Developing an Assessment Stance in Primary Art Education in England

Many English primary teachers find the notion of assessing children's work in art difficult. This paper reports on work carried out with non‐art‐specialist primary teachers’ and student teachers’ use of a three‐point assessment model and related tasks, which supported teachers and students to engage critically with children's development, or lack of it, in observational drawing. This enabled teachers and students to develop appropriate planning and differentiated strategies for children's work in art. Equally important is that in engaging with these assessment tasks they were able to develop aspects of the critical language needed for teaching and learning in art.     

Behavioural objectives in a reading programme: An experiment

Maria Edgeworth was a nineteenth century novelist, primarily remembered for her adult and children's novels. Yet her book, Letters for literary ladies discussed the importance of science education for girls and in conjunction with her father, Richard Edgeworth, she wrote several treatises on education. Their book Practical education advocates an inquiry approach to teaching science and also using scientific practices, such as observation and data collection, to examine and plan children's education. They emphasised the importance and the role of experimentation, observation and critical thinking in the development of children's knowledge, skills and attitudes towards learning. However, the history of science education has to date ignored this seminal work and Maria's contributions to women's science education.     

The role of a children's mathematical thinking experience in the preparation of prospective elementary school teachers

Historically, content preparation and pedagogical preparation of teachers in California have been separated. Recently, in integrating these areas, many mathematics methodology instructors have incorporated children's thinking into their courses, which are generally offered late in students’ undergraduate studies. We have implemented and studied a model for integrating mathematical content and children's mathematical thinking earlier, so that prospective elementary school teachers (PSTs) engage with children's mathematical thinking while enrolled in their first mathematics course. PSTs’ work with children in the Children's Mathematical Thinking Experience (CMTE) may enhance their mathematical learning. Preliminary study results indicate that the sophistication of CMTE students’ beliefs about mathematics, teaching, and learning increased more than the sophistication of beliefs held by students enrolled in a reform-oriented early field experience and that experiences considering children's mathematical thinking provided PSTs with increased motivation for learning mathematics.     

The Wheels of the Bus: Children designing in an early years classroom

Many claims have been made for the value of design in the school curriculum. This case study, of young children's designs in an early years design, make and appraise (DMA) classroom, examined several issues related to these claims, including the connection between designing and making, the purpose of drawing for young children, children's understandings about the design process, types of images used by young children and children's attitudes to designing. The role of the teacher in the children's understanding of the design / drawing process was explored. The study revealed that design for young children is a complex topic requiring a range of sophisticated teaching and learning strategies.     

Measuring challenge,fun and sterility on a ‘phunometre’ scale: evaluating creative teaching and learning with children and their student teachers in the primary school

‘It was the funnest week in the whole history of funnest weeks’: our case study, the second phase in a three-phase research project, evaluates the successes and limitations of creative teaching and learning during the ‘The Creative and Effective Curriculum’ module for PGCE primary student teachers which includes a one-week placement in school. Student teachers', children's and teachers' perspectives pointed to a range of factors necessary for effective and creative teaching and learning. These included learning which is ‘fun’, achievement through intrinsic motivation, willingness to take risks and learn from mistakes, children's ownership of learning and the teacher's role as facilitator. Our findings enabled us to formulate ‘phunometre scales’ which we suggest can be used to assess both the organisation of learning areas and also planned activities in terms of their capacity for learning which is both challenging and fun.     

