Surviving and Thriving: A Small-scale Study of the Role of Group Work Training in Developing Teachers' Professional Practice

This paper presents two case studies from a small-scale qualitative study which the writers have undertaken. In each case, a participant from a number of years ago reflects on their memories of and feelings about the small group training component of an MA in Human Relations programme in which they had been involved. They go on to consider how they feel these experiences affected their subsequent professional practices. The writers conclude by discussing the implications of what these former students say.     

Taking and teaching the test are not the same: a case study of first-year teachers’ experiences in high-stakes contexts

Background: Policymakers’ use of high-stakes exams to improve students’ academic achievement affects teachers and their tenure in the field at all levels of schooling. Novice teachers now being inducted into the field have been educated almost exclusively in these high-stakes learning environments. Yet, how their familiarity with these contexts combined with their experiences in their own classrooms affect novices’ induction into the field of teaching has not been fully examined. Aim: This article presents findings from an investigation into the experiences of two first-year teachers who were educated and trained to be teachers in the same high-stakes education system in which they taught. It examines how these first-year teachers viewed policymakers’ reforms affecting their teaching and tenure in the field. Methods: This qualitative case study centers on the experiences of two first-year teachers working in the same high-stakes standards-based accountability teaching context in which they were educated – the case. This study provides insight into the issue of how novices’ familiarity with high-stakes reform combined with their experiences in their own classrooms impacts their conceptions of their teaching and their tenure in the field. Outcomes: The findings from this case study reveal how policymakers’ high-stakes reforms impacted the development of these novice teachers in significant ways. Not only did they have to learn how to teach as they taught, but they also had to ensure they were teaching all of their students to pass the high-stakes exams. Their varied experiences also demonstrate how these high-stakes exams can ‘test’ beginning teachers out of the classroom. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that first-year teachers’ familiarity with policymakers’ high-stakes reforms is not enough to prepare them for the expectation that they immediately improve students’ academic achievement on high-stakes exams. Such findings not only challenge what it means to be a educator in these contexts, but they also shed light on how larger political and economic forces impact the teaching and tenure of novices. To support new teachers, teacher educators and mentors should rethink the education and induction processes while helping novices understand as well as prepare for the role context plays in their teaching and development as professionals.     

The Spelling of Vowels Is Influenced by Australian and British English Dialect Differences

Two experiments examined the influence of dialect on the spelling of vowel sounds. British and Australian children (6 to 8 years) and university students wrote words whose unstressed vowel sound is spelled i or e and pronounced /I/ or /?/. Participants often (mis)spelled these vowel sounds as they pronounced them. When vowels were pronounced similarly in both dialects (e.g., comic, with /I/; fossil, with /?/), British and Australian writers wrote the correct spelling similarly often. For vowels pronounced as /I/ in British English but /?/ in Australian English and spelled with i (e.g., muffin), British writers correctly wrote i significantly more than Australian writers. For vowels with this same pronunciation pattern but spelled instead with e(e.g., rocket), Australian writers correctly wrote e significantly more often than British writers. Dialect-related phonological differences influenced the spelling of both beginning and skilled spellers across both familiar and unfamiliar words.     

Learning from the Imaginary

Abstract

Much educational practice is based on the view that children can advance their moral “understanding by exploring the imaginary worlds of creative writers, or by creating their own imaginary worlds. It is here argued that it is a mistake to rely on such explorations as a source either of moral didactic or of morally important knowledge about people. There are, however, grounds for believing that they can contribute importantly to moral education by extending children's vision of moral possibilities and perhaps byincreasing their skill in coming to understand people.     

Approaches to the Writing of Cases: experiences with preservice Master of Teaching students

During the final phase of their first year, preservice students in the Master of Teaching programme at the University of Sydney are required to write their own case stories from experience. This process serves to help them make individual and collective sense of what has occurred in the course of their initial six week practicum, which was preceded by 20 weeks of intensive coursework based on several forms of case methodology. Through a carefully constructed writing workshop, the university teacher writes along with the seminar group members, thereby facilitating sharing, discussion and the conferencing of individual cases as they unfold. The collegial environment of a ‘community of writers’ established in this way operates as a support for neophyte teachers. In the short term, it provides a forum for articulating teaching dilemmas and reflecting upon their actions and decision taking. Longer term, it serves to enhance the potential for growth as these intending teachers begin to think constructively about their work in schools.     

The Queen and the Integer

Abstract

A sentence variety exercise, used to help student writers consciously consider and control the lengths and types of sentences in their essays, is discussed. Students revised paragraphs according to the method and reflected on whether they found the exercise useful in improving their writing. Reactions were mixed, although most students were able to reduce wordiness and make their work more concise. The author was able to recognize flaws in the exercise and refine it for future lessons.     

