An Empirical Study of Gender Difference in the Relationship between Self‐Concept and Mathematics Achievement in a Cross‐Cultural Context

The reciprocal relationship between mathematics achievement and self‐concept is examined in this study to expand the existing knowledge to a cross‐cultural setting. Based on analyses of educational data two years before and after Hong Kong’s sovereignty switch in 1997, this investigation shows a weak reciprocal relationship among the eighth‐grade students across gender categories. With the introduction of a new policy to promote Chinese instruction, changes in the perceived importance of English have been assessed by education stakeholders, and the results are used to indicate a latent factor of “English push” behind the learning process. In the context of cross‐cultural transition, gender differences have been found in path coefficients toward mathematics achievement and self‐concept. Limited by the four‐year research period, one may speculate whether it would take longer to demonstrate a large effect size in the reciprocal relationship.     

Cultural Capital: A Thesaurus for Teaching Design

This article seeks to unravel what is hypothesised as being at the root of design education: the cultural capital of design educators. The premise is that capital is developed within the design learning environment: that is, designers‐to‐be and educators‐to‐be are encultured into design while studying, the same way that parents enculture children into families, or families and friends enculture young people into society. This article begins by introducing the concept of cultural capital, a body of knowledge that acts as an asset in particular situations; our study focuses on knowledge that is useful to being a designer and design educator. We continue by exploring what kinds of capital designers have and what role this capital plays in the educational setting. Four key themes are identified across the cultural capital of 19 design educators from different geographical locations in the Western world. These themes result from analysing educators' intimate narratives, which reveal some of the values, beliefs and actions inherent to design. Furthermore, the themes illustrate a sampling of the design educators’ thesaurus: that is, what design educators draw upon for teaching and designing.     

Multicultural influences on group learning: a qualitative higher education study

Although the literature examining the usefulness of group projects is extensive, the link between cooperative learning, group performance and skills transfer in multicultural contexts remains unclear. Focus groups were conducted with a sample of 107 international and domestic postgraduate and undergraduate marketing students to investigate this link. Results confirm that group work facilitates the development of interpersonal skills, cross‐cultural collaboration and higher‐level learning. While there is the promise of transfer of learning to other situations, group learning effectiveness appears conditional on instructors preparing, coaching and debriefing students as to the expected benefits associated with participation in group projects throughout the semester. In addition, limited differences were observed between how international and domestic students responded to group activities, although this may (in part) be due to subtle differences in preconceived attitudes to group learning activities from the outset.     

Materiality as an aspect in learning

In this paper we exemplify how a social semiotic approach to pupils’ multimodal texts (texts which draw on and make available to the senses a range of resources, including the visual, material, and actional) can provide a way into understanding learning. We suggest that learning can be seen as a transformative process of sign making. Specifically, we suggest that materiality (use of frame, shape, texture, colour, and imported objects) can be seen as one expression of how pupils engage with knowledge and learning. In order to demonstrate this we focus on year seven (11 year old) pupils’ visual representations of cells in two science classrooms at a London girls school. We argue that the range of representational resources available within visual communication (spatial relations, materiality, etc.) enabled the expression of kinds of meaning which would have been difficult, or perhaps impossible, in language. We conclude that visual and linguistic modes of expression have different potentials for meaning making, and therefore different potentials for learning.     

Cross‐Curricular Gallery Learning: A Phenomenological Case Study

This article examines the strategies that can be used to enhance students' understanding of how subjects link together and whether cross‐curricular approaches, through a gallery project, have any real impact on students' understanding of the links between subjects. A substantial part of this article, however, describes the methodological aspect of the project. A phenomenological case study approach was used in order to engage fully with individual students' learning experiences. It was found that the students who were involved directly with the study felt that the links between subjects had more relevance to their learning when the teacher made such links explicit. They were unaware of the relevance of many cross‐curricular links made in lessons, but the study indicated that cross‐curricular learning can enable students to transfer skills and knowledge in order to understand concepts more fully.     

