Loosening chronology’s collar: reframing teacher career narratives as stories of life and work without end

This research paper examines the narrative accounts of the academic Spanish‐language development of four preservice bilingual education teachers of different backgrounds, including Mexican‐American, white (non‐Hispanic), Mexican immigrant, and the U.S.–Mexico border Hispanic. The purpose of the study is to discover the kinds of educational forces which may impede bilingual education teachers' development of academic Spanish, look at their own perceptions of their Spanish‐language proficiency, and consider how student learning might be influenced. The stories illustrate how few meaningful educational opportunities prospective teachers have to develop academic Spanish‐language proficiency. They also demonstrate how sociocultural context may impede Spanish‐language development. In short, the paper addresses the need for dramatic social and educational changes if bilingual education teachers in the U.S. are to fulfill one of the basic tenets of bilingual education: the provision of native‐language instruction.     

Student Self‐evaluation Processes in Student‐centred Teaching and Learning Contexts of Australia and England

Student self‐evaluation processes and their impact on pedagogy, in the promotion of sound reflective student [1] practices, are the focus of this article. The ways in which students self‐evaluate and teachers integrate these self‐evaluative processes into their teaching practice in Australian and English contexts are analysed. The educational sites chosen for focus are engaged in implementing student‐centred teaching and learning practices. This article is based on research that draws on data analysed using case‐study methodology. For a period of 6 months student self‐evaluation processes were examined in both an Australian secondary high school and an English Further Education (EE) college which was piloting the advanced General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) science programme. The introduction of the skills of self‐evaluation to students offers an added dimension to the current learning environment. It provides students with opportunities to take increased responsibility for, and a more active role in, their own learning. An underlying assumption of this research is that there exists a need to examine how learning in the classroom is structured, and that it is this dimension to teaching and learning that makes a difference. A fundamental premise is that student self‐evaluation is an educative activity.     

Implications of educational theory for the design of instructional multimedia

Interactive multimedia provides a useful vehicle to reconsider the place of educational theories in the design of interactive learning environments. This paper serves to address a number of such theories, especially those centred on student learning, and in particular, attempts to draw out the implications they present for designing effective instructional multimedia. It is argued that we need to develop coherency rather than divergency, in our theoretical perspectives so that we might optimise the development of new technologies in teaching and learning. This rationale is then used to advance one such perspective, based on the role of dynamic modelling tools.     

Visual Art as a Vehicle for Educational Research

This article is an account of a pilot project designed to help art & design teachers in training use their particular strengths to report on classroom observation through visual art. The project is underpinned by the notion that the arts provide a particular way of knowing and that teaching should be student‐centred. I argue that if the arts can be seen to be a particular way through which we can understand the world then they can be used as both a pedagogical tool and possibly a vehicle for collecting data and reporting research. A group of 19 student teachers of art & design were given tasks which involved reporting on their school placement experience via a visual art form rather than through a text‐based form such as writing. The resulting images were discussed in a seminar and a sub‐group of three students was purposely selected for interviews. It was found overall, the students valued the approach taken and that they gained valuable insights into their professional placements through adopting an art‐based approach to educational research. As a result, I advocate in this article a greater use of arts‐based approaches to research which explores educational experience, not only in the arts, but in all areas of teaching and learning.     

Expert Panel: A New Strategy for Creating a Student‐Centred Learning Environment for Software Applications

Education reforms from teacher‐centred to student‐centred courses usually come with the adoption of new teaching strategies. However, following the growing design and development of student‐centred teaching and learning innovations in many fields of study, not many efforts have been found in the field of software application teaching. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new strategy for creating a student‐centred learning environment for software applications, in which students learn in a more active, collaborative environment with reduced reliance on teachers. This study puts forward a teaching innovation, called Expert Panel, designed in three stages of activities: exploration, experimentation and reflection. Thirty‐eight college students and one teacher participated in the implementation of the innovation. This article describes the design specifications of the innovation, and reports the preliminary findings of the implementation. The findings show that the teacher derived a certain degree of pleasure and surprise at being a true ‘facilitator’ rather than solely an instructor. Students felt engaged in the activities and motivated throughout the learning process. However, the student‐centred learning method challenged the students’ understanding of the traditional teacher's role. Therefore, accommodating not only teachers but also students in the acquisition of new concepts of teaching and learning was suggested. Several possible solutions for the drawbacks and pitfalls in the strategy were drawn up at the end for further development of the strategy.     

