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Using WhatsApp to Teach Close Reading: The Case of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief
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Humanising pedagogy has been a focus of recent research as more universities move to online and blended models of instruction. Online learning has been linked to feelings of isolation, disconnection, and depersonalisation of the learning experience for many students. In South Africa, the shift to online instruction took place in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and recent student movements that brought attention to how the country's violent history resulted in structural inequalities in terms of race and class that affect learning environments. Thus, humanising pedagogy also meant recognising and addressing how students' contextual challenges might affect their feelings of connection in the learning environment. In this article, we present a case study of a first-year course at a South African university where we used online discussion forums that required students to engage with weekly forum tasks. Through thematic content analysis of students' dialogic responses on these forum tasks, we demonstrate how the tasks facilitated humanising pedagogy by allowing students to use their authentic voices, to form social connections, and to reflect their affective and personal experiences. We argue that interactive, asynchronous online forums can be effective tools to facilitate humanising online pedagogy when these forums are designed in ways that encourage dialogic learning, use content that is relevant to students' contexts, and give students agency by allowing them to select texts for discussion and share their diverse perspectives. Our analysis also showed limitations to forum discussions which include students echoing responses and instances of silencing and unsupportive group dynamics.
Since 2016 the Primary Teacher Education (PrimTEd) project has assessed first and fourth year student teachers' English language and literacies knowledge and skills with a view to optimising what is offered in teacher education courses. In 2021, after a critical review of these English language assessments, a process of test redesigning that also provides professional development opportunities for language teacher educators, was initiated. In this paper, we report on this process of modifying an existing test and discuss a new design that is still a work in progress, in order to make it more responsive to the English language needs of the student teachers. We argue that the emerging test has the potential to contribute to improved English language teacher education at universities and to improved teaching and learning of languages and literacies in South African primary schools.
Aim/Purpose: Social media platforms have been increasingly incorporated into teaching and learning. However, studies using mixed methods to explore WhatsApp’s potential to broaden online teaching and learning remain limited. Background: This study reports the experiences and perspectives of undergraduate students in terms of their WhatsApp usage patterns and preferences during COVID-19 using a sequential mixed method. Methodology: Through a quantitative survey of undergraduate students from the Education Faculty in one South African university, quantitative data were collected from 92 participants. Qualitative interviews were followed with ten willing participants to further explore their perceptions and preference. Contribution: This study addresses the literature gap identified by Klein et al. (2018, p. 2) that “few studies that explore WhatsApp use in the natural environment of higher education” and the methodology gap Hashim identifies (2018) that the majority of the literature adopts a quantitative research methodology while only 10% use the mixed method. Our intention is set specifically on WhatsApp’s potential to broaden online teaching as the new norm beyond merely as a supplement teaching platform before COVID-19 or emergency remote teaching mode that WhatsApp serves since the onset of COVID-19. We triangulated the behaviors and perceptions of first-time WhatsApp users (scarcely separately discussed in the literature) and gender to ascertain lessons for more targeted strategies for more effective WhatsApp use. Another unique feature and novelty of this study is our separate analysis of active (e.g., initiating query or discussion) and passive use (e.g., receiving information). Findings: Our findings confirm that COVID-19 has accelerated universities’ digital transition as WhatsApp’s usage has undergone a great expansion from informal to formal spaces. However, informal use among students remains strong, particularly among first-time WhatsApp users. Communication remains one of the primary functions of WhatsApp in teaching and learning, but content-related functions and student discussion activities are clearly feasible and prevalent. However, passive use remains slightly more prevalent than active use even amongst frequent WhatsApp users. WhatsApp’s assignment-related usage is high but mainly limited to queries rather than assessment submissions or marking. Both WhatsApp’s usage and perceived usefulness has surpassed that of e-mail and of the university’s learning management system (LMS) where WhatsApp group functions seem to have contributed greatly to the perceived usefulness. Articulated advantages and challenges of WhatsApp largely corroborate with those identified in the literature, although our participants show some ambiguity concerning WhatsApp’s low cost as its main benefit. Recommendations for Practitioners: WhatsApp’s usages are versatile. So are its perceived benefits. However, practitioners need to consciously encourage its usage beyond passive use and also consider how WhatsApp can be incorporated into marking. Recommendation for Researchers: We found inconsistency regarding perceived benefits related to WhatsApp’s cost. Cost is important in low resource context and this inconsistency merits further examination. Our finding regarding WhatsApp’s limitation in terms of marking is not consistent with some literature. As marking functionality impacts broadening WhatsApp’s usage in teaching and learning, how WhatsApp has and potentially can be incorporated into LMS should be further explored. Impact on Society: WhatsApp has great potential to broaden online learning in higher education. However, it also has its limitation. This study demonstrates that WhatsApp can serve most teaching and learning functions in higher education. However, how these benefits and limitations impact different groups of users (e.g., 1st-time users, frequent users, gender, etc.) should be more consciously thought of, so is how more active use can be encouraged. Future Research: Further studies should examine whether the low cost is an important consideration in students’ preference for WhatsApp. Further studies should also explore how WhatsApp can be better used for marking.
