Examining teachers’ use of computer-based technologies: A case study

This paper presents a case study that illustrates the extent to which technology is used in and out of the classroom in the elementary schools of Turkey. The data were collected through interviews, observations and document analyses. The results show that teachers use technology for administrative purposes, technology education, non-educational purposes, instructional preparation, teacher-directed instructional delivery, student homework and instructional assessment. This study further reveals that teachers’ use of technology is very limited. If teachers use technology for instruction, it is almost always to support their traditional teaching methods.     

Examining social studies teachers’ resistances towards teaching Aboriginal perspectives: the case of Alberta

From 2005–2010 the province of Alberta introduced a social studies program of study mandating that all K–12 teachers use the lens of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit perspectives to help students understand the past as well as key concepts and contemporary issues. This paper offers a systematic examination of a range of data sources, including government reports, surveys, and peer-reviewed journal articles, which have documented teachers’ responses to this curricular mandate. Our analysis revealed a typology of resistances towards this curricular directive that have remained constant over a nearly twenty-year period. Guided by insights from sociocultural theory and the work of Indigenous scholars (e.g.; Marker, 2011), we trace the origins and limitations of these resistances.     

Examining pre-service teachers’ acceptance of technology-rich learning environments: A UAE case study

This study addressed the extent to which pre-service teachers at a teachers’ college in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accepted and intended to utilize technology-rich learning environments in their future teaching practice. The effect of other significant factors on their overall acceptance, such as computer self-efficacy (CSE) and Perceived User Resources, was investigated. A final aim was to confirm the applicability of the instruments employed in this study within the unique sociocultural context of the UAE. Questionnaires utilizing a modified version of the technology acceptance model (TAM) were used to collect data. Respondents indicated strong acceptance of technology-rich learning environments. In the model, Perceived Usefulness and CSE were the two strongest predictors of Behavioral Intention. The results also supported the validity of TAM-based research within the Emirati sociocultural environment.     

An International Study of Prospective Teachers’ Initial Teaching Conceptions and Concerns: the case of teaching ‘combustion’

An important task of science teachers should be to take pupils’ (pre)conceptions and learning difficulties into account and to negotiate about the meanings of specific concepts. In this context, teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge plays an important role. This article presents an international study of Dutch, Finnish, English and Greek pre-service teachers’ conceptions and concerns of how to teach the concept of combustion. The prospective science teachers were invited to prepare a lesson about this concept for pupils of junior secondary school level. The prospective teachers were not allowed to consult any textbook. Research data were obtained from audio-taped semi-structured interviews with the prospective teachers. In addition, their written lesson plans and their answers to an accompanying questionnaire were collected and analysed. The results reveal a number of important characteristics of prospective teachers’ views and concerns regarding the teaching of combustion. The implications of the study for science teacher education will be presented.     

Examining the Factor Structure of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale

The authors examined the factor structure of the long and short forms of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES; M. Tschannen-Moran &; A. Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001 Tschannen-Moran, M. and Woolfolk-Hoy, A. 2001. Teacher-efficacy: Capturing an elusive construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17: 783–805. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for practicing (n = 102) and preservice teachers (n = 270), comparing the responses to both forms of the TSES, and looked for differences in teachers’ efficacy with respect to experience and grade level taught. They found the 3-factor structure—efficacy for classroom management, instructional practices, and student engagement—to be appropriate for practicing teachers, but they found a single efficacy factor to be appropriate for preservice teachers. The long and short forms of the TSES produced similar means and reliability information, suggesting that either form is appropriate for use with preservice or practicing teachers. Last, they found that teachers with 10 or more years of teaching experience and those teaching at the elementary level reported significantly higher levels of efficacy than did preservice teachers or those teaching at the middle or high school levels, respectively.     

