How are feelings of difficulty and familiarity linked to learning behaviors and gains in a complex science learning task?

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The feelings of difficulty and familiarity (FOD and FOF) are two types of metacognitive experiences. Both may influence student engagement and the...     

The use of ICT in the teaching and learning of physical education in compulsory education: how do we prepare the workforce of the future?

This paper reports on research into the use of ICT within a one‐year initial teacher education (ITE) course in the UK, specialising in physical education (PE). The study examined how the course, which operates in both university and school‐based settings, endeavoured to support trainees' use of ICT in PE and then to identify areas where the programme could be improved in this respect. It also noted any specific training or resourcing needs which may be required to implement the recommended improvements. The findings showed the high level of enthusiasm of the trainees, university tutors and school‐based PE teachers for making more use of ICT in teaching and learning PE, and their willingness to make changes in their practice to accommodate this. It also revealed a severe shortage of subject‐specific professional development, and a widespread lack of understanding of needs, which was felt to have contributed to the lack of relevant ICT resources to which most school PE departments had access.

Cet article résume l'étude sur l'utilisation de l'informatique en Angleterre durant la première année de formation à l'enseignement de l'éducation physique (EPS). Cette étude examine comment le cours basé à la fois à l'université et à l'école, encourage les étudiants en formation à utiliser l'informatique en EPS et à identifier éventuellement les différents points d'amélioration à apporter à ce programme. Il est également rapporté la liste de toutes les formations où les ressources qui pourraient éventuellement être nécessaires à l'application de ces points d'amélioration. Les résultats montrent le haut niveau d'enthousiasme des étudiants en formation, des tuteurs de l'université et des professeurs d'EPS dans les écoles pour une extension de l'utilisation de l'informatique durant l'enseignement et l'apprentissage en EPS, ainsi que leur volonté d'apporter les changements nécessaires pour accommoder le programme dans la pratique de leur cours. Il est également révélé un sévère manque de sujets spécifiques au développement professionnel et une large incompréhension des besoins requis, qui ont ralenti le développement des ressources pour l'informatique, ressources auxquelles la plupart des département de EPS des écoles avaient accès.

Dieses Paper berichtet über die Forschung im Gebrauch von Informatik im Rahmen einer Einjahr‐Lehrerausbildung im Sportunterricht in Grossbritannien. Die Studie untersuchte, wie die Ausbildung, die sowohl auf der Universität als auch in der Schule stattfindet, versuchte, Auszubildende im Gebrauch von Informatik zu unterstützen. Infolgedessen identifizierte sie Gebiete, in denen das Programm in dieser Hinsicht verbessert werden könnte. Auch merkte die Studie spezifische Ausbildungs‐ bzw. Resourcingsbedürfnisse, die erforderlich sein könnten, um die empfohlenen Verbesserungen zu fördern. Die Ergebnisse zeigten unter Auszubildenden, Universitätstutoren und Sportlehrern eine hohe Begeisterung, eine erhöhte Verwendung von Informatik im Sportunterricht und Änderungen in der eigenen Praxis einzuführen. Die Studie zeigte auch einen schweren Mangel an fachbezogener Berufsausbildung und ein weitverbreitetes, mangelhaftes Verständnis für die entsprechenden Bedürfnisse, was zum Mangel an Informatikressourcen, zu denen die meisten Sportfachbereichen Zugang hatten, beigetragen habe.

Este papel informa de la investigación del uso de la informática dentro de un curso de la formación inicial de profesores que se especializa en la educación física en Gran Bretaña que duro un año. La investigación estudió como el curso, que tiene lugar en las universidades y en los colegios, tuvo la intención de apoyar los aprendices a usar la informática dentro de la educación física y de identificar aspectos donde se podría mejorar la programa. También, la investigación notó la formación específica y los recursos que podrían ser necesarios para realizar las reformas recomendadas. Los resultados mostraron el entusiasmo alto de los aprendices, de los profesores de las universidades y de los profesores de la educación física en los colegios por el uso de la informática en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la educación física y por su deseo de cambiar su práctica. También, la investigación mostró una falta severa de la formación profesional y de la comprensión de necesidades que han contribuido a una falta de recursos apropiados para la mayoría de departamentos escolares de la educación física.     

Podcasting in higher education: What are the implications for teaching and learning?

A podcast is any digital media file, or series of files, distributed over the Internet for playback on portable media players and personal computers. This study explored the attitudes, perceptions, and use of podcasting as reported by instructors and students at a large American Midwestern university. The results of two online surveys were examined, focusing specifically on items related to teaching and learning. Findings suggest that students use podcast materials largely for reviewing concepts and issues raised in lectures that they have previously attended. While instructors and students agree that podcasts help students learn, students are less sure about whether podcasts improve instructors' teaching. The authors argue that podcasts can help instructors change face-to-face instruction from traditional didactic lectures to more constructivist learning practices.     

