Patterns of interaction between teachers' and students' classroom thinking, and their implications for the provision of learning opportunities

This paper reports on a study of teachers' and pupils' perceptions of effective teaching and learning. A total of 13 teachers and 325 pupils (aged between 11 and 12) were observed and interviewed. The central focus of the paper is the interaction that was detected between teachers' and pupils' ways of thinking. A grounded analysis of the interactional data yields support for a transactional theory of learning (the works of Bruner and Haste and Vygotsky are cited in particular). The paper also introduces the idea of a continuum of teaching strategies, and shows how percieved teacher effectiveness can be associated with the teacher's ability and willingness to move freely between different points of the continuum, thereby implicitly rejecting crude dichotomies between teacher-centred and pupil-centred learning. It is shown that pupils claim to benefit from both teacher-centred and pupil-centred strategies when the strategies are selected in order to cater for pupils' specific learning requirements. The greatest coherence in teacher pupil accounts of effective teaching and learning, however, seems to focus on the mid-point of the continuum, described here in terms of “interactive” and “reactive” strategies.     

No Child Left Behind and the assault on teachers' professional practices and identities

This Bernsteinian analysis conceptualizes No Child Left Behind legislation in the United States as a recent and deliberate shift towards a “performance” model of official pedagogic discourse. The paper posits that this shift carries the capacity to fundamentally alter teachers' professional practices and identities. It examines particularly whether the policy shift has impacted the professional practices and identities of pre-service and early career teachers, whose training has been completed in the wake of No Child Left Behind, differently than it has impacted the professional practices and identities of their veteran counterparts.     

Getting the story, understanding the lives: From career stories to teachers' professional development

To understand teachers' professional development, the career stories of 10 experienced Flemish (Belgian) Primary School teachers were collected. The analysis of these narrative data culminated in the reconstruction of a professional self and a subjective educational theory, both conceived of as indicators for the professional development. These general concepts were differentiated to develop a conceptual framework for understanding teachers' professional development from their career stories. The comparative analysis of the stories revealed two important recurring themes, the strive for job stability and the feelings of vulnerability for the teacher. In this paper the “biographical perspective” is depicted as a general theoretical approach, and as a concrete research procedure for data collection and analysis. The author concludes that a narrative-biographical approach constitutes a viable perspective for understanding professional development from the subjective viewpoint of the teachers.     

Teachers' schemata for classroom events: The mental scaffolding of teachers' thinking during classroom instruction

Researchers have shown that experts and novices differ in their recall, representation, and analyses of problem situations. This study investigated whether such differences existed between novice and experienced high school teachers in their recall and analyses of problem events during interactive teaching. Experienced and inexperienced teachers (n = 10 in each group) completed cognitive ability tests and were interviewed after viewing three videotaped vignettes of interactive teaching. In contrast to novices, experienced teachers both recalled more classroom events and relied more on procedural knowledge and principles in analyzing classroom events. These differences may indicate that experienced teachers have better developed knowledge structures of “schemata” for classroom teaching than do novice teachers.     

Students' conditioned response to teachers' response: portfolio proponents, take note!

Portfolio advocates argue that teacher commentary becomes more meaningful for students with the use of portfolio assessment, particularly because the commentary is unaccompanied by a grade. However, my own study of portfolio classrooms suggests that students continue to regard teacher responses as directives that leave them few options in terms of revisions. My study involved six writing classrooms from the middle school to the university level and included classroom observations, interviews of students and teachers, and examination of student writing and teacher response. The students generally looked to their teachers to show them the “correct” way to write and resisted the notion of making independent judgments about their writing and the necessary revisions, primarily because they could not ignore the ultimate reality of the grade. Yet the teachers generally avoided being directive in their responses. In one instance, the teacher's best efforts to adopt a more open style of response backfired when a sensitive student read the commentary as demeaning. I argue, therefore, that even though portfolios represent a more enlightened approach to assessment, students have difficulty escaping their conditioned obeisance to teacher authority. While this finding should not be read as a condemnation of portfolio assessment, it does indicate that teachers need to be aware of how students read their responses. Otherwise, portfolios alone may not substantially alter the teacher–student dynamics.     

Educational goals and the assessment of what everybody should know: Where to stop?

Recently, the term “basic education” was given legal status in The Netherlands; it substituted the previously used term “primary education.” In speaking about primary or lower education, we as educators indicate a sequence in time; the term “basic education” is preferable because it refers to the content of education. Consequently, we cannot escape defining the content of the term “basic.” It is especially important to ask what criteria have to be applied in the process.     

