The Development of Learning Material Model in Writing Scientific Papers by Using Guided Inquiry Method at Universitas PGRI Sumatera Barat

This research is motivated by the difficulties of students in determining the topic of scientific writing, difficulties in conveying ideas and limitations of references. This study aims to develop a learning model for writing scientific papers using the guided inquiry method. This type of research is development research. This study uses a 4-D development research design. The results of this study are as follows: (1) the material for writing scientific papers is difficult because students do not understand the concept of Scientific Writing. (2) in developing scientific work students do not yet know the systematics of scientific writing and students often make ineffective sentences (3) students really need freedom in determining writing topics and ideas (4) most students need the concept of learning to write scientific papers, (5) most students need lecturer guidance in their writing, (6) most students need systematic scientific work concepts, (7) most students need lots of references to write scientific papers. Based on the analysis of student needs, it is necessary to develop a Guided Inquiry-Based Scientific Writing Textbook that provides opportunities for students to find their own concept of learning to write scientific papers. Through Guided Inquiry, students are trained to think critically with teacher guidance.

Efficiently Prompting Students When Developing Computational Thinking Skills

This study investigates the impact of student response modality on the development of computational thinking skills in educational robotics activities. Students of an elementary school were divided into three study groups ('Control', 'Selecting', and 'Writing') that implemented activities based on the same teacher guidance while prompted to provide responses of different modalities. The purpose was to engage students in the development of computational thinking skills, focusing on the basic skills of abstraction, generalization, algorithm, modularity, and debugging. These skills were evaluated at different phases during the activity, using different modality (selection, written, and oral) assessment tools. The results suggest that (1) prompting and eliciting thoughts in the form of written or selected answers proves to be a beneficial strategy, and (2) the two groups, ‘Writing' and ‘Selecting', reach the same level of CT skills, which is significantly higher than the level of the control group.

Constructivism in Education

In light of the broad, multidimensional, and contestable nature of constructivism, a central debate concerns the object of construction. What do we mean when we say that a learner is constructing something? Three general categories, with overlaps in between, are: the construction of meaning, the construction of knowledge, and the construction of knowledge claims. To construct meaning is to make sense of something by understanding both its parts and overall message. To construct knowledge is to obtain what philosophers traditionally call “justified true belief.” There are three conditions in this formulation of knowledge: belief, truth, and justification. Beliefs are intentional, meaningful, and representational, directing a person to attain truth and avoid error with respect to the very thing that person accepts. As for the notions of truth and justification, there are three major theories of truth, namely the correspondence theory, coherence theory, and pragmatic theory; and seven main types of justification, namely perception, reason, memory, testimony, faith, introspection, and intuition. Finally, to construct a knowledge claim is to indicate that one thinks that one knows something. The crucial difference between knowledge and a knowledge claim is that the latter has not acquired the status of knowledge. There are two main implications for teaching and learning that arise from an epistemological exploration of the concept of constructivism: First, educators need to be clear about what they want their students to construct, and how the latter should go about doing it. Informed by learner profiles and other contingent factors, educators should encourage their students to construct meanings, knowledge, and knowledge claims, individually and collaboratively, throughout their schooling years. Second, educators need to guard against some common misconceptions on constructivism in the schooling context. Constructivism, contrary to popular belief, is compatible with direct instruction, teacher guidance, structured learning, content learning, traditional assessment, and standardized testing. In sum, there are no pedagogical approaches and assessment modes that are necessarily constructivist or anticonstructivist. A variety of teaching methods, resources, and learning environments should therefore be employed to support students in their constructing process.

The Transformation of the Teaching Mode of German Course Based on Corpus — Taking the Sino-German Joint Education Cooperation in Qilu University of Technology (SDAS) as an Example

Taking the Sino-German cooperative education project in mechanical and automotive engineering major of Qilu University of Technology (SDAS) for example, this paper mainly introduces the changes of teaching mode of German courses based on the corpus. The transformation of the teaching mode consists of both teaching methods and teaching contents. The teaching method has changed from teacher-teaching method to a hybrid method of "student self-exploration + group discussion + teacher guidance", and the teaching content has changed from "German" learning to "German +" learning. Changes above are shown and supported by project curriculum examples, which in turn demonstrate the role of corpus in foreign language teaching.

