What should reading instructional research be the research of?

There have been recent arguments for expanding research on some basic beginning reading skills (i.e, phonemic awareness, word recognition) to the exclusion of other literacy competencies. Moreover, there have also been arguments that certain methodologies should be favored in reading research to the exclusion of others. The case is made in this article that these conceptualizations of reading research are too narrow. Rather, the case made here is that a number of issues in literacy development deserve support, issues that can be addressed well with diverse methodologies.     

How to make more friends?

Most of us want to make morefriends. Following steps will help you:Be fun to be around. You need to befriendly so that people will feel good when     

Educational research: Which way now?

The British Educational Research Association (BERA) was established 44 years ago, in 1974, at the height of the postwar expansion of education, and at the onset of a long period of controversy and reform of education that has continued ever since. The presidential address for 2017 looks back to reflect on the birth and early years of BERA, on its founding principles and the circumstances in which it grew. It does so to identify the ideals that motivated and helped to shape the nascent organisation, and to ask how relevant and useful these are at a very different time, charting our future in the twenty‐first century. More broadly, this address moves beyond an institutional history and a history of ideas, to contribute to a social history of educational research based on a wide range of documentary and archival evidence. In considering our past, we must attempt to resist an uncritical and functional approach in favour of a critical and reflective outlook that is alert to unresolved issues and problems, no less than it is to success and progress in our collective endeavours. This is necessary partly in order to reconstruct our historical experience in a robust manner, but also to address our present situation in an effective way. In 1977, the historian Brian Simon framed his presidential address to BERA around the key question ‘Educational research: which way?’ Forty years on, we can appraise how BERA has approached this question, and also ask at the same time: which way now?     

“Instructional disobedience”: a largely neglected phenomenon deserving more systematic research attention

Education is characterized by at least the following features: (a) it offers learning environments that help students to achieve preset goals, (b) it induces learners to engage in relevant learning tasks, and (c) it offers support while learners execute learning tasks. Offering learning environments builds on the assumption that learners will actually engage in the learning tasks and use the support provided. There is, however, growing evidence, that in a lot of cases students do not comply with that assumption. By not engaging as expected in the learning tasks and/or by not (adequately) using the support, learners reveal the phenomenon of what could be called—at least from the perspective of the (designer of the) learning environment—‘instructional disobedience’. ‘Instructional disobedience’ occurs when learners do not act as expected from them in a learning environment. While the literature has already referred to faulty assumptions and specified conditions for the effectiveness of instructional interventions, it seems the phenomenon of instructional disobedience has not yet attracted systematic research attention. In this contribution, we want therefore further unravel the nature and relevance of the phenomenon. This is done by analyzing the occurrence of instructional disobedience, possible explanations and ways to deal with it. As a start we illustrate the phenomenon by providing some examples.

     

Studying student teachers' concerns,combining image‐based and more traditional research techniques

In a study of student teachers' concerns, a combination of image‐based and more traditional research techniques was used. The first year student teachers appeared to be most concerned about matters that, in their view, form the core task of teaching, such as ‘selecting and teaching content well’, ‘motivating pupils to learn’ and ‘adapting myself to the needs of different pupils’. They are less concerned about matters that are not central to the immediate task of teaching or that they, as student teachers, cannot influence. In line with other research, their concerns remained reasonably stable during their first year of teaching. Drawings appeared to be a reasonably reliable and valid means of assessing concerns and seemed to elicit a specific type of information when compared with more widely used research techniques such as the card sorting technique and interviews used in this research.

Dans une étude concernant les préoccupations d'étudiants futurs enseignants, plusieurs techniques de recherche diverses ont été utilisées: des techniques basées sur l'image et d'autres plus traditionnelles. Les étudiants de première année se révèlent plus sensibles à des choses qui, à leur sens, constituent l'essence même du travail de l'enseignant comme ‘bien choisir et enseigner un contenu’, ‘motiver les élèves à apprendre’ et ‘s’adapter aux divers besoins des élèves'. Ils s'avèrent en revanche moins concernés par des sujets ne jouant pas immédiatement un rôle central ou direct dans la mission d'enseigner ou sur lesquels, en tant que futur enseignant encore en cours de formation, ils n'ont pas d'influence. Comme l'étayent d'autres recherches, ces préoccupations restent plutôt stables au cours de leur première année d'expérience pratique dans l'enseignement. Les dessins se sont avérés être des moyens assez fiables et valables pour l'évaluation des préoccupations et permettant d'extraire un type d'information spécifique par rapport à d'autres techniques de recherche auxquelles il est plus fréquemment fait appel comme le tri de cartes ou l'interview, également utilisées lors de cette étude.

