Stories about creative teaching and productive learning

The article is based on an empirical, interview‐based research project investigating resources and barriers to creative teaching within three Danish primary and secondary schools. The analysis shows how project‐oriented teaching does seem to represent a creativity oasis for both teachers and pupils. Furthermore, the work identifies a distinction between an art‐based and a problem‐solving approach to creativity, and it is suggested that teachers help pupils to work with the various different opportunities for creative learning represented by different subjects in school. Furthermore, a dilemma is pinpointed between the demand that teachers conform to centrally defined test systems, and the challenges facing our societies in relation to bringing up pupils and students who dare to take risks, challenge the existing order and create something new.     

The Story Engine: offering an online platform for making ‘unofficial’ creative writing work

This article describes the outcomes of a research project conducted at the Ministry of Stories (a London‐based writing centre) which sought to develop an online, mentor‐assisted, writing platform. Across a 3‐month period, at four different sites across the UK, more than a hundred Year 7 pupils took part in the project, using the platform to write stories and get feedback from mentors who came from a variety of backgrounds. For reasons of space, pupil/mentor interactions are not discussed extensively in the article; however, these stories were collected and analysed alongside a range of other survey and interview data to establish how creative writing might be developed through online mentoring, the use of an online interface and the intersection of both these tools. The article seeks to answer some questions raised by the data collected in the project, and in turn, uses both the questions and the data to interrogate some of the discourses which surround the teaching of creative writing both in and outside the classroom, and in particular the tensions that occur between the teaching of writing skills, ‘official versions’ of writing in the classroom and children's use of their own cultural resources in creative writing.     

Pre-service teachers undertaking classroom research: developing reflection and enquiry skills

This paper reports on the development of reflectiveness and research skills in eight pre-service teachers, through their participation in a funded research project to develop the handwriting of children with literacy problems. The project aimed to analyse the reflections of the trainee teachers participating in an authentic research study and to consider what this reflection on practice might offer to the education of teachers in the current UK training context. The context for the paper was a project which engaged pre-service trainee teachers in researching the proposition that automaticity in handwriting plays a role in facilitating composing processes and that the automaticity of early writers can be trained. Some outcomes of the project for pupils are reported. The focus in the present paper is, however, on the participating trainee teachers and the paper suggests that conducting research was a significant learning event for these pre-service teachers and that, through working together, they were able to analyse their development as researchers and their learning during the research process. At a time when the English government views teacher training as a method of school improvement and the effectiveness of training is measured through its immediate impact on pupil outcomes, this study offers an example of how shared research can offer positive learning outcomes for pupils, develop the reflective thinking of pre-service teachers through researching a real problem, and develop links across a range of school and university settings.     

The challenge of shaping socially responsible teachers*

It has been vigorously argued over decades that trainee teachers hold entrenched, stereotypical attitudes and beliefs about diverse groups of pupils. These assumptions have been shown to create discriminatory teaching practice which affects the educational attainment of pupils as young as five. This article reports on a study of the complex issues involved in challenging trainee teacher assumptions in an attempt to address the cycle of perpetuating stereotypes. The study was carried out within the context of Initial Teacher Training during a 10-month primary PGCE programme at an English university. The professional reflections of a participant sample of trainee teachers were analysed to ascertain the participants’ awareness of their own socio-cultural beliefs and assumptions and how the variety of instructional pedagogies supported or inhibited their examination of those beliefs. The findings provide implications for all teacher training programmes that attempt to ensure educational equality for children.     

英语论文写作与大学生创新思维能力的培养

由于对大学生综合素质的要求不断提高,大学生创新思维能力的开发和培养显得尤为重要。文章旨在探索如何在英语论文写作教学中培养英语专业学生创新思维能力的有效途径。通过教学模式和教学方法的改革,培养学生分析与综合、抽象与概括、多角度分析问题以及发现问题、解决问题等创新能力。     

Student teachers as creative writers: does an understanding of creative pedagogies matter?

Teaching creative writing in primary schools requires an understanding of creative pedagogies that value autonomy and for educators to draw on their own experiences of the creative writing process to support the development of their pupils. This article draws on evidence from 58 undergraduate primary student teachers to further understand how their appreciation of creative pedagogies, combined with their experiences of creative writing, impacts on their approach to the teaching of writing in primary schools. Evidence from questionnaires and interviews reveals that factors such as freedom, choice and focusing on the personal aspects of writing are valued but often because they make writing fun for children, rather than because they develop children's creative behaviours and creative writing. Student teachers' own personal experiences of these factors affect whether they are likely to integrate them into their future practice in school. It is argued that if students experience creative writing that is underpinned by a creative pedagogy within their initial teacher education, they will be better equipped to teach creative writing and prepare children for being writers.     

