A Conversation of Care: Unpacking and Engaging Pre-service Teacher Ideologies

Caring relationships are a core component in effective classrooms, and safe learning environments. As such, it is important for pre-service teachers to reflect on their own perceptions and experience regarding care and care within the classroom if they are to build upon that knowledge and grow as caring educators. In addition, teacher educators can learn more about the developing theories of care that exist within college classrooms, and utilize this knowledge in working with pre-service teachers to understand the power of care and relationships between students and teachers. The purpose of this article is to examine pre-service teacher perceptions of “care” and caring relationships within the classroom. How do pre-service teachers define “care”, and how do their experiences align with their personal beliefs? More importantly, how do these perspectives shape their teacher identity?     

弗朗西斯·培根科学实验思想的哲学基础探析——从“果”的实验到“光”的实验,再到“激发自然”的实验

弗朗西斯·培根出于为人类谋福祉的价值观,探索人类认识自然的路径和方式,提出“光”的实验,以替代巫术、炼金术等的“果”的实验。培根认为,“果”的实验在自然观上是神秘主义的,在实验结果的处理上是哲学大前提统领并且推演少数实验结果获得普遍原理的,因而是错误的。培根提出新的自然哲学思想,认为只有对“出错的自然”实施“激发”的实验,才能促使其成为“受限的自然”,暴露其秘密;只有对“激发自然”的实验结果进行归纳推理,才能够获得普遍性的、可靠的原理。由此,培根回答了“为什么做实验”“如何做实验”以及“如何更好地做实验”等问题,将科学从哲学中独立出来,走向实证、公开与客观,成为“实证式科学”。     

The new organization and implications for training

In our work over the past 15 years, we have been guided by a premise, right or wrong, that fundamental changes in how organizations work require fundamental changes in how we think and interact. Changes in the “outer world” do not necessarily produce change in the “inner world”… I am skeptical of what can be accomplished by changes in structure alone.… What leads us to believe that lots of local managers, focused on their own profits, will be any more far‐sighted than a few corporate managers focused on corporate profits? Will they be any better at systems thinking? … What good is it to have more free movement of information if people cannot discuss the information that is most important, but that is also the most threatening? (Sugarman, 1997).     

哲学咨询、哲学教育与社会主义核心价值观培育

哲学咨询是一种帮助人们解决思想困惑和价值错知的活动,其很多思想和方法与马克思主义实践哲学、马克思主义哲学教育相一致。马克思主义哲学作为经实践检验的正确世界观和方法论,能帮助大学生"建构"正向的人生价值观,而哲学咨询可以作为这种"建构"的纽带和教育的方式。哲学咨询的反思批判帮助大学生辨明社会思潮的正误,咨询对话有助于大学生认同正向的人生价值观,集体探究促进大学生内化和践行社会主义核心价值观。对于当今大学的哲学教育,特别是社会主义核心价值观的宣传、培育与践行,哲学咨询是一条可行而有效的实现途径。     

Intuitive ethics: Understanding and critiquing the role of intuition in ethical decisions

This article examines the role intuition plays in forming ethical decisions. First, the article reviews examples of intuitive ethics in professional communication research. Second, the article suggests that intuition is the naturalization of dominant cultural values and beliefs. Third, the article considers naturalized values within institutions and organizations, demonstrating how naturalized values can lead to unquestioned and oppressive institutional practices. Ethical inquiry, according to this view, investigates and denaturalizes those assumptions that are carried forth by intuition. Fourth, the article offers a pedagogical example of this theory, demonstrating how a group of business communication students investigated the intuitive practices of a non‐profit organization. The article concludes by suggesting the value that a “critique of intuition” may have for the teaching, study, and practice of professional ethics.     

Making sense of young people’s digital practices in informal contexts: The Digital Practice Framework

There is a growing body of research looking at young people’s use of digital technology in informal contexts. However, there is a gap in the literature about how to describe and categorise young people’s digital practices in such contexts. This gap is important because in order to be able to understand the differences between young people’s digital practices in informal contexts and how these differences arise, you first need to be able to describe and categorise those differences in meaningful ways. You need to be able to answer the question “How do young people use digital technology in informal contexts?” in order to be able to answer questions such as “How do children’s digital practices in informal contexts vary?” and “Why do children’s digital practices vary?”. This paper is significant because it introduces The Digital Practice Framework, an original, theoretically informed, tool to fill this critical gap in the literature. It goes on to indicate how this framework has been used to analyse the factors that facilitate or hinder the development of young people’s digital practices in informal contexts.     

