Swiss student‐teachers' views of social pedagogy

In recent years a number of policy and practice initiatives concerning pastoral care in schools in England have led to schools increasingly being expected to take a leading role in addressing a widening range of concerns regarding the welfare, care and education of children, and in working more closely with parents and other professional agencies in addressing these. This has included a consideration of the notion of ‘social pedagogy’ as widely practiced in mainland Europe. This paper explores the views of student‐teachers in Switzerland, a country where social pedagogy is well developed, regarding the role of the school in addressing pupil problems. The findings indicate that these Swiss student‐teachers felt schools should take the lead role primarily in areas regarding poor academic progress, bullying, general misbehaviour and disaffection, and less so in areas of a more personal nature for pupils where schools may be less accountable. The findings provide some pointers concerning how Swiss student‐teachers would benefit from greater attention being given to considering such pastoral care issues in their training course.     

Effectiveness of using learner‐centered principles on student retention in distance education courses in rural schools

This article examines the effectiveness of training facilitators in secondary schools to follow APA learner‐centered principles to support learners in distance education. The study was a cluster‐randomized control trial with 36 match pairs of schools and 246 students in the rural USA. The schools were selected at random and assigned at random to treatment condition. Instructors were blind to the treatment condition as were the local facilitators and schools. Data on length of time spent in the course and whether students completed the semester were analyzed. The results indicated that students in the intervention condition completed the first semester at a statistically higher rate than control students where facilitators did not have this training. The number of weeks students remained in the course was likewise statistically different with students in the intervention condition staying in the course more weeks holding instructor constant.     

Lived meanings: what teachers mean when they say they are learner‐centered

While the term ‘learner‐centered’ is invoked in many curriculum standards documents, packaged curriculum materials, mission statements and criticisms of educational practice, there is little agreement on its meaning. Shallow understandings and conflicting practices abound. And rarely do the meanings ascribed to the term take into account the meanings of thoughtful teachers who live learner‐centered approaches daily in their work. Here we introduce lived meanings of learner‐centeredness found in the personal and professional histories of experienced teachers. Data were gathered in interviews that took the form of focused conversations which yielded elaborated stories and reflections that suggest that learner‐centeredness is a concept that cannot be captured in finite, static, unquestioned definitions. The teachers’ lived meanings are expressed in fine‐grained detail, are embedded in particular settings and the teachers’ own personal and professional histories, go beyond surface features of practice and are in motion and unfinished. Taken together, these lived meanings have the potential to challenge and deepen current understandings of learner‐centered practices. Further, they have the potential to bring humanity, humility and integrity to the work of those who engage in these practices and of those who would support or criticize them.     

Enhancing student self‐worth in the primary school learning environment: teachers' views and students' views

This paper reports the findings from a study of teachers and students' views regarding self‐worth in the primary school learning environment. The revised New Zealand curriculum recognises the importance of self‐worth in students' motivation and ability to learn. While the need to enhance self‐worth in the classroom has been well established in the literature, similarities and differences between teachers and students' understanding of the impact of various classroom interactions on self‐worth has not received the same attention. The purpose of the research reported on in this paper was to provide further insight for teachers, thereby enabling them to strengthen classroom relationships and their students' learning experiences in ways commensurate with enhancing students' feelings of self‐worth.     

Effects of learner–instructor relationship-building strategies in online video instruction

Although research has demonstrated that an increased rapport between instructors and learners can positively relate with increased learning gains, perhaps mediated by the positive attitudes toward the course and self-efficacy beliefs in the coursework, little has been done to test what instructional strategies might increase this rapport in online video-based instruction. This study compared online video-based instruction that made use of relationship-building strategies with online video-based instruction that did not use those strategies. The two instructions were identical in every other way. The results show that the attitudes of the college students were positively affected by the relationship building strategies in a statistically significant way (p = .025) and that learning gains were also positively affected at a very near-significant level (p = .052). The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Working‐class parents' views of secondary education

Parents of upper‐secondary students in public schools in New South Wales, Australia, gave accounts of their experience of education and their wider thinking about educational issues. Working‐class families are bearers of educational histories which are often difficult or truncated, leaving parents with little familiarity with upper‐secondary or post‐school pathways. General views of education are strongly positive, sometimes diffuse and sometimes articulated, and are by no means narrowly instrumental. A mixture of criticism and praise for teachers responds to current family experiences with schools, parents' views often following the outlines of teachers' own perceptions. A fund of working‐class support for public education has thus survived recent educational upheavals; at the same time, working‐class families very much depend on the service and guidance provided by the schools.     

Correction of cleft‐palate speech by phonetic instruction

Speech Communication: A Brief Textbook. By William Norwood Brigance. New York: F. S. Crofts, 1947; pp. 220. $1.75.

Basic Training in Speech. By Lester Thonssen and Howard Gilkinson. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1947; pp. viii+551. $3.25.

Basic Principles of Speech. Revised Edition. By Lew Sarett and William Trufant Foster. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1946; pp. 592. $3.25.

Notebook for Public Speaking: A College Course in Basic Principles. By Ray Ehrensberger and Elaine Pagel. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1946; pp. x + 166.

