Constructivism and teachers' professional development

The study aims to explore the implications of constructivist theory to the teacher's education and development. A post-graduate course for students of Education—“A Teacher Thinking” seminar, was constructed for this purpose. Its knowledge base was the participants' own practical knowledge which they were willing to share in the group. Its main strategy was the “Dialectical process of reflection in the group” which was used as a means of enhancing the participants to investigate their own practice and construct their own theories-of-teaching. Four examples from the seminar are elaborated in the paper. They serve as illustrations for the teachers' personal professional development.     

Practical reasoning and science education: Implications for theory and practice

Practical reasoning is a fundamental competence required for everyday decision-making as well as for the production of scientific knowledge. However, very little attention is given to developing this competence in school science classrooms or in educational research programs. In this paper we explain the tradition of practical reasoning and its relevance to science and science education. We then suggest ways in which practical reasoning may be developed in students such that they are enabled to better understand how scientific knowledge is produced and how they may be better able to contribute to improving scientific practices.     

Developing the developers: Some ethical dilemmas in changing times

Abstract

Universities in Australia, like those in many Western countries, currently are being pushed to find for themselves an increasing share of their own budgets and to consider themselves as service providers to students, their ‘customers’. These students, having paid fees, may well expect to get what they have paid for and, in current labour market conditions, that may amount to a degree rather than an education. That is, universities are now under‐funded and, frequently, far from being seen as educational institutions, are seen as businesses whose role is to provide adequate service at optimum price. By and large, educational development staff do not teach students so they do not contribute directly to the income of the enterprise. The position of such staff and the units in which they are located is thus increasingly coming under threat as ‘economies’ are sought by academic ‘managers’. One poignantly pointed issue, then, is the extent to which educational developers might appropriately change the style and substance of their activities to assist in the evolution of universities to embrace and perhaps to thrive in the new environment. Would this amount to collusion or to co‐operation? Developers have, in the past, often attempted to develop themselves by embracing the model of reflective practice and implementing it both while carrying out their work (a kind of action learning) and at conferences and in journals and books of various kinds. However developers, and their clients (actual and potential), are under increasing pressure and for many survival, not thriving, may be the main issue. The issue for developers may well be the identity of their clients ‐ the university; its management; its teaching staff; its students (the university's supposed ‘customers'). In this paper I focus on the ethical dilemmas which may arise when educational developers try to develop themselves to serve various possible clients.     

Developing History Students' Skills in the Transition to University

With growing numbers and diversity of students, as well as demands from employers and students themselves, many humanities and social science tutors have become increasingly aware of the importance of developing students' skills. The first year of university is a particularly important point of intervention, not only to ensure the successful transition to degree level work, but to create the foundations for learning and skills development in subsequent years of disciplinary study and beyond. There is still, however, often a lack of confidence on the part of subject tutors concerning the introduction of skills to students whose primary motivation for study is discipline-based. This paper describes a practical approach to this problem in history, but one easily transferable to other disciplines. It combines subject and skills in a way which engages student interest, and encourages students to become more confident in a variety of practical skills, as well as more reflexive in relation to their subject and the ways in which they approach learning in it.     

Troubling gender binaries in schools: from sumptuary law to sartorial agency

This article derives from a larger study on gender fluidity to focus primarily on the sartorial aspects of gender. Secondary school students were interviewed to investigate how they speak about gender expression, performance and fluidity in their school. Using a Foucaultian analytic of subjectivation through regulated surveillance and Butler's theory of gender performativity and the abject, as well as queer theorists such as Wilchins, my aim is to draw attention to the need to de-naturalize the notion of a gender binary. Furthermore, I draw on Garber's analytic framework of sumptuary law to provide insight into the limitations of gender expression and the potential for sartorial agency. The educational significance lies in the need to disrupt the heteronormative education system to resist the exclusion of gender non-conforming students.     

Practical training and internships in engineering education: Educational goals and assessment

In many engineering curricula a period of practical training in industry is either compulsory or advised. Often the educational goals of such a period are defined as 'learning to put knowledge and skills into practice'. The assessment is usually based on a technical report of the activities during the period. In this paper, how the definition of educational objectives led to the introduction of practical training is discussed. These objectives are acquiring insight in the engineering profession, learning to 'survive' in a different culture and learning to apply as well as broadening technical knowledge and skills. Furthermore, an assessment procedure is introduced which allows for testing whether the students have met the objectives.     

