Developing inclusive practices through collaborative action research

This paper highlights the framework and discusses the results of an action research network which aimed to promote academic access in two general educational settings within which a pupil with blindness and a deaf pupil were educated respectively. The persons involved in this collaborative scheme were general teachers, a school counsellor, academic staff and student teachers. The findings of the study indicate that the implementation of the action research network resulted in the development of inclusive and collaborative thinking and the adoption of relevant teaching practices which promoted the children's access to the curriculum and supported the teachers' and student teachers' professional development. The outcomes of this action research network raise concerns about the access and the status of membership of children with special needs in general educational classroom and provide insights for the pivotal role of action research in understanding educational contexts and situations from a number of different perspectives.     

Pre-service teachers' use of problem-solving in primary science

The use of problem-solving in science instruction implies a change in the teacher's role from dispensing content information to encouraging critical reflective thinking in the student. For problem-solving to become an integral part of the science curriculum, teachers must make it the focus of their instruction. This study investigated the extent to which pre-service primary teachers used the problem-solving approach in their science instruction. It also identified the factors affecting their efforts to teach science using this approach. The issues considered are important in whether problem-solving becomes part of the science curriculum, as teaching behaviour influences student learning outcomes. Specializations: science eeducation Specializations: educational measurement, research methodology.     

论新课程背景下教师思维方式的转变

教师的思维方式是教育教学这一特定的社会实践方式在教师主体中的内化,教育的发展变革决定着教师思维方式的变革。随着新一轮基础教育课程改革的深化发展,表现在课程、教学和学校文化层面的改革趋势日益加强,传统的教师思维方式逐渐暴露出抽象、二元对立等问题,已不能和社会实践的发展相适应,这就要求教师思维方式也作出转变和提升。新课程背景下教师转变和提升思维方式,必须注重教学过程、注重创造、注重学生个性等。     

El profesor como práctico reflexivo en una cultura de colaboración

The aim was the reconstruction of a school curriculum in reflective teaching situations within a co‐operative culture. Two working assumptions were considered: (a) teacher development was based on teacher thinking and (b) school organisation followed a co‐operative culture paradigm. The process features were: (a) university team consisted of external advisers; (b) school curriculum and classroom instruction were reviewed by school teachers; (c) case study as a research approach; (d) ethnographic techniques to collect data; (e) data analysis by a computer program; (f) teachers’ reflective cycle to reconstruct practice; and (g) teachers’ portfolios: narrative vignettes, etc. Findings showed: (a) a collaborative process school‐university; (b) teachers’ thinking and attitudinal change; (c) mobilisation of teachers’ talents and values to work together: (i) teacher dyads to reflect on teaching; (ii) advisers’ writing narrative vignettes; (Hi) collegial coaching; and (iv) curriculum materials designed by teachers. Two conclusions can be accepted: (a) teachers’ pedagogical practical knowledge showed diversity of their implicit theories to design action; and (b) teachers’ grounded theory confirmed that the educational action was based on a co‐operative and reflective culture.     

中小学教师为什么要进行教育科研

新课程改革需要教师具有科研意识和科研行为.科研是探索未知、在理论或实践上有所创新发明的认识活动.本文认为,中小学教师进行教育科研,有利于转变教育观念,全面实施素质教育,有利于促进教育改革,有利于提高教师素质和教育教学质量.     

我国教学论研究的世纪变革:并非“静悄悄”的革命

新世纪以来,我国基础教育领域发生了一场空前的、轰轰烈烈的课程改革。在此背景下,教学论的研究也经历了前所未有的变革,结出了累累硕果,主要包括教学论研究思维转型,关系思维与实践教学论兴起,教学观、知识观、学生观、教师观和评价观转变,进而引发深刻的课堂教学研究变革,以及对促进师生发展的策略的研究等。这场变革并未停歇,而是正在迈向"深水区",理论研究的创新将会对教育实践的变革起到积极的推动作用。     