Places,spaces and local customs: honouring the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation

This paper examines the nature of the out‐of‐school writing practices of three primary‐aged children aged 9–10. In particular, it explores the writing these children chose to undertake at home including ‘for school’ writing, completed at home. The study's findings reveal the ways in which these three, developing young writers engage and interact with writing and how this differs to writing for school, completed at home. To better understand the implications of national surveys that reveal a causal relationship between writing for enjoyment and positive writing attainment this research sought to expose the range and versatility of the children's home and volitional writing practices. The children in this case study were not selected because they were writers but merely that they engaged with writing away from school. The study employs an ecological paradigm (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 ) to explore the participation and interaction of the children with their writing practices within the complex environment of home. The paper makes the case for teachers to be more curious about the private worlds of out‐of‐school text creation to better appreciate the provenance of home writing events and artefacts.     

Getting tense about genealogy

The paper responds to the growing interest in genealogical method as a means of inquiry in education research. The three authors bring together their collective understanding of the nature and purpose of genealogy as a method deriving from the work of Michel Foucault. The authors then indicate how such understandings were applied by each of them to a particular scholarly task. In elaborating the uses and the pitfalls of genealogical approaches by this means, the writers makeit clear that thereis no blueprint for genealogical use. Rather, working through genealogical methods demands from the researcher a strong grasp of the epistemological and theoretical tensions involved in asking how our present educational practices function as they do.     

Shaping at the point of utterance: an investigation of the composing processes of the deaf student writer

All writers face the challenge of making meaning on a blank page. They struggle to make meaning for themselves and to communicate this meaning to the potential readers of their texts. Although, in this way, the act of writing can be perceived as a solitary endeavor, the activity of writing, as one aspect of literacy development, is embedded in a sociocultural framework and must be considered not only from the perspective of an individual's mental functioning but from the social context in which it exists. What follows is a preliminary report from a larger case study examining the composing processes of four deaf student writers. This broader study aspires to the goal of sociocultural research, which is to understand the relationship between human mental functioning, on one hand and cultural historical and institutional settings, on the other (Wertsch, 1995). From such a perspective, individual mental processes and sociocultural setting are understood in terms of this relationship, and human action is understood in the context of interrelated moments. I focus on one 'moment' of the writing process that I will term, to borrow a phrase from Stephen Krashen (1977) and James Britton (1978), 'shaping at the point of utterance.' In other words, I will explore what deaf writers do as they face the 'challenge of the blank page.'     

Facilitating Primary Science Teaching: A narrative account of research as learning

This paper is, in part, a narrative account of a teacher educator's professional growth during a longitudinal case study of three primary science teachers, Katie, Jean and Ruth, as they made the transition from pre-service to inservice teaching. The study sought to explore ways in which the beginning teachers perceived and dealt with constraints to science teaching in the primary school, and how they changed and adapted the knowledge and skills developed at university in a practical situation. The findings of the study are organised by considering what we, the researchers, saw as three categories of challenge for these beginning primary science teachers, their initial alienation from the study of science, the differences between teaching science and teaching other subjects in the primary school, and the impact of novice status on science teaching. Working with participants to help them respond to these challenges became an occasion for our own development as science educators.     

Creative Knowledge: The Centrality of Creativity in Teachers’ Conceptions of Subject English

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the notion of creativity as a core concept in English teachers’ knowledge and valuing of their subject. It draws on research from a broader investigation into teachers as writers and discusses one of the key findings of the study: that creativity is not only crucial to how teachers approach their pedagogy and subject content, but that contexts in which creativity is minimised in English teachers’ lives results in struggle or even a departure from the profession. The paper concludes with a call for teachers and bureaucrats to affirm creative knowledge as foundational to English teachers and their profession, and the ability of teacher narratives to offer a powerful contribution to debates in English teaching.     

Bakhtinian Dialogic and Vygotskian Dialectic: Compatabilities and contradictions in the classroom?

Abstract

This article explores two central notions of ‘dialectics’ and ‘dialogics’ based on the work of Vygotsky (drawing on philosophers such as Hegel, Spinoza, Engels and Marx) and Bakhtin (drawing on members of the Bakhtin Circle and writers such as Dostoevsky and Rabelais) respectively, as well their varying interanimations within Stalin-Marxist Russian societyIt is proposed that these two positions are incommensurably located alongside one another in contemporary education. I argue that Bakhtin offers diametrically oppositional educational provocations to those of Vygotsky.The implications of these interpretations will be explored with consideration of their underlying philosophical incompatibilities and contradictions, as well as the opportunities such a consideration pose for educational practice today.     

