Student Evaluation in Co‐operative Learning: teacher cognitions

Abstract

This paper concerns recognition of the authority of teachers’ personal practical knowledge. An Australian teacher reports on her three‐and‐a‐half‐year collaborative study with a Canadian junior high school teacher. The research follows a line of research on teacher knowledge (Elbaz, 1983; Clandinin, 1986; Connelly & Clandinin, 1988; Clandinin & Connelly, 1995) informed by Dewey's (1938) philosophy of education based on experience. Narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) is the methodology guiding the study. A summary of five papers on teacher knowledge emerging from the study is presented. These papers show how the research knowledge is constructed as the researcher and collaborating teacher examine their narratives of experience as a means to articulating their understandings of curriculum and teacher knowledge. This dissertation research argues for recognition of teachers’ personal practical knowledge as knowledge and for recognition of collaborative research as educative for teachers. The implications of this research concern teachers authoring their development and the ways in which teachers’ knowledge is systemically denied.     

Tackling multimodal news: Some implications of critical analytical research on the ‘children overboard’ affair

Abstract

Accounting for front‐page news puts pressure on analytical resources, especially when news‐making is characterised by features such as overt political intervention in visual (photographic) and verbal (attribution) news data; explicit references to and investment in visual news to support political claims about news‐makers; and significant changes over time to a story, moving it from public scandal, through media disclosure to political defence. This article offers an account of how I tackled these analytical challenges in my research into the ‘children overboard’ affair in Australian newspapers.

The affair was generated from a false claim by Liberal Party ministers that asylum seekers threw their children overboard to coerce the Australian Navy into rescuing them. The story became front‐page news in October, 2001, helped to provide the Coalition with another term in office and greatly influenced public discourse about refugees and border protection. The article shows how I analysed semiotic resources such as voicing (in verbal news) and framing (in visual news) to track changes in this affair. It argues that political interventions in these semiotic resources (what I call ‘first‐order discourse') were pivotal in the management of news about asylum seekers. The article concludes by highlighting some implications of the methodology for critical analysis of multimodal news discourse.     

Pawns against the devil

Abstract

This article outlines the innovative methodology I have developed for a study of young women, classed‐hybrid‐subjectivities and Australian government policies of ‘mutual obligation’. This methodology further develops and disturbs existing notions of research methods involving young people. I argue that in order for research involving young people to be inclusive it needs to attend to issues of ‘sameness, difference and diversity’. Central to this study are the notions of feminst praxis (Lather ¹; Weiner ²) where the feminist‐researcher as feminist‐teacher grapples with issues of classism, racism, sexism, reflexivity and self‐reflexivity whilst attempting to take on and fulfill the roles of teacher‐researcher, researcher‐teacher in an ‘inclusive’ classroom.     

Individual and contextual variables among creative scientists: The new work paradigm

This article discusses the individual and contextual factors that are salient to high levels of creativity among scientists working in organizational settings in the modern world. The article contrasts such scientists with traditional depictions of creative scientists and draws implications for future directions for creativity research and for the education and development of young scientists.     

Research planning and management in non‐traditional research discipline areas

Abstract

In its drive for higher efficiency and effectiveness in higher education, the Australian Commonwealth Government released its policy on higher education, Higher Education: A Policy Statement during the late 1980s which contributed to the introduction of performance indicators to manage and assess the performance of the higher education system. The research component of annual Commonwealth funding to universities, called the Research Quantum, is now distributed by a set of performance indicators: external research income, publications count and higher degree research completions. This paper analysed the impact of these indicators on the research activities of Australian university academics based on Leibenstein's model of X‐efficiency. Although the impact of performance indicators on university academics was found to follow the pressure‐effort relationship, for some respondents, the increase in effort as a result of heightened pressure had involved strategic behaviour. Two conditions that are identified for the minimisation of an institution's X‐inefficiency despite high staff effort are a high ratio of maximising to non‐maximising decisions for both the staff and institution, and for all the institution's essential objectives/activities, and not just those which are measured by the performance indicators. The implications of these findings for the development and application of performance indicators are discussed.     

Inter‐disciplinary but not Undisciplined: Writing the history of Aboriginal “education”

The history of Australian Aboriginal peoples sits uneasily on the margins of Australian history in much the same way as Aboriginal peoples themselves exist on the borders and interstices of the society that has colonised them and dispossessed them of their lands and cultures. The history of education likewise, sits somewhat on the margins of the discipline of history. The history of Aboriginal education, therefore, has never been a large field of study, though a handful of individuals have made important contributions.

