Learning to apply numbers to nature

Working within the framework of a Wittgensteinian view of number, I exp the learning of English speaking and Yoruba speaking children as they work towards mean ful use of number names. I find that English speaking children and Yoruba speaking child appropriate different types of concepts in their development towards number use. The conc differ because the types of material objects that English speakers and Yoruba speakers tal differ. It seems that monolingual Yoruba speaking village children might be slower in apprc ating concepts associated with number use in Yoruba than their bilingual compatriots monolingual English speaking children, and that the bilingual children's learning is enhance their bilingualism.     

A Conceptual Change Approach to Learning Science

Summaries

English

Learning science is complex‐‐a student has at different times to acquire new information, reorganize existing knowledge and even discard cherished ideas. In addressing this issue, the analogy between individual learning and conceptual change in scientific disciplines has been fruitful in providing aspects of a suitableframework for analysing science learning. In this paper a model of learning as conceptual change is developed. It investigates the conditions under which an individual holding a set of conceptions of natural phenomena, when confronted by new experiences will either keep his or her conceptions substantially unaltered in the process of incorporating these experiences, or have to replace them because of their inadequacy. The model illuminates the importance of addressing an individual's existing conceptions. It also pinpoints the importance of an individual's metaphysical commitments in influencing scientific learning.     

Evaluating the impact of reflecting on curriculum-embedded skill development: the experience of science undergraduates

ABSTRACT

Meaningful reflection on their learning and skill development is often lacking in the experience of undergraduates. Many students do not recognise the curriculum-embedded development of transferable skills and lack the ability to articulate such skills. This mixed-methods study sought to investigate whether engaging students in reflection would increase their ability to recognise and articulate their skill development. Sixty science undergraduates from Monash University completed a voluntary semester-long program recording and reflecting on course-related skill development, supported by email prompts and group discussions. The impact of students’ involvement was evaluated through pre- and post-participation surveys, reflections and group discussions. Most students were challenged by the unfamiliarity of thinking beyond knowledge attainment in order to identify and reflect on skill-related experiences. However, they recognised a range of benefits from doing so, including an improved ability to recognise their skill development, strengths and weaknesses and to articulate their skills in readiness for seeking employment. They also valued previously unappreciated learning tasks and gained motivation to improve skill deficits and seek out opportunities to improve their employability. Based on this study, recommendations are made regarding best practice for implementing skills reflection in the curriculum.     

Effective electronic materials: are teachers aware of these?

This study analyses to what extent teachers recognise which interactive multimedia software is efficient and which is not. The results are based on two correlation studies. The first study was carried out with 35 different pieces of interactive multimedia software for secondary students, and 34 pieces of interactive multimedia software for primary students were used in the second study. The teachers of special subject and class-teachers participated in these studies. The correlations between the teachers' evaluations about the interactive multimedia software and students' learning outcomes were found. The present study revealed that primary teachers' evaluations were not related to or negatively correlated with students' learning outcomes. Teachers of special subjects were more able to recognise the efficiency of educational software, but not in the case of all features and all groups of students.     

‘A kind of exchange’: learning from art and design teaching

This paper analyses pedagogic practices in four fields in art and design higher education. Its purpose is to identify the characteristics that might be called signature pedagogies in these subjects and to identify their role in student centred learning. In a time of growing economic pressure on higher education and in the face of tendencies for normative practices brought about through mechanisms such as quality assurance procedures the authors seek to articulate and recognise the issues relating to spaces and pedagogies from this discipline that might be made to wider debates about learning in the sector.     

Policies on and practices of cultural inclusivity in learning management systems: perspectives of Indigenous holistic pedagogies

Online learning has become a conventional term and practice in Australian higher education, yet cultural inclusivity for Indigenous (Indigenous for the purposes of this paper refers to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples) students is insufficiently reflected in learning management system (LMS) policies and design. This study aims to explore culturally inclusive learning entrenched in Australian university policies on and practices of LMS by applying Indigenous holistic pedagogical values in LMS design. Based on a literature review, we articulate four dimensions: communication, collaboration, community and interculturality for culturally inclusive learning in an online learning environment. By using the dimensions, we critically review policies (n?=?10) and LMS sites (n?=?50). In this review, we argue that there are contrasts of individually heterogeneous and collectively homogeneous approaches, self-focused and community-driven pedagogy, and task-oriented and relational learning. Significantly, the review results indicate that Indigenous holistic pedagogies have a metaphysical strength to be the ontological foundation for cultural inclusivity.     

Articulating the Purpose of a Social Foundations of Education Course through Instructor Self-Interviews

Within contemporary political discourses that narrowly characterize learning in terms of high-stakes standardized examinations, the value of the social foundations of education for teachers is increasingly questioned and challenged by those within and outside programs of teacher education. Even more troubling, prospective teachers often struggle to identify the purpose and usefulness of social foundations for their work as teachers. In this self-study, I engaged in a form of self-interviewing that I adapted to the self-study context in order to better articulate the nuances, complexities, and tensions in the purpose of social foundations for teachers' practice.     

