Analysing teacher professional development through professional dialogue: an investigation into a university–school partnership project on enquiry learning

The paper considers data in one Higher Education Institution (HEI) from written reports and from interviews with trainee teachers and their teachers charged with the assessment of one training standard for secondary Initial Teacher Training in England: Professional Values and Practice. It explores the extent to which four elements of this standard can be measured as outcomes of performance. It reveals that assessment judgements draw on a wide range of evidence and are often subjective, context‐specific and broadly interpreted. In their current form these statements do not lend themselves easily to assessment. Recommendations include greater clarity in the statements about what might be expected of a beginning teacher in terms of particular professional competences as performance statements; opportunities for assessment in relation to a ‘developing professionalism’ rather than ‘managed professionalism’ (and compliance); and a broader framework that can take account of two dimensions in particular: (1) creating an environment for pupil learning and (2) teacher professionalism.     

Translation and its discontents II: a German perspective

International cooperation in history teaching and related teacher education requires clarification of terminology as well as of underlying concepts and theoretical foundations, since these levels are fundamentally intertwining. If these levels are addressed, both comparison and translation do not only make cooperation possible, but promise valuable contributions to the clarification of such concepts on either side. Being the German counterpart to the viewpoint of Peter Seixas, this article both corroborates and adds to his reflections. Three complexes of theory and terminology are addressed: ‘Geschichtsbewusstsein’ (‘historical consciousness’) with special regard to the concept of ‘Sinnbildung’ in Jörn Rüsen’s theory, the German focus on the concepts of source (‘Quelle’) compared to the Anglosaxon concept of ‘evidence’ and the challenges posed by translating Jörn Rüsen’s concept of ‘Triftigkeiten’ (plausibility) as a criterion for assessing the quality of historical statements.     

Book review

This paper aims to examine the experiences of pupils and professionals who are affected by actual or threatened permanent exclusion (what used to be called being expelled) from school. An ethnographic study based on the writer’s employment within secondary schools and the Children’s Services department of an urban local authority in England explores the idea that professionals may be forced to make decisions about pupils in the face of powerful competition between the politically unchallengeable concepts of tolerance, inclusivity, attainment, and choice. The paper argues that the tensions of multi‐agency working are focussed within what will be called the contested space of the pupil’s ‘extended body’. Permanent exclusion, along with its tendency to prompt a pathological reading of a pupil’s issues, is therefore seen as an authoritarian strategy designed to ameliorate the inherent paradoxical tension experienced by the various professionals working within an education system dedicated to the concept of ‘full inclusion’ but measured and funded on the grounds of academic league tables.     

University students' assessment of the explanatory content of justification statements

A test was devised involving familiar chemical examples and administered to samples of Portuguese university chemistry students in order to establish to what extent they recognised and correctly assessed the explanatory content of statements presented in the form of justifications, usually beginning with the word ‘because’. It was found that a high percentage of the students selected as the ‘best explanations’ statements that either involved tautology or simply invoked a rule, principle or general observation. Also, low‐level interpretations and correlations between facts and/or variables (or mathematical concepts) were also frequently taken as valid explanations; more surprising, however, was the finding that a significant proportion of statements involving high level interpretation in terms of fundamental concepts were rated as providing the least intellectual satisfaction.     

The construction of the ‘ideal pupil’ and pupils’ perceptions of ‘misbehaviour’ and discipline: contrasting experiences from a low‐socio‐economic and a high‐socio‐economic primary school

This paper examines the effect of school social class composition on pupil learner identities in British primary schools. In the current British education system, high‐stakes testing has a pervasive effect on the pedagogical relationship between teachers and pupils. The data in this paper, from ethnographic research in a working‐class school and a middle‐class school, indicate that the effect of the ‘testing culture’ is much greater in the working‐class school. Using Bernsteinian theory and the concept of the ‘ideal pupil’, it is shown that these pupils’ learner identities are more passive and dominated by issues of discipline and behaviour rather than academic performance, in contrast to those in the middle‐class school. While this study includes only two schools, it indicates a potentially significant issue for neo‐liberal education policy where education is marketised and characterised by high‐stakes testing, and schools are polarised in terms of social class.     