Cognitive Skill Acquisition Through a Meta-Knowledge Processing Model

The emerging trend for taking a more collaborative approach to life-long learning is picking up pace. So, too, is the rate at which online learning systems are implemented by novice courseware designers. Nevertheless, if we want to sustain the momentum, we must understand more about how to manage the computer–human interaction (CHI) and, henceforth, the cognitive skills acquisition process involved in E-learning systems (McKay & Garner, 1999). Once we understand the CHI phenomenon, learn how to manage the E-learning environment successfully, manage media in an efficient and effective manner, conquer collaborative online communication and knowledge-sharing, we may be able to claim that context-mediated learning has arrived. This paper discusses an examination of the contextual issues involved in understanding the interactivity of instructional conditions and cognitive style as a metaknowledge acquisition process. Meta-knowledge is used here to convey knowledge about knowledge. This distinction is necessary to differentiate between the more common usage of the term, whereby knowledge is generated by an individual presented with various pieces of information. Further work is needed to substantiate the speculated mechanisms relating to the relationship between specific learning domains, and notational transfer (internal/external exchange process) in an online learning context.     

Outcomes of a service‐learning program for pre‐service teachers: links to Butin's conceptual model

The outcomes of a pilot Service‐learning Program designed for pre‐service teachers enrolled in a unit about inclusive education in an Australian University will be discussed in this paper. Service‐learning requires university or school students to become involved in their community in order to utilize knowledge learned at university. The program involves reciprocal relationships with organizations in which the service reinforces and strengthens the learning in the academic unit on inclusive education, and the learning reinforces the service for the organization. Pre‐service teachers completed 10 hours working in the community along with completing a service‐learning reflection log. Evaluation of the service‐learning reflection process as a pedagogy will be discussed using the conceptual lenses: technical, cultural, political and post modern. The data demonstrate evidence to suggest that Butin's four lenses can be supported by the reflection process associated with the Service‐learning Program described in this study and be used to construct an improved service‐learning reflection log for future students.     

Climate Education: Empowering Today's Youth to Meet Tomorrow's Challenges

This paper provides an introduction to the concept of pedagogical link‐making in the context of teaching and learning scientific conceptual knowledge. Pedagogical link‐making is concerned with the ways in which teachers and students make connections between ideas in the ongoing meaning‐making interactions of classroom teaching and learning. First of all we draw upon socio‐cultural perspectives to outline why we think that ‘link‐making’ is fundamental to science learning and consequently to science teaching and then we identify three main forms of pedagogical link‐making. The related research literature is then used to specify pedagogical link‐making approaches associated with each of the three main forms. Finally, the resultant framework of link‐making forms and approaches is applied in analysing a teaching sequence taken from a UK secondary school science classroom. Part of this analysis involves identifying specific pedagogical tools/strategies that might be employed in the classroom to support link‐making.     

Recasting transfer as a socio-personal process of adaptable learning

Transfer is usually cast as an educational, rather than learning, problem. Yet, seeking to adapt what individuals know from one circumstance to another is a process more helpfully associated with learning, than a hybrid one called transfer. Adaptability comprises individuals construing what they experience, then aligning and reconciling with what they know, and enacting responses. This learning process is mediated by societal and cultural contributions shaping tasks, their goals and solutions and also by individuals’ capacities and interest, as shaped by their ontogenies (i.e. socially derived life histories). Labelling this process ‘transfer’ arises from concerns about educational institutions’ key rationale: that what is learnt through them should be applicable elsewhere. However, expectations of educational provisions generating wholesale adaptable learning (i.e. transferable knowledge) are unrealistic because this learning is mediated by culturally, societally and situationally derived facts and personal factors. To moderate expectations and inform practice, transfer of knowledge needs to be understood as human thinking and acting mediated both internally (intra-psychologically) as well as inter-psychologically (from social and brute suggestions beyond the individual). Consequently, a socio-personal conception of adaptability is advanced here to illuminate this process. Through intra- as well inter-psychological mediation, it comprises individuals construing what is experienced, reconciliation with what they know and constructing new knowledge or adaptability.     

