Argumentation Strategies in the Classroom

Chrysi Rapanta, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Argumentation as a teaching and learning method in the K-12 curriculum has received increasing attention across the globe. The reason for this is simple: argumentation helps students develop necessary critical thinking skills. However, teaching this method is not as straightforward as it may appear. Placing the classroom at the centre of the investigation, this book seeks to throw light onto argumentation as a teaching practice by asking: What does it take to teach as argument? What does it mean to be ‘argumentative’ teachers? And, how can we create classroom environments that will help and encourage young people to develop their argument skills? Based on first-hand experience and extensive research, this volume guides the reader through argumentation with the focus placed on the relationship between this teaching method and effective learning and the need to investigate the role of teachers in encouraging argumentation in the classroom. Although there are a considerable number of tools and techniques that promote argumentation in the K-12 classroom, many teachers struggle to successfully implement them in the classroom. Aimed at addressing this issue, this book endeavours to instruct teachers on how to apply argumentation effectively in their day-to-day classes and to clarify argumentation as a teaching and learning strategy. As an important contribution to the field of argumentation and education, this book will be of interest to researchers, post-graduate students, and secondary school teachers, alike.

Creating Compassionate Classrooms: Understanding the Continuum of Disabilities and Effective Educational Interventions

Nicholas D. Young, American International College et al.

Throughout the chapters of this book, the reader will be introduced to the thirteen disability categories included in IDEA (specific learning disabilities, emotional/behavioral disorders, autism, other health impaired, intellectually disabled, multiple disabilities, speech or language impairments, traumatic brain injury, hearing impairment, deaf/blind, deafness, visual impairment, and orthopedic impairment), using the legally established definitions. Lengthy descriptions of best practices, modifications and accommodations follow, offering a complete picture of each disability and how educators and parents collaboratively can assist the struggling student. To set the stage, the book begins with chapters that discuss special education in general, response to intervention as an intermediary step in the academic continuum of support, and the individualized education plan process. Subsequent chapters examine each of the thirteen aforementioned IDEA disability categories, which have not been commonly incorporated into one comprehensive resource; however, for the sake of brevity, some disability categories have been combined when doing so did not impact practice implications. Emphasis is placed on effective classroom strategies and interventions associated with each disability category with the intent of providing practitioners and those who support them with the information and tools necessary to support students with identified educational needs. To the extent possible, the primary authors sought to ensure this resource was practical and user-friendly for educators who work directly with students with the range of recognized disabilities. This book demystifies the special education process and disability categories as well as offers educators and their families the tools to help our students, who have one or more disabilities, find life-long success. Ensuring the best for our students with disabilities requires that we first acknowledge and support the hard work and deep commitment of those professionals and parents/guardians who devote their lives to teaching, reaching, mentoring and advocating for those most vulnerable in our classrooms.

Parallaxic Praxis: Multimodal Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Research Design

Pauline Sameshima, Lakehead University, Canada et al.

Winner of the '2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award' Parallaxic Praxis is a research framework utilized by interdisciplinary teams to collect, interpret, transmediate, analyze, and mobilize data generatively. The methodology leverages the researchers’ personal strengths and the collective expertise of the team including the participants and community when possible. Benefits include the use of multi-perspective analyses, multi-modal investigations, informal and directed dialogic conversations, innovative knowledge creation, and models of residual and reparative research. Relying on difference, dialogue, and creativity propulsion processes; and drawing on post-qualitative, new materiality, multiliteracies, and combinatorial, even juxtaposing theoretical frames; this model offers extensive research possibilities across disciplines and content areas to mobilize knowledge to broad audiences. This book explains methods, theories, and perspectives, and provides examples for developing creative research design in order to innovate new understandings. This model is especially useful for interdisciplinary partnerships or cross-sector collaborations. This book specifically addresses issues of research design, methodology, knowledge generation, knowledge mobilization, and dissemination for academics, students, and community partners. Examples include possibilities for scholars interested in doing projects in social justice, community engagement, teacher education, Indigenous research, and health and wellness.

Parallaxic Praxis: Multimodal Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Research Design

Pauline Sameshima, Lakehead University, Canada et al.

Winner of the '2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award' Parallaxic Praxis is a research framework utilized by interdisciplinary teams to collect, interpret, transmediate, analyze, and mobilize data generatively. The methodology leverages the researchers’ personal strengths and the collective expertise of the team including the participants and community when possible. Benefits include the use of multi-perspective analyses, multi-modal investigations, informal and directed dialogic conversations, innovative knowledge creation, and models of residual and reparative research. Relying on difference, dialogue, and creativity propulsion processes; and drawing on post-qualitative, new materiality, multiliteracies, and combinatorial, even juxtaposing theoretical frames; this model offers extensive research possibilities across disciplines and content areas to mobilize knowledge to broad audiences. This book explains methods, theories, and perspectives, and provides examples for developing creative research design in order to innovate new understandings. This model is especially useful for interdisciplinary partnerships or cross-sector collaborations. This book specifically addresses issues of research design, methodology, knowledge generation, knowledge mobilization, and dissemination for academics, students, and community partners. Examples include possibilities for scholars interested in doing projects in social justice, community engagement, teacher education, Indigenous research, and health and wellness.

Liberal Education and the Idea of the University

Arguments and Reflections on Theory and Practice

Edited by Karim Dharamsi, Mount Royal University, Canada and James Zimmer, Mount Royal University, Canada

The idea of the university and the idea of liberal education share a family resemblance. However, it is not always explicitly clear what they have in common and what differentiates them. This collection brings together arguments and reflections on the nature of the university and the place of liberal learning in the 21st century. It is divided into two parts. In the first part authors examine the values and ideals that shape our understanding of liberal learning and the university; in the second part authors consider pedagogies informing our practices, asking after what underlying presuppositions, when made explicit, guide our liberal education classrooms in higher education. Unique in its approaches, this volume includes defenses of liberal education’s intrinsic value, the commodification of some of its best ideals, as well as utilitarian defenses that challenge some orthodox conceptions of liberal learning and its justifications. Each in its own right understands liberal learning as essential to the defense of a democratic order. On the pedagogical side, included are essays that defend a view of liberal education from the vantage of STEM subjects, including architecture, as well as those we typically associate with the liberal arts. This volume will aid academics and students seeking to better grasp an understanding of liberal education, but also those seeking to advance their pedagogical ideas about liberal learning. Researchers and students in education, higher education and those interested in the liberal arts and sciences will find this volume a useful addition to their collection.