Tests, test scores and teachers of young children: Reflections on two case studies

Meet Melanie. She's a first-grader who's just taken her first standardized test. Melanie is a bright and happy child; but she's just been branded “below average” by the people who make tests--because she didn't feel well the morning of the test and it was hard to concentrate. … Yesterday, a bright child. Today, “below average.” (NEA, 1980)     

The effects of prior information upon perceptions of exceptional children

Students in a university special education course were shown three identical videotapes of children in a school setting. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups, each receiving different written background information (“positive,” “neutral,” or “negative”) prior to viewing the videotapes. It was found that the variations in written information had significant effects upon the subjects' perceptions of the children's behavior, and upon the degree to which the children were regarded as able to function successfully in a regular classroom. These findings suggest that attitudes toward exceptional children are influenced by the way in which prior information, such as that contained in a child's educational records, is presented. Teacher and peer acceptance of exceptional children can be increased if information is presented in a realistic and positive manner.     

‘Scaffolding’ through talk in groupwork learning

In the present study, we develop and deploy a conceptual framework of “scaffolding” in groupwork learning, through the analysis of the pursuit of a learning goal over time. The analysis follows individuals’ different experiences of an interaction as well as collective experiences, considering individual attainment as a result of a bi-directional contextualized conversation and action. We detect, describe and evaluate two (2) types of interaction that can be characterized as “scaffolding process”: the first concerns “Scaffolding individual thinking” and the second “Scaffolding collective thinking”. The latter, apart from presenting the educational advantages of collective thinking through peer discussion (D) and curriculum-focused evaluation context of Teacher Initiation – Student Response – Teacher Follow up (IRF), also presents the advantage of ‘spiral’ verbal exchanges in which the teacher “tunes in” to the students’ present state of ability or understanding (spiral IDRF).     

Development of disjunctive reasoning and the use of MAYBE in fifth through eighth graders

Approximately one-half of the fifth through eighth graders in a school district (n = 164) were randomly selected to be administered a group test of disjunctive reasoning containing 48 inclusive and exclusive items varying in content of the premises (symbolic, object, and human), and affirmation or negation of the conclusion. Using an analysis of variance for repeated measures it was found that performance improved until seventh grade. Eighth graders scored similar to sixth graders. There was a main effect for negative, with negative conclusions producing more correct answers. Further, there were significant first order interactions for Disjunctive by Negation, Content by Grade, and Negation by Content. Since either “YES” or “NO” were the only correct answers, and “MAYBE” was always wrong, contrast of the MAYBE responses to other wrong answers revealed an increasing tendency to use MAYBE among older subjects. Implications were discussed in relation to cognitive developmental theory and educational practices.     

Implicit rewards in the classroom

Although well established in a range of situations, the application of operant methodologies to typical classrooms is often difficult for teachers because of logistic considerations which may lead to a subgroup of a class being rewarded, with peers showing performance decrement. This paper reviews the use of “vicarious” and “implicit” rewards in both special and normal classrooms, critically examining previous literature and concluding that several key issues are open to speculation. A series of four further studies which were designed to investigate some of these issues and overcome some of the design and methodology flaws of previous research are reported, with several important distinctions being drawn between “vicarious reinforcement” effects and outcomes from “implicit reward” situations. Criterion variables are discussed, with several key findings suggesting that the concept of vicarious reinforcement as based upon the general literature is simplistic and inaccurate. Suggestions are made for the successful use of “implicit reward” procedures in the classroom.     

Professional thinking in guided practice

The paper describes and analyzes the interactions between university tutors, cooperating teachers, and the student teachers in guided practice situations. The main aim of the study was to gain insights into the mode of interaction and the nature of massages transmitted in a variety of settings of practice teaching. The study reveals the dominance of evaluative comments made by cooperating teachers and their focus on issues of content. Alternative approaches and teaching modes were mentioned only rarely, cooperating teachers seem to rely mostly on their own wisdom of practice and tend to transmit traditions of “succesful” teaching modes. Student teachers were mostly passive and the mode of interaction authoritative. The paper suggests a distinction between an “incremental” versus a “comprehensive” practicum. It is suggested to focus on issue-specific post-lesson conferences which are planned jointly by student teachers, cooperating teachers, and university tutors.     

Disentangling the effect of education on emergency department utilization

Since Grossman’s seminal paper in 1972, there have been a number of studies concerning the effect of education on health and health care demand. Though several studies have distinguished between preventive and curative care, no study has investigated the effects of general education on the utilization of unnecessary emergency department use. We test whether general education reduces “potentially unnecessary” emergency department utilization and provide a measure of the resulting private benefits associated with increased education. Our results partially confirm our hypothesis regarding “potentially unnecessary” emergency department use. We find that moving from a high school to greater than high school education appears to reduce “potentially unnecessary” emergency department use, with the impact being greater among the insured. However, though reducing the education level from high school to less than high school increases “potentially unnecessary” emergency department use among the insured as predicted, it has the opposite impact on the uninsured.     

