Training and accrediting a school staff as mentors: experience of a primary school in Northern Ireland

Arrangements for initial teacher education in Northern Ireland are different from England and Wales in three major respects. Firstly, no formal contracts exist between Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and schools for the training of student teachers. Secondly, no financial resources are transferred from the HEIs to the schools to assist with supporting student teachers while on school placement. Thirdly, the competence framework has been designed to identify the distinctive contribution which schools make to the training process. The amount of time student teachers spend in schools, however, is the same as that in England and Wales but no formal training has been provided for schools to enable them to undertake the new and additional responsibilities which the competence framework implies. This paper describes an initiative in which the whole staff in a primary school in Belfast participated in a programme of Mentorship Training which was provided and accredited by the University of Ulster. The programme which comprised two modules was offered at postgraduate level and was designed to assist the teachers to develop a more structured and systematic approach to supporting and training student teachers and newly qualified teachers. On completion, the programme was evaluated and the findings are reported in this paper.     

Knowledge about Education for Sustainable Development: four case studies of student teachers in English secondary schools

Considerable activity has occurred in the recent past regarding policy‐making around Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the school curriculum. Teaching about sustainable development involves complex and contested ethical and political issues. This case study research investigates how four student teachers taking part in a one‐year teacher education programme in a university in England (Post Graduate Certificate in Education or PGCE) translate their knowledge, experiences and beliefs about ESD into classroom practice in the context of the Geography National Curriculum and ESD policies in secondary schools. The researchers critically analyse curriculum materials used by three student teachers to explore the potential for ethical and political engagement with ESD knowledge. The research reveals some of the ethical and political dilemmas faced by student teachers who, as committed environmentalists, struggle to resolve the tensions between the constraints of policy, school culture, school teaching materials and their own values and enthusiasms.     

新课程改革中教师专业适应与发展之问题、对策研究——基于洛阳市的个案研究

中小学教师的专业发展是当今教育界普遍关注的热点问题。特别是新课程的改革和实施，对教师专业发展是一次新的机遇与挑战，本研究对洛阳市新课程改革实验区和非实验区中小学教师的专业化发展现状进行了调查分析。调查发现：中小学教师普遍接纳新课程改革，形成了业已稳定的新教育教学理念，业务能力普遍提高，但角色、地位转变困难，教研能力提高慢等。只有从社会及国家政策方面、学校方面、教师个人诸方面全方位改革，才能促进教师专业化发展和基础教育课程改革的进一步实施。     

An attitude study of teachers involved in a Primary Mentoring Programme

The study pertains to students currently finishing the second year of their B.A.(Ed) degree, and who are the pioneering group for the Mentorship programme. It seeks to identify the attitudes held by host teachers, non‐host teachers and headteachers in the Mentor‐ ship schools about the programme, following a four week school experience by second year students.     

The Readiness of Primary Schools to Teach the National Curriculum in Art and Design

This paper summarises the findings of the research and development project, ‘Supporting Primary Art’ which was established at the Centre for the Study of the Arts in Primary Education at the Rolle Faculty of Education of the University of Plymouth in October 1992 with support and funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian and Paul Hamlyn Foundations. It is the intention of the project to investigate the response of teachers in primary schools to the introduction of the national curriculum in art and, on the basis of the understandings gained, to develop and evaluate appropriate forms of in-service training and support materials to address those difficulties and concerns identified by teachers in meeting the overall requirements of the Statutory Orders for Art. The project has in mind the significant advantage to the development of art and design education in our schools that is presented by the introduction of the national curriculum in art and the opportunities here to reinforce and extend the richness and quality of the teaching of art to a wider cohort of schools. We hope that this report will help LEAs and those involved in the initial, postgraduate and in-service training of teachers in their work in preparing students and supporting teachers to understand, teach and deliver the national curriculum in art.     

Laptops meet schools,one‐one draw: m‐learning for secondary students with literacy difficulties

Mobile technology‐enhanced literacy initiatives have become a focus of efforts to support learning for students with literacy difficulties. The Laptops Initiative for Post‐Primary Students with Dyslexia or other Reading/Writing Difficulties offers insights into and addresses questions about ICT policy making regarding m‐learning technologies for students with literacy difficulties. Thirty‐one schools participated in this initiative. Adopting an intepretive perspective, research and data analysis centred on four school case studies and involved classroom observations, teacher, student and principal interviews as well as a survey of teachers in other participating schools. Findings are presented under three headings: laptop deployment models (fixed, floating and fostered), constraints and supports for teacher and student agency, and technology‐enhanced literacy pedagogy. We conclude by noting the increasing appeal of m‐learning to support literacy and how schools mediate access to laptops and associated literacy learning.     

