Manipulating and diversifying the levels of difficulty and task‐sophistication of one and the same laboratory exercise

Summaries

English.

The major national curriculum development projects in the UK were produced between 1963 and 1973. Although funded by two differentnational organizations, there has been considerable co‐operation and overlap of project staff and ideas resulting in a continuousrefinement of the centre‐periphery model used. By the end of the 10‐year period the model's defects had become clear and the continuing national projects considered it essential to request additional funds for further dissemination and after‐care. Subsequent projects have mostly been based on a local curriculum development model involving practising teachers to a much greater extent both in the curriculum development process and in the preparation of materials.

It has become apparent that there is no single measure on which a project can be called successful or on which it can be determined that a project has ‘taken root’. Projects can fulfil their proposers’ wildest hopes and yet achieve little uptake; or, they can take root in the sense of having a considerable impact on science education in general whilst being substantially used by only a minority of the target group of teachers. The thesis of this article is that whilst dissemination and after‐care are essential, they are not sufficient to ensure uptake. Of prime importance isthe general attitude to curriculum development; the relevance of theprojects materials and ideas to the problems teachers face in schools; the extent to which they offer teachers fulfilment without requiring a complete re‐evaluation of their perspective to education and the cost in terms of equipment, materials and manpower.     

Seeing the ‘new’ in light of the ‘old’: evolving interpretations of a new national English curriculum

This 2‐year longitudinal study explores the process by which three populations of practitioners (mentors, co‐ordinators, and teachers) interpreted a national curriculum involving a change in policies for teaching English as a foreign language. The analysis revealed that the process of managing the changes brought about by the new curriculum yielded ‘dialogues of practice’ between ‘old’ and ‘new’. These dialogues engaged mentors, co‐ordinators, and teachers alike in mediating between new understandings and old ones. It addresses the ways in which they made sense of the terminology of the new curriculum in light of the old curriculum, negotiated between new pedagogical content knowledge and ingrained conceptions of subject‐matter teaching, adapted old understandings of testing to new conceptions of performance‐assessment processes, and mediated between their need to preserve a sense of professional competence while feeling destabilized as ‘novices’ as they confronted innovative curricular practices. Participants' strategic need to ‘survive’ the changes resulted in the development of networks to support professional exchange and assist teachers in managing their way through the uncertainty of curricular change.     

Assessment in French primary schools

ABSTRACT

Despite its current high regard in parts of the English educational community, education in France has been as much the subject of public and political concern in recent years as it has in many other countries. One manifestation of this concern was the Loi Jospin of 1989, the aim of which was to continue to encourage the growth of diversity among schools as a response to local needs. Associated with this goal was that of making teachers more willing and able to respond to the increasingly diverse needs of their pupils. By so doing, it was hoped to raise the overall level of student success within the system. This paper looks at one aspect of teachers’ practice and the impact of current reforms on it–that of assessment. Having briefly described the provisions of the Jospin Law, it discusses how these are affecting teachers’ attitudes and practice, using data from the ESRC‐funded ‘Systems, Teachers and Educational Policy’ (STEP) project (ESRC Award No.: R 000 23 4673). Some tentative conclusions about the scale of change and the significance of French primary teachers’ attitudes to assessment are offered.     

Is assessment for learning feasible in large classes? Challenges and coping strategies from three case studies

ABSTRACT

While assessment for learning (AfL) has been widely used in college English classrooms in China where teachers usually teach large classes, how AfL is implemented in the large-class higher education (HE) context is relatively underexplored. To address this gap, this study explores some of the challenges presented by large classes and the teachers’ coping strategies through case studies of three university English teachers’ AfL practices. Challenges are identified surrounding how the teachers dealt with (a) inadequate attention to individual students, (b) reduced opportunities for individualised feedback, (c) overwhelming marking responsibilities, and (d) involving students in assessment, with strategies of putting students in groups, matching names with faces, conducting teacher-student conferences, utilising technology to facilitate feedback processes, enabling peer feedback, and transforming students from assessees to assessors. Findings are framed around useful forms of AfL in large classes and the feasibility of AfL in terms of compromises between teacher agency and their temporal and contextual conditions. The paper concludes with implications for teacher assessment training, teacher education and policy-making.     