The evaluation and research of multi-project programs program component analysis

This paper will consider ways to study educational reform efforts in order to allow policy-making to be developed on a relatively sound basis. At present, educational policy-making often derives from a pastiche of available anecdotes, research-based “good” ideas, and previous administrative guidelines. Educational evaluation efforts should not be used merely to identify and label programs as either “successes” or “failures” at a global level, but rather to permit the analyses of elements or components of programs which seem to be making positive contributions to a common sense perception of program success. A comprehensive, developmental sequence for such evaluation will be described.     

It was the best of times. it was a waste of time: university of kentucky students' views of writing under KERA

A survey was administered to University of Kentucky freshmen enrolled in introductory composition courses. Former Kentucky high school students were asked to describe their high school writing experiences since the 1990 passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) and the implementation of its controversial testing and accountability component. The survey revealed much that is positive. Almost three-quarters of the students reported writing daily in high school in a variety of disciplines. Approximately one-half rated their writing abilities as “above average” or “excellent” and felt prepared or somewhat prepared to write in college. Most reported regularly employing writing process strategies. Few, however, mentioned consideration of purpose and audience as part of their approach to writing, even though these are the two most important criteria for scoring the portfolio. Some two-thirds of the students responded that compiling the portfolio was not a useful activity. These findings suggest that KERA's accountability system may be undermining the instructional improvements it was intended to foster. In its haste to implement mandated reform, the state failed to take into account students' willingness to assume new roles as “creators, authors, and owners” of writing portfolios. Students' negative attitudes toward writing under KERA may reflect a more widespread misunderstanding among teachers and administrators of the theoretical bases for the writing portfolio. Professional development might help to dispel some of this negativity, but classroom teachers alone cannot bear responsibility for ensuring that students see “real world” value in the writing portfolio. Public schools, post-secondary institutions, and employers must work together to find authentic uses for the portfolio.     

Impact factor and education journals: a critical examination and analysis

Scientific journals are the primary mode of formal communication in science. The ISI Impact factor, a bibliometric indicator that measures the citation rate of the “average” article in a journal, has been widely used for the assessment of the quality of scientific production of individuals, research teams or institutions. The purpose of this paper was to present the impact factor, examine the main limitations in its calculation and applications and to give a general overview of the impact factor of education journals for the period 2000–2005. Several problems related to the calculation of the impact factor have raised serious concerns about its validity and usefulness. Our findings suggest that education journals included in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) represent about 11% of the active, referred, academic journals. Education journals have relative low impact factors, in absolute values and in comparison to other Social Science categories. Application of the intraclass correlation coefficient showed that journals belonging to the “Education and Educational Research” category had relative stable impact factor values for the examined 6 years. This was not the case for the journals from the “Education, Special” category. It was concluded that the use of impact factor for the evaluation of journals, articles and researchers should be done with considerable care.     

Windows into the mind

As faculty, our goals for students are often tacit, hidden not only from students but from ourselves as well. We present a conceptual framework for considering teaching goals – what we want our students to achieve – that encourages us to think more broadly about what we mean by achieving in our knowledge domains. This framework includes declarative knowledge (“knowing that”), procedural knowledge (“knowing how”), schematic knowledge (“knowing why”) and strategic knowledge (“knowing when, where and how our knowledge applies”). We link the framework to a variety of assessment methods and focus on assessing the structure of declarative knowledge – knowledge structure. From prior research, we know that experts and knowledgeable students have extensive, well-structured, declarative knowledge; not so novices. We then present two different techniques for assessing knowledge structure – cognitive and concept maps, and a combination of the two – and provide evidence on their technical quality. We show that these maps provide a window into the structure of students declarative knowledge not otherwise tapped by typical pencil-and-paper tests. These maps provide us with new teaching goals and new evidence on student learning.Based on an invited address, Facoltá di Ingegneria dell’Universitá degli Studi di Ancona, June 27, 2000. This research was supported, in part, by the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (Grant R117G10027), and by the National Science Foundation (Nos. ESI 95-96080). The opinions expressed here represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding agency.     

Contradictions in theorizing and implementing communities in education

Past educational improvement endeavors were fundamentally centered on the learner as an individual. This changed by the early 1990s after an increasing number of educators and researchers embraced sociocultural learning concepts such as “communities of practice,” “communities of learners,” and “knowledge-building communities.” These ideas are originally grounded in a dialectical materialist, cultural-historical theory of activity, or, as Lev Vygotsky called it, in a “concrete human [social] psychology.” However, as these concepts filtered into Western scholarship, some of their defining characteristics have been lost or downplayed. The intention of this article is thus to offer a more complete theorization of the educational notion of community that is centered on collective activity or practice mediated by history and culture/society. Two case studies, which exemplify learning communities using this lens, conclude the paper.