© marina orsini-jones 2007 journeying into pedagogic research and getting published marina...

© Marina Orsini-Jones 2007

Journeying into pedagogic research and getting published

Marina Orsini-Jones Teaching Development Fellow

Faculty of Business, Environment and SocietyCoventry University

[email protected]

LLAS pedagogic research forumSenate House, London, 14/11/07


Background• (Early) realisation that teaching languages in

the UK is not the same as teaching languages in Italy

• Need to engage with the scholarship of teaching and learning

• Development of expertise in teaching and learning pedagogy both at subject specific and generic levels (TFD faculty-wide role)


Aims of today’s presentation• Outline chosen method for pedagogical research

journey (action research)• Illustrate how it was applied within the

framework of the curricular development of an Academic and Professional Skills for Language Learning module to address recommendations contained in the Subject Benchmarks document for LLAS

• Provide tips on how to ‘journey’ from scholarship to refereed publications.


Action research: suitable for ‘practitioners’McNiff: Action Research: Principles and

Practice (1988:4-6)Applied to classrooms, action research is an approach to improving education thorough change, by encouraging teachers to be aware of their own practice, to be critical of that practice, and to be prepared to change it.(…) It is research WITH rather than research ON. (…) (It) encourages teachers to become adventurous and critical in their thinking, to develop theories and rationales for their practice, and to give reasoned justification for their public claims to professional knowledge. It is this systematic ENQUIRY MADE PUBLIC which distinguishes the activity as research.


Action Research Processes• Reconnaissance

• Planning

• Acting

• Reflecting

• Re-planning

(and cycle starts again)


Figure 1: The Action Research Spiral. After Kemmis and McTaggart (1988:14) cited in

Hopkins (1993:48).


Reconnaissance: identifying and defining the problematic issue (relevant to your practice)

• Focus group research and students’ results in language tasks highlighted lack of grammatical awareness amongst languages students (first year undergraduates majoring in one or more languages)

• Subject benchmark requirement that students should develop ‘appropriate linguistic tools and metalanguage to describe and analyse the main features of the language(s) studied’

Keys: relevant/linked to LLAS-QAA-Hefce/topical (literacy-accuracy and employability)


Planned solution (collaborative assessed task - with input from students and staff)

• Design of a group grammar project for a mandatory skills module to address the issue of lack of grammatical competence

• Use of the Hallidayan rank scale grammar classification.• Syllabus to evolve on a yearly basis according to action-

research findings• Task to include both individual elements and group ones as:

‘Without connection people cannot grow, yet without separation they cannot relate’ (Ackermann, 1996:32)

Keys: collaborative/underpinned by both practice and scholarship/could be useful to others


The task: students had to

• Create a website containing linked web pages. • Analyse a sentence on each web page according to the rank

scale concept and categories. At least one of the chosen sentences (minimum of 3) had to be in one of the target languages studied, and the other(s) in English.

• Choose sentences from a list given to them, and each group had to create the relevant analysis and website.

• Upload the website into the Virtual Learning Environment (WebCT)’s collaborative group area.

• Present their website and grammar analysis to the rest of the class with the support of a PowerPoint slide presentation to highlight the major issues encountered while completing the project.

• Write an individual report on the experience of building the grammar project.


Rank Scale (Crystal 2006:251)

• sentenceswhich are analysed into• clauseswhich are analysed into• phraseswhich are analysed into• wordswhich are analysed into• morphemes

• morphemeswhich are used to build• wordswhich are used to build• phraseswhich are used to build• clauseswhich are used to build• sentences


Sample sentence to analyse – After Dan Brown

Bundling his black cassock around himself, the bishop climbed into the back seat and settled in for the infuriatingly long drive to the country retreat.


Sample rank scale sentence analysis


Task design: principles for effective learning underpinned by research

• Task as ‘a specific interaction of learner(s) with other(s) using specific tools and resources, orientated towards specific outcomes’ (Beetham 2007:28, her underlining)

• Importance of medium (or media) chosen - McLuhan (1967)

• Need to use hypertext (and/or hypermedia, used interchangeably here as in Landow 2006) – a must for current days ‘ict-artefacts’ to reflect the daily-life web experience and to enhance students’ awareness of the depths of a text/word


Task design 2• Need to use a heuristic, process-based approach with

added metacognition. ‘The learner must make the link between theory and practice though active experimentation and through reflection on the learning process’ (Söntgens, 2001:60)

• Need to start at the collaborative level. Learning: ‘is a socially mediated activity in the first instance, with concepts and skills being internalized only after they have been mastered in a collaborative context’ (Vigotsky 1986 cited in Beetham 2007:36)

• Need to challenge to a certain extent the learner and his/her approach to learning and ‘worldview’: knowledge can be troublesome (Meyer and Land 2006)