Place-based education and pre-service teachers: a case study from India

Case studies of successful place-based education that involve international partnerships are rare. This article reports on an inclusive educational collaboration between pre-service teachers at an Australian university and primary and secondary school-aged children in a slum area of Delhi, India. Encouraged to undertake teaching that affirmed and extended the children's existing linguistic and cultural knowledge, the six teacher candidates collaboratively planned and implemented exemplary programmes geared to the children's interests and needs. This highly inclusive teaching and learning took various forms: a photographic project in the community, the collection of family portraits and stories, a dance and drama performance, and rich conversations on topics ranging from popular culture to politics. Using data drawn from observations of teaching, teacher candidate interviews and written reflections, and artefacts of student learning, this article analyses the processes and outcomes of this highly successful teaching. Essential to the success of this initiative was focused preparation that stressed cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity, a rejection of deficit notions about children and families living in slums, knowledge of Indian socio-political complexities, and a commitment to the building of equitable and ethical relationships with the Indian children and NGO staff. It is anticipated that this analysis will inform further attempts at place-based collaboration in the service of quality education.     

Exploring young children's performance on and acceptance of an educational scenario-based digital game for teaching route-planning strategies: a case study

Researchers suggest that game-based learning (GBL) can be used to facilitate mathematics learning. However, empirical GBL research that targets young children is still limited. The purposes of the study is to develop a scenario-based digital game to promote children's route-planning ability, to empirically explore children's learning performance in route planning through the game, and to probe children's technology acceptance of the game. A total of 71 children participated in the study, and both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used, including an interview analysis as well as performance and content analyses of learners’ route-planning tasks. The findings showed that the game had a positive effect on children's learning of route-planning strategies, that children's route-planning strategies were improved with the support of the game, and that children demonstrated high technology acceptance toward the game. This study may be of importance in offering insight into children's GBL.     

Moving Fiercely Linear Preservice Teachers into the Joys of Integrating Art in the Classroom: An Artist Residency in a University Early Childhood and Special Education Program

How can artist residencies for preservice teachers plant seeds for future classrooms? Teacher educators and a teaching artist describe a two-tiered residency in an early childhood and special education program that transformed preservice teachers' attitudes toward visual art and arts integration. Findings are based on teaching artist and instructor reflections as well as a qualitative analysis of student journal entries. Preservice teachers who had no prior art training and were resistant toward abstract painting began to enjoy it and appreciate the value of art for children's learning. They came to recognize visual art as a tool to support social development and children with special needs, understood the importance of process in children's art experiences, and considered ways to integrate art throughout the curriculum. We urge teacher educators and teaching artists to incorporate artist residencies into teacher education programs to prepare future teachers to integrate the arts into the classrooms of tomorrow.     

Imaginative interaction with Internet games. For children and teachers

This article explores children's imaginative interaction with Internet games in the belief that an understanding of children's life experiences is essential to effective teaching and learning within the classroom. It is underpinned by the idea that imaginative play is, at least in some part, the work of children undertaking identity practice. It focuses on a small group case study of 8‐ and 9‐year‐old children, from diverse cultural backgrounds, who were regular players on free‐access commercial Internet games. As children frequently perform imaginative narrative play both privately and in groups triggered from experiences with novels, films and television, the research initially focused on whether similar activities resulted from experiences with commercially sponsored free Internet game sites. If so, to what extent might these texts also influence children's creative output? To explore this, the children attended a weekly after‐school computer club during which they played on Internet games. During the course of the club sessions, each child was observed and interviewed about the experiences they had resulting from the gameplay. Through consideration of the children's play and opinions, the teacher researcher developed valuable insights into her students and their worlds to the benefit of her practice.     

Differential recognition of children's cultural practices in middle primary literacy classrooms

This paper argues that teachers' recognition of children's cultural practices is an important positive step in helping socio‐economically disadvantaged children engage with school literacies. Based on 21 longitudinal case studies of children's literacy development over a 3‐year period, the authors demonstrate that when children's knowledges and practices assembled in home and community spheres are treated as valuable material for school learning, children are more likely to invest in the work of acquiring school literacies. However, they also show that while some children benefit greatly from being allowed to draw on their knowledge of popular culture, sports and the outdoors, other children's interests may be ignored or excluded. Some differences in teachers' valuing of home and community cultures appeared to relate to gender dimensions.     

