A tale of two technical cultures: Foreign language teaching

In broad terms this study investigated how the social organization of schools affects and is affected by the structures within which teachers find themselves: in essence how teachers shaped their reality. In particular this investigation was concerned with high school foreign language (FL) teachers' perceptions of their work environment; specifically how FL teachers in differing school contexts defined FL instruction and the manner in which these contextual definitions associated with their classroom behavior. Many previous investigations have focused on the relationship of teachers' classroom behavior and student outcomes. This study instead asked what the organizational antecedents for teachers' classroom practices are by documenting high school FL teachers' technical cultures—the processes designed to accomplish an organization's goals (Lortie, 1975; Rosenholtz, 1989).     

How teachers define and respond to child abuse: The distinction between theoretical and reportable cases

Teachers are considered to be among those who are well-placed for the detection and prevention of child abuse. Yet little attention has been given to the definitions teachers use in deciding which cases to process. The paper draws on a larger study of Ontario women teachers. Information from 264 elementary teachers and 47 principals was collected in three phases: exploratory interviews, a survey, and focused interviews. A key part of the survey involved 10 vignettes designed to determine how teachers define abuse, how much experience they have had in dealing with such situations, and what action they took in each case. The findings demonstrated that teachers included a broad range of behaviors in their own “theoretical” definitions, but preferred informal intervention over formal reporting. Although there is no statistical relationship between definitions and reporting, it seems clear that the decision to report involves the interplay of definitions, institutional response, and teachers' experiences with a range of reactions and personal trials. Reporting is also complicated by teachers' disciplinary role, by their concerns for establishing reasonable grounds, and by the perception that some cases can be handled more effectively by the school, without the intervention of Child Protection Services (CPS).     

Big books: How to make them and use them

Big — bold — beautiful — they're called big books, and preschool teachers are regularly discovering their exciting educational potential. Traditionally, using books with children is a practice that adults have used since they were first developed in the sixteenth century. Indeed, most preschool classrooms include centers which are called by a variety of names — book nook, book corner, book center, storytime center, reading center, or some other title. It's rare to find a child who does not respond to book reading or storytelling, and teachers of young children routinely plan time each day to read a book to their youngsters. Educationally, their use is acceptable practice for children of all ages. Laverne Warner is a professor of early childhood education at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX. This article draws on material published by the author in Texas Child Care Quarterly,(Summer, 1990), 13:4, 3–8.     

The dilemmas of teaching for creativity: Insights from expert specialist dance teachers

This paper offers part of the findings of a qualitative, interpretive Ph.D. study, which used a case study approach to explore and illustrate the conceptions of and approaches to creativity of three expert specialist dance teachers working with late primary age children. The specialists had extensive expertise as dance educators in different educational settings together with experience as dance artists. One way of framing their conceptions and practice was in terms of the pedagogical puzzles or dilemmas that they encountered. This paper focuses on the dilemma of ‘balancing personal/collective voice and craft/compositional knowledge’ when teaching for creativity. The findings articulate the foundations of embodied knowing (intrinsic to aesthetic understanding) and the processes fundamental to their teaching for creativity. This is followed by details of the key pedagogical spectra which emerged when responding to the dilemma: prioritisation of creative source—inside out or outside in; degrees of proximity and intervention—distanced reactivity or close proactivity; and spectrum of task structures—purposeful play to tight apprenticeship; and their use in action by the teachers in their different situations. The paper relates these findings to two current questions within education: that of the relationship between knowledge and creativity, and the ways in which adults/experts might engage in teaching for creativity. The paper concludes that this research supports calls for a re-evaluation of aesthetic understanding's role in creativity, grounded in embodiment, within dance pedagogy, which might also be fruitfully heeded within wider educational contexts. It also provides the findings as ‘images of possible’ approaches to inter-relating knowledge and creativity both within dance, and other disciplines, and argues for the use of dilemmas and their solutions as one way of acknowledging complexity and encouraging reflective practice in teaching for creativity, both within teacher training and continuing professional development. Finally, the paper highlights the unique perspective of a group of hybrid education professionals at the arts/education interface, and suggests future areas of research which might develop from this investigation of their practice.     

