Profiling Teacher/Teaching Using Descriptors Derived from Qualitative Feedback: Formative and Summative Applications

Considerable work has been done on student evaluation of teaching/teachers, but reservations remain about its use for summative purposes. Student ratings are not universally accepted as being reliable, nor can they provide really meaningful information. Qualitative comments can provide a better understanding but they tend not to be user-friendly from lack of structure and connectedness. This study attempts to devise a method for ‘quantifying’ students’ comments to increase their usefulness in complementing/confirming ratings. The quantified results enable the profile construction of what students regard as an effective/ineffective teacher, and enable identification of strengths and weaknesses. Our findings counter some commonly held assumptions, including those which held that high ratings are dependent on small class size and ‘dumbing down’ of courses and the consequent expectation of high grades. The findings also indicate that students value teaching quality more than teacher characteristics, suggesting their ability to make valid judgments about teaching effectiveness.

Hybridity in a Guidance Curriculum in Hong Kong

This paper presents findings on a hybrid guidance curriculum in Hong Kong, a place where East meets West in education and in many other spheres. A qualitative case study method is applied that uses questions for understanding the ‘self’ in guidance but incorporates Confucian cardinal human relationships of parent–child, brother–sister, husband–wife, superior–subordinate, teacher–pupil and friend–friend in understanding the ‘other’ relationships. The study of ‘self–other relationship’ is combined with Lawton’s (Social change, educational theory and curriculum planning, Hodder, London, 1973) model of curriculum development in Western traditions. Data obtained from stakeholders in schools include traditional Chinese ideas as well as modern Western ideas. Implications of this framework to the study of other societies with a mix of Western and traditional cultures are discussed.

From the Didactic to the Dialectic—Intercultural Exchanges in Contemporary Counsellor Education

Within the context of the growing development of intercultural counsellor education, the question of how different cultures reconceptualize and transform Western counselling theories for their own context is an important one. In this intercultural exchange in education, concepts such as ‘globalization’, ‘indigenization’ and ‘universalization’ have an impact on the education process. This paper briefly explores these terms and movements and then highlights findings from a research project that took place with a group of counselling graduates in Hong Kong examining how they undertook the processes of reconceptualization and transformation. The dialogical process involved in that enabled participants and researcher to co-explore the process of knowledge development within the counselling education field. Implications for counsellor education are highlighted.

Educational Inequity from the Perspectives of Those Who Live It: Urban Middle School Students’ Perspectives on the Quality of their Education

In interviews with over 250 urban young adolescents, many students make it clear that they are acutely aware of the educational inequities that exist in their schools and that these inequities are having a negative impact on their education. Student voice is used to highlight urban middle school students’ perspectives on the quality of their education particularly in terms of curricular issues, teacher quality, and lack of resources.

Competence-Based Vocational Education and Training (VET): the Cases of England and France in a European Perspective

This paper examines the notion of ‘competence’ in the VET systems of France and England. While both countries have developed ‘competence-based’ approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the countries’ institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified between a knowledge-based model in France and a skills-based model in England. Competence in the French sense is multi-dimensional and relies on the integration of practical and theoretical knowledge, as well as personal and social qualities within a broadly defined occupational field. By contrast, in England, competence refers to the performance of fragmented and narrowly defined tasks, with minimal underpinning knowledge. Thus, whereas ‘competence’ in the English VET system usually denotes functional employability for what may be relatively low-skilled employment, in France, it encapsulates the multi-dimensional development of the individual as a citizen as well as an employee.

SITES2006–International comparative survey of pedagogical practices and ICT in education

This paper describes the rationale, conceptualization and design of the Second International Information Technology in Education Study (SITES). SITES is a survey of schools and teachers of their pedagogical practices, their use of ICT and their readiness for changing their teaching–learning towards the demands of the 21st century. The study will take place under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the data collection is planned for 2006; therefore the project is called ‘SITES2006’.

Representation of problem-solving procedures: A comparative look at China, Singapore, and US mathematics textbooks

This study examined how selected school mathematics textbooks in China, Singapore, and USA at the lower secondary grade level represent problem-solving procedures. The analysis of problem-solving procedures was carried out in two layers – general strategies, which adopted Pólya’s four-stage problem-solving model, and specific strategies, which consisted of 17 different problem-solving heuristics such as ‘acting it out,’ ‘looking for a pattern,’ ‘working backwards,’ etc. Both similarities and differences in the representation of problem-solving procedures in the textbooks across the three countries were revealed and compared. The possible reasons for the similarities and especially for the differences were explored. Suggestions about how to improve the representation of problem-solving in mathematics textbooks were provided at the end of the study.