How teachers experience assessment tension and its effect on formative assessment practices

Formative assessment (FA) has been a popular discourse in education, but its potential benefit is fundamentally dependent on teachers’ willingness to make changes to their classroom practices. These changes bring about much assessment tension (AT). This paper argues that how well teachers experience and manage AT determines the efficacy of their FA practices. Past studies have warned that AT experienced by teachers is complex and problematic. Therefore, it would be useful to investigate the variation of AT experienced by teachers, and how well they are dealing with these tensions. This phenomenographic research examines the use of FA in the context of different ways that AT is experienced. Findings on teachers’ conceptions of AT are presented, and each is then discussed for insights into teachers’ meanings and practices of assessment. In particular, instances of how AT hindered or helped FA are identified to highlight more productive ways of understanding and using assessment to support students’ learning. Implications of the research findings for the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) will be discussed.

     

Can teachers motivate students to learn?

Research on motivation has mainly concentrated on the role of goal orientation and self‐evaluation in conducting learning activities. In this paper, we examine the relative importance of teachers’ teaching and their efficacy beliefs to explain variation in student motivation. Questionnaires were used to measure the well‐being, academic self‐efficacy, mastery goal orientation, performance avoidance, intrinsic motivation and school investment of students (n = 3462) and the teaching practices and teachers’ sense of self‐efficacy (n = 194) in primary schools. Results of the multi‐level analyses show that connection to the students’ world and cooperative learning methods had a positive effect on students’ motivation, while process‐oriented instruction by the teacher had a negative effect on motivational behaviour and motivational factors of students. Finally, the results lend credence to the argument that teachers’ sense of self‐efficacy has an impact on both teachers’ teaching and students’ motivation to learn.     

Classroom assessment in Greek primary schools

ABSTRACT

This paper briefly presents some of the main findings concerning the implementation of assessment in Greek primary classrooms, from a study which explored the relation between teaching, learning and assessment in the primary classroom. It examines the assessment practices used; the purposes teachers attempted to fulfil when assessing; and the content of these assessments. The broader aim of the study was to present a general picture of assessment procedures in a typical Greek primary classroom. Classroom observations, a questionnaire and informal interviews with observed teachers and pupils provided rich data regarding teachers’ practices and their views of assessment.     

“We do investigate ourselves”: figurative assessment practices as meaning-making in English education

ABSTRACT

In this study of microteaching in a secondary English methods course, we intentionally stray from normative assessment practice, instead asking pre-service teachers to provide feedback on their peers’ microteaching using assessment practices designed to orient them figuratively. The term ‘figurative’ refers to ‘figurative language’: the bringing together of multiple, seemingly unrelated things, through associative configurations, and placing them side-by-side in order to reorient thought towards new or unexpected meanings. This study reframes assessment, not as a means of collecting data on what students have learned from a given lesson in order to evaluate and augment learning, but instead figuratively, as providing opportunities to expand and imagine ways of meaning-making through and with assessment. We examine in detail four modes of figurative assessment practices through which we sought to surprise and disorient students, producing new and different kinds of responses to microteaching that went beyond normative feedback practices.     

What GATE Did: an exploration of the effects of the CATE criteria on students’ use of information technology during teaching practice

ABSTRACT

Information technology (IT) has assumed an increasingly important role in the English primary school curriculum. The CATE criteria (DES, 1989b) require that student teachers develop competencies in teaching with IT if courses are to be accredited. Consequently, colleges have modified their policies and practices. To explore the effects of these changes, the experiences of a group of students were monitored over their four year course at Edge Hill College, and related to the experiences of students from a pre‐CATE cohort The CATE group made more use of IT in each of their teaching practices, with every respondent reporting some use of IT. Word processing was the most common IT based activity; uses of LOGO and simulations were disappointingly low. Students’ accounts of the benefits to pupils from using IT focused largely on improving skills in specific subject areas and computer skills, increasing motivation, and facilitating group and social skills. Little emphasis was placed on the development of thinking skills. Very few tutors offered help with IT on teaching practice; tutor skills, and in‐school mentoring both appear to be barriers to development These data are related to on‐going developments in the College. CATE has had, and continues to have, a direct effect upon College practices and these effects are visible in the classroom experiences of student teachers. Yet more progress is needed in developing student teachers’ abilities to use IT in class; we conclude that IT development should be seen as the focus for long term development, like other professional skills.     

