New academics’ perceptions of the language of teaching and learning: identifying and overcoming linguistic barriers

Seventy‐seven new academics – 59 at a large, public university in the UK and 18 at a medium‐sized, private comprehensive university in the USA – were asked to read an extract of an article on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and mark the text according to categories of difficulty or dislike. Analysis of the data revealed six main linguistic barriers in the text: specialist vocabulary, passive constructions, pronouns, figurative language, derivations and poor editorial standards. These barriers were similar at both institutions, suggesting they apply across different contexts. Contrary to expectations, no conclusive disciplinary‐based distinctions were detected. Implications for both readers and writers are explored and proposals are made for developing a literary style in SoTL literature that is simultaneously accessible and credible.

Soixante‐dix‐sept nouveaux enseignants – cinquante‐neuf provenant d’une université publique britannique de grande taille et dix‐huit provenant d’une université privée américaine de taille moyenne – ont lu l’extrait d’un article portant sur le scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) et ont identifié les parties qu’ils jugeaient difficiles ou qu’ils n’appréciaient pas. Une analyse des données révèle la présence de six barrières linguistiques principales dans le texte: le vocabulaire spécialisé, les constructions passives, les pronoms, le langage figuratif, les dérivations et des standards de rédaction de piètre qualité. Ces barrières étaient similaires dans le cas des deux institutions, ce qui suggère qu’elles sont applicables dans des contextes différents. Contrairement aux attentes, aucune distinction reposant sur les disciplines permettant de tirer des conclusions n’a pu être détectée. Les implications pour les lecteurs et les rédacteurs sont explorées et des propositions visant à développer un style littéraire pour la documentation portant sur le SoTL qui soit à la fois accessible et crédible sont formulées.     

New Method Integrates New Technology——a solution to English teaching for vocational school students

在这个信息爆炸的时代,当前中职英语教学不管在内容还是方式都是滞后的。传统的英语教学都是有书可依的,但是一套教材无论如何新鲜都新不过我们每天通过各种媒体接触到真实的英语材料。用这些真实而又现成的材料来进行大学英语教学,不仅具有强烈的时代气息,能吸引学生的求知兴趣,而更重要的通过这些材料的学习学生既掌握了语言,又扩大了知识面,其它各方面的能力也能得到了锻炼。本文主要探讨的就是针对中职学生所设计的一种没有固定材料,而是以真实材料,内容为本(content-based instruction),并结合各种以网络为基础(web-based)的现代化教学媒体的新型英语教学模式。文中对其实施论述了理论基础并提供了一个参考性的教学设计模型,此外文章还探讨了这种教学模式的可行性,教学中的教师和学生的角色以及如何评价学生等。     

New Method Integrates New Technology——a solution to English teaching for vocational school students

在这个信息爆炸的时代,当前中职英语教学不管在内容还是方式都是滞后的。传统的英语教学都是有书可依的,但是一套教材无论如何新鲜都新不过我们每天通过各种媒体接触到真实的英语材料。用这些真实而又现成的材料来进行大学英语教学,不仅具有强烈的时代气息,能吸引学生的求知兴趣,而更重要的通过这些材料的学习学生既掌握了语言,又扩大了知识面,其它各方面的能力也能得到了锻炼。本文主要探讨的就是针对中职学生所设计的一种没有固定材料,而是以真实材料,内容为本(content-based instruction),并结合各种以网络为基础(web-based)的现代化教学媒体的新型英语教学模式。文中对其实施论述了理论基础并提供了一个参考性的教学设计模型,此外文章还探讨了这种教学模式的可行性,教学中的教师和学生的角色以及如何评价学生等。     

Teachers’ ability to assess students for teaching and supporting learning

Over the last decade, the pressure has increased for teachers to facilitate the best possible learning for all children. States collect much information to ensure that schools are accountable to all students. But is this information helping to improve provision for a diverse student population in inclusive settings? It is well established that teachers’ attitudes and beliefs influence students’ learning. Research evidence also shows that teachers seem to face particular difficulties in trying to understand students who have a disability or are performing poorly. Teacher education could contribute more substantially towards helping teachers to adequately understand those student characteristics most relevant to learning. This article presents a model to help understand the complex competency required to assess students adequately. It is suggested that introducing teachers to a functional language for describing disability could help teachers to focus on enabling learning and development rather than labelling.     

