“From the Intuitive to the Intentional”: Designing a Constructivist Online Course

Online programs are becoming more ubiquitous in higher education; however, there has been a lack of research on the merit of this style of educating. Using the concept of constructivism as a framework, the idea that individuals construct their own understanding of world experiences, the authors generated a case study to explore the efficacy of teaching “havruta study,” text analysis in student pairs with instructor facilitation, in an online format. Findings suggest that, through careful consideration of communication styles and student needs, highly interactive in-house courses can be adapted to online settings.     

CAE: A Tool for the Engineer—a Dilemma for the Academic

This paper considers the impact of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) on traditional engineering teaching philosophy and methodology. The nature of CAE is discussed and the problems associated with its inclusion within existing curricula examined. The integrative potential available is seen in terms of a challenge to engineering education.

The academic dilemma posed by the challenge of CAE is presented and a new educational approach based on CAE as the teaching vehicle advocated. The introduction of CAE is seen to provide an opportunity to re–appraise teaching philosophy, devise new objectives and fundamentally revise teaching methods to take full advantage of the potential available.

One academic response to the challenge of CAE is discussed and illustrated with reference to several documented examples. The use of CAE as a design tool for problem simulation and solution is advocated. The paper concludes by observing the need to change traditional teaching philosophy, methodology and practices.     

Rethinking Initial Teacher Education for Further Education Teachers: From a standards‐led to a knowledge‐based approach

This paper is a critique of the initial teacher education (ITE) of further and adult education teachers in the UK. It argues that the employer‐led, national standards model in the UK is not the basis for ITE and professional development because it takes no account of learning in the workplace, disregards the multi‐specialist and professional dimensions of professional practice and marginalizes the importance of knowledge. In the critique of the “standards‐led model” the paper draws upon research and ideas on work‐based learning, seeing the learning of teachers in the workplace as a complex relationship with many “experts” in multiple, often conflicting learning contexts. The paper stresses the importance of seeing work‐based learning as more than just “learning by doing” to one that sees it as an intentional structuring of participatory activity. In other words, a “pedagogy of the workplace”. Finally the paper suggests that learning is not just a process of “participation”, but a learning zone where different types of knowledge and pedagogy are learnt and transformed. In highlighting the importance of knowledge the paper draws upon theories of professional knowledge that suggests that certain types of knowledge cannot be gained in the workplace alone, therefore focusing on the issues of the different types of knowledge, their acquisition and their transformation or recontextualisation.     

Exploring the Construct of Pedagogical Discontentment: A Tool to Understand Science Teachers’ Openness to Reform

It is well established that many teachers are resistant to take up the messages of reform if these messages require them to substantially shift their teaching practices. What accounts for this resistance? One well established explanation is that teachers lacks the self-efficacy required to attempt something new in their teaching—they simply do not feel capable of effectively enacting the messages. However, there are a host of studies describing teachers with high self—efficacy who remain resistant to messages of change. The purpose of this article is to address the gap in the application of self-efficacy to understand the change or lack of change of science teachers’ practice through the introduction of a related construct, pedagogical discontentment. This construct reflects a state of cognitive conflict that exists when an individual recognizes a mismatch between her/his science teaching pedagogical goals and classroom practices. One potential result of this mismatch is that a teacher problematizes her teaching practices, prompting an increased receptivity to reform messages. Building on existing literature, we present vignettes of four hypothetical teachers who exemplify variations of pedagogical discontentment. When combined with self-efficacy, pedagogical discontentment provides a useful lens to understand teachers’ consideration and adoption of messages of reform.     

Teachers’ interpretations of texts-image juxtapositions in textbooks: From the concrete to the abstract

The paper examined expert literature teachers’ coping with a novel textbook, integrating literature with visual arts, which is a particular interdisciplinary case of text-image relations in textbooks. Examination was performed within the framework of teachers’ responses to curricular changes and of theory regarding strategies of interdisciplinary instruction. Data regarding teachers’ coping was collected via video recorded deep interviews and analysed qualitatively using the phenomenological approach. Findings revealed four phases of a recurring pattern of performance: (a) retrieving prior knowledge about texts, (b) cycles of processing and refinement (comprising comparing-identifying-matching, making meaning of elements in contexts, eliciting themes and deeply examining artworks’ devices), (c) mindful evaluation of the juxtaposition, and (d) pedagogical reasoning. Four potential roles of the textbook visual artworks, for promoting literature learning, were inferred. The study shed some light on the involvement of teacher cognition and culture of teaching in the reading, evaluating, and adapting of novel curricula. A deeper understanding of the factors involved in the introduction of novel materials, examined from a cognitive perspective, may inform teachers’ professional development and curriculum developers as well as promote implementations of curricular reforms.     

