Organizational epistemology,education and social theory

Organizational learning or epistemology has emerged in order to manage the creation of knowledge and innovation within contemporary capitalism. Its insights are being applied also to the public sector. Much of the research in organizational learning has drawn upon the discipline of psychology, particularly constructivist theory. Two approaches in organizational epistemology are considered here: Nonaka’s theory of knowledge creation, and Engeström’s expansive learning theory. Notwithstanding the reference to ‘learning’, these approaches have so far had little application to schools, especially at the level of pedagogy. But there are indications that re‐culturing, ‘workforce re‐modelling’ and inter‐agency working are becoming more prominent within the public services in England. In these endeavours, government may come to regard organizational epistemology as an important new procedure in the management of change. Thus far, sociology has had two kinds of ‘relationship’ with organizational epistemology: first, social phenomenology and ethnomethodology have been of practical use; and, second, critical theory objects to the near‐absence of a consideration of power and ideology within the discourse of organizational epistemology.     

Political Education: Cognitive Developmental Perspectives from Moral Education

Abstract

In a recent television feature for BBC'sPublic Eye—’Teacher Training: Back to the Classroom?‘—the hoary old issue of the proper balance of theory and practice in the professional preparation of teachers was aired yet again. During the ensuing debate the various distinguished contributors to the programme adopted one or the other of the two main positions—either that educational theory might well be dispensed with entirely in favour of some kind of direct school‐based initiation into the craft skills of teaching or that theory should be taken out of the colleges and into the schools in order to be more directly relevant or applicable to practice. The main argument of this paper is that both these positions are predicated on a common mistaken assumption that the theoretically informed practical discourse which underlies rational educational debate and discussion is essentially a kind of technical discourse concerned primarily with the largely pragmatic achievement of certain value‐neutral goals. Attempts to integrate theory with practice or to dispense with it altogether in favour of practice both miss the point that the heart of so‐called theoretical educational discourse is moral and evaluative in character and its proper concern is with the education rather than the practical training of teachers.     

“教育科研方法”课程两段七环实训教学模式的实践研究

有效提升师范生研究能力的课程与教学建设是高等师范院校当前面临的一个现实难题。通过高师“教育科研方法”课程的课堂教学模式变革的实践探索,以加涅的教学理论为心理学依据,总结归纳出了“教育科研方法”课程的两段七环研究能力实训教学模式,并就师范生研究能力实训教学所涉及到的理论依据、教学目标、教学重难点、促进学生自修策略等重要问题展开了分析论述。     

Addressing the context of e‐learning: using transactional distance theory to inform design

The rapidly expanding range of options available for innovative e‐learning approaches based on emerging technologies has given renewed importance to teaching and learning issues that have long been familiar to distance educators. These issues arise from the separation between learners, and between teacher and learners, which occurs when learning is undertaken wholly or partly online. There may be important implications that emerge from aspects of separation, depending on whether students are studying primarily on‐campus, off‐campus, trans‐nationally, or in specific contexts such as the home, the workplace, fieldwork locations, or other places made possible by mobile learning technologies. We suggest that the context of learning has significant implications for e‐learning design, and that one way of analysing these implications is to draw on understandings from distance education, particularly the theory of transactional distance. We use cases from two Australian universities to illustrate the practical application of these implications to e‐learning design, including designs that involve Web 2.0 technologies.     

The Self‐esteem of Pre‐service Physics Education Students

The self‐esteem as physics teachers of students taking pre‐service physics teacher education courses was investigated before and after the courses. It was found that students who dropped out from the courses had lower self‐esteem than either the students who satisfactorily completed them or similarly qualified students who did not take the courses. There was some evidence that learning pedagogical theory enhances self‐esteem if it takes place after practical teaching experience but has the opposite effect when taught first, in the absence of any practical teaching experience.     

Bringing Progressivism into a Critical Theory of Education

This paper argues for the theoretical and practical possibilities of applying a ‘critical theory’ of education to British primary schools. It traces the series of misconceptions and misinterpretations of progressive education which, coupled with the neglect of its own emancipatory potential, has allowed it to be discredited by right‐wing and left‐wing politics. Re‐establishing a fairer reading of its central tenets and coupling this with the developing concept of a ‘socially critical primary school’ provides for an emancipatory primary education which embraces critical theory.     