The Notion of Creativity in Art and the Influence of Cultural Exposure

This study investigates how art teachers judge the creativity of student art work. Both conceptual and operational definitions given by teachers were studied. Furthermore, cultural exposure as measured by a teacher's exposure to non-Asian cultures, was studied to see how it might influence art teachers' judgements. Two instruments were developed for the purpose of this study. One instrument was a questionnaire designed to collect qualitative data from the respondents. The second instrument was used to measure art teachers' ratings of creativity. The data revealed that the conceptual definitions given by art teachers varied considerably. However, when asked to rate subjectively the creativity of art products, moderate agreement was reached among art teachers. Exposure to non-Asian cultures did not seem to have an effect on an art teachers' operational definition of creativity. Results of the study imply that the usefulness of the term creativity needs to be reviewed in general usage and in documents such as curricula. It would seem that there is not a clear notion among art teachers as to what constitutes creativity and a creative product.     

Cooperative studyware development of organic chemistry module by experts,teachers, and students

Experts, teachers, and students took active part in a process of organic chemistry studyware development. A unique characteristic of this process was the active involvement of three different groups of people in the authoring process: science educators, chemistry teachers, and chemistry students studying towards an education certificate. The science educators—the experts—advised the team on new methods of presenting the subject matter in an appealing way, using 3D computerized molecular modeling. The in-service chemistry teachers contributed from their rich field experience to constructing the studyware. This mutual development helped maintain the balance between expert requirements and expectations from students on one hand, and the actual student capabilities, as perceived by teachers through constant contact with the students, on the other. Finally, the preservice teachers—the undergraduate chemistry students—were often zealous, enthusiastic, and willing to put in the extra time and effort needed to produce quality studyware, while following the guidelines of the experts and teachers. Feedback on the qualities and shortcomings of the studyware was obtained in two cycles. The first one was done while the studyware was still under development by peers, and the second by individual target students, serving as a beta-site. This double feedback helped improve the studyware, mainly by elaborating on portions that require more detail and explanation. The paper describes the process as well as representative parts of the studyware. The combination of experts, teachers, and students in the development team seems to have the potential to yield studyware that is appropriate for effective science education in general and chemistry teaching in particular.     

Tools for Successful Student–Teacher–Scientist Partnerships

Student–teacher–scientist partnership (STSP) programs are cooperative relationships in which students, with the support of their teachers, participate in and contribute to the research of scientists. This paper examines one of the world's largest STSPs—an international environmental science education program called GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment)—and proposes recommendations to scientists about how they can get the most out of their research and teaching relationship with students and their teachers. GLOBE is an international K–12 STSP that engages students in Earth's Systems investigations. Extensive training is needed for students to collect and report accurate data to scientists, and special preparatory curricula are needed to make their partnership effective and motivating. Recognizing these issues, this research was conducted specifically to identify and recommend a set of training material design criteria for implementation of STSPs in the elementary and middle school levels. The conclusions—the result of background research, extensive interviews and consultation with teachers—provide guidance to GLOBE and other STSP programs to enhance the development of effective and engaging training materials.     

Recognizing and nurturing intrinsic motivation: A cautionary tale

Intrinsic motivation has multiple definitions. Introductory teacher education courses must alert prospective teachers to the exceptional qualities of non‐conforming students who lack the benefit of being teacher pleasers. Teacher trainers must ensure that pre‐teachers are aware of the multiple definitions of intrinsic motivation prior to a request that they observe, listen, and analyze intrinsically motivated students. Without a complete understanding of the characteristics of gifted students and the types of behaviors they sometimes exhibit within the classroom, many gifted students will be unrecognized and underserved. With services to gifted students tied to their identification, it becomes important for classroom teachers to be able to recognize that the potential for gifted behavior often extends far beyond the ability to contribute efficiently and effectively. Pre‐service teachers must also recognize that intrinsically motivated students sometimes view their initial attempts as work in progress and remain skeptical and critical of their accomplishments.     

