Fostering collaborative teaching and learning scholarship through an international writing group initiative

The research presented here explored the experiences of participants in an international collaborative writing group (ICWG) initiative that ran in conjunction with the 2012 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) conference. The ICWG sought to cultivate collaborative pedagogical scholarship by bringing together a range of international academics to co-author articles on teaching and learning topics of shared interest. Data were collected via online surveys at the beginning and end of the initiative and interim focus groups/interviews. In addition to suggesting that the ICWG is an effective means of fostering collaborative writing, the results point to a number of factors that might also influence collaboration in other contexts: modes of collaboration, opportunities for social dialogue, developing a shared vision and voice, and leadership. Implications and applications of the findings, as well as areas of further research, are discussed.     

中非职业教育合作的理念与路径

经过多年发展,职业教育国际合作已逐渐形成项目化运作、协同化发展、多元化参与的实践格局。在"一带一路"建设及构建人类命运共同体进程中,作为职业教育国际合作重要组成部分的中非职业教育合作,被赋予更加多元化的内涵使命,也存在一些发展瓶颈。因此,需要在中非战略合作框架下积极探索职业教育合作的新模式,通过筑牢合作理念、创新实践路径、深化内涵建设、构建协同格局等深化路径,努力构建中非职业教育共同体。     

LEAD at lunch: inquiry,learning, and action

This account of practice discusses the author's experience in facilitating a small group of managers in health care over lunchtime utilizing an action learning approach. This was part of a larger leadership development initiative which took place in the organization and the intention was to create a more intimate, informal and safe setting whereby the group could further delve into the collaborative learning process, explore issues around leadership, garner feedback about the formal programming, gain insight into larger organizational issues, and perhaps develop strategies for change. Outcomes achieved include better meeting management, revision of an organizational communication forum, the development of a training program for performance management, as well as plans for more collaboration with upper administration and the development of a mentoring program. In summary, this venue created a supportive space whereby all aspects of a problem could be explored and resolutions could be formulated and acted upon.     

CDIO在中国(上)

CDIO工程教育模式是近年来国际工程教育改革的新成果,在世界各地多所大学进行了实施并取得很好的成效。自2005年汕头大学率先实施CDIO工程教育改革以来,在教育部高教司理工处的指导和支持下,全国几十所试点高校和许多非试点院校实施CDIO改革,取得了很好的效果。汕头大学等试点高校重新思考工程教育改革的模式与路径,对人才培养的各个方面与相应的管理机制进行了重新构建,在明确专业培养目标、制定专业培养标准、构建一体化课程计划、实施探究式教与学方法、建立保障与持续改进体系等方面进行了实践和创新。CDIO在中国的普及和实践,也为高质量实施"卓越工程师教育培养计划"打下了良好的基础,起到了积极的推进作用。本文对6年来CDIO在汕头大学及其它试点高校的实践和推广情况进行了回顾和总结,对中国工程教育面临的挑战和存在的问题给出了观察与思考,并对CDIO在中国作出展望。     

A tool for capacity building: teacher professional learning about teaching writing

This paper reports on qualitative research from an Australian, K-6, faith-based school about teachers’ experience of a job-embedded professional learning initiative (the Whole-School Benchmarking of Writing, WSBoW) that was designed to improve teachers’ capacity to apply data-driven decision-making to achieve improvements in student learning. Teacher interviews provided the data about experiences and influences on teching practice. The findings demonstrated that the professional learning initiative provided teachers with a supportive pedagogical tool for focusing their teaching practices on improving student learning. A research based evaluative framework was used as a heuristic to analyse the change initiative. This study used the framework and employed a social constructivist and sociocultural epistemology that recognised the importance of leadership and school context in the development of a culture focused on collaborative communities of practice and data-driven teacher decision-making. The study has significance for leaders, schools and systems that engage teachers in professional capacity building.     

Learner‐centered leadership: a mentoring model for the professional development of school administrators

The Learner‐Centered Leadership program is a new initiative that provides professional development opportunities to school administrators through a mentoring model. The focus on learner‐centered leadership reflects renewed attention to the primary role of teaching and learning in the development of school leadership expertise. With a focus on learning, the need to create collaborative structures where trust, respect and communication are promoted among the participants has been critical. In its first year, the project goal has been to develop the capacity for mentoring across districts. To create this capacity, the project has focused on building relationships among participants using a threefold process: formal workshops that introduce the districts and participants; informal gatherings that break down barriers and establish opportunities for networking; and a series of problem‐solving initiatives called a team challenge that require participants work together, communicate and cooperate to solve the challenging activities.     