Educating ‘others’: Drawing on the collective wisdom of intercultural experts

Forty invited interculturalists (both academics and non-academics) from nine countries engaged in developing a coherent culture of dialogue and collective action to address the challenge of redefining intercultural education provisions with regard to the needs of refugee children. The method of cooperative inquiry to elicit theoretical and professional expertise from the participants was adopted. This inquiry was based on four dimensions of reflective practice, drawing on experiential, presentational, propositional and practical knowledge. The intercultural experts (seen as ‘co-researchers’ and/or ‘co-subjects’) who participated engaged in a rigorous intercultural and reflexive dialogue developed in four distinct phases. The first two phases took place in their own local contexts and the final ones in a forum organised in Greece. During the forum, the participants’ diverse knowledge and experience were renegotiated to ascertain the ‘collective wisdom’ of the group and to address issues of otherness and approaches to refugee education, teachers’ training and mediation. The consensus reached by the participants included the following: the need for local communities to be supported so as to avoid and mitigate any hostility towards refugees; the urgency of a common European asylum policy; the realisation of the ‘other’ as a social construct based on hierarchical connotations and defined by diverse (meta)narratives; the urgency for providing formal/mainstream education to secure a pathway to social citizenship for refugees; the adoption of culturally responsive education practices to empower intercultural learning using refugee children’s own cultural knowledge and collaborating with parents; and the need for systemic intercultural and mediation training for teachers.     

‘Active Citizens’: the case of school governors

ABSTRACT

This article reviews current and historical debates about active, participant citizens and related conceptions of citizenship. In particular it focusses on the prospects for the participation of citizens in the administration of public bodies. It discusses critically the notion of participative citizenship and active citizenship as articulated by Douglas Hurd (when Home Secretary) and also the version contained in the report of the Speaker's Commission on Citizenship. The article then draws upon research conducted for the Volunteer Centre, by the National Foundation for Educational Research and that by Brehony and Deem which is funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Grant (R000 23 1799), on voluntary activity and school governors, respectively. The applicability of the concept of active citizenship to the oversight of schools by school governing bodies is then considered alongside recent work in the United States. The article then considers the constraints upon active citizenship which prevent many governors from participating as much as the role demands and it ends with a reference to the tension between those who see governing bodies as an arena for democratic accountability and the active participation of citizens and those who view them principally as a means by which the local state is weakened and its functions increasingly transferred to the voluntary sector.     

Examining the shaping of teachers’ pedagogical orientation for the use of technology

Teachers’ current uses of technologies still tend to replicate traditional and/ or administrative practices, with research indicating that the pedagogies required for the effective integration of educational technologies are not yet in evidence amongst the majority of teachers. In order to conceptualise what could be considered effective pedagogies for the use of technology, greater understanding of what informs teachers’ particular approaches and how teachers come to change their approaches over time is required. Succinctly, what is needed is a deep understanding of a teacher’s developmental process for their conceptualisation of the relationship between technology and pedagogy. Through an in-depth, two-year case study methodology, three teachers’ journey to use game-based technologies in their classrooms was examined. The results provide valuable insights into the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices about the use of technologies; trigger points in teachers’ journeys that influence change in their pedagogical orientation for the use of technology; and rich stories of innovation in teaching. This study has implications for teacher professional development and supporting effective technology integration.     

Examining change in K-3 teachers’ mathematical knowledge,attitudes, and beliefs: the case of Primarily Math

This study examines the impact of the Primarily Math Elementary Mathematics Specialist program on K-3 teachers’ mathematical content knowledge for teaching, attitudes toward learning mathematics, and beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning. Three cohorts of teachers participating in the program were compared to a similar group of non-participating teachers. Teacher outcomes were measured longitudinally across 5 years. Participating teachers showed changes in their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs in line with program goals immediately after completion of coursework. Moreover, these changes were sustained in subsequent years, following program completion. Relative to the comparison group, participants demonstrated greater gains in knowledge as well as greater improvements in attitudes and beliefs. Implications of these results for professional development design, implementation, and evaluation are discussed.     

Examining students’ affective commitment toward country: a case study of a Singapore primary school

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ affective commitment toward Singapore. Affective commitment refers to the sense of attachment to the nation state. The sample was taken from 286 students in a primary school. In the first section of the paper, we described the design of a Likert-type Affective Commitment to Country questionnaire. Factor analyses (principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis) showed evidence of construct validity for the 10-item scale, and an overall Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.91. In the second section, we reported the statistics related to the students’ affective commitment scores. Overall, a positive affective commitment toward the country was found. Results of our t-test analyses revealed that no statistically significant difference was found between boys and girls for each of the questionnaire items. However, students who had higher academic achievement reported significantly higher scores than their lower ability counterparts with regard to six items of the questionnaire. Suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Students’ test motivation in PISA: the case of Norway

