A Framework for Defining Contextual Features of Training and Coaching Practices

Training and coaching are cited frequently to achieve different goals, by different people, across different fields. Who provides training and coaching and where and how they are provided may influence the effectiveness of the training and coaching efforts, making the clear identification of these contextual features of paramount importance to successful implementation and dissemination of training and coaching programs. First, we propose a framework for elucidating these contextual features, and then we apply this framework to a circumscribed review of the literature on parent training and coaching in early intervention services to assess its utility. We discuss the extent to which contextual features have been described in this body of research, offer additional considerations for applying the framework based on this review, and propose possible implications of our findings for implementation, dissemination, and future research efforts.     

Measuring the mathematical quality of instruction

In this article, we describe a framework and instrument for measuring the mathematical quality of mathematics instruction. In describing this framework, we argue for the separation of the mathematical quality of instruction (MQI), such as the absence of mathematical errors and the presence of sound mathematical reasoning, from pedagogical method. We argue that conceptualizing this key aspect of mathematics classrooms will enable more clarity in mathematics educators’ research questions and will facilitate study of the mechanisms by which teacher knowledge shapes instruction and subsequent student learning. The instrument we have developed offers an important first step in demonstrating the viability of the construct.     

Exclusionary Discipline Policies,School-Police Partnerships,Surveillance Technologies and Disproportionality: A Review of the School to Prison Pipeline Literature

For this review I sought to understand how the field of education has come to conceptualize and study the relationship between schools and prisons. In doing so, I found that the vast majority of scholars who have studied the relationship(s) between school and prisons have done so within the context of the school to prison pipeline conceptual framework. This review both explores the affordances and contributions of the school to prison pipeline framework, as well as some of the limitations and critiques of the framework when used as the most preeminent frame by which we understand and study the ties between schools and prisons. I examine these limitations by focusing on four principal areas of study within the school to prison pipeline literature: (1) school discipline policies and practices, (2) school-police partnerships, (3) surveillance technologies in schools, and (4) disproportionality. The broader aim of this review is to develop the way we conceptualize the relationships between schools and prisons by building on what we have already learned in using the STPP framework, while also exploring new ways of theorizing and empirically studying the growing relations between schools and prisons.

     

Working on educational research methods with masters students in an international online learning community

In this paper we discuss the background to this study in the development of the international MSc e‐Learning Multimedia and Consultancy. The aims of the study focus on the conditions for achieving communication, interaction and collaboration in open and flexible e‐learning environments. We present our theoretical framework that has informed the design of programme as a whole which is based on a socio‐constructivist perspective on learning. Our research is placed within an action research framework and we outline our position within the critical or emancipatory tradition and also our standpoint on the use of ICT in education. We discuss the design of the programme and also our pedagogical approach and describe in detail the particular context for this study. We report on the student experience of being learners on this module, their perceptions of what they have gained most from learning from and with each other and their responses to the various ways in which ‘scaffolding’ has been designed and implemented by the tutors. Finally we offer some reflections on the conditions for achieving well‐orchestrated interdependence in open and flexible e‐learning environments.     

Language,Experience and Professional Learning (What Walter Benjamin Can Teach Us)

This essay raises questions about how language educators might construct and further develop their epistemology of practice in and through the situations in which they work from day to day. The occasion for this paper is our work as guest editors of a special issue of L-1: Educational Studies in Language and Literature, when we invited L1 teachers to reflect on the role that language plays in their professional learning, whether it be in the form of conversations with peers, reflective writing, or by other means. We begin this essay by locating our reflections within our current policy context, namely the standards-based reforms that have come to dominate educational thinking around the world, offering a brief critique of the values and attitudes embedded within them. We then outline a philosophical framework as an alternative to the world-view reflected by such reforms, focusing specifically on the work of Walter Benjamin. In the final sections, we review our work as guest editors of the special issue of L-1, reflecting on what we have learned from the papers we have assembled for this issue, and locating our learning within the philosophical framework that we have drawn from Benjamin. We argue that it is timely for language educators to articulate the assumptions that inhere within their work, in contradistinction to the common sense embedded in standards. Thus we might begin to reconceptualise the relation between language, experience and professional learning in opposition to the hegemony of standards.     