Inside a beginning immigrant science teacher’s classroom: an ethnographic study

Teaching is a highly personal endeavor shaped by ‘funds of knowledge’ and beliefs about teaching, learning, and students. This case study examines how one Asian immigrant teacher’s personal expectations and beliefs influenced his expectations of students and the teaching and instructional strategies he employed. His expectations of students’ behavior and their failure to conform to his expectations influenced him to utilize more traditional, didactic instructional practices and responses to classroom management dilemmas. It is generally assumed that immigrant and minority students will benefit from exposure to teachers from similar backgrounds, and that ethnically diverse teachers can better prepare minority students for the multicultural workplace and global economy. This study focuses on the role a teacher’s background and experiences play in development of their beliefs about teaching and learning, their expectations of students, and the instructional decisions they make regarding teaching and learning. This study suggests that teachers draw on their personal histories and cultural understandings to create classroom practices which are molded by microcosms of personal ‘funds of knowledge’ and beliefs about teaching and learning. In contrast to conventional wisdom and unquestioned myths, this study emphasizes the importance of knowing that teachers’ cultural backgrounds do not necessarily qualify them to provide the most appropriate instructional environment for students from similar cultural backgrounds. This study suggests that all teachers need to learn to recognize and negotiate the unique social elements culturally diverse students bring to the classroom.     

“We do not know what is the real story anymore”: Curricular contextualization principles that support indigenous students in understanding natural selection

We propose a process of contextualization based on seven empirically derived contextualization principles, aiming to provide opportunities for Indigenous Mexican adolescents to learn science in a way that supports them in fulfilling their right to an education aligned with their own culture and values. The contextualization principles we empirically derived account for Nahua students' cultural cognition, socialization, and cultural narratives, thus supporting Indigenous students in navigating the differences between their culture and the culture and language of school while learning complex science concepts such as natural selection. The process of curricular contextualization we propose is empirically driven, taking culture and socialization into account by using multiples sources (cognitive tasks to explore teleology, ethnographic observation of students' community and classroom, and interviews with students and community members) and builds on the scholarship in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Indigenous Education. We used these principles to redesign a middle school biology unit on natural selection to make it more culturally relevant for Nahua students. The enactment of this unit resulted in students being engaged in science learning and achieving significant learning gains. The significance of this study lies in presenting evidence that learning science in culturally relevant ways supports the learning of challenging biology concepts. We provide evidence that Western science can be learned in ways that are more aligned with Indigenous students' Traditional Indigenous Knowledge, thus informing the implementation of educational policies aiming to improve the quality of secondary education for Indigenous adolescents. Our proposed contextualization principles can benefit students of all cultural identities who feel that their religion, language, or traditional knowledge are not aligned with school science, facilitating their access to culturally relevant science education.     

Multi‐directional creative transfer between practice‐based arts education and work

In this article we examine how 19 students in creative arts disciplines in two universities experience work in not‐for‐profit and public sectors. We explore the notion of transfer from university education and suggest that ‘creative transfer’ is taking place, often in more than one direction. Students draw on their life‐wide experiences as they deem appropriate in new situations and also vicarious learning from university settings. The extent to which creative transfer happens is, we suggest, tempered by relational affordances between the individual, the people they encounter, the opportunities they perceive in new situations and the value or reward perceived in the new work environment. These findings have implications for supporting students in practice‐based learning and work settings and we provide some recommendations for maximising the potential for multi‐directional transfer.     