Examination involving students as peer examiners

The main interest in this article is students’ involvement in assessment as a part of growth towards self‐directedness in learning. In order to enhance students’ development of autonomy in learning, a project involving ‘older’ students as peer examiners for ‘younger’ students was designed and carried out. Students in the sixth semester in a PBL‐based Master’s program of Medical Biology participated, together with faculty, as examiners of fifth‐semester students. The examination and the assessment situation was carefully designed based on learning theories, empirical evidence and experiences underpinning student‐centred learning, especially in the form of PBL used at the faculty. The project was evaluated and analysed in order to understand students’ learning processes related to the responsibility for assessing peers. The situation of the peer examiners was interpreted based on their own experiences with statements from the students assessed and faculty involved in the assessment. Evaluations from six occasions, spring and fall, 2003–2005, were included in the study. The findings suggest that involving students in assessment as equal partners with faculty makes it is possible for students to apprehend the metacognitive competences needed to be responsible and autonomous in learning. The peer examiners experience motivation to learn about learning, they acquire tacit knowledge about assessment and they learn through being involved and trusted. The student‐centred educational context, which requires responsibility throughout the programme, is recognized as very important.     

The Reciprocal Relationship Between Technology and Psychology

This article describes the design and implementation of the year 2 curriculum and student learning experiences in the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Educational Technology program. We discuss the ways that this second set of courses builds on the first year of the program that students encounter, and also describe the theoretical impetus and design-based implications for learning how to teach with technology in effective and creative ways. Students in this group usually come in with some prior knowledge of educational theory, as well as some experience of working with classroom technologies. We intentionally build upon this prior knowledge, to take it to the next level of a more sophisticated TPACK-oriented understanding of learning in technology-driven contexts. Our year 2 courses move classical educational psychology theories of learning, along with educational research issues, squarely into the modern context of educational technology and teacher leadership. Our curriculum design focuses centrally on making meaningful experiences for teachers around technology, and helping them develop the knowledge and skills to create such experiences for their students. Our goal is to develop teachers who see themselves as flexible designers of learning experiences through the creative re-purposing of existing technologies.     

HELOs and student centred learning – where's the link?

Learning outcomes are presented as a tool that can enhance teaching and learning in higher education, in particular by fostering student‐centred learning. However, the ways in which this change can and should take place and the specific kinds of enhancement involved are often unclear. This article analyses common claims about the advantages of learning outcomes for teaching and learning and their relationship to student‐centred learning. The potential links between these concepts are investigated, based on interviews with teachers and students from a range of degree programmes at Norwegian and English universities. The interviews with 29 teachers and students suggest that learning outcome approaches are influencing course planning and some aspects of teaching practice, supporting more transparency and clear communication with students and offering a way to address particularly weak or traditional teaching. However, there is limited evidence that learning outcome approaches promote student‐centred learning, and the analysis identifies several tensions between the challenges student‐centred learning ideals pose to traditional teaching practices, in terms of transferring power and choice to students, and perceived pressures to specify and assess learning outcomes. It also suggests that teachers’ and students’ beliefs about the conditions and practices that lead to the most satisfying and successful elements of learning in degree courses are unlikely to be addressed through either learning‐outcome or student‐centred reforms.     

