Learning for and realising curriculum aspirations through schools as learning organisations

How can schools as learning organisations support the realisation of a new curriculum's aspirations? This article describes four common and interrelated challenges—depth, spread, reach, and pace—associated with enacting a new curriculum. It then argues that curriculum capital represented by schools and practitioners that address these challenges and meet associated learning demands—commitment, knowledge, understanding and capability—is essential to ensure that curriculum aspirations are realised. We propose that schools that are learning organisations create the kinds of conditions necessary for responding to the challenges and learning demands. In such schools the considerable individual, collaborative and collective learning needed at many levels is recognised. We highlight how each of the four challenges might be addressed by seven dimensions and four transversals of schools as learning organisations, while recognising that task will be more feasible in systems that are also learning and providing supportive conditions.     

Teaching for enjoyment: David Manson and his ‘play school’ of Belfast

The school operated by David Manson in 18th century Belfast was a centre of learning which represented a critical approach to traditional forms of education. Choice instead of coercion; encouragement rather than ridicule; achievement and recognition for all learners were the hallmarks of his method. Enjoyment in teaching and in learning was not just an aspiration but a reality. Play was not seen as mere diversion or leisure but as purposeful, enjoyable work imbued with creativity and success. An exploration of the role of play and enjoyment as a pedagogical philosophy presents interesting parallels with David Manson's experiments. This paper argues that teachers who provide engaging opportunities for collaborative learning and who place priority in developing a classroom culture where success and self-esteem take precedence over curriculum delivery discover that the delineation between ‘work’ and ‘play’ becomes less sharply defined. Manson's vision of a pedagogy of enjoyment has a timely relevance for the challenges and concerns of the teacher of the 21st century.     

Changes

This article explores the impact that e-business is likely to have on the provision of open and distance learning (ODL). It argues the likelihood of a major growth in the use of distance education, and the emergence of global consortia, possibly built around disaggregated value chains, that will create one or more global virtual universities. It suggests the technological developments that will underpin this process, the nature of the value-net-based relationships between institutions engaged in consortia, and the qualities of the Web that are impacting on ODL. It discusses such issues as the development of new e-learning pricing models; the use of Web advertising to generate income; the importance of scale and the concomitant pressure for institutional mergers and alliances; and the impact of e-commerce practices on administrative processes. The article suggests the emergence of hubs that bundle services customers want onto a single website, and the pressure for institutions to become 'sticky' in order to secure customer loyalty. Design strategies to ensure 'stickiness' are suggested. Existing ODL providers will need to address the challenges posed by e-business practice if they are to compete.     

Sometimes less is more: educational effectiveness of English as a foreign language instruction in German classrooms

This article challenges one of the central orthodoxies of much school effectiveness and school improvement work – namely that schools should strive to become more consistent environments for pupils and teachers. It reviews the arguments for consistency; the success of centralised systems, and the 'mirroring' of factors of effectiveness at the different levels of organisation but also examines the evidence which seems inconsistent with this thesis. For example, the differential performance of boys and girls in some schools and of certain ethnic groups in some school environments. Whilst not suggesting that 'consistency' theories should be rejected in all circumstances the article argues that the motivation of students is the key factor which needs to link school organisation and school context. Drawing on organisational literature the analysis concludes that effective schools are most likely to be those which are able to differentiate their structures, strategies and policies for different groups of pupils and different learning tasks.     

Child Education and Literacy Learning for Multicultural Societies: The case of the Brazilian National Curricular References for Child Education (NCRs)

The present paper discusses possible ways to promote a multicultural child education and literacy learning, focusing on identity building and language development. In the light of that framework, it critically analyses the Brazilian government's recently issued 'National Curricular References for Child Education'. It argues that the predominance of a monocultural, cognitive-based approach to child education and literacy learning, evidenced in the document, should be detrimental to children whose cultural and linguistic patterns are discontinuous with the school ones. It also highlights potentials of the multicultural thinking in reducing literacy learning discrepancies and promoting educational equity.     

Problems and Inconsistencies with Kolb's Learning Styles

Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI) (1984) is frequently used within many areas of study and research as a method of assigning students to a given learning style. However, this paper argues that there are substantial problems with the theoretical foundations of his work. Anomalies are noted with the claimed relationship with Jung's styles (1977) and with Kolb's use of 'possibility processing' (Tyler, 1978). It is argued that these anomalies make it impossible for firm conclusions about the nature of Kolb's learning style to be made. Implications for the use of Kolb's learning styles are presented.     

Rousseau and the image of 'modern education'

The concept of 'modern education' is directly connected with Rousseau's theory of education. It is often said that Rousseau 'founded' modern education, or at least was its most influential predecessor. The paper argues that 'modern learning' or 'experimental education' was discussed within the late-17 th century 'quarrel of the ancients and moderns'. After this historically important debate, education and learning could be connected with the open experience of modern science. When compared to this tradition, Rousseau was not a modern writer. His concept of education has been far too paradoxical to serve as a groundwork for what was considered to be 'modern' or 'progressive education' at the end of the 19 th century. The image of progressive education was strengthened by child psychology, especially by theories of learning and development. Rousseau's stoic concept of 'negative education' is in many respects the opposite to such a viewpoint.     