“一带一路”战略下跨国校际协作学习活动评价指标体系构建研究

"一带一路"倡议下,跨国校际协作学习开始受到广泛重视和普遍推行,但当前还缺乏对跨国校际协作学习活动设计、实施与效果评价的系统研究。跨国校际协作学习活动效果评价对提高跨国校际协作学习质量至关重要,全面科学的评价也是跨国校际协作学习活动开展的内在动力。研究采用文献分析法、德尔菲法和层次分析法构建了以"学习者对活动的满意度""学习者深度学习能力"及"资源的积累和转换"为一级指标的跨国校际协作学习活动评价指标体系,以期为"一带一路"倡议下跨国校际协作学习活动效果提供评量标准,为跨国校际协作学习活动设计提供改进依据。     

Making Soweto stories: photovoice meets the New Literacy Studies

Adult literacy is a crucial element of community and economic development in South Africa and many developing countries striving to meet Millennium Development Goals. However, few governments invest the recommended 6% of education budgets on programmes for adults. Without resources, volunteer educators and international supporters rely on their own creativity to generate project-based learning. Freirian pedagogy and the New Literacy Studies, which theorizes literacy practices grounded in the meaning of daily life, inform this study. This article documents a photovoice project for literacy development in Soweto, South Africa. The project was an initiative stemming from international and cross-cultural collaboration between two women, Geraldine Monama, the literacy coordinator at Orlando East library in Soweto, and Strawn, a community development and adult literacy researcher from the United States. We report what we learned from the project and details of the collaborative process to support similar efforts.     

Building collective leadership capacity using collaborative twenty-first century digital tools

The current research explores how using collaborative twenty-first century digital tools developed the collective leadership capacity among participants in an educational leadership course. A qualitative interpretive approach was used. The data show how learning within the digital collaborative spaces was multidirectional and enhanced the possibilities of each student’s learning and practice. Communicating, curating and sharing knowledge, led to the development of new insights and support of mutual practice. The authors argue that the group’s collaborative endeavours produced substantive collective knowledge that elevated practice, and in so doing created collective leadership capacity within educational institutions and organisations in Trinidad and Tobago.     

Conceptualizing educational leadership in an academic development program

Promoting the development of educational leadership in higher education is essential for strengthening the quality of teaching and learning. Additional research is needed to conceptualize educational leadership, especially within informal roles. We analysed how faculty members in an academic development program conceptualized educational leadership. Five key characteristics emerged that inform the development of educational leadership capacity in postsecondary contexts: affective qualities, mentoring and empowering, action-orientation, teaching excellence, and research and scholarship. Three characteristics of academic programs aimed at developing educational leadership were also identified: funding and resources to implement a change initiative, building interdisciplinary communities, and embracing identity.     

Collaborative practitioner research: opening a third space for local knowledge production

Early childhood education and care is currently experiencing unprecedented policy interest and expansion. This policy and practice landscape requires new forms of adaptive leadership, new spaces for production of the knowledge necessary for this changing context, and tools that can support the development of leadership qualities. This paper examines the potential of practitioner research to produce contextually relevant knowledge and to develop leadership capacity. Our findings show that collaborative practitioner research groups provide a relatively safe environment for the sharing of dilemmas and critical reflections. The practitioners who participated in this research wanted access to narratives of change in typically resourced early childhood contexts as well as in the more highly resourced settings that are more often reflected in academic research and literature. This suggests there is a need for much more of this work to be publicly available. These groups can generate the courage required to open practice based research to public critique. This, we argue is an important element of activist leadership. Collaborative practitioner research opens up the possibility for practitioners to position themselves as knowledge producers and to revitalize the knowledge base that informs teacher education in the academy. In supporting this move, academics need to position themselves as resource gathers and co-learners thus opening a third space for knowledge production. The challenges for the profession are how to fund and effectively disseminate collaborative practitioner research and how to draw it into dialogue with other forms of research.     

Relays and relations: tracking a policy initiative for improving teacher professionalism

This paper offers a new way of exploring some of the complexities inherent in attempts by policy makers and others to promote educational change. The focus of this study is on the current drive in education policy to alter the basis of teacher professionalism through the application of principles of lifelong learning to teachers’ professional development. Drawing upon data from two studies of the Chartered Teacher (CT) initiative in Scotland the paper examines the formation of successive transmission points as material relays of relations during the process of implementing this policy objective. It explores how three key discursive elements of a professional standard for accomplished teaching: collaborative action, critical reflection and enquiry, and teacher leadership, were progressively recontextualised during the introduction of CT status in schools. The findings indicate some of the conceptual and political struggles involved at the critical junctures where policy implementation requires the movement of a discourse from one social context to another. The paper suggests that a discursive analysis of how a centrally mandated initiative is transmitted can help to promote an understanding of the complexities of this process and increase critical awareness of the issues at stake for those involved.     

Action learning: developing leaders and supporting change in a healthcare context

This account of practice outlines how action learning was used as the key component of a leadership development initiative for managers in an acute hospital setting. It explains how the initiative was conceived, why action learning was chosen and how action learning principles were incorporated. Insights into the outcomes and considerations for the future are also included.     