This paper explores a suite of close writing practices and exercises that ask students to attend closely to language at the level of morpheme, word, line, sentence, or stanza. Close writing aims to move students beyond a conception of reading as mere transaction and technology, while pushing writing pedagogy beyond the development of expository prose, as is common in post-secondary contexts. Instead, the pedagogies presented in this inquiry frame writing as an analytic practice which aids both students’ capacities as writers and, importantly, their development as critical readers. Such pedagogies, we believe, reflect a less-didactic approach to teaching reading, writing, and literature. We argue that close writing positions students in an exploratory, experimental stance in relation to composition, one that allows for the analytic aims of close reading in addition to different kinds of learning.
Low levels of student success in South Africa have persisted as a seemingly intractable problem. Therehave been some gains in student success over time, but with a participation rate of approximately 18%,the current success rates still represent massive financial and human losses to the country. Internationallythere is a trend to move towards interventions that are more strongly data-informed at every step andthe available evidence indicates that these interventions are more likely to have the desired effect. Thisarticle reports back on the first 24 months of implementation of one such intervention, namely theIntegrated Student Success Initiative (ISSI), at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The ISSI usesdata to inform every step of the process which includes planning, selection and targeted intervention andevaluating possible impacts. The ISSI is showing promise as an effective strategy for improving studentsuccess and is allowing the institution to focus its limited resources where they have the potential tomake the biggest difference.
Aim and objective:
This study sought to examine the effectiveness of hybrid learning utilizing WhatsApp as an adjunct to traditional learning in delivering knowledge to and supporting the learning of undergraduate dental students and investigate learner perceptions of WhatsApp use in educational contexts.
Materials and methods:
The 3-month prospective analytical interventional study sampled 85 undergraduate students from the Department of Preventive Dental Sciences. A WhatsApp group was created, information was sent to the male and female groups, and a written assignment was used as a performance benchmark of knowledge acquisition and application. Perceptions of e-learning through WhatsApp were assessed using a previously validated and published questionnaire. Collected data underwent descriptive and bivariate analyses (unpaired t-test).
Results:
The average assignment scores of the 85 hybrid learners were statistically significantly higher than those of traditional learners from the previous academic year (34 ± 1 vs 26 ± 3; p < 0.05, respectively). Meanwhile, 57 hybrid learners completed the survey, and 73% agreed/strongly agreed that introducing a new method of teaching via WhatsApp was useful, 70% reported that a professional and comfortable learning environment was created, and 70% felt that group distractions were handled appropriately. The top advantages of learning through WhatsApp were availability/immediacy (94.7%) and being simple to operate (91.2%). Males (40.4%) were significantly more likely to report a sense of belonging to the group than females (33.3%, p = 0.01). Respondents agreed that high expectations of teacher availability (71.9%) and some students making no effort (52.6%) were challenges. Message flooding (45.6%) and time-consuming nature of WhatsApp (36.8%) were identified as technical challenges.
Conclusion:
The findings showed significant improvements in student performance using the hybrid learning tool, as reflected in assignment scores. Positive perceptions of hybrid learning and improved academic performance indicate that WhatsApp is a convenient new teaching tool.
Clinical significance:
The results of this study may be applicable to other clinical dental disciplines.
This study aimed to explore the impact of WhatApp on enhancing Saudi EFL students' language skills and areas. It also investigated EFL students' attitudes, motivation, and anxiety towards learning English via WhatsApp. The sample comprised 55 male and female students studying English at the College of Arts, University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia. A closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from the sample. The results revealed that WhatsApp has a positive impact on learning English as a foreign language with a score of 3.9 as an overall mean. Students' attitudes towards using WhatsApp for learning English scored 3.4, while the impact of WhatsApp on motivating EFL students to study English scored 3.6 in total. It was also found that WhatsApp reduced students' anxiety with a score of 3.8 as the overall mean. Based on these results, the researchers suggest that WhatsApp should be activated at all stages of English language learning and teaching.