Recognising and exploring action-theories: A reflection-in-action approach to facilitating experiential learning

Outdoor education has typically presented itself as a specific approach to experiential learning. This article proposes that experiential learning can be understood as a process in which learners recognise and develop their action-theory and that the aim of outdoor development programs — whether in mainstream education, corporate training or therapy — is to facilitate this process. After introducing the notion of action-theory, I will present a particular approach to facilitation, which can be understood as a reflection-in-action approach. I conclude by situating this approach in the wider range of facilitation models in the literature on outdoor education and adventure therapy.     

Recognising and exploring action-theories: A reflection-in-action approach to facilitating experiential learning

Abstract

Outdoor education has typically presented itself as a specific approach to experiential learning. This article proposes that experiential learning can be understood as a process in which learners recognise and develop their action-theory and that the aim of outdoor development programs — whether in mainstream education, corporate training or therapy — is to facilitate this process. After introducing the notion of action-theory, I will present a particular approach to facilitation, which can be understood as a reflection-in-action approach. I conclude by situating this approach in the wider range of facilitation models in the literature on outdoor education and adventure therapy.     

Learning: The pupil's voice

Summaries are given of research on the learner's role in learning and pupils' attitudes to school and it is argued that few studies have collected the views of young children on learning. This provides the rationale for a pilot study which probed the perceptions of a sample of 44 Year 2 and Year 6 children in schools in and around London. The findings indicate that children as young as seven can conceptualise 'learning' and are able to articulate learning strategies and processes they use. It is suggested that the pupil's voice is an increasingly important element in furthering our understanding of teaching and learning more generally.     

Using a Critical Service-Learning Approach to Facilitate Civic Identity Development

This article highlights elements of civic engagement programs that have the rich potential to facilitate civic identity development. Focusing on research with alumni, the study examines 3 civic engagement programs, the approaches of which are guided by critical service-learning. It explores elements of the experiences that alumni name as influential to their learning, development, and present commitments to understand the ways that civic engagement programs based in a critical service-learning approach can encourage them to develop commitments to active citizenship as exemplified by Knefelkamp's (2008) vision of a mature sense of civic identity.     

Returning to the mirror: reflections on promoting constructivism in three educational contexts

Since the early 1980s educators have argued that reflection is an essential dimension of good pedagogical practice. This discussion of my attempt to support a constructivist approach to learning for three different groups of learners illustrates one effort to engage in such reflection. I analyze several assignments I have designed for differently positioned learners, all within the context of a liberal arts college in northeastern USA. Referring to the assignments I have developed in each context, I analyze the particular kinds of structures, challenges and supports I try to provide to learners, with the goal of surfacing the convictions I hold about learners' identities and capabilities. My intention is to identify underlying pedagogical principles that inform my practice across contexts, not only to make it clearer for myself and others what guides that practice but also, in an effort to acknowledge the evolving and interdependent nature of this work, to articulate the new challenges this analysis poses for me.     

Physics students' epistemologies and views about knowing and learning

Classrooms are complex environments in which curriculum, students, and teachers interact. In recent years a number of studies have investigated the effect of teachers' epistemologies on the classroom environment, yet little is known about students' epistemologies and how these interact with those of teachers. The purpose of this study was to document students' epistemologies and their concurrent views about knowing and learning. Using a written essay, short-answer responses to statements, a preferred classroom environment inventory, and interviews, students' views on scientific knowledge and their own knowing and learning were collected from 42 students in three sections of an introductory physics course. Our rather broad, qualitative inquiry provides a dynamic view of students' understanding of knowing and learning in high school physics. Our analyses reveal a spectrum of epistemological commitments commensurable with positions from objectivism to relativism, most of them with experientialist coloring. Even within individuals, these commitments could be at once commensurable and incommensurable with the same epistemological position. We also find rather significant inter- and intra-individual differences with respect to the consequences of a specific epistemological stance to learning, the learning strategies employed, and the learning environment preferred. Students' views on knowing and learning in physics are presented in the form of an emergent theory. The findings are discussed in terms of their application to classroom environments.     

Learning and community

‘Learning’ recently entered the vocabulary of politicians and business leaders, as they began to articulate policy reforms related to the knowledge economy. The Australian Council of Deans of Education has also entered the debate for economic and educational reform by arguing for ‘New Learning’. Contemporary theorists have begun to frame research on learning in terms of community concepts and processes, such as acculturation and appropriation. In this paper I explore these intersecting discourses regarding learning and community, arguing that different models of learning are privileged at different times because they fit with the economic and social conditions of the era. In reflecting on the current prominence of the sociocultural model of learning that brought ‘community’ to the fore, and my own endorsement of this community model of learning, I propose that as learning researchers we are required to remain critically aware of our normative judgements and articulate the kinds of learning and communities that we endorse.     