Deep intuition as a level in the development of the concept image

To explicate certain phenomena, e.g., the possibility of deduction without definition, we hypothesize that an individual is able to understand and appreciate reasoning with a due feeling of its necessity when the concept image of each concept involved in the reasoning has reached a certain level of development; we then speak of deep intuition. This conception is presented (with a variety of examples) in the framework of D. Tall’s theory of three worlds of mathematics (‘conceptual-embodied’, ‘proceptual-symbolic’, and ‘formal-axiomatic’).

Teachers’ Perspectives on a Professional Development Intervention to Improve Science Instruction Among English Language Learners

Our 5-year professional development intervention is designed to promote elementary teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices in teaching science, along with English language and mathematics for English Language Learning (ELL) students in urban schools. In this study, we used an end-of-year questionnaire as a primary data source to seek teachers’ perspectives on our intervention during the first year of implementation. Teachers believed that the intervention, including curriculum materials and teacher workshops, effectively promoted students’ science learning, along with English language development and mathematics learning. Teachers highlighted strengths and areas needing improvement in the intervention. Teachers’ perspectives have been incorporated into our on-going intervention efforts and offer insights into features of effective professional development initiatives in improving science achievement for all students.

Analysis of Korean students’ international mobility by 2-D model: driving force factor and directional factor

The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of Korean students’ international mobility to study abroad by using the 2-D Model. The first D, the driving force factor, explains how and what components of the dissatisfaction with domestic higher education perceived by Korean students drives students’ outward mobility to seek foreign higher education. The second D, the directional factor, describes the factors that influence the choice of destination country for students’ outward mobility, and is explained by the comparison of Korean students’ perceptions on the images of universities in the U.S., China, the U.K., and Australia and their expectations for higher education in each country (categorized as ‘academic’–‘environmental’). Two questionnaire surveys were conducted to analyze the two D factors and the research findings were integrated into suggestions for each country’s higher education institutions that can be incorporated into their recruitment strategies for international students.

Making Sense of Place: Sarah’s Story

Written from the vantage point of both a mother and teacher educator, the author recounts the journey taken by Sarah, her 4-year old daughter, as she is introduced to and explores map making as a means of representing and making sense of familiar and unfamiliar places. Offering Sarah’s experience as context, the author offers both a practical and theoretical discussion of children’s emerging geographic literacy, its relationship to identity development and the importance of understanding children’s experience and socio-emotional development to inform pedagogy.

Teaching for creativity: towards sustainable and replicable pedagogical practice

This article explores the pedagogical significance of recent shifts in scholarly attention away from first generation and towards second generation understandings of creativity. First generation or big ‘C’ creativity locates the creative enterprise as a complex set of behaviours and ideas exhibited by an individual, while second generation or small ‘c’ creativity locates the creative enterprise in the processes and products of collaborative and purposeful activity. Second generation creativity is gaining importance for a number of reasons: its acknowledged significance as a driver in the new or digital economy; recent clarification of the notion of ‘creative capital’; the stated commitment of a growing number of universities to ‘more creativity’ as part of their declared vision for their staff and students; and, the recognition that the creative arts does not have a monopoly on creative capability. We argue that this shift allows more space for engaging with creativity as an outcome of pedagogical work in higher education. The article builds on the project of connecting ‘creative capital’ and university pedagogy that is already underway, assembling a number of principles from a wide range of scholarship, from computer modelling to social and cultural theorising. In doing so, it provides a framework for systematically orchestrating a ‘creativity-enhancing’ learning environment in higher education.

Leadership Practice in Service of Homeless Students: An Examination of Community Perceptions

This qualitative study examines the collaboration and leadership practice that influences the education of homeless students in a large Mid-Atlantic city. The perspectives of administrators and staff members from three homeless shelters are analyzed with insights from Spillane’s (Distributed leadership, 2006) distributed leadership theory. Findings from the study indicate that differences in shelter and school structures and cultures present significant obstacles to productive communication that would facilitate homeless children’s schooling. Several structural and programmatic recommendations are made towards developing more effective leadership practice among schools and shelters.

Mathematical belief change in prospective primary teachers

The development and influence of beliefs in teacher education has been a topic of increasing interest for researchers in recent years. This study explores the responses of a group of prospective primary teachers to attempts to facilitate belief change as part of their initial teacher education programme in mathematics. The students’ responses seemed to fall into three categories: non-engagement; building a new set of beliefs and; reforming existing beliefs. In this article the participants’ responses are outlined and illustrated with stories from three individuals. This study suggests that belief reform is complex and fraught with ethical dilemmas. Certainly there is a need for further research in this area, particularly given the pervasive influence of beliefs on teaching practice.

