Dialogic literary circles as a methodological strategy for the training of students in early childhood education degree

International Journal of Instruction July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 e-ISSN: 1308-1470 ● www.e-iji.net p-ISSN: 1694-609X pp. 255-270 Citation: Martínez-Valdivia, E., Pegalajar-Palomino, Mª. C., & Higueras-Rodríguez, M. L. (2021). Dialogic literary circles as a methodological strategy for the training of students in early childhood education degree. International Journal of Instruction, 14(3), 255-270. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2021.14315a Article submission code: 20200710161356 Received: 10/07/2020 Revision: 11/12/2020 Accepted: 04/01/2021 OnlineFirst: 06/05/2021 Dialogic Literary Circles as a Methodological Strategy for the training of students in Early Childhood Education Degree Estefanía Martínez-Valdivia Corresponding autor, University of Jaén, Spain, [email protected] Mª Carmen Pegalajar-Palomino University of Jaén, Spain, [email protected] M. Lina Higueras-Rodríguez University of Almería, Spain, mlina[email protected] The research has the purpose of analyzing the experience of the students of the first course of the Early Childhood Education Degree on the methodology of the Dialogic Literary Circles. The aim is to examine the variables that influence the academic performance of the future teacher, as well as the conditions that have an impact on their teaching-learning process, including Dialogical Literary Circles. A qualitative methodology has been used, from a phenomenological perspective. The Dialogic Literary Circles were implemented in the subject of "General Didactics" in the Early Childhood Education Degree during the year 2019-2010. The study is aimed at 230 students, of which 90 of them have agreed to participate in the discussion groups (9 groups of 10 people each) to collect the data. A script has been developed to direct the students' discourse and find out their perception of this methodological strategy. A content analysis was carried out with the information obtained, helping us from the Nvivo 12 program. Were obtained very positive results on the implications of this methodological strategy for the training of the university student. The students consider that through the Dialogic Literary Circles they have acquired pedagogical knowledge, but also this strategy has led them to value the collaborative work, the respect for the opinions of their peers, has encouraged reading and expanded vocabulary, besides developing communication and oral expression skills. Therefore, conclude that it is an active methodology, very pertinent to put it into practice at university, since it encourages in the initial training of teachers to be professionals with the skills required in today's society. Keywords: initial training, teacher, active methodology, dialogic learning, sustainable education, training 256 Dialogic Literary Circles as a Methodological Strategy for … International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 INTRODUCTION Higher Education is committed to a new pedagogical model to offer a quality education for all students and to train professionals with sufficient skills to respond to the demands of our society. University must assume new socio-educational needs in which the student plays an active, participative and social role; the levels of interaction between teacher-student, student-student and content are increased, as well as dialogue and interaction, and the development of the teaching process (Soler et al., 2020). In addition, the acquisition of skills and abilities that prepare the student for their future professional activity and improve their employability should be facilitated (Martín et al., 2020). As a result of the European convergence process, some of the assumptions underlying the conception of the teaching-learning process have been transformed (Zabalza, 2016), based on the active and responsible role of the student (Vallet-Bellmunt et al., 2017). This methodological change generates an increase in student motivation towards learning, while favouring peer interaction and their level of commitment to study (Mingorance et al., 2019). In this context, it is important to highlight the Dialogic Literary Circles understood as one of the Successful Educational Actions developed as a result of the European research project INCLUD-ED (Arrow, 2015). This didactic tool is based on the concept of dialogical learning, guided by principles based on equality and difference as compatible and enriching values for all (Aubert, 2011). The Dialogic Literary Circle, also known as "Seminars with the book in hand", are developed from the reading, commentary and sharing of a paragraph that is of interest or provokes some reflection among the participants, exposing their interpretations to study the text in depth according to their life experiences (Racionero & Brown, 2012). To do this, a series of fundamental principles must be established as a reference framework, these being (Aubert et al., 2011; Flecha, 2014): • Equal dialogue among all, for the construction of knowledge and learning. • Consideration of cultural intelligence, understood as the universal capacity of learning for all people. • Transformation of the interactions between equals from the creation of learning communities. • Instrumental dimension of education that prioritizes the learning of areas whose mastery is transcendental for the learning of new ones. • Solidarity, understood as a fundamental value based on mutual help to achieve learning for all. • Equality of differences, supported by diversity and heterogeneity for the enrichment and expansion of learning. • Creation of meaning, as a way to awaken interest and the usefulness of knowledge. Martínez-Valdivia, Pegalajar-Palomino & Higueras-Rodríguez 257 International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 In this way, the Dialogic Literary Circles are a method for students with different abilities, interests, expectations, etc. can share ideas from a reading of texts (Díaz & Puyalto, 2017). As established by Flecha (2014), in this type of meeting the discussions are resolved on the basis of arguments, and there is a need to reach a consensus among the members of the group. This implies the transformation of the concept on which the teaching and learning process is based, as well as the role assigned to the main agents involved in it (Duran, 2017; Weyand et al., 2018). According to Rekalde, et al. (2014), the dialogical gatherings aim to connect the academic world and reality, creating different learning spaces. These didactic tools make possible a more equitable teaching process, based on the principles of social justice and the elimination of hierarchies (Land, 2018). In addition, student participation in the teaching-learning process is encouraged, adopting new roles and establishing different relationships with the teachers involved (Jensen & Bennet, 2016). In turn, it allows for the definition of new spaces of interaction, with a markedly open character (Cohrssen, et al., 2016; Marsh, et al., 2016; Radesjo, 2018), as well as the development of a research attitude among students (Hosein & Rao, 2017). In short, it is a proposal that guarantees improved academic results and equality for the coexistence of its participants (Adams, et al., 2014; Malagón & González, 2018). For the student of Education, the Dialogic Literary Circles promote a process of deep reflection on a comprehensive and critical vision of education (Fernández, et al., 2012). In addition, it encourages student participation in the teaching-learning process, so that they can verbally express their emotions and what causes the reading of the selected texts; behind is the academic vision of the study of texts, relating the reading with their life experience (Esteban & Izuzquiza, 2020). In this way, and according to Aguilar (2017), the future teacher must receive a democratic critical formation, since the reading of the word allows for the analysis of the reality in which each person develops, questioning the knowledge received during the process of academic formation. In Spain, some experiences in the implementation of the Dialogic Literary Circles as a strategy for the improvement of the initial teacher training stand out. Chocarro (2013) proposes an experience of teaching innovation developed around the dialogical discussion groups, understood as a didactic resource for the initial training of teachers. This author proposes eliminating the barriers and strengthening more ties for the development of experiences similar to those developed by teachers for their professional future. For their part, Gabaldón, et al. (2016) propose this methodology for students of the Degree in Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Sociology at the University of Valencia. The results show the high satisfaction of the students towards these experiences. Finally, Aguilar (2017) proposes the development of Dialogic Literary Circles in the Practicum for initial teacher training. This is a successful educational action linked to dialogical learning, so that the interactions that take place favour reflective learning based on a critical analysis of reality. Therefore, as postulated by Mingorance et al. (2019) it is of interest to examine the variables that influence student performance in Higher Education, as well as the personal, social and institutional factors that have an impact on teaching-learning. In 258 Dialogic Literary Circles as a Methodological Strategy for … International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 addition, it is necessary to investigate the character, as well as the procedures and effects of the dialogical methodological process in Higher Education (Laorden & Foncillas, 2019). In this way, teacher evaluation allows for the provision of information to the university to improve the quality of education, while allowing teachers to improve their teaching process (Baek & Cho, 2015). METHOD The work presented is based on a phenomenological perspective; specifically we focus on the hermeneutic or interpretative approach. According to Van Manen (2003), it aims to understand the meaning that people give to their lived experience. That is, to get to know the process of interpretation by which individuals define their world and act accordingly. Purpose and Objectives of the Investigation The purpose of this study is: analyze the experience of the students of the first year of the Degree in Early Childhood Education on the methodology of the Dialogic Literary Circles. The objectives guiding the research are as follows: • To acknowledge the perceptions and considerations that students have after their participation in the Dialogic Literary Circles. • To find out the incidence of the Dialogic Literary Circles in the initial training of teachers and the need to apply it in their future professional practice. Description of Experience The field work has been developed in the subject "General Didactics in Early Childhood Education"; it is a first year subject included in the curriculum of the Degree in Early Childhood Education of the University of Jaen. For this experience, the teaching and research team has proposed the use of the methodology of the Dialogic Literary Circle for the development of one of the practical activities. This activity intends to bring the student closer to the analysis of the teaching role in the current educational system. Prior to the implementation of the experience, there was an introductory session in which the students were explained the history and characteristics of this methodology. In order to facilitate their understanding, they were shown some videos with practical examples of the development of the same at different educational levels. Afterwards, the students were given the different texts that were going to be worked on during the first term (time in which this practice was carried out). The texts were intentionally selected among all the students based on a proposal made by the teacher. The aim was to initiate them in the reading of academic texts that deal with the figure of the teacher in the present and the educational act. For the development of the experience, the teaching team organized a work chronogram for all the students, creating work groups of between 20-30 students. Each of these Martínez-Valdivia, Pegalajar-Palomino & Higueras-Rodríguez 259 International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 groups carried out a total of 5 work sessions, working each day on one of the texts selected according to the procedure proposed by CONFAPEA (2012) in the Manual of Dialogical Literary Circles: 1. Everyone reads at home the text to be worked on in class that day. 2. They indicate which paragraph or paragraphs they found most interesting. 