Reading lessons: teacher–pupil interactions with text during three KS1 shared reading sessions

Changes in the teaching of reading during the past decade include a shift away from a previous emphasis on ‘one‐to‐one’ learning experiences to a focus upon more communal forms of learning which place the teacher center stage. With the teacher's role thus highlighted, teacher–pupil interaction in practice has come under the spotlight, with a number of studies raising concerns about the quality of teaching taking place and suggesting this is featuring more traditional patterns of ‘IRF’ exchanges between teachers and pupils, which are limiting to children's learning. This article reports on a small‐scale study into teacher–pupil interaction styles during three Key Stage 1 ‘shared reading’ sessions – an activity in which teacher and children work together on an enlarged, illustrated text, with the teacher explicitly modeling components of the reading process to children. The article considers the more tacit modelling taking place during these sessions and how particular linguistic patterning used by teachers frames reading as an educational and cultural activity in ways that position children differentially in relation to it. In particular, it considers how variation in the use of the IRF exchange can mediate different cultural meanings about what it is to engage with text as a reader.     

Working with children in college: an evaluation of an exploratory it module with undergraduate primary student teachers

Abstract

Since 1991 all undergraduate primary student teachers at Chester have followed a Technology course. The distinctive pattern of our approach to Design & Technology has been acknowledged to be successful, but classroom use of Information Technology (IT) has not been as evident. This paper describes a small scale project which set out to replicate the essential elements of our approaches to Design & Technology and to apply them to Information Technology elements of the course. The outcome of the qualitative and quantitative research methods to monitor the effectiveness of the approaches are evaluated and discussed. Our tentative findings highlight the importance of students working with children using computers. Until the students had gained first hand experience of working with children in the classroom with IT, their concerns were more equipment-related than pedagogical. It would appear that students perceive issues of teaching and learning to be more important than concerns with their own IT capability after working with children. The integration of IT into students' professional coursework is identified as being influential in the development of their appreciation of the contribution IT can make to children's learning.     

Gender behaviors in an early childhood classroom through an ethnographic lens

The purpose of the study was to examine, using an ethnographic perspective, young children's gender behaviors. Four children, 3 to 5 years old, are described using videotaped observations of a university laboratory preschool. This study revealed, through individualprofiles of the children, that gender behaviors in early childhood are constructed by the individual interacting with her his social world. Also, gender behaviors were found to be integrated with other social processes, namely, student and peer behaviors. Finally, sociocultural and poststructuralist perspectives revealed the obvious and subtle gender behaviors of young children. Thus, researchers using ethnographic methods can explain the complexity in which children experience becoming a person .     

Broadening the lens: an investigation of student teachers' changing perceptions of pedagogy following a teaching placement in a primary school in mainland Europe

This paper presents the findings of an investigation of student teachers' changing perceptions of educational practice following a teaching placement in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Up to 900 primary languages, student teachers annually have spent a 4-week teaching placement in a partner country as an integral part of their initial teacher education programme. The aims of the bilateral experience were to improve students' subject knowledge as well as to offer opportunities to enhance their professional understanding through comparing practice in two distinct cultural settings. This study draws from both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from 122 postgraduate certificate in education student teachers who were following the primary language route at Canterbury Christ Church University and Liverpool Hope University. The findings show that through reflection and analysis of the differences and commonalties in the diverse cultural contexts, students develop a greater understanding of their professional role and a deeper insight into their own values and beliefs about pedagogy. Their acceptance of taken-for-granted norms is challenged during the bilateral placement, as they encounter new approaches to differentiated learning, teaching and learning strategies and teacher/pupil relationships, thus enhancing their levels of critical engagement with educational practice.     

