Greetings from the Editor

Dear readers,

Thank you very much for taking your time reading our own journal—Journal of Classroom Teaching & Learning (JOCTL). This journal was created by our own students who are currently taking the undergraduate course of EDCI 4322 Human Development & Instruction course & the graduate course EDCI 6304 Learning & Cognition at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB/TSC).

JOCTL intends to publish our students’ research throughout this semester. All of our students spent one whole semester investigating one research topic of their interest under the instructor’s guidance and supervision. Specific research methods students employed for their research included classroom observation at either elementary or secondary classrooms (6-10 hours), interviews (2-5 hours), weekly self-reflections on learning (15 entries), class discussions on the research topic (14-30 responses), and literature (5-20 articles). Most of our students’ research findings have been or will be presented at the Conference of Elementary Secondary Teaching & Learning (CESTL), a conference organized by the course instructor and all the students themselves.

The main purposes of JOCTL is for our students of these two courses 1) to reflect on their own classroom learning experience as well as observing others’ as a learner; 2) to discover principles, relationships, patterns, and theories of classroom learning and teaching; 3) to create a learning community for all students to discuss and exchange ideas about classroom learning and teaching; 4) to improve students’ analytical, critical thinking, problem-solving, and creative skills through conducting research in real classrooms; 5) to enhance students’ communication (e.g., writing) skills; 6) to help the students develop a better understanding of classroom teaching and learning; and 7) to better prepare them for their future teaching career.

JOCTL seeks to explore the multitude of issues that impact and influence education in the classroom setting. In accord with its broad focus, the journal welcomes contributions that enhance the exchange of diverse theoretical and practical information from other educators, students, and researchers at UTB or the Brownsville community. It is our hope that our JOCTL can provide a channel for all classroom instructors and professors to better understand students’ needs and characteristics as learners, thus to design their instructions based on these needs and characteristics to produce better classroom learning.

This week, JOCTL will share three of our students' studies and other issues:

Learning Strategies by Mayra Garcia
Peer Relationships & Learning by Blanca Nuez
Adolescents motivation by Analicia K. Springer
Help China EarthQuake!

Also, JOCTL has received much positive feedback from a wide range of its audiences. To read their feedback on our JOCTL, click JOCTL Feedback.

We sincerely hope you will enjoy our students’ journey of exploration on teaching and learning. We welcome honest feedback from you. If you have any other comments or suggestions to improve JOCTL, please contact me directly at dengting.boyanton@utb.edu. Thank you very much for your support!

Sincerely,

Dengting Boyanon Ph.D.
Editor, JOCTL
Assistant Professor
Educational Psychology
School of Education
University of Texas at Brownsville
956-882-5841 (Office)
956-882-8929 (Fax)
http://people.virginia.edu/~db6wq/