Creativity and performativity policies in primary school cultures

Cultures of performativity in English primary schools refer to systems and relationships of: target‐setting; Ofsted inspections; school league tables constructed from pupil test scores; performance management; performance related pay; threshold assessment; and advanced skills teachers. Systems which demand that teachers ‘perform’ and in which individuals are made accountable. These policy measures, introduced to improve levels of achievement and increased international economic competitiveness, have, potentially, profound implications for the meaning and experience of primary teachers’ work; their identities; their commitment to teaching; and how they view their careers. At the same time as policies of performativity are being implemented there is now increasing advocacy for the adoption and advancement of ‘creativity’ policies within primary education. These major developments are being introduced in the context of a wide range of social/educational policies also aimed at the introduction of creativity initiatives into schools and teaching. This complex policy context has major implications for the implementation process and also primary teachers’ work and how they experience it. The ethnographic research reported in this article has been conducted over a school year in six English primary schools in order to analyse the effects of creativity and performativity policy initiatives at the implementation stage. The article concludes by arguing that in the schools of our research the drive to raise pupil test scores involves both performative and creative strategies and that this critical mediation goes beyond amelioration toward a more complex view of professional practice. Implementing creativity and performativity policies provided important contextual influencing factors on teacher commitment. These were: curriculum coverage and task completion; and providing psychic rewards of teaching.     

BILINGUALISM IN WALES: AN ASPECT OF SEMANTIC ORGANISATION

The influence of teachers upon pupil performance has been acknowledged in other studies as setting in motion a ‘self‐fulfilling prophecy’. But this informal segregation of children into good and bad academic prospects is in part determined by the headteacher's beliefs about the pupils’ potential achievement during and after their school lives. By setting different levels of expectation throughout the school the headteacher may impose upon certain sets of children a diminished self‐concept. To a significant extent, therefore, the headteacher predetermines the child's developing image of himself not only as a pupil but as a person.     

The ‘Problem’ of the Female Pupil Teacher: constructions,conflict and control 1860‐1910

This paper highlights just one aspect of the highly gendered nature of nineteenth century pupil teaching and focuses on how the female pupil teacher was constructed as a ‘problem’. The paper consists of two broad sections and draws extensively upon the experience of female pupil teachers who attended pupil teacher centres during the school board period. First, to set the scene and contextualise the ‘problem’, a brief account of the feminisation of teaching and what this meant for the female pupil teacher and pupil teaching in general is explored, with particular reference to the complexities of female pupil teachers’ working life and the issue of mixed centre organisation. Secondly, there follows an analysis of how attempts were made to solve or contain the perceived ‘problem’ of the female pupil teacher through the simultaneous exercise of: moral control; protection and concern with physical and mental well‐being; moulding through the medium of ‘healthful recreation’.     

How Bourdieu bites back: recognising misrecognition in education and educational research

Having noted that some use of Bourdieusian concepts in educational research is superficial, this paper offers a view of the distinctiveness of Bourdieu’s concepts via the example of misrecognition, which is differentiated from the concept with the same name in Fraser’s work. An account is given of a recent research project on white middle-class identity and school choice, which suggests that whilst parents avoided a common misrecognition (regarding school quality), they were nevertheless reliant on other forms of misrecognition (regarding the qualities of their children) that are equally important in the relationship between social class and educational inequalities. Finally, the paper suggests that educational understandings, including some educational research, are predisposed to misrecognise Bourdieusian concepts, and four areas of tension are identified. The paper argues against ‘light usage’ of Bourdieu whilst acknowledging that the approach can produce a pessimistic account that is at odds with some educational values.     

A survey of practices of teachers of the gifted

The purpose of this study was to examine the self‐concepts, locus of control, and machi‐avellianism of 169 ethnically diverse middle grade students identified as gifted. Subjects consisted of 90 African‐American (31 boys, 18 girls). Self‐concept, locus of control, and machiavellianism were assessed by Me: A Self‐Concept Scale for Gifted Children (Feldhusen &; Kolloff, 1981), the Nowicki‐Strickland Locus of Control Scale (Nowicki &; Strickland, 1973), and Mach IV Scale (Christie &; Geis, 1970) respectively. A three‐way analysis of variance (group × Gender × Grade) on subjects’ scores revealed significant group differences in self‐concept. No significant gender or grade differences were found in self‐concept. No significant group, gender, or grade differences were found in locus of control and machiavellianism. Self‐concept was significantly and positively correlated with internal locus of control and with low machiavellianism. Mean scores indicated that ethnically diverse students who are gifted had positive self‐concepts, internal locus of control, and were low machiavellians.     