An exploration of Turkish teachers’ attributions to barriers faced within learner-centred teaching

This study explored Turkish teachers’ attributional reasoning regarding the barriers they face when they attempted to undertake learner-centred teaching, which is a core requirement of educational reform-based initiations in Turkey. To achieve this aim, a naturalistic inquiry was conducted in order to capture the clarifications of the barriers and related attributional reasoning of 31 teachers. The teachers defined 12 teaching barriers for the initial trials of learner-centred teaching and made several attributions to the faced barriers. The study showed that the teachers made pervasively externalised attributions when explicating the reasons for the barriers they faced. They were the usual suspects of making fundamental attribution error due to the excessive externality of their attributions. The teachers’ barrier clarifications and accompanied attributional reasoning typologies in terms of learner-centred teaching have confirmed that the teachers in this study are only in the early stages in regard to being competent implementers of reform-based initiatives in Turkey.     

Academics’ perceptions of the challenges and barriers to implementing research-based experiences for undergraduates

How can universities ensure that strategic aims to integrate research and teaching through engaging students in research-based experiences be effectively realised within institutions? This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative study exploring academics’ perceptions of the challenges and barriers to implementing undergraduate research. Academics were asked about perceived constraints and enablements, how they defined undergraduate research, the forms of undergraduate research used, and they were encouraged to provide examples. Perceived constraints included particular institutional policies and structures, academics’ mindsets and lack of skills and questions of time and money. It was found that different definitions of undergraduate research lead to different practices and varying opportunities for further development. This paper presents different forms of engagement in undergraduate research allied to these different definitions and it draws on interviewees’ ideas about what has been enabling in their context to suggest possible strategies for institutions to move forward.     

Triple‐X and passivity — barriers to learning

Abstract

Triple‐X Syndrome is a little‐known condition that is found in approximately one‐in‐a‐thousand girls. The effects are not readily observable and are variable, particularly in the area of academic achievement. However, passivity and delayed expressive language skills are generally noted as characteristics of the syndrome and are very likely to have implications for the child's learning. The extremely passive nature of the child may mean that explicit and direct teaching is required if learning is to keep pace with peers. This paper presents a single case study involving a seventeen‐year‐old girl with Triple‐X. It describes and explains a ’later’ intervention program based on sight recognition of common words, use of controlled text, short‐term auditory memory training, and development of semantic skills and working memory. The program proved successful in improving reading, short‐term memory, and spoken language skills.     

Informal and formal approaches to communicative language teaching

The main purpose of this article is to give some clarity to the use of the term "communicative" in describing approaches to foreign or second language teaching. It is suggested that a distinction be drawn between "informal" communicative approaches which promote second language "acquisition", and "formal" communicative approaches which promote "learning". This distinction between "acquisition" and "learning", which is taken from the work of Stephen Krashen, is carefully explained and the conditions for achieving both in the classroom considered. In addition it is suggested that there is a need actively to teach pupils how to make use of conscious "learnt" knowledge in order to "monitor" their performance in a second language appropriately.     

Changing perceptions is one thing…: barriers to transforming leadership and learning in Ghanaian basic schools

School leadership, head teacher professional development and school management practices in sub-Saharan Africa have varied little from the model of schooling established during colonial rule. Leadership for Learning (LfL) is a programme of school leadership developed at the University of Cambridge over a period of 10 years in conjunction with an international group of researchers and practitioners. This paper reports the results from questionnaire data gathered from a cohort of 125 head teachers who participated in the LfL programme in Ghana between 2009 and 2011, and speculates on the successes and barriers to leadership and learning. Implications arising from the scaling up of the LfL programme to include all Ghanaian schools are discussed.     

Primary teachers’ epistemological beliefs: some perceived barriers to investigative teaching in primary mathematics

A recent investigation of primary teachers’ epistemological beliefs concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics discovered that teachers’ beliefs cannot be said to form neat world views. Teachers’ hybrid world views often included epistemological beliefs that supported teaching approaches which evidence suggests leads to greater conceptual understanding of mathematics. Classroom observations and semi‐structured interviews with primary teachers suggested that although there is a desire to adopt an investigative approach, this is perceived to be largely incompatible with some of the requirements of the UK National Curriculum. Common potential barriers identified by teachers included: the volume of curriculum content they are required to cover, the limited time available to cover it, some working practices perceived to be associated with the current emphasis on teacher accountability and the current method of assessment by Standard Assessment Task tests (SATs). The findings are discussed in relation to challenges facing UK policy‐makers if an approach to teaching primary mathematics, which is known to support conceptual understanding, is to flourish.     