Merlin C. Wittrock and the Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy

The three commentaries on the resubsumption theory highlight three key ideas: that the term conceptual change, as commonly used, is ambiguous between “change in the meaning of a concept” and “change in what someone believes”; that there are multiple routes to successful learning of conceptual subject matters; and that the noticing of a previously unheeded contrast can be as strong a driver of change as the noticing of an unheeded similarity. These ideas are consistent with the resubsumption theory. Other arguments and objections to resubsumption are shown to be irrelevant or weak. Although the commentaries contribute important ideas, the latter do not add up to a superior theory of how and why resistance to conflicting information is overcome and core beliefs revised. The commentaries also illustrate three knotty points in conceptual change research that stand in need of attention.     

A diffractive reading of dialogical feedback through the political ethics of care

With regard to improving higher education feedback practices, there is an increasing interest in using the efficacy of dialogue rather than the more traditional unidirectional approaches. We build on this impetus by considering how the ethics of care can be used to analyse the dialogical aspects of feedback. By diffractively reading insights of Boud and Molloy [2013a. “What is the Problem with Feedback?” In Feedback in Higher and Professional Education: Understanding it and Doing it Well, edited by D. Boud, and E. Molloy, 1–10. London: Routledge; Boud, D., and E. Molloy. 2013b. “Rethinking Models of Feedback for Learning: The Challenge of Design.” Assessment &; Evaluation in Higher Education 38 (6): 698–712] on dialogic feedback through the moral elements of care ethics, this paper proposes a novel way of discerning the extent to which the dialogical giving and receiving of feedback contributes to learning. To illustrate this, we draw on experiences from an Emerging Technologies professional development course for higher educators. We examine our own dialogical interactions of giving and receiving feedback using the moral elements of care ethics – attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness and trust, to provide a concrete example of how the ethics of care can be used productively for evaluating feedback practices.     

Uncovering Beliefs about Deceptive Communication

This study consists of four phases of a research program exploring beliefs that have some bearing on the choices people make when considering deception. The authors argue that understanding why people engage in deception is partially dependent on their deception-related beliefs. The initial stage of this research was inductively driven in order to identify themes of deception that could be verified in subsequent phases of this program. The validation of these factors of deception was attempted through multiple waves of self-report surveys. The five influences tested in phases three and four were acceptance of deception, ethics, motives, intentionality, and upbringing. A series of factor analyses revealed that factors labeled “intentionality,” “deception is wrong,” “acceptance of deception,” and “upbringing” emerged as constructs of deceptive communication. The knowledge gained from this study suggests implications for initiating further work that could shed light on beliefs that most significantly underlying deceptive communication.     

The cultural politics of national testing and test result release policy in South Korea: a critical discourse analysis

This paper examines the ideological construction of educational discourses embedded within the South Korean print media. Significantly, these discourses have recently promoted the resurrection of a sweeping national testing and test results release policy. Through careful examination of the “test plus release” policy, the authors show how the government has achieved hegemonic power by shaping public opinion through the national testing contexts. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of educational policy texts from the government and top 10 print media sources, this paper analyses how discourses on “accountability”, “the right to know” and “the fairness of the tests” have been produced, reproduced and recontextualized to favour particular perspectives. The authors also examine how government and influential print media discourses interact with political and cultural factors such as “acclaiming the evaluative state”, “education fever” and “meritocratic beliefs” to achieve public consent for the new “test plus release” policy.     

