Educational action research as the quest for virtue in teaching

Curriculum aims often remain unrealised aspirations. This is because the values and principles implicit in them fail to get articulated in forms that can effectively inform and guide the practice of teaching. Ideas such as ‘learner-centred education’, ‘independent/autonomous learning’, ‘self-directed learning’, ‘enquiry/discovery learning’, ‘collaborative learning’, ‘active learning’ and ‘learning with understanding’ refer to critical aspects of the learning process rather than its outcomes. While often enthusiastically embraced by teachers, they rarely get realised in appropriate forms of virtuous action. Such is the power of an outcomes-based model of teaching and learning to shape the practice of teaching. This paper cites examples of curriculum design that specify the pedagogical values and principles implicit in various educational aims, and shows how they can provide a basis for practical experiments by teachers in their classrooms and schools, in a quest to transform their teaching into concrete forms of virtuous action. Indeed, the paper depicts a number of actual action research projects in which teachers generated some common insights into how to transform their teaching into the practice of virtue in education. It also explores the role of theory-informed action research in developing teaching as a virtuous form of action.     

Teaching in the age of accountability: restrained by school culture?

In this paper, we explore how ‘teaching communication’ in the classroom is connected to school culture. In the age of accountability, the outcome focus force to the forefront, a ‘blame game’ which either blames students’ achievements on the teachers and teacher education, or the students and their socio-economic background. We argue that to succeed with teaching and learning is dependent on the school culture more than the single teacher or the students’ backgrounds. School culture is understood as attitudes, communication, student focus and engagement. Teaching communication in this paper is studied as teachers’ and students’ talk about subject matter in whole-class teaching. We explore how different school cultures give students different opportunities to experience meaning from teaching communication. The perspective on meaning is derived from Bildung-centred didactics. By using qualitative comparative case method in Norwegian Lower Secondary schools, we find three different types of ‘teaching communication’ typical for different school cultures: ‘Dialogic teaching communication’, ‘storytelling teaching communication’ and ‘reproducing teaching communication’. The school culture with the ‘dialogic’ variant is characterized by trust and reciprocity, making students’ experiencing meaning a possibility.     

Conceptions of effective teaching in higher education: extending the boundaries

This paper examines university teachers’ conceptions of effective teaching. It reports a small illuminatory study of eight teachers. Their narratives identify rich insights. Conceptions of ‘learning through dialogue’, ‘community of learners’ and ‘meta-learning’ emerge as crucial in supporting students’ learning. These conceptions extend understanding of effective teaching in higher education and illuminate how teachers transform their teaching to transform learning. Insights emerge about the importance of social contexts. Theoretical dimensions informing pedagogy, knowledge construction, relationships between teaching and research, and professional learning are congruent: dialogue and collegiality are key. What inhibits teachers’ effectiveness is the ‘performativity’ culture especially setting aside preferred ways of operating as colleagues. A model is constructed to explain opposing standpoints.     

论“用以致学”:指向素养发展的教学认识论

探究素养发展的教学认识论,旨在澄明知识与素养的关系及其转化的认识论原理与教学机制。素养作为道德性运用知识解决复杂问题的能力,这一学习结果基于知识并超越知识,诉求于学习者能够在复杂情境中开展道德性的知识迁移与运用。可见,实践性是素养的本质特征,内蕴知与行、理智与德性统一的认识论意义。这一本质特征诉求于教学认识论应处理好“学”与“用”的一体化关系。传统教学认识论虽然一贯倡导“学以致用”,但由于理性主义知识观的钳制,在处理知与行、“学”与“用”的关系问题上深陷先后论、工具论、机械论等二元论困境。二元论的症结不仅割裂了“学”与“用”内在的一体性,而且难以确保学习者所获学习结果的实践性。“用以致学”通过调整“学”与“用”的位次关系,旨在重估行动、实践的认识论意义,进而更好地促进“学以致用”。“用以致学”作为实践取向的教学认识论不仅勾勒出化知识为素养的教学机理,同时还体现了现代认识论研究实践转向的趋势、学习科学的最新进展以及中国文化内蕴的力行认识论传统等依据。     