Factors affecting departmental peer collaboration for faculty development: Two cases in context

This paper extends current research on departmentalpeer collaboration as a means of faculty development. Given the potential advantages of such situateddevelopmental activities, the need for furtherresearch is pressing. The study reported hereexamines two different cases of department-based,practice-centered peer inquiry projects; one set in adepartment of history and one in a department ofmechanical engineering. Both departmental projectswere part of a larger initiative on the peer review ofteaching coordinated by the American Association forHigher Education.The aim of this study is to illuminate factors thatcan influence the nature, development and impact ofsuch collaborative activities. The leadership,structure and outcomes of each department's projectare compared and contrasted. The role of departmentalculture is considered, through an investigation ofpotential influences from the discipline andinstitution, as well as from departmental history. Factors such as the norms of scholarly collaboration,standard work patterns, the presence or absence ofexternal curricular standards, university status,faculty autonomy and morale are discussed.     

The efficacy of small internal networks for improving schools

Through two school case studies in Cyprus, in this paper I explore the role of small internal collaborative networks in promoting school improvement. The analysis of the two cases revealed a series of interrelated themes which indicated issues related to school improvement, and actually, it provided evidence that small internal collaborative networks could contribute to school improvement. This contribution was related to the development of interest in the learning of children coming from vulnerable groups, to the creation of conditions for more effective leadership and management within the schools, and to changes in the culture of the schools.     

Student attitudes to blogs: a case study of reflective and collaborative learning

The aim of this study is to evaluate the capacity of an e-learning tool (blog) to facilitate reflection among students as part of collaborative group learning. The paper provides insights into student attitudes towards blogs as an interactive and reflective learning tool. Additionally, the study highlights the differences between domestic and international student attitudes towards reflection as part of collaborative learning in groups. The results indicate that international students consistently viewed the use of e-learning tools more positively than domestic students. For educators, the results provide direction in terms of enhancements to assessment tasks incorporating e-learning, including the professional development of staff to address the rapidly changing learning environment.     

The School Leadership Initiative: An Ethically Flawed Project?

This paper considers the conception of leadership and management found in the UK government's school leadership initiative. It contrasts earlier 'scientific' theory with the more recent 'humanistic' theory on which the initiative appears to be based, and finds that they share significant features and flaws. Moreover, despite the moral tone of the new initiative, it finds on examination that it is based on an emotivist theory of ethics that in practice may require the headteacher to be manipulative in her leadership and management of the school. Finally, it outlines an alternative conception of leadership.     

Collaboration in open and distance learning: The realities of policy implementation in the Africa region

Abstract

In this article the Sub-Saharan Africa region's attempt to implement open and distance learning collaboration programmes, in line with the ideals of the World Declaration on Education for All (WDEFA), are discussed. The discussion is based on an analysis of the WDEFA policy; participation in, minutes and reports of the Multi-Channel Learning Base (MCLB) initiative; and a brief review of the literature on policy and ODL collaboration. The conclusions drawn from this analysis are that: the WDEFA was a useful policy on international collaboration for meeting basic learning needs; the MCLB initiative, though laudable in having shared in three regional activities of ODL experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and having developed a regional ODL programme of action, was unsuccessful in implementing collaborative programmes in the region. The reasons for the MCLB's failure relate to unrealistic timeframes, lack of resources, preference for national rather than international programmes, and the proposed location of the MCLB.     

Consultative Paper on the Secondary School Curriculum

After introducing the author, some themes central to the article are explored through one school's eight year involvement with the Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) school's improvement initiative. A short account of Sharnbrook Upper Schools evolving journey is presented, based around three different models. From this issues related to maintenance and development, and to leadership are explored. The final phase of the article suggests limitations to the models of transactional and transformational leadership as a means of providing leadership for the long haul in school improvement. Deriving from an analysis of contemporary research about leadership and from grounded understandings about alternative approaches to leadership (in both principle and practice) new leadership themes are presented, which are based around values, shared leadership contexts and capacity creation through learning.     

Promoting the development of backbone teachers through University-School Collaborative Research: the case of New Basic Education (NBE) reform in China

ABSTRACT

The image of backbone teachers has long informed the modern-era Chinese educational system. Backbone teachers play leadership and modeling roles in school-based groups of teachers focusing on research, lesson planning, and grade development. China’s New Basic Education (NBE) reform, which differs from previous Chinese reforms, aims to systematically transform schools in order to respond to contemporary social and economic changes. NBE views the development of individual subjectivity as education’s ultimate goal. Teachers’ roles need to shift from transferring knowledge to students to constructing knowledge with students and from teacher-as-curriculum-implementer to teacher-as-curriculum-maker and knowledge constructor. Backbone teachers are foundational to the NBE reform. In this article, we introduce the NBE initiative, and elaborate how NBE nurtures backbone teachers so they can ‘model as leaders; [and lead] other teachers as backbones’ in the reform. To end, the national and international implications associated with our case are discussed, along with future research suggestions.