ICT-related variables as predictors of ICT literacy beyond intelligence and prior achievement

Education and Information Technologies - This study examined the incremental validity of different information and communication technologies (ICT)-related person characteristics over and above...     

Looking beyond changes in averages in evaluating foundational learning: Some inequality measures

This paper uses measurements of learning inequality to explore whether learning interventions that are aimed at improving means also reduce inequality, and if so, under what conditions. There is abundant evidence that learning levels are generally low in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), but there is less knowledge about how learning achievement is distributed within these contexts, and especially about how these distributions change as mean levels increase. We use child-level data on foundational literacy outcomes to quantitatively explore whether and how learning inequality using metrics borrowed from the economics and inequality literature can help us understand the impact of learning interventions. The paper deepens recent work in several ways. First, it extends the analysis to six LMIC, displaying which measures are computable and coherent across contexts and baseline levels. This extension can add valuable information to program evaluation, without being redundant with other metrics. Second, we show the large extent to which the disaggregation of inequality of foundational skills between- and within-schools and grades varies by context and language. Third, we present initial empirical evidence that, at least in the contexts of analysis of foundational interventions, improving average performance can reduce inequality as well, across all levels of socioeconomic status (SES). The data show that at baseline, the groups with the highest internal inequality tend to be the groups with lowest SES and lowest reading scores, as inequality among the poor themselves is higher than among their wealthier counterparts. Regardless of which SES groups benefit more in terms of a change in mean levels of reading, there is still a considerable reduction in inequality by baseline achievement as means increase. These results have policy implications in terms of targeting of interventions: much can be achieved in terms of simultaneously improving averages and increasing equality. This seems particularly true when the initial learning levels are as low as they currently are the developing world.     

Looking beyond judging and ranking: Writing assessment as a generative practice

Establishing the score or the placement as the first priority in a writing assessment leads to more reductive forms of writing assessment. However, if the prompts used in a direct test of writing were generative – that is, if they asked test-takers to analyze their own experiences as writers or learners, for example – the resulting texts would be useful data beyond the act of producing a ranking or a judgment. Washington State University developed and trialled such a prompt, one that asks students to reflect on their curricular and extra-curricular learning opportunities in relation to the university's Six Learning Goals for the Baccalaureate. The results were texts that demonstrate, among other things, which goals are (and are not) effectively distributed across the curriculum. Using these texts to address outcomes assessment on a university-wide level makes the assessment more valuable than it would be if it merely produced a set of placements. In addition, the richness of the student texts has provided a valuable resource for graduate-level research that is broader and more meaningful than simply training future raters of writing. Further, the raw data have proved to be accessible to researchers with wide-ranging theoretical lenses, meaning that the data yielded by an assessment can become a significant resource for research beyond the needs of the assessment program alone. Given the need for university assessment programs to compete for ever-scarcer resources, exploring the potential of the generative prompt seems in our enlightened self-interest.     

Teachers as co-designers of technology-rich learning activities for early literacy

Although kindergarten teachers often struggle with implementing technology, they are rarely involved in co-designing technology-rich learning activities. This study involved teachers in the co-design of technology-rich learning activities and sought to explore implementation and pupil learning outcomes. A case-study method was used to investigate: the co-design experiences of seven teachers; implementation in three kindergarten classes; and pupil learning outcomes. Interviews were used to study teacher perceptions about pedagogy, technology, early literacy, co-designer role, practicality and co-ownership. Process notes were made during design team meetings. Observations were made of implementation, and pupil learning was pre- and post-tested in non-equivalent control quasi-experimental design (N = 111). Findings indicate that teacher perceptions about pedagogy affect their co-design involvement. The extent of integration of on- and off-computer activities was similar between teachers. Significant pupil learning gains were found, thus indicating that the co-designed activities had positive effects on pupil learning outcomes.     

The learning society as itself: lifelong learning,individualization of learning,and beyond education

This paper considers the bottom-up vision of the learning society. Unlike the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach does not start by specifying the purposes of learning which should direct the development of the learning society, but from observing interactions among learning individuals as agents. While in the relevant literature and policies much attention has been devoted to certain positions on how one's learning should respond to current change, this paper proposes that when considering the establishment and development of the learning society we should not dismiss the understanding of how individuals, concrete beings, act as they learn, since how they do so has an impact on the way in which learning is structured. This bottom-up approach has to be taken into account, for it helps us to come near to what is embedded in learning practices, and to react pertinently when we need to come to terms with substantive issues for the development of the learning society. Three aspects—lifelong learning, the individualization of learning, and learning beyond education—serve as the context for understanding what characterize the practices of the learning society.     