Paragons of Virtue: teachers’ conceptual understanding of high ability in an egalitarian school system

Recent research suggests that teachers are useful in identifying high ability, provided they have some advance guidelines on how such identification should be operationalized and why. But how do teachers in an egalitarian school system, with neither specific knowledge nor guidelines, conceptualize and make provision for highly able pupils? A total of 232 teachers, representing all levels of the Swedish comprehensive school system, were questioned on different aspects of their conceptual understanding of talented pupils. Answers were given as brief written statements, and the data submitted to a content analysis which resulted in four cluster matrices. This showed that teachers can identify high ability fairly accurately with regard to cognitive attributes and personality characteristics, but fail to understand the socio‐emotional dynamics. Thus, highly able pupils appeared to have been regarded as ‘paragons of virtue’ possessing the social attributes of the teachers ‘ideal pupil’.     

The importance of adjusting for pupil background in school value-added models: A study of Progress 8 and school accountability in England

In the UK, USA and elsewhere, school accountability systems increasingly compare schools using value-added measures of school performance derived from pupil scores in high-stakes standardised tests. Rather than naïvely comparing school average scores, which largely reflect school intake differences in prior attainment, these measures attempt to compare the average progress or improvement pupils make during a year or phase of schooling. Schools, however, also differ in terms of their pupil demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and these factors also predict why some schools subsequently score higher than others. Many therefore argue that value-added measures unadjusted for pupil background are biased in favour of schools with more ‘educationally advantaged’ intakes. But others worry that adjusting for pupil background entrenches socioeconomic inequities and excuses low-performing schools. In this article we explore these theoretical arguments and their practical importance in the context of the ‘Progress 8’ secondary school accountability system in England, which has chosen to ignore pupil background. We reveal how the reported low or high performance of many schools changes dramatically once adjustments are made for pupil background, and these changes also affect the reported differential performances of regions and of different school types. We conclude that accountability systems which choose to ignore pupil background are likely to reward and punish the wrong schools and this will likely have detrimental effects on pupil learning. These findings, especially when coupled with more general concerns surrounding high-stakes testing and school value-added models, raise serious doubts about their use in school accountability systems.     

A Method for Investigating Concept Understanding in Science

Summaries

English

The authors report on an ‘Interview about instances’ technique for the investigation of students’ concept understanding in science. The potential and limitations of this technique has been explored in relation to the concepts ‘work’ and ‘electric current’ in 50 trial interviews involving students over the age range seven to 18 years. Some of the findings are reported here and suggestions made for further studies using the ‘Interview about instances’ technique.     

A Proposal for a Teaching Strategy Based on Preinstructional Ideas of Pupils. Environmental Education: The use of pupils’ ideas about cycles of nature and health

Twenty years after the statements of Ausubel, much research has been done on pupils’ ideas but little has been done on strategies that make use of these ideas in teaching, especially in biology education. Moreover little research, up until now, concentrates on concepts regarding Environmental Education. For Environmental Education the concepts of Cycles and Health are important. In this paper pupils’ ideas on these concepts are assessed and represented and common pupil ideas between the two concepts are discussed. A teaching strategy based upon pupils’ ideas is elaborated.     

‘Empty signifiers’ and ‘dreamy ideals’: perceptions of the ‘international university’ among higher education students and staff at a British university

This paper reports on a mixed-methods case study investigating how higher education staff and students understand, experience and envision the ‘international university’. As it is becoming clear that international student mobility is not in itself a panacea for universities seeking to internationalise, ‘internationalisation at home’ and ‘global citizenship’ are increasingly permeating university policy documents and mission statements. However, little is known about how students and staff on the ground perceive and experience these concepts. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected at one British university through focus groups (N = 19) and through an online survey (n = 148). Findings revealed a conventional mobility-focused understanding of the international university among students and staff, and a great deal of cynicism as regards ‘internationalisation at home’ and ‘global citizenship’. We discuss implications for practice and a research agenda.     