En un estudio sobre las preocupaciones de los estudiantes de profesorado, se usó una combinación de técnicas de investigación basadas en imágenes y otras técnicas más tradicionales. Parece ser que durante el primer año, a los estudiantes de profesorado les preocupan sobre todo los temas que en su visión constituye la tarea central de la enseñanza, como por ejemplo ‘seleccionar y enseñar bien el contenido’, ‘motivar a los alumnos a aprender’ y ‘adaptarme a las necesidades de diferentes alumnos’. Les preocupan menos los asuntos no tan directamente relacionados con la enseñanza, o en los que ellos, como estudiantes de profesorado, no pueden influir. En línea con los resultados de otros estudios, sus preocupaciones permanecieron estables durante el primer año de enseñanza. El método de los dibujos demostró ser fiable y válido para evaluar las preocupaciones, y parecía generar un determinado tipo de información en comparación con técnicas más ampliamente usadas, como la técnica de clasificación de cartas y las entrevistas, que también se aplicaron en este estudio.

In einer Studie über die Interessen von Lehrern im ersten Studienjahr wurde eine Kombination aus visuellen und traditionelleren Forschungstechniken gewählt. Die Studenten des ersten Jahres scheinen am meisten an Dingen interessiert zu sein, die ihrer Ansicht nach zu den Kernaufgaben des Lernens gehören, wie zum Beispiel ‘richtige Auswahl und Vermittlung des Wissens, ‘motivierung von Schülern zu lernen’ und ‘meine Anpassung an die Bedürfnisse der jeweiligen Schüler’. Sie sind weniger interessiert an Dingen, die nicht zu der unmittelbaren Lehrtätigkeit gehören oder die sie als Student nicht beeinflussen können. Im Rahmen anderer Forschungstechniken waren ihre Interessen im ersten Studienjahr ziemlich konstant. Zeichnungen erwiesen sich als angemessenes und gültiges Mittel zur Bewertung der Interessen und führten zu einer bestimmten Art von Informationen, wenn man Vergleiche mit den weiterverbreiteten Forschungstechniken wie Card‐Sorting‐Technik und Interviews anstellt, die in dieser Forschung angewandt werden.     

A little more madness in our methods? A snapshot of how the educational leadership,management and administration field conducts research

ABSTRACT

The field of educational leadership, management and administration (ELMA) uses methods drawn primarily from cognate educational disciplines. But does this matter? This paper explores the methods used in recently published papers through a snapshot of six issues of six ELMA journals. The analysis showed a preponderance of survey, interview and case study methods, with one journal, JEAH, also publishing papers using methods drawn from history, philosophy and sociology. The snapshot also revealed the methods that were rarely used – for example, ethnography, visual and on-line methods. Through a Bourdieusian lens, the paper argues that the ELMA field appears to be somewhat removed from methods developments and debates in the wider educational and social science fields. There may thus be mileage in the ELMA field considering the use of additional methods, including the ‘wilder’ ones. The field might also benefit from understanding methods as more than tools and as practices possessed of a social life.     

How do you make students learn more?

This article deals with the system of professional and vocational education and training in secondary schools in the Republic of Slovenia. It presents a research project, conducted on a sample of Slovene businesses. The purpose of the research was to establish whether companies that employ secondary school graduates are satisfied with their knowledge. It also shows one way to increase the knowledge of students in schools.     

Introduction to “reflections”: An attempt to make our research reporting more personal

This study evaluated the effectiveness of students' self-recording of their teachers' daily expectancies, as measured by percentage of expectancies met. Two male and two female middle school students participated in the study, three of whom had learning disabilities. The fourth student received services for behavioral disorders. Students were given a schedule with headings for three of their general education classes, one special education class, and designated locker times. Listed under each heading were the expected behaviors for that class or locker visit, which were derived via consultation with the teachers. A multiple baseline across participants design was utilized to evaluate the effects of (a) carrying schedules without self-recording, and (b) self-recording whether the expectancies were or were not met. Self-recording was effective across students in increasing the percentage of teachers' expectancies exhibited, whereas carrying the schedule without self-recording had no discernable effect. Maintenance was evidenced across students. Subsequent exploratory mani- pulations were made, including an abbreviated schedule on which key words replaced each expectancy. The results of the study are discussed with respect to their applied implications, reactivity, stimulus control, and generalization. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Do performance‐based research funding systems affect research production and impact?

