Novice teachers learning through participation in a teacher study group

Using Lave and Wenger’s framework of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, this case study explores the experiences of three novice teachers engaged with more experienced teachers in a teacher study group during their first year of teaching. The study illustrates how, over time, the novices moved from more peripheral to more central participation as revealed through changes in their talk and feelings about participating. The study highlights the importance of legitimacy and peripherality provided by the more experienced teachers and identifies the ways in which the facilitator scaffolded and mediated the novices’ participation and learning.     

Toward a theory of experiential instruction

Attention to experiential instruction is needed if the learning process is not to be left totally to chance. This paper proposes a theory of experiential instruction based on ideas of Jerome Bruner. Four general requirements of a theory of instruction (attention to the learner's predisposition to learning, appropriate structuring of knowledge, meaningful sequencing of concepts and timely feedback) are examined in light of the instructional role in experiential settings. The discussion concludes with a call for research and development to refine and improve the practice of experiential instruction.This paper will appear in somewhat different form in a volume tentatively entitled Service-Learning in Higher Education: A Guide for Faculty, currently being prepared for the National Student Volunteer Program, a part of ACTION. The author extends his appreciation to NSVP staff for permission to adapt ideas originally developed for work contracted to NSVP. The ideas and opinions in this paper do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of NSVP, ACTION or the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, and no official endorsement should be inferred.This article is based on a presentation at the 1978 SFEE/NCPSIP annual convention.     

Toward professional practice: student learning opportunities through participation in engineering clubs

ABSTRACT

Clubs constitute a prominant co-curricular activity to prepare students for effective professional careers, yet the role of engineering clubs in students' professional formation is poorly understood. This qualitative, comparative case study investigated three student engineering clubs at a large American public university. The clubs included a domestic chemical reaction car competition; a formula racing club that partners with a German team and competes both domestically and internationally; and a humanitarian engineering club centred on service learning projects in developing countries. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with participants (N?=?19) and observations of club work sessions (N?=?27). Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as the analytical framework, the transcribed interviews were coded to characterise the activity in each club. The findings demonstrate that a confluence of elements, especially decision-making rules and division of labour, leads to a fundamentally distinct activity system in each club. Consequently, each club differs in the ways it influences students’ professional formation. More generally, this study illustrates the potential of CHAT for analysis of co-curricular activity that can lead to alternative approaches to activity design.     

Toward a sociology of participation in adult education programmes

Membership in voluntary associations and participation in adult education programmes have long been recognized by researchers in the fields of adult education and sociology as closely related forms of participatory behaviour. This inquiry realizes the potential of this relationship for the study of participation in adult education programmes through the reformulation of a sociological construct called personal influence. It is argued that personal influence in the form of face‐to‐face contact with primary and secondary influentials is at the heart of recruitment strategies targeted at adults, is often an important component of an adult's decision to participate in formally organized learning activities, and may play a critical role in retention and instruction of the adult learner. Secondary analysis of research on voluntary associations, social movement organizations, and adult education programmes, together with data on two populations of adult learners from ar ongoing large scale study of Adult Basic Education participants, underscores the importance of personal influence for explaining the entire range of participatory action and interaction.     

The role of the printed answer in programmed instruction

Using a variety of programmed materials, this series of studies showed that students observed available answers in the program far less than 100% of the time. Answer observing was found to be correlated with student error on the related frame. The view that the printed answer in a program is always a reinforcer for the preceding response(s) is severely questioned.     

程序教学模式在生物教学中的应用

高中生物教学可运用程序数学理论中小步子原则，设计一系列的问题，逐步引导学生学习，获得知识的模式．这种教学模式可以充分体现学生的主体作用和教师的主导作用，并培养学生观察、阅读、分析、讨论、推理和判断能力．     

Dual agenda: social participation and academic instruction in a developmental kindergarten

The classroom is both a social occasion and a learning place. In this study of a developmental kindergarten, this dual classroom agenda and the impact on teacher and student behavior is explored. Among the at‐risk children in this study, these two classroom purposes did not peacefully coexist. Social‐participation goals took precedence for the children. The teacher, frustrated in her need to “get through the lesson,” interfered with group formation, causing students to work even harder at social connections. The implications of the recognition of these two agendas for young children with special needs are discussed.     

Teacher learning through participation in a negotiated assessment procedure

This article focuses on the impact of a specific formative assessment procedure, negotiated assessment, on teacher professional learning. Negotiations between the assessor and the teacher as assessee seem to be especially promising for this teacher learning. However, there is no empirical evidence yet that has confirmed this. We explored teachers’ opinions about the usefulness of the different elements in a negotiated assessment procedure for their professional learning and the learning benefits they reported as a result of being engaged in this procedure. Our findings show that teachers found the negotiated assessment procedure useful for their learning and reported different types of learning benefits in terms of change: change in their knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, change in their teaching practice and change in their students’ learning outcomes.     

Toward a social pedagogy of classroom group work

In any classroom, pupils will be drawn together for many purposes and we can refer to such within classroom contexts as ‘groupings’. The teacher often creates these, and the way that they are set up, and how they are used for particular learning purposes. If the relationships between grouping size, interaction type and learning tasks in groups are planned strategically then learning experiences will be more effective. However, research suggests that the relationships between these elements are often unplanned and the ‘social pedagogic’ potential of classroom learning is therefore unrealised. In this paper we explore the notion of social pedagogy in relation to group work. It is argued that research and theory relevant to group work in classrooms is limited, and that a new approach, sensitive to group work under everyday classroom conditions is required. This paper identifies key features of a social pedagogy of classroom group work, which can inform effective group work in classrooms. It also describes the background to a current large scale UK project which has been set up to design with teachers a programme of high quality group work in classrooms at both primary and secondary phases.