Against best practice: uncertainty,outliers and local studies in educational research

Situating the quest for ‘best practice’ in education in the early ambitions of the Royal Society of London and the early history of statistics, and in insights offered by John Dewey in his 1929 Gifford and Kappa Delta Pi lectures, the paper argues for greater appreciation of the uncertainties and complexities of teaching and learning and for greater modesty in researcher claims. It contends that the quest for best practices in education needs to be tempered with the notion of better over best practice by maintaining the value of, and the need for, a greater place for outliers in research.     

Popular Culture goes to school in Hong Kong: a Language Arts curriculum on revolutionary road?

English teaching and learning has taken an interesting shift in Hong Kong schools with the implementation of the New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum under the ‘334’ education reform. Situating the paper within the broader considerations of the intersection of Cultural Studies and English teaching, this paper examines the challenges and prospects of teaching the new Language Arts elective called Learning English through Popular Culture module. It is argued that while the module endeavours to connect and motivate Hong Kong students to learn English through popular culture materials, the official curriculum and schemes of work, however, narrowly articulate the teaching of popular culture texts conceived as ‘text-types’. Such a formulaic approach to using popular culture in the classroom is limiting and locks students into a procedural way of ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ popular cultural texts. The paper concludes by offering some ways forward that might deliver what is otherwise a revolutionary and innovative curriculum. Beyond the specific case of Hong Kong, the curriculum challenge discussed is instructive for other education systems and curriculum scholars looking to develop new pedagogies from the intersecting disciplines of Cultural Studies and English teaching.     

“和尚念经法”培养学生的英语语感

本文由中学生学习英语过程中的不同表现引出英语语感这一概念,并描述了语感的一些显著表现。文章指出了高中英语教师需要培养学生语感。接着介绍了笔者在高中英语教学中总结出的一种语感培养方法"和尚念经法",并对和尚念经法进行具体阐述。     

Unbecoming teachers: towards a more dynamic notion of professional participation

This article considers teacher professionalism from a neglected perspective. It analyses assumptions about the dynamics of professional participation implicit within competing academic and policy constructs of professionalism, including the currently iconic concept of ‘communities of practice’. All entail notions of becoming and being a professional. However, data from the project ‘Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education’ (TLC) reveal significant instances of ‘unbecoming’: a majority of the tutors participating in the project were heading out of further education (FE) teaching. This illuminates a broader problem of exodus from the sector, in a political context which privileges economic goals and targets at every level, and in which the current climate of performativity increasingly impacts upon pedagogical relationships—contextual conditions which are also highly relevant to schooling and higher education. Drawing on exemplar case studies of two tutors, and on the theorization of learning cultures emerging from the TLC project, a Bourdieusian analysis of these dynamics is developed in terms of the interaction of habitus and fields, and ‘communities of practice’ critiqued. Paying particular attention to policy‐driven changes in and to the field of FE, and to the cross‐field effects in FE of policies in other sectors of education and beyond, the article argues for a more dynamic notion of professional participation. This might underpin ‘principles of procedure’ for improving teaching and learning, and policies to support diverse forms of teacher professionalism throughout the education system.     

Whither teaching? Academics’ informal learning about teaching in the ‘tiger mother’ university

Adopting a pluralistic view of academics’ informal learning that draws on Habermas (1987), this article suggests that a great deal of academic learning results from tensions and incompatibilities between individual interests and those of employing institutions increasingly resonant with the ideology of New Public Management (NPM), with its emphasis on market forces (e.g. student as ‘customer’), enhanced management power, surveillance, and measurement. To explore these ideas further, the article draws on interviews with academics at an Australian university to examine their informal learning about teaching. The academics interviewed had learnt a great deal from the changing context about how teaching is perceived by their institution, as well as about their own personal status and security in the new environment. The paper suggests that the ruthless push of NPM and associated ideologies and pressures impacting on higher education in Western countries represent ‘currents’ running counter to the efforts of academic developers to foster teaching excellence and expertise. The article’s conclusions suggest value in further research into the impact of ideological changes such as NPM on ‘learning about teaching’ in a variety of institutional settings.     