Teacher Professional Growth on Assessment Literacy: A Case Study of Prevocational Geography Education in the Netherlands

Abstract

Teachers should have the necessary assessment knowledge and skills to contribute to students’ learning. This study provides insight into how a professional development program for teachers contributed to the achievement of higher mastery levels of assessment literacy. This study used Xu and Brown's TALiP (Teacher Assessment Literacy in Practice) framework to achieve these higher levels. To evaluate the extent to which teachers demonstrated professional growth regarding their assessment literacy, teachers’ practices were evaluated through a content analysis of summative assessments. Potential changes in teachers’ knowledge, skills, and beliefs were measured through questionnaires and interviews. The outcomes showed that reflection on educational goals and on teachers’ beliefs, collaborative practice, and peer feedback played an important role in fostering higher mastery levels in assessment literacy. The outcomes of this study support the value of the TALiP framework and support the idea that professional growth could be fostered via diverse growth pathways.     

The Politics of Emotions in ELT: Structure of Feeling and Anxiety of Korean English Teachers

ABSTRACT

Using the notion of structure of feeling by Raymond Williams, this article seeks to illuminate an ideological understanding of Korean English teachers’ anxiety and deep sense of insecurity in English language teaching (ELT). Through a discussion of how their anxiety is grounded deeply within unequal social relations and how they reframe their anxiety through critical reflection on the cultural and ideological bias of their own anxiety, it points out the intricate relationship between ideology and emotion; teachers’ emotions are shaped by dominant ideologies that constitute the social structures constraining their position as teachers, while their engagement with those emotions also enables their self-transformation towards gaining confidence as teachers. The results of the study emphasise the tension between social structure and agency in teachers’ emotional experiences and discuss implications for teacher education and development.     

Comparison between conceptions and assessment practices among secondary education teachers: more differences than similarities (Comparación entre concepciones y prácticas de evaluación en profesores de Educación Secundaria: más diferencias que semejanzas)

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ conceptions can affect any teaching practice, including assessment. Compared with the previous learning stages in Spain, the accreditation-based focus increases in secondary education. Therefore, it is necessary to study the conceptions teachers have of assessment during this stage and the role these play in their teaching practices. The study participants comprised 219 secondary education teachers. A mixed methodology including a questionnaire, dilemmas and the analysis of test contents was used. An analysis was implemented of the relationship between the conceptions of assessment and the type of tests used, self-assessment and peer assessment, and characteristics of feedback. The teachers reported having a formative conception, but this was incoherent with their assessment methods characterized by a scarce use of self-assessment and peer assessment and a hardly formative feedback. In conclusion, we highlight the relevance of the teaching-related conceptions in the education system and the need for working jointly with teachers to implement an authentically formative assessment in the classroom, with an emphasis on consistency between conceptions and practices.     

A fair game – the neoliberal (re)organisation of social and relational practices in local school settings

Abstract

In this article, we use data from ethnography-inspired studies of eight Swedish schools. We describe and analyse how a number of neoliberal-inspired economic and political processes have (re)organised social and relational practices in local school settings. There is an increased focus on individuality in the everyday working lives of teachers, where result-centred practices, relations and professional identities have replaced notions of equality and compensatory interventions. In our study, the teachers describe an increasing focus on performativity, competition and hierarchisation. We use fairness as a lens for illuminating these changes in social relations, changes in the organisation of teachers’ practices, and teachers’ struggles with these changes. The purpose of this study is to analyse how the current reforms are enacted and how they affect the working lives of teachers, and thereby to contribute to the current discussion on how the last decades of political and administrative changes have affected educational practice.     

Classroom Transactions of Student‐Teachers of Science

Summaries

English

The report describes a study of the teaching behaviour of student‐teachers of science disciplines during the one‐term teaching practice of the English ‘Post‐Graduate Certificate in Education’ course, using the Science Teaching Observation Schedule by Eggleston et al.

The results suggest that in several behavioural dimensions, students and teachers achieve a close match. These dimensions, it is suggested, could represent the ‘stable’ elements in the students’ perception of science teacher behaviour learnt during their time as pupils, or they might represent ‘safe’ transactions which do not involve students extensively in problems of classroom management and control.

For other behaviour categories, it was found that students tended to behave less like experienced teachers as the training practice proceeded, but this was to some extent determined by the subject taught. Physics student‐teachers substantially maintained their similarity to experienced teachers, whilst chemistry and biology students drifted away. The nature of these drifts is discussed.     

