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Although biological life and human social complexity are fundamentally interdependent, biological and social researchers continue to perceive each other from across divides of theoretical, methodological, and institutional skepticism. This paper considers conversational boundary work between qualitative and quantitative scientists as an institutionalized rhetorical performance which throttles their cooperation, even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic when it is most urgently needed. As an example, I look at the way familiar epistemological conflicts emerged out of collaboration between myself and a bioscientist during the spring of 2020, when co-participating in the Massive Microscopic Sensemaking Project, a 21-day international auto-ethnographic writing experiment.

This study aims to illuminate the perspectives of 40 marginalized children about school choice in two global cities in Canada. It builds on the sociology of school choice and critical geography, with a focus on children. By utilizing mixed-methods geospatial research, this study finds that children prefer attending a neighbourhood school where they feel supported by the community and experience daily connections to nature. These children’s perspectives offer new insights into how to move beyond neoliberal market reforms by pursuing transformative and decolonial approaches to educational policy making.

Keywords: school choice, marginalized children, global city, decolonization

Online learning has gained increasing attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers face social exigencies to design ways of knowledge dissemination in online instruction. We posit that understanding how knowledge can be represented in successful online academic genres can inform teachers on how they can design students’ online learning experiences. This study examined how scientific knowledge is disseminated in one of the most widespread academic genres, TED Talks, which share discoursal similarities with other academic genres such as online lectures. This study adopted a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis approach to explore how a presenter used speech, images, and gestures to disseminate knowledge. The analysis shows that a presenter orchestrates speech, images, and gestures strategically to clarify the scientific ideas and engage the audience. Based on understanding how the three semiotic modes are used to disseminate scientific knowledge in accessible and engaging ways, this paper discusses how insights on multimodal orchestration can function as a heuristic tool to inform design in online learning.

Keywords: apprentissage en ligne, online learning, TED talks, TED Talks, speech, analyse multimodale du discours, images, discours, image, gestures, geste, multimodal discourse analysis

This study focuses on children’s voices as they were presented in Swedish newspapers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the ways in which journalists featured children’s experiences of everyday life during a time of crisis. A descriptive, thematic text analysis of 83 articles resulted in four prominent themes: children’s voices as a mouthpiece for or against school closure, children as cocreators of a new normal daily life, children as responsible and caring citizens, and COVID-19 as a magnifying glass for existing vulnerabilities in everyday life. The selection and representation of children’s viewpoints was adult led and limited, and the study thus calls for further research on media constructions of children/childhood and related consequences.

Keywords: children's voices, COVID-19, newspapers, Sweden

In this paper, we propose embodied listening as pedagogical praxis in which we are receptive to how our whole bodies are involved in communicating with each other. Embodied listening disrupts what we call “speech-as-presence”—normative expectations of student participation emphasizing verbal contributions and privileging particular bodies. These expectations contribute to the reproduction of oppressive logics at work in classrooms—racism, hetero-patriarchy, white feminism, masculinism, ableism, colonialism. We argue that embodied listening can serve as a source of knowledge about these logics, supporting transformation of classroom expectations beyond imposed norms. We reflect on our experiences developing embodied listening practices in our undergraduate courses through our observations and students’ own reflections. Our findings demonstrate both the transformative potential of listening in classrooms and the tensions produced as these strategies discomfited students and disrupted classroom norms. Finally, we engage with critical perspectives on listening positionality from Indigenous studies, disability studies, and sound studies towards deepening our understanding of differences and multiplicities in how we listen. We illustrate how we continue to develop ways to incorporate this work in our classrooms and support students in the exhaustive and uncomfortable work of embodied listening and imaginative ways of being in the classroom.

Keywords: embodied listening, feminist pedagogies, listening positionality, speech-as-presence

This study explores how diverse high school English students designed open-ended, multimodal projects across digital platforms (Weebly, blogs, and Instagram). Framed by metafunctions, emergent and axial coding of each student’s website homepage shows a broad range of how they designed in digital spaces and to what rhetorical effects. Additional coding of two focal students’ designs across each of the digital platforms highlights how students created complex, multimodal compositions that would have otherwise not been possible with the typical more formal, rigid forms of discourse. By designing multimodally, students showcased interests, humor, emotions, and culture not often seen in this classroom.

Keywords: Metafunctions, multiliteracies, digital literacies, multimodal design, portfolios

The goal of this single-phase and convergent mixed methods study was to compare the differences in the effectiveness of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) presences of a community college blended block instructional model with the in-person counterpart. Data were gathered from the Community of Inquiry Survey, Blackboard LMS reports, and course evaluation surveys. The results indicate that students had a better overall experience with the blended course. The blended block model provided flexibility while achieving course goals. Further, findings reveal differences in all three CoI presences between the two course formats with more student awareness of the presences in the in-person course.

Keywords: apprentissage hybride, blended learning, community college, collège communautaire, communauté d’enquête, community of inquiry, présence pédagogique, teaching presence, social presence, présence sociale, présence cognitive, cognitive presence, méthodes mixtes, mixed methods

The enhancement of science literacy is a long-standing educational goal of liberal education programs. We conducted a mixed methods study to investigate undergraduate students’ attitudes towards science and engagement with science, with specific interests in students’ program (science vs. nonscience), level of study (junior: first and second year vs. senior: fourth year and higher), and changes over the duration of a single general education science literacy course (pre vs. post). Data were collected through an online questionnaire (n=272) and semi-structured interviews (n=8). We found that self-assessed science literacy was higher in students at the end of the course compared to at the beginning, in senior students compared to junior students, and for science students compared to nonscience students. Interest in learning about science topics was high overall, but did not increase over a single general education science literacy course or in senior compared to junior students. Belief in pseudoscience was also high overall, including in senior and science students, groups in which we expected pseudoscience belief to be lower. Views about science were generally favourable but were not improved by the science literacy course. This work highlights the need to align science curriculum with students’ interests while differentiating science from pseudoscience topics. Findings demonstrate the importance of engaging nonscience majors, who may have less intrinsic interest in science topics and can hold less favourable views about the value of science in their lives. As the last time when most students are formally exposed to science concepts and methods, undergraduate education is critical to promoting individual and societal science literacy.

Keywords: science literacy, science education, higher education, liberal education, undergraduate education

MOOCs (massive open online courses), because of their scale and accessibility, have become a major area of interest in contemporary education. However, despite their growing popularity, the question of their quality remains a central concern, partly due to the lack of consensus on the criteria establishing such quality. This study set out to fill this gap by carrying out a systematic review of the existing literature on MOOC quality and proposing a specific quality assurance framework at a micro level. The methodology employed in this research consisted of a careful analysis of MOOC success factor’s using Biggs’ classification scheme, conducted over a four-year period from 2018 to 2022. The results highlighted the compelling need to consider various indicators across presage, process, and product variables when designing and evaluating MOOCs. This implied paying particular attention to pedagogical quality, both from the learner’s and the teacher’s point of view. The quality framework thus developed is of significant importance. It offers valuable guidance to MOOC designers, learners, and researchers, providing them with an in-depth understanding of the key elements contributing to MOOC quality and facilitating their continuous improvement. In addition, this study highlighted the need to address aspects for future research, including large-scale automated evaluation of MOOCs. By focusing on pedagogical quality, MOOCs can play a vital role in providing meaningful learning experiences, maximizing learner satisfaction, and ensuring their success as innovative educational systems adapted to the changing needs of contemporary education.

Keywords: MOOC quality, quality assurance, pedagogical quality framework, MOOC success factors