Market orientation in managing relationships with multiple constituencies of Croatian higher education

In this paper, market orientation in Croatian higher education (HE) is discussed within the context of stakeholder-oriented management. Drawing on existing studies, the ‘classical’ empirical model, describing the market orientation of generic nonprofit organisations, has been adapted to the contingencies of the Croatian HE sector. Empirical testing of the model, based on primary data drawn from the majority of public institutions of higher learning in the country, reveals inadequate market orientation toward the relevant stakeholders. Although social market orientation currently does not exist in Croatian HE institutions, the empirical results confirm that it might be possible to initiate a ‘virtuous circle’, in which relevant market orientation and stakeholder management practices, directed toward one or other of the stakeholders, simultaneously enhance orientation toward the other stakeholders. Unfortunately, the current situation in HE is not satisfactory, which could hinder the implementation of development of knowledge society in Croatia.

Learning Classroom Management Through Web-Based Case Instruction: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

In this article, we report a research project on web-based case instruction that was developed and implemented to allow prospective early childhood teachers to be exposed to various dilemmas faced by practicing teachers. The goal of this project was to design an instructional tool and method that could help prospective teachers expand their notion of classroom management beyond a set of techniques. We collected 23 prospective teachers’ pre and postessays before and after the 3-week implementation of the web-based case instruction, along with surveys and a focus group interview data. The initial data analysis results indicated that this instructional method was effective for (a) promoting prospective teachers’ awareness of multiple perspectives, (b) encouraging them to explore diverse ways of problem solving, and (c) articulating their justification based on a sense of moral responsibility and affective engagement. We conclude with implications for future research and early childhood teacher education.

School mathematics and its everyday other? Revisiting Lave’s ‘Cognition in Practice’

In the last three decades there have been a variety of studies of what is often referred to as ‘everyday’ or ‘street’ mathematics. These studies have documented a rich variety of arithmetic practices involved in activities such as tailoring, carpet laying, dieting, or grocery shopping. More importantly, these studies have helped to rectify outmoded models of rationality, cognition, and (school) instruction. Despite these important achievements, doubts can be raised about the ways in which theoretical conclusions have been drawn from empirical materials. Furthermore, while these studies rightly criticised prevalent theories of rationality and cognition as too simplistic to account for everyday activities, it seems that some of the proposed alternatives suffer from similar flaws (i.e., are straightforward inversions of the to-be-opposed theories, rather than more nuanced views on complicated issues). In this article we illustrate our sceptical view by discussing four case studies in Jean Lave’s pioneering and influential ‘Cognition in Practice’ (1988). By looking at the case studies in detail, we investigate how Lave’s conclusions relate to the empirical materials and offer alternative characterisations. In particular, we question whether the empirical studies demonstrate the existence of two different kinds of mathematics (‘everyday’ and ‘school,’ or ‘formal’ and ‘informal’) and whether school instruction tries to replace the former with the latter.

Participation,financial support and the marginal student

This paper examines differences between the decision-making of marginal and nonmarginal students about participation in higher education (HE). We distinguish between two kinds of marginality: being ‘borderline’ on account of prior achievements in school and being ‘unsure’ after taking prior achievement into account. We identify a significant minority of students in their final year of schooling who are unsure about participation in higher education even though they have prior school achievements typical of entrants to HE. Being ‘unsure’ is found to be unrelated to socioeconomic background, but it is associated with significantly different attitudes towards the potential benefits and risks of participation, different levels of knowledge about financial support that is available and different approaches to information search about participation in HE.

Ecofutures in Africa: Jenny Robson’s Savannah 2116 AD

Jenny Robson’s Savannah 2216 AD, a dark, futuristic novel for young adults, provides a strong critique on much of the world’s predilection for saving Africa’s animals at the expense of those human communities who are perceived to be in the way of the preservation of the continent’s remaining wild spaces. Using Robson’s novel as template, this article examines a few of those discourses regarding wilderness and conservation that have attached to Africa. Savannah 2116 AD strongly yet indirectly hints that literary educators should revisit the often unquestioned adoption of ‘greening’ agendas in school curricula which persist in re-colonising geo-political spaces by ignoring the fact that erecting fences between perceived conservators and destroyers, between spaces for wild animals and humans, merely condemns Africa’s animal riches to eventual death.