Teachers’ motivation for entering the teaching profession and their job satisfaction: a cross-cultural comparison of China and other countries

This study employed a partially-mixed concurrent equal-status design to investigate factors motivating Chinese teachers to enter the teaching profession and sources of teacher job satisfaction in China as opposed to those described in the international literature. The data were collected in Jilin Province of China from 510 teachers who participated in a survey. The quantitative results indicated that Chinese teachers were motivated by both intrinsic (e.g. liking to be a teacher) and extrinsic factors (e.g. salary) to enter the teaching profession. Furthermore, MANOVA showed that teachers who were more intrinsically motivated to enter the teaching profession reported a higher level of job satisfaction. Qualitative data revealed that some job-satisfaction factors were universal across countries and some were specific to China. This study offered some implications for educational policy makers and practitioners worldwide and in China.     

Using educational theory and research to refine agricultural extension: affordances and barriers for farmers’ learning and practice change

Purpose: To examine the factors that support and hinder farmers’ learning and to investigate the impact of an innovative learning program on farmers’ practice change.

Design/methodology/approach: Individual interviews and focus group discussions were held with 24 farmers over 20 months. Observations were made of these farmers as they participated with eight agricultural and social scientists in a range of innovative experiences to learn about chicory and plantain establishment and management. These learning experiences were designed around evidence-informed educational pedagogies. Data sets were analyzed using NVivo to determine common themes of affordances and barriers to learning and actual practice changes.

Findings: The affordances for learning and practice change include belonging to a learning community, enhancing self-efficacy, engaging with scientists, seeing relative advantage, reinforcing and validating learning, supporting system’s integration and developing an identity as learners. Barriers to learning and practice change include issues of: trialability, complexity, compatibility and risk.

Practical implications: The importance of basing new models of extension around evidence-informed pedagogies known through educational research to promote learning and practice change.

Theoretical implications: Sociocultural theory and self-efficacy theories of learning are critical to the success of effective agricultural extension programs.

Originality: To date, little empirical research about the affordances and barriers for pastoral farmers’ learning has been based on contemporary educational research.     

“They are teaching us to deliver lessons and that is not all that teaching is …”: Exploring teacher trainees’ language for peer victimisation in schools

This paper reports on qualitative findings from the larger Safe Schools Longitudinal Study and explores what trainee teachers understand by the term ‘bullying’, its prevalence, and the barriers to responding to it. Twenty-four teacher trainees at an Initial Teacher Education programme in Scotland took part in two waves of qualitative interviews three years apart. Findings show trainee teachers use the term ‘bullying’ to cover a range of behaviours - with uncertainty around whether verbal insults are bullying. Key factors that impact teacher responses are discussed - with the attitude of the head teacher being pivotal to school climate.     

From curriculum to practicum: Arab and Jewish trainees’ perceptions of college preparation for teaching

The current pilot study aimed to evaluate the perceptions of Arab and Jewish teacher trainees regarding the impact of variables on preparation for teaching. This study included 314 participating teacher trainees from two colleges in Israel. One hundred forty-eight (47.1%) of them studied in a Hebrew-speaking college and 166 (52.9%) students studied in an Arabic-speaking college. The questionnaire employed 66 items divided in ten variables: curriculum, lecturer quality, learning strategies, pedagogical instructor and mentor teacher, learning and social climate, ICT integration, college selection considerations, facilities, and practicum. Path Analysis findings indicated a direct impact of curriculum on practicum, while all mediating variables were influenced by curriculum, but did not influence practicum. Teacher trainees from both colleges perceived the pedagogical instructor and mentor teacher as the most significant factor connecting curriculum and practicum. In conclusion, findings may suggest the existence of a separation between curriculum and practicum, resulting in a large number of components of teacher education which do not advance teacher trainees in the field.     

Relations between teachers’ emotions in teaching and their approaches to teaching in higher education

This study investigated the relations between teachers’ emotions in teaching and their approaches to teaching in individual courses. It is derived from two fields of study that have hitherto been largely unconnected in higher education. While the research literature shows (a) a range of variables are related to the teaching approaches that teachers adopt and that these approaches are related to the quality of their students’ learning, and (b) that the emotional experience of teachers is an important factor in teaching, no studies have been reported on the connections between emotions and approaches in teaching in higher education. Two self-report questionnaires: the Approach to Teaching Inventory-Revised and the Emotions in Teaching Inventory, were completed by a sample of 175 Australian higher education teachers. The results suggest that there are significant relations between the ways teachers emotionally experience the context of teaching and the ways they approach their teaching, with positive emotions being associated with student-focused teaching approaches and negative emotions with transmission approaches. The relations help explain why new teaching strategies may not be successful or not even adopted.