Teacher development in advanced educational technology

Advanced educational technology promises to improve science teaching and learning. To achieve the posited outcomes, however, teachers must have access to, know how to, have the skills to, and want to use the proposed advanced educational technologies in their teaching. In response, for the past eight years with support from the National Science Foundation, BSCS has conductedENLIST Micros — a teacher development to help science teachers improve their use of microcomputers.ENLIST Micros has three phases — Phase one (1984–1986): BSCS designed, tested, and producedENLIST Micros (Ellis and Kuerbis, 1987, 1989) teacher development materials (text, video, and tutorial software) for helping science teachers improve their use of educational technology. Phase two (1986–1989): BSCS designed, developed, tested, and disseminated a staff development model for helping science teachers integrate educational technology into instruction. Phase three (1989–1992): BSCS established Teacher Development Centers to implement theENLIST Micros teacher development materials and staff development model with science teachers throughout the United States.ENLIST Micros has served more than 1500 science teachers in 15 states. Teachers who have participated in the program have improved their knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy about computer usage and have improved their use of microcomputers in their science courses. Furthermore, as part of the project, BSCS has described the implementation process and has developed recommendations to support improvements in the use of educational technology in science programs.     

Toward better research on child abuse and neglect: Making definitional issues an explicit methodological concern

In the United States, research on child abuse and neglect is frequently criticized for being poorly performed and largely irrelevant to the important policy questions facing the field. Many of the problems plaguing research on child abuse and neglect are endemic to social science research generally, and this paper does not trod over such issues, which are well known and well described elsewhere. Instead, this paper describes how the inadequacy of definitions of “child abuse” and “child neglect” used by research studies places an additional—and largely unnoticed—burden on research, which aggravates the impact of these more general problems. Existing definitions of “child abuse” and “child neglect” fail to meet research needs because they lack: (1) comparability, (2) reliability, and (3) taxonomic delineation. As a result, they compromise the findings of incidence studies, sequelae studies, etiological studies, and program effectiveness studies. Therefore, if real progress is to be made in understanding child abuse and neglect, definitional issues must become an explicit methodological concern. Specifically, future research should include: (I) a careful determination of definitional needs, (2) the development of operational definitions to meet those needs, and (3) the circumspect statement of findings based on the limitations imposed by such definitions.     

Teachers’ emotions in educational reforms: Self-understanding, vulnerable commitment and micropolitical literacy

Based on narrative-biographical work with teachers, the author argues that teachers’ emotions have to be understood in relation to the vulnerability that constitutes a structural condition of the teaching job. Closely linked to this condition is the central role played by teachers’ “self-understanding”—their dynamic sense of identity—in teachers’ actions and their dealing with, for example, the challenges posed by reform agendas. The (emotional) impact of those agendas is mediated by the professional context, that encompasses dimensions of time (age, generation, biography) and of space (the structural and cultural working conditions). Finally, it is argued that the professional and meaningful interactions of teachers with their professional context contains a fundamental political dimension. Emotions reflect the fact that deeply held beliefs on good education are part of teachers’ self-understanding. Reform agendas that impose different normative beliefs may not only trigger intense feelings, but also elicit micropolitical actions of resistance or proactive attempts to influence and change one's working conditions.     

