Harming not helping: The impact of a Canadian standardized writing assessment on curriculum and pedagogy

Test-based accountability programs are designed to promote improved standards of teaching and learning within the systems of education that they are connected to. Brenan [Brenan, A. L. (2006). Perspectives on the evolution and future of educational measurement. In: Robert (Ed.), Educational measurement (4th ed., pp. 1–16). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers], however, suggests that little evidence exists to support the claim that these standardized assessment programs are achieving this goal. This study examines a Canadian high-stakes writing assessment's effect on the teaching of writing in three grade 12 academic English classrooms. Analysis across cases revealed that factors shaping the exam's impact on teachers’ pedagogical choices include their attitude toward the exam, the pressure they felt from their school communities and their years of experience. The study also found that the exam caused teachers to narrow their teaching of writing in relation to processes taught, assignment design, and evaluation criteria utilized. The study concludes that in the cases observed, the exam is having a negative impact on the teaching of writing.     

Engineering ethics education in the USA: Content,pedagogy and curriculum

Interest in engineering ethics education developed significant momentum in the USA as the 20th century drew to a close. Nevertheless, nearly 80% of engineering graduates are not required to take ethics-related courses. The content of engineering ethics education consists of 'microethical' issues focusing on individual professional responsibility and 'macroethical' issues dealing with the development of technology. The pedagogical framework of engineering ethics education has evolved primarily toward utilization of case studies and codes of ethics, in some instances supplemented by an introduction to moral theory. Substantial progress has been made in the development of case materials, including highprofile cases, everyday cases, quantitative cases and cases highlighting 'good works'. Cases are widely disseminated in textbooks and online. Online resources include interactive case studies and a rich variety of other ethics-related materials. Prominent curriculum models in the USA include a required course in engineering ethics, ethics-across-the-curriculum projects, and integration of engineering ethics and science, technology and society material. Changes in accreditation criteria for US engineering schools will potentially elevate the prominence of instruction in engineering ethics and the societal context of engineering. Many challenges remain, most notably the need for US engineering faculty to accept greater responsibility for engineering ethics education.     

Aligning learning, teaching and assessment using the web: an evaluation of pedagogic approaches

Biggs has argued that teaching is most effective when it supports those activities appropriate to understanding the curriculum objectives. This paper uses Biggs' argument to analyse how a UK higher education initiative, the Chic project, has promoted learning and teaching innovation that supports collaborative, inclusive learning by integrating on-line and face-to-face delivery. Methods by which assessments, teaching processes and learning objectives can be aligned are discussed.
The author identifies two project approaches to the utilisation of on-line materials within curriculum design. Staff and student questionnaires and interviews are evaluated in order to assess whether these processes promote a reflexive approach to learning. Such reflexivity depends upon stimulating the learner's emotional involvement and active engagement in undertaking achievable tasks.
The paper argues that an integrated approach to on-line learning and teaching can be used to promote students' critical use, understanding and application of materials. Moreover, it is argued that this can be liberating for staff and students as long as there is a shared vision and experience upon which to act. Promoting motivation within a supportive and meaningful context is fundamental.     

The re-theorisation of collective pedagogy and emergent curriculum

This essay review of Goulart and Roth’s work explores the cultural-historical concepts that they have drawn upon to create a new conception of emergent curriculum in early childhood science education. The pedagogical contexts of Brazilian preschools is discussed in relation to other practices found across cultural communities, with a view to locating the specific research need that has arisen for preschools within Brazil. In the latter part of this article, Davydov’s (International perspectives in non-classical psychology, 2008) work on theoretical knowledge and dialectical thinking is discussed in order to further develop Goulart and Roth’s conception of early childhood science curriculum.     

Learning Culture,Spirituality and Local Knowledge: Implications for African Schooling

International Review of Education - (Learning, Culture, Spirituality and Local Knowedge: Implications for African Schooling) – Using a Ghanaian case study, this paper looks at the relevance...     

Vocational Learning Outside Institutions: Online pedagogy and deschooling

This analysis of current developments in online learning for vocational education and training uses Ivan Illich's book Deschooling Society as a frame. Illich argued that formal educational institutions are flawed; that a mix of compulsion, indoctrination, certification and education creates an authoritarian atmosphere. Key benefits of online learning include its flexibility and its capacity to support dialogue between learners. On the basis of the capabilities of online technologies, and current developments in education, the authors predict that vocational learning will be profoundly changed. Inevitably, these developments will also challenge established colleges and universities, including their current dominance in major areas of vocational education and training. Education will probably become more pluralistic and more international. This paper calls for an inclusive approach?which makes the elements of an online course available to informal learners and free to people who cannot afford course fees.     

Cooperative Learning for Academic and Social Gains: valued pedagogy,problematic practice

A growing number of governments, seeking to modernise their country's education system, adapt cooperative learning (CL) as a major component of their educational policy. Since the 1960s, when CL re-emerged to become a systematic pedagogy, CL practice has been constantly refined on the basis of ongoing research. Research results have consistently shown that CL improves students' academic achievement as well as social interaction when carried out responsibly. CL methods and procedures are designed to promote cooperation and mutual assistance among learners and often carry over to relationships outside the school. Translating the promise of CL to practice is more complicated than meets the eye, and does not always guarantee that its desired goals are achieved. This article sets out to explore some of the causes of the discrepancy between the promise and practice of CL, such as confusion about methods, lack of adequate preparation, and teachers' perceptions of teaching in general and of CL in particular.     

冲突与抉择：学习化社会背景下的学校教育

学习化社会的来临给制度化的学校教育带来了前所未有的冲击与挑战。正规化、阶段化、精英化、标准化的学校教育开始受到来自四面八方的指责与批评。新的时代背景要求学校教育对这些问题做出积极的回应。学校正处在十字路口，改造与创新势在必行。     

远程合作学习项目对学校教育的影响效果分析

本研究采用调查研究的方法,以东西部79所参与中国和联合国儿童基金会“姊妹学校项目”的学校为对象,就项目对学校教育和教学以及师生的影响开展问卷调查。通过实证分析得知,远程合作学习“姊妹学校项目”在引入学校、融入课程与教学后,它影响着师生,为东西部学校带来了学习内容的变革、教与学形式的变革、学校文化的变革,这项为期三年的干预改变了学生,也改变了教师,改变了学校。     

The Making of Citizens: pedagogy and address in children's television news

This paper offers a comparative analysis of three television news programmes aimed at children: the BBC's Newsround Nickelodeon's Nick News and Channel One News. It focuses on the programmes’ implicit assumptions about the child viewer, and on the ways in which these are manifested both in the selection and framing of content and in their formal strategies and modes of address. It also raises questions about the extent to which such programmes can be seen to ‘give children a voice’ or to ‘empower’ them as active citizens.     

The literacy curriculum and use of an Integrated Learning System

This article describes one aspect of a year‐long study of primary level teachers’ and children’s (Grades 1‐3; children aged 6‐9 years) use of the language arts component of SuccessMaker, an Integrated Learning System (ILS). Using information gathered from teacher surveys and classroom observation, we documented areas where the curricula embedded in the ILS were congruent with teachers’ normal curricula and pedagogical practices. However, we also found numerous instances of incongruity. To illustrate our findings we use the case of phonics instruction to reveal discrepancies between normal practice and computer‐based learning. The differences in content, presentation sequence and instructional practices raise issues about the appropriate relationship between computer‐based instruction and teachers’ normal practices.