基于网络语义标注的图像内容分析与理解

随着网络的迅速发展和应用,网络语义标签已经开始广泛地用于图像内容的标注和分享。由于图像本身及不同主体对图像的不同理解会造成图像分析理解的差异,因此如何充分利用网络标签对图像进行准确分析理解成为本文主要研究内容。图像特征包含了图像本身的大量内容信息,为了能够建立图像内容信息与网络标签之间的关系,本文主要工作包括：1,建立低层特征与图像间相似性关系;2,建立基于随机漫步模型平衡图像内容及网络标签间的关系以达到准确对图像内容分析和理解效果。实验结果表明本文所提出方法的有效性和可行性。     

Constructivist,emergent, and sociocultural perspectives in the context of developmental research

Our overall intent is to clarify relations between the psychological constructivist, sociocultural, and emergent perspectives. We provide a grounding for the comparisons in the first part of the article by outlining an interpretive framework that we developed in the course of a classroom-based research project. At this level of classroom processes, the framework involves an emergent approach in which psychological constructivist analyses of individual activity are coordinated with interactionist analyses of classroom interactions and discourse. In the second part of the article, we describe an elaboration of the framework that locates classroom processes in school and societal contexts. The perspective taken at this level is broadly sociocultural and focuses on the influence of indlividuals' participation in culturally organized practices. In the third part of the article, we use the discussion of the framework as a backdrop against which to compare and contrast the three theoretical perspectives. We discuss how the emergent approach augments the psychological constructivist perspective by making it possible to locate analyses of individual students' constructive activities in social context. In addition, we consider the purposes for which the emergent and sociocultural perspectives might be particularly appropriate and observe that they together offer characterizations of individual students' activities, the classroom community, and broader communities of practice.     

Making Sense of Performance Management: official rhetoric and teachers’ reality

Performance management is one aspect of major reforms which have transformed the public sector workforce in Australia and other Western countries since the 1980s. Embedded in the discourse of managerialism, performance management represents an attempt by the state to make workers—in this case teachers—more efficient, more effective and more accountable. In this paper we want to explore and compare a number of perspectives on performance management. Firstly, we consider several evaluation studies which have been undertaken in various contexts over recent years. These studies tend to take for granted the assumptions behind performance management and to judge its effectiveness within the framework of managerial thinking itself. Secondly, we review the critical literature which locates performance management in a broader social and political context and considers the interests it might serve. Finally, we present the perspectives of a focus group of teachers who are currently ‘being performance managed’ and reflect on the relationship between their stories, the official rhetoric of their education system and the views expressed in the literature.     

Promoting a participatory convergence in a Spanish context: an inter-university action research project using visual narrative

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the deconstruction of an inter-university action research project that has allowed us to rethink our teaching and research, questioning the social, political and ethical dimensions of the university. Following the pre-assembly proposal to promote participatory convergence, organized within the framework of the 1^st Global Assembly for Knowledge Democracy (2017), an action research process was implemented in order to generate systematic inquiry around the current situation of the university and the need to act and rethink our commitment to promoting changes in this context. We have reflected on the meaning of democratization, rethinking the pedagogical relationship with our students and how we critically commit them to promote activism. We generated an environment where we look for the meaning of our practices by means of a visual narrative which has enabled us to weave and identify our own biography and become aware of where we are and why we act in one way or another. We have also focused on the search for the meaning of our actions in relation to the community we belong to and how to deal with the challenges of social justice, encouraging collaboration with other networks in a wider inter-university framework.     

Differences and impacts through action learning

Here, we argue that action learning (AL) has been evolving into different variations, whose respective advocates appear to concentrate on one of the several components inherent in Revans’ formulation of AL as L?=?P?+?Q. They do this – sometimes inappropriately – to the virtual or relative exclusion of other aspects, and this has consequences for the outcomes and impact of the AL process. In an attempt to delimit the boundaries between various versions and indeed to identify what Johnson [2010. A framework for the ethical practice of action learning. Action Learning: Research and Practice 7, no. 3: 267–283] called ‘inauthentic’ AL, we have been developing our ideas for a scanning device or framework. We refer briefly to some of the theoretical underpinnings of this framework. We then introduce a fresh taxonomy to explain and illustrate features of five principal variations of emphasis in AL that we have identified. The aim of this framework is to help stakeholders to work towards selecting and co-creating the most appropriate variation of ‘authentic’ AL to suit their unique set of circumstances at any given time. We outline the likely outcomes of each respective variation if taken to extremes and conjecture about their implications. This taxonomy should also help one to reduce the mystique and confusion that often surround AL while acknowledging its complexity. We suggest that by taking advantage of insights provided by this framework, purchasers and potential AL set members in particular are more likely to participate in learning conversations that lead to more informed decisions and actions to address or adjust their respective interests and needs. In conclusion, we identify some areas for further research and development.     