Conceptualisations of literacy and literacy practices for children with severe learning difficulties

Literacy is traditionally narrowly conceptualised as a set of skills related to accessing and generating written or printed text. For children designated as having severe learning difficulties (SLD), who are unlikely to develop these ‘conventional’ literacy skills, such a conception implies their semi‐literacy or nonliteracy. Although conceptions of multimodal literacy and multiliteracies have rarely been applied to this group, broader understandings of literacy that include a range of activities, modes and media provide greater opportunities for including these learners in literacy practices. Drawing upon our research with teachers of this group of children and young people, we illustrate these literacy practices. We note, however, that such practices are often haphazard, not coherently thought through, and that there is much confusion regarding any distinction between communication and literacy. We argue for literacy as a specific form of communication, but conclude that broader models of literacies should be utilised to guide and support practitioners in developing interactive practice and in making reasoned and principled approaches and decisions about literacy practices, routes and progression for children with SLD.     

The principals as literacy leaders with indigenous communities: professional learning and research

Recent educational changes in China such as the decentralization policy and the marketization of education have introduced concepts such as performativity, competition and effectiveness to the education sector and they have become part of the educational lexicon. Such policy shifts force more local participation in teacher education programmes and schools are now identified as the prime site for offering relevant professional learning activities to teachers. However, interestingly, research on professional development of teachers in China has not devoted significant attention to the voices of teachers. This paper examines how teachers from seven schools in Guangdong Province view the effectiveness of these school‐based learning activities within the new context of educational change.     

An ecological view of literacy learning

This article refutes the common, persistent belief in literacy learning as a linear, sequential process best broken down into small steps that can be taught mechanically in order to produce timely, quantifiable ‘outcomes’, regardless of the vast diversity among learners, teachers, institutions of learning, communities, cultures, media and languages. This naïve and simplistic belief, which flies in the face of virtually all evidence from direct observation, research on literacy learning, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, psychological and social science research, neurophysiology, educational theory, public policy, anthropology and communication, nevertheless remains well entrenched, despite its destructive consequences. Presented here is the evidence in support of an alternative view, an ecological perspective which takes into account the complex ecosystems within which teachers and learners learn, adapt, interact, communicate and connect. Furthermore, it presents a sensible and humane model for documenting and assessing learning and teaching ecologically, the Learning Record. This model is well supported both theoretically and practically, with over 20 years of successful implementation for thousands of students at every level, from pre‐school to graduate school; in every discipline, from maths to biology to writing; and across diverse student populations, from inner‐city schools to reservation schools, migrant populations, students with disabilities and newly arrived English language learners.     

Freire,literacy and emancipatory gender learning

The contributions to education of one of the great Latin American thinkers, Paulo Freire, have been enormous. His voice and wisdom have inspired educators globally. Three particular contributions – to emancipation, to literacy, and to dialogue – are explored in this article through a critical lens. From a gender perspective, Freire’s path to consciousness-raising is crucial for emancipation but so also is empowerment, a notion contributed by the women’s movement. Adult literacy, Freire’s vehicle to raise consciousness, has been challenged by a recognition of the complexity underlying its acquisition, a factor we still have to incorporate in training and teaching programmes. Dialogical approaches in adult education, essential as they are to the attainment of deeper understanding of social phenomena and the possibility of consensual social action, build on a long trajectory of efforts to use public space for collective advancement. Situating Freire against a denser historical background enables the recognition of his merits and at the same time rescues the confluence of similar perceptions as well as different ideas in the construction of our contemporary world.     

Patterns of literacy learning in German primary schools over the summer and the influence of home literacy practices

The ‘summer learning effect’ (SLE) is described as a stall or drop in achievement over summer, especially in schools serving poor or ‘minority’ communities. There has been little research in Europe on the effect, and research internationally has primarily focused on the effect in reading, with minimal focus on writing. This paper describes the extent and nature of the SLE in reading comprehension and writing in second grade classrooms in Germany. The SLE was evident in both subject areas with all students experiencing lower progress rates over summer. In reading, students attending the high‐income school progressed significantly more over summer than their low‐income peers, while there was no significant difference in writing progress over summer. Literacy logbooks over summer and interviews with a subset of students provided information on how home literacy practices influenced the effect.     