Teacher Exchange: an alternative for staff development

This study examines the part that planned exchanges of teaching posts can play in broadening professional experience and enriching individual schools. The survey draws heavily upon the experiences of some 25 teachers and their schools who have participated in the Berkshire Primary Teacher Exchange Scheme since its inception in 1983. The organisation and administration of the scheme are outlined, and the major part of the survey examines the experiences—elicited by interview and questionnaire—of the teachers who participated; their motives in applying for a one-year exchange of posts; the practical difficulties and opportunities of working in another school for a fixed period; and their assessment of the personal and career benefits of taking part in the scheme. The views of headteachers and others are considered in assessing any beneficial effects in terms of curriculum enrichment and staff development for participating schools—benefits which may be offset by a break in continuity of staffing. The views of teachers who had sought unsuccessfully to participate in the Berkshire scheme are examined and their reasons for failing to obtain a suitable exchange are consider

Practice in other local authorities which operate exchange schemes is examined and alternative approaches consider Given the paucity of references to exchange programmes and planned experience within the corpus of educational literature, a number of studies drawn from the field of general management training are considered for their relevance to educational practice.

The report concludes that teacher exchange can be a worthwhile, fulfilling and cost-effective alternative to the more traditional forms of in-service training, and one which offers significant benefits to the school and the education service in terms of a more motivated teaching force with a broader perspective of the profession in which they work, and hence more receptive to organisational change. Exchange was found to be particularly valuable for teachers in mid-career who did not seek or were not destined for further promotion. Particular problems centred around the difficulties of matching pairs of suitable applicants, and the often rather haphazard nature of the exchange experience, and suggestions are offered for improving practice in these areas.     

Computer-based assessment of reading ability and subtypes of readers with reading comprehension difficulties: a study in French children from G2 to G9

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Reading difficulties in school are very challenging for teachers due to many different reader subtypes in one and the same class. Moreover, there are...     

中小学性安全教育现状调查与分析——以成都市为例

目的：以成都市为例了解中小学性安全教育现状,探讨加强中小学性安全教育的途径和方法。方法：从成都市抽取金牛区、龙泉驿区、青白江区三个区部分中小学的448名教师及学校领导进行问卷调查。结论：成都市仍有一些中小学未开展性健康教育课程,性安全教育缺位,性安全教育进校园仍存在诸多困难。建议：着力解决专业师资及教材匮乏问题,提高性安全教育能力,学校与家庭需转变观念并密切配合,改变中小学性安全教育缺位的现状。     

Reading Recovery in Context: implementation and outcome

Reading Recovery is a school‐based preventive strategy designed to reduce the number of children with reading and writing difficulties. This study evaluated the implementation of Reading Recovery in 12 New Zealand schools. Target (Reading Recovery) and Comparison pairs of children were identified through the Reading Recovery procedures operated by each school. Results indicated that very few schools adhered closely to all recommended entry and discontinuation criteria. Results for Target and Comparison children's reading progress up to the time of discontinuation are highly consistent with results reported by Clay (1985), with clear gains in favour of Target children. However, these gains had reduced considerably by the time of follow‐up. Data suggest that programme gains were greatest for children entering the programme at the lowest reading levels. Outcomes are discussed in terms of the need for better articulation between Reading Recovery teachers and regular classroom teachers.     

Learning through networks: trust,partnerships and the power of action research

In England school teachers and head teachers are faced with a myriad of challenges in coping with the pressures of managing the dynamic and diverse institution which is their school within an imposed, centralized, standards-driven change agenda. It could be argued that many of the national policies and initiatives over the last 15 years have directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously undermined the traditional autonomy of teachers. As a consequence, many feel little ownership of a curriculum that is regularly policed through national pupil assessment at ages 7, 11, 14, 16, 17 and 18, school inspections and competency frameworks related to role specification, and are consequently insecure in making decisions about pedagogy. As part of governments' drive to ensure the effective and efficient implementation, they have been inundated also with demands to attend professional development courses dealing with imposed initiatives, but have little time or energy for reflection on their practice and reflection on the impact that imposed change is making on pupils, motivation, learning and achievement. It was in this context that the Primary Schools Learning Network was formed through negotiated partnerships between a group of self-selecting schools, the local education authority (district), and the Centre for Research on Teacher and School Development at the University of Nottingham. Its aim was to give ownership for development back to teachers through collaborative action research with a view to improving schools and raising pupil attainment.     

The influence of the Creative Learning Assessment (CLA) on children's learning and teachers' teaching

This paper describes the development and use of the Creative Learning Assessment (CLA) as a means of evidencing, supporting and promoting children's creative learning in arts‐based contexts. The research team at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) worked with a group of teachers in inner‐city Lambeth primary schools to develop an assessment system to record the impact of a creative curriculum on children's achievement and to enable schools to justify a broad‐based provision. The Assessing Learning and Communication in Creative Learning Contexts project, funded by CfBT Education Trust (CfBT), aimed to offer teachers a view of creative learning development and a framework for teacher assessment. It set out to provide a close focus on the learner and a valuable source of information for curriculum planning. This article discusses the effect of working with the CLA on children's learning and on teachers' practice through a case study of one project school, and the implications for schools and classrooms from the perspectives of the researcher and the teacher.     

