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Faculty members abruptly transitioned to online course delivery during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Unfortunately, the isolation of learning online had the potential to damage students' well-being during an already stressful pandemic. Furthermore, many faculty members had little experience with online modes of instruction and few effective strategies for building community online. This exploratory sequential mixed methods study uses data from 37 individual interviews with faculty across diverse disciplines, course evaluations from 13 of the 37 interview participants, and survey data from 347 faculty to answer the following research question: "How did faculty foster a sense of community online to support students' holistic well-being during the COVID pandemic? What strategies can faculty use to create community and foster well-being in online courses?" Results show that successful strategies centered around intentional and purposeful course design, establishing clear expectations for faculty and students, and fostering supportive and trustworthy online learning environments.

The COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented public health emergency, challenged higher education and threatened students' well-being in several ways. With the abrupt shift to online learning, were instructors able to maintain a focus on educating whole students, in addition to teaching subject matter? We answer this question by investigating "formative education," an approach to teaching and learning that emphasizes holistic development, exploring formative education online during the pandemic. This qualitative study investigates the strategies of 37 college faculty who provided successful formative education online. A cross-subject analysis of data from faculty interviews and supplemental materials (course artifacts, course evaluations, student interviews) uncovered three teaching approaches that faculty used to achieve formative education online: empathic (centering students' emotions), reflective (facilitating deep inquiry), and adaptive (having flexibility in meeting students' needs). These approaches could help instructors design online education that engages the whole person.

This study describes how culturally relevant pedagogy in a project-based science class improved student engagement and comprehension. We focus on bicultural students exploring cultural objects and household inventions with family members and connecting scientific concepts to their families' funds of knowledge. We use a multiple-case study design to explore six middle school bicultural students' experiences with culturally relevant activities. Findings describe bidirectional knowledge transfer between the home and the classroom in a way that engaged students, affirmed their home cultures, and facilitated subject matter learning.

This multiple case study investigated four university-level international students' reading of digital texts on tablets. The study describes these students' experiences with and strategies for mobile reading. The participants were four international students in the United States, and their first language (L1) was not English. The data were collected through observations, verbal reports, interviews, and field notes. The findings showed that participants had both positive and negative experiences using tablets for reading and that mobile reading facilitated their learning about their lives, language, culture, and technology. The study shows that the participants used six reading strategies: (1) setting up the purpose; (2) deciding what to read; (3) accessing a digital text; (4) dialoguing; (5) making a connection; and (6) using applications and digital literacy skills. The article discusses mobile reading, with a focus on strategies, affordances and processes, as well as cultural learning and empowerment.

Recent studies on peer review groups in second language classes have focused on various topics, including collaboration (Carr, 2008) and the effect of peer review versus teacher feedback on students' writing (Zhang, 1995). One area that has received little attention is the content of students' speech during peer review. This longitudinal case study examined English as a second language (ESL) students' oral discourse during peer feedback sessions to explore the types of comments ESL students choose to make during peer review sessions. The study was conducted between fall 2009 and summer 2010 at a large urban university in the southeastern United States. Data collection included audio-recorded peer review sessions, interviews with the teacher, and the researchers' observation notes. The researchers thoroughly analyzed the content of the students' discourse during actual peer review sessions. The findings of the study shed light on various aspects of writing ESL that students choose to comment on during peer feedback sessions. The findings may serve as the basis for further research on students' discourse during peer review, teachers' feedback or facilitation of peer review sessions, and issues of collaboration in peer review sessions in ESL classes.

Rapid globalization and the emergence of new instructional technologies have encouraged educators to explore technologies like podcasting and blogging to enhance their teaching. This study examines how six English speakers of other languages (ESOL) teachers used podcasting and blogging to help young English learners, themselves 21st century digital citizens. The ESOL teachers used technology to develop innovative teaching methods and enhance their professional identities. Four themes emerged from the examination of ESOL teachers' uses of new technologies to increase peer engagement through deep classroom interaction: ESOL teachers' varying levels of use of instructional innovations, dialogic uses of podcasting and blogging to encourage educational engagement, the impact of innovative technology on teachers' professional identities, teaching digital-native English learners, benefits of technology for assignments, and challenges for ESOL teachers' active learning.

