Observing and analyzing children’s mathematical development,based on action theory

Children who experience difficulties with learning mathematics should be taught by teachers who focus on the child’s best way of learning. Analyses of the mathematical difficulties are necessary for fine-tuning mathematics education to the needs of these children. For this reason, an instrument for Observing and Analyzing children’s Mathematical Development (OAMD), based on action theory, has been developed. The use of levels of action is a new insight in the diagnostic process. Using the OAMD makes it possible to explore and analyze a child’s knowledge, proficiency and possible difficulties on four levels of acting in the domain of Number (counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). The research concerns children from kindergarten up to grade three. In this article, we will discuss the purpose and the construction of the instrument with the focus on the usability of the OAMD. The study examines the quality and the diagnostic value of the instrument by means of the internal consistency, the test–retest reliability and the construct validity. The analyses show positive results. The conclusion of the research is that the OAMD is a suitable instrument for the analysis of numerical development of young children and their possible difficulties in this domain.     

Supporting children’s mathematical understanding: professional development focused on out-of-school practices

This study describes the Reflection Connection Cycle professional development designed to support teachers’ use and appreciation of students’ out-of-school practices related to school mathematics. The year-long program incorporated group lesson design, readings, and video analysis for 14 elementary school (ages 5–12) teachers. Analysis of lesson development, written reflections, and analysis of teacher talk revealed important patterns related to the difficulty in writing lessons that built on students’ informal understandings. While initial lessons focused solely on the context of practices like gardening and sports, subsequent lessons show a greater concern for the mathematics in which children were engaged within a practice. A Multi-approach Engagement Framework is presented both as a tool to support further professional development efforts and as a means to describe stability and change in teachers’ efforts to connect in-school and out-of-school mathematical understandings.     

New learner subjects? Reforming the rural child for a modern India

This article discusses findings from an ethnographic study of schooling in India to reflect on the ways in which new learner subjects – the ideal citizens of the future – are constructed by education reforms in poor, rural communities. The concerns of the article are framed by the significant economic growth and social modernisation occurring in India, particularly for the expanding urban middle classes. The rural poor have been largely excluded from India's narrative of development and modernisation. This article asks, then, what kind of citizen-subject does schooling for the poor in India seek to produce? It focuses on the intentions and effects of child-centred pedagogic programmes in rural primary schools in the south Indian state of Karnataka. The analysis shows that in order for democratic and egalitarian education ideals to become more fully realised in these school contexts, teachers need to be supported to engage critically with the deep social stratifications in Indian society which continue to marginalise the rural poor.     

Influence of Co-membership on Teacher’s Coauthoring on Student’s Narratives

This paper examines the specific research question of how co-membership in discourse style and life experience influences teacher’s coauthoring on student’s narratives in the ESL teaching and learning context in the United States. As a case study,a specific student’s classroom narratives are transcribed and analyzed. The research findings indicate that a shared discourse style and an overlap in life experience between the teacher and the student will exert positive influence on the teacher’s coauthoring on the student’s narratives. Above all,sharing the same discourse style makes it possible for the teacher to recognize the rhythm of the student’s narratives,to detect the moments when the student needs interactional support and offer help,and to quickly notice a potential ending of the student’s narrative and expand it with open-ended questions and comments. In addition,an overlap in life experience makes it possible for the teacher to go deep into the student’s narratives by contributing specific and concrete thoughts rather than responding with superficial ideas.     

Influence of Co-membership on Teacher’s Coauthoring on Student’s Narratives

This paper examines the specific research question of how co-membership in discourse style and life experience influ-ences teacher’s coauthoring on student’s narratives in the ESL teaching and learning...     

Jacques Rancière’s Lesson on the Lesson

Abstract

This article examines the significance of Jacques Rancière’s work on pedagogy, and argues that to make sense of Rancière’s ‘lesson on the lesson’ one must do more but also less than merely explicate Rancière’s texts. It steadfastly refuses to draw out the lessons of Rancière’s writings in the manner of a series of morals, precepts or rules. Rather, it is committed to thinking through the ‘lessons’ of Rancière in another sense. Above all, Rancière wants to ‘teach’ his readers something absolutely crucial about teaching. In making this claim the article emphasizes the extent to which Rancière advocates an utterly radical pedagogy, one that completely reconceives all the central elements of ‘schooling’, including teacher, student, intelligence and knowledge. Rancière thinks it possible to teach without knowing; he believes that the best schoolmasters can operate not on the assumption of their expertise, but on the equality of intelligence; and this means ultimately that Rancière contends that we can ‘teach what we do not know’. The best schoolmasters are ignorant schoolmasters. Rancière’s radical pedagogy depends upon, just as it consistently advances, a thoroughgoing resistance to a certain form of epistemological and ontological mastery. The rejection of mastery—of schoolmasters who would know it all, and convey this knowing to their students—forms the very backbone of all of Rancière’s writings and critical investigations. This is the chief reason why Rancière is, in a way, always talking about pedagogy, even when his subject matter appears to be something else entirely.     

A note on the converse of Lagrange’s theorem

In this section of Resonance, we invite readers to pose questions likely to be raised in a classroom situation. We may suggest strategies for dealing with them, or invite responses, or both. ??Classroom?? is equally a forum for raising broader issues and sharing personal experiences and viewpoints on matters related to teaching and learning science.     

Analysis on the Theme of Amy Lowell’s Patterns

There are a lot of,or precisely speaking,a train of patterns in Amy Lowell’s Patterns for it seems to be consisted of disparate patterns but as a matter of fact these seemingly disrelated patterns disclose one pattern together from the points of both feminism and psychology.And this paper is aimed to discover the inherent co-relationship among these different patterns and shed light on the theme of this pome,in other words,the feminism of this pome.     

Impact of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes on children’s schooling: focusing on individual children’s enrolment flow

This study examined the impact of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes on children’s schooling by focusing on individual children’s enrolment flow, particularly from public to private schools, which is becoming a worldwide trend in recent years. The results revealed that the total number of attendees at target schools recovered to pre-earthquake levels 2 months after the disaster; however, flow towards private schools was impeded, especially among ECD (early childhood development) children. The earthquake disaster sharply distinguished children who can go to a private school and those who cannot do so. Moreover, it impeded access even to public schools for children in a vulnerable position.     

John Wilson’s confused ‘Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education’

In his ‘Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education’ John Wilson laments the confusion that surrounds the current state of the philosophy of education. Unlike other branches of philosophy, he claims, it is not clear what the philosophy of education is about, and a snapshot of current work in the field reveals its lack of coherence. To remedy this he advocates starting ‘from scratch’: the philosophy of education is to be understood as a discipline concerned with the logic of value judgements and focused on questions of learning. While the present paper acknowledges the extent of Wilson’s contribution to the field, it draws attention to the confusion in the position that he holds, and shows that his assessment of the current state of the philosophy of education is both inaccurate and politically blinkered. In the process, the paper challenges his account of the philosophy of education as a branch of philosophy and offers a more coherent characterisation.     

The impact of the social environment on the student teacher’s agency

This paper explores the agency of student teachers during the Post/Professional Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) year at a Higher Education Institution in England. It presents part of the findings of a year-long investigation into the reflective practice of student teachers during the PGCE year. The multi-method study includes surveying student teachers (n = 101) and longitudinal interviews with student teachers (n = 6). One of the aims of the study was to investigate the impact of the social environment on the student teacher. The research analysis found that the complex environment the student teachers exist in can be both supportive and constraining.