Strategic Learning in Primary Mathematics Education: Effects of an Experimental Program in Modelling

In most strategy research the focus is on ready-made models provided by the teacher or textbook. However, in this research project the effects are described of an experimental program in primary math education, concerning the construction and use of models by pupils in guided co-construction. This field experiment with an experimental group and a control group involved 238 grade-5 pupils. In a series of experimental lessons, pupils were taught to design models as a tool in the learning of percentages. The results of the experimental program were compared with the outcomes of a program in the control group, based on the teachers' strategy of “directly providing models” to the pupils. The conclusion, then, is that children in the experimental condition significantly outperform children in the control condition.     

The lesson as a pedagogic text: A case study of lesson designs

In the 19th century, a shift in classroom technology from monitoring to recitation was staged in several European countries. The analysis draws on late 19th- and early 20th century lesson plans that were produced as part of the final teacher examination by students at two Swedish teacher training colleges, in order to explore how the lesson was restructured as a pedagogic text in the course of this transformation. The argument focuses upon the structure and transformation of the lesson designs, the discursive pattern of the text, the narrative involved, and the message or moral reflected in the text. The inquiry demonstrates that a classroom technology originally advocated in order to enhance the teacher's control of pupils and to influence children's minds, thoughts and morality became one instrument in the creation of a school for symbolic representation and meaning-making in a rapidly changing world of modernity.     

Providing or designing? Constructing models in primary maths education

The goal of this exploratory study was to uncover the construction processes which occur when pupils are taught to work with models in primary maths education. Two approaches were studied: ‘providing models’ versus ‘designing models in co-construction’. A qualitative observational study involved two groups of pupils of a primary school in the Netherlands. A series of lessons involving problem-oriented tasks was given. For this article’s purpose, we studied the learning processes of one pupil per condition in detail. Interpreting the results it is assumed that upper-grade pupils may be able to design models in co-construction as long as they receive sufficient teacher guidance.     

Does the gender of the teacher matter in the teaching of reading literacy? Teacher gender and pupil attainment in reading literacy in Hong Kong

A study of 148 primary school teachers and 4867 Grade 4 pupils in Hong Kong found no support for the proposal that boys learn to read better when taught by men teachers. In fact, it was found that both boys and girls learnt better when taught by women. Responses to a teacher questionnaire indicate significant differences in the preferred patterns of teaching favoured by male and female teachers. Responses from men teachers suggest they are more authoritarian, prefer to control pupils' learning, engage pupils in whole-class reading and like to read passages aloud while pupils follow the text. Responses from women teachers suggest they prefer to teach reading in groups, to group pupils according to reading ability, set tasks that suit pupils' stage of learning, allocate more time for pupils to read books and use the school library and encourage pupils to discover for themselves the meaning of new vocabulary encountered in text. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Pupils' enjoyment of history: what lessons can teachers learn from their pupils?

This article explores pupil attitudes towards history as a school subject in England, with a view to developing a better understanding of the factors which influence disaffection or engagement with the subject. The study attempts to identify what pupils like and dislike about how they are taught and what they are taught in history lessons. The study was carried out in 12 secondary schools with pupils aged 11–14. Questionnaires were returned from 1740 pupils and 160 of these were involved in focus group interviews. The findings show that how pupils are taught appears to matter more than what they are taught and identifies teaching approaches that pupils considered to be particularly effective, and teaching approaches that appear to contribute to pupil disaffection and disengagement from the subject. The study also provides insights into the extent to which pupils find history enjoyable compared to other school subjects. Although the study is primarily of interest to history teachers, it may also be of interest to teachers of other subjects who have a concern for the degree of pupil engagement with their subject.     

Pre-service teachers' beliefs about the switch of medium-of-instruction and their influence on lesson planning and teaching practice

Studies suggest that pre-service teachers' existing beliefs often serve as a lens to interpret the subject matter to be taught, guide their thoughts in lesson planning and shape their behaviour in classroom practices during their teaching practicum. This study examines how these beliefs affect pre-service teachers' conceptualization of Putonghua-medium-of-instruction (PMI) and their teaching. The findings indicate that the conceptualization of pre-service teachers about PMI ranged from code switching to curriculum integration. Their focus of lesson planning and teaching practice varied from transmission of Putonghua knowledge and detailed explanation of text information to integration of Chinese Language and Putonghua.     

