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This paper presents an example of how paper folding can be used in a geometry class to support conceptual understanding. Specifically, it explains an activity that constructs a rhombus and explores its attributes by using paper folding. The steps of constructing a rhombus are described and some discussion questions are given to consolidate understanding. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

As biological sequence data are generated at an ever increasing rate, the role of bioinformatics in biological research also grows. Students must be trained to complete and interpret bioinformatic searches to enable them to effectively utilize the trove of sequence data available. A key bioinformatic tool for sequence comparison and genome database searching is BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool). BLAST identifies sequences in a database that are similar to the entered query sequence, and ranks them based on the length and quality of the alignment. Our goal was to introduce sophomore and junior level undergraduate students to the basic functions and uses of BLAST with a small group activity lasting a single class period. The activity provides students an opportunity to perform a BLAST search, interpret the data output, and use the data to make inferences about bacterial cell envelope structure. The activity consists of two parts. Part 1 is a handout to be completed prior to class, complete with video tutorial, that reviews cell envelope structure, introduces key terms, and allows students to familiarize themselves with the mechanics of a BLAST search. Part 2 consists of a hands-on, web-based small group activity to be completed during the class period. Evaluation of the activity through student performance assessments suggests that students who complete the activity can better interpret the BLAST output parameters % query coverage and % max identity. While the topic of the activity is bacterial cell wall structure, it could be adapted to address other biological concepts.

From the 70s, the teaching and learning strategies for writing development as a communicative tool and transformation of knowledge have become an issue in K12 education. Actually, many students show expression difficulties, and they are not always able to overcome them. Therefore, despite the time elapsed, we still need to analyse educational practice and the impact on learning of writing. Our research about classroom practices analyses educational strategies regarding the teaching and learning of writing skills and its impact over the acquisition of compositional strategies and over their effectiveness in 6th grade students. It is a comprehensive-interpretative research through reflection about improving teaching skills and effectiveness in students writing techniques. A partir de los años 70, la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la escritura como instrumento comunicativo de elaboración y transformación del conocimiento ha suscitado un interés notable. La realidad, sin embargo, es que un gran número de estudiantes demuestra en la producción de textos dificultades de expresión que no siempre logran superar. Por ello, a pesar del tiempo transcurrido, sigue vigente la necesidad de analizar la práctica educativa y la repercusión en los aprendizajes de la escritura. Nuestra investigación parte de la actividad en el aula, analizando la práctica educativa respecto de la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la escritura y la repercusión que ésta tiene sobre la adquisición de estrategias y la eficacia compositiva de los estudiantes de 6º de primaria. Se trata de una investigación de orientación interpretativocomprensiva que busca la reflexión, la mejora de la práctica docente y de la eficacia compositiva de los estudiantes. Depuis les années 70, l’enseignement et l'apprentissage de l'écriture en tant que développement d'outils de communication et de transformation de la connaissance, a suscité un intérêt considérable. La réalité, cependant, est que de nombreux étudiants ont des difficultés d’expression pas toujours en mesure d’être surmontées. En conséquence, malgré le temps écoulé, el nous est encore nécessaire d'analyser les pratiques pédagogiques et l'impact sur l'apprentissage de l'écriture. Notre enquête de l'activité en salle de classe, l'analyse de la pratique éducative en ce qui concerne l'enseignement et l'apprentissage de l'écriture, ainsi que de l'impact qu'elle a sur l'acquisition des stratégies et de l'efficacité de composition des élèves de 6ème année (12 ans). C’est une recherche interprétative qui nous engage à la réflexion et l'amélioration de la pratique de l'enseignement et de l'efficacité des étudiants et de leur composition.

