Case‐Based Teaching: Four Experiences in Educational Software Design

Abstract

Good teaching is good story telling. Case‐based teaching exploits the basic capacity for students to learn from stories and the basic desire of teachers to tell stories that are indicative of their experiences. The premise of software that used case‐based teaching would be to place a student in a situation that the student found interesting and where the telling of a story would be appreciated. First, case‐based teachers teach the student what he or she needs to know at precisely the point of becoming interested in knowing the information. This information should be presented in the form of stories. Law schools and business schools have been teaching this way for years. They teach cases rather than rules because, by and large, they don't have rules to teach. The second critical part of learning in a case‐based environment is teaching a student to abstract from what the student has been told, and adapting it to situations for which the student was not specifically trained.

At the Institute, we have, to date, built four examples of case‐based teaching software. The programs are:

VICTOR — a voice and image courtesy tutor — built for Ameritech

DUSTIN — a language experience — built for Andersen Consulting

CREANIMATE — a biology experience‐built for schools and supported by IBM

TAXOPS — a tax opportunity advisor and cross seller — built for the Tax division of Arthur Andersen     

Reframing learning to teach diversity: multicultural curriculum within a cosmopolitan context

This qualitative study explores the possibilities of reframing multicultural teacher education in the context of critical cosmopolitanism. I examine the ways in which 34 pre-service and in-service teachers learn to teach diversity and multicultural issues in their curriculum. I use three sets of coursework materials, including course discussions, small group presentations, and midterm and final papers to investigate their conceptualisations of diversity and equity issues in education. I present two salient themes as they reframe to teach diversity by reviewing both local and global conflicts: (a) analysing the frame of recognition and (b) revisiting the notions of self-other and interrelationality. Butlerian theory of recognisability provides an important theoretical and pedagogical approach for exploring the conditions of recognition as liveable life, rather than focusing on what works best for increasing teachers’ cosmopolitan awareness. Teacher education programmes could benefit from critical cosmopolitanism when implementing a theoretical and pedagogical strategy for teaching diversity within a global context.     

FROM CONFUCIAN MASTER TEACHER TO FREIRIAN MUTUAL LEARNER: CHALLENGES IN PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Abstract

This article addresses the dilemma faced by religious and theological educators committed to a feminist, liberative pedagogy when teaching learners in the church whose Confucian upbringing has socialized them into different means of instruction. After a brief sketch of the Confucian ethos that permeates the life of such persons and communities in present‐day North America, the article examines the pedagogical practices of Confucius/Kongzi, traces the historical development of Confucianism, and suggests how we might live and teach in the tension of what appears to be two extremes of pedagogical practice.

At fifteen 1 set my heart on learning; at thirty I firmly took my stand; ... At seventy 1 followed my heart's desire without overstepping the boundaries of right.

—Analects 2:4

Learning something and practicing it often—is this not a delight?

—Analects 1:1

Whenever three persons walk together, there is sure to be a teacher for me.

—Analects 7:22

I learn without flagging and teach without growing weary.

—Analects 7:34     

A leadership development programme for agricultural entrepreneurs in Sweden

Purpose: This article describes the five-phase process of a leadership development programme conducted with agricultural entrepreneurs who own and manage dairy farms in Sweden. The programme primarily focused on leadership of employees and on self-leadership. The article’s purpose is to present a template for leadership development programmes that can be used in the agricultural sector and in other industry sectors as well. Design/Methodology: The empirical data come from interviews with agricultural entrepreneurs, agricultural advisors and authors of a book on leadership in its various forms. Observations were also conducted of the instruction in the leadership development programme. Findings: First, agricultural entrepreneurs (and possibly entrepreneurs in other sectors) benefit from leadership development programmes in which the concept and practice of self-leadership are emphasized. Second, such programmes are more valuable to participants if other actors (e.g. academics and advisors) are participants. Third, coaches are useful as support for the programmes’ participants. Practical Implications: An implication of this study is the finding that working with the knowledge transfer and dissemination to advisors and entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector can enhance leadership competences in the industry. Role transformation (e.g. advisor to coach) can also enhance the transfer of such leadership competences. Theoretical implications: An implication for theory is to include a self-leadership module in leadership theories about learning leadership in development programmes. Originality/Value: Knowledge transfer and dissemination through leadership development programmes for agricultural advisors and entrepreneurs can have a beneficial effect on industry leadership and management. In addition to the traditional leadership skills that many leadership development programmes teach, such programmes also need to emphasize self-leadership.     