教育行动研究在中国:审视与反思

教育行动研究方式因其在解决教育理论脱离教育实践、促进教师专业发展、推动课程改革等方面的作用而受到倡导。这促进了我国教育研究的发展,但同时也出现了一些问题:表现于"重理轻用"、"低水平重复"、"文不对题"等对教育行动研究的泛化及滥用现象;混淆教育行动与教育行动研究;教育行动研究过程中存在"去理论化"倾向。秉持跨学科研究取向,以问题为中心,正确认识、评价和定位教育行动研究,廓清概念、规避"唯方法主义"倾向、重视理论思维,方有助于我国教育研究的良性发展。     

Making learning accessible for sign language interpreters: a process of change

This article outlines an innovative project conducted at Macquarie University, in order to instigate a change in the delivery of the Postgraduate Diploma in Auslan/English Interpreting. This is the first reported educational change project focusing on the training of sign language interpreters. The goal of the project was to research and develop a new curriculum, and delivery mode for the program so that it could be offered in external (distance) mode, and therefore made accessible to potential students from all over Australia. Action research was used to guide the process as it provided a framework for evaluation. The project demonstrates that interpreters can be trained effectively using a blended approach to distance education, and that action research can be used as an effective approach to the implementation of educational change in an emerging field.     

Thinking about “design thinking”: a study of teacher experiences

Schools are continuously looking for new ways of enhancing student learning to equip students with skills that would enable them to cope with twenty-first century demands. One promising approach focuses on design thinking. This study examines teacher's perceptions, experiences and challenges faced in adopting design thinking. There is a lack of empirical research on the adoption and implementation of the design thinking process in educational context from the teachers’ point of view. This paper fills this gap and also provides insight on a recent initiative adopted in Singapore schools. Qualitative case study research was carried out in a school using teacher narratives. Data includes in-depth face-to-face interviews and participant observation. The findings show that teachers perceive that design thinking holds the potential for enhancing skills such as creativity, problem solving, communication and team work as well as empower students to develop empathy for others within and beyond the community. The research also highlighted several challenges such as inadequate resources, time constraints, fear of poor grades and the difficulty of shifting to a new way of teaching and learning that differs vastly from the traditional approach. The findings reveal that a piecemeal approach towards curriculum redesign for adopting design thinking may not provide the desired outcomes.     

Visual Culture in the Elementary-School Classroom: Moving from Box-Store Commodities to Out-of-the-Box Thinking

The goal of the action research project on visual culture is to contribute to the dialogue on the exploratory ecology vs commodity culture of the elementary school classroom. Exploratory culture, unlike commodity culture, applauds open-ended thinking, inchoate imaginings, and critical thinking with its attachment to divergent paths to resolving problems. This educational action research project moves to effect change, so as to a) understand visual culture as an educational component of teaching and learning, and b) awaken the need for the inclusion of research on visual culture in student teacher preparation. Visual culture can best be understood when preservice teachers are immersed in the classroom. The visual landscape of the walls, light, air, hallways, seating arrangements, posters, rugs, room dividers, windows, entrances and exits of the classroom and school building can all be seen as a third teacher. The action research focuses on core classroom experiences revealed through six student teachers weekly reflections, post observation discussions, and interdisciplinary arts-infused lesson planning and facilitation. Engaging in lesson planning and implementation has shown to broaden student teachers’ understanding of meaning-making through the visual, the essence of visual culture. The student teachers described the dynamic synergy between language and visual arts teaching and learning, personalization of technology that can extend learning, and the role of imagination in the movable landscape of the classroom.     

Working collaboratively with teachers to promote effective learning

The work of educational psychologists (EPs) is often focused on those children identified as having special educational needs. This focus may restrict opportunities for EPs to become involved in the wider application of psychology within education. This article explores ways in which EPs can make an effective contribution to the enhancement of learning opportunities for all children by working collaboratively with teachers. As a group of EPs working in the same local education authority (LEA), we undertook a small‐scale action research project with teachers in order to explore ways to promote children's thinking and learning skills. The study involved us working with Year 5 class teachers in three mainstream primary schools over a six‐week period, with the aim of developing materials which helped pupils develop an awareness of their own learning techniques (metacognition) and a positive and confident approach to learning (self‐efficacy). Some of the benefits of and barriers to joint research are considered, as well as implications for future collaborative work between teachers and EPs.     