Background: In the intermediate phase of schooling, learners’ academic success is largely dependent on their ability to read and write academic texts. Teachers need to teach academic language intentionally and explicitly. In order for teachers to do this, they themselves need knowledge of academic language and its features. Teacher education students, therefore need to be explicitly taught about academic language and provided with sufficient opportunities to develop their own proficiency.
Aim: This article aimed to explore the academic language proficiency of a cross-sectional sample of teacher education students at a Johannesburg university.
Setting: This study took place at a South African university that implements a university-accredited primary school teacher education qualification. The university is located in an urban area, but attracts students from both urban and rural contexts.
Methods: Students’ test scores on a core academic language skills instrument were utilised as data for this study, with descriptive and inferential statistical analyses procedures used to make sense thereof.
Results: Findings from a cross-sectional analysis between first- and second-year students’ scores indicated that students’ academic language proficiency does not appear to improve after their initial year of study.
Conclusion: The article concludes with a discussion of the implication hereof for teacher education and for the profession.
Purpose: The study aims to (1) review the literature that analyses the relevance of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the teaching of creative and critical thinking among students in Malaysia, and (2) identify missing aspects in Bloom’s Taxonomy vis a vis the indigenous context, important to promote creative and critical thinking among students in Malaysia.Method: Multiple sources of information which (1) documents the objectives of English Literature curriculum in Malaysia, (2) outlines the nature of Bloom’s Taxonomy, (3) reports past research which addresses issues in the application of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and (4) reports research findings on the issues in teaching English Literature as a subject.Findings: The literature subject is an essential avenue for students’ learning, especially in developing creative and critical thinking. The English syllabus with augmented taxonomy should be based on holistic learning outcomes which contain three set of abilities- Rationale Thinking, Purposeful Thinking, and Effective Relation with Contexts.Significance: The study would shed light on the effectiveness of teaching creative and critical thinking through English Literature. The findings may help curriculum developers and teachers to explore the missing aspects in the Bloom’s Taxonomy vis a vis the indigenous context, hence lead to the development of informed way forward in designing effective pedagogical approach/es that nurture creative and critical thinking among students.
This paper explores some widespread assumptions about knowledge, and particularly the disciplinary or subject knowledge that is construed as an essential property of effective teachers. Drawing on close observation of pre-service teachers’ work in secondary school classrooms, it argues that knowledge is born from social engagement and has its life in social activity; thus to conceptualise knowledge as the possession of the teacher, to be passed on to learners, is misleading and unhelpful. What is required is a much more complex, nuanced understanding of the knowledge work that is accomplished in and through the interactions of the classroom.
p>The high level of student failure, accompanied by an increased drop-out rate, is problematic in higher education. It is especially a concern in programmes with the subjects of Mathematics, Accounting and Science. Over many years, models of student admission and selection have been widely researched both internationally and in South Africa. Research indicates that in the academic domain, underpreparedness results from a combination of a lack of English proficiency, mathematical ability and effective study skills. In view of the above, and government policy directives to broaden access in the scarce skills areas to increase student throughput, foundation provision was introduced for students of Commerce, Information Technology, Business, Mathematics and Informatics courses at the Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of North-West University (NWU) in 2010. The question at that time then arose as to what criteria should be used for placing students in the extended programme. The placement of first-year students in appropriate programmes should be done with sensitivity to enhance academic success but, at the same time, should not ‘label’ students as underprepared. This paper provides perspectives on the selection criteria available for predicting academic success/preparedness, and then reports on students’ own experiences. An action research study was conducted on the academic achievement of two cohorts of first-year students at the VTC of NWU. The quantitative results of the performance of first-year students in their core modules are compared to the results of predictive tests written after admission. The results provide valuable insight into the placement of students.