Implementing vision research in special needs education

This article presents experiences from vision research implemented in education and argues for the need for teachers with visual competence and insight into suitable methods for stimulation and learning. A new type of continuing professional development (CPD) focuses on the role of vision in children's learning and development, the consequences of frequently occurring vision disturbances and related new educational possibilities. Participating teachers undertake a period of practical teaching training in their home community. Two students' cases visualise the need to break out of the narrow definition of visual impairment and become capable of evaluating the visual challenges affecting many pupils and their learning. The two cases presented represent various issues of visual challenges; both reached a better functional level, including better reading, following improved vision after the educational interventions. These results illustrate that vision competence in schools is most useful and ought to be widely accessible.     

Menus for Choosy Diners

The present paper uses one of Michael Huberman's lesser known but most important papers to address the critical issue of teachers' attention. How do professionals handle competing demands on their attention in busy, crowded, 'hot action' situations? It argues that finding time to monitor and respond to people and events in a rapidly changing environment requires routines that keep things going with minimal demands on one's attention; and that 'hot action' decision-making is rapid and intuitive rather than deliberative or explicitly evidence based. The present paper focuses on the unrealistic expectations of those who urge teachers to give high levels of attention to individual pupils, whether they be child-centred philosophers, reflectors in action or advocates for matching instruction to psychometrically defined youngsters. These ideologically or politically attractive perspectives on teaching merely disguise the reality of a classroom discourse that strives for instructional compliance. Teachers' knowledge of pupils is constructed by the largely unconscious aggregation of memories of episodes in which they paid or gave attention to a child; and this knowledge is drawn on rapidly and intuitively in class. Such knowledge is inevitably fallible and biased, but no more so than more 'objective' constructions. Its great advantage is its usability. Finally, it argues that common approaches to teacher education develop coping mechanisms for classroom control before student teachers have developed an experience-based understanding of how best to support children's learning or, better still, how best to enable children to support each other's learning.     

MYTHS OF AGING OR AGEIST STEREOTYPES

This paper is about ageist stereotypes dressed-up in the garb of myth that biases perceptions and experiences of being old. The paper argues current ''mythmaking'' about aging perpetuates that which it intends to dispel: ageism. It considers how traditional myths and folklore explained personal experience, shaped social life, and offered meaning for the unexplainable. The current myths of aging perform these same functions in our culture; however, they are based on half-truths, false knowledge, and stated as ageist stereotypes about that which is known. Current myths of aging found in the media and literature of aging are not myths as such, but ''straw man'' statements that attempt to inform; however, they reinforce misconceptions and wrong information about aging as experienced by the vast majority of older people. Recent studies in the cognitive sciences are reviewed to provide insight about the mind's inherent ability to construct categories, concepts, and stereotypes as it responds to experience. These normal processes need to be better understood, particularly regarding how social stereotypes are constructed. Finally, the paper argues that ageist stereotypes when labeled as ''myth'' even in the pursuit of the realities of aging, neither educate the public about the opportunities and challenges of aging nor inform social and health practitioners about the aged. Three research and educational strategies are outlined for critical studies in aging and educational gerontology.     

National Cultural Values and Their Role in Learning: A comparative ethnographic study of state primary schooling in England and France

This ethnographic study attempts to define English and French cultural and educational values in primary school. It is maintained that pupil attitudes to education are derived from pupils' sociocultural backgrounds and that pupil attitudes predispose pupils to learning. Pupils interpret both what and how they learn through the medium of the culture to which they belong. English and French educational values are identified through classroom observation, teacher discourse and pupil perceptions. The comparative approach allows the contrastive characteristics inherent in each country's culture to emerge. It is argued that pupil understanding of such educational values as authority, thought or 'la pensee', control over learning and educational goals and how to achieve them are related to national culture and that they have an effect on pupil motivation. The paper is both an example of and an exploration into how culture may affect learning. It suggests that cultural values are more significant for learning than pedagogical styles as it argues that underlying educational values give meaning to styles of pedagogy.     

Lifelong learning and the pursuit of a vision for sustainable development in Botswana

This paper analyses Botswana's commitment to lifelong learning policy and discusses how it can help the state achieve its vision for sustainable development. First, it argues that while Botswana is renowned for its economic success, it still fails to address positively such traditional challenges as poverty, unemployment and income inequality, which are increasing disproportionately, especially among the youth and non-literate adults. These structural problems can be attributable partly to the low quality of education, which does not enable learners to reduce their risks and vulnerabilities. The paper outlines the concepts of lifelong learning and sustainable development and work from there to analyse the national education policy. It is acknowledged that the state made commendable progress in delivering basic, extension and continuing education since adopting lifelong learning in 1994. However, the delivery failed to use education to transform people's lives. The education itself failed to balance quantity with quality effectively to inculcate a culture of democracy. These issues need to be critically addressed because they invariably hamper Botswana's efforts to deliver quality education and attain its vision for sustainable development. Finally, the paper suggests that the education system should incorporate lifelong learning principles, effectively involve learners in decision making and teach for empowerment.     