Do students make their best effort in large-scale assessment studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)? Despite six cycles of PISA surveys from 2000 to 2015, empirical studies regarding students’ test motivation and experience of the tests are sparse. The present study examines students’ test motivation in PISA, and how closely students’ achievement correlates with students’ reported test motivation. A total of 40 students from eight schools that participated in the PISA study in 2006, 2009 and 2012 were interviewed. In addition, questionnaire data from a total of 9400 students who participated in PISA 2009 and 2012 were collected. The findings of this study indicate that students overall were motivated to do their best in the PISA study, despite the fact that these low-stakes tests have no impact on students’ grades or future school entrance. In contrast to claims in the media, where it has been suggested that Norwegian students are more relaxed towards the PISA test than students in other countries, students report that they are motivated to do their best, but girls report significantly higher test motivation than boys. Despite the policy influence of PISA and the large number of countries participating, very few studies have reported findings from students’ perspectives regarding their test motivation and experience of the test. The present study aims to fill that gap.     

Examining Boys’ Readings of Gender in the English Classroom

As an opinionated and often challenging class of year 10 boys, they demonstrated a strong sense of their identity as a group of ‘bright boys’. One of their English teachers described the class as ‘boisterous, but very motivated – they love discussing texts’, but she also recognised their tendency to ‘descend into testosterone fuelled competitiveness’. I became interested in the ways these boys read and responded to literature and in particular how their strong view of themselves as ‘bright boys’ influenced their reading of gender in literature. I examine two lessons with this year 10 class in which they discussed representations of gender in two literary texts. I was interested in the ways they constructed and asserted their masculine identities through class discussions about gender in literature and I found myself wondering: how do these boys read gender, and why do they read gender in these ways?     

Teenage technological experts’ views of schooling

Utilising Pierre Bourdieu’s formula for studying social practice, this study explored the construction of technological expertise amongst a heterogenous group of New Zealand teenagers. The qualitative study employed observations and interviews with five boys and three girls aged 13–17, who considered themselves to be technological experts; their peers and/or their family also considered them to be technological experts. For seven of the eight participants, their primary site of leisure was their home computer use. This article gives some examples about how the participants’ understand schooling and its relevance to them. It engages with ideas concerning the performance of school, and argues that the participants’ practice in this field of home computer use for leisure tends to be misrecognised. The article concludes by discussing the implications this misrecognition has for the structures of formal schooling.     

Effects of social pressure and child failure on parents’ use of control: An experimental investigation

Because research has shown that controlling parenting is related to general and school-related maladjustment in children, there is a need to examine antecedents of controlling parenting. In this study, we addressed the role of two sources of pressure (i.e., social pressure eliciting ego-involvement and child failure) on parents’ situational use of control. 124 parents worked with their 5th or 6th grade children on a puzzle task. The two sources of pressure were induced experimentally in a 2 × 2 design, with parents receiving instructions eliciting either ego-involvement or task-involvement and with children either failing or succeeding in the task. Following the task, there was a free choice period in which dyads could choose whether or not to make additional puzzles. In both phases of the experiment, we coded parents’ controlling interaction style, dyadic reciprocity, performance, and parents’ and children’s engagement. Additionally, in the free-choice period the dyads’ degree of persistence was registered. While induced child failure was related positively to parents’ controlling style during the initial puzzle activity, induced social pressure was related to parents’ controlling style in the free-choice period. In turn, a controlling style was related negatively to performance, reciprocity, and engagement. The findings confirm that parents’ use of a controlling style is a multi-determined phenomenon affected by different sources of pressure and undermining children’s performance and engagement.     

Examining the Role of Self-Regulated Learning Microanalysis in the Assessment of Learners’ Regulation

We examined the degree of convergence among self-regulated learning microanalysis, measures of metacognitive monitoring, and a self-regulated learning questionnaire during reading. Participants' reported strategy use during reading, as measured by self-regulated learning microanalysis, was significantly related to scores on a self-regulated learning questionnaire. Self-monitoring on the microanalytic protocol was significantly related to a measure of metacognitive monitoring as well as to participants' item-level confidence judgments. Participants who made strategy attributions for performance tended to have higher scores on the measure of reading comprehension. Strategic planning and strategy use during reading of the text also predicted comprehension. Implications and future directions for the study of self-regulated learning microanalysis are discussed.     