This article will consider some of the reasons for the current position of the study of how Aboriginal peoples have learned and been taught in the past and will suggest that there are a number of inter‐related reasons for the limitations of both research and analysis within the field. Some of these limitations stem from the discipline itself, others from the subject. They will be discussed using examples from research with Australian Aboriginal and Canadian First Nations peoples and with regard to some recent publications in Australia and New Zealand.     

‘Meeting initial needs in literacy’ (MINILIT): A ramp to MULTILIT for younger low‐progress readers

Abstract

In spite of serious reservations expressed by reading scientists regarding both its efficacy and its cost effectiveness, for over 20 years Reading Recovery has been promoted internationally as the intervention of choice for young struggling readers. Following a brief review of research on Reading Recovery, several suggestions for improvement are suggested. An alternative small group‐based instructional model (MINILIT) is then described. This provides additional focus on phonemic awareness and allows access to the MULTILIT program for younger struggling readers. The results from two preliminary pilot studies are presented.     

THE LEVELS OF DECISION MAKING IN MULTI‐UNIT COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEMS

This study advances a foundation for future exploration of applied understandings of factors that influence decision levels in multi‐unit community college systems. The purposes of the study were to examine the levels at which decisions were made in nine selected decision areas, and to determine the relationship between (a) the levels at which decisions were made in systems, (b) the factors of institutional size and history, and (c) the number of system‐level personnel. The data for analysis were collected from 26 community college systems that were responsible for only a portion of higher education in the state, had a system‐level president or chancellor as the chief executive officer, and had a central office separate from the campuses in the system. The Aston method of collecting data from formal organizations was utilized to identify the formal structure and context of the systems. The major findings are that faculty‐ and student‐related matters are generally decided at the campus level and that major managerial matters are generally decided at the central‐office level.     

The education of children with special needs: a cross‐cultural perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses issues attendant on the practice of identifying pupils with special educational needs in advanced educational systems. Current practices in Australia and Scotland are described and attention is drawn to the problems generated by the abandonment of a category‐based approach to children with special educational needs, the variability of practice between authorities and the absence of reliable data on incidence of special educational needs. Placement outcome data derived from a Scottish study are presented and discussed. The paper concludes with discussion of Australian and Scottish practice set against United States’ experience in the light of Public Law 94‐142 and identifies areas for future research.     

Monitoring Training Programmes Using Level of Use Interviews

Abstract

Many sound innovations in vocational education and training ‘fail’ because they are poorly implemented. This finding has recently prompted some vocational educators and trainers to find more effective methods for monitoring the learning outcomes of their training programmes in the workplace. This paper reports on a case study of innovation implementation in a unit of a large Australian telecommunication organisation. A form of participatory action research enabled the monitoring of the training outcomes to be undertaken by the (17) front‐line managers themselves. The Levels of Use (LoU) of the innovation interview was adapted by the participants to monitor a new telephone repair service called ‘Fix‐it‐First‐Time’. The main findings reported here deal with the success of the action learning process that was integral to measuring the implementation outcomes. These findings are also briefly discussed in the context of some European trends in vocational education and training.     

‘Reporting Trainee Competence: what,and how much do employers need to know?

ABSTRACT

Three major elements in the Australian national workplace reform agenda are the introduction of key/generic workplace competencies, national occupational employment standards and a competency‐based education‐training system that recognises prior learning and assures development of identified competencies, both generic and occupationally specific. Attempts to develop effective and efficient assessment schemes to determine participant competence are underway. A continuing major concern, however, is how best to report information to potential employers. While employers need sufficient relevant information to make informed hiring decisions there is the distinct danger of providing too much detailed information in a competency‐based education system that it is not able to be used in a timely and efficient fashion. This paper reviews the merits of selected reporting schemes being considered, and then presents questions for further research about employers' reactions to reporting of competency information.     

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) used in an Australian context

Abstract

This study explored use of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) subtests in an Australian context, as part of a larger study of reading accuracy achievement. Subjects were 398 Queensland (Qld) students in Years 1, 2, and 3, who were tested on DIBELS reading accuracy subtests at mid‐year and end‐year test points in 2005. Alignment with DIBELS USA benchmark cutpoints was poor, probably due to schooling differences, as Qld starts formal reading instruction a year later than the USA. In discussion with the DIBELS authors, it was decided to develop interim local Qld benchmarks from the data, to be used by schools and researchers until longitudinal research establishes more valid benchmark cutpoints. The characteristics and advantages of DIBELS are discussed.     