The establishment of a virtual high school in Israel

Summary In this paper we have described the theoretical and practical frameworks that led to the establishment of a virtual high school in Israel. After a year of activity, there are clear indications that the Virtual School based on the model of a cooperative of schools has a place in the Israeli educational system. The teachers who graduated from the course have succeeded in creating interesting courses for students, while marketing the framework to students and their parents in the schools has gone well and even aroused enthusiasm. Additional schools are asking to join the cooperative. Nonetheless, the work remains great: We have to form a system of quality control for products; continue development of the technological environment so that it will be rapid, faithful and enabling; and especially examine and follow up on the learning of students and their ability to concentrate in this framework. Similarly, we have to examine questions of various types: organizational-economic, pedagogic, and social, such as scalability of the model, its economic stability, methods of operation in the actual schools, and the manner of absorbing virtual learning in them. We have to relate to and test the styles of the developed courses (from the core curricula or as enrichment courses), determine for which types of students this framework is appropriate, discover if we can create an additional system for learning via the Internet, and ascertain if the activities integrated in the various courses are appropriate to pedagogic and educational ideas and make intelligent use of the Inernet for teaching and learning needs. In addition, and especially for Israel, we have to relate to the question of social gaps and examine if it is possible to reduce them through the model of the Virtual School.     

Mathematics learning and practice in and out of school: A framework for connecting these experiences

A variety of researchers in the last fifteen years have described how people learn and use mathematics in out-of-school situations. These researchers have found that mathematics learning and practice in and out of school differ in a number of ways. In this paper we examine and discuss these differences while maintaining the position that while some differences may be inherent, many differences can be narrowed so that mathematics learning and practice in school and out of school can build on each other and be connected. Before discussing a framework that we think sheds some light on connecting these experiences, we present some research from several of our studies that illustrates some of the differences between in-school and out-of-school mathematics practice and lays the groundwork for the discussion of the framework.We then discuss Saxe's (1991) research framework for gaining insight into the interplay between sociocultural and cognitive development processes through the analysis of practice participation (p. 13). Although Saxe's framework is a method for studying the interplay between sociocultural and cognitive development processes, we propose that it may be helpful in working towards connecting in-school and out-of-school mathematics learning and practice. Thus, we discuss the framework with illustrations from our own research, and then elaborate on ways to make this interplay between in-school and out-of-school contexts more deliberate.     

Creating and Sustaining Inclusive Instructional Settings for English Language Learners: Why,What, and How

In this article, we provide an empirically based framework for school leaders to support the replacement of separate means of providing services for English learners (ELs) with more inclusive learning supports. The framework encompasses evidence on cultivating language proficiency, ensuring access to a high-quality curriculum, and promoting sociocultural integration. To illustrate the ways that research has informed practice to better meet the needs of ELs, we also present initiatives by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction that have helped propel a vision of equity and diversity at both the school and district level. We conclude by providing additional resources that leaders can use to promote the professional growth of the school.     

Community indicators: a framework for observing and supporting community activity on Cloudworks

Cloudworks (Cloudworks.ac.uk) is a social networking site designed for sharing, finding and discussing learning and teaching ideas and experiences. Design and development of the site has been based on an iterative analysis, development and implementation approach, underpinned by ongoing research and evaluation. To this end, we have been seeking to establish strategies to enable us to systematically position transactions and emerging patterns of activity on the site so that we can more reliably use the empirical evidence we have gathered. In this article we will introduce a framework we have developed for observing and supporting community development on the site. In building our framework we have used empirical evidence gathered from the site, then related it to the literature from a range of disciplines concerned with professional and learning communities. We link research relating to distance learning communities with studies into Computer Mediated Communication, self-organising communities on the web, and wider research about the nature of learning organisations and continuous professional development. We argue that this framework can be used to capture the development of productive communities in the space (i.e. how far cohesive, productive groups can be said to be emerging or not) and also help focus future development of the platform, and provide guidelines for community support.     