Biased predictions of students’ future achievement: An experimental study on pre-service teachers’ interpretation of curriculum-based measurement graphs

In an online experiment, a sample of N = 109 pre-service teachers were presented with 14 graphs mimicking graphs used in curriculum-based measurement. Graphs depicted a student’s weekly test scores for the first part of a semester, and participants were instructed to use the graphs to predict students’ achievement at the end of the semester. Relative to a linear regression model, participants generally tended to underestimate future achievement (i.e., predictions were negatively biased). Predictions were more negatively biased when data variability was low rather than high, when improvement was steep rather than flat, and when the most recent score indicated a performance upturn as opposed to downturn. The results are interpreted in the light of models of judgmental anchoring (Kahneman & Tversky, 1973; Mussweiler & Strack, 1999). Implications for practice are discussed.     

Examining the Content of Preservice Teachers’ Reflections of Early Field Experiences

This paper describes an exploratory study that examined the content of preservice elementary teachers’ reflections of their documented early field experiences of science teaching in authentic contexts. The study used an early field experience model that was focused on the objective of profiling an elementary science teacher as the practical merit of reflection. Preservice elementary teachers individually and collaboratively reflected on their early field experiences and used the resulting reflections to construct profiles of an elementary science teacher respectively in synthesis papers. Data sources included journal entries and synthesis papers resulting from individual and collaborative reflections. Thematic analysis revealed that profiles of an elementary science teacher constructed from both individual and collaborative reflections were based on the roles of teacher as a guide and teacher as a mediator. Analysis further revealed that classroom management and discipline and safety were the key foci factored within individual reflections while what promotes learning and the difference between what is effective and ineffective scaffolding respectively, served as the foci within collaborative reflections. Also, collaborative reflection provided a structured approach to reflection as it drew preservice elementary teachers into collective dialogue and negotiation capturing the tensions they faced when trying to make sense of the practice of other teachers. Implications include the need to frame early field experiences with objectives that are understood by all parties involved in early field experiences; and, the need to instill the importance of observation, documentation, and reflection which collectively sum up preservice teachers’ early field experiences.     

‘Becoming our own experts’: lessons from the past

This article reports on a local curriculum development project from the 1970s that shared many of the features of action research, though it was not thought of as such. Teacher control, the bridging of the theory–practice divide, the centrality of practitioner classroom research, and the quality of pupils' learning were all features of the project. The article also discusses the problematics of outsider involvement, of contributions to knowledge, and of authenticity.     

Inclusive practices at the teacher and class level: the experts’ view

One concern for teachers and schools is how to implement inclusion. This paper examines its implementation at the teacher and class level in Styria, (a state in Austria). To do so, a qualitative study with expert interviews was conducted. Twenty-five experts from seven schools and four Centres for Inclusion and Special Education were interviewed. This paper highlights four areas: (1) teachers’ attitudes; (2) co-teaching; (3) individualised instruction; and (4) classroom composition. The results showed that for the inclusion process to be successful, positive attitudes towards inclusion of children with special educational needs are critical. Furthermore, negative attitudes towards inclusion can change if resources and support systems are available. Like every change process, high reliability is necessary to promote inclusion. The special education teacher was seen as an important resource, thus meaningful cooperation between the general and special education teacher was considered as a first step in implementing inclusive education. The use of differentiated teaching methods, along with individual initiatives, were other indispensable practices. According to the experts, these differentiated teaching instructions are implemented better in heterogeneous classrooms, meaning that a classroom composition that corresponds to the normal heterogeneity of the student population is seen as an essential part of teaching.     

Assessment and the aims of the curriculum: An explorer’s journey

This article considers lessons learnt through involvement in several assessment projects. Early experience, in university work and in school examinations, led to an opportunity to help establish a novel system of assessment for an innovative school curriculum. Different lessons were then learnt from work on a national survey of school students’ learning of science, and different lessons again while leading a group to advise the UK government on a new scheme for national testing of all students. Many welcomed the group’s advice but politicians rejected it; however, the recoil from this defeat led to very rewarding work on formative assessment. The article ends with reflection on the conflict between the summative and the formative and ways to resolve that conflict, along with the full benefit of formative approaches that investment can secure to help teachers share responsibility for high-stakes summative assessments.