A Study on the “SFL”Model of College English Blended Teaching in Smokeless Campus in the Post-epidemic Era

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has changed the teaching mode of colleges and universities, leading to the transformation of teaching philosophy and innovation of teaching technology. Based on this, the paper constructs the “SFL” model of college English blended teaching, namely “Spoc + Flipped classroom + Live broadcast”. Guided by New Constructivism, the model is characterized by independent inquiry, cooperative learning, teacher guidance and live broadcast interaction, breaking the traditional ways of teaching. The paper analyzes and discusses the experimental process and results of the first round of integrated English course under the model of “SFL”, in order to explore the effective ways of college English blended teaching under the good environment required by the public health of post-epidemic era, namely, smokeless campus, and provide reference for other colleges and universities.

Praise or Criticism? How Should Teachers Give Effective Feedback in the Classroom Teaching?

Tere are many factors that affect students' academic performance. Early studies emphasized students’ existing foundations, their own abilities (Stigler, Lee & Stevenson, 1986), family factors (Wang, 2015), school or class organizational structure (Angrist, & Lavy, 1999; Häkkinen, Kirjavainen & Uusitalo, 2003), cultural factors (Stigler, Stevenson, 2005; Geary, Bow-Thomas, Fan & Siegler, 1993) and other influences on their academic performance. However, the research on the influence of teacher factors has only received attention since the 1980s. Researchers explored the relationship between teachers’ classroom behavior and students’ academic performance, trying to focus on the teaching process (Lockheed & Komenan, 1989), teacher guidance (Brophy, 1988), teacher feedback (Gettinger, & Stoiber, 1999), Teacher planning and preparation (Peterson, Marx & Clark, 1978) explored the causes that can significantly affect students' academic performance.

Encounters with strangeness: Intercultural learning in an engineering course

This paper reports on an intervention whereby a critical approach to intercultural communication is implemented in a module for undergraduate students of engineering technology. The module centers on an encounter in which small teams engage with people and practices that represent cultural strangeness to them. A qualitative, exploratory study was carried out on how participating students perceive strangeness, on their motives for selecting their encounter, and on the insights as they reported and demonstrated them in their project reports. Students confirmed the primacy of first-hand experience in intercultural learning, and pointed at an open mind, a non-essentialist view of culture, and an awareness of stereotyping as key takeaways from the project. Providing additional teacher guidance could further support students in their acquisition of critical understanding, for instance through the development of validated (self-)assessment tools. The authors conclude that the described project can help to fill the observed lack of intercultural communication practices from a critical, non-essentialist perspective in engineering education. More generally, this study contributes to a wider pedagogy of encounter by elucidating the concept of strangeness as a linking concept for examining underlying dynamics in intercultural interaction.

Translingual transcultural competence: student agency, teacher guidance, and program support

An increasingly interconnected world requires people to become versatile communicators in a variety of different settings. Language centers have a critical role to play in this process by offering language and culture training in multiple languages to students, professionals and the wider community alike. They may do so from the perspective of developing plurilingual pluricultural competence, translingual transcultural competence or intercultural communicative competence and intercultural citizenship. This paper takes as its framework translingual transcultural competence, which not only reflects the current trend of transnationalism and diasporic communities, but also emphasizes the need to be critically aware, culturally reflective and socially sensitive. In order to better understand affordances and challenges in developing this competence, or set of competences, the author surveyed and interviewed students and teachers at one university-affiliated language center offering 30 languages besides German as the main language of study. Students at all proficiency levels as well as native and non-native teachers of the language taught were included in the study. Whereas the student survey investigated awareness and attitude, identity and community as well as the autonomy and agency of students in the program, teacher interviews provided insights into program parameters, classroom pedagogy and out-of-class projects. Findings from the study indicate a strong foundation in multicompetence thinking with some challenges in developing the transcultural component.