Cross‐cultural Collaboration in Special Teacher Education: An arena for facilitating reflection?

The present study explored how cross‐cultural collaboration involving university lecturers from Norway (the North) and Egypt (the South), and student‐teachers from Egypt, can be an arena for facilitating student‐teachers’ reflection and for challenging student‐teachers’ preconceived beliefs and perspectives about disability and education. The findings, based on interview data, showed that an emphasis on reflection, exploration and evaluation rather than on drills and repetition was both unexpected and unfamiliar for most of the Egyptian student‐teachers. Some of the Egyptian and some of the foreign lecturers were able to encourage student‐teachers to reflect, although some of the foreign lecturers had a tendency to lecture as they had done at home. Lecturers who wanted to pursue teaching methods that enhanced reflection needed to prioritise time for this, even if the majority of the student‐teachers asked for more information, more facts and for presentations of “the right methods” for teaching learners with disabilities. As the findings in this study illustrate, the partner in the North carries a major responsibility for critically considering the request for expertise because the participants in the South may not necessarily question and challenge the authority of well‐educated professionals from the North. It may not be sufficient for lecturers and supervisors to be well‐qualified practitioners within their home culture. They should be context sensitive, have an inquiring and accepting attitude, and experience challenges, encounters and exposures in the project country over time. Competence in approaches in teacher education is also required, although this meta‐competence may not be explicitly requested by those concerned.     

Cross‐cultural Comparison of Gender Differences in Attitude towards Computers in Japan and Sweden[1]

With the introduction and use of computers in schools, the study of gender differences in attitude towards computers becomes of particular interest. This article concerns the interaction of gender, culture and attitude in computers among Japanese and Swedish ninth‐grade school students. One of the major findings of this study is that most of the differences between the two countries are best explained by the country and the student gender variables. Accordingly, the culture and the society one lives in appears to be of greater importance in determining one's attitudes towards computers more than does, for example, the possession of a computer. The overall country effects are influenced more by the females in both countries than by males.

     

When the “Other” Is the Teacher: Implications of Teacher Diversity in Higher Education

The Urban Review - Using qualitative methods, I explore these questions: What is it like for women of color to teach in predominantly white universities? What happens in the classroom of a...     

The OECD‐ENSI Project and its Relevance for Teacher Training Concepts in Environmental Education

This article presents an account of the Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) project. The philosophical basis of the project is outlined, and case studies from within the project provided as a basis for a consideration of some current issues in the field. It is concluded that one of the distinctive features of the ENSI project is its encouragement of praxiological, action research‐based approaches to curriculum and professional development. The case studies of ENSI activities suggest that some of the more conventionally prescribed characteristics such as agreed sets of goals and professional competencies might need to be revisited.     

Exploring the Popperian Framework in a Pre‐service Teacher Education Program

The study reported in this article is derived from a critical analysis of the work of 28 pre‐service teachers enrolled in the course “Teaching elementary language arts” in a Bachelor of Education concurrent program in a southern State university. The pre‐service teachers were taught how to use an innovative knowledge‐building framework based on the ideas of the philosopher of science, Karl Popper. Two samples of pre‐service teachers’ writing were analyzed to provide evidence of whether they support the occurrence of growth and development of professional knowledge. This study provides some indication of Popper’s framework potential as an effective critical analysis framework for achieving this goal.     

The Implications of School‐Leaver Unemployment for Careers Education in Schools

’In particular I would urge that the Irish school system of the future should give freedom—freedom to the individual school, freedom to the individual teacher, freedom as far as may be to the individual pupiV. (Padraig H. Pearse [1916] Irish patriot, poet and educationist.)     