Teaching Scientific Analogies: a proposed model

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model for teaching scientific analogies. This model is called: ‘The General Model of Analogy Teaching’ (GMAT). A theoretical framework is developed first for this model. The following points are covered in this framework: (1) definition of the analogy, (2) analogical learning, (3) variables related to the analogical learning, (4) evaluating the outcomes of analogical learning, and (5) limitations of using analogies in teaching. The General Model of Analogy Teaching proceeds in the following nine stages: (1) measure some of the students’ characteristics related to analogical learning in general, (2) assess the prior knowledge of the students about the ‘topic’ to be taught, (3) analyse the learning material of the ‘topic’ to be taught, (4) judge the appropriateness of the analogy to be used, (5) determine the characteristics of the analogy to be used, (6) select the strategy of teaching and the medium of presenting the analogy, (7) present the analogy to the students, (8) evaluate the outcomes of using the analogy in teaching, and (9) revise the stages of the model.     

Measuring and exploring the structure of teachers’ educational beliefs

This study explores the structure of French teachers’ educational beliefs. First, instruments to measure these beliefs are adapted and developed. Data is collected through focus group discussions and an online survey (n = 302). Factor analyses reveal a three-factor structure to measure teachers’ general beliefs about teaching and learning: ‘beliefs about student regulation of learning processes and knowledge construction’, ‘beliefs about teacher regulation of learning processes’, and ‘beliefs about knowledge reproduction’. Furthermore, a two-factor structure to measure teachers’ subject-specific beliefs about French language teaching is found: ‘traditional beliefs about French language teaching’ and ‘constructivist beliefs about French language teaching’. Second, this study explores the relationships between and within teachers’ general beliefs about teaching and learning and their subject-specific beliefs about French language teaching. Results show two distinct and independent belief structures: a traditional and a constructivist belief structure. Via cluster analyses, two clusters of teachers are found whose beliefs are consistent with these belief structures.     

‘World-travelling’: a framework for re-thinking teaching and learning in internationalised higher education

In an era of unprecedented student mobility, increasingly diverse student populations in many national contexts, and globally interconnected environmental and social concerns, there is an urgent need to find new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Static assumptions about so-called ‘Western’ versus ‘non-Western’ teaching and learning approaches or ‘local’ versus ‘international’ students are inadequate for responding to the complex histories, geographies and identities that meet and mingle in our higher education (HE) institutions. In this paper, I use María Lugones’ ‘world-travelling’ as a framework for discussing international and New Zealand women students’ reflections on teaching, learning and transition in New Zealand HE. I conclude with some suggestions as to what effective pedagogy might look like in internationalised HE if we think beyond culturalist them-and-us assumptions and recognise students’ complexity.     

What academic language and learning advisers bring to the scholarship of teaching and learning: problems and possibilities for dialogue with the disciplines

Higher education policy is seeking, in the interest of ‘quality assurance’, to reward teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Academic language and learning (ALL) advisers, who work closely with students to improve their performance in their courses of study, have much to contribute to SoTL. ALL advisers who adopt an ‘academic literacies’ approach share with lecturers in the disciplines an engagement with issues of ‘‐ography’ (i.e. writing in and for a discourse community)—including the relationships between epistemology, form, and language—yet, misconceptions about ALL advisers’ work can prevent discipline lecturers from consulting them when thinking about questions of teaching and learning in their own field. This paper discusses ALL advisers’ access to insights into students’ experiences of learning and of being taught, with relevance both for particular disciplines and for academic culture across the disciplines; their contributions to SoTL; the difficulties they encounter in trying to communicate across the borders of the disciplines; and ways of improving this situation in the context of the new emphasis on encouraging improvement in the quality of teaching.     

