Search for: All records

Student engagement, cultural identity and voice in school have been shown to have measurable influence on student learning. While many factors may affect student dispositions, teachers likely have the most direct impact on the dispositions related to classroom engagement and student voice. Measures of student perceptions of their teachers’ cultural engagement, cultural teaching practices and the students’ own engagement and voice in schooling are included in this paper. Data from 822 grade 3 – 12 students of teachers who participated in a simulated teaching environment intended to improve equitable teaching practices revealed significant pre-post changes for measures of voice and engagement. The data also showed significant differences by gender and ethnicity. 

Immersive videos for training pre-service teachers (PST) are becoming increasingly important and, yet, inadequately investigated. This article focuses on the role of presence as a possible aid in 360 videos for future educators, presenting the results of a study involving 118 PSTs. A multiple factor analysis of the Extended Reality Presence Scale was directed for understanding possible subfactors covering this construct and the potential role of content area and major in influencing PSTs’ viewing experiences. In addition, written noticings regarding 360 videos were collected for exploring correlations between themes noticed and degrees of presence. Results point at 1) three subfactors – i.e., emotional connectivity, co-presence, and awareness of self – composing the feeling of presence, 2) the impact of PSTs’ major on experiencing co-presence, and 3) how presence is positively correlated to a better focus on students and negatively correlated to content in participants’ noticing.