Challenge,Response and Dilution: a revisionist view of the Emergency Training Scheme for Teachers, 1945‐1951

Between 1945 and 1951 the Emergency Training Scheme produced around 35,000 teachers, selected mainly on the grounds of personality rather than paper qualifications and trained in just one year. Most of these teachers subsequently found posts in primary or secondary modern schools, where many enjoyed successful careers. Without this scheme, the raising of the school leaving age to 15 and the 1944 Education Act's promise of ‘secondary education for all’ would both have been greatly delayed. Of the published accounts of the scheme, most focus upon notions of ‘challenge’ and ‘response’, without confronting the important associated issue of professional dilution. Drawing upon a range of previously unused evidence, this paper offers a revisionist view.     

小学全科教师专业素养培养研究

针对乡村小学教育所面临的结构性缺编、学生生源流失严重等困境,公费定向培养乡村小学全科教师的政策顺势而生。对小学全科教师跟踪调研、对培养院校教师个别访谈发现,小学全科教师专业素养培养过程中存在职业理解与认识模糊、学科知识较为薄弱、教学设计与实施能力偏低等问题。针对这些问题,应从课程优化、教育调研、优化师资、教学实践、任务驱动、搭建平台、试教试作等方面着力加强和改进。     

香港启导班的政策与实践

香港在小学推行启导班达十八年之久 ,旨在帮助在中文、英文、数学三个主要科目学习有困难的学生。对于启导班的实际价值 ,社会上有不同的争议 ,本文旨在阐释教育学院、学生和家长对启导班的观点 ,探讨其发展和面对的困难 ,从而作出建议     

高职教育改革在冲突理论视角下的策略调适分析

教育改革是社会发展的必然趋势,冲突理论认为冲突是社会的基本状态,具有社会整合的作用。在社会转型期内高校教育改革面临着很多矛盾与冲突,冲突理论为我们提供了一种框架进行分析。本文运用冲突理论分析高职学校教育改革中学校与教师、学校与学生、教师与学生、学生与学生之间的冲突,从而提出"以人为本"的教育模式,建立大学权利组织的多元化教育体制,完善制度化的教育协调机制,创立畅通的学校中介组织等调适机构。     

Professional learning during a schools–university partnership Master of Education course: teachers’ perspectives of their learning experiences

An extensive body of research has indicated the benefits of collaborative, contextualised and enquiry-based learning for teachers’ professional development and school improvement. Yet professional learning is also known to be constrained by a number of factors, including the organisational limitations of schools, conflicting cultural practices and wider political demands. Schools–university partnerships have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties by transcending particular school contexts and offering alternative theoretical and practical perspectives. The complex combination of motivations, backgrounds and working contexts in such partnership work calls for attention to the individual and collective learning experiences of those involved, including the ways in which school and university contexts are, or could be, effectively bridged. This paper focuses on understanding the learning experienced by a cohort of teachers and school leaders involved in a two-year schools–university partnership Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in England. A mixed group of 15 experienced primary and secondary teachers and school leaders reflected on their learning at five points of time during and shortly after completing their M.Ed. course. Qualitative analysis of the group’s interview responses and reflective writing led to the identification of six related aspects of personal and professional learning experience: being a learner; learning as part of professional practice; widening repertoire; changing as a learner; personal growth; and critically adaptive practice. The identification and visual representation of these aspects of experience emerging within the group offers useful insight into teachers’ perspectives on learning in school and university contexts and their experiences of progression over time. We conclude that more explicit and central attention to the professional and personal learning elements of schools–university partnerships can help to resolve some of the binary ‘theory–practice’ tensions that have been extensively discussed in relation to partnership programmes and teacher professional development. There is a need to acknowledge variation in teachers’ learning experiences within schools–university partnerships, bearing in mind the ongoing nature of this reflective process with each new group of school and university colleagues. Analysis of participants’ learning experiences in school and university contexts also draws attention to the wider structures, values and cultures that influence, and are influenced by, schools–university partnership work.     

Call me teacher: the quest of new teachers

This narrative inquiry presents the experiences of a group of 10 new primary teachers grappling with relationships in the social context of their school environment during their first year of teaching. Their lived experiences are plotted together in the story of Gemma to provide one insight into the emotional dimension of attaining the identity of a real teacher in schools with individualistic cultures. Readers can add their stories to enrich interpretations of the text, extending the collaborative process beyond this group, to understand the difficulties faced by some new teachers motivated to say ‘call me teacher’. The paper concludes with a plea to take account of the emotional needs, as well as the professional development needs, of new teachers in the induction process by differentiating induction procedures and raising awareness of the different cultures experienced by new teachers during their placement as they strive to attain a positive identity.     

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.     

"小学教育学"教学改革初探

小学教育专业是由中师并入高等院校以后新兴的一门专业，作为从事小学教育专业教学的教师要认真研究探讨中师教学与小学教育专业(以下简称小教专业）教学之间的联系与区别，适应新形势的要求，锐意教学改革，探索新的教学模式，以更好的完成培养高素质小学教师的任务。