Evaluation of Preservice Teachers’ Internships: A Model to Encourage Career Continuity and Program Reform

Quality teacher evaluation is a complex subject, requiring complex methods that draw from multiple data sources (Peterson, 2000). Most importantly, preservice teacher evaluation should match teacher education objectives (Popham, 1993) and, ultimately, be used to inform teacher practices and reform educational programming (Darling-Hammond, 1990). The purpose of this study is to present an evaluation model that uses multiple data sources for a preservice teacher’s internship experience. This model is employed within a teacher education program at a large land-grant university; the multiple data sources match program objectives and draw parallels between preservice and inservice teacher evaluation tools at use in this particular state. The evaluation model incorporates two guiding objectives within this college of education’s mission statement—objectives that focus on performance and reflection. First, preservice teachers are educated to assume roles of leadership and service in classroom practice, and second, preservice teachers are taught to become reflective practitioners, The first objective is measured by using a research-based classroom observation rating form during the internship that closely resembles the tool used by the state-licensing department of education. The second program objective is measured through the use of portfolios. In addition to using the results from these instruments to advise preservice teachers regarding their professional growth, the data can also guide program development within the college and suggest programmatic reform, an often overlooked yet integral factor of personnel evaluation. Discussion of specific rating results per instrument and specific avenues for program development are presented.     

The reconceptualisation of learner-centred approaches: a Namibian case study

The case study, which explored the implementation of learner-centred approaches, emerged from an action research study of a three-year INSET (In-service Education and Training) programme for 145 unqualified primary teachers in Namibia. A learner-centred curriculum was introduced in Namibia soon after her Independence from South Africa in 1990. It was considered an effective antidote to the stifling teacher-centred practices used within the previous apartheid system. The case study raises questions about the implementation of learner-centred approaches. Data emerged which indicated their non-implementation, and reasons are presented to explain this: teacher professional capacity at the time of the study, limited resources, cultural factors and learner background. Efforts within the INSET programme to support teachers’ implementation of learner-centred approaches led to their reconceptualisation. The study indicated the effectiveness of developing teachers’ skills in the use of whichever approaches, methods and skills best bring about learning. The study highlights the usefulness of an adaptive approach—examining the realities within which teachers work and experimenting with strategies that seek to achieve student learning within the limitations of these realities. The focus is on learning-centred rather than learner-centred approaches.     

Netcourses and netseminars: Current practice and new designs

Netcourses—courses delivered primarily over digital networks—promise to provide learners with quality, low-cost learning opportunities anywhere and anytime. While having implications throughout education, adult professionals may be the first to make extensive use of netcourses. By increasing the quality and timeliness of teacher professional development while reducing its costs, netcourses could have a major impact on the quality of teaching. In order to understand the realities of this promise, we have reviewed in detail all netcourses for teachers in mathematics and science. As a result of this analysis, we have developed new designs for the effective use of this medium with mathematics and science teachers.     

Connecting and Creating for Learning: Integrating Subject Matter Across the Curriculum and the School

In this article, the authors explore a growing awareness of problems and current developments in classroom and schoolwide research on subject matter integration. Schwab's four common places—including the learner, the teacher, the content, and the context—provide a framework for examining subject matter integration from a language arts perspective. Two lines of classroom-based research are examined that were conducted in response to the lack of integration within the curriculum: Explanation and Responsive Elaboration in Reading and Cognitive Strategies in Writing. As a result of these two lines of research, researchers became more aware of the importance of understanding the complexity of integrating process into content within the context of the classroom and the school. A major shift toward schoolwide integration in two Professional Development School settings is described that was created in response to these research findings. Teachers and researchers within specific contexts generated and implemented integrated instruction and curriculum content collaboratively. The authors conclude with emerging questions and principles for stimulating thinking among teachers and researchers who work toward furthering understanding of language and subject matter integration within specific contexts.     

Learning by doing, vintage, and selection: Three pieces of the puzzle relating teaching experience and teaching performance

This article points out that the puzzling nature of the evidence concerning the relationship between teaching experience and teaching performance is due at least in part to the research methodology used to study this relationship, in particular to the use of cross-sectional data on teachers. With cross-sectional data, the variable of interest—years of teaching experience—reflects three different phenomena: learning by doing, vintage and selection. These phenomena are explained and their influence on the relationship between experience and performance observed in a cross section of teachers is discussed. It is then shown that the impact of learning by doing on teaching performance is significantly increased when the impact is estimated in a model that explicitly accounts for vintage effects.     