Assessing Teachers’ Beliefs to Facilitate the Transition to a New Chemistry Curriculum: What Do the Teachers Want?

In this article, we describe the results of a study of chemistry high school teachers’ beliefs (N = 7) of the chemistry curriculum and their roles, their beliefs on the teacher as developer of materials, and their beliefs about professional development. Teachers’ beliefs influence the implementation of a curriculum. We view the use of a new curriculum as a learning process, which should start at teachers’ prior knowledge and beliefs. The results reveal that it is possible to develop a new curriculum in which teachers’ beliefs are taken as a starting point. Promising approaches to prepare teachers for a new curriculum is to let them (co)develop and use curriculum materials: It creates ownership, and strengthens and develops teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

Science Teachers’ Use of a Concept Map Marking Guide as a Formative Assessment Tool for the Concept of Energy

In this study, we investigated the value of a concept map marking guide as an alternative formative assessment tool for science teachers to adopt for the topic of energy. Eight high school science teachers marked students’ concept maps using an itemized holistic marking guide. Their marking was compared with the researchers’ marking and the scores of a multiple-choice diagnostic test. Statistical analysis revealed that teachers evaluated students’ concept maps consistently, but the concept map scores were only mildly correlated with the multiple-choice test scores. We explored what each assessment method revealed in terms of students’ understanding with one student’s performance as a showcase. Teachers’ views on using the marking guide of concept maps as an assessment tool were also included. We discuss the value of the concept map marking guide as a formative assessment tool for science teachers to create and modify in order to encourage students’ conceptual learning.     

Assessment in the Kindergarten Classroom: An Empirical Study of Teachers’ Assessment Approaches

Within the current accountability framework of public education, kindergarten teachers face the challenge of balancing traditional developmental programing and current academically oriented curriculum. Central to this challenge is teachers’ uses of assessment to measure and communicate student learning in relation to their curricular stance. The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth examination of three teachers’ approaches to assessment within the current context of kindergarten education in order to elucidate potential approaches to bridging developmental and academic demands. Based on data collected from teacher interviews and classroom observations, three profiles are constructed that link focal teachers’ curricular stances with their approach to assessment. The paper concludes with a discussion on assessment within kindergarten education and areas for future research in the field.     

“Digging for Gold” or “Sticking to the Criteria”: Teachers’ Rationales When Serving as Professional Raters

ABSTRACT

This paper reports findings from a project called “The National Panel of Raters” (NPR) that took place within a writing test programme in Norway (2010–2016). A recent research project found individual differences between the raters in the NPR. This paper reports results from an explorative follow up-study where 63 NPR members were surveyed with 23 items that were dilemma-like in the sense that deviating from the NPR rules would follow another—but socially acceptable—rationale. Four NPR members participated in a follow-up interview in which they motivated why they had agreed or disagreed with certain items. The results indicate two distinctly different stances toward rating work, with one stance threatening the validity of the scoring process.     

Using the Internet for Communicative Learning Activities in Kindergarten: The Case of the “Shapes Planet”

With the widespread use of the internet, more and more children get acquainted with its various uses at a young age while an increasing number of teachers are designing learning activities that utilize various internet services. Toward this direction, teachers need practical examples of pedagogically verified learning activities. This paper presents an experimental case study of a learning activity meant for teaching preschoolers geometric concepts, which uses communication tools from the internet. The activity constitutes a developmentally appropriate adaptation of a successful model, known as “Monster Exchange”, to kindergarten. The paper presents the proposed adaptation, the experimental findings regarding the errors children mad, the difficulties they encountered, and finally, the drawings that children produced, with the aim of evaluating the appropriateness and the learning value of the activity.     

From Exploratory Talk to Abstract Reasoning: a Case for Far Transfer?

Research has shown improvements in science, mathematics, and language scores when classroom discussion is employed in school-level science and mathematics classes. Studies have also shown statistically and practically significant gains in children’s reasoning abilities as measured by the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices test when employing the practice of “exploratory talk”. While these studies suggest that transfer of learning had taken place, a number of dialog-intensive designs have failed to find positive results, only reported delayed transfer, or have been criticized in terms of methodological rigor, small sample sizes, or because they have only shown small effect sizes. In this study, the claim is made that a particular set of studies which focused on exploratory talk and reasoning abilities, and which used designs that are better positioned to meet the standards mentioned above when presenting data in support of far transfer, provides robust evidence of far transfer within the framework of Barnett and Ceci’s taxonomy of transfer. Possible relationships between exploratory talk, argumentation, and key domains in the science of learning are considered in an attempt to explain the apparent far transfer effects when children engage in exploratory talk.     