Space: the final frontier in the learning of science?

In Space, relations, and the learning of science, Wolff-Michael Roth and Pei-Ling Hsu use ethnomethodology to explore high school interns learning shopwork and shoptalk in a research lab that is located in a world class facility for water quality analysis. Using interaction analysis they identify how spaces, like a research laboratory, can be structured as smart spaces to create a workflow (learning flow) so that shoptalk and shopwork can projectively organize the actions of interns even in new and unfamiliar settings. Using these findings they explore implications for the design of curriculum and learning spaces more broadly. The Forum papers of Erica Blatt and Cassie Quigley complement this analysis. Blatt expands the discussion on space as an active component of learning with an examination of teaching settings, beyond laboratory spaces, as active participants of education. Quigley examines smart spaces as authentic learning spaces while acknowledging how internship experiences all empirical elements of authentic learning including open-ended inquiry and empowerment. In this paper I synthesize these ideas and propose that a narrative structure might better support workflow, student agency and democratic decision making.     

ICT-use, educational policy and changes in pedagogical paradigms in compulsory education in Denmark: From a lifelong learning paradigm to a traditional paradigm?

For years, increased use of ICT in education and training has been part of the Danish education policy, and the number of computers in schools and the actual use of ICT have grown. At the same time, school leaders’ and teachers’ pedagogical paradigm in primary and lower secondary schools seems to be changing from a lifelong learning paradigm (focussed on student-centred, active, and autonomous leaning) to a more traditional paradigm (focussed on curriculum-centred teaching and instructions). The aim of this paper is to describe this development in relation to the way ICT is used as well as to changes in educational policy. Beck and Beck-Gerrnsheim (2002) theory about ‘institutionalized individualization’ as characteristic of the reflexive society serves as a theoretical framework for better understanding the observed changes.     

Student‐teachers’ conceptions of science,teaching and learning: a case study in preservice science education

The resort to experiment is considered to be essential for teaching physics. But it often consists of an inductivist method where students are supposed to be able to find physical laws by observing phenomena. In fact it is not as easy for the students as it is for the physicist. We propose and test another way. When studying a new phenomenon, an initial discussion is performed between students in the class. They can propose various (eventually contradictory) explanatory models. Experiments are then used to make a choice between these models. Sequences in class situation are described, with learning behaviour and results reported for pupils in French schools (grades 6 and 8, 11‐14‐year olds).     

Indigenous tertiary education – we are all learning: both-ways pedagogy in the Northern Territory of Australia

In this new era in tertiary education in Australia, the opportunity exists not only to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and thus redress low access and participation rates, but also to build a system that privileges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and ways of learning. To be able to do such a thing would require a shared vision and approach from within the institution and across the academy. In Australia, there is one tertiary education provider with the experience and expertise to be able to develop such an approach – Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE). BIITE has been engaged in the post-secondary education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for over 40 years, evolving from a small vocational programme to become a dual sector provider with over 2700 students from across Australia (BIITE, 2011, p. 21). BIITE's philosophy of adult education is that of both-ways, which has been built from knowledge shared by Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory. The methodology presented in this paper extends the both-ways philosophy into a generative framework that has applicability in the many different contexts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tertiary education in Australia. It is our intention to generate a broader discussion about this opportunity in tertiary education and shift the discourse from inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to recognising the knowledges and ways of learning of the first peoples of this land as a strong foundation for the entire nation's learning.     

Oral traditions: a contextual framework for complex science concepts—laying the foundation for a paradigm of promise in rural science education

The overarching goal of this paper is to bring a diverse educational context—rural sayings and oral traditions situated in ecological habitats—to light and emphasize that they need to be taken into consideration regarding twenty-first century science education. The rural sayings or tenets presented here are also considered alternative ways of learning and knowing that rural people (elders and children) acquire outside of school in rural places of home and habitat. Throughout this paper we explore the complex nature of rural sayings or tenets that have been shared by community elders and examine their historic scientific roots. In so doing, we uncover a wealth of information regarding the diverse rural sociocultural and ecological connections and the situated macro and micro-contexts from which these tenets arise. We argue for a preservation and educational revitalization of these tenets for current and future generations. We show how this knowledge both augments and differs from traditional western science and science curricula by illuminating the ways in which oral traditions are embedded in place, people, memory and culture. We close by presenting an alternative paradigm for science education that incorporates pluralism as a means to enrich current place-based pedagogies and practices. We suggest that in order to tackle the complex problems in this new age of the Anthropocene, revitalizing elders' wisdom as well as valuing rural children’s diverse knowledge and the inherent connectivity to their habitats needs be cultivated and not expunged by the current trends that standardize learning. As stated in the call for this special issue, “rurality has a real positionality” and much can be learned from individual and unique rural contexts.     

