Researching the complexity of classrooms

In recent years, it has become fashionable to demand of research that it produces ‘evidence’ that can be turned into easily generalisable findings. Ever more elaborate sets of managerial standards and pre-defined learning outcomes have been imposed, and English teachers are encouraged to see their practice as merely an implementation of ‘what works’. What gets lost in such discourse is the messy and wonderfully productive complexity of classrooms and the layered and deeply historied character of the interactions that take place in them. This article considers a different kind of research, one that is clearly located within particular contexts and is always attentive to the lives and capacities of the students and their teachers. At the heart of this article is the collaboration between a university academic and a practising English teacher, a collaboration that is both documented and enacted in Confronting Practice, Classroom Investigations into Language and Learning by Brenton Doecke and Douglas McClenaghan.     

Embracing the complexity of inclusive science classrooms: Professional development through collaboration

There are no panaceas and no shortcuts. Man is an amphibious being who lives simultaneously or successively in several universes: in the world of matter, the world of mind, the world of spirit; in the individual world and in the social world; in the homemade universe of his own artifacts, institutions, and imaginings, and in the given, the God-made universe of nature and grace. In the very nature of things none of the major problems confronting such a being can possibly be a simple problem. Those who seek simple solutions for complex problems may have the best of intentions; but unfortunately there is an original sin of the intellect in our habit of arbitrary oversimplification. Those who act without taking precautions against this vice of their intellectual nature doom themselves and their fellows to perpetual disappointment. (Aldous Huxley, 1953, p. 1.)     

Student engagement as a function of environmental complexity in high school classrooms

The purpose of this study was to investigate the linkage between the quality of the learning environment and the quality of students' experience in seven high school classrooms in six different subject areas. The quality of the learning environment was conceptualized in terms of environmental complexity, or the simultaneous presence of environmental challenge and environmental support. The students (N = 108) in each class participated in the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) measuring their engagement and related experiential variables. Concurrently, environmental complexity and its subdimensions were observed and rated from video with a new observational instrument, The Optimal Learning Environments – Observational Log and Assessment (OLE-OLA). Using two-level HLM regression models, ratings from the OLE-OLA were utilized to predict student engagement and experiential variables as measured by the ESM. Results showed that environmental complexity predicted student engagement and sense of classroom self-esteem. Implications for research, theory and practice are discussed.     

Promoting awareness of the characteristics of classrooms’ complexity: A course curriculum in teacher education

This article presents a video and internet site based intervention designed to address the difficulties that the complex classroom environment poses for teachers, and then presents the study of its effectiveness as applied with 21 trainees in a university teacher education program. The intervention emphasized implicit cognitive processes as central to teaching–learning processes and the utilization of theoretical knowledge while making sense of the interrelations in complex situations. Trainees’ pre- and post-intervention responses to a video-case analysis task underwent content analysis using six dimensions. Paired-samples t-tests were calculated. Following the intervention, the novices exhibited a shift toward a cognitive rather than behavioral perspective; an increased ability to identify and interpret implicit and explicit factors and interrelations, reflecting a higher awareness of complexity; and an enhanced capacity to link perceived teaching–learning processes to theoretical knowledge.     

Researching computer‐based collaborative learning in inclusive classrooms in Cyprus: The role of the computer in pupils' interaction

This paper discusses the results of a study of the role of the computer in scaffolding pupils' interaction and its effects on the disabled (D) pupils' participation and inclusion in the context of socio‐cultural theories and the ideals of inclusive education. The study investigated the interactions of pairs of D and non‐disabled (ND) pupils working together on computer‐based tasks, in mainstream primary schools in Cyprus. Twenty dyads of pupils (each comprising a D child and an ND peer) were observed and videotaped while working together at the computer. Data analyses were based on the collaborative nature of events for the non‐verbal interaction and the functional–structural approaches for verbal interaction. Through application of video analyses, seven central aspects of interaction were identified: helping behaviours, motivation, self‐confidence, peer‐acceptance, affection, positive and negative socio‐emotional status, and the input of the computer. Results of the study showed that the computer was a mediational scaffolding agent of the other six areas of the participants' interaction as it: (1) was an important interactional agent in initiating and terminating a conversation, (2) facilitated interaction and participation, as an intellectual and physical tool, (3) promoted different styles of interaction (not always positive ones) through the various input and output devices, by differentiating participation. Hence, the computer emerged as the third party in the collaborative activity which provided various opportunities and motivations for interaction.     

Concrete and classrooms: how schools shape educational research

The notion of ‘the school’ as a set of institutional processes and practices that shape the possibilities of educational research forms the focus of this article. It is argued that the discursive and material practices that render schools agencies of cultural reproduction also have effects for what research can be undertaken in them and how. With reference to a series of ‘episodes’ that occurred during research about young people and sexuality in New Zealand, evidence for how schools shape research endeavours is provided. These examples present a complex picture of the way in which schools simultaneously police and are regulated by symbolic boundaries of gender and sexuality. How school disciplinary power works to effect what it is possible to claim about the voluntary nature of student research participation is also explored. It is argued that through the powerful discursive and material practices that occur in schools, these institutions can impede research that attempts to transgress dominant meanings about gender and sexuality.     