Preservice Teachers Adrift on a Sea of Knowledges

The paper argues for fresh recognition of the complexities faced by preservice teachers, particularly during the practicum, where they are expected to bring their stockpile of diverse, and sometimes conflicting, knowledges about effective teaching to immediate use with classroom learners. The paper abo draws on insights from postmodern theorising on the privileging of knowledges. While the major focus of the paper is on issues surrounding multiplicity of knowledges about effective classroom teaching, it is also recognised that much of learning to teach occurs in affective, ethical and interpersonal ways as well as cognitive. Several suggestions are made to assist preservice teachers negotiate the complexities of the process of becoming teachers. It is argued that the practicum in preservice teacher education can be seen as a rich site for further exploration of this process—and should be resourced commensurately. Such explorations have the potential to illuminate the ways in which preservice teachers mesh knowledges about effective teaching with their own personal values and beliefs within the specific contexts of their classrooms. Associated with the recognition of the complexities of the processes involved, is a call for university and school based teacher educators to model, with respect to their programmes and practices, the same level of critical reflection they advocate for student teachers.     

Learning to teach science in urban schools

Teaching in urban schools, with their problems of violence, lack of resources, and inadequate funding, is difficult. It is even more difficult to learn to teach in urban schools. Yet learning in those locations where one will subsequently be working has been shown to be the best preparation for teaching. In this article we propose coteaching as a viable model for teacher preparation and the professional development of urban science teachers. Coteaching—working at the elbow of someone else—allows new teachers to experience appropriate and timely action by providing them with shared experiences that become the topic of their professional conversations with other coteachers (including peers, the cooperating teacher, university supervisors, and high school students). This article also includes an ethnography describing the experiences of a new teacher who had been assigned to an urban high school as field experience, during which she enacted a curriculum that was culturally relevant to her African American students, acknowledged their minority status with respect to science, and enabled them to pursue the school district standards. Even though coteaching enables learning to teach and curricula reform, we raise doubts about whether our approaches to teacher education and enacting science curricula are hegemonic and oppressive to the students we seek to emancipate through education. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 941–964, 2001     

At the Crossroads: the development of thinking about the role,appointment and training of headteachers in Spain

For many years now, most countries of the world have increasingly valued the headteacher as a powerful force in facilitating school and staff development. Such recognition has resulted in widespread training programmes—even in the poorest countries. In Spain, however, there has been, until very recently, considerable ambiguity over the role of the headteacher. This uncertainty is manifested in the appointment system of headteachers and the lack of commitment to training. This paper seeks to show the reasons for this situation, through an evaluation of recent legislation, the impact of Franco's legacy on education and the current preoccupation with democratic government at all levels. The paper highlights important changes of attitude towards the role of the head now taking place, mainly at local levels, and encourages the government to ensure that examples of effective training, emanating from these ideological shifts, are recognised and contained within national programmes.     

BROADCAST NEWS AND ELDERLY PEOPLE: ATTITUDES OF LOCAL TELEVISION MANAGERS

The Kogan Attitudes Toward Old People Scale was used to measure local television manager attitudes toward elderly people. Census projections have shown that the elderly population will increase dramatically in the next century. The importance of local television news in the Hues of the elderly makes the study of the attitudes of broadcasters about older people relevant. A national survey of two groups of television managers—general managers and news directors—found that younger news directors had a more positive attitude toward older people, while the older general managers had a less positive attitude.     

An exploratory study examining the influence of the number of reading methods courses on pre-service and in-service teacher perceptions of ability to teach reading

Teacher education programmes (TEPs) are left with limited research on how the coursework they provide influences the perceptions teachers have about their ability to teach young children how to read – especially over the long term. The purpose of this study was to compare how teacher candidates rate their ability to teach reading at the conclusion of their TEP, and then again after a year of teaching. The matched participants (N = 126) were elementary education teachers representing five TEPs in one US state. Results revealed that the number of reading methods courses provided does influence the perceptions of pre-service and in-service teachers. Teachers who had two reading methods courses compared with teachers who had only one reading methods course reported statistically significant higher scores at the pre-service stage and were able to maintain higher scores at the in-service stage. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Teaching with and for discussion

Leading productive classroom discussions is difficult, as any one knows who has tried. Teaching future teachers to lead them is doubly difficult — a case of teaching beyond one's own understanding. Here we report our reflection on our efforts to teach beginning teachers to lead discussions. Our method was reflective inquiry, for the central problem we addressed arose from within our teaching, and this is where its solution would have to be worked out. Lisa, one of our student teachers, expressed the problem well: After participating capably in and reflecting upon model discussions that we had led, she said that she had “really no idea how to lead a discussion” herself. Our efforts to teach with discussion were surprisingly inconsequential when it came to teaching for discussion, where the subject matter is discussion itself — its worth, purposes, types, and procedures — and in which case discussion is not a teaching method but a curriculum objective. Against this problem, we critique methods we have used to teach both with and for discussion and present a typology that we developed in order to do both better.     