This article explores the use of blogs for pre-service language teacher education in two national settings, the UK (University of Cambridge) and the US (University of South Florida). Taking two approaches to blogging and to learning through blogging (one based on self-reflection and a constructivist approach and one based on social and collaborative learning and a sociocultural approach), the research examines how pre-service language teachers both use and understand the affordances of blogs for their professional development. Data were collected from the participants' blog entries during their eight/nine month courses and from individual interviews conducted and analysed inductively. Some distinct themes emerged from the two settings. In the UK setting, there was deep analytical reflection on professional development, on professional identity and on change, with the participants perceiving the benefits of the blog to be the distance it provides from events and the cathartic effects of writing. In the US setting, findings suggest that the blog was used as a space for joint sharing of resources and ideas, and for co-constructive learning. Participants noted the affordances to be sharing information, developing professionalism and collaborative learning. While the approach to blogging was different in the two settings, the engagement in both was dialogic; the blogs functioned as a "thinking device" that enhanced professional development. Their use may transfer from pre-service teachers' learning to their teaching. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

This study evaluated preservice teachers' professional-knowledge transformation while they participated in simulated professional-development activities via a "Second Life" virtual classroom--an Internet-based multiuser virtual environment (MUVE). While a cohort of preservice teachers experienced the MUVE environment, the instrumental exploratory case study highlighted how 2 preservice teachers among the 12 internalized professional knowledge, as well as how that knowledge transferred into active teaching practice. The study was framed around sociocultural theory as it pertains to enabling intramental functioning through co-constructed activities. The preservice teachers' debriefings and reflective statements suggest that they entered the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)--the range of potential an individual has for learning, with that learning being shaped by the social environment--indicating the positive potential of using an MUVE to promote self-regulatory pedagogic behaviors. (Contains 6 figures and 2 footnotes.)

This study investigates adult English language learners' reading-strategy use when they read online texts in hypermedia learning environments. The learners joined the online Independent English Study Group (IESG) and worked both individually and collaboratively. This qualitative case study aims (a) to assess college-level ESL learners' use of reading strategies for online second language (L2) texts and (b) to examine their use of hypertext and hypermedia resources while they read online L2 text. The seven strategies were (a) using hypermedia, (b) using computer applications and accessories, (c) dialoguing, (d) setting up reading purposes and planning, (e) previewing and determining what to read, (f) connecting prior knowledge and experiences with texts and tasks, and (g) inferring. The first two strategies were unique to online readings; the five remaining strategies apply to both online readings and paper-based text readings. The findings also revealed that "hybrid" online reading emphasized participants' various reaction patterns and preferences in their hypermedia learning environments. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

This qualitative instrumental case study explores various factors that might influence upper-intermediate-level English as a second language (ESL) students' summarizing from a sociocultural perspective. The study was conducted in a formal classroom setting, during a reading and writing class in the English Language Institute at a university in the southeastern United States. Seven international ESL students provided information through questionnaires and interviews. Additional data were gathered through classroom observation. The findings of the study provide evidence that such personal factors as culturally influenced thinking patterns, content knowledge, motivation and attitude, and native language and second language literacy skills, as well as textual factors, writing style, vocabulary, and grammar, have an effect on ESL students' summarizing.

Due to innovation and globalization in education, educators of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) are encouraged to use such instructional technologies as podcasting and blogging, but studies on integrating these technologies into assignments are rare. This project revealed how ESOL teacher candidates implement instructional technology skills to help English learners and the teacher candidates' attitudes and processes toward implementing podcasting and blogging as a core assignment. Using qualitative research, five themes emerged: (a) ESOL teacher candidates' attitudes and self-assessments, (b) their implementation of podcasting and blogging, (c) their challenges and rewards, (d) the impact on their professional development, and (e) their own impact on new generations of students, particularly English learners. This discussion highlights ESOL teacher candidates' experiences while learning podcasting and blogging. ESOL teacher candidates, recognizing their future students as a new generation, are highly proactive learners and want very much to be competent and confident in their own teaching. (Contains 1 figure.)