The study of the pupil’s cognitive structure: the concept of angle

The present research approached a problem which has a twofold aspect: the concept of angle and the techniques needed to represent how pupils construct that concept in their cognitive structure during their years in school. In order to access the knowledge of the concept of angle, we used the pathfinder associative networks. This technique provided us with the data of the 458 networks of the participating students, using 11 concepts related to the general concept of angle. We used quantitative indicators on the network characteristics: coherence, complexity, and similarity with others. Results showed how the pupil’s cognitive structure evolutioned during instruction and what were the most relevant concepts for them. On the basis of the results, we have proposed what we call the “Theory of Nuclear Concepts” which offers a new focus to understanding how the processes of teaching and learning occur.     

‘Voice’ is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

This article provides a children's rights critique of the concept of ‘pupil voice’. The analysis is founded on Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives children the right to have their views given due weight in all matters affecting them. Drawing on research conducted on behalf of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, the article assesses some of the barriers to the meaningful and effective implementation of the right within education. It is argued that the phrases which are commonly used as abbreviations for Article 12, such as ‘pupil voice’, have the potential to diminish its impact as they provide an imperfect summary of the full extent of the obligation. The article proposes a new model, which has four key elements, for conceptualising Article 12— Voice, Audience and Influence.     

The last place to look: the place of pupil councils within citizen participation in Scottish schools

This article critically examines pupil councils as a means of developing pupils’ citizenship participation. It draws on findings across two research projects. The first study is a mixed method study commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) that reviews the range of participatory activities in Scottish schools and their contribution to Scotland’s major curriculum revision, the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE). The second is a longer ethnographic study examining young people’s experience of participation projects in more detail. The findings lend strength to the argument that pupil councils as a stand-alone approach are not an effective means of citizenship participation. When pupil councils are complemented by other participation activity across spheres of school interaction, young people’s understanding of and interest in participation can be greatly enhanced. The article examines the cross curricular linkages schools are making, the barriers that impede such linkages and the benefits derived from successful coordinated approaches in light of criteria for ‘graduated participation’ developed through decades of work internationally on children’s participation.     

Constructing and educating 'problem children': the case of post-communist Estonia

Estonia is a post-communist Baltic state in which neoliberal market ideologies and still prevailing socialist norms exist side by side in educational policies and practices. It is no longer self-evident what is ‘normal’ and what is ‘problematic’. Special education class for students regarded as having problems is a new innovation in Estonia. The paper analyses the history and current changes and discusses how a ‘problem child’ is constructed in Estonian teachers' perceptions and in the pedagogical methods used with these children. The paper draws on teachers' writings and on an ethnographic study in a special education class. Some comparisons with Finnish educational policies and ethnographic research on secondary schools are made. The findings suggests that in Estonia, a ‘problem child’ is a student who does not conform to the norms of the school, and in focus is behaviour that disturbs the teacher: problems in relation to schools' regulations of time, voice, embodiment and equipment, lack of engagement and unruly behaviour. We reflect the Estonian case with some comparisons with Finland using the concept ‘professional pupil’ introduced in an ethnographic research.     

An idealistic view of teaching: teacher students’ personal practical theories

Personal practical theories (PPTs) are built based on underlying beliefs, experiences, values and conceptions regarding ‘good teaching’. Having a vision of teaching and valuing the work may have a strong effect on one’s sense of identity, resilience and commitment. This study focused on Finnish teacher students’ (N = 84) PPTs constructed during the middle or at the end of their studies, on average during their fourth year of a five-year MA programme. All of the PPTs, written as statements (N = 647), were combined, and a unified conception of the theories was formed using inductive content analysis. The three main categories found were the foundations of good teaching, the teacher and the teacher’s daily work. The analysis of the statements shows that the notions of good teaching are very idealistic: they emphasise abstract ideologies and high standards for the teacher, but also everyday matters of teaching, although also here the ideology of the pupil’s individuality is at the centre. The paper concludes by arguing that it is good to have high aims and values for teaching, although in reality some of them might be difficult to achieve.