Keys: read widely/all choices underpinned by relevant scholarship/opportunity to publish more than one paper with different ‘takes’ on the subject/innovative project


Also: stress on metacognition (against former interpretations of communicative

competence)• Evidence (Moon 2004:86) that metacognition can enhance

learning and be conducive to the understanding of difficult concepts

• Evidence of lack of metacognitive grammar skills amongst current HE students (Orsini-Jones 2007; Klapper 2003; Crystal 2006)

• Evidence of some correlation between lack of metacognitive grammar skills and lack of accuracy in the second language learnt (Klapper 2003)

Key: topical theme linked to subject area/PDP-metacognition


Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) (Klapper 2003:35):

(TBLT) insists that acquisition needs to be supported by instruction that ensures a certain attention to linguistic form, that initial fluency work should lead gradually to accuracy-focussed activities…What we know about language learning strongly suggests the primacy of meaning negotiation supported by a focus on form, as proposed by TBLT.


Actions 2006-20071. Diagnostic tests on grammar categories administered

before and after project and created within the VLE2. Provision of more samples of rank order grammatical

analysis and of sentence analysis in particular (Sinclair 2007)

3. Collation of students’ perceptions and definitions of grammar and its categories before starting on the project (emotional/affective sphere important - Krashen 1981 and Ellis 1985)

4. Use of the ePortfolio PebblePAD - dedicated reflective and collaborative tool - to record grammar progress and to create the web pages (Webfolio tool)


Re-planning: more exercises on ‘meta’ grammar analysis on the VLE (1)


Metacognition in PebblePAD


‘Acting out’ the process 1 (2006-2007) Students’ grammar analysis with PebblePAD

(ePortfolio/Webfolio tool) – title page with video link


‘Acting out’ the process 2 (2006-2007) Group grammar analysis with PebblePAD

(ePortfolio/Webfolio tool) – sentences/clauses



(ePortfolio/Webfolio tool) – words


Marking Scheme: 50% module mark group task + individual reflective report 30% module mark

• Website: grammar content - 30 marks• Website: technical aspects

(clarity/interface/navigation/colour-scheme/DDAIV friendly) - 10 marks

• Reflective Power Point presentation (group): reflective content and presentation skills - 10 marks

• Individual reflective report in Word (1000 w.): reflective content and report style (30 marks)

Key: accuracy in assessment/’aligned’ assessment task


Reflection - evaluation of data and re-planning at the end of each phase (between 2002-2007)

• Quantitative data (marks in the grammar project).

• Qualitative data: semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, students’ reflections in reflective journal, in individual reports for grammar project and on the VLE’s discussion forums; staff’s reflections.

• Also: comparison between the students’ personal assessment of their level of proficiency in grammar analysis (they were asked to predict their grade and identify the problems encountered) and their actual marks for the grammar component of the project.


Tool used: ATLAS ti• ATLAS.ti is a workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies

of textual, graphical, audio, and video data. • It offers a variety of tools for accomplishing the tasks associated

with any systematic approach to unstructured data, e.g., data that cannot be meaningfully analyzed by formal, statistical approaches.

• ATLAS.ti offers tools to manage, extract, compare, explore, and reassemble meaningful pieces from large amounts of data in creative, flexible, yet systematic ways.

Keys: obtain support from other departments with pedagogical research methodology/tools; choose methods and tools that suit your research needs and tools that you can handle


ATLAS ti: software for qualitative data analysis


Enjoying grammar analysis (‘raw’ data -semi-structured interviews 29/2/2007)

• P4: I like the analysis because it’s also a bit of logic, like, not mathematics but it is kind of…there is a structure behind it obviously so I did enjoy analysing it and going into a deeper structure or deeper…I don’t know.

• C: and you’ve done this before have you? That kind of analysis?

• P4: not really.

• C: not really. But you quite enjoyed doing it? So nobody’s really done it much before. Is that right? This is the first time you’ve had to do it.

• P3: I did it a bit for English A-Level. Like you had to look at the different aspects of grammar but like never applying it to like a French text or anything, which is a bit different. .. it’s like finding out for yourself, you learn a lot more.

Key: this type of research is fun and you learn a lot about your students


‘Feel good’ factor: getting unstuck via group work

• And so, I’m picking up that you feel like things have changed over the time. Do you feel any different about grammar from when you did at the start?

• P3: I feel more that I know a bit more about it definitely, the last week I’ve learnt a lot of….

• C: the last week?

• P3: yeah, while we’ve been working

• P4: when everything suddenly came together and it was…it just clicked and then everything just…yeah.