A partir de los años 70, la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la escritura como instrumento comunicativo de elaboración y transformación del conocimiento ha suscitado un interés notable. La realidad, sin embargo, es que un gran número de estudiantes demuestra en la producción de textos dificultades de expresión que no siempre logran superar. Por ello, a pesar del tiempo transcurrido, sigue vigente la necesidad de analizar la práctica educativa y la repercusión en los aprendizajes de la escritura. Nuestra investigación parte de la actividad en el aula, analizando la práctica educativa respecto de la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la escritura y la repercusión que ésta tiene sobre la adquisición de estrategias y la eficacia compositiva de los estudiantes de 6º de primaria. Se trata de una investigación de orientación interpretativocomprensiva que busca la reflexión, la mejora de la práctica docente y de la eficacia compositiva de los estudiantes. From the 70s, the teaching and learning strategies for writing development as a communicative tool and transformation of knowledge have become an issue in K12 education. Actually, many students show expression difficulties, and they are not always able to overcome them. Therefore, despite the time elapsed, we still need to analyse educational practice and the impact on learning of writing. Our research about classroom practices analyses educational strategies regarding the teaching and learning of writing skills and its impact over the acquisition of compositional strategies and over their effectiveness in 6th grade students. It is a comprehensive-interpretative research through reflection about improving teaching skills and effectiveness in students writing techniques. Depuis les années 70, l’enseignement et l'apprentissage de l'écriture en tant que développement d'outils de communication et de transformation de la connaissance, a suscité un intérêt considérable. La réalité, cependant, est que de nombreux étudiants ont des difficultés d’expression pas toujours en mesure d’être surmontées. En conséquence, malgré le temps écoulé, el nous est encore nécessaire d'analyser les pratiques pédagogiques et l'impact sur l'apprentissage de l'écriture. Notre enquête de l'activité en salle de classe, l'analyse de la pratique éducative en ce qui concerne l'enseignement et l'apprentissage de l'écriture, ainsi que de l'impact qu'elle a sur l'acquisition des stratégies et de l'efficacité de composition des élèves de 6ème année (12 ans). C’est une recherche interprétative qui nous engage à la réflexion et l'amélioration de la pratique de l'enseignement et de l'efficacité des étudiants et de leur composition.

Awareness of the differences and similarities between two languages will facilitate the communicative competence of language learners. After reporting on the differences between Japanese and English expressions found in a manga(Japanese comic book)，the researcher will describe classroom activities aimed at making learners aware of different communication strategies.These strategies are designed to raise learner awareness as to how the same expressions are employed in contrasting manners in different languages. The author employed manga as the main source of material for her classroom activities because from the point of view of Japanese learners of English，manga have an umber of advantageous points. These include the popularity of manga among young people，their visual attractiveness to young people，and the rich variety of genres they contain.To conclude the paper，the researcher will report on how the students changed their attitudes about writing essays in English after taking the course. She evalated these attitudes by analyzing questionnaire data gathered from the participants. In addition，she found that the total of 13 classroom sessions covered by the study was insufficient for fostering changes in learner attitudes vis-à-vis English essay-writing tasks. In spite of this drawback，however，the activities introduced by the researcher were a catalyst in making the participating learners aware of the differences between the two languages and in expanding their ability to write essays in English from a variety of perspectives.

We developed an interactive activity to mimic bacterial quorum sensing, and a classroom worksheet to promote critical thinking about genetic regulation of the lux operon. The interactive quorum sensing activity engages students and provides a direct visualization of how population density functions to influence light production in bacteria. The worksheet activity consists of practice problems that require students to apply basic knowledge of the lux operon in order to make predictions about genetic complementation experiments, and students must evaluate how genetic mutations in the lux operon affect gene expression and overall phenotype. The worksheet promotes critical thinking and problem solving skills, and emphasizes the roles of diffusible signaling molecules, regulatory proteins, and structural proteins in quorum sensing.