An Example of Large‐group Drama and Cross‐year Peer Assessment for Teaching Science in Higher Education

Undergraduate students pursuing a three‐year marine biology degree programme (n = 86) experienced a large‐group drama aimed at allowing them to explore how scientific research is funded and the associated links between science and society. In the drama, Year 1 students played the “general public” who decided which environmental research areas should be prioritised for funding, Year 2 students were the “scientists” who had to prepare research proposals which they hoped to get funded, and Year 3 students were the “research panel” who decided which proposals to fund with input from the priorities set by the “general public”. The drama, therefore, included an element of cross‐year peer assessment where Year 3 students evaluated the research proposals prepared by the Year 2 students. Questionnaires were distributed at the end of the activity to gather: (1) student perceptions on the cross‐year nature of the exercise, (2) the use of peer assessment, and (3) their overall views on the drama. The students valued the opportunity to interact with their peers from other years of the degree programme and most were comfortable with the use of cross‐year peer assessment. The majority of students felt that they had increased their knowledge of how research proposals are funded and the perceived benefits of the large‐group drama included increased critical thinking ability, confidence in presenting work to others, and enhanced communication skills. Only one student did not strongly advocate the use of this large‐group drama in subsequent years.     

Teacher Education for Research‐based Practice in Expanded Roles: Finland's experience

Preparing teachers for a research‐based professionalism has been the central mission of teacher education in Finland since the mid‐1970s. More recently, as a result of such national policy developments as school‐based curriculum development and local decision‐making, the conception of teachers' work and professionalism has expanded. Drawing on experience within the teacher education programmes at the University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi University, this paper discusses some of the programmatic issues that these developments have raised in class‐teacher, i.e. “elementary”, teacher education programmes. We focus in particular firstly on the research thesis that is a part of every teacher education programme in Finland, and the hallmark of the research‐based professional ideal; and, secondly on the emerging issues that derive from the need to incorporate the expanded understanding of the teacher's role within the curriculum of teacher education.     

African Higher Education Research Development and Training: Cross‐cultural Perspectives among African and Israeli Social Scientists

The extent of congruence that exists among university‐based African and Israeli social scientists regarding the importance of selected social research issues and the extent of behavioural response needed to address research and training through higher education are examined. The analytical construct used was formulated on the basis of the behaviour‐intention theory. Data were collected during the summer of 1997 by means of a questionnaire mailed to the study subjects who included twenty African and seventeen Israeli researchers. The results revealed no significant differences of opinion between the two groups in terms of the importance of the social research issues to be addressed. A number of significant differences were identified, however, in terms of the perceived extent of education and training needed for African university personnel. The findings tended to support the contention that there is a marked imbalance between developing Third World institutions of higher education and northern external institutions of higher education tending to induce the latter, having a wealth of resources, to slip into a role of deciding what, how, and when certain activities should be undertaken in higher education in developing countries.     

Interdisciplinary Tutor‐led Discussion Groups in the New Pattern of Teacher Education in England

The author examines developments in the context of the increasing professionalisation of teacher training in England, a movement which implies a greater integration of theory with practice. The focus upon current practice in schools is much sharper. The new style courses are examined in respect of content (emphasis on integration of multi‐disciplinary approaches), a specific example from the teaching of French, and style.

The use of educational discussion groups is analysed in detail, and the author is especially interested to identify the teacher characteristics and qualities which such groups may develop. The dynamics of the groups, and their reflections on both the content and the process of discussion, are critical to success, and there is considerable evidence that autonomous learning is fostered at the expense of role imitation.

Criticisms of the approach point to a slackening of academic rigour and the less systematic treatment of topics. Full evaluation is still required, but it is the author's judgement that the advantages of the discussion group approach outweigh the disadvantages.     

A Developmental and Cross‐cultural Study on the Interpersonal Cognition of Swedish and Japanese Children

The interpersonal cognition of Japanese children is compared with that of Swedish children in an attempt to understand how far sex‐inequality in society influences the interpersonal cognition of children. The findings support the view that the sex‐difference observed in Japanese children is the result of the sex‐inequality in the Japanese society: the sex‐difference observed in Swedish subjects is smaller in comparison with that of Japanese subjects and is insignificant in the older children. The development of emotional and conjectural cognition of Japanese children is affected by the interpersonal relations peculiar to Japanese society.