Curricular design and implementation as a site of teacher expertise and learning

Previously, research about teacher expertise has adhered to relatively fixed notions of teacher expertise. However, in this study, we share data from teacher study group (TSG) meetings, which demonstrate a dynamic understanding of teacher expertise. In these meetings, teachers discursively positioned themselves, their colleagues, and the research team as both experts and learners as they engaged in a community of enquiry around questions of curriculum design and implementation. We argue that teachers’ dynamic and multiple positionings generated especially striking opportunities for learning. As teachers externalized their expert knowledge, their assumptions were brought forth to be examined, challenged, and reconsidered, thus opening space for further learning. We argue that these TSGs thus existed as a site for teacher learning, in which teacher dialog around curricular design, redesign, and the student learning that occurred in the lessons influenced their own learning about their students’ capabilities. We make a case for further research that explores how teacher expertise is interwoven with episodes of teacher learning. We assert that a complex understanding of teacher expertise, grounded in principles of learning occurring through social interaction, has important implications for how the field should move forward in its approach to fostering teacher learning throughout teachers’ careers.     

Moving beyond the metaphor of transfer of learning

This paper argues that much contemporary educational policy makes assumptions about learning that are directly contradicted by the best research and theorising of learning that has occurred over the last decade and more. This worrying mismatch is largely attributable to adherence by policy makers (and other key stakeholders such as employers), to ‘common sense’ notions of learning transfer. In fact, these ‘common sense’ notions of transfer have increasingly been discarded even in the learning transfer literature. However, we go further in arguing that transfer is a totally inappropriate metaphor for thinking about most learning, but especially for vocational learning. Accepting that thought about learning inevitably involves metaphors, we consider the merits and otherwise of various other learning metaphors including participation and construction. We conclude that the conceptual flaws of transfer can be avoided by employing alternative metaphors. The value of our recommended alternative is illustrated by its power to illuminate data on learning collected from various research projects.     

浅谈声乐学习的基本素养

声乐是一门精深、博大、技术性非常强的艺术,演唱者需要有过硬的专业知识和较高的艺术造诣和修养,才能为受众奉献出如醉如痴、震撼心灵的好作品。     

Lifelong learning: beyond the rhetoric of retention

Initially, this study of the attrition of adult Māori students in a Tertiary Institute was undertaken to determine whether the factors in the literature explaining attrition/retention in tertiary institutions were relevant to Māori students and whether the literature covered all the factors. The main finding was that they mostly did apply. Research published subsequently raised other issues that led to the conclusion that we need to reframe the concept of attrition/retention and accept that a certain level is inevitable. This suggests that it is time to turn our attention to strategies that ease the exit and return of Māori students to tertiary education institutions if they have to withdraw for any reason. At the same time, those of us in the tertiary education sector must continue to find ways to improve the quality of educational experiences for Māori students.     

Adult literacy,learning identities and pedagogic practice

This article discusses the relationship between persistence in adult literacy and numeracy programs, changes in the participants’ attitudes to engaging in learning and pedagogic practices using data from eight Scottish literacy education organizations. It argues that literacy learning can act as a resource that enables vulnerable adults to change their dispositions to learning, achieve their goals and make a transition towards their imagined futures. Pedagogic practices that operate from an approach that emphasized learners’ strengths, rather than their deficits, and critically interrogated learners’ experiences used as a resource for learning were the most successful in enabling this transition. Holistic provision that creates a supportive community of practice was found to be the most effective in bringing about the positive changes that learners identified they wished to make in their lives.     

Toward activity-centered literacy: teaching and learning Korean literacy in a multilingual montreal context

Based on a three-year ethnographic study, in such nested contexts involving six Korean-immigrant families, one regular French classroom, one private English institute, and one Korean church in Montreal, Canada, this study explores how the literacy practices and strategies of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners were influenced and shaped by the literacy objects and practices of their social environments. By implementing a qualitative research methodology, interviews, surveys, observations, and conversations with Korean-Canadian parents and teachers plus the author’s own teaching experiences at a Korean school were used. Using activity theory, this qualitative study identifies two distinct orientations to literacy teaching and learning in the lower primary grades depending literacy objects such as from written language-centered literacy to student-centered literacy. On the basis of this study, the author proposes an activity-centered approach to literacy emphasizing the development of the creativity of teachers and higher mental functions (i.e., concept formation) in young CLD children through the development of interactive and collaborative learning environments, so-called literacy-based and concept-oriented playful activities.