Policy and practice in widening participation: a six country comparative study of access as flexibility

Widening participation to higher education (HE) is central to the educational policies of countries throughout the world, and takes the form of a range of types of intervention, which can be classified within a three-fold typology. Access as in-reach refers to those programmes that prioritize recruiting potential students into the institution—examples include adult Access courses and certain summer school provisions for school-leavers. Access as out-reach is typified by efforts to widen participation and involve partnerships with one or more of employers, schools and the wider community. Alongside in-reach and out-reach exist a number of initiatives that can neither be categorized primarily as either of these, but focus on transformations and adjustments to the structure, administration and delivery of HE programmes. The third category of Access as flexibility refers to systematic as against discrete provision and includes such structural arrangements such as the use of accreditation of prior learning (APL), open and distance learning and the use of information and communications technology (ICT). In this paper—based on research commissioned by the Scottish Executive—policies and practices from Australia, Canada, England, Finland and France are compared and analysed with particular focus being given to flexibility. The implications of these policies and practices and their potential transferability to Scotland are considered.     

Teachers’ Self Training Activities on Computer Networks in Japan

Abstract

In‐service teacher training programmes in Japan are conducted by various organizations including local education boards, the Education Ministry, and public foundations. Pre‐service teacher training is extensively offered at national, public and private colleges and universities. These formal programmes fulfil the basic needs of teachers and they have little link to distance education systems. Teachers’ spontaneous energy to teach themselves is now directed towards using personal computer networks and the Internet. These telecomputing activities are reviewed and future directions suggested     

Local Farmers' Organisations: A Space for Peer-to-Peer Learning? The Case of Milk Collection Cooperatives in Morocco

Abstract

Purpose: The study investigated to what extent local farmers' organisations are spaces where farmers discuss, learn and innovate.

Design/methodology/approach: Two milk collection cooperatives in Morocco were studied. The study analysed the discussion networks, their impacts on farmers' knowledge and innovation, and the performance of collective action at cooperative level.

Findings: In both cooperatives, only two-thirds of the farmers regularly discussed dairy practices with other farmers. Most leaders of one cooperative were acknowledged to be experienced farmers and played key roles as advisors on dairy farming. Farmers' involvement in dialogue networks in this cooperative improved their capacity to innovate in dairy farming, even though their knowledge on some issues related to cattle, health and nutrition was not improved. In the other cooperative, experienced farmers did not share their knowledge and farmers' involvement in dialogue networks at cooperative level had no impact on their knowledge and practices. Dialogue networks and collective action were found to influence each other, since in the first cooperative, collective action was considered by members to be efficient, whereas in the second collective action was limited to milk collection.

Practical implications: The study enabled identification of stumbling blocks which need to be addressed to get local farmers’ organisations involved in farmer capacity-building.

Originality/value: While the importance of local discussion networks for knowledge creation and diffusion is widely acknowledged, taking such networks into account in farmers' capacity-building programmes in developing countries has been hindered by their informality. Combining the analysis of dialogue networks and collective action proved to be a productive way to assess the potentialities of working with farmers' organisations with the aim of establishing a connection with local discussion networks.     

Challenging the orthodoxy of literacy: realities of moving from personal to community empowerment through Reflect in Ghana

In the last decade, the Reflect approach—an alternative to the ‘great divide’ theory of literacy—has gained wider currency in developing countries because of its ability to deal with social, cultural and political issues by placing the identification and solution of local problems in the hands of local people. In Ghana, ActionAid International Ghana (AAIG) has supported Reflect in the Upper East, Northern, Upper West, Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra regions. An evaluation of the literacy circles showed that whilst women’s self‐efficacy had increased since joining the literacy circles, the progression from personal to community empowerment has been very slow as communities still perceive AAIG as the ‘donor’ and the communities as ‘recipients’ of funds, rather than become empowered to demand accountability from district assemblies for development projects. Fewer opportunities have been created by communities to facilitate wider socio‐economic change where they could use the PRA as a tool to assert their right to development.     

