A Matter of Relevance: Teaching Classics in the 21st Century

Youssef, Lamiaa

doi:10.1080/87567550903252819

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…For example, is a writer such as Shakespeare still relevant to British students today? Conversely, it may be argued that classical works of literature contain timeless universal truths that cut across boundaries of race, gender and class, and that these works are still relevant today (Pike, 2003;Purewal, 2017;Youssef, 2009). Scholars have put forward pragmatic proposals for pedagogical solutions to mediate classical or ancient literature (Dunford, 2021;Youssef, 2009) or for the pedagogical and intertextual use of ancient literature (the Bible, Ovid) in literature studies (Malo-Juvera, 2014).…”

Section: Teaching Ancient Texts Elsewhere In the Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

How relevant is it? Public Elementary School Teachers Encounter Ancient Jewish Texts

Menachem

Elkad‐Lehman²

2022

L1-ESLL

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This study deals with a learning encounter in a havruta (pair) setting of teachers of public elementary schools in Israel with an ancient legend (Aggadah) drawn from sixth-century Jewish culture. The objective of this study is to examine the teacher’s attitude to the text through a study of the dialogue created in the encounter with the text in the havruta setting. Participants in the study included two groups of mostly women teachers of Hebrew language (L-1): 15 teachers in Group 1, and 14 teachers in Group 2. The groups came from two large and demographically different cities in Israel. The teachers were asked to study the story in pairs and to consider its suitability for teaching in their class. After the legend was studied, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the teachers. The study corpus included 12 recordings of havruta learning, nine semi-structured interviews and ten lesson plans for teaching the legend in the class. The findings of the study point to different attitudes to the teaching of the text in the class between the groups and to differences in the perception of the relevance of the text for the teachers themselves and for their students. The discussion is based on the definition of relevance (Sperber & Wilson, 1995; Dascal, 1977) as a relative function of efficiency: the maximum contexts and meaning that the listener can extract with minimum effort. This definition explains the sense of relevance or irrelevance of the text as perceived by the participants in the study.

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Section: Teaching Ancient Texts Elsewhere In the Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

How relevant is it? Public Elementary School Teachers Encounter Ancient Jewish Texts

Menachem

Elkad‐Lehman²

2022

L1-ESLL

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“…Scholarshavefoundthatstudents'perceivedrelevancecanbeengenderedbyhandsontraining,acquisitionofskills,exposuretoreal-lifeexamplesandcreatingrelevant scenarios by relating theory to practice (Youssef, 2010). In other words, exposing prospectiveteacherstoappropriatedigitaltoolscouldfacilitatetheirunderstanding oftheinstructionalcontentandtheapplicationofcoursecontentandtoolstosolve societalproblemsinthenearestfuture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-Service Teachers' Perceived Relevance of Educational Technology Course, Digital Performance

Olusola

Bello

2019

International Journal of Technology-Enabled Student Support Services

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Educational technology courses are designed to equip prospective teachers with knowledge and skills to use technology for effective instructional delivery. However, the way students perceive the appropriateness and relevance of the instructional content would go a long way in determining their performance and commitment to the course. Student performance in educational technology courses could be improved, if they perceive the instructional content to be relevant to their academic pursuits and future career development. Therefore, this study examined pre-service teachers' perceived relevance of educational technology content, digital tools and their performance in an educational technology course. The study was carried out on 261 pre-service teachers and the result showed that the perceived relevance of educational technology course by the students was high. The correlation coefficient (r) of 0.015 showed a positive relationship between pre-service teachers' perceived relevance of educational technology courses and the performance at the end of semester examination of the course.

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Heritage Education: A Multimedia Approach to ‘Phra Aphai Mani’

Kasemsarn,

Sawadsri

2024

Heritage

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Even though classic literature has cultural and educational value in heritage education, students often have trouble becoming interested because of the archaic language, a lack of good learning materials, the idea that the literature is not relevant, and complicated plots. This research aims to enhance heritage education by identifying barriers and drivers in youth engagement with classic Thai literature and exploring how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles could be applied to increase motivation in learning classic literature through multimedia. Ten interviews with experts, 100 on-site questionnaires filled out by students aged 15–25 years, and a multimedia e-book were used together in this mixed-methods study. As a case study, the researchers asked both experts and students to read the Thai classic poem “Phra Aphai Mani: Escaping from the Sea Witch” and make suggestions for how it could be better. The results show that there are barriers to heritage education, such as ‘the story is not connected to the present’ (mean = 4.52/5), ‘archaic vocabulary and language barriers’ (mean = 4.36/5), and ‘learning materials’ (mean = 4.25/5). Surprisingly, Thai students showed more positive attitudes towards literature courses than expected based on international trends. Key drivers for enhancing heritage education include ‘classic literature in modern, easy-to-read language’ (mean = 4.65/5), ‘including multimedia’ (mean = 4.58/5), ‘the plot/story adapted to the current era’ (mean = 4.50/5), and ‘new presenting technologies’ (mean = 4.49/5). Next, as an innovative way to improve heritage education, this study developed a free e-book titled “Phra Aphai Mani: Escaping from the Sea Witch”, which includes motion graphics and other multimedia elements. This research contributes to knowledge by demonstrating how UDL can be applied to classic literature within heritage education, enhancing understanding of student needs, and creating more effective, inclusive multimedia teaching methods for preserving and transmitting cultural heritage.

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A Matter of Relevance: Teaching Classics in the 21st Century

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

How relevant is it? Public Elementary School Teachers Encounter Ancient Jewish Texts

How relevant is it? Public Elementary School Teachers Encounter Ancient Jewish Texts

Pre-Service Teachers' Perceived Relevance of Educational Technology Course, Digital Performance

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Heritage Education: A Multimedia Approach to ‘Phra Aphai Mani’

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