Keywords: Academic preparedness, extended programmes, national senior certificate, national benchmark test
Disciplines: Education management studies, higher education studies </p
In this article it is argued that the theory underpinning the Department of Basic Education’s National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) on English as First Additional Language (Grades 10–12) might not be suitable for South African pupils. This is because it is biased towards a communicative model and, while this approach usually produces relatively fluent speakers of English, it also often produces pupils whose written competence is poor. The reasons for this are partly because of the lack of grammar teaching and the unsuitability of a text-based approach that encourages incidental attention to grammatical structures. It is further argued that a form-focused approach might be a more successful one to adopt within the South African context.
An educational challenge that many university EFL students face is the production of written academic arguments as part of their required essays. Although the importance of argumentative writing in education is uncontested, and research shows that EFL students find difficulties in producing such texts, it is not adequately dealt with for the L1 Arabic writer. In this paper, an explicit instructional approach in teaching the academic argument in required essays in an advanced EAP course is described. The approach is based on the thesis-support element of argumentation and organizational plans operationalized through a teaching/learning cycle. The instruction of the academic argument in the essay is scaffolded through five steps of the cycle: building the context, modeling and deconstructing texts, constructing texts jointly, constructing texts independently and linking related texts. Qualitative analysis of a few student sample essays indicated improved argumentative structure and transfer of acquired argumentative writing skills to new topics. Although the improvements can not be generalized, it is considered a successful attempt in providing needed explicit instruction for L1 Arabic students in an EFL environment and which also could be used with students in any EFL context. Reflections and developments for future improvement of the instructional approach are made.
This article documents the curricular decisions made by a teacher educator research team whose guiding theoretical focus for intern practice is dialogic instruction. Over a 2-year sequence, teaching interns used video and Web 2.0 technologies to respond critically to and revise their teaching practices in collaboration with peers and instructors. This article describes how a focus on dialogic instruction and an adoption of a multiliteracies pedagogy guided the implementation and use of technologies within the project. Through multiple examples of curriculum, including excerpts from course materials, screencasts of the adopted networking platform, Voicethread, and video of class sessions, the authors describe how a focus on the dialogic creates spaces for interactions that allow responsive and revisionary attitudes toward not only teaching practices, but the potential and place of technologies in teacher education.
Assessment in higher education is a complex path to navigate, with unexpected twists and turns. Although many studies project the positive outcomes of assessment for learning, the outcomes do not always match the intention. Even when formative assessment is well-planned, the implementation may take such a toll, leaving a lecturer physically drained. A big puzzle with assessment in higher education is how to design formative assessment tasks that promote deep learning for students but do not increase staff workload. In this article, I explore this puzzle in relation to my teaching of a second-year module in an English course that is part of the Bachelor of Education programme at my university. I look at how the specific context of my teaching in 2021 influenced my formative assessment design and reflect critically on the affordances and constraints of the design in relation to existing conceptualisations of assessment in higher education. Lastly, I propose some possibilities for resolving the assessment puzzle and highlight the implications of these possibilities for the reconceptualisation of assessment in higher education.
The purpose of this research paper is to gather the views on the use of the WhatsApp platform as an educational tool during the confinement period of Covid-19. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used for data collection from the year one department of management students of the Université des Mascareignes (UdM). All the students owned smartphones and WhatsApp was already part of the e-routines for communication for both learners and lecturer. It was also found that during the confinement period, this platform with its numerous features helped to create a positive and cordial climate among the students and lecturer, thus creating a sense of belonging through the WhatsApp group. This platform provided the required support towards the successful completion of the set learning objectives. The survey revealed that the majority of students would like to continue using WhatsApp in their educational process post-Covid-19 period too.
This book explores the application of an innovative assessment approach known as Dynamic Assessment (DA) to academic writing assessment, as developed within the Vygotskian sociocultural theory of learning. DA blends instruction with assessment by targeting and further developing students’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
The book presents the application of DA to assessing academic writing by developing a set of DA procedures for academic writing teachers. It further demonstrates the application of Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), combined with DA, to track undergraduate business management students’ academic writing and conceptual development in distance education.
This work extends previous DA studies in three key ways: i) it explicitly focuses on the construction of a macrogenre (whole text) as opposed to investigations of decontextualized language fragments, ii) it offers the first in-depth application of the powerful SFL tool to analyse students’ academic writing to track their academic writing trajectory in DA research, and iii) it identifies a range of mediational strategies and consequently expands Poehner’s (2005) framework of mediation typologies.
Dynamic Assessment of Students’ Academic Writing will be of great value to academic writing researchers and teachers, language assessment researchers and postgraduate students interested in academic writing, alternative assessment and formative feedback in higher education.