One step forward,two steps back? Work experience,equal opportunities and TVEI

Abstract

The funding criteria of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative included a high profile commitment to equal opportunities for boys and girls, as well as a commitment to the provision of work experience. This paper presents data from a case study of work experience provided under the auspices of ‘Masonfield’ TVEI project, a project which had a strong commitment to tackling gender inequalities in education. It is argued that the nature of work experience ‐‐ by definition explicitly allied to the needs of the labour market ‐‐ made it virtually impossible for the project to meet its equal opportunities objectives in this area. Furthermore, work experience may have served to reinforce — if not exaggerate — existing sexual divisions within the local labour market. Whilst TVEI may now be consigned to educational history, work experience continues to thrive — yet increasingly within a policy framework which ignores equal opportunities considerations.     

Changing cognitions in parents of two‐year‐olds attending Scottish Sure Start centres

The study examined how preschool intervention programmes set up by three Scottish local authorities changed parents’ cognitions. Quantitative parent outcomes were measured using Parenting Daily Hassles Scales (N = 88). A matched comparison group of parents (N = 55) recruited from the same areas of disadvantage but whose children did not attend the intervention programmes also completed questionnaires. Qualitative outcomes were evaluated using semi‐structured interviews (N = 30). A significant group × time interaction effect was found for daily hassle cognitions, Parenting Task–Intensity, Challenging Behaviour–Frequency and Challenging Behaviour–Intensity, with comparison group parents showing an increase in their experience of hassles during the ‘terrible twos’ compared with intervention group parents. Complementary qualitative data indicated that intervention group parents had gained valuable new insights into their children’s behaviour, changing how they thought about their role as parents and their behavioural and developmental expectations of their children. Implications for parental engagement in preschool programmes are discussed.     

Environmental Pollution: An Ecological Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of participation in a 3-day outdoor environmental education program on preservice teachers' attitudes toward self-efficacy—which is a teacher's belief that he or she can teach environmental education (EE) effectively—and on outcome expectancy—which is a teacher's estimation of his or her influence on student learning. Participants were a convenience sample of 72 preservice elementary teachers taking a science methodology course at a state university. Participants were divided into 2 groups for this modified pretest/2-posttest/control group study. The instrument for all 3 tests was Sia's (1992) Environmental Education Efficacy Belief Instrument. The authors used parametric t tests to compare group means. The results suggested that the preservice teachers' self-efficacy was high before the program and remained unchanged by their teaching experiences but dropped significantly approximately 7 weeks after teaching. The lack of change in self-efficacy from the teaching experience was attributed to the structured nature and success of the teaching experience, but the negative effect of time on self-efficacy was believed to have resulted from the preservice teachers reevaluation of their ability to teach as they learned more about teaching methodologies. In addition, there was no significant change in outcome expectancy as a result of participation in the program or over time (7 weeks).     

Educators‘ perceptions of an in-service training programme

Abstract

In-service training programmes for educators (INSET) in South Africa have a common objective, namely to support unqualified or underqualified educators to teach their subjects well. The Science, Technology, Environmental and Mathematics Education (STEME) outreach programme is an initiative of the University of South Africa to support these educators with skills and knowledge to teach these subjects efficiently. This article reports on an INSET programme for science teachers who took part in STEME and serves as a case study to investigate educators’ perceptions of the programme. The study, which involved a total of 13 educators, had two phases which were conducted during and after the INSET programme respectively. A focus group interview was conducted in the first phase while individual interviews were conducted in the second phase at the participants’ schools. Participants valued facilitators’ knowledge, continuous support and demonstration of new skills in practical real-life situations. Their main concern was applying the skills at their schools within present circumstances. This case study can serve to inform other service providers on what educators expect from INSET programmes.     

Adult numeracy teacher training programmes in England: a suggested typology

Nationally approved adult numeracy teacher training programmes were started in September 2002 following the introduction of subject specifications by the Department for Education and Skills and the Further National Training Organisation in England. These programmes delivered by higher education institutions and further education colleges were found to consist of a wide variation of course structure and delivery style. This article offers a conceptual typological framework to classify the diversity of these programmes. It uses examples of adult numeracy courses drawn from a research project which investigates the diverse curriculum approaches to teaching the subject specifications, the issues around implementation, and the way that subject knowledge was translated into classroom skills. The typology uses Bernstein’s theories on curriculum knowledge, transmission and recontextualization of pedagogic processes as a framework to classify and enhance our understanding of the raison d’etre of this subject area of teacher training courses, that is, to teach trainees how to be teachers of adult numeracy. The article also offers an ‘ideal’ teacher training course where some of its elements are drawn from best practices identified in the project. Finally, this article might act as a platform for practitioners to critically assess how adult numeracy teacher training courses might be structured and classified.