Renaming experience/reconstructing practice: Developing new understanding of teaching

Although teacher-thinking research is now well established, the specific mechanisms through which teachers construct new understandings of their teaching have not been closely examined. This paper presents four interrelated concepts—teachers' conceptions of practice, tensions in their practice, articulation, and local and professional language—which emerged as grounded categories from a longitudinal study of change in teachers' practice. The study focused on how a group of foreign language teachers integrated new ideas, encountered in an inservice masters' degree program, in their thinking about and activity in the classroom. The analysis traced the ways in which the teachers reconstructed their classroom practice, using professional discourse to rename their experience and thus to assign new or different meanings to their actions. The concepts, presented with illustrations from the study and accompanying analysis, have implications for research on teaching and teacher education as well as the design and execution of teacher education programs.     

Piaget's theory and the teaching of arithmetic

Conclusion For centuries, education has been a folk art based on tradition and opinions called philosophies. With the advent of associationism and behaviourism, however, education began to enter a scientific era. Now that we have Piaget's constructivism—a more adequate scientific theory—it is time to change the way arithmetic is taught in elementary schools.I hope educators and researchers in other countries will also experiment in classrooms to test the hypothesis that I tested. Because logico-mathematical knowledge is universal and the same in all cultures, I expect the same kinds of results in other countries.Constructivist teaching is much harder than the teaching of algorithms and correcting of worksheets. However, in spite of this difficulty, an increasing number of teachers in the United States are becoming convinced of the truth of Piaget's constructivism. When these teachers encounter children's originality and intelligence that they have not observed before, they are truly overjoyed. Once they have seen the possibility that exists in each child, these teachers do not think of going back to their old ways of teaching.Constance Kamii studied under Jean Piaget, Barbel Inhelder and Hermina Sinclair in the late 1960s and during the 1970s and subsequently developed a pre-school curriculum based on Piaget's theory. She later extended this work to mathematics education in the first three grades and is now working at the fourth and fifth grade level. She has taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the University of Geneva, and is now a professor of education at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in the United States.I am grateful to Janice K. Ewing for critically reading a draft of this paper and making helpful suggestions.     

Intracultural Travel or Adventures at Home in The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

Rather than look at children as they move between cultures, this article examines the child protagonists of The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm as they move within their own culture. Although this multi-cultural novel is from the science fiction genre, the psychological reality of encountering different peoples holds true. Tendai, Rita, and Kuda are unique characters: they live in isolation within their own culture. This isolation allows the children to experience each segment of their culture as if they were outsiders to it. Both the narrator and narrative are set up to help the reader find the various subcultures visited as lacking—this despite several overt statements about not making judgments. In the end, what could be a novel of understanding and acceptance turns out to be a terrific adventure story, but rather typical in that any culture that is not the protagonist's own is dangerous and inferior.     

Reconsidering assessment: From checklist to dialectic

When composition teachers evaluate student essays, how well-aligned is their grading practice with what those teachers profess is important about writing? How do instructors discover this alignment? This article describes the consequences of inadvertent misalignment by analyzing a document typically found in many writing programs—an instructor's essay evaluation checklist. A critique of this common assessment instrument reveals that, in trying to promote evaluative consistency, the checklist privileges product over process, the authority of academic discourse over the autonomy of students' own voices, and an analytic predisposition to student writing as opposed to an instructor's reader-response. In so doing, the checklist undercuts the kind of composition pedagogy instructors claim to espouse in their classroom practice. Perhaps these conflicts cannot be overcome, but, in response to this precarious predicament, this essay poses this question: Can assessment find its direction and vitality by acknowledging such conflicts? A dual heuristic, of sorts, is proposed for locating assessment techniques that directly address the conflicts inherent in the checklist. This heuristic seeks out in assessment what the checklist clearly lacks: dialogic and dialectic dimensions. Defining which assessment methods best fulfill this heuristic—and in so doing more honestly align pedagogy with evaluation—is the purpose of the concluding remarks in this essay.