Re-focusing the Teaching of Poetry at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland: Some Literary-critical and Pedagogical Explorations

This paper argues that there is scope for considerable change and improvement in the way in which Poetry is taught at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland. In making this case for significant improvement, the paper has three interconnected parts. In the first part, a range of critical ideas highlight the richness of poetry as a literary genre. Secondly, a number of pedagogical ideas are presented, which emphasise the enjoyment of poetry as an end in itself. In the third part, there is firstly a comparative evaluation of the statutory requirements for teaching Key Stage Two poetry in Northern Ireland and England. Secondly, the results of a questionnaire, which was distributed to a reasonably representative selection of Literacy Coordinators in primary schools across Northern Ireland, are evaluated. The results suggest that there is Indeed considerable scope for improvement in the teaching of poetry at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland.     

Teaching a Selection of Heaney’s Troubles Poetry to Upper Post-primary Pupils in Northern Ireland’s Divided Schools: Educational Contexts and Pedagogical Opportunities

Centred on a carefully chosen selection of Heaney’s Troubles poems, this paper explores pedagogical opportunities that the poems present in the context of upper post-primary classrooms in Northern Ireland’s divided schools. Five poems are evaluated in total. These are: ‘The Other Side’, ‘A Constable calls’, ‘The Toome Road’, ‘The Strand at Lough Beg’ and ‘An Ulster Twilight’. While these five poems represent only a small selection of Heaney’s Troubles poems, they nonetheless cover an interesting spectrum in terms of their politico-cultural perspectives. The analysis of the poems focuses on exploring how teachers could use the poems to enable pupils to examine their traditional identities and allegiances and perhaps re-evaluate them in the light of new insights provided by the poems. While suggestions for this pedagogical exploration is at the heart of the paper, the early section establishes some relevant theoretical and educational contexts and the concluding section situates the paper in the context of previous, related curricular initiatives with Northern Ireland. It is to be hoped, finally, that the curricular initiative proposed by the paper could contribute, if even in a small way, to the ongoing search for peace and reconciliation between Northern Ireland’s two main, and still divided, communities.     

Modern languages and special educational needs: a review of research

The Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 requires that all pupils of secondary school age should have equal access to a broad and balanced curriculum. The inclusion of language studies within the statutory framework of the Northern Ireland curriculum has led to a significant expansion in the teaching of modern languages to pupils with special educational needs. Many teachers are now faced with the task of teaching pupils who hitherto would have been excluded from the language department and some teachers in special schools now have to teach a language with which they themselves are unfamiliar. This paper is the first stage of a research and development project funded by the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (NICCEA); it examines some research evidence relating to the challenge of teaching languages to pupils with special educational needs.     

Curriculum Study and the Freedom of the Teacher‐‐III: Comments on the address given by Mr. D. H. Morrell

This paper presents results from the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) science surveys which relate directly to Northern Ireland and shows that both the performance on the APU tests and uptake of science subjects for 15‐year‐old pupils from Northern Ireland was worse than those of their English contemporaries. These differences were present throughout the ability range for boys and are extremely large for those pupils studying less than eight O‐levels (i.e. mainly those pupils attending secondary intermediate schools in Northern Ireland).     

Between the Contingent and the Transcendent: Heaney’s ‘Poetics’ and their Implications for Teaching Poetry and Creative Writing in the Upper Post-primary School

ABSTRACT

In evaluating some of Heaney’s prose writings about the art of poetry – what I have called his ‘Poetics’ – the paper explores how those ideas could enhance the teaching of poetry in the upper post-primary schools. The paper is divided into four closely interconnected sections. The first section evaluates Heaney’s thoughts about the potential centrality of poetry in the English curriculum. In the second section, Heaney’s thoughts about the conflict between ‘poetry’s self-delighting inventiveness’ and ‘the pressures of reality’ are considered, with some complementary attention to a few of Heaney’s own Troubles poems. The third section, in evaluating Heaney’s critiques of some individual poets, registers some of his valuable specific, as well as more general, pedagogical insights. Finally, his prose thoughts about the wellsprings of poetic creativity are examined, together with a brief critique of his poem ‘The Play Way’, which is focused on teaching creative writing in a post-primary classroom.     

Primary humanities – a perspective from Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

The word ‘humanities’ does not appear in the current Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC). Geography and history are taught within an Area of Learning called ‘The World Around Us’ which also contains science and technology. The curriculum has a strong emphasis on an integrated, ‘connected learning’ way of teaching and learning. Religious Education is a separate subject that stands alongside, rather than within, the NIC, and the curriculum also includes a new Area of Learning – ‘Personal Development and Mutual Understanding’. The distinctive content and modes of teaching which the humanities subjects tend to encourage ought to be seen as particularly important in Northern Ireland – a part of the UK which has endured a complicated past and remains to a large extent segregated, both socially and educationally. This complicated past means that there is often wariness and reluctance on the part of teachers towards tackling controversial personal and social issues in the primary school.     