Academics' identity development as teachers

ABSTRACT

Teaching development programmes in Higher Education aim for a learning-centred teaching culture. In a shift from teaching-centeredness to learning-centeredness the teacher’s role changes from a bearer of knowledge to a facilitator of learning. This, in turn, influences the academic’s professional identity as teacher. Insights into this process of identity development are, however, scarce. The present study explores changes in the teacher identity of eight academics enrolled in a teaching development programme by means of episodic interviews and teaching portfolio entries. Data was thematically analysed. The eleven recurring topics were clustered into thematic fields reflecting three phases of the identity development of academic teachers: ‘Taking on the teacher role’, ‘Settling into the teacher role’ and ‘Finding a new role as a teacher’. This study suggests that the process of identity development is highly significant for the individual academic and influences teaching development programmes’ impact on the quality of teaching.     

School Art Education: Mourning the Past and Opening a Future

This article begins with a brief summary of the findings of a recent research project that surveyed the content of the art curriculum in a selection of English secondary schools. The research findings suggest a particular construction of pedagogised subjects and objects rooted in ideas of technical ability and skill underpinned by a transmission model of teaching and learning. Drawing upon psychoanalytic and social theory reasons for passionate attachments to such curriculum identities are proposed, when in the wider world of art practice such identities were abandoned long ago. Working with the notion of the subordination of teaching to learning and the difficulties of initiating curriculum practices within increasingly complex social contexts, the article argues for learning through art to be viewed as a productive practice of meaning‐making within the life‐worlds of students. The term, ‘encounters of learning’ is employed to sketch a pedagogical quest in which an ethics of learning remains faithful to the truth of the learning event for the student.     

Fostering communities of teachers as learners: disciplinary perspectives

Education research in learning and teaching has alternated historically between periods in which subject matter disciplines were used as the organizing framework for investigation and implementation, and other periods in which the content areas nearly disappeared in favour of a quest for generic principles of instruction that could transcend disciplinary boundaries. There are few examinations of how these factors interact in the context of specific classroom‐ and pedagogy‐centred school reform. The papers that follow in this issue of JCS examine this issue through the lens of the pedagogic reform, ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’. This introduction outlines the key characteristics of this reform and describes the main issues in subsequent examinations of teachers learning to implement ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ in science, social studies, English language arts, and mathematics.     

E-learning in Chinese higher education: the view from inside

Despite the upsurge in interest in e-learning (or online learning) in Chinese higher education, little is known about the ways in which lecturers design and run their online courses, or about how they perceive e-learning. This paper reports the results of interviews with higher education teachers in China working in conventional, campus-based universities, concerning their conceptions and beliefs of e-learning. The interviews were analysed from a grounded theory perspective that gave rise to seven emerging themes, namely: the ‘centrality of the lecture’, ‘online cooperative learning’, ‘network learning’, ‘student learning’, ‘lecture plus online work’, ‘infrastructure and access’ and ‘professional development’. Discussion of these emerging themes helps us understand the ways in which these teachers think about e-learning and teaching, the beliefs they hold about their ‘e’ practice, the ways in which they implement e-learning, the problems they face in incorporating e-learning into their courses and the ways in which they perceive e-learners. This provides a fascinating and unique insight into e-learning in Chinese higher education. Evidence shows that it is a complex area with many influences, some of which can be attributed to social, cultural and Confucian-heritage factors. It is concluded that, despite enthusiasm by some for innovating e-learning, the dominance of traditional teaching methods in China suggest that the conditions for mainstreaming e-learning in the near future are not strong.     

Learning-centred Teaching

Distinctions are drawn between different kinds of learning (such as ‘understanding’, ‘factual knowledge’ and ‘skills’) and between different kinds of learners (such as ‘holist’ versus ‘serialist’ learners, and between ‘visualizers’, ‘verbalizers’ and ‘oers’) so that teaching methods can be matched to them. Learning-centred teaching therefore involves adopting teaching methods, such as ‘student-centred learning’, ‘active learning’, ‘didactive teaching’, ‘problem-based learning’, etc., where they are appropriate, but not where they are inappropriate.