Learning to design and implement educational web sites within pre‐service training: a project‐based learning environment and its impact on student teachers

This paper reports on a project‐based learning (PBL) environment targeted towards introducing student teachers to the design and development of educational web sites. The participants were 46 student teachers who constructed 16 web sites for primary school. A survey of their views, before and after the projects, and an evaluation of the web sites created by them were conducted with a view to assessing their responses to the learning environment, its impact on them, as well as the challenges faced during web site creation. The results showed that the PBL approach has been motivational and effective regarding the acquisition of web site design and development skills. The participants demystified the process of educational web site creation and became more interested in and self‐confident about it, although they encountered certain difficulties in image processing, file management and design of navigational structures.     

Teaching mathematics with a holistic approach

Many mathematics teachers opt for a strictly teacher‐centred curriculum and/or instructional strategy. Given the well‐documented evidence noting the benefits of student‐centred instruction, it is easy to see that teacher‐centred learning on its own cannot best meet the needs of students. On the other hand, some teachers, aware of the importance of a student‐centred mathematics curriculum, adopt an exclusively student‐centred approach to curriculum and instruction. What is less obvious is that this approach can put some students who belong to certain ethnic groups at a disadvantage. Hence, to be more inclusive, mathematics educators need to take a balanced instructional approach. This paper outlines an inclusive instructional strategy that resembles the structure of and exemplifies the values promoted by the Aboriginal model of the Medicine Wheel.     

Researching class in the classroom: addressing the social class attainment gap in Initial Teacher Education

The social class attainment gap in education is now attracting an increased level of concern. Despite the efforts of the British New Labour government to address the continuing underachievement of working class pupils in England, there has been little progress. This paper reports on one aspect of a wider research study carried out in an Initial Teacher Education department in which this persistent educational problem was explicitly addressed. In this study student teachers were prompted to explore their own understandings of social class and underachievement by acting as school‐based researchers. The data collected by the student teachers revealed both silence and resistance surrounding social class in educational contexts. They identified social class and underachievement as overlapping constructions that were inextricably linked to the perceptions and practices of the teacher. Importantly, in reflecting on their experiences of the research process the student teachers were able to identify significant implications for their own future professional practice. This paper concludes by emphasising that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) provides an important context in which to raise social class issues and to ensure that student teachers are effectively prepared to recognise and address the institutional barriers to learning faced by underachieving working class pupils.     

#Class Again? How Education Faculty Engage the Disengaged College Student

Technology should play a role in the classroom, however, the gaps that currently exist between student and teacher use of technology can impede successful technology integration. While teacher education programs and faculty build courses based on foundational pedagogies in the field of curriculum and instruction, current needs, such as technology skills, may be overlooked as an essential part of the coursework for preservice teachers. This article presents a synthesized list of available websites and applications for both teacher educators and preservice teachers which can serve as a starting point for technology integration. If faculty can create an environment that honors and assesses the technological skills of their students and commit to understanding how the next generation of learners are using technology to learn, there may be a future impact on the classrooms of those preservice teachers as they start their own careers.     

Intelligent design: student perceptions of teaching and learning in large social work classes

Research into the effects of large classes demonstrates that students are disadvantaged in terms of higher order learning because interactions between teachers and students occur at lower cognitive levels. This has significance for social work education, with its emphasis on the development of critical thinking and problem solving, both higher order cognitive skills. This paper reports on quantitative and qualitative research that explored social work students’ perceptions of different teaching and learning strategies in a large mental health course designed with reference to principles of student‐centred learning and constructive alignment. Findings revealed that well‐integrated design, relevance to the real world and teacher enthusiasm were seen as most useful by students, rather than particular learning strategies per se. Higher satisfaction ratings and grades were also associated with this student‐centred course compared with an earlier traditional lecture‐style course. The paper concludes that design based on the interplay between diverse learning activities, including lecture input, strengthened the student‐centred orientation of learning and recommends further research that compares learning outcomes associated with these contrasting approaches to professional education.     