Debates stimulate critical thinking and can be a highly effective way to actively engage students in the classroom. This paper describes a small group debate format in which groups of four to six students debated preassigned topics in microbiology in front of the rest of the class. Rapid advancements in science, especially in microbiology, provide the scaffolding for students to locate and share evidence-based information from a plethora of complex and often conflicting sources. Student-generated debate presentations can be a welcome respite from the lecture format. Debates were scheduled throughout the course to coincide with topics being covered. Questionnaires distributed immediately after each debate revealed that the debates were well received by students and were effective in changing student attitudes and misconceptions. Debate preparation provided students the opportunity to gain proficiency in accessing information from electronic databases, to use resources from professional organizations, and to synthesize and analyze information. In addition, the debate process gave students experience in developing oral communication skills.

The aim of this contribution is to pr esent teaching material elaborated to work with a very simple discrete model, the cellular automata called “Voting” (free access from the social science section of NetLogo library), and its use in the classroom.

Students appreciate group work as a means of learning and several studies also suggest that students who work together in groups have better learning outcomes. Nevertheless, teachers still seem reluctant to use group work as a pedagogical tool in the classroom. The main focus of this qualitative study is to address group work as a classroom activity from the teachers’ perspectives, and more specifically to ascertain why teachers are reluctant to use group work as a mode of working in education. Data were collected by means of focus group interviews with teachers from three different schools, and the analysis was carried out using grounded theory. The uniqueness of this study is that the results show that teachers’ presumptions, together with their mode of procedure and their negligible reflections regarding subject knowledge as a learning outcome when using group work, have a decisive influence on their willingness to use group work.

[Resumo] As palabras teñen moitas propiedades psi- colóxicas, entre as mais importantes está a viveza de imaxe e a emotividade. Un dos coñecementos básicos que deben ter os estu- diantes de psicoloxía é o de os valores das palabras. Cando as palabras son seleccionadas ó chou, as palabras concretas suscitan mais viveza de imaxe que as palabras abstractas, estas suscitan mais emotividade que as pala- bras concretas. Neste artigo describo unha actividade de clase deseñada para axudar os estudiantes a comprender o concepto de vive- za e emotividade das palabras, así como a súa concreción e abstracción. Apliquei este proce- demento a un grupo de 58 estudiantes, os que se lles deu unha lista de 40 palabras, e se lles pediu que puntuasen a viveza de imaxe e a emotividade de cada unha das palabras. Eles mesmos fixeron a análise estatística dos seus propios datos e dos datos do grupo, tratando de descubrir por eles mesmos a negativa corre- lación entre a viveza da imaxe e a emotivida- de. As palabras abstractas suscitaron unha maior emotividade que as palabras concretas. [Resumen] Las palabras tienen muchas propiedades psicológicas, entre las más importantes está la viveza y la emotividad. Uno de los conoci- mientos básicos que deben poseer los estu- diantes de psicología es el de los valores de las palabras. Cuando las palabras son selec- cionadas al azar, las palabras concretas susci- tan más viveza de imagen que las palabras abstractas, y éstas suscitan más emotividad que las palabras concretas. En este artículo describo una actividad de clase diseñada para ayudar a los estudiantes a comprender el con- cepto de viveza y emotividad de las palabras, así como su concreción y abstracción. Apliqué este procedimiento a un grupo de 58 estudiantes, a los que se le dio una lista de 40 palabras y se les pidió que puntuasen la vive- za de imagen y la emotividad de cada una de las palabras. Ellos mismos efectuaron el aná- lisis estadístico de sus propios datos y de los datos de grupo, tratando de descubrir por ellos mismos la negativa correlación entre viveza de imagen y emotividad. Las palabras abs- tractas suscitaron una mayor emotividad que las palabras concretas. [Abstract] Words have numerous “psychological” properties, among the most important of which are imagery vividness and emotiona- lity. Achieving understanding of these pro- perties of words is a basic requirement in undergraduate psychology courses. Here I describe a classroom procedure designed to help students understand the concepts of imagery vividness and emotionality, as well as concreteness and abstractness. We applied this procedure to a group of 58 stu- dents, who were each given a list of 40 words and asked to rate the imagery vivid- ness and emotionality of each word. They then performed simple statistical analyses of their own data and of the group data, ena- bling them to discover for themselves the well-known negative correlation between imagery vividness and emotionality, the typically high imagery vividness and low emotionality of concrete words, and the typically low imagery vividness and high emotionality of abstract words.