高职高专院校思想政治理论课实践教学初探——以河源职业技术学院思教部的教学实践为例

文章从高职高专院校人才培养目标和思想政治理论课教育教学的目的要求两个角度出发对思想政治理论课实践教学的必要性进行简要论述,并归纳了目前关于思想政治理论课实践教学的两种观点,按照对实践教学的广义理解介绍了所在学校开展实践教学的具体做法。     

Reflection‐Impulsivity and Wholist‐Analytic: two fledglings? ...or is R‐I a cuckoo?

Riding has proposed two families of cognitive styles: Wholist‐Analytic and Verbaliser‐Imager. Although the supporting empirical evidence has been demonstrated, the issue not fully addressed is whether the families are also theoretical valid. The task here is to evaluate the W‐A family against cognitive style theory, as proposed by Witkin and other style theorists. Several ideas are discussed: (1) Overall, the W‐A family provides a useful catalyst to styles research; (2) Despite the envisioned success of the W‐A family, reflection‐impulsivity may be a much less supportive member, having several differences with W‐A theory; (3) These have important implications for the continuing strength of styles theory and research. It also has strong implications for the application of cognitive styles in educational settings.     

Mastery Learning in Theory and in Practical Innovation

Lahdes, E. 1983 Mastery Learning in Theory and Practical Innovation. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 27, 89‐107. Mastery learning strategies represent a bold attempt to develop an ‘encouraging’ theory and practice of teaching. It has a theoretical and philosophical foundation, as a result of which mastery learning stands out from many other more narrowly‐based innovatory schools of thought. In this article main traits of the theory are sketched as well as some of its main relations to other educational innovatory approaches. Against this background a Finnish school experiment is presented in which the experimental group's curriculum followed the principles of mastery learning theory. The positive results are discussed as well as the mastery learning strategy's advantages and the practical difficulties restricting its usage in schools.     

The Search for Effective Schools

In the light of external reform pressures, many schools have found it difficult to implement medium‐to‐long‐term plans. Development planning was supposed to be a means of refining both the planning and the implementation of strategic priorities. Some recent writers are now casting doubts on planning and development planning and they are using chaos theory to justify this sceptical stance. This article is, in turn, sceptical about the application of chaos theory to school planning and instead suggests that control theory clarifies important differences between short‐term and long‐term planning and provides positive and practical insights into how development planning can be used by self‐managing schools as part of school improvement.     

English progressive educators and the creative child

Abstract

This article explores an approach to initial teacher education which emphasises the process of ‘practical theorising’ as the context in which educational theory can contribute to this professional education. The practical theorising approach is exemplified by reference to the Oxford Internship Scheme, and the article focusses especially on arguments against a practical theorising approach presented by Paul Hirst in a commentary on the Oxford scheme. These arguments are concerned with: the need for a public rationally defended consensual body of professional knowledge; the unreasonable demands which a practical theorising approach makes of student‐teachers; and the perceived failure of a practical theorising approach, at least in the Oxford context, to differentiate adequately among different kinds of theory and their place in initial teacher education.     

Correlation between academic and skills-based tests in computer networks

Computing‐related programmes and modules have many problems, especially related to large class sizes, large‐scale plagiarism, module franchising, and an increased requirement from students for increased amounts of hands‐on, practical work. This paper presents a practical computer networks module which uses a mixture of online examinations and a practical skills‐based test to assess student performance. For widespread adoption of practical assessments, there must be a level of checking that the practical assessments are set at a level that examinations are set at. This paper shows that it is possible to set practical tests so that there can be a strong correlation between practical skills‐based tests and examination‐type assessments, but only if the practical assessment are set at a challenging level. This tends to go against the proposition that students who are good academically are not so good in a practice test, and vice versa. The paper shows results which bands students in A, B, C, and FAIL groups based on two online, multiple‐choice tests, and then analyses the average time these students took to complete a practical online test. It shows that there is an increasing average time to complete the test for weaker students. Along with this, the paper shows that female students in the practical test outperform male students by a factor of 25%.     