Language play in the classroom: encouraging children's intuitive creativity with words through poetry

This article begins by identifying that children have a spontaneous predilection for playing with language, engaging in poetic discourse even before their first poetry lesson. Although children's language play is relatively unresearched in the classroom, in a case study of two groups of pupils aged between 10 and 11, it was observed that children engaged in creative word play, and that this was generated in response to interaction with poetry and each other. This article suggests that children's poetical experiences may best be nurtured by building bridges between children's existing knowledge of language play and the specialised knowledge of poetry taught in the classroom through a teaching methodology based on socio‐constructivist principles.     

Developing higher-order reading skills in mainstream primary schools: A metacognitive and self-regulatory approach

The ability to read relies upon not just decoding, but also comprehending text. Being a good comprehender requires strategic reading and implies the use of comprehension strategies. Research indicates that readers who are taught several reading comprehension strategies have better reading skills than those only taught a single strategy. One multiple strategy reading comprehension intervention was evaluated using a mixed-model quasi-experimental design. Intervention and control conditions groups were assessed at pre- and post-test points with standardised reading comprehension abilities, measured as the primary outcome measure. Implementation science principles were observed and evaluated. The schools all served areas of low socio-economic status. 74 pupils (aged 9–10) in five classes in four primary-level mainstream schools in a Scottish local authority were recruited as participants. Training was provided to participating schools by the first author and the programme was delivered in four sessions of 45 minutes per week for 8 weeks. An ANCOVA revealed a statistically significant effect of condition. Statistically significant scores were also evident in the secondary outcome measures of decoding of target word skills, children’s self-reports of their reading strategy use and recreational reading frequency. Implementation tools indicated that the intervention was acceptable and feasible to implement. Implications of introducing this multiple strategy reading comprehension programme and of the evaluation of implementation are discussed.     

My house of value: school intervention programme investigating aspects of self-knowing,knowing of the other,identity, diversity and interaction

The project My house of value was implemented at a fourth grade primary school classroom for 10-year-old students in Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of the project was to examine how pupils realise identity and diversity in their broad sense, how they deal with stereotypical thoughts and how they understand interaction in both positive and negative ways. This was achieved through certain activities during the art lesson, which gave them the opportunity to express themselves in various ways. The method included observation and discussion in classroom, analysis of teachers' diaries and students' works and interviews with students reflecting on the various activities of the project. The final results showed that many pupils could realise that the diversities between identities are more than similarities, but this fact was not necessarily negative. They also became aware of stereotypical thinking concerning the self and the other. They also realised the complication of human intercultural encounters since emotions and experiences are involved. Finally, they concluded that the different ways of knowing the other include different means of communication. The implementation of the project showed that such activities can have a positive impact on pupils especially if they are incorporated in everyday curriculum and classroom practice.     

Staying on task: can a thinking skills approach support a productive pedagogy for inclusion?

This study investigates the effects of a thinking skills approach on the on task rates of pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN). There were three situations: two experimental and one controlled. The experimental situations compared on task rates of 19 primary-aged pupils with SEN in thinking skills (TS) and non-thinking skills (XTS) lessons. These same 19 pupils' on task rates were then compared to the 19 different pupils with SEN in the control situation (CON). The study found that pupils with SEN had significantly higher on task rates in thinking skills lessons compared to the non-thinking skills lessons and pupils with SEN in the control situation. This study also found that pupils' on task rate was directly proportional to the level of thinking skills content in a lesson. In addition it was found that pupils in thinking skills lessons spent significantly more time working collaboratively.     

Affective Outcomes of Cooperative Learning in Social Studies

This paper reports an experimental study involving the use of cooperative learning in a social studies classroom. The outcome variables discussed in the paper are pupil self-esteem and classroom climate. Over the period of the study, cooperative learning did not significantly improve the self-esteem of the pupils. However, pupils in the experimental group who were taught through the cooperative learning approach perceived classwork to be less difficult than the control pupils who worked individually. The control pupils also reported a decline in satisfaction with classwork and perceived more friction in their class. Interviews with the teacher and pupils showed favourable attitudes toward cooperative learning.     

When quantitative details impair qualitative understanding of multimedia lessons

In the present study, we explored why interspersing quantitative details through a multimedia lesson detracts from learners’ qualitative understanding. Three experimental conditions were created. In each, participants had to study a qualitative text on the formation, propagation, and dispersion of ocean waves. In the concise condition no quantitative details were added to the text; in the expanded‐interspersed condition, quantitative details were interspersed throughout the text; and in the expanded‐after condition, quantitative details were provided after the text. The results showed that qualitative understanding was poorer in the expanded‐interspersed condition than in the concise and the expanded‐after conditions, with no difference between the latter two conditions. Furthermore, reading time of the qualitative text was comparable across the three conditions. By contrast, reading time of the quantitative information was lower in the expanded‐interspersed condition than in the expanded‐after condition. These findings are interpreted in terms of a disruption hypothesis.     