Preschoolers’ Understanding of How Others Learn Through Action and Instruction

It is widely believed that exploration is a mechanism for young children's learning. The present investigation examines preschoolers’ beliefs about how learning occurs. We asked 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds to articulate how characters in a set of stories learned about a new toy. Younger preschoolers were more likely to overemphasize the role of characters’ actions in learning than older children were (Experiment 1, N = 53). Overall performance improved when the stories explicitly stated that characters were originally ignorant and clarified the characters’ actions, but general developmental trends remained (Experiment 2, N = 48). These data suggest that explicit metacognitive understanding of the relation between actions and learning is developing during the preschool years, which might have implications for how children learn from exploration.     

Acknowledging the Religious Beliefs Students Bring Into the Science Classroom: Using the Bounded Nature of Science

Scientific knowledge often appears to contradict many students' religious beliefs. Indeed, the assumptions of science appear contradictory to the metaphysical claims of many religions. This conflict is most evident in discussions of biological evolution. Teachers, in attempts to limit the controversy, often avoid this topic or teach it superficially. Recently, there has been a political effort to teach to the controversy—which some see as a way of introducing religious explanations for biological diversity into science classrooms. Many science educators reject this approach, insisting that teachers limit classroom discussions to science alone. This science only approach leaves the negotiation of alternative knowledge frameworks to students, who are often ill-prepared for such epistemological comparisons. To support students' understanding of science while maintaining their religious commitments, this article explores the utility of emphasizing the boundaries of scientific knowledge and the need to support students in their comparison of contradictory knowledge frameworks.     

Teacher Educators: hidden professionals?

The pace of change in today's society means that there is an ongoing need for teachers to learn, have new knowledge and use new pedagogical approaches to meet the needs of their pupils. For many teachers, this requires redefining their identity as teachers and what ‘teaching’ means in 21st century learning environments. These changes also require teachers to be supported in learning to ‘teach’ in different ways that are relevant to their own individual needs and to the contexts in which they work throughout their career. In this article, it is argued that a more integrated and collaborative approach to teacher education is needed with better understanding of those who take up the roles of teacher educator across a teacher's career. With a particular emphasis on ‘teacher educators’ working in school to support teachers' career-long professional learning it is argued that currently many do not recognise themselves as teacher educators nor are they recognised by those they work with as teacher educators. Drawing on an empirical study carried out with mentors in schools in Scotland, it is suggested that these teacher educators may be ‘unrecognised’ and remain ‘hidden professionals’ because of the identities they construct for themselves, the values and priorities that they or others attach to their roles or because of the institutional structures and cultures in which they work. It is concluded that it will be difficult to recognise and value these ‘hidden teacher educators’ and the distinctive contribution they can make to teachers' career-long professional learning without further clarification by them and others of the roles and responsibilities they hold.     

Ghosts in the Curriculum—Reframing Concepts as Multiplicities

Contemporary curricula specify the conceptual understanding that will be important for pupils in the world that they will soon inhabit. In so doing, concepts are characterised as representing the essential qualities of phenomena, the knowledge of which will be applicable in future contexts. Yet such a characterisation divorces concepts from the here and now, and from the detail of the activities and problems presented to learners in classrooms. I argue that there is a category error inherent in the way that the spectres of conceptual understanding are assumed to emerge from the unique circumstances of educational practice. This error has a long heritage which spans from Aristotle's essentialism to cognitivist theories of learning. I will show that this category error is sustaining an unnecessary separation between knowledge and learning in contemporary debates about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Deleuze's notion of multiplicity offers an alternative characterisation, making a single curricular concept synonymous with the many, unique manifestations of that concept in the world. Seeing concepts as multiplicities allows us to recognise that curricular concepts themselves, and the conceptual understandings of individuals, are in a process of continual becoming. Concepts are dynamic and emergent from unique circumstances, yet allow shared understanding and assessment. Exorcising the supernatural view of concepts from contemporary debates in education is an affirmative first step in developing a more specific account of learning.     

Technology use and mathematics teaching: teacher change as discursive identity work

Teacher change towards developing competences for technology use in mathematics teaching has been the focus of current educational reforms worldwide. However, a considerable amount of research denotes the extent to which teachers resist a full integration of technology in mathematics classrooms. The present paper is based on an ethnographic study and focuses on how mathematics teachers – as they participate in an intensive training course – perform identity work whilst collectively articulating meanings concerning the potential of technology-based mathematics learning. By means of discourse theory, we analyse how they try to fix meaning as they engage and interact with varied discourses of ‘change’. Our findings indicate that mathematics teachers' attempts to articulate meaning are organised around discourses that concern directly societal and learning issues of technology use in mathematics teaching.     

Hippy in a pinstripe

The professional development of a facilitator is a neglected area in the action learning literature. This article presents one example of such development. It is divided into three sections: firstly it describes the author's experience of being a set member on a newly-introduced Masters programme at a British university; secondly, it describes frameworks that are outside the usual action learning texts that enabled the author to articulate the politics of learning. The final section shows how the previous experience and theory were combined to influence the development of a facilitator style that was commensurate with the working environment.