Supervisors' conceptions of research and the implications for supervisor development

Teaching reform in higher education has frequently been informed by investigations into conceptions of learning held by students and by teachers. Such work has been extended into research education, with the study of experienced researchers' conceptions of research providing a basis for enquiry into the way research is experienced by the various participants in research education. This paper reports research designed to investigate research supervisors' conceptions of research as they were produced in focus group conversations. Using techniques of membership categorisation analysis, discourses are identified that privileged university‐based research and researchers over other forms of research and other ways of knowing, in particular over the interests of professional/practitioner researchers and over the legitimacy of research conducted in workplaces outside the university. It is argued that such discourses have the potential to be problematic for professional and industry‐based practitioner researchers as they seek to construct authoritative researcher identities. Further interrogation of the categorisation work that sustains these discourses offers the opportunity to make their assumptions explicit, which has implications for supervisors' reflective practice and professional development.     

Faced With Returnees,I Am Very Confident

In accordance with Chairman Mao's great instruction, "Students should be chosen from among workers and peasants with practical experience, and after a few years' study in school, they should go back to production practice," a certain unit of the Production and Construction Corps of the PLA Peking Command chose five groups of students in 1971 from among intellectual youths in its units who had been tempered in labor, as well as PLA cadres and demobilized personnel who had practical experience, and sent them to study in more than ten institutions of higher learning in Peking, Tientsin, Inner Mongolia, and other areas. These colleges and schools are generally satisfied with the students chosen.     

When the black box springs open: practical work in schools and the nature of science

The aim of this paper is not to bury practical work in school science but to (once again) reconsider it. We draw on three main areas of discussion: accounts of science and ‘school science work'; teachers and others’ views of the nature of science; and our own data on teachers’ reactions to ‘critical incidents’ and practicals which go wrong. We use this as a basis for re‐thinking the role of practicals. An account of practical work is suggested which has as its main feature diversity rather than a single model or template. Within this diversity we believe that teachers should be open and honest with pupils about which type of practical work they are doing and why. We advocate that students should be made aware of the different kinds of practical work they do and the purposes of this practical work. In short, teachers should explain to students what type of practical work they are doing and why. Our second message is that teachers’ views about the nature of science both inform and are informed by their classroom practices and experiences‐‐especially during lab‐work. To encourage, promote and support critical reflection of these classroom practices and experiences is therefore a vital part of teacher professional development; this in time will promote science curriculum development.     

学习风格理论在英语教法课教学改革中的应用

英语教法既是英语教育专业的一门实用性、实践性、技能性很强的课程,也是连接师范英语教育与中学英语教育的桥梁。基于此,通过对学习风格理论的分析梳理,立足于教法课实践性强的优势,结合当今中学英语教学的现状和发展趋势,对新课改背景下的英语教法课提供多样化的教学模式,以适应不同的学习风格和认知特点进行探索分析。教师的教学不仅要涉及所教内容,更重要的是应当个性化,掌握学生的学习风格,发挥学生的长处,有针对性地加强他们的薄弱环节。     

The Potential of Web 2.0 Tools to Promote Reading Engagement in a General Education Course

General education classes involve extensive course readings. College instructors have a limited time to cover every detail of the materials students are supposed to learn in class; thus, they expect students to learn through course readings. However, many college students demonstrate a low level of engagement in course reading tasks. Existing research has reported that most college students do not complete their assigned readings or they only engage in shallow levels of reading such as skimming and literal comprehension. Despite this negative phenomenon in college, a lack of research has been conducted to promote reading engagement in college classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to provide college instructors with practical guidance on using Web 2.0 tools to enhance student engagement in this task. According to self-determination theory (SDT), Web 2.0 tools share several engagement-enhancing factors. The paper discusses the potential of Web 2.0 technology to engage students by aligning with SDT. Based on the potential of Web 2.0, the paper suggests practical ways of using different Web 2.0 tools (i.e., GoogleDocs, Blog, Twitter, and Facebook) to promote reading engagement in a college classroom.     

Responses of Academe to Quality Reforms in Higher Education: A Comparative Study of England and Sweden

Higher education institutions in the UK are required, by law, to make anticipatory reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities. Inclusive teaching practice, if adopted across the sector, would ensure that the needs of students with disabilities are considered and provided for, before they even arrive on campus. This paper sets out the background and key findings from an institutional research project at a UK university that aimed to discover if academic staff's attitudes would be problematic or conducive to the implementation of inclusive teaching practice. The paper concludes that there is little evidence of widespread “resistance” but rather, the research discovered a prevailing belief in the rights of students with disabilities to education, albeit a belief which is limited in its practical application in the classroom. The paper also reports on a number of recommendations made to the case study university as a result of this research.     