论“道路”、“老路”与“邪路”

“道路”,其本质在于符合客观规律;“老路”,有其理论与实践的根据,也取得过一定的成就,但其严重弊端使其丧失了存在的合理性;“邪路”,是在“老路”走不通、矛盾激化、“病急乱投医”情况下的错误选择。中国特色社会主义道路的正确性,在于能不失时机地变革“老路”,避开“邪路”。道路的正确性是有条件的,不能与时俱进或主观盲动,就会蜕变为“老路”与“邪路”。因此继续深化改革,中华民族才能在中国特色社会主义道路上胜利前进。     

Neither Right nor Wrong: How a Teacher Integrates Her Personal and Professional Life With Policy

This article focuses on the importance of recognizing and appreciating the ways that a teacher integrates her personal and professional life with an English-only policy. Much can be learned from the ways in which she negotiates social forces and integrates them into her individual reality while making sense of the restrictive language policy. Whether they are consciously aware of it or not, teachers have the power to make ethico-political choices. Motivated by moral principles and personal beliefs, teachers make decisions about their right or ability to determine and follow a particular course of action that a policy may dictate. Educational policies coming from the top-down can be daunting and leave teachers with a sense of a loss of control and power over what happens in their classrooms. However, I argue that teachers do have control over how they interpret the policy. There is no clear right or wrong path, but rather a multitude of diverse choices that are available to teachers.     

Measuring student teachers’ practices and beliefs about teaching mathematics using the Rasch model

Several attempts have been made to measure and categorize beliefs and practices of mathematics teachers [Swan, M. 2006. “Designing and Using Research Instruments to Describe the Beliefs and Practices of Mathematics Teachers”. Research in Education 75 (1): 58–70]. One of the reasons for measuring both beliefs and practices is to characterize teachers in terms of the relationship between their beliefs and practices. However, the practice-instruments and the beliefs-instruments discussed in the literature are predominately based on differing constructs. Consequently, it is challenging to compare the relationship between beliefs and practices solely based on these instruments. As such, we argue that practice- and beliefs-instruments based on the same construct would be desirable when both beliefs and practices are at stake. This paper presents two Rasch-calibrated instruments that measure the level of teacher-centredness with respect to student teachers’ practices and beliefs about teaching mathematics. From a sample of 160 student teachers, 15 items have been established as being beneficial for measurement, both when the items are translated as practice items and when translated as beliefs items. By studying the invariance between both translations, we conclude that measures from both instruments can be directly compared.     

Does hothousing rob children of their childhood?

Since individuals construct educational policies and practices according to their beliefs, the conceptual systems of proponents and opponents of hot-housing must be considered. Such systems can be based either on “closed beliefs” or data. Such consideration may provide an answer to the question, “Does hothousing rob children of their childhood?” Belief systems are built with the constructs of belief, intention, attitude, and value concepts. Beliefs of parents develop from both broad socio-historical views and from the parents' personal histories. If parents and educators form beliefs about hothousing which ignore relevant data, they may educate in a manner which increases “achievement anxiety,” and makes children feel they have value only when they are “producing.” As an alternative, children should be offered learning activities which provide opportunities for intellectual exploration and flexibility.     

Revisioning Philosophy of Education Instruction in Competency-Based B. Ed. Programs

This article concerns the relationship between classroom assessments that are aligned with “competencies-based” teaching in Teacher Education programs on the one hand, and on the other hand, the challenge of offering authentic “philosophy of education,” “education theory,” or “education foundations” courses for student–teachers who are enrolled in a professional degree and on the way towards certification. Briefly, administrative and accreditation concerns with developing and demonstrating core “competencies” when teaching is considered strictly as a “profession” do not align with more ancient understandings of teaching as a “way of life”—especially when that life is led in some relation to philosophy, or “the pursuit of wisdom.” This article examines the disjunction between these two conceptualizations of teaching; it encourages readers to think about how this disjunction problematizes their pedagogy as “philosophers of education.”     

Teachers’ Beliefs About Grading Practices and a Constructivist Approach to Teaching

We examined novice teachers’ beliefs about grading and constructivist teaching approaches. Adapting an existing instrument designed to assess preservice teachers’ grading beliefs that deviate from recommended practices, we administered the Survey of Grading Beliefs to 203 inservice teachers. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 3-factor model with a structure similar to that found in prior research; differences between the 2 samples were noted. Teachers who endorsed grading beliefs characterized as “academic enabling” tended to endorse constructivist teaching approaches. To better understand the underlying reasoning of the academic enabling factor, we conducted qualitative research with 6 additional teachers. Results revealed that teachers’ reasons for grading judgments were strategic, analytical, and thoughtful, not haphazard. This study provides empirical evidence about the nature of novice teachers’ beliefs about grading, how they relate to constructivist teaching beliefs, and how they may compare to the beliefs of preservice teachers.     