Four Who Spoke Out. By Robert T. Oliver. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1946; pp. x+196. $2.50.

Mass Persuasion: The Psychology of a War Bond Drive. By Robert E. Merton, assisted by Marjorie Fiske and Alberta Curtis. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1946; pp. 210. $2.50.

Handbook for Discussion Leaders. By J. Jeffery Auer and Henry Lee Ewbank. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1947; pp. 118. $1.75.

The Church Across the Street. By Reginald D. Manwell and Sophia Lyon Fahs. Boston: The Beacon Press, 1946; pp. 272. $2.50.

A Guide for Teachers Using The Church Across The Street. By Sophia Lyon Fahs and Reginald D. Manwell. Boston: The Beacon Press, 1946; pp. 21. 50c.

Oral Reading. By Lionel Crocker and Louis M. Eich. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1947; pp. 507. $4.25.

Are You Telling Them? By Bess Sondel. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1947; pp. 292. $2.95.

Speech for the Classroom Teacher. Revised Edition. By Dorothy I. Mulgrave. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1946; pp. 423. $3.75.

American Speech. Revised edition. By Wilhelmina Hedde and W. Norwood Brigance. New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1946; pp. xi + 596. $1.96.

Manual of American Dialects: for Radio, Stage, Screen and Television. By Lewis Helmar Herman and Marguerite Shalett Herman. Chicago: Ziff‐Davis Publishing Company, 1947; pp. xvii + 326. $6.00.

Visible Speech. By Ralph K. Potter, George A. Kopp, and Harriet C. Green. New York: T. Van Nostrand Company, 1947; pp. 441. $4.75.

Speech Correction: Principles and Methods. Revised edition. By C. Van Riper. New York: Prentice‐Hall, 1947; pp. 470. $4.00.

Training the Singing Voice. By Victor Alexander Fields. New York: King's Crown Press, 1947; pp. x + 337. $4.00.

Your Voice and Your Speech: Self‐Training for Better Speaking. By Beatrice Desfousses. New York: Cattell and Company, Inc., 1946; pp. xiii + 224. $3.50.

Sleeping Beauty. By Agnes Curran Hamm. Milwaukee: The Tower Press, 1946; pp. 12. 50 cents.

Man Against Myth. By Barrows Dunham. Boston: Little, Brown, 1947; pp. 316.

How To Create Sound Effects for Home Recordings. By Ed Ludes and Hallock B. Hoffman. California: The Castle Press, 1946; pp. 90. $1.50.

Remembrance of Amherst. An Undergraduate's Diary 1846–1847 (William Gardiner Hammond). Edited by George F. Whicher. New York: Columbia University Press, 1946; pp. 307. $3.00.     

‘Let's go outside’: Icelandic teachers' views of using the outdoors

This article discusses the views of 25 Icelandic preschool and compulsory school teachers who were interviewed on the role of the outdoor environment in children's learning. The teachers reported not being afraid to take children outside. These teachers valued the learning potentials of the outdoors more than they feared the possible risks. They believed that the outdoors could provide opportunities for (a) enhancing children's play and learning (b) promoting children's health, well-being, and courage, and (c) affecting children's views, knowledge, and actions towards sustainability.     

Assessing learner‐centredness through course syllabi

One attempt to revitalise undergraduate education has been by shifting the dominant pedagogy to a learner‐centred focus and supporting an emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and learning. The discussion regarding efforts to refocus undergraduate education to be more intentional by moving towards a learner‐centred paradigm is encouraging, yet it is crucial to acknowledge that most of the effort and literature on the learner‐centred paradigm and the scholarship of teaching and learning have necessarily focused on strategies for the classroom. It is equally important for administrators to consider the impact of the paradigm shift on their roles. Assessment and evaluation are the very core of the learner‐centred paradigm. Assessment is both the single‐most important gage of learning that drives the educational process and the most effective means of implementing institutional change. In this article, the authors offer a means of assessing the degree of learner‐centredness in current teaching practices through a systematic review of course syllabi. Using a rubric developed for this purpose the authors have reviewed course syllabi in order to develop a benchmark for the degree of learner‐centredness present in current teaching practices and employed the results as a vehicle for planning professional development.     

Student‐teachers' concerns about teaching practice

The essence of helping student‐teachers lies in an exploration of their concerns about teaching. Based on this assumption, the current study aimed to explore student‐teachers' concerns and potential topics of reflection, following their teaching experiences. The analysis of fifty‐nine journals revealed the complex pattern of past and future‐oriented concerns relevant to students' personal and professional identity, the mission and fading of the teaching profession, and the emotional dimensions of teaching. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion about developing growth‐producing experiences for student‐teachers through their teaching practice.