3. During the session, asking for their turn to speak, the students read aloud the text selected, commenting and explaining to their classmates what they have suggested. 4. The teacher opens the floor for everyone to critically comment on the paragraph(s) read by the student. 5. When they have finished all the opinions on that paragraph, the teacher gives the floor to another person and starts the cycle again. 6. The procedure continues in this way until the text is finished. 7. Before the beginning of each session, the teaching team tried to arrange the classroom in a semicircle, since this is the most recommendable way to carry out the sessions, within the possibilities offered by the fixed furniture of the class. Participants The context of the research corresponds to the University of Jaén, specifically, the first course of the Degree in Early Childhood Education. The subjects that participated in the research were all those who were enrolled in the subject of "General Didactics in Childhood Education". All of them were invited to participate, being a total of 230 students. The selection was determined by a series of criteria such as: the motivation of the student during the sessions in the dialogic meetings, the disposition to participate in the investigation, the interest towards the subject, the capacity for communication of the student, his previous experience in the accomplishment of dialogic meetings and other higher studies linked to the scope of the Education. In addition, the design took into account the heterogeneity of the groups, including as far as possible a gender balance, as well as students with special educational needs (dyslexia, visual disabilities). Finally, the research team had 90 students to form the discussion groups. The choice of research subjects was based on intentional selection. In order to obtain the maximum information regarding the subject of study and thus be able to generate knowledge from an inductive perspective (Bisquerra, 2009). It has been combined with the understandable sample, since we are interested in selecting those subjects that are more specific by establishing criteria (McMilla & Schumacher, 2012). Data Collection and Analysis Procedure To obtain the data, 9 discussion groups were formed, each with 10 students. To do this, follow the recommendations of authors such as Barbour (2014) as he considers that the 260 Dialogic Literary Circles as a Methodological Strategy for … International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 ideal number to be able to effectively control all the speeches of its members is between 8 and 10 people. The research was carried out during the first four-month period of the 2019-2020 academic year. A script was designed to direct the groups' discourse and to deepen the fundamental themes of the study. The following open questions were written: What do you think your participation in the discussion groups has been useful for? How have you felt in the Dialogic Literary Circles? Have you learned anything in the Dialogic Literary Circles? What advantages do the discussion groups have for your learning? Do you find any limitation in the discussion groups for your learning? Do you propose some improvements for the realization of this activity? Would you use the discussion groups in your professional practice as a future teacher? All of them focused on the objectives of the research. The sessions lasted around 90 and 120 minutes, and were recorded to collect all the information obtained and to be able to transcribe it later. Previously, the participants were informed of the purpose of the research, we guaranteed their anonymity and obtained their authorization to make the recording. Afterwards, the data was analyzed through content analysis, with the aim of discovering the meanings of the data collected (Tójar, 2006). To do this,followed the phases established by Krippendorff (2002): 1. Formulation of the data. This first phase consists of the first reading of all the data obtained. It is intended to try to know the material, reading it several times carefully and organizing it to determine the units of meaning and to record the information. 2. Reduction of the data. At this point, the different categories and subcategories are established (see table 1). By selecting the categorization process in a mixed way, that is, categories have already been created based on the script used for the discussion groups and the research objectives. But categories have also been established that have been born from the data collected itself. 