Postmodern Challenges and Modern Horizons: education ‘for being for the environment‘

This article argues that a ‘humanly‐constructive’ critical theory of environmental education called ‘a critical ecological ontology for educational inquiry’ provides a necessary complement to the ‘socially‐critical’ perspective. This humanly‐constructive curriculum theory focuses on our individual and collective ‘being‐in‐the‐world’. It invites learners, teachers and researchers to study how their ‘lived experience’ of socio‐environmentally problematic circumstances is shaped and stretched globally by various economic and technological imperatives. In so doing, ‘a critical ecological ontology’ highlights the personal politic required for a socio‐ecological praxis. Of particular relevance to the socio‐ecological politic ‘for being’ are interpretations of postmodern agency that emerge from three practical applications of ‘a critical ecological ontology’. This dialogue of theory and practice is necessary in the critical curriculum project of environmental education     

A Case‐study Investigating the Relationship Between Perceived Self‐efficacy and Performance at Subtraction Tasks

Abstract This research note describes the rationale and methods used in a pilot single case‐study of teaching subtraction to an adolescent with specific learning difficulties. The rationale is derived from Bloom's theory of school learning with its emphasis on mastery of objectives and on the contributory influence of self‐concept of ability on learning outcomes. This is linked to Bandura's theory of self‐efficacy which is associated with a methodology for assessing self‐efficacy in relation to objectives. The results indicated that self‐efficacy judgements could predict subsequent subtraction performance and that there could have been some transfer in self‐efficacy from one task to another related task. The results are discussed in terms of assessment methodology and of future areas for theoretical and practical developments.     

Theory‐led confirmation bias and experimental persona

Questionnaire and interview findings from a survey of three Year 8 (ages 12–13 years) science practical lessons (n = 52) demonstrate how pupils' data collection and inference making were sometimes biased by desires to confirm a personal theory. A variety of behaviours are described where learners knowingly rejected anomalies, manipulated apparatus, invented results or carried out other improper operations to either collect data which they believed were scientifically correct, or achieve social conformity. It is proposed that confirmation bias was a consequence of the degree to which individuals were laden by theory, and driven by this, experimenters assumed one of three different personas: becoming right answer confirmers; good scientists; or indifferent spectators. These personas have parallels with historical instances of scientific behaviour. Implications of a continued teacher‐tolerance of pupil confirmation bias include the promotion of unscientific experimenting, and the persistence of unchallenged science misconceptions. Solutions are offered in the way of practical strategies that might reduce experimenters' theory‐ladeness.     

E‐learning and the transformation of social interaction in higher education

This article examines the way in which e‐learning is transforming the nature of social interaction in higher education. In this new educational environment, radical societal transitions and the opportunities afforded by modern communication technologies together produce formidable challenges. Significant as these challenges may be, concentration upon problems of a practical kind draws attention away from the more theoretical concerns in understanding e‐learning. By drawing together developments in social, educational and communicational theory and Gilly Salmon’s hands‐on approach to teaching and learning online, this article reveals some unintended consequences: e‐moderation and the use of e‐tivities may perpetuate the very conditions that limit our chances of dealing successfully with the challenges posed by e‐learning. While theory may muddle what might otherwise be communicated meaningfully to those in search of practical answers, theoretical developments provide concepts and frameworks that can be placed in the service of a critical understanding of e‐learning and the transformation of social interaction in higher education.     

Using Spreadsheet Modeling to Teach Exchange Curves (Optimal Policy Curves) in Inventory Management

Inventory management is widely researched and the topic is taught in business programs across the spectrum of operations and supply chain management. However, the concepts are notoriously difficult for students to practice once they finish school and become managers responsible for inventory control. This article explains the structure and details of an inventory management class module designed to bridge the gap between learning inventory management theory and applying the learning to practice. Through an active learning exercise, groups of logistics management graduate students in two sections of an introductory inventory management class (in‐residence and online) are taught the exchange curve concept, introduced to its use in practice, and given a tool for implementing this learning in a variety of practical scenarios. The exercise is valuable as it is well suited for students with a limited math background because it allows the exchange curve concept to be taught and demonstrated without presenting complicated mathematics. A three‐tiered assessment of the exercise reveals its effectiveness in meeting the goals of providing an engaging and interesting use of learning time and giving the students an in‐depth practical understanding of the exchange curve concept. The exercise is designed to be equally useful for application in an undergraduate class.