We study the potential impact of introducing performance‐based funding systems (PBFS) on national research systems, using information on the number of publications and their scientific impact (citations or publications in top‐ranked journals) for 31 countries over the period 1996–2016. The analysis is performed both at the aggregate level and looking separately at each of the six main scientific areas identified according to the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) classification. On average, PBFS are found to increase the number of publications, though the effect is only temporary and fades after a few years. Looking at the scientific impact, PBFS are found to have a negligible effect on excellence as measured by the share of articles published in the top journals, irrespective of the type of assessment adopted. On the contrary, PBFS have some influence on average research quality, as measured by the number of citations per paper normalised with respect to the field.     

Microteaching: end of a research era?

This chapter provides a brief review of the development and use of microteaching. Research on modelling, practice, and feedback is reviewed and studies of the overall outcomes of microteaching are set against a discussion of conceptual models underlying microteaching. It is argued that despite the many published investigations of microteaching, few definite conclusions can be drawn about its effectiveness. This is attributed to lack of theory-guided investigations, and it is suggested that a synthesis of cognitive models for microteaching with recent work on teachers' thought processes might provide a profitable approach to future work.     

What is (good) practitioner research?

This special issue recognizes EAPRIL as being a platform for practitioner and practice-based research and by organizing the 10th annual conference for practitioner research on improving learning in education and professional practice. Papers in this conference and in this special issue are rooted in practice-based research or practitioner research. They reflect the popularity of practitioner research in vocational teacher education and in universities of applied sciences. Reason enough for the authors of the current paper to reflect on the question: “What is practitioner research?” And, more importantly what makes good practitioner research? Reviews show that people use broad interpretations of the concept, which requires that to clarify the epistemological basis of the relation between research and practice the reflections goes back to Aristotle philosophy. The latter, aiming at discovering what kind of knowledge is obtained, what purpose it serve, and how it differs. This yields a theoretical, and two practical kinds of knowledge. Although all three are relevant, the so called ‘practitioner knowledge’ (the prhonesis and the techne), need more attention in judging the ‘goodness’ of practitioner research. Five principles of validation are mentioned, e.g. the process of meaning making and negotiation, differing from the correspondence between knowledge and the outside world, e.g. validity. These principles provide a possible angle and sometimes researcher follow them implicitly and unconsciously. The articles in this special issue reflects the realisation of many of these principles within the individual studies. The current paper does not intent to give final answers, but rather to trigger a further conversation on the fundamental question of: What is good practitioner research?     

Environmental education research: to what ends?

This paper engages questions about ends in environmental education research. In doing so, I argue that such questions are essentially normative, and that normative questions are underrepresented in this field. After cautioning about perils of prescribing research agendas, I gently suggest that in environmental education key normative questions exist at the intersection of ‘education’ and ‘ethics’, and that they point to an area of research that deserves more attention. In describing the intersecting nature of these ideas, I show that how education is conceived in turn shapes interpretations of ethics, and vice versa. Seen this way, I also show how ethics inquiry in an educational context can be conceived as a means to explore controversy, dissonance, unconventional ideas, and to imagine new possibilities. Finally, I argue that research at this intersection of education and ethics can provide insights that can enable us to teach, inquire, and ultimately live as if the world mattered.     

Equitable research: a bridge too far?

This paper is written in response to Angela Chapman and Allan Feldman’s research study, “Cultivation of science identity through authentic science in an urban high school”. I utilize this forum piece to extend the call for “awakening a dialogue” that critically assesses the effectiveness of current K-12 science education research in addressing the needs of populations of color. I take the opportunity to first discuss elements of what an equitable research focus might look like. I finish by critiquing and ultimately commending the authors on the degree to which they succeed in demonstrating an equitable approach to the design and carrying out of their study.