3. Inference and analysis. In this third phase, once the material to be worked on has been organised, inferences are made and the most relevant and significant results obtained are analysed. The program Nvivo 12 has been used for this purpose, since it facilitates and enriches our work through the word clouds. Martínez-Valdivia, Pegalajar-Palomino & Higueras-Rodríguez 261 International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 Table 1 List of categories, description and instrument questions Categories Description Questions Potentialities What is the purpose of participation in the Dialogic Literary Circles in the initial teacher training What do you think your participation in the discussion groups has been useful for? Learning Knowledge and skills acquired by the student during the Dialogic Literary Circles Have you learned anything in the Dialogic Literary Circles? Perceptions Evaluation of the student of the methodology used in the Dialogic Literary Circles How have you felt in the Dialogic Literary Circles? Disadvantages Disadvantages or limitations of this methodology for student learning What advantages do the discussion groups have for your learning? Do you find any limitation in the discussion groups for your learning? Improvements Proposals to improve this methodology in Higher Education Do you propose some improvements for the realization of this activity? Practical professional use Considerations regarding the implementation of the methodology of the Dialogic LIterary Circles in your future professional practice Would you use the discussion groups in your professional practice as a future teacher? FINDINGS The results are presented meeting the objectives that guide this research, closely linked to the categories used to make the inferences (see table 2). Table 2 Presentation of results in relation to objectives Objectives Categories Number of frequencies To know the perceptions and considerations that students have after their participation in the Dialogic Literary Circles. Potentialities 76 Perceptions 86 Improvements 42 To find out the incidence of the Dialogic Literary Circles in the initial training of teachers and the need to apply it in their future professional practice. Learning 80 Disadvantages 73 Practical professional use 88 However, it is very interesting to start by showing a content analysis by performing a word frequency search of the information collected. The procedure has been as follows, the 500 most frequent words have been selected and the option of grouping exact matches has been chosen. Once this has been done, the empty words have been eliminated, previously consulting their content and selecting the most relevant ones. Thus, with a word cloud mark, the most relevant words of the research are shown in a very graphic way (see image 1). The central and largest words are those most treated by 262 Dialogic Literary Circles as a Methodological Strategy for … International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 the subjects of the research and the smaller ones are those with a lower number of frequencies. Image 1 Word cloud mark Based on the most frequent and biggest words in the cloud brand like "learning" and "reading". It can be seen that in the TDP they have learned different topics around the field of education, through reading but also through active listening and opinion of other colleagues' opinions. This is corroborated by the results obtained with the different textual quotations. Secondly, we can see the smaller words, some of them like "public", "shame", "express", "oral" and "express". They are really important in this research because the students had a process of adaptation to this methodology, and they were shy to speak in public and in front of their classmates. So, this has helped them to develop communication and expression skills. Analysis of potentialities and perceptions about Dialogic Literary Circles according to their protagonists Students consider that the implementation of the Dialogic Literary Circles in the subject of "General Didactics in Early Childhood Education" has allowed them to get to know in first person a new methodology that, in its majority, they did not know. By using it in the different sessions, it has led them, first of all, to encourage reading about didactic and pedagogical topics related to their initial training. By promoting the reading and Martínez-Valdivia, Pegalajar-Palomino & Higueras-Rodríguez 263 International Journal of Instruction, July 2021 ● Vol.14, No.3 comprehension of the texts, the students point out that it has led them to broaden and enrich their vocabulary, as well as to improve their reading comprehension. In addition, the implementation of the Dialogic Literary Circles are very interesting. They lead to first-year students, who are still reluctant to actively participate in the classroom, becoming involved and protagonists of their own learning. In order to do so, they have to give their opinion about the part of the text read and explain it to the rest of their classmates. This promotes their need to communicate correctly so that everyone understands them and to adequately express what they have understood and learned from the text. Therefore, there is an impulse in the student to improve and develop communication and expression skills. This is shown in the following quotes: "To better develop my oral expression, while learning many key words and vocabulary which has made it less repetitive with the same words or expressions when exposing something" (Ref. 73). The Dialogic Literary Circles have also been useful for the students to integrate themselves into the class group. As it is their first year at the university, they are somewhat out of place, which helps the companionship and the establishment of friendship among equals. It also makes this task easier for those who are more shy and withdrawn. As reflected in these references: "It has helped me to know more about the topics covered in the texts and has helped me to be able to speak in public since I am quite shy" (Ref. 74). Losing, at the same time, that fear of speaking in public, since they do not usually do it at school and are not used to it: "To lose the fear of speaking in public and letting go more with my classmates" (Ref. 44). Dialogic Literary Circles help to create a group feeling and to respect all colleagues, regardless of their personal or social characteristics. This also encourages respect for the opinions of others. This is one of the main reasons for them to feel free to express their point of view about the understanding of the texts: "First of all, because by encouraging this reading, dialogue and listening on the subject to be discussed, it is a very good way of learning in a more practical way about what is being exposed. 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