Gender interaction in mathematics classrooms: Reflection and transformation

In this article, studies done on gender in Botswana's classrooms at the junior secondary level, are reported. The initial studies were more quantitative in nature, and dealt with questioning as part of classroom interaction. The studies revealed other gender related issues however, which were observed in more detail later. With the participating teachers, the findings were discussed and a plan for reform in their teaching was drawn up.     

Robotics competitions and science classrooms

This paper looks at the distinctions between science classrooms and the robotics competition described in the article “Examining the mediation of power in a collaborative community: engaging in informal science as authentic practice” written by Anton Puvirajah, Geeta Verma and Horace Webb. Using the framework of “productive disciplinary engagement” and discussing each principle in turn, the article argues that in order to bring the advantages of informal learning environments into regular classrooms we especially need to address student interest through task design and to change curricular requirements to agree with changing educational values.     

Affinity spaces,literacies and classrooms: tensions and opportunities

Building communicative competence in textual and multimodal literacies has become a linchpin of learning, of engagement with the world, and of participation in online and blended spaces. Young creators now compose online and with digital tools, often in what we call “user‐generated content affinity spaces” – interest‐based spaces that focus on creating and sharing self‐made content. Such spaces focus on processes of developing users' creations and sharing the products with an audience. These spaces have been inspirations for teachers to reinvigorate classroom practices and expose students to learning opportunities for creation and critique. But questions remain about models of participation in such spaces, especially those that idealise youth who are the most highly engaged while ignoring those whose participation is less visible. Here, we share three experiences of bringing user‐generated content affinity spaces into more formal learning environments and reflect on the tensions emerging from these efforts. We end by outlining steps to develop theory and interventions to navigate tensions and propel the field forward.     

Creating critical classrooms: reading and writing with an edge

Since the foundation in this country in 1950 of the Institut für Film Und Bild the production of AV aids for tuition and education has been promoted in many ways.     

Kindergarten retention and transition classrooms: Their relationship to achievement

This study examined the relationship between extra-year programs and later school achievement. Ninety-five children were identified as being either retained in kindergarten, placed in a transition classroom, recommended for an extra-year program but went into first grade, or as being in a control group of children who went from kindergarten to first grade without reservation. Results indicated that children retained in kindergarten performed significantly lower on a standardized achievement test than did children in the other three groups. Despite an extra year of schooling, children placed in transition classrooms did not differ significantly in their performance from children who were recommended for an extra year but went onto first grade and children in the control group.     

Student observations: Introducing iPads into university classrooms

This paper explores the growing trend of using mobile technology in university classrooms, exploring the use of tablets in particular, to identify learning benefits faced by students. Students, acting on their efficacy beliefs, make decisions regarding technology’s influence in improving their education. We construct a theoretical model in which internal and external factors affect a student’s self-efficacy which in turn affects the extent of adoption of a device for educational purposes. Through qualitative survey responses of university students who were given an Apple iPad to keep for the duration of a university course we find high levels of self-efficacy leading to positive views of the technology’s learning enhancement capabilities. Student observations on the practicality of the technology, off-topic use and its effects, communication, content, and perceived market advantage of using a tablet are also explored.     

Recognising students and teachers: difference and identity in international classrooms

ABSTRACT

This article argues that representations of teacher and student identity obscure the complexity of individuals as becomings. Evidence from interviews and observations with Western teachers in international schools in Vietnam suggests that these representations posit the existence of stable teacher and student identities and derive the difference between them from static images of Western and Asian cultures. I argue that thinking through Deleuze’s concepts of becoming, difference, and faciality offers possibilities for different kinds of encounters between teachers and students as individuals.     

Socioscience and ethics in science classrooms: Teacher perspectives and strategies

This study explored teacher perspectives on the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) and on dealing with ethics in the context of science instruction. Twenty‐two middle and high school science teachers from three US states participated in semi‐structured interviews, and researchers employed inductive analyses to explore emergent patterns relative to the following two questions. (1) How do science teachers conceptualize the place of ethics in science and science education? (2) How do science teachers handle topics with ethical implications and expression of their own values in their classrooms? Profiles were developed to capture the views and reported practices, relative to the place of ethics in science and science classrooms, of participants. Profile A comprising teachers who embraced the notion of infusing science curricula with SSI and cited examples of using controversial topics in their classes. Profile B participants supported SSI curricula in theory but reported significant constraints which prohibited them from actualizing these goals. Profile C described teachers who were non‐committal with respect to focusing instruction on SSI and ethics. Profile D was based on the position that science and science education should be value‐free. Profile E transcended the question of ethics in science education; these teachers felt very strongly that all education should contribute to their students' ethical development. Participants also expressed a wide range of perspectives regarding the expression of their own values in the classroom. Implications of this research for science education are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 353–376, 2006