulations and role plays
Problem solving, scenarios  and case studies
Laboratory and hands-on learning

When new material does not fit into their life experiences, you have to help adults think critically and challenge their assumptions.




Orientation to learning
“What problem does this solve in my life?”
 


Adults have an orientation to learning that is based on their immediate needs – on completing a task or solving a problem.  This is very different compared to how kids learn by subject in traditional schools. Adults want answers to the question: “What problem does this solve in my life?”


Use problem solving, scenarios, and case studies. Start with the problem, not the solution or the information. Let them work together at solving the problem, and learn from the process.
Make use of this orientation to learning by introducing a topic by presenting the problem first.  The process of solving the problem can be intertwined with the discovery of new ideas and concepts.
 




Motivation to learn
“Why do I care? What is driving me to learn?”


In adults, internal incentives become an important form of motivation for people as they mature. These internal incentives include notions such as self-esteem, quality of life, and personal achievement. 


Find out what motivation they have, or what problem they want to solve. Focus on that.




Do you also work with youth? Think about how the concepts in this module also apply to working with youth. Most of them do to some extent or another, especially when the youth are choosing to engage with the subject they are learning about.Some of these tenants of andragogy may or may not fit well with your teaching context. If you have a rigid curriculum, then you may not having the luxury of co-creating learning objectives with your audience, for example. But perhaps you can honor their input on which objectives to spend more time on, or on how they want to acheive those objectives. 
Reference:
Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2010). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 
 

Topic Area: Student Success
Presented By: Jesse Beal, Heather Shea
Abstract:
In this interactive, data- and practice-informed presentation, we will explore LGBTQA+ student success as a vital component of University student success efforts. Due to the lack of data on traditional student success metrics (persistence, retention, time to degree, and graduation) for LGBTQA+ students, LGBTQA+ student success work must be creative, collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and expansive. We will show how developing LGBTQA+ inclusive policies and practices supports student success and increases a sense of belonging. We will share the impact of implementing LGBTQA+ inclusive data collection practices on understanding student success on other campuses. We will explore the mental health challenges LGBTQA+ students face due to LGBTQA+ oppression, how these challenges have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, available mental health support services, and promising practices for intervention and support. We will also discuss ways in which each of us, as educators, can make a real and tangible difference for our LGBTQA+ students. The ability of LGBTQA+ students to learn, develop, and succeed is inextricably tied to their sense of belonging and the support provided to them by the University to face and overcome challenges. This session will provide an introduction to theories of LGBTQA+ student success, as well practical application, creative solutions, and methods of intervention.

Topic Area: Online Teaching & Learning
Presented by: Paul Bylsma
Abstract:
Higher education was severely disrupted by the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID). In order to safely resume educational activities, classes were moved online or were subject to severe protective measures. As a result, something about post-COVID higher education simply felt different. In this paper we use affect theory, a perspective that emphasizes an embodied ontology and an epistemology defined by feelings and intensities, to explore the elements that make in-person interactions significant. We conduct an affective analysis to show how post-COVID higher education demonstrated instances of proximate ambivalence, or the simultaneous proximity and distance of any particular object. Though this analysis critiques the attempted substitution of in-person learning with online learning, we also use lessons learned during this analysis to demonstrate the prevalence of proximate ambivalence in in-person learning. We argue that post-COVID higher education was cruelly optimistic in its attempt to re-create education as it existed before the pandemic and its ultimate failure to do so. We further show how the affective lens used to critique online learning is also useful in identifying areas for improvement to access and engagement in in-person learning.

Topic Area: Pandemic Pivot
Presented By: Crista Reaves, Michael Martel
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a swift transition to online learning that left students emotionally distressed secondary to isolation, disruption in routine, and navigating how to learn virtually. The stress students were under was often palpable in the virtual classroom setting. Creating an online environment that supported students’ mental health and self-care was a priority for the course faculty.To address student mental health in the course, a widget was created on the D2L course homepage providing students with quick access to counseling and psychiatric service contact information. A mental health and self-care resource module were also created within the D2L course, providing students with self-care resources, mindfulness videos and instructions, and the MSU CAPS resources.To promote and support mental health and self-care during online synchronous theory, faculty would pause halfway through lectures to guide students through a mindfulness exercise. Examples of the mindfulness exercises utilized were guided imagery, stretching, deep breathing, turning negative to positive thoughts, and music. The goal was to educate students on a variety of mental health self-care techniques allowing students the opportunity to deploy the technique they found most beneficial when feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or distressed. Having course faculty teach and demonstrate the techniques during theory communicated to the students the importance, value, and need for self-care.The hope is to continue supporting mental health by improving the self-care techniques offered during theory and to share our lessons learned with other faculty seeking to implement similar strategies to promote mental health and self-care.
Mindfulness Exercises Incorporated During Theory

Guided Imagery
Deep Breathing
5-Square Breathing
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
The 5 Senses
Resource Sharing
Laughter
Dancing
Yoga
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (turning negative thoughts to positive)
Grateful Journaling Exercise (journal 5 things you are grateful for)