Online discussion in schools: Towards a pedagogical framework

In this paper, we draw on Bernstein's [1996. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. London: Taylor and Francis] notion of framing of pedagogical communication to propose a framework for use in specific literacy contexts. Here, we illustrate how this framework has emerged from an examination of text response online discussions in the English/Language Arts curriculum in primary and secondary school contexts ostensibly concerned with the development of critical literacies. We focus on the selection of the literary texts and the prompts around those, the pacing and sequencing of the discussion, and the way in which responses are negotiated online. Using this framework in two specific contexts, we find that the more mediated, but less interactive framing in one institutional context tends to support the development of desired critical literacy practices, while the less mediated but more interactive framing of the online discussions in the second context is less supportive of such literacy practices. We suggest that this analytical framework could be adapted for use in a range of online contexts in order to make more visible the extent to which the intended forms of literacy are realised and which interactional affordances are exploited in the process.     

A participatory approach to the evaluation of participatory museum research projects

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we will describe, justify and critique a participatory approach that we have developed in order to evaluate the success of a participatory research project that was exploring ways of making museum learning experiences more inclusive for adults who have a diverse range of access preferences. Because we were researching in a unique space at the intersection of inclusive museum education, inclusive technologies and participatory research, we have needed to develop an original evaluation approach, informed by methods and frameworks derived from other fields. We present examples of the kind of evaluation information that the framework elicited and use this as a basis to critique the strengths and weaknesses of the framework. Our experience of using creative methods for eliciting evaluation data suggest that useful information about participation can be revealed but that further improvements can be made in order to make the research experience more participatory.     

Profiling Changing States of Conceptual Knowledge: With Designs Toward Developing a Universal Knowledge Interface System for the 21st Century

In this article, we present a framework for assessing changes in conceptual knowledge commonly found in scientific domains. In particular, we identify the underlying organizational patterns and contents that make up pictorial, diagrammatic, process, and procedural knowledge. These patterns are called knowledge models. Once we have defined and illustrated these models, we then demonstrate how the knowledge-updating strategies of accretion, fine tuning, and restructuring (Vosniadou & Brewer, 1987) can be rendered measurable. We next demonstrate how knowledge modeling can be used to profile changes in students' conceptual knowledge as they learn about meiosis (Cavallo, 1991). We conclude by discussing how knowledge modeling can be used to provide (a) comparability and common interpretability between studies investigating knowledge acquisition, (b) a framework for teachers to organize and transmit knowledge in their classrooms, (c) a framework for students to construct understanding of scientific phenomena, and (d) a framework for designing systematic hypertext and multimedia environments. We argue that, by using the knowledge models proposed in this article, researchers, teachers, students, and instructional designers can communicate through a universal interface for organizing and updating conceptual knowledge.     

What is computer-based testing washback,how can it be evaluated and how can this support practitioner research?

ABSTRACT

With the introduction of a new initiative in a teaching and learning environment there is an ethical responsibility to consider whether the impact of the introduction has met its intended goals, and whether it has harmed those who are influenced by it. Technology and infrastructure developments have encouraged a continued growth in the development and introduction of computer-based tests (CBTs) in educational environments. In the educational assessment literature, enquiry into the impact of testing (of all types) is known as ‘washback’. This is a reference to the way in which a test might have a range of influences on learners and teachers prior to the test-taking event. This article reviews the literature on CBT washback and outlines a framework for studying its effects as it is introduced into educational contexts. We then outline a research framework that we have developed (based on the literature) that can be used to evaluate CBT washback. We go on to argue that, to fulfil its potential in supporting the development of change, the research framework needs to act as a mediating device that brings together teaching-practitioner and researcher perspectives. The framework that we propose conceptualises the nature of washback in CBT contexts, as well as the research process and the methods required to understand it. This framework provides an element of common ground between practitioners (i.e. teachers who are involved in a CBT development process) and external researchers, and supports collaboration at three distinct levels.     

Editors’ introduction

In response to court rulings, states such as California and Washington have sought to promote greater equality in per pupil spending by shifting from local financing of public education to state financing. In this article, we investigate how constraints on local discretion resulting from this shift to state financing influence the level and growth of education spending. The analysis uses an expenditure function framework and a 21-year panel for the 50 states. To understand the extent to which expenditures are influenced by constraints on local discretion, we distinguish between court-ordered and other reforms of school finance systems. We show that the stringency of constraints on local discretion determines the effects of reforms on the level and growth of spending. In addition, we find that, for any type of reform, the characteristics of a state's population and of that state's schools determine the direction and magnitude of the postreform changes in spending.