Grammar Results 2006-2007

• Students would appear to find word classification and morphemes easier after the actions taken

• Clauses, phrases and overall sentence structure proved to be still problematic

• Metacognition paid off: students were much better at assessing own proficiency and performance in meta-grammatical tasks than in 2005-2006

• Negative attitudes towards grammar (‘difficult’, ‘boring’) have been fostered at school (British schools). Students from continental Europe don’t understand why so many British students find analysing grammar so challenging

• Foreign lecturers teaching in this country are not always fully aware of this ‘grammar gap’ and assume a basic level of grammar knowledge on the part of their students (which they don’t have)


Research conclusions - latest cycle• The identification of troublesome knowledge can

underpin student-centred curricular design via action research across a course, not just for one module.

• A-R findings can inform teaching and learning strategies that are targeted at the troublesome knowledge identified.

• With reference to the findings, it might be time to re-think grammar teaching in the UK and have a cross-sector exchange of ideas on this topic (with possible link with literacy/employability).


Supporting your research: identify possible sources of funding

• Find little pockets of pedagogic funding in your institution (or outside it) to pay for the support of a p/t student research assistant to help with processing data

• Each institution should have TQA funding (small internal pedagogical research grants supported the initial phases on the A-R cycle illustrated here - £8000 over three years)


Publishing your findings• Connect/network (attend conferences and

workshops; become a member of relevant professional bodies; liaise with the Subject Centre)

• Obtain advice on academic writing conventions – have your paper peer-reviewed by colleagues before sending it to a journal

• Select journals in a strategic way


Perseverance and more strategic choices

• Don’t be discouraged by scathing reviews (and harsh ‘conditions’)

• Don’t give up on your paper if it is turned down by an editor/referee

• If the paper is rejected, take stock of the reviewers’ advice, edit and submit somewhere else

• Time: it can take up to 2 years or more to have a journal article published (RAE implications)

• Strategy: refereed journal article counts ‘more’ than a chapter in a book and/or a textbook on French grammar.


Research generates more research

• Pedagogical Research Funding: HEA Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

• Project: GRASP (£4000) – Grammar: Researching Activities for Student Progress (Coventry/Strathclyde)

• Continuity with previous work on learning of grammar principles (Orsini-Jones and Jones 2007; Orsini-Jones 2007)


Any questions?

For further details:

Orsini-Jones, M. and Jones, D. (2007) ‘Supporting Collaborative Grammar Learning via a Virtual Learning Environment’Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. 6:(1) 90-106.


References

• Ackermann, E. (2004) ‘Constructing knowledge and transforming the world’. In A learning zone of one’s own: Sharing representations and flow in collaborative learning environmernts. Ed. By Tokoro, M. and Steels, L.. Amsterdam: IOS Press: 15-37.

• Beetham, H. (2007) ‘An approach to learning activity design’ in Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age – Designing and delivering e-learning ed. by Beetham, H. and Sharpe, R.London: Routledge: 26-40.

• Coulthard, M. (1985) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. Harlow: Longman.

• Crystal, D. (2006) How Language Works. London: Penguin. • Ellis, R (1985) Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: OUP.• Halliday, M. (1985) An Introduction to Functional Grammar, London:• Edward Arnold.• Kemmis, S., & McTaggart, R. (Eds.). (1990). The action research reader.

Victoria: Deakin University.• Klapper, J. (2003) Taking communication to task? A critical review of recent

trends in language teaching. Language Learning Journal, 27, 33-42• Krashen, S.D. (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language

Learning. Oxford: Pergamon. • Krashen, S.D. and Terrell, T.D. (1983) The Natural Approach: Language

Acquisition in the Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Press


References

• Landow, G.P. (2006) Hypertext 3.0: Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• McLuhan, M.(1967) The Medium is the Message: an Inventory of Effects. London: Bantam

• Meyer JHF and Land, R. (2006). Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. London: Routledge/Falmer.

• Moon, J. (2004) A Handbook of Reflective Learning: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge/Falmer

• Orsini-Jones, M. (2004) Supporting a course in new literacies and skills for linguists with a Virtual Learning Environment: Results from a staff/student collaborative action-research project at Coventry University, ReCALL 16 (1) pp.189-209.

• Orsini-Jones, M. and Jones, D.E. (2007) ‘Supporting Collaborative Grammar Learning via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE): a case study from Coventry University’. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education: an international journal of theory, research and practice. 6 (1) 90-106.


References

• Orsini-Jones, M. (forthcoming) ‘Troublesome language knowledge: identifying threshold concepts in grammar learning’. In Meyer, J.E. , Land R. and Smith, J. (eds) Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines. Rotterdam: Sense.

• Sinclair, C. (2007) Grammar: a Friendly Approach. Milton Keynes: OU/McGraw-Hill.

• Söntgens, K.(2001) ‘Circling the globe: fostering experiential language learning’. ReCALL 13, (1) 59-66.

• Vigotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

© marina orsini-jones 2007 journeying into pedagogic research and getting published marina...

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