Science Teachers and Science‐Related Attitudes

Summaries

English

Science teachers’ perceptions of affective‐domainobjectives were gathered through interview procedures. A sample of teachers in Western Australian high schools were the subjects of the study.

For the purpose of analysis, a distinction is drawn between attitudes to science (such as ‘enjoyment of science lessons’ and ‘interest in science') and scientific attitudes (such as ‘honesty in reporting data’and ‘tolerance of the views of others').

Analysis of teachers’ views revealed confusion and lack of clarity regarding these science‐related attitudes. However, it is argued that curriculum writers are no clearer in their views.

It is suggested that a much clearer, more explicit justification for attitude objectives (of both kinds) needs to be made by curriculum writers. Science teachers need to be provided with greater assistance in clarifying the role of these attitude objectives, as well as assistance with techniques for their assessment.     

‘Personal Effectiveness’ as a Cross-Curricular Goal: Catalysts,Barriers and Varying Perceptions

The focus of this paper is a piece of research which sought to evaluate a pack of materials designed to support the introduction of core transferable skills into the subject-based curriculum. The writers contextualize their work with a brief historical review of the development of this area over the last two decades, highlighting both the ambiguity and the continuing confusion that have surrounded the idea of generic skills. Apart from giving general support to the aims which informed the programme's development, the outcome of the investigation identifies a significant difference in the way teachers and students conceptualize the curriculum.     

Editorial. Globalization: a moral phenomenon

Abstracts

This article explores the idea of lifelong education as expounded by a number of writers published under the auspices of UNESCO. There is a short discussion of the problems involved in subjecting this kind of idea to critical analysis and it is suggested that a policy for education rather than a new concept of education is being expressed. Nevertheless, an implicit concept of education can be deduced from the policy, and there is a review of the role of concepts as a means of distinguishing and classifying areas of experience and areas of thought. It is suggested that writers on ‘lifelong education’ tend to blurr a number of distinctions traditionally drawn in education and it is suggested that the concept of ‘education’ is defined too broadly. As a result, it fails to distinguish between the totality of formative influences which determine our individuality and those influences which are intentionally chosen to form or influence us in desired and desirable ways. ‘Education’, it is suggested, should be restricted to areas of learning that are chosen because they produce effects which we and society wish to bring about. There is reference to the place of ‘knowledge’ in lifelong education and an extended discussion of some of the consequences which follow from failing to separate the concept of ‘training’ from the concept of ‘education’. It is argued that ‘education’ implies a concern for moral and evaluative issues consistent with a Humanistic approach, whereas ‘training’ being task and role oriented can ignore moral issues in the interests of efficient performances. This argument is, in effect, a case study to support the claim that finer conceptual distinctions are of practical importance.     

Source use and argumentation behavior in L1 and L2 writing: a within-writer comparison

The aim of this study was to test whether Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH) might also apply to writing, by determining to what extent writers’ text quality, source use and argumentation behavior are related in L1 and L2, how effective writers’ behavior is and whether their L2 proficiency influenced the relations between them. To answer these questions, twenty students wrote four short argumentative source based essays each in L1 (Dutch) and four in L2 (English). A within-writer cross-linguistic comparison of their texts revealed that their L1 and L2 writing competencies appear to be related. Furthermore, writers’ source use behavior differed to some extent between languages, but the strong positive correlations found between source use features suggest that in most cases this was more a person than a language effect. Similarly, for argumentation behavior, results showed some learner specific features (e.g. inclusion of titles and reference lists), but differences between languages for others (e.g. the inclusion of both arguments and counter-arguments). Effects of the different source use and argumentation features studied on text quality were limited and no clear effect of L2 proficiency on writers’ behavior or their influence on text quality were found. Overall, in line with earlier research, these findings provide some additional support for Cummins’ LIH and the idea that writers might have a common underlying source for writing related knowledge and practices which they can apply in multiple languages.

     

Down the slippery slope: Ethics and the technical writer as marketer

This article discusses some of the ethical dilemmas faced by writers who prepare marketing materials in engineering organizations; such writers include traditional technical writers whose documents are influenced by the marketing interests of the company and “boundary spanners” who write both technical and promotional materials. The article describes social, political, economic, and legal changes in the professions during the last 30 years and the growing influence of market‐driven decisions on ethical decision‐making. It briefly surveys the marketing literature that engineering marketers are reading. Finally, it suggests a question that marketing writers should ask themselves in examining rhetorical choices.