The problem of large classes in science: An experiment in co‐operative learning

After reviewing the uses made of concept maps in research, as an aid to instruction and as a form of assessment, the problems of scoring maps objectively are discussed. Maps created de novo by 15‐16 year‐old pupils, before and after their introduction to Mendelian genetics, are used to investigate the properties of a scoring system based on that developed by Novak et al. (1983). The maps have been scored separately for a number of features ('branching’, ‘general to specific’, ‘closed units’, ‘terminology’, ‘relationships’ and ‘ hierarchy ‘) and compared with performance on genetics examination‐type questions. The components are not all independent, and do not have strong relationships with performance. The limitations of analytic methods of scoring concept maps are discussed.     

Learning to read in Australia

Abstract

Reading scientists have learned a good deal over the past 40 years about how children learn to read, why some find this so hard, and how such children can be helped. But this science has not reached many classrooms. National governments in the USA, UK and Australia have all recently been so concerned about the incidence of poor reading ability amongst their children that they have commissioned national surveys of reading and the teaching of reading. The Australian review committee issued its report and recommendations in December 2005. The report found that in most teacher training courses around Australia very little time was devoted to material on how children learn to read and how best to teach them, and that a majority of senior staff in schools consider that beginning teachers are not adequately prepared to teach children to read. The report recommended various ways in which this problem might be solved; and it also recommended, on the basis of a review of relevant research, that the teaching of reading in Australian schools should always include in the early years extensive systematic explicit instruction in synthetic phonics. We await implementation of these recommendations.     

Recurrent Education: Strategy for Change,or Cooptation?

Abstracts

English

Is recurrent education a practical strategy for change? This research paper reports some of the reactions of the Australian legal profession to recurrent education and suggests that a covert alliance between the profession and its educators results in a strong resistance to this rather radical approach to education.     

Superheroes and supervillains: reconstructing the mad-scientist stereotype in school science

Reform recommendations around the world call for an understanding about the nature of science and the work of scientists. However, related research findings provide evidence that students hold stereotypical views of scientists and the nature of their work.

Purpose

The aim of this case study was to examine the impact of an intervention on 15 elementary school students’ views of scientists.

Sample

An urban, fifth-grade, European elementary school classroom defined the context of this study.

Design and method

The intervention was an 11-week-long investigation of a local problem concerning water quality. In carrying out this investigation the students collaborated with a young metrology scientist to collect and analyse authentic data that would help them to construct a claim about the quality of the water. The students’ initial views of scientists were investigated through a drawing activity, classroom discussions and interviews.

Results

Analysis of these data indicated that all students but one girl held very stereotypical views on scientists and the nature of their work. Analysis of interviews with each student and classroom discussions after the intervention illustrated that they reconstructed their stereotypical views of scientists and the nature of their work owing to their personal engagement in the investigation and their collaboration with the scientist.

Conclusions

The findings of this study suggest that more in-depth study into project-based approaches, out-of-school learning and school–scientist partnerships is warranted, for the purpose of determining appropriate pedagogies that support students in developing up-to-date understanding about scientists and the nature of their work.     

Friendly enemies: Student Tolerance in a Liberal University

Abstract

This article considers whether the methodology used for research determines the viewpoint of the researcher, or whether the researcher's view of the world determines the methodology. The purpose of the article is to consider some of the questions arising from the author's endeavour to conceptualise a methodological framework for a doctoral analysis of the Australian Commonwealth Literacy Policy Literacy for All: The Challenge for Australian Schools (DEETYA 1998).     

Non‐traditional students in Australian higher education: Persistent inequities and the new ideology of ‘student choice’

Abstract

Despite the expansion of access to Australian higher education in the past decade, the participation shares of rural and isolated people and people from lower socio‐economic backgrounds have altered little and remain unacceptably low. This paper reports findings from two national studies at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education that have examined student choices about higher education, especially the inhibiting factors still present for non‐traditional students. The discussion focuses on the dilemmas and challenges for Australian universities in balancing the adoption of entrepreneurial approaches to student recruitment with an unfinished equity agenda. The paper raises questions about the new ideology of individual choice influencing university policy and whether or not this can be reconciled with social equity objectives.