Changes in teachers’ beliefs after a professional development project for teaching writing: two Chinese cases

A plethora of research has found that teachers’ beliefs directly influence their classroom practices and teaching outcomes. While numerous studies in second/foreign language writing have examined the effectiveness of different innovative approaches on students’ learning to write, there is a paucity of research on writing teachers’ beliefs about these approaches and how their beliefs change in the process of their professional development. Such a lacuna becomes prominent in English as a Foreign Language contexts, especially in China, where there are numerous calls for changing the nature of classroom practices from product-focused to process- and student-centred instruction. In order to fill this gap, this brief article reports on a case study regarding changes in two Chinese English teachers’ beliefs after attending a professional development project for teaching writing. A key research question guides this study: What changes, if any, did the two teachers experience in their teaching beliefs during the project? Two writing teachers were voluntarily recruited for a case study. Findings show that the professional development project for teaching writing broadened the teachers’ understanding of different writing theories, provided a clear model of how to integrate these new approaches into regular writing courses, changed their instructional focus and shifted their perception of teachers’ roles in teaching practice.     

“Teaching is learning”: creating a meaningful English L2 writing class with service-learning

Integrating service-learning into content courses is a growing pedagogical model expanding in higher education institutes in many countries. To examine the application of this approach in English L2 writing classes, this study embarked on a tutor–tutee mentoring project at a Taiwanese university. The participants in this study served as writing tutors to help non-English majors with their writing skills. They went through five phases to complete their individual services—selecting a tutee, exploring the tutee’s difficulty in writing, designing a workshop for the tutee, implementing the workshop, and reflecting upon their service experience. Probing the tutors’ responses to a project evaluation survey, this study showed that the tutors generally considered the project to be beneficial for enhancing their writing skills, writing confidence, knowledge about how to improve academic writing, and awareness of their own capabilities in helping others. However, this project was limited in several aspects, such as the amount of time demanded, the tutors’ levels of teaching knowledge and skills, and some tutors’ lack of confidence. Based on the results, this study concludes by proposing pedagogical recommendations to help English writing teachers fuse this project into their writing curricula more effectively.     

Structured creative processes in learning playwriting: invoking imaginative pedagogies

The concept of the ‘creative’ in creative writing has a vexed history. This article explores the myths surrounding creativity and how they have influenced the way teachers have approached playwriting pedagogy. It reports on research into the teaching and learning experiences of students and teachers in secondary schools, focusing on the participants’ understanding of creativity and the impact this had on the pedagogical process. The research found that a counterproductive idealist view of creativity persists in classrooms: the teachers and students were operating on a conception of creativity and creative practice that reflected a belief in a mystical and unknowable creative process. This article explores the experiences of creativity through systems theory and argues that this approach can inform teaching and learning for creative processes and products. The article concludes that the teaching and learning practices were unnecessarily tentative and that knowledge of creativity theory would improve the students’ development of both playwriting proficiency as well as creativity-relevant skills. It suggests that demystifying the creative process should result in greater student proficiency and improved teaching and learning experiences for teachers and students.     

Teacher education as identity construction: insights from action research

This paper reports on the results of a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong as they undertook an action research project as part of their undergraduate teacher training programme. Grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction as both practice and discourse, the paper examines how participation in an action research project by one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong shaped their experiences of becoming teachers. The study indicates that as teacher researchers, the trainee teachers contested previously held perceptions about their engagement in teaching, their images of teachers and teaching, as well as their alignment with some aspects of contemporary educational discourse. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.     

The peculiarities of teaching information and communication technology as a subject: a study of trainee and new ICT teachers in secondary schools

Abstract

This article reports on teaching information and communication technology (ICT) as a subject. It arises out of research carried out with ICT trainee teachers during their initial training and their first years of teaching. The backgrounds of four cohorts of new ICT teachers are described along with levels of retention in teaching. The associations that trainee and new teachers make with their subject are then explored. It was found that specialist ICT teachers see ICT as a practical subject offering pupils scope for variety and control over their learning. A key, and they felt unique, feature of ICT was its ever-changing nature. The research explores the planning and teaching of ICT and features of ICT subject knowledge. The article concludes by highlighting the continuing shortages of specialist ICT teachers in school and the need to support the career development of those teaching ICT.     

Towards a Pedagogy of Short Story Writing

The article reports on a small‐scale short story writing project. It details the development of the project and shares the emerging findings. The aim of the project was to enhance the quality of students' writing while developing teachers' practice in the teaching of short story writing. The project team comprised the author and four secondary teachers of English. The approach to story writing outlined here was influenced by the example of gaming, where players immerse themselves in a secondary world, confront situations which demand problem‐solving skills, progress through a number of stages, and find satisfaction in completing the game. The project explored the link between talking and thinking and the value given to putting forward tentative ideas, raising questions and solving problems in a collective manner, in a whole‐class teaching situation. The teachers used guided classroom talk to explore each stage in the composition of a story. They challenged students into better ways of thinking or more elaborate forms of explanation. The teachers asked ‘what if’ questions to open up possibilities for the young writers. The teachers also had to judge when best to seize the moment and move the students towards writing. A key issue for the project was to explore the extent to which the structured approach helped to liberate the imagination of the students and improve the quality of their writing.     

