Reflective teaching: theory within classroom practices

The core of the Senate Bill 2042 (1998) was designed to provide the guidelines needed to prepare teachers who can meet the needs of a diverse K-12 student population in California. Following the guidelines marked by this bill, faculty working in Teacher Credential Programs across California are designing activities to prepare candidates with a deep understanding of effective pedagogies applicable to a full range of students. A key component in this preparation is to provide teacher candidates with opportunities to critically read and reflect on theory and research. Understanding the importance of this component, I designed an assignment, Quadruple Entry Journals (QEJ), which asks teacher candidates to first, critically read texts on theory; secondly, to reflect and analyze those texts; thirdly, to reflect on the reflections of their classmates; and, finally, to connect these theoretical reflections with practice. In this article, I explain the pedagogy followed when implementing QEJ with teacher candidates. Their feedback showed that when theory and research are cooperatively analyzed by teacher candidates, they better understand the connection between theory and practice, thus creating a deep understanding of what to teach and how to teach.     

略论新课程下课堂教学中的知识管理策略

新课程的实施是课堂教学领域的一场革命,它将在教育观念、教学模式、教学方法和教学评价等方面产生深刻的变化。面对新课程给课堂教学带来的变化,教师不得不寻找一种新的、有效的课堂教学管理策略,才能适应新课程的要求。从知识管理的角度,将知识管理理论应用于课堂教学中,必须从三个维度探讨知识管理策略: 一是课堂教学中显性知识的管理策略;二是课堂教学中隐性知识的管理策略;三是课堂教学中知识管理运行的机制及其功能和价值。     

Qualitatively recognizing the dimensions of student environmental identity development within the classroom context

This study qualitatively explored the process of student environmental identity development (sEID) within the highly social and structured context of elementary school science. Social practice theory was used as the lens to distinguish the dimensions of sEID that were visible during a curriculum-based, in-school program focused on the issue of pollution. Student narratives, collected from small group interviews and reflective journals, were prioritized to capture the process of students in context identifying as “being for the environment.” Data collected from 35 grade six students were qualitatively coded, a network diagram was used to visualize the relationships in the data, and a research vignette was constructed. Eight dimensions were recognized as contributing to sEID; the opportunity to be an environmental actor with peers, increased awareness of environmental threat, emotional responses, self-recognition for environmental action, perceived agency, changed behavior across social contexts, social recognition for identity actions, and personal meaning. While many of these dimensions have been directly or indirectly discussed in the research on adult environmentalists, shifting the emphasis from group membership to the individual student in context led to the addition of two dimensions—personal meaning and emotional responses. Recognizing the eight dimensions of sEID is an important contribution to the literature as students engaging in environmental action as a requirement of school is distinct from the existing research. Identifying the dimensions of sEID can support the intentional design of learning sequences that foster environmental identities in school and beyond.     

Establishing mathematics for teaching within classroom interactions in teacher education

Teacher educators’ processes of establishing “mathematics for teaching” in teacher education programs have been recognized as an important area for further research. In this study, we examine how two teacher educators establish and make explicit features of mathematics for teaching within classroom interactions. The study shows how the establishment of mathematics for teaching is dependent on the use of keywords from the mathematics education domain, the introduction of variation, and the use of generic communicative strategies. As such, the study could be seen as a contribution to ongoing research on how mathematics teacher educators interactively deal with mathematics for teaching.     

The defining features of teacher talk within autonomy-supportive classroom management

Classroom management practices were studied in middle school classrooms with positive interpersonal classroom climates, high levels of student engagement, and high levels of autonomy support. Students' motivational responses to autonomy-supportive instructional interactions were explored to understand variability within classroom management practices identified and described in this study as providing autonomy support. Our findings suggest proactive classroom management is enacted through instructional interactions wherein teachers scaffold students' autonomous self-regulatory capacities that sustain student engagement in classroom activities by supporting students' strategy use, transferring responsibility to students, encouraging students' to structure physical and social contexts to support learning, and promoting prosocial behavior.     