英语戏剧表演课程探究

英语戏剧表演课作为英语专业学生的选修课开设是一次外语教学的积极探索。对英语戏剧表演课三年来的教学实践做了阶段性总结并对其教学模式、内容、评估体系以及对英语语言学习的促进作用等进行了探讨,英语戏剧表演课对语言学习者语言能力和语言学习动力具有明显的促进作用。     

英语课堂教学中教师母语使用的顺应性研究

本文运用Verschueren的语言顺应理论对大学英语课堂中教师使用母语现象进行了分析.提出为了实现教学目的和顺应交际语境,教师在教学过程中需要对语言形式和策略进行不断选择,母语就是其中的一种策略.因此教师使用母语是一个根据语言现实、教师角色和心理动机等三个因素进行语言选择的动态顺应过程.     

高校英语教师的教学学术实践与发展研究

高校英语教师的教学学术实践与学生英语水平发展密切相关,直接决定我国高校英语教育质量。本研究基于Weston&McApline(2001)教学学术实践三阶段发展续谱论,聚焦华东某高校一个英语教研组,叙事探究英语教师教学学术实践的故事。研究发现教学学术实践是个体和共同体共创共享教学知识的科研活动;具有问题链效应、批判反思性和互动探究三大特质。研究验证续谱论在我国高校英语教育语境下的适恰性,初步构建英语教师教学学术实践可行性指导框架,诠释高校英语教师专业化发展的有效路径。     

Language learning,teaching and educational reform in rural Thailand: an English teacher's perspective

This article discusses English language teaching in Thailand through a biographical case study of a teacher working in a government school in the rural north-east. It explores a particular context of teaching and learning, showing how an individual comes to be a teacher and deals with the day-to-day demands of teaching, as well as reflecting on the place of English in a society where it is a foreign language. The article contends that case studies of this type have the power to illuminate the context of teaching, to enable us to come to a fuller understanding of the demands of being a teacher of English in societies where it is a foreign language, and thus to provide essential data on the realities of teaching in various contexts. This data may then be used to inform centralized programmes to reform English language teaching which at present rarely consult the principal change agents – teachers – prior to their implementation. Curriculum reform programmes in Thailand have been criticized for their lack of impact at the classroom level and the article maintains that, if these programmes are to be effective, they should be based on an understanding of the local contexts of teachers' work.     

‘I guess it scares us’ – Teachers discuss the teaching of poetry in senior secondary English

This article reports on a participant‐centred research project with English teachers in a senior secondary college in Melbourne, Australia. It builds on previous research (Weaven and Clark 2009, 2011), which showed a low take‐up of the opportunities to teach poetry in Victoria's senior secondary English curriculum. This study explores the reasons why teachers of English are unwilling to use poetry texts in their senior classes. The teachers who participated in this study discussed and documented their attitudes towards the teaching of poetry and explored with each other the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching poetry. Their discussions – an analysis of which forms the empirical core of this article – reveal a range of explanations for teachers' reservations about offering poetry to their students. Importantly, these teachers were able to use professional discussion as a means to consider what changes in teaching practice could be successfully developed to facilitate more time spent on the teaching of poetry in senior secondary classes.     

Balancing Cultural Diversity and Social Cohesion in Education: The Potential of Shared Education in Divided Contexts

This article considers how the education systems of divided societies have been shaped in response to the experience of ethnic and religious conflict. The analysis identifies two competing priorities in such contexts – the development of social cohesion and the protection of cultural, ethnic and religious identities – and explores how these may be reconciled through a model of ‘shared education’. Drawing on research evidence and recent experience of shared education in Northern Ireland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Cyprus, we reflect on the advantages and challenges of this model in areas experiencing conflict and division.     

Interpretations of formative assessment in the teaching of English at two Chinese universities: a sociocultural perspective

Formative assessment is increasingly being implemented through policy initiatives in Chinese educational contexts. As an approach to assessment, formative assessment derives many of its key principles from Western contexts, notably through the work of scholars in the UK, the USA and Australia. The question for this paper is the ways that formative assessment has been interpreted in the teaching of College English in Chinese Higher Education. The paper reports on a research study that utilised a sociocultural perspective on learning and assessment to analyse how two Chinese universities – an urban-based Key University and a regional-based Non-Key University – interpreted and enacted a China Ministry of Education policy on formative assessment in College English teaching. Of particular interest for the research were the ways in which the sociocultural conditions of the Chinese context mediated understanding of Western principles and led to their adaptation. The findings from the two universities identified some consistency in localised interpretations of formative assessment which included emphases on process and student participation. The differences related to the specific sociocultural conditions contextualising each university including geographical location, socioeconomic status, and teacher and student roles, expectations and beliefs about English. The findings illustrate the sociocultural tensions in interpreting, adapting and enacting formative assessment in Chinese College English classes and the consequent challenges to and questions about retaining the spirit of formative assessment as it was originally conceptualised.     