Changing literacies,changing formations: the role of elicitation in teacher action research with new technologies

As new technologies promise to be an enduring feature of the landscape of teachers’ work, we consider how teachers implicitly bring stories forward into their classroom explorations with new media as a part of their ‘informal learning’. By ‘stories’ is meant specific classroom texts as well as preferred teacher practices with those texts. The article represents a reflection on the methodological role that ‘elicitation’ can play in drawing out teacher thinking during a time of professional change, thinking that would otherwise likely remain embedded, particularly when teachers’ attention is focused forward on innovation in practice. The methodological use of ‘elicitation’ emerged in the first year of an ongoing teacher action research study, in which seven teachers have been involved in a professional development initiative that actively engages teachers in examining changing literacy formations, beginning with the teachers’ own literacy formations. The methodological practice of elicitation borrows from phenomenology, ethnomethodology, narrative research, reader response theories, curriculum theory and psychoanalysis, and emerged as a way to acknowledge the life histories that teachers were bringing to their professional development with new media. We suggest that elicitation can potentially draw out deep and sustaining sources of a teacher’s commitment, as well as resistance, to change. It can help disclose the tensions between commitment and resistance that even teachers who voluntarily undertake to incorporate new technologies into their practice may experience. Within a teacher action research framework, elicitation can also serve to remind teachers (and others) of the value of what they know and are learning, thus contributing to teachers developing a ‘scholarship of practice’ in response to any actual or perceived ‘intensification’ of their work.     

从“叙事探究”到“叙事行动研究”

本专题除了对主题的介绍性论文,还收录了三篇一线教师的叙事,均来自北京教科院德育中心举办的、为期一年的第三期教育行动研究工作坊中的叙事行动研究班。作为指导教师,笔者目睹了一大批教师在做叙事行动研究中的专业成长,这三篇文章就是其中的代表。本文意在介绍为什么将叙事探究转换为叙事行动研究,这两种路径有什么区别,教师们在叙事行动研究中获得了什么成长以及这种成长的发生需要什么条件。通过分析教师的参与过程和研究结果发现,相比叙事探究,叙事行动研究在教师公开发声、改变心智模式的基础之上,还需要触及学校场域中人们惯习的改变,其风险和挑战更大。通过本次工作坊的初步尝试,教师对叙事主题的认识更加准确,对主题的反思更加深刻,减少了自己的自责和内疚感,而且能够采取行动改变现状。促使教师如此成长的条件包括教师敢于暴露自己的"顽症",创设安全、开放的学习氛围,及时分享相关理论,形成相互支持的学习共同体以及获得学校的理解和支持。教育行政部门和教育研究者应关注教师的专业成长,为诸如叙事行动研究之类的教师专业发展活动提供更加有力的支持。     

Inquiry-based learning in China: Do teachers practice what they preach, and why?

China is undergoing an education reform that calls for a change from a rigid, fixed curriculum and didactic pedagogy to a more flexible, school-based curriculum and more inquiry-based pedagogy. This study investigated the extent to which Chinese middle and high school teachers (a) endorse an inquiry-based approach and underlying learning principles, (b) practice this mode of teaching, and (c) believe that the approach is practically viable in the current educational contexts in China. A structured survey was developed to solicit Chinese teachers’ responses to the above three issues. A total of 582 valid responses were collected, representing middle and high schools in different geographic locations. The results show that Chinese teachers are receptive to inquiry-based pedagogy but find practical constraints in fully implementing it. Several cultural and pragmatic reasons are explored. Policy implications are discussed with respect to teacher education/development, capacity building for the new pedagogy, and teaching/evaluation alignment. Finally cultural issues are discussed regarding using inquiry-based learning to enhance critical thinking and nurture independent thinkers.     