Die Erforschung der Interessen und Sorgen von Lehrerstudierenden bezüglich des Lehrens stellt eine wesentliche Hilfe für sie dar. Auf der Grundlage dieser Einschätzung bestand das Ziel dieser Studie darin, zu explorieren, auf welche Thematiken und Interessen sich die Reflexionen der Lehrerstudierenden, im Zusammenhang ihrer Lehrerfahrung, beziehen. Die Analyse von 59 Zeitschriften brachte diesbezüglich folgende Sachverhalte zu Tage: es existiert ein komplexes Muster von Vergangenheits‐ und Zukunftsorientierten Interessen, die relevant für die personale und die professionelle Identität der Studierenden sind; das Auf und Ab der Lehrerprofession; die emotionalen Dimensionen des Lehrens. Dieser Aufsatz will zu den laufenden Diskussionen über die über ihre Lehrpraxis vermittelt Schaffung von entwicklungsermöglichenden Erfahrungen für Lehrerstudierende beitragen.     

Student‐teachers' evaluation on the use of different modes of problem‐based learning in teacher education

Problem‐based learning (PBL) has been widely adopted in many university programmes. Evaluations of PBL in medicine, dentistry, nursing and social work reveal positive outcomes from both tutors and learners. However, few evaluations have been published about using PBL in teacher education programmes. This paper reports how the 13 student‐teachers in the Integrated Humanities Major Method course evaluated the use of three different modes of PBL delivery, namely: the classical PBL; an alternate pattern of PBL and teacher‐led deductive workshops; and a modified PBL using problem‐based scenario inductive inquiry workshops. The learning experiences of the student‐teachers were captured via an open‐ended questionnaire to discuss the feasibility and receptivity of endorsing full or partial use of PBL in the teacher education programme. The outcome shows strong preference for the use of the modified PBL approach while the majority agreed the classical PBL style is the most challenging among the three modes.     

Learning to teach in a context of education reform: liberal studies student teachers' decision‐making in lesson planning

Liberal studies is a new subject in the new senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong. This study attempted to identify factors that shape liberal studies student teachers' decisions in lesson planning. Based on interview data and lesson plans developed by the student teachers, this article maintains that four factors interacted with the subject features of liberal studies to shape the student teachers' planning decisions, namely, teacher knowledge, curriculum requirements, materials and resources, and interaction with equal and more capable partners. This paper further looks into how teacher knowledge expresses itself at different stages of lesson planning. The findings suggest that to facilitate enquiry learning in students, liberal studies teachers need to adopt an enquiry stance in lesson planning. This paper argues that the limitations of liberal studies student teachers' content knowledge need to be addressed in teacher preparation programmes and suggests teacher networking as one way to strengthen novice liberal studies teachers' content preparation. The implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Social partnerships in learning： Negotiating disenfranchised learner identities

A study of disenfranchised learners in a regional area found that their engagement in formal education was influenced by their learner identities, their perceptions of themselves as learners, and the identity resources on which they draw. Understanding the disconnects between individuals＇, communities＇ and educational institutions＇ assumptions about learning engagement impacted on the types of identities on which learners drew and the efficacy of those identities in negotiating new learning experiences. Developing innovative and successful approaches to engage disenfranchised regional learners in training necessitates effective partnership and the recognition of diverse knowledge systems as they relate to the worlds of work, community engagement and learning. Social partnerships in learning frameworks were the key in describing the interactions between agents, they are the interagency and interdisciplinary relationships that enable effective learning in different disciplines, workplaces and training sites. Social partnerships in learning frameworks are used to examine diverse knowledge systems, develop capacity building processes and understand the underlying relationships that facilitate connections, engagement and decision-making between government, non-government, enterprise, community, stakeholders and individuals. This paper will examine disenfranchised learners＇ identities and the role of learning partnerships in developing strong learner identities and re-engaging regional learners.     

The role of metacognition in reading‐accuracy learning and instruction

Abstract

Effective metacognition powerfully supports actioning of complex tasks. The complexity of English orthography makes mastery of reading accuracy (word identification) an extremely complex task. At‐risk readers thus are likely to benefit greatly from effective metacognition of reading accuracy. Optimal reading‐accuracy instruction involves development of conceptual, procedural and conditional knowledges, evidenced in concept and skills development, strategy usage and metacognitive actioning. It is considered likely that metacognition of reading accuracy and metacognition of cognitive processing both support reading‐accuracy mastery in children with reading disability. Student metacognition (baseline and learned) and the role of instructional scaffolding as metacognitive supports are considered integral aspects of skill mastery and generalisation. Needs for research on metacognition in reading‐accuracy development are discussed.     

Contextual challenges of implementing learner‐centred pedagogy: the case of the problem‐solving approach in Uganda

This article explores teachers’ experiences of implementing the problem‐solving approach; a learner centred pedagogic innovation prescribed by a centrally mandated curriculum in Uganda. It presents teachers’ interpretations of the pedagogic principles suggested by the innovation as well as their accounts of challenges of implementing the pedagogic approach. The findings suggest that the teachers’ implementation of the problem‐solving approach was far more regulated by contextual affordances and constraints within schools and the broader education system and society than by their interpretations of the official curriculum. These findings highlight the influence of structural contextual factors in regulating pedagogic practice and teachers’ take‐up of learner‐centred pedagogies in Africa. The evidence from this paper suggests the need for education researchers in developing countries such as Uganda to focus on helping teachers develop strategies for teaching large classes as learner‐centred pedagogies have a bleak future in the region.