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This reflective article examines the emerging tendencies in critical perspectives within English Language Teaching (ELT). The article begins by providing a brief historical overview of ELT's critical pedagogies and discussing its perspectives in the post-pandemic era. It highlights the need for critical approaches that address power dynamics, social inequalities, and ideological influences. In addition, new trends imply integrating cultural aspects that favor students' identity and culture, and more dynamic bilingual practices to promote inclusive, socially just, multilingual, and transformative language learning environments. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of ongoing reflection, professional development, and collaboration among ELT practitioners to incorporate critical perspectives effectively in the classroom.

Tragedies are neither sought nor requested. Unfortunately, they happen and affect all areas of life, especially education. However, they leave lessons that work to face new challenges. This study aims to analyze the transition from classroom classes to distance classes due to an earthquake that hit Mexico City in 2017, damaging its buildings and infrastructure, to find the necessary aspects for an efficient transition in these cases, using different Tecnologico de Monterrey's institutional data. Faculty members were interviewed about their views during the transition. The student's grades were also compared. Student responses were analyzed in the teacher satisfaction surveys. Challenges encountered by faculty during the sudden implementation of online courses were difficulties in the use of digital technologies, the amount of time spent preparing the class, the new ways of communication, the lack of use and knowledge of the online model, and the student's evaluation in online settings. The advantages mentioned by the faculty were flexibility, recorded classes, and the new tools that can be used for teaching. It was also observed that the student averages were higher in the semester after the earthquake. However, although young faculty with excellent technology management or experienced faculty with good use of technology and who are very well trained were the profiles that students better evaluated, no correlation was found between their teacher-associated variables and teacher performance indicators with the student averages. This experience served as a basis for meeting the contingency of 2020 with COVID-19. It represented itself as one antecedent in evaluating online education, allowing the establishment of a more expeditious and efficient online educational system.

Use of high-stakes exams in a course has been associated with gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequities. We investigated whether offering students the opportunity to retake an exam makes high-stakes exams more equitable. Following the control value theory of achievement emotions, we hypothesized that exam retakes would increase students' perceived control over their performance and decrease the value of a single exam attempt, thereby maximizing exam performance. We collected data on exam scores and experiences with retakes from three large introductory biology courses and assessed the effect of optional exam retakes on gender, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in exam scores. We found that Black/African American students and those who worked more than 20 h a week were less likely to retake exams. While exam retakes significantly improved student scores, they slightly increased racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in scores partly because of these differences in participation rates. Most students reported that retake opportunities reduced their anxiety on the initial exam attempt. Together our results suggest that optional exam retakes could be a useful tool to improve student performance and reduce anxiety associated with high-stakes exams. However, barriers to participation must be examined and reduced for retakes to reduce disparities in scores.

In this mixed methods case study, we explored the extent to which novice teachers in one institution were prepared to respond to homework-related concerns, be these in favor of or against the practice. We queried three sources of information: teacher educators, methods course syllabi, and national/state accreditation standards for teacher preparation. Findings revealed several key themes, including challenges inherent in guiding preservice teachers as they navigate homework policies. In addition, even though teacher educators believed it important to prepare preservice teachers for the inherent complexity of homework practices, they provided minimal guidance on how they might address such concerns. Syllabus and standards reviews showed that neither addressed homework-related issues. We discuss implications for preservice teacher preparation.

The COVID-19 pandemic influenced a paradigm shift in Philippine higher education. Educational institutions were challenged and impacted, compelling them to restrict physical interactions and transition to flexible learning modalities. This study investigates the impacts of COVID-19 on the education of private university students in the Davao Region, Southeastern Philippines. One hundred eighty-eight students participated in the survey via Google Forms, which was later analyzed using descriptive statistics. From them, a selected few were also invited to participate in qualitative inquiries to obtain an in-depth understanding of the problem under study. Although internet connectivity challenges emerge as a significant impediment, students prefer synchronous lectures and video conferences as learning modalities. Most of them are anxious, dealing with mental health and study habit issues. Interestingly, some respondents revealed that the pandemic positively impacted their lives. Students' adaptive and creative skills helped them cope with the challenges of the new learning modalities. The administrators and faculty members may benefit from these findings in formulating online learning policies and teaching-learning strategies. These findings are helpful baseline to ensure educational sustainability during and after the health crisis.

This study aimed to identify which aspects of teacher-student interactions contribute to a successful inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainstream secondary classrooms. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Eight studies fulfilled our criteria, and we identified teacher-related and student-related themes. Most of the included studies did not focus on interactions between teachers and students with ASD, but on requirements that could influence these interactions. Teachers often seemed to infer the needs of students with ASD during their interactions, which, as we illustrate, may not always be in line with their actual needs. We discuss the implications of this gap in the literature and how to bridge this gap.

Abstract We evaluated the nesting by Crocodylus moreletii in Lago de Catemaco, Veracruz, southeastern, Mexico. During the nesting and hatching seasons, we searched for nests along the northern margins of the lake and small associated streams. We investigated egg mortality by weekly monitoring each of the nests found, recording sign of predation (tracks and holes dug into the nest) and the effect of water level fluctuations. We not found differences to nest between inland or flooded zones. However, we found that egg size varied among nests. In nests built inland, predation was the major cause of egg mortality whereas flooding resulted in more deaths of eggs in the flooding zone. Flooding killed 25% of eggs monitored in this study. We suggest that to increase nest success in the Morelet’s crocodile it is necessary to promote conservation of nesting areas around the lake, recently occupied by urban or tourist developments.