Social networking applications such as WhatsApp have been extensively used for language research; however, they have rarely been applied for language assessment purposes. To explore the efficiency of WhatsApp for assessment purposes, 30 Iranian English learners doing self- and peer-assessments on WhatsApp are studied. The changes and the reasons for the changes in their attitudes towards the two assessment types are also investigated. In a multi-phase study, the participants were trained on the new concepts of mobile-assisted self- and peer-assessments. They were also involved in the concurrent tasks of self- and peer-assessments as well as think-aloud protocols and filled out four attitude questionnaires before and after their involvement in the two assessment types. Finally, they were interviewed for the reasons of change(s) in their attitudes. The t-test and think-aloud results show that though the participants assigned different grades to themselves and their peers, this is not a procedural difference. The questionnaire results show that the participants generally adopted negative attitudes towards mobile-assisted assessments after being involved in them. They also gave various reasons for the change(s) in their attitudes. The results can substantially contribute to the ongoing debates on the use of alternative assessments through mobile device applications.
The Literary Theory Toolkit offers readers a rich compendium of key terms, concepts, and arguments necessary for the study of literature in a critical-theoretical context. Includes varied examples drawn from readily available literary texts spanning all periods and genres. Features a chapter on performance, something not usually covered in similar texts Covers differing theories of the public sphere, ideology, power, and the social relations necessary for the understanding of approaches to literature
Clearly organized and beautifully written, Interpreting Literature With Children is a remarkable book that stands on the edge of two textbook genres: the survey of literature text and the literary criticism text. Neither approach, however, says enough about how children respond to literature in everyday classroom situations. That is the mission of this book.
Language permeates both teaching and learning. It impacts decisively on the quality of the educational
experience, becoming either an aid or an obstacle to academic achievement. In a multilingual context
such as South Africa, the majority of students are studying to be teachers through the medium of
English, which is not their primary language. This paper brings into focus teacher student reflections
on their own writing practices at the end of their final year of study at a South African university.
It highlights the continuing divide that exists between the very few students, who have effectively
mastered academic writing and those (the majority) who continue to experience difficulty with the
reading and writing of academic texts. In this paper I look at the challenges facing many final year
teacher students, who, in their struggle to master the conventions of the education and subject content
discourse community, may find their progress in higher education impeded. I also underscore the
very real danger of graduating teachers who are likely to transpose these difficulties into a classroom
context and question how they will be able to convey the subject content to learners and successfully
meet educational outcomes in schools.
It is often the case that undergraduates writing essays to fulfil course requirements have an academic audience (i.e. lecturer/s marking the essay) as their target readers. These texts may represent a form of academic writing by novice writers in the process of learning academic discourse and conventions. Though these texts may not be comparable to professional academic writing, the aspect of the maintenance of a good balance between objectivity and the portrayal of an evaluative stance is of interest in this genre too (Hunston 1989; Hunston and Thompson 2000).
This paper investigates undergraduate students’ efforts to portray a contrastive stance through the strategy of problematization (Barton 1993) in argumentative essays. More specifically, it compares how writers of high-rated and low-rated essays problematize issues in more or less effective ways. Using the engagement system of the Appraisal framework (White 1998; Martin 1992; Martin and Rose 2003), this study analyses the evaluative resources used by the writers to achieve more or less successful problematization of issues discussed. The results indicate a more strategic and appropriate use of evaluative resources by the writers of high-rated scripts to create clear lines of contrastive positions. On the basis of the analysis, some pedagogical implications are discussed.
This paper looks at the need for a better understanding of the impediments to critical thinking in relation to graduate student work. The paper argues that a distinction is needed between two vectors that influence student writing: (1) the word-level–sentence-level vector; and (2) the grammar–inferencing vector. It is suggested that much of the work being done to assist students is only done on the first vector. This paper suggests a combination of explicit use of deductive syllogistic inferences and computer-aided argument mapping is needed. A methodology is suggested for tackling assignments that require students to ‘make an argument’. It is argued that what lecturers understand tacitly, now needs to be made a focus of deliberate educational practices.
A Glossary of Literary Terms
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Teaching and Learning Argument
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WhatsApp Use in Teaching and Learning During COVID-19 Pandemic Period: Investigating the Initial Attitudes and Acceptance of Students
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A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Learning by Design
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Addressing Student Dropout Rates at South African Universities
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