Space,relations, and the learning of science

In the literature on the situated and distributed nature of cognition, the coordination of spatial organization and the structure of human practices and relations is accepted as a fact. To date, science educators have yet to build on such research. Drawing on an ethnographic study of high school students during an internship in a scientific research laboratory, which we understand as a “perspicuous setting” and a “smart setting,” in which otherwise invisible dimensions of human practices become evident, we analyze the relationship between spatial configurations of the setting and the nature and temporal organization of knowing and learning in science. Our analyses show that spatial aspects of the laboratory projectively organize how participants act and can serve as resources to help the novices to participate in difficult and unfamiliar tasks. First, existing spatial relations projectively organize the language involving interns and lab members. In particular, spatial relations projectively organize where and when pedagogical language should happen; and there are specific discursive mechanisms that produce cohesion in language across different places in the laboratory. Second, the spatial arrangements projectively organize the temporal dimensions of action. These findings allow science educators to think explicitly about organizing “smart contexts” that help learners participate in and learn complex scientific laboratory practices.     

A “Deleterious” Driver: The “First Teacher” Reform in Sweden

This article investigates the implementation of the “förstelärare” or “First teacher” reform in Sweden. We draw upon the insights of a superintendent, union official, principal, three First teachers, and two of their colleagues in one school, and recent literature on career development reform. We employ Michael Fullan’s overview of the “right” and “wrong” drivers of educational reform to analyse the extent to which the First Teacher initiative cultivated productive “professional capital.” The research reveals: how broader national policy aims were in clear tension with municipal-wide school development, and school-level development efforts; the perverse effects of a strong focus upon salary on professional conduct; and how an emphasis upon teachers’ roles per se undermined the espoused policy focus on enhancing teaching. The research cautions against the problematic effects of the initiative on more profession-oriented prerogatives, and how more external, “deleterious,” drivers of reform militate against more productive professional capital.     

大学校友组织:公共性建构与组织成长——以武汉大学校友抗疫应急救援行动为例

在相当长一段时间内,校友组织由于被担心涉入“帮圈文化”而成为限制发展的对象,其功能也大都局限在个人联谊、为学校筹集办学资金层面。结合2020年新冠疫情期间武汉大学校友组织的应急救援行动案例,可以从中发现,校友组织能在确定的角色下应社会需要变化适时调整自身的行动诉求,以同一校友身份为情感基点快速累积起大规模校友召集所需的信任,并在校友能人的拉动下快速响应、协同行动,从而在生产出多样公共产品的过程中完成了自身公共性的建构。而这种由“自在”走向“自为”的建构所带来的公共性增长又同时促进了其组织的成长,即在组织架构上从“校友的校友会”“大学的校友会”走向“社会的校友会”,在组织功能上从“联谊”“互谊”走向“公益”。案例表明校友组织在提供社会公共产品方面具有其他社会组织所没有的潜力和优势,为此应重新审视大学校友会的作用,那就是它们不仅是高校在拓展社会影响力、传承大学文化、筹集办学资金等方面的重要组织力量,也能成为政府应急管理体系中可以倚重的合作伙伴,成为国家治理体系和治理能力现代化进程中的重要组成部分。     

Teachers' beliefs and practices: a dynamic and complex relationship

Research on teachers' beliefs has provided useful insights into understanding processes of teaching. However, no research has explored teachers' beliefs as a system nor have researchers investigated the substance of interactions between teachers' beliefs, practices and context. Therefore, the author adopts complexity theory to explore the features of the teachers' belief system and how interactions between different components of the teachers' belief system contribute to complex features of their beliefs. The author illustrates this application by using a case study example of a language teacher in a Chinese secondary school. The study used the methods of semi-structured interviews, observations and stimulated recall interviews. It revealed the co-existence of different types of beliefs. The interaction of these beliefs determined the relationship between the teacher's beliefs and practice. Moreover, the practices of “token adoption” and eclectic approach were noted as the non-linear features of the teacher's belief system at the time of curriculum reform.