Browsing by Subject "Interaction analysis in education"

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The classroom dynamic : a theory of classroom structure and interaction
(2003-05) McCoy, Danny Patrick; Mink, Oscar G.; Northcutt, Norvell
This study compares a “student-centered” class in which the curriculum is characterized by little reliance on technology and a flexible and even improvisational pace and scope, to a technology-integrated course in which the instructor follows a very specific and highly sequenced plan (Instructional Systems Design, or ISD). This study also seeks to demonstrate the capabilities of Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA), a systems approach to qualitative research developed by Norvell Northcutt and Danny McCoy. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students understand the two different curriculum approaches. The results of the study indicate a significant difference between the two courses. The results also provide a “mind map” or a system, which seeks to capture the lived reality of the participants. The study identifies a universal system describing the classroom dynamic. The system provides a tool for the diagnoses of problems or predictions of outcomes of classroom interactions.
The nature of teacher-student interactions during communication intervention for young children with developmental disabilities including severe/multiple developmental disabilities
(2008-08) Chen, Ying-Shu, 1963-; O'Reilly, Mark F.; García, Shernaz B.
Teachers’ responses as well as the children’s types of disabilities have a great impact on how often and in what ways the children will communicate with the teachers. (Lee, 2001; Wu, 2003). Limited research on teacher-student interactions in special education classroom settings raises a series of questions regarding the teachers’ perspectives, teacher training, children’s communication behaviors and their learning of social communication skills. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of interactions between teachers and young children with developmental disabilities including severe/multiple developmental disabilities (SMDD) during communication interventions and how both were mutually influenced by such interactions. Specifically, the guiding questions were: (a) How did teachers interact with young children with developmental disabilities during interventions? (b) Why did the teachers choose certain types of responses and strategies/techniques during interventions? and (c) What were the outcomes of the communication interventions for young children with developmental disabilities including SMDD? Using naturalistic inquiry as the research method, and drawing on sociocultural theory, this research constructed a case study of teacher-student interactions during communication intervention in one classroom in south Taiwan. Participants included three special educators and four students with developmental disabilities. Data sources included classroom observations, interviews with teachers, and document analysis. Data were analyzed using the constant-comparative method and discourse analysis. The findings revealed that the three teacher participants made efforts to shape the young children’s learning attitudes and behaviors. Yet, how they responded to the individual child was varied in terms of the young children’s disabilities, their capabilities for communication, and their specific challenging behaviors. The communication interventions resulted in some positive outcomes of the children’s social communication skills. However, the teachers’ lack of knowledge and training of implementing assistive technologies limited their ability to carry out effective communication interventions for the child with SMDD. Further, the teachers’ concerns for the children’s utilization of appropriate social communication manners were influenced greatly by their own their professional training and perspectives which might be influenced by Chinese culture and Confusion’s philosophy. These findings have implications for further research, classroom practice, and teacher education.
Student interaction patterns in electronic conference systems
(2001-12) Credle, Gayna Stevens; Resta, Paul E.
This study examines focused interaction in two conference systems to determine if a conference system, as media, influences the structure of discourse interaction. The investigative perspective applied has foundations in Erving Goffman’s explanation of focused interaction, which reasons that in sustained conversation, or talk, a frame emerges for how messages should be interpreted and which messages are considered relevant (see discussion by Kendon in Duranti & Goodwin,1991). Descriptions of focused interaction expand to include spatial and orientational relations as regulators for what is attended to or treated as irrelevant. When applied to electronic discourse, the spatial arrangement of messages may influence which messages are attended to and which messages should be treated as irrelevant. To investigate possible influence of conference system structure on discourse interaction, references to previous messages were considered indicators of attentional focus; and thereby reveal interaction patterns. During a four-week period messages generated by students in two sections of freshman honors English Literature taught by the same faculty member were collected. Both course sections were taught at Xavier University of Louisiana. The messages were analyzed by volunteer coders using a checklist code format for message content. Each course section was assigned one of two treatment conditions. The treatment conditions were the conference systems used as either structured (WebBoard Conference©) or unstructured (electronic mail distribution list). All student tasks were similar assignments. At the end of message collection, vi students completed a questionnaire for demographic information and self-report of technical skills. Self-report data was used to establish that the students in the two courses were from the same population. This study found evidence that a conference system environment may influence the structure of discourse interaction. A statistical difference was found for the use of reference behaviors and the type of message posted between structured and unstructured conference systems. Research of this type has implications for instructional technology and appropriate use of conference systems.
Student-to student discussions : the role of the instructor and students in discussions in an inquiry-oriented transition to proof course
(2008-05) Nichols, Stephanie Ryan, 1979-; Smith, Jennifer Christian
This study of student-to-student discussions focuses on a single inquiry-oriented transition to proof course. Mathematical proof is essential to a strong mathematics education but very often students complete their mathematics studies with limited abilities to construct and validate mathematical proofs (c.f. Harel & Sowder, 1998; Knuth, 2002; Almeida, 2000). The role of mathematical proof in education is to provide explanation and understanding. Both the research on mathematical discourse and the standards of the NCTM claim that participation in mathematical discourse provides opportunities for understanding. Although this link has been established, there is very little research on the role of students and the instructor during discussions on student generated proofs at the undergraduate level -- particularly in inquiry-oriented classes. This research analyzes the types of discussions that occurred in an inquiry-oriented undergraduate mathematics course in which proof was the main content. The discussions of interest involved at least two student participants and at least three separate utterances. These discussions fell along a continuum based on the level of student interaction. As a result of this research, the four main discussion types that were present in this course have been described in detail with a focus on the roles of the instructor and the students. The methodology for this research is qualitative in nature and is an exploratory case study. The data used for this research was video tapes of two to three class sessions per week of an Introduction to Number Theory course taught in the fall of 2005.
Teacher thinking and interconnectedness: teachers' thinking about students' experiences and science concepts during classroom teaching
(2004) Upadhyay, Bhaskar Raj; Petrosino, Anthony J. (Anthony Joseph), 1961-
This study examined 4 elementary school teachers’ thinking during science teaching in 2 urban schools in the southern United States. Most of the students in these schools come from minority families with low socioeconomic status. The teachers involved in this study were participants in the Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE) program, a curriculum designed for urban elementary students to learn life and environmental sciences. The research employed cross-case study methodology to understand teachers’ thinking and the decisions they made during classroom teaching. Fifteen science lessons were taped (7 videotaped and 8 audiotaped) for each teacher over a period of 7 months. Six stimulated recall interviews were conducted to elicit the teachers’ thinking and decision-making process during teaching. Data were analyzed using William and Baxter’s (1996) discourse analysis framework. Three factors that influence elementary school teachers’ thinking and the decisions they made during science teaching emerged from the data analysis: 1. Most teachers believed that students’ experiences could be used during teaching, but they disagreed about the usefulness of students’ experiences in teaching science for understanding. Two teachers who perceived their students to be less intelligent did not use students’ experiences during teaching. 2. All the teachers in the study asserted that students must have the knowledge of science process skills to succeed in science investigation and high-stakes tests. These teachers also believed that mastering science process skills aided in students’ understanding of science concepts. 3. In an academically high-performing school, the school administrators played a less significant role in teachers’ thinking and decision making than in an academically low-performing school. Administrators were under pressure to “teach to the test” so that students would perform better in the high-stakes test. Teachers perceived a higher incentive for teaching science for better scores in high-stakes tests than for understanding.