Wireless keyboards and mice: could they enhance teaching and learning in the secondary English classroom?

This paper reports on the first year of a pilot study on the use of wireless keyboards and mice by student teachers with small groups of pupils across the 11–16 age range in the secondary English classroom. It investigates the equipment's suitability for use with a range of teaching and learning strategies including collaborative writing and textual analysis and considers the affordances which may be offered to the learning context through use of the technology. Provisional findings reveal some technical difficulties with the equipment but suggest that it has the potential, particularly when used as a motivational tool, to develop pupils' creative engagement with composition processes during small group collaborative writing.     

浅谈中职英语阅读教学的技巧与策略

英语是当今世界应用最广泛的语言,也是大中小学生必学一门语言课程。"教师如何去教、学生如何去学、学习效果如何"也就成了教师、学生、家长、社会共同关注的焦点。尤其是在新课程背景下,英语教师该如何改进教学方式、提高教学效果呢?笔者以中职英语阅读教学为例,谈了一些自己的方法和策略。     

Exploring,Developing, Facilitating Individual Practice,While Learning to Become a Teacher of Art,Craft and Design

The artist teacher project set out to facilitate trainee teachers’ creative practice and inform their critical pedagogy in the classroom. The approach outlined in this article encouraged them to consider predictable and formulaic practice, and to question, reflect upon and challenge orthodoxies in their teaching of art, craft and design. They critically appraised their practice within a community of reflective practitioners in critical presentations, and in their reflective writing, and discussed and debated the contradictory positions between what they explored in their individual practices as artists and that experienced in the classroom. This project highlighted how fundamental the critical presentations were because the peer‐review, feedback and support, facilitated dialogue in a creative, dynamic space and community of practice. These ‘crits’ also became a forum for airing frustrations and trying to come to terms with the re‐emergence of their artist identities while at the same time, having to suppress many of their convictions and ideals in order to conform to what they found on school placement.     

More than Just Worksheets?: A Study of the Confidence of Newly Qualified Teachers of English in Teaching Personal, Social and Health Education in Secondary Schools

This paper addresses concerns regarding the preparedness of newly qualified teachers to deliver Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in the United Kingdom in relation to the training received during Initial Teacher Education and through early Continuing Professional Development. The paper is situated not only within a context where OfSTED has questioned the adequacy of some non-specialist PSHE teachers but also one where, due to a range of social and health concerns centred on young people, schools and teachers are being expected to play an increasingly important role in the social and health education of their pupils. As such, PSHE is increasingly seen as important across all curriculum areas. This paper relates specifically to the confidence of trainee and newly qualified teachers of English in teaching PSHE in secondary schools in the United Kingdom. Drawing on questionnaire data collected from recent Professional Graduate Certificate in Education graduates, the paper suggests that trainee and newly qualified teachers have the skills and knowledge drawn from their main subject (English) to deliver PSHE; however, many lack confidence and awareness to acknowledge these skills. The paper suggests that this situation may be addressed through increased opportunity to deliver and receive feedback on PSHE teaching during initial teacher training.     

Teaching reading through writing

This article discusses a teaching method called reading through writing (RtW), based on the use of computers rather than handwriting. The pupils use the computers in pairs and decide themselves what they will write about. The use of this method is studied via a questionnaire to 22 teachers and via seven Master's and two Bachelor's theses, observing and interviewing all together 21 teachers and 68 pupils. The results show that the method is a good teaching tool; it inspires pupils to write, develops social and communication skills and is in itself creative. It seems to be well suited to pupils with individual needs. However, the information gathered does not clearly demonstrate its effectiveness for teaching pupils to read and write. Hence, more research is required.     

小学生童话创作的探究

新课标下的作文教学应培养学生的想象能力,激发学生的创造潜能。童话作文是顺应小学生心理特点的重要写作手段。在童话创作教学中教师要按照不同年段设立不同的创作目标,并依据欣赏童话、品读童话、创编童话三个环节,运用相应的方式帮助学生创作童话故事。     

The Part which Metacognition can Play in Raising Standards in English at Key Stage 2

This article explores the role of metacognition in developing literacy at Key Stage 2 and suggests that the ability to extend pupils’ metacognitive awareness deserves to be given a high focus in English teaching, as it is through this that deeper levels of understanding will be acquired. Metacognition can be enhanced by giving pupils an explicit repertoire of techniques to aid their understanding of how are they learning. Examples derived from five research cases reveal how some teachers have tried to achieve this, and the pivotal role which this may play in raising standards in English.     

What Does Wiki Reveal About the Knowledge Processing Strategies of School Pupils?

On the basis of one teaching project carried out in a school, this article discusses collaborative writing in wiki platforms. It aims to find out what wiki reveals about pupils’ knowledge construction, creation, and division and their collaborative writing skills. In this project, wiki is treated as a useful tool for analyzing these processes because it gives us the possibility of studying those elements and stages of educative writing that are normally hidden from the teacher or researcher’s eye. Also, it shows us the interaction between pupils. The theoretical background of the project lies in collaborative writing and writing research.