As palabras teñen moitas propiedades psicolóxicas, entre as mais importantes está a viveza de imaxe e a emotividade. Un dos coñecementos básicos que deben ter os estudiantes de psicoloxía é o de os valores das palabras. Cando as palabras son seleccionadas ó chou, as palabras concretas suscitan mais viveza de imaxe que as palabras abstractas, estas suscitan mais emotividade que as palabras concretas. Neste artigo describo unha actividade de clase deseñada para axudar os estudiantes a comprender o concepto de viveza e emotividade das palabras, así como a súa concreción e abstracción. Apliquei este procedemento a un grupo de 58 estudiantes, os que se lles deu unha lista de 40 palabras, e se lles pediu que puntuasen a viveza de imaxe e a emotividade de cada unha das palabras. Eles mesmos fixeron a análise estatística dos seus propios datos e dos datos do grupo, tratando de descubrir por eles mesmos a negativa correlación entre a viveza da imaxe e a emotividade. As palabras abstractas suscitaron unha maior emotividade que as palabras concretas Las palabras tienen muchas propiedades psicológicas, entre las más importantes está la viveza y la emotividad. Uno de los conocimientos básicos que deben poseer los estudiantes de psicología es el de los valores de las palabras. Cuando las palabras son seleccionadas al azar, las palabras concretas suscitan más viveza de imagen que las palabras abstractas, y éstas suscitan más emotividad que las palabras concretas. En este artículo describo una actividad de clase diseñada para ayudar a los estudiantes a comprender el concepto de viveza y emotividad de las palabras, así como su concreción y abstracción. Apliqué este procedimiento a un grupo de 58 estudiantes, a los que se le dio una lista de 40 palabras y se les pidió que puntuasen la viveza de imagen y la emotividad de cada una de las palabras. Ellos mismos efectuaron el análisis estadístico de sus propios datos y de los datos de grupo, tratando de descubrir por ellos mismos la negativa correlación entre viveza de imagen y emotividad. Las palabras abstractas suscitaron una mayor emotividad que las palabras concretas Words have numerous “psychological” properties, among the most important of which are imagery vividness and emotionality. Achieving understanding of these properties of words is a basic requirement in undergraduate psychology courses. Here I describe a classroom procedure designed to help students understand the concepts of imagery vividness and emotionality, as well as concreteness and abstractness. We applied this procedure to a group of 58 students, who were each given a list of 40 words and asked to rate the imagery vividness and emotionality of each word. They then performed simple statistical analyses of their own data and of the group data, enabling them to discover for themselves the well-known negative correlation between imagery vividness and emotionality, the typically high imagery vividness and low emotionality of concrete words, and the typically low imagery vividness and high emotionality of abstract words SI

L'article établit un lien entre deux cadres théoriques pour l'étude des interactions en classe de science : le cadre socio-culturel des travaux de Mortimer et Scott, et les cadre des processus de modélisation de Tiberghien et Buty; International audience; In this paper we aim at establishing a link between two theoretical frames: modelling and its use in the design and analysis of scientific teaching sequences, and the communicative approaches as they alternate in classroom activities. In this case study, we follow the interactions between the teacher and a pair of students during an entire teaching sequence in Optics (grade 11). We focus on the way the teacher managed the dialogicity and the modelling processes in the classroom discourse. A qualitative analysis shows some difficulties in such an achievement, and their consequences on students' meaning making.

