Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film

Who am I, and how do I know? I am different in talking to different people; I adapt my mask to the expectations I see mirrored in them. Do they change, too? Doctors, no less than others, need to be reminded that the word person, the implications of which we consider so essential to modern medical practice, is derived from a word meaning a mask, such as players wore. The author of this stimulating book goes beyond this verbal derivation to a closer scrutiny of the essential connections of the many masks each of us wears. Names, appraisals, memberships, history, prestige, subtle and overt changes in character, and the constant mutual modifications incident to social intercourse are discussed. Strangely, the author omits all mention of the most typical and vivid American identity confusion—that of the “American” Indians. Sociology, argues the author persuasively, no less than psychology, can contribute to the

Mirrors and Masks: The Search for Identity.

Listening to Patients: A Phenomenological Approach to Nursing Research and Practice

This article describes ethnographic action research that explored experiences of the first author and her undergraduate students as they engaged in collaborative learning (CL) activities in a university Japanese language course. The purpose of the study was to generate new practical knowledge of CL for her, so that she might subsequently improve her teaching practice. A thematic analysis of the interview and descriptive data revealed that the incorporation of CL helped promote a comfortable environment and reduce the effects of the hierarchical authority of the instructor. While facing new challenges, the class also co-constructed its own knowledge about the reading content, language concepts, and cultural matters by working as a collaborative group. These findings are represented in the form of a performative text that invites readers to actively engage with the study’s findings.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244015581016

Collaborative Learning in a Japanese Language Course: Student and Teacher Experiences

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a group of Chinese students made meaning of their collaborative learning experiences as they engaged in creating a supportive dialogical environment in an Intensive English Reading class. The class utilized dialogue as inquiry along with activities that facilitated communication to approach the learning process. These activities included: pre-class writing, in-class presentations, after-class reflections, and small group online discussions. Students and teacher engaged one another in questioning and responding that implemented a process of reflective dialogue about texts and knowledge of language. Thirty sophomore English major students participated in this study, ten of whom were randomly selected for final participation. Data sources consisted of transcriptions from phenomenological interviews, student weekly and final written reflections, and researcher‘s field notes. Analysis of these data yielded four themes: relationship, confidence, engagement, and change. That the four themes overlap suggests that they mutually reinforce one another to make students‘ learning experiences collaborative. Results indicate that creating a socially, affectively, and pedagogically-supported dialogical environment promotes students‘ communication with others that involves a great deal of creative and reflective doing and thinking. The results have implications for foreign language teachers, educators, and researchers interested in performing action research in their practice.

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Creating a Supportive Dialogic Environment: How a Group of Chinese Students Experience Collaborative Learning in an Intensive Reading English Class

This was an action research study examining 1) narratives community college writing students had about themselves as writers in a college-level writing course and 2) the connection between those narratives and student experience of collaborative learning activities The study of narrative is particularly useful in determining how people make meaning of experiences in their lives The class utilized three types of teaching and learning to explore the writing process, including lecture, discussion groups and collaborative learning activities Students and teacher used a social-constructionist approach to conversation that implemented a process of reflective dialogue about writing and writers‟ strategies At the end of the course, which began with thirty students, nineteen students out of twenty anonymously volunteered to participate in the study A neutral third party randomly selected twelve names for final participation The researcher conducted a phenomenological analysis of audio taped entrance and exit interviews of the twelve students The study also utilized relevant examples from student journals and researcher field notes Data analysis yielded themes that the researcher subjected to metaphorical analysis Findings revealed what narratives students had about themselves as writers upon entering and exiting the course Results showed that using collaborative learning activities in the writing classroom influenced student narratives of themselves as writers Students experienced interpersonal and technical gains from participation in social-constructionist-oriented classroom

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Annie J O'Dowd

Papers

Composition Classroom Narratives of Teaching and Learning