Developing a curriculum for the twenty-first century: the experiences of England and Northern Ireland

This article analyzes the common educational challenges faced by curriculum developers in the UK at the turn of the 21st century and the steps taken to address them by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in England and the Council for Curriculum Examinations and Assessment in Northern Ireland. The paper explores how the solutions emerging during the three curriculum review phases of 1998–1999 and 2005–2007 in England and 2000–2004 in Northern Ireland came about largely as a result of collegial working between the two bodies. As well as considering steps taken to develop aims that would drive curriculum change and a curriculum that would address the learning needs of students in the 21st century, the article also considers the lessons learnt about managing and supporting curriculum change. Developments in England and Northern Ireland serve to illustrate that an effective curriculum needs to: articulate clearly the key aims that will shape and drive it; be sufficiently visionary and flexible to allow teachers to respond to the needs of students now and in the future; and provide on-going support to help embed and sustain change. The three are inter-related and successful curriculum development involves considering them together.

Language Learner Strategies in Second Language Teaching

Language learner strategies, which are closely associated with second language teaching, have experienced great devel?opment in the fields of theory-building and instructional practices since the 1970s. By reviewing previous research, pedagogical enlightenments can be drawn to the current English language teaching.     

Fiction,history and pedagogy: a double-edged sword

There are many areas of overlap between history and fiction. Teachers of history have long recognized this connection and used a range of fictional accounts in their teaching. In this article, we argue that fiction is a double-edged sword that must be handled carefully. On the one hand, it presents compelling characters and accounts that provide powerful connections with the past often missing from school history. On the other hand, the narrative force that draws the reader in and connects him or her to the experience of the characters also mitigates against alternative readings of the situation, undercutting the reader’s ability to understand the past in complex and critical terms. We contend that in the hands of effective teachers, the double-edged sword of fiction can be a valuable and effective tool in the teaching of history. We begin by exploring three scholarly conversations around the nature of history, history education and learning theory. We then discuss the general relationship between history and fiction, move on to describe two broad categories of fiction and their particular connections to history and history teaching and consider some of the tensions between history and fiction. Finally, we investigate pedagogical implications for effective use of fiction in the teaching of history.     

高职英语语法教学之我见

面对21世纪的新形势以及国家对高职高专教育提出的新要求,特别是人才市场对高职高专学生英语水平(基本能力)提出的新要求,更显得英语尤为重要。目前高职高专英语还存在哪些问题,应该如何进一步地改进,是英语教育工作者始终应该思考的问题。本文在对目前英语教学现状进行调查研究的基础上,分析了存在的问题,并总结教学实践中的经验对高职高专英语语法教学的改进进行探讨。     

英汉文学文本翻译的语用互文性探究

英汉语篇的生成与其特定的民族文化体系的语用相关,涉及到自律语境与他律语境、感性语篇和理性语篇相协同等语用因素。在英汉文学文本翻译活动中,原文本与译文本两种语境、语篇转换的比照研究揭示了英汉语用互文转换规律,这对文本翻译的语用互文性深入研究具有重要的启示作用。     

Implementing a play‐based and developmentally appropriate curriculum in Northern Ireland primary schools: what lessons have we learned?

In the United Kingdom tensions have existed for many years between the pedagogical traditions of pre‐school, which tend to adopt developmentally oriented practices, and the more formal or subject‐oriented curriculum framework of primary school. These tensions have been particularly acute in the context of Northern Ireland, which has the earliest school starting age throughout Europe. In response to international research evidence and practice, a play‐based and developmentally appropriate curriculum, known as the Enriched Curriculum (EC), was introduced as a pilot in Year 1 and 2 classes in over 100 primary schools in Northern Ireland between 2000 and 2002 and continued until the Foundation Stage became statutory for all primary schools in 2007. This paper outlines four key lessons that have been learned from the first four years of the evaluation of this experience. These include the value and the meaning of a play‐based curriculum; the importance of teachers’ confidence and knowledge; teaching reading in a play‐based curriculum; and easing transitions in a play‐based curriculum.     

Discomforting pedagogies: Emotional tensions,ethical dilemmas and transformative possibilities

This article examines the potential and limitations of pedagogy of discomfort in a classroom of 10‐ and 11‐year‐old students of an integrated school in Northern Ireland. At the centre of the analysis are the students’ and the teacher's emotional experiences and the resulting consequences when a discomforting pedagogical activity (an adaptation of the classic ‘Blue‐Eyed, Brown‐Eyed’ exercise) is implemented to teach students about social injustice. The theoretical framework that informs this investigation is grounded in the notion of ‘pedagogy of discomfort’. A qualitative, ethnographic perspective forms the basis for the data collection and analysis. The findings show that the pedagogical exercise does not have the same impact on all participants, yet it contains several risks, most notably those of differential power and privilege between teacher and students and the ethical implications of putting some children (even temporarily) in a disadvantaged place. The implications are discussed in terms of teaching and learning through discomfort.