Elementary Teachers’ Teaching for Conceptual Understanding: Learning From Action Research

This study reports teachers’ learning through action research on students’ conceptual understanding. The study examined (a) the teachers’ views about science teaching and learning, (b) the teachers’ learning about their teaching practices and (c) the conditions that supported the teachers’ learning through action research. A total of 14 elementary in-service teachers’ course discussion, self-video reflection, action research reports, and learning reflection were analyzed. Findings revealed that (a) the teachers in this study commonly espoused the importance of probing and utilizing students’ preconceptions in science teaching, but they demonstrated various levels of epistemological understanding of student learning and teaching, (b) the teachers experienced the action research as a means to evaluate science teaching methods and changing their teaching practices, and (c) the teachers identified sharing goals, problems, and solutions as an essential supporting condition for their learning through action research. Implications for professional development and further research are discussed.     

“Troops to Teachers”: implications for the coalition government’s approach to education policy and pedagogical beliefs and practice

On taking power the coalition government embarked on what many commentators believe is a radical programme of public policy reform. Under Michael Gove, education policy has become totemic to those arguing that Britain’s classrooms are mired in academic mediocrity and behavioural failure. One policy response by the government has been to propose fast-tracking ex-armed services personnel into schools in England as teachers, especially in inner-city areas. This paper examines the educational and pedagogical merits of this proposal and the underlying beliefs that underpin it. Based on a critical evaluation of the literature, it argues that rather than representing a genuinely radical and innovative attempt to tackle educational underachievement, the Troops to Teachers initiative is deeply reactionary. One, based on discredited pedagogical philosophies which fail to address what the educational community believes a “good” education is, devalues teaching as a profession and ignores the socio-economic factors that primarily determine academic performance.     

“It Bothers Me,but I Will Not Bring It into the Kindergarten”: Gender Perception Conflicts of Religious Kindergarten Teachers as Reflected in Their Work

The article describes a study on the gender identity of kindergarten teachers in the Israeli State Religious Education System (Hemed). The aim was to investigate their perception of gender identity in light of Orthodox feminism and discover how this is reflected in their work, particularly in the Torah stories they tell. The study, based on a narrative research method comprising seven teachers, suggested a link between their gender perceptions and attitude toward Orthodox feminism, and their attitude toward patriarchal Bible stories. The discomfiture and internal contradictions characterizing their perceptions reflect the diverse attitudes in the religious public to this issue.     

Scaffolding literacies across the Bachelor of Education program: an argument for a course‐wide approach

Contemporary teacher educators often find themselves teaching large numbers of students from increasingly diverse backgrounds an expanded curriculum in a university environment characterised by cost‐cutting and a climate of “user pays”. Ensuring that students graduate with sufficiently well‐developed literacy skills to equip them to prepare future generations for the complex literacy requirements of contemporary society can be challenging. Informed by data from a longitudinal, qualitative study of 10 students' literacy development across the four years of a Bachelor of Education course, we propose a range of strategies that can be used to develop effective literacy practices. Through careful mapping of the assessment requirements over a four year degree, and by setting tasks which require students to engage with complex reading material and which offer a high degree of challenge coupled with adequate support, staff can assist students to develop the range of literacy practices required for success at university and in their future teaching careers.     

Teachers’ perceptions of the organisational climate: a tool for promoting instructional improvement

The current push for principals’ to be accountable for student outcomes has led to a renewed interest in the role of leadership in instructional improvement. This article describes the development and validation of a survey that focused on organisational management features that are likely to bring about improvement in instruction. The development of the instrument involved a multistage approach that included: identifying key organisational management features important to instructional leadership and an effective school, based on research and theoretical underpinnings; clearly articulating key constructs; and modifying, adapting and developing items to assess those constructs. After pilot testing the survey, the survey was administered to 216 teachers selected from four high schools in Western Australia. To ensure that the survey was reliable, we used [Trochim W. M. and J. P. Donnelly. 2006. The Research Methods Knowledge Base. 3rd ed. Cincinnati, OH: Atomic Dog] framework for construct validity. Analysis of the data provided evidence to support the reliability and validity of the questionnaire in terms of both the translation and criterion validity. The development of this survey provides principals with an economical and psychometrically sound tool that can be used as part of a process involving critical self-reflection.