The central idea of this presentation is to introduce a way of using fables in TEFL. Ideas which are going to be presented can be used both in primary and secondary-school classrooms. Being rich with a very useful and expressive language material, fables can either be used in introducing new language material or its revision. The structure of fables (on the material of the fable/picture book Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka) will be analyzed on three levels: lexical, syntactic and textual. On the lexical level, fables will be presented through the use of frequent and characteristic language material: nouns (names of animals, abstract nouns), adjectives (qualitative adjectives), and verbs (verb phrases, phrasal verbs). Finally, the use of tenses and clauses will show the syntactic form/-s found in fables, and on the textual level, the ways of simple and quality dramatization, both in classrooms or professional studios, will be shown.

This thesis explores diverse theoretical and practical contributions to the field of critical pedagogy with the goal of developing a teaching praxis that strengthens the links between classroom activity and movements for social justice. The project builds from the conviction that universities and other cultural institutions exist in a relationship of constant exchange rather than as independent, discrete spheres. In this process of mutual interchange lies the possibility that work carried out within the university can effect meaningful social change beyond the imagined boundaries of the academic environment. Having considered various academics' ideas about how best to achieve this goal, the thesis turns to an analysis of the innovative teaching practices of University of Toronto Professor Ronald Deibert, whose work demonstrates the challenges and benefits of putting critical pedagogy in practice. The thesis closes with a call for further experiments and analysis in the developing field of critical pedagogy.

El artículo reporta un proceso investigativo llevado a cabo con el propósito de identificar perfiles de enseñanza a partir del análisis de formas de interacción comunicativa en el aula. Participaron en el estudio seis profesores de ciencias naturales de dos colegios oficiales de Bogotá, Colombia, que ejercen la docencia en los grados sexto a octavo de educación básica. Se grabaron secuencias de tres clases por cada profesor, cada una de las cuales se analizó luego para identificar las actividades escolares ocurridas en su desarrollo. Posteriormente, cada actividad (un total de 138) se describió de acuerdo con variables que permiten analizarlas como situaciones comunicativas. La comparación, uno a uno, de los rasgos que caracterizan las actividades de clase de los seis profesores y un posterior análisis multivariado de las descripciones hechas permitieron identificar cuatro perfiles de enseñanza: profesor científico, profesor escolar, profesor frontal y profesor circular. Los perfiles se describen y discuten desde la perspectiva de disyuntivas propias de la profesión docente. The paper reports a research that was carried out in order to identify teaching profiles based on the analysis of different ways of assuming communicative interaction in the classroom. Six Science teachers from two public schools of Bogotá, Colombia, participated in the study. They teach Science to 6th, 7th and 8th graders. A sequence of three classes was videotaped for each teacher. Each class was then analyzed to identify the school activities that composed it. Afterwards, each school activity (a total of 138) was described by means of a group of variables that consider the activity as a communicative event. The comparison of the main features that characterize the six teachers' class activities and an additional multivariate analysis of the descriptions led to the identification of four teaching profiles: the scientific teacher, the classroom teacher, the frontal teacher and the circular teacher. These profiles are described and discuss with respect to the teaching profession. O artigo relata um processo de pesquisa realizada com o objetivo de identificar perfis de aprendizagem a partir da análise das formas de interação comunicativa na sala de aula. Participaram do estudo seis professores de ciências naturais de duas escolas oficiais em Bogotá, Colômbia, que ensinam nas aulas de sexto a oitavo de educação básica. Sequências de três classes foram registradas para cada professor, cada uma das quais foi então analisada para identificar as atividades escolares que ocorrem em seu desenvolvimento. Posteriormente, cada atividade (um total de 138), foi descrita de acordo com variables que permitem analisálas como situações de comunicação. A comparação, um por um, dos traços que caracterizam as atividades dos seis professores de classe, e uma posterior análise multivariada das descrições feitas tornou possível identificar quatro perfis de ensino: professor de ciências, professor de escola, professor frontal e professor circular. Os perfis são descritos e discutidos a partir da perspectiva das disjuntivas próprias da profissão docente.