Primary special school teachers' knowledge and beliefs about supporting learning in numeracy

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of a group of 12 teachers in primary special schools in Scotland for children with moderate learning difficulties. It sets out an analysis of classroom observations and interviews that explored teachers' knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning in mathematics with children with moderate learning difficulties. The teachers were interviewed pre‐ and post‐intervention; this was a research‐based professional development programme in children's mathematical thinking (Cognitively Guided Instruction) which teachers then developed in their classrooms. The findings showed that prior to the professional development, the teachers had a limited knowledge of children's mathematical development with teaching frequently informed by intuitive beliefs and dated and sometimes discredited practices. Most teachers had low expectations of children with learning difficulties. Post‐intervention, the teachers reviewed this stance and affirmed that a deeper understanding of children's mathematical thinking provided a more secure knowledge base for instruction. They also recognised the extent to which learners were constrained by existing classroom practices. The paper argues for the commonality of this knowledge base and considers the problematic nature of viewing such knowledge as sector specific.     

Enquiry-based science in the infant classroom: ‘letting go’

Enquiry-based science in primary classrooms is key to encouraging children's interest and curiosity about the world around them and as a result helps to stimulate their understanding and enjoyment of science. Yet many primary teachers lack the confidence to implement enquiry-based approaches effectively. The reasons are myriad and often result in the teacher controlling and orchestrating the lesson leaving little room for children's exploration and autonomy. This paper explores how one infant school teacher was willing to relinquish control and ‘let go’ and expand her pedagogical repertoire to manage the many obstacles to including enquiry-based science in her classroom. The autonomy the children were given resulted in genuine enquiry-based science with the consequential benefit to their learning. Furthermore the teacher's confidence and self-efficacy seem to have been raised ensuring that that she would continue to include enquiry-based science as part of her practice in the future. As a model for other primary teachers this approach could help them overcome their reticence to engage with enquiry-based science.     

Parental Involvement in Homework

The article reviews research on parental involvement in student homework. It is focused on understanding: why parents become involved in their children's homework; which activities and strategies they employ in the course of involvement; how their homework involvement influences student outcomes; and which student outcomes are influenced by parents' involvement. Findings suggest that parents involve themselves in student homework because they believe that they should be involved, believe that their involvement will make a positive difference, and perceive that their children or children's teachers want their involvement. Parents' involvement activities take many forms, from establishing structures for homework performance to teaching for understanding and developing student learning strategies. Operating largely through modeling, reinforcement, and instruction, parents' homework involvement appears to influence student success insofar as it supports student attributes related to achievement (e.g., attitudes about homework, perceptions of personal competence, self-regulatory skills). Recommendations for research focused on the processes and outcomes of parents' homework involvement are offered, as are suggestions for school practices to enhance the effectiveness of parental involvement in homework.     

The Literacy Hour: a case for listening to children

Despite a professional rhetoric about the importance of consulting children, there is reason to think that many teachers continue to disregard children's views in their dayto-day practice. The Literacy Hour, with its detailed content and prescribed pedagogic structure, leaves teachers, teaching assistants and children very little room for comment or change. This article reports on a small-scale interview study involving 48 children. The study aimed to understand children's experiences of the Literacy Hour. It is suggested that their comments should serve to inform professional practice. They raise important considerations related to teaching and learning and also provide reasons for questioning if the hour is as complete an answer to literacy teaching as it is claimed to be.     

Being taught to learn together: an ethnographic study of the curriculum in two Chinese kindergartens

This paper reports the findings of a pilot study which adopted an ethnographic approach to investigate the cultural features of the Chinese kindergarten curriculum by means of ‘semi‐participant’ observations, semi‐structured interviews, daily conversations and open‐ended questionnaires in two Chinese kindergartens. The paper first introduces the debate over teaching and learning in the early years in Western contexts. It then demonstrates that the curriculum in Chinese kindergartens is mainly implemented by means of teachers' formal collective teaching. Children seem to be taught to learn; their spontaneous learning interests are welcomed but seldom developed in depth. The preference among teachers for this formal collective teaching, coupled with their perception that this teaching is required in their particular situations, creates a tension between teaching and children's learning. The shift in parents' views of education, from an over‐emphasis on children's knowledge‐based study to support for children's harmonious overall development, also contributes to this tension.