Nostalgia in the narratives of vocational teachers as a way of understanding responses to change

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on nostalgia in the narratives of vocational teachers. The aim is to understand the role of nostalgia as a mechanism for adapting to or resisting educational change. The paper is based on the secondary analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 Estonian vocational teachers. In the teachers’ narratives, the nostalgia for the former vocational education system, which provided more autonomy and empowerment for teachers in their work, was overlaid with the nostalgia for a society with more stable family and work-life patterns and trusting attitudes towards vocational teachers. Although there were examples where the nostalgic narratives were strategically used to legitimize resistance to change, in most cases, nostalgia tends to serve as the mechanism for making sense of the educational changes teachers have been faced with. Nostalgia also contributes to making sense of oneself as a teacher in a new situation and collective identity building. It is argued in the paper that we should acknowledge the positive functions of nostalgia and create support mechanisms to facilitate sense-making and critical reflection upon the changes for teachers. Nostalgia should be recognized as a productive force indicating the contradictions in present reforms and practices and opening up new directions.     

Collaborative teacher professional development in schools in England (UK) and Shanghai (China): cultures,contexts and tensions

ABSTRACT

This mixed method research explores the contexts, purposes, forms, practices, and effects of school provided collaborative professional development (PD) as experienced by teachers working in primary and secondary schools in England and Shanghai. The research is part of a larger partnership pilot study by the University of Nottingham and Shanghai Normal University, which focused on opportunities for and experiences of participation in formally organized professional development, using as a point of departure the findings of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 report of teachers’ perceptions of their professional development. Given the differences between the two jurisdictions in their PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) rankings, and between national cultures, teacher expectations and conditions of work, professional development purposes, forms and practices in schools might be expected to differ. The research found that there was a similar emphasis in both jurisdictions upon ‘functional’ rather than ‘attitudinal’ oriented professional development, but that teachers in Shanghai schools experienced more of the latter than those in the English schools studied. Such differences in the relative emphasis between the two jurisdictions upon the ‘attitudinal’, challenge the benefits of focusing collaborative professional development primarily upon the ‘functional’ in English schools.     

Doing without believing – enacting policy in the English primary school

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how six English primary school teachers enact assessment and attainment-focused policy and asks what this performative policy work does and whether it shapes or requires a new kind of primary teacher subjectivity. The paper draws on a small study of policy enactments in two primary schools in Greater London in order to discuss two dimensions of policy enactment that emerged from our data: first, shifting assessment regimes in primary schools which create an enactment environment of second-guessing policy; second, a shift in focus from the individual child to targeted groups that raises questions about more traditional primary school values. The paper concludes with a reflection on the effects of contradictory values and practices and how this policy context creates a form of ‘doing without believing’ in the English primary school.     

Moving between literacy theory and practice with preservice teachers: Listening to their voices

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate two research questions: What literacy learning did preservice teachers experience through a Penpal Project embedded in an early literacy course? What sense did preservice teachers make of the Penpal Project?—with an overarching focus on bridging literacy theory with practice.

Data were gathered in a university classroom setting, situated in a small Western town, over a period of one school semester. Data methods and sources included videotaped participant observation during weekly penpal letter‐sharing, preservice teachers’ reflection journals, focus group interviews, and preservice teachers’ Penpal Project Summaries.

Patterns emerged from the data and were conceptualized under three broad categories: discourse, discovery and dilemmas. In the discourse category, cultivating relationships and learning through collaboration emerged as themes. Discoveries included meaning‐ and skill‐centered interpretations and professional learning. With regard to dilemmas, preservice teachers reported feelings of inadequacy in decoding their penpals’ letters, in finding topics to pique their penpals’ interests, and in making logical speculations.

Conclusions highlighted the importance of including field experiences in teacher education courses in order for preservice teachers to integrate early literacy theory and practice. A focus on forming relationships, working in collaboration with others, and acknowledging and solving challenges revealed added benefits for the preservice teachers, including a deeper understanding of young students’ early literacy development.     

Social,Innovative and Deep: Exploring Digital Literacies in a Year 9 English Classroom

ABSTRACT

How are teachers who identify as “digital literacy trailblazers’ exploring and experimenting with digital tools in their English classrooms? Based on a study of English teaching with digital tools, this paper draws on the case of one secondary school teacher and her year 9 class as they read Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) and engage with three digital applications in their learning about historical context, literary language and narrative voice. The case is presented in order to discuss digital literacy practices in the context of English curriculum and pedagogy.