论课程评价的方法论基础:行动研究

行动研究作为一种科研方法,始于社会领域,很快风靡世界教育界。作为课程评价的方法论基础,行动研究是以"参与"和"改进"为目的,针对现场实际问题的研究方法。它在课程评价领域的应用,对革新传统的课程评价方法,有着不可估量的作用,而教师作为课程评价的行动研究者,给课程评价的发展带来了无限的生机。其间不免有对行动研究的一些误解和批评,我们要对此进行反思和重申,相信行动研究作为课程评价的方法论基础,不失为明智之举。     

Teacher Research,Action Research: the Logo Action Research Collaborative

Action research is a form of professional inquiry in which the teacher's role is seen as key to educational improvement. This paper describes methodologies developed by the Logo Action Research Collaborative – a national network linking 100 teachers at nine sites – that facilitate and support collaborative inquiry by teachers into their own teaching practices, in order to understand, improve, develop, and incorporate new forms of student assessment, teaching methods, and curriculum. The project focused on the Logo computer language, a powerful learning environment for problem‐solving and mathematical inquiry. The authors provide background information on action research as an evolving discipline. They identify three phases of a year‐long action research cycle, and describe key strategies developed by the project to support teachers in taking on a research frame of mind, identifying areas of concern, and undertaking and completing action research projects. The paper includes several illustrative examples of action research investigations undertaken by teachers, and demonstrates the benefits to the students and teachers involved. It closes by making a case for the potential contribution of action research to current educational reform initiatives and school restructuring.     

试论反思型教师的内涵、特征及培养模式

反思型教师能自觉关注教育的目的、教育行为的社会和个人后果、教育伦理背景以及教育方法和课程原理等更宽泛的教育问题,自觉运用获取的相关信息,从多重角度分析、评估教学行为,并改变其教学行为与环境,追求教学最优化.反思型教师具有自主性、实践性、批判性和创造性等特征.随着教师专业化的推进,迫切要求教师从技术型向反思型转变,这是一种崭新的教师发展观;反思型教师是在教育教学实践中不断自我完善成长起来的,他们必须具备自觉反思的动力和反思的能力;激发教师的反思动力和培养教师的反思能力是培养反思型教师的较好的模式之一.     

The purpose of education: pedagogues’ and teachers’ negotiations in Danish primary schools*

In 2014, the Danish primary school system went through a major reform. One main change is the greater participation of pedagogues in school. This is a dramatic change both for teachers and for pedagogues, a distinct profession, traditionally working outside school and representing a creative and social approach to learning and wellbeing. This article examines how teachers and pedagogues in an action research project negotiate their new common work and which understandings of good pedagogical practice these negotiations express. The article shows that international educational rationales about learnification and attainment that are found in the Danish reform, affect the professionals’ understandings of professionalism and educational practices, and that this marginalises some traditional pedagogical practices. However, the article also shows that both pedagogues and teachers critique dominant educational policy rationales and explore what space for action exists in the reform.     

获奖案例引发的深思考

通过对获奖案例的探讨,引发各位老师的深思考,使教师认识到必须紧跟时代的步伐,勤于学习新的教育理论,以先进的教育理论与方法武装头脑。因为理念是行动的先导,创新是课堂的灵魂,实践是课改的关键,课程改革的成功是新教学理念实践的结果,教师只有确立现代教育新理念,才能担负起培养创新人才的重担。     

Aristotelian action research: its value for studying character education in schools

This article explores what it means for teachers to engage in and evaluate students’ character education, by examining the connections between action research and Aristotelian virtue ethics. These connections are explored in two ways. Firstly, the article examines what perspective action research has on how moral education, understood in an Aristotelian way, can be implemented and evaluated. While character education may be hot in educational theory, academic advances have not always reached teachers, heads of school, policy-makers and politicians. Secondly, a specifically Aristotelian approach to action research is explored that may help teachers to understand how action research about character education in schools can best be conducted. After a comparison of the three major action research paradigms, ‘Aristotelian action research’ is described as a kind of dialogical enquiry that contributes to the growth of teachers’ practical wisdom, which, in turn, has an effect on children’s character development. The article ends with suggestions as to how research about character education could be improved if we shift our attention from making character programmes more ‘effective’ to extending and refining teachers’ own practical wisdom and virtue.