The critical policy discourse analysis frame: helping doctoral students engage with the educational policy analysis

This paper addresses an issue of increasing significance in the context of taught educational doctorates and argues that this may have wider applicability for doctoral students across a range of social science disciplines. It identifies the need to engage with policy analysis as a key element of such programmes and attempts to address students' concerns over a lack of practical approaches to do so by offering an analytical framework drawing on critical discourse analysis. This paper highlights the affordances of a taught doctorate context to consider the potential for more collaborative community approaches to doctoral pedagogies through reflecting upon the way the frame was introduced and used by one group of EdD students. In doing so, this paper offers both a practical analytical tool for doctoral students but also a pedagogical approach grounded in an invitation to dialogue and induction into the academic discourse community, through a notion of critical inclusion.     

Teachers as mothers in the elementary classroom: negotiating the needs of self and other

In this paper, I interrogate the implicit and largely unexamined relationship between mothering and elementary teaching as they are informed by dominant notions of caring in the United States. In an environment where students were seen as not receiving adequate care at home, the teachers in this study felt a need to act as mothers in their professional lives. The consequences of such “deficit thinking” for students are well explored in the literature on teaching and learning. What has been less well explored are the consequences of this teacher‐as‐mother notion for teachers themselves. Drawing from the narratives of six women elementary school teachers, I suggest that assuming the role of mother to one's students not only devalues students' identity and experience, but limits teachers' ability to adequately care for themselves.     

‘We matter just the same’: students and pre-service teachers working together in an alternative educational setting

This paper examines how a clinical experience in an alternative educational setting impacted both pre-service secondary teachers and the students with whom they worked. The participants were pre-service secondary teachers completing a clinical experience at a local agency that served a population of students for whom traditional school settings were not effective, as well as students at the agency. The results indicate that for the pre-service teachers, the experience allowed them to develop a deeper understanding of learner diversity and the importance of connecting to students. For the agency students, the interactions with the pre-service teachers provided them with additional academic support, as well as resources for post-secondary education. The agency students also recognized that they had the power to show pre-service teachers how to work effectively with students for whom traditional school settings are a challenge. The authors conclude with implications for pre-service teachers, agency students, and university and clinical site instructors, as well as practical considerations for developing such partnerships.     

Is Liberal Studies a political instrument in the secondary school curriculum? Lessons from the Umbrella Movement in post-colonial Hong Kong

This paper examines whether Hong Kong teachers and students perceived Liberal Studies and its ongoing curriculum review as politically driven during and after the Umbrella Movement, a large-scale civil disobedience campaign that took place in September 2014. The findings presented herein show that both groups disagreed with the claim that Liberal Studies was used as a political instrument to instigate students’ participation in the protest movement. Moreover, they also reveal that teachers have maintained their neutrality towards controversial issues related to politics during Liberal Studies lessons. Whilst the participating teachers and students considered the government's proposed reform of Liberal Studies to be politically motivated, they held differing attitudes towards the addition of more China-related elements to the subject. On the basis of these results, this paper analyses the potential role of Liberal Studies in the democratisation of local society. It also provides an indication of the curriculum's dynamic nature, explanation of students’ resistance to the review policy and suggestions for the subject's future development.     

Counselor Educators and Qualitative Research: Affirming a Research Identity

The lack of enthusiastic research activity among counseling professionals has been a subject of professional concern for the last 2 decades. Many graduates of counselor education programs are not connected to academic research and do not establish a research identity. Qualitative research methods have the potential for creating this connection for some students. To increase understanding of the nature and potential usefulness of this paradigm for increasing counselors' connection to academic research, the authors conducted a phenomenological study to investigate the experiences of counselor education doctoral students as they encountered qualitative research. Students' positive responses were summarized as they reflected 4 themes: worldview congruence, theory and skills congruence, research identity and professional viability, and holistic nature of perceptions and experiences.     

Critical Issues in Teaching a Multicultural Counseling Course

A Multicultural Counseling course (MCC) brings unique challenges and rewards to both instructors and students. Given its unique challenges, the process of teaching a MCC is as important as, or even more important than, the content. Drawing from extant literature and the authors’ experiences, this paper discusses such topics as what to teach, how to teach, classroom dynamics, instructors’ issues, and students’ issues to provide a concise, practical, and comprehensive framework for teaching such difficult but essential courses.     

Teaching as a career: a perspective from Hong Kong senior secondary students

This study examined the views of teaching as a career choice held by Hong Kong students in their final year of upper secondary school (Secondary Seven). Significant differences were found between students' interest in teaching and demographic characteristics such as gender, religious beliefs, household income and parents' education levels, as well as their public examination scores and streams of study. Three attractive and three deterrent factors were identified among the reasons influencing students' choice of teaching as a career, respectively. Among 20 listed occupations, teaching was ranked relatively high by the students both as the occupation they ‘most wanted’ and ‘most respected’. The paper discusses the implications of these findings and draws conclusions which may be helpful to teacher education providers and policy makers on measures to recruit prospective students to initial teacher education.