Comparing England,Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: The case for 'home internationals' in comparative research

The differences among the four education systems of the UK are often perceived as a nuisance by comparative researchers. This paper argues that they are also an opportunity. It describes the four systems and summarises their similarities and differences. It then presents five reasons for giving 'home international' comparisons a more prominent role in comparative research. These are, respectively: their potential contribution to theoretical debates; specific differences among the four systems, which touch on core problems of educational research; the practical value of home international comparisons; their potential for policy learning; and the relative ease of conducting them.     

The challenges of university teaching and learning in the era of managerialism

Abstract

The paper debates the challenges of university teaching in the era of managerialism. It teases out current institutional reconfigurations, and argues that challenges of teaching and learning are integral to the university as a complex institution in the era of supercomplexity. It argues that the university should shed its ‘ivory tower’ mentality, acknowledge that its future legitimacy depends on its willingness to negotiate processes and procedures with its community, of which it is itself a constitutive part. The paper questions the relevance of the lecture as a pedagogical practice in this era of supercomplexity; it argues that the lecture is dead and should be replaced. It advocates Socratic questioning to create epistemological and ontological disturbance in the students. Socratic questioning is characterised by a relentless self-examination and critique, an endless quest for intellectual integrity and moral consistency, manifest in fearless speech that unsettles, unnerves, and unhouses people from their uncritical sleepwalking.     

New Challenges and Opportunities for Lifelong Learning in South Africa

The imperatives for lifelong learning in South Africa are driven by its reinsertion into the global economy and by the social and political necessities of equity and redress after the years of colonialism, segregation and apartheid. It is therefore not surprising to find the discourse of lifelong learning infused into new policy documents. Utilizing Belanger's framework, which argues that lifelong learning is not a norm to prescribe but an empirical reality to analyze and reconstruct, the contexts for lifelong learning in South Africa are surveyed by focusing in on the state of initial education, adult education, and the learning environments. The framework, which acknowledges the daily lived realities of women and men, is a helpful way of retaining an holistic and integrated vision of lifelong learning and its humanistic, democratic goals. For lifelong learning in South Africa to deepen for more than a small group of well-educated, mainly urban, formally employed people, the author concludes that initial education, adult education and the learning environments of all the people will have to be improved. If this does not happen, then at least two polarized 'lifelong educations' will result.     

Historical Thinking -- and Its Alleged Unnaturalness

Abstract

No articulation of `historical thinking' has been as influential as Sam Wineburg's position, according to which historical thinking is, fundamentally, the recognition of the ways in which the past is different than the present. Wineburg argues, further, that achieving that state is `unnatural.' This paper critiques both of these claims, arguing instead that we should replace a generic conception of historical thinking with one that is much more rooted in the specific practice of the discipline. It is surely necessary for students to learn this practice, but it is not unnatural. Instead, learning to think historically is learning to speak the language of the discipline that we call ‘history.’     

如何提高学生的在线自我调节学习？——基于先前在线学习经历与家庭背景的比较

在线教学中学生要具备一定的在线自我调节学习能力才能取得好的学习成效,而学生的在线自我调节学习受诸多因素的影响。本研究从先赋性背景和后致性学校过程性因素的视角,基于“新冠疫情期间研究型大学本科生学习体验调查”项目中某大学的数据,考查学生家庭背景和先前在校在线学习经历与在线自我调节学习的关系。研究发现：家庭背景和先前在校的在线学习经历都显著影响学生在线自我调节学习,且先前在线学习经历的影响独立于家庭背景。超过七成的学生在新冠肺炎疫情前有过在线学习经历,且主要是来源于本校的正式在线学分课。这一研究结果的实践启示是：高校可以通过提供正式在线学习的机会抵消学生家庭背景的负面作用来培养学生的在线自我调节学习,这将有助于他们应对紧急情况下大规模在线教学时可能面临的挑战。     

Learning as peripheral participation in communities of practice: a reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning

This article explores the strengths and weaknesses of Lave and Wenger's concept of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ as a means of understanding workplace learning. It draws on recent ESRC‐funded research by the authors in contemporary workplace settings in the UK (manufacturing industry and secondary schools) to establish the extent to which Lave and Wenger's theories can adequately illuminate the nature and process of learning at work. The new research presented here, which was located in complex institutional settings, highlights the diverse nature of patterns and forms of participation. Case study evidence is used to identify individual and contextual factors which underpin and illuminate the ways in which employees learn. The paper argues that whilst Lave and Wenger's work continues to provide an important source of theoretical insight and inspiration for research in to learning at work, it has significant limitations. These limitations relate to the application of their perspective to contemporary workplaces in advanced industrial societies and to the institutional environments in which people work. These complex settings play a crucial role in the configuration of opportunities and barriers to learning that employees encounter.