陶行知教育思想进教师教育课程实践与探索

陶行知教育思想进教师教育课程,是指将陶行知“生活教育”理论中核心教育思想作为课程或专题列入教师培训理论学习内容.《陶行知教育思想概论》网络课程是基于任务驱动设计,按认识陶行知、阅读陶行知、学习陶行知等活动形式设计,学员按学习活动进行学习、交流讨论、完成作业,系统地认识和学习陶行知教育思想.陶行知教育思想一旦进入教师教育课程,校长教师都会自觉主动地接受陶行知,并把陶行知教育思想带进学校,带进自己的教育教学实践.     

跨界课例研究中的教师学习

目前我国中小学教师的学习大都停留在被专家灌输知识或同行低水平交流的状态,如何创设跨界学习情境,引发教师对自己思维和行为习惯的深度反思,形成新的对教育教学的理解和行动,是教师学习的一大难题。鉴于此,有必要从跨界学习的视角,探索教师在跨界课例研究中其学习是如何发生的。基于一个小组合作学习案例,分析了教师如何通过与外来学者合作,根据具体情境对理论进行再工具化,改进教案设计和教学实施,在提高学生学习素养的同时生成了自己新的实践性知识。研究发现,教师跨界学习的意义协商、视角再造、实践重构三个机制,对教师专业学习具有重要的指导意义。     

Changing views of teachers and teaching in Vietnam

In order for Vietnam to seek better international integration into an increasingly globalised world, the Vietnamese Government has launched educational reforms requiring teachers to adopt ‘Western’ constructivist pedagogies. This paper reports on an action research study in a Vietnamese teacher training institution which found that Vietnamese student teachers were willing to accommodate and accept change and were often very enthusiastic about the ‘Western ideas’ of teaching and learning, but that their unquestioning respect for the authority of their tutors remained firmly fixed. The data also showed that the students’ tutors had a relatively limited exposure to the ‘Western theories’ and their implications and therefore did not model or demonstrate the theories effectively. The paper draws on these findings to argue that the focus for transforming Vietnamese teachers’ practice should be on promoting the responsibility of teacher educators to introduce student teachers to new ideas about the processes of teaching and learning. This strategy is likely to be more supportive of student teachers’ development as it allows them to separate the processes of teaching from culturally dominant beliefs about roles which are part of their established identities.     

Designing more effective on‐campus teaching and learning spaces: a role for academic developers

Teaching and learning on campus takes place within specific physical settings that are integral to the process. The traditional, teacher‐centred and didactic instruction of universities has been embedded in the constructed environment of the campus, particularly the lecture theatres and other formal classrooms. However, these same facilities now threaten to impede the implementation of more student‐centred and flexible learning approaches being introduced in higher education worldwide. Recent attempts to create new teaching and learning facilities on university campuses have often resulted in celebrated architecture that has proved to be educationally problematic. What types of physical settings are required to support the teaching and learning processes emerging in higher education? This paper draws on the author's work in the field, and argues that academic developers have a key role to play in assisting universities to engage effectively in the design and development of more effective teaching and learning facilities.     

Using Multimedia Cases to Invigorate School Leaders’ Organizational Learning

Creating meaningful learning opportunities for school leaders (principals, teachers, peer professionals, and community members) is a central goal of educational staff developers. Involving principals and school community leaders in the systematic study of their own context‐specific leadership challenges using digital multimedia and a perspectivist learning approach may offer potential as one technology‐integrated means for facilitating positive school community vision building and decision making. This article describes results of one prototype collaborative effort to design and use multimedia cases to invigorate school leaders’ organizational thinking and learning     

多媒体和互联网在大学英语自主学习模式中的作用

基于多媒体和互联网的大学英语教学模式,由于符合以学生为中心的现代教育理念,正在我国高等学校的大学英语教学中发挥日益重要的作用。如何有效地使用信息技术辅助英语教学,关键在于教师与学生需要适当的角色转变,以使学生逐渐形成适合自己的自主学习模式。