The impact of action learning: what difference are we making in the world?

Involvement in a number of action-learning programmes and associated development opportunities has led the Professional Development Centre Limited to question the relevance of a strict adherence to the ‘rules’ of action learning as described by Reg Revans. A deliberate focus of one such programme to a financial services organisation offered some insights into the challenges of introducing action learning into the field. Pressures on organisations of time and business expedients might make them believe that action learning is too slow a technique to offer real rewards. However, elements of the action-learning story do resonate in the workplace, key concepts that appear to ‘stick’ are listening, questioning and equality. The utilisation of these skills enhances leadership and organisational development and can still provide a useful set of actions to aim for. This is especially true in problem solving and the way in which respect and equality can re-create a different environment or development space.     

Participation and equity in higher education: are we going back to the future?

The December 2008 special issue of the Oxford Review of Education provided a review of education policy during Tony Blair’s tenure as Prime Minister. This paper forms a response to the ten contributions to that special issue and discusses some of the issues raised in them. While a few positive aspects of education under New Labour were identified in the special edition, it focused more on the failures of New Labour than its achievements. A common theme to emerge from the papers included the government’s pursuit of neo‐liberal market policies at the expense of its professed commitment to social justice. While accepting that the government’s failure to tackle the differences in educational outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils constitutes a major failing, the present author argues that significant achievements, such as early years provision, were neglected in the special issue. He also discusses the electoral considerations facing New Labour and the personal role of Tony Blair in determining policy. The paper goes on to consider whether New Labour’s education policy has changed since the departure of Blair and identifies some hints of a potentially more progressive approach developing under Brown. It concludes by suggesting that contributing towards a debate about alternatives to Blairite policies should now become a priority for the ‘educational establishment’.     

Body_machine? Encounters of the human and the mechanical in education,industry and science

This paper unveils the body_machine as a key element of dynamic mental maps that have come to shape both educational praxis and research. It traces and analyses instances in which the human and the mechanical encountered each other in metaphorical, material and visual forms, thereby blurring to some extent the boundaries between them while capturing and mobilising specific forms of knowing and acting. The paper studies, first, how certain ‘orienting frames of reference’ and associated ‘experimental systems’ managed to materialise around the body_machine and penetrate theory and praxis; and, second, what visual and textual sources related to a vocational school may reveal about where and how the body_machine has come to operate in education, industry and science. The paper centres on early twentieth-century photographs and analyses these not only as media presenting, representing and interrogating common thought and practice but also as agents of meaning-making around the body_machine.     

Lifelong learning in Singapore: where are we now?

The term lifelong learning has been used in different contexts and in policy application for a wide variety of purposes and initiatives. Singapore’s approach to lifelong learning is pragmatic and rational. It is one of the economic drivers used by policy makers to enhance Singapore’s competitiveness and is viewed as an antidote against unemployment. With the emergence of a more integrated and interdependent global economy, the premium placed on ideas and continuous learning becomes critical to an individual, organization and the country. This paper offers a snapshot of some of the current responses to the challenges and the perceived issues from the perspective of the government, organizations and individuals. The discussion would also cover a number of policy implications that may overlap and interconnect in practice.     

Representations of teaching and standards-based reform: are we closing the debate about teacher education?

Since the mid-eighties, national organizations have been working together in an effort to reform schools and, more specifically, to reform teaching. Paralleling the movement toward developing curriculum standards for students, professional standards for teachers have also been developed for the purpose of teacher education program accreditation. The objective of this national coalition is to strengthen the teaching profession and raise its standards—eventually enhancing the quality of student learning—by redesigning teacher licensing and accountability requirements for teacher education programs, and engaging teachers in on-going professional development. In this study we address three specific questions: (1) what representations of teaching and teachers are portrayed in the professional teaching standards, their related policies and assessment? (2) how are standards-based reform policies affecting teacher education programs? (3) what representations or conceptions of teaching and teachers are currently reflected in teacher education programs in the context of this reform? To address these questions two states were selected as test cases. Reform documents, policies and practices, as well as interviews with key participants in the reform (e.g., teacher educators, state-level administrators) are described and analyzed, and constitute the evidential basis for this study. The patterns emerging from the data indicate that teacher educators’ degrees of resistance or cooperation with externally imposed frameworks is influenced by their conception of teaching, education and its purpose. Further, as teacher educators uncritically participate in the standards-based movement it becomes impossible for them to entertain alternative perspectives on teaching and education outside of the framework provided to them by the standards.