Child‐directed Dramatic Play as Identity Text in Northern Canadian Indigenous Kindergarten Classrooms

In this paper, an Anishnaabe educator and university researcher/former primary teacher make a case for viewing children's dramatic play as multimodal identity texts. Indigenous children in our research study take up an agentic role and construct positive identities in dramatic play, creating narratives that reflect Indigenous cultural practices, as well as some practices of mainstream Canadian society that may be imbued with colonising perspectives. We argue that the Indigenous Cultural classes and follow‐up dramatic play counter the marginalisation of Indigenous knowledge, culture and languages that has occurred with devastating effects on generations of Indigenous families. Our paper is based on video recordings of 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children's dramatic play that were analysed collectively by 12 Indigenous educators in terms of the Indigenous cultural meanings that children created in their play. We conclude with implications for non‐Indigenous teachers, arguing that a case can be made for including child‐led dramatic play in the literacy curriculum when dramatic play narratives are viewed as multimodal identity texts. These texts, which can involve multiple modes including print, draw from children's own cultural and linguistic knowledge and experience.     

The Mediating Effect of Knowledge‐Sharing Processes on Organizational Cultural Factors and Knowledge Management Effectiveness

This study explored the extent to which knowledge‐sharing processes mediate organizational cultural factors and knowledge management effectiveness among Korean organizations. The findings show that knowledge‐sharing processes play as mediators in the effect of trust, collaboration, and learning on knowledge management effectiveness. Employees from knowledge management practicing companies in Korea were surveyed. Results from mediation analysis show that knowledge‐sharing processes have both practical and statistical significance to enhance knowledge management effectiveness. Trust and a learning culture are also significant to increase knowledge management effectiveness. We discuss the implications of these findings to facilitate knowledge sharing and make suggestions for future research.     

Transfer Over Time: Stories About Transfer Years After Training

The purpose of this qualitative study is to form a grounded theory of the process of long‐term transfer. Eight physicians were interviewed to discover if, years later, they had used what they were taught in a faculty development training program. We found that these autonomous professionals continued to apply the teaching ideas they learned. Each, in a personal way, chose to use varied ideas in different ways in several contexts. They applied ideas using intellectual skills such as planning and analyzing. They continued their applications because they perceived supportive work conditions and positive consequences. In sum, over the long term, physicians acquired knowledge and mental skill, chose to use them, and attempted application. They reflected on outcomes, decided to reuse or revise, and tried again. Thus, the process of long‐term transfer was learning to use and learning from use. We examine implications for research and training.     

The Joint Accomplishment of Identity

Identity has become a central concept in the analysis of learning from social perspectives. In this article, we draw on a situative perspective to conceptualize identity as a joint accomplishment between individuals and their interactions with norms, practices, cultural tools, relationships, and institutional and cultural contexts. Employing vignettes from our prior research, we examine the joint accomplishment of identity with respect to different levels of activity, including how identity develops in relation to the practices of a particular activity, how identity shifts over time across activities, and how more enduring communities and practices frame the ways that identity develops within and across activities. We illustrate, in particular, how a situative perspective on identity enables researchers to capture the dynamic interplay of individuals and resources, thus accounting for aspects of structure and agency in all social interactions.     

Bilingual poetry: expanding the cognitive and cultural dimensions of children's learning

Stories and poetry have long been considered a resource for the language and literacy development of bilingual children, particularly if they can work with texts in both mother tongue and English. This paper demonstrates that bilingual learning is also beneficial for second and third‐generation children whose English is often stronger than their mother tongue. Presenting data from an action research project in East London primary schools, we show how children investigated metaphor and cultural content in a Bengali lullaby, clarifying concepts through dialogue with their parents. Comparison with a lullaby in English from North America generated additional ideas concerning different cultural values. The learning process enabled children to use their bilingual skills and draw on different aspects of their bicultural identities. Finally, we explain how bilingual poetry can be used to stimulate learning in a multilingual classroom context, through the example of a whole‐class lesson based around Bengali and English lullabies.     

外语教学中的文化教学

不同的语言代表着不同的文化，学习一种外语的同时也在学习这种语言的文化。因此，外语教学不应只停留在语言因素本身，而应引导学生深入地了解和学习目标语的文化知识。文化教学应当包含在语言教学的各个环节之中，只有语言知识与文化背景相结合才能使学生更好地习得语言本身。