测定动物种群密度的"标志重捕法"

实际研究中，不可能逐一计数某个种群的个体总数，如何测定某物种的种群密度呢？常用的是取样调查法，即计数种群的一小部分，估计整个种群的密度。要测定某地的某种动物的种群密度，常用的取样调查法是标志重捕法。     

The teaching voice on the learning platform: seeking classroom climates within a virtual learning environment

University staff are now encouraged to supplement their classroom activity with computer‐based tools and resources accessible through virtual learning environments (VLEs). Meanwhile, university students increasingly make recreational use of computer networks in the form of various social software applications. This paper explores tensions of presentation and communication between these two contexts. Through analysing a large number of course websites, the teaching voice in VLEs is shown to be in a very different register than the voice of communication in social networking environments. Yet isolated examples demonstrate that learning platforms can support materials conveying a similar kind of conviviality. It is suggested that the educational practice of university teachers could move closer to this communicative style and reasons are considered as to why this has not yet happened.     

Investigating literacy practices within the secondary English classroom,or where is the text in this class?

The Vygotskian concept of the zone of proximal development has been interpreted in such a way as to provide theoretical support for particular, Government‐sponsored, models of both pedagogy and literacy. This article proposes a radically different interpretation of the ZPD, informed by Bakhtinian understandings of heteroglossia. This alternative model is then used to describe and interpret the pedagogic and literacy practices that are observed in a secondary English lesson, in which students deploy a wide range of cultural and multimodal resources to make sense of a complex text.     

For the classroom

Patterns and Sequences. Phonics for Basic Language
An Oxford Spelling Book
Fuzzbuzz. Level 3
A Review of Reading Tests
Graded Phonics
1000 Pictures for Teachers to Copy
A Taste of Freedom
Schools Council Mother Tongue Project     

Out of the ordinary: recapturing the liberal traditions of a university education through field courses

This article aims to stimulate debate about the nature of field courses in higher education. We use a colloquium format that allows each of us to reflect on the philosophy of field course teaching and our writing endeavours to establish a dialogue between the authors and leave the reader with a sense of curiosity. It starts with a position paper that sets out a particular viewpoint on field courses to which responses were invited. Two of the respondents were experienced field-course teachers in disciplines traditionally associated with this type of curriculum, the other a lecturer in a non-field-course-oriented discipline.     

激发学生兴趣开展课堂教学--新课程数学教学中的一些探索

开展课堂教学活动,关键在于激发学生学习兴趣,根据学生的心理特点,从教学的各个方面为学生创设一种和谐、民主的学习情景和氛围,引导学生积极参与到课堂学习中。     

课堂应答系统在大学课堂教学中的应用

信息技术在当今高校教育中已经得到广泛应用,但是在构建师生互动课堂方面,中国高校教学方式没有太大改变。课堂应答系统作为在国外教学中应用比较成熟的一种教学手段,对于改进我国高校教学是一个很好的补充。主要介绍了什么是课堂应答系统,其应用环境及使用流程,介绍了两种基于课堂应答系统的最常用教学模式,并对此系统在应用过程中的优势与不足进行了分析。     

浅析中国课堂与留学生课堂的差异

随着来华留学生的增加,目前我国需要大量高素质人才来弥补对外汉语教师不足的情况。然而,习惯于中式教育的我们如何适应对留学生的教学与管理成为了即将走上此岗位人士的重点讨论话题。     

Multimodal literacy learning opportunities within a grade six classroom literacy curriculum: constraints and enablers

This case study of a grade six classroom literacy curriculum in Ontario, Canada was designed to produce new knowledge of how curricula can promote multimodal literacy learning opportunities for students. With a focus on constraints and enablers, the study found few opportunities for multimodal literacy learning due to standardised assessments, an outcomes-based programmatic curriculum with related standardised report card, and assessment-focused professional learning opportunities. Despite the print-centric nature of the curriculum, however, the study found that students did initiate their own multimodal opportunities. The study has implications for educators across the globe who are interested in expanding students’ literacies.     

Pre-service teachers’ defensive pessimism in situ: Two case studies within a mathematics classroom

In this study, defensive pessimism is reviewed in relation to anxiety, self-esteem, expectations, self-regulation, and self-handicapping. Then, two case studies of American pre-service teachers in a mathematics classroom are provided that move the research beyond survey and correlational studies. In the case analyses, defensive pessimists’ discourse and behaviours are examined and additional characteristics are noted, e.g., expressions of humour and self-congratulations. In connection with teaching, teachers are encouraged to support defensive pessimists’ learning strategies, such as perseverance and the use of multiple representations, so that the focus is on meaningful learning instead of the negative self-talk.