The influence of occupational socialisation upon a teacher's interpretation and delivery of Teaching Games for Understanding to pupils experiencing social and emotional behavioural difficulties

This study examined how one physical education (PE) teacher in a specialist school for pupils with social and emotional behavioural difficulties (SEBD) taught Year 9 pupils utilising the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) model. The research identified factors that led to such instruction, and considered the influence of occupational socialisation on the pedagogical approaches of the teacher. Data collection methods were semi‐structured interviews and non‐participant lesson observations. The resultant data were inductively analysed. Observations revealed that the lessons emphasised problem‐solving and limited technical practice. Interviews detailed how the factors influencing this practice were other PE teachers and the nature of the pupils. This research makes two recommendations: first, SEBD schools wishing to utilise TGfU should examine the prior pedagogical experiences of potential employees; second, student teachers wishing to use TGfU in institutions for pupils with SEBD should consider gaining experience of SEBD education prior to higher education in order to put subsequent pedagogical experiences into relevant focus.     

Pupils’ Participation in and Response to Sustainable Food Education in Swedish Home and Consumer Studies: A Case-Study

The aim of this study is to explore conditioning factors influencing learning opportunities in food-related education taught from a perspective of sustainable development. Over the course of the eighth-grade school year, data were derived from field studies of two classes taught in Home and Consumer Studies with an exploratory case-study design. Data were analyzed using thematic and ideal-type analysis, resulting in four ideal-type portrayals: the Convinced, the Easygoing, the Unable, and the Skeptical, which characterize how pupils participate in and respond to sustainable food education in different ways. The characteristics of each of the four ideal types imply contextual frames that condition unequal learning opportunities in sustainable food education. By identifying, scrutinizing, and accommodating to existing conflicts and related structures, educational policy makers and practicing teachers can increase opportunities for pupils to develop informed reasoning, regardless of their ideal type characteristics.     

Conceptual Gain and Successful Problem-solving in Primary School Mathematics

This study investigated the effects of children solving addition and subtraction problems collaboratively in comparison with solving problems in the traditional manner of the classroom. Seventy-seven children were divided into experimental and control groups, the experimental children being assigned to groups of four with note taken of the ability and gender mix. Following a pre-test-intervention-post-test design, the experimental children worked together in their groups using problem-solving guidelines to solve a number of problems, thereafter 'teaching' their problem to a fellow pupil. Each child worked on six problems over a 3-week period, three of the problems in their groups subsequently teaching them to another, the other three problems being taught to them by another child. Over the same time period, the control group solved the same problems working individually at their desks. The pre- and post-tests were analysed for number of problems correct or 'score', problemsolving strategy and execution of procedures, with pre-test scores being subtracted from post-test scores to give measures of change. The results indicated a main effect of ability on strategy change and a two-way interaction between gender and condition. They also indicated a main effect of condition for execution of procedures. Dialogue analyses indicated that more below average children improved their strategy understanding by listening to peers. The results themselves revealed variations in the way that children of different ability levels and gender can benefit from collaborative group work and thus have some interesting implications for the organisation of collaborative groups in the classroom.     

The influence of narrative and expository lesson text structures on knowledge structures: alternate measures of knowledge structure

This investigation applies two approaches for representing and comparing text structures as undirected network graphs to describe the influence of narrative and expository lesson texts on readers’ knowledge structure elicited as free recall. Narrative and expository lesson texts and undergraduate participants’ free recall essays (n = 90) from a study by Wolfe and Mienko (Br J Educ Psychol 77, 541–564, 2007) were reanalyzed for lexical proximity as sequential occurrence of selected important terms in the text and as actual minimum distances between these terms. The proximity data were then rendered as Pathfinder networks for analysis. Compared to human-rater benchmark measures, the convergent validity of the sequential approach (range of r = .53 to .83, median r = .70) was a little better than that of the minimum distance approach (.51 to .80, median r = .67). Further, we anticipated that the lesson text structure would be reflected in the text structure of the free recall essays, but this was not observed. On average, the essays in all three lesson conditions tended to converge on a sequential expository structure. Further, compared to the expository lesson texts, the narrative lesson text had a distinctly different influence on posttest recall essay text structures. Overall then, the sequential occurrence approach appears to provide a reasonably good, automatically derived method for representing and comparing lesson texts and participants’ essays as network graphs. If further confirmed and fully automated, there is a wide range of application of such measurement approaches for learning and research.