The teaching voice on the learning platform: seeking classroom climates within a virtual learning environment

University staff are now encouraged to supplement their classroom activity with computer‐based tools and resources accessible through virtual learning environments (VLEs). Meanwhile, university students increasingly make recreational use of computer networks in the form of various social software applications. This paper explores tensions of presentation and communication between these two contexts. Through analysing a large number of course websites, the teaching voice in VLEs is shown to be in a very different register than the voice of communication in social networking environments. Yet isolated examples demonstrate that learning platforms can support materials conveying a similar kind of conviviality. It is suggested that the educational practice of university teachers could move closer to this communicative style and reasons are considered as to why this has not yet happened.     

Assessment for equity: learning how to use evidence to scaffold learning and improve teaching

Abstract

This article examines evidence regarding the assessment learning of preservice teachers (PTs) in a new Master of Teaching designed to prepare teachers to address the less than equitable outcomes of certain groups of students in New Zealand. The assessment curriculum was integrated across all of the courses and the in-school experiences as one of six interconnected facets of practice for equity. Evidence about the assessment learning of 27 preservice teachers was collected using a survey, interpretive analysis of three assignments and a focus group interview. The findings demonstrated that preservice teachers combined theory and practice encountered in many contexts to build the assessment understanding and competence needed to address equity issues. We argue that this was facilitated by incorporating the assessment curriculum within each course, intertwining university and school experiences, and the specific focus on addressing equity throughout the programme.     

Addressing the complexities of literacy and urban teaching in the USA: strategic professional development as intervention

This study was undertaken in order to get some sense of the role of life experiences in preservice and inservice teachers' conceptions of the purpose(s) and practices of education. Content analysis of narratives written by graduate students in education at one college was utilized to ascertain how they view the field and their (current or prospective) role as teachers. We found that the majority of students saw teaching as an opportunity to make a difference, and as reflective of who they were rather than as "just a job". This finding provided the opportunity to address the strengths and vulnerabilities of such an idealistic conception of teaching, and the corresponding possibilities vis-à-vis teacher educators' roles. We conclude by noting the study's limitations and making several recommendations for future action and research based on our findings.     

University teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments: a theoretical analysis of teaching and learning practices

The aim of this article is to clarify the university teacher roles and competencies in online learning environments, with a view to assisting in the design of professional development activities. This referential framework results from an extensive review of the literature and from analysing professional development designed in different European universities. It is worth mentioning that the definitions that will be produced do not refer to standards of teacher performance; on the contrary, we would like to emphasise the notion of socially situated competencies which are derived from the roles and tasks attributed to university teachers in online learning environments, without losing track of the dialectics and integrity of their exercise.     

Faculty Liaisons: an embedded approach for enriching teaching and learning in higher education

This paper explores the experiences of a group of academic developers who support educational development work as Faculty Liaisons at a large, research-intensive university. These academic developers inhabit complex ‘third spaces’, providing support through an embedded partnership relationship that requires lateral movement across functional and organizational boundaries to create new professional spaces, knowledge, and relationships. The authors utilize narrative inquiry and auto-ethnographic approaches to present an interpretive qualitative analysis of their experiences supporting Faculty and University projects across complex and evolving organizational boundaries. From this analysis, they highlight key roles and responsibilities associated with their blended context and identify challenges that academic developers who occupy third spaces within academic organizations face as they negotiate competing interests, identities, and requirements associated with the diverse range of their projects and the blended experience of working in scholarly and administrative, central- and Faculty-based roles. The lessons they have learned from these experiences will be of particular interest to academic developers who are experiencing the flux of change within higher education settings that are impacting teaching and learning practices both for faculty in the classroom and for those across the institution who support them.     

Connected learning in the library as a product of hacking,making, social diversity and messiness

Learning is most effective when intrinsically motivated through personal interest, and situated in a supportive socio-cultural context. This paper reports on findings from a study that explored implications for design of interactive learning environments through 18 months of ethnographic observations of people's interactions at “Hack The Evening” (HTE). HTE is a meetup group initiated at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and dedicated to provide visitors with opportunities for connected learning in relation to hacking, making and do-it-yourself technology. The results provide insights into factors that contributed to HTE as a social, interactive and participatory environment for learning – knowledge is created and co-created through uncoordinated interactions among participants that come from a diversity of backgrounds, skills and areas of expertise. The insights also reveal challenges and barriers that the HTE group faced in regards to connected learning. Four dimensions of design opportunities are presented to overcome those challenges and barriers towards improving connected learning in library buildings and other free-choice-learning environments that seek to embody a more interactive and participatory culture among their users. The insights are relevant for librarians as well as designers, managers and decision-makers of other interactive and free-choice-learning environments.     

Computer simulations as tools for teaching and learning: Using a simulation environment in optics

RAY is a learning environment that includes a flexible ray tracing simulation, graphic tools, and task authoring facilities. This study explores RAY's potential to improve optics learning in high school. In study 1, the teacher used RAY as a smart blackboard with a single computer in the classroom to explore, explain, and predict optical phenomena; to introduce concepts; to interpret experiments and to represent theoretical exercises. A comparative study shows a significant effect on the spontaneous and correct use of the model by students in solving problems and a limited effect on conceptual understanding. In study 2 students, guided by written materials used the simulation individually. Students considered in a systematic manner the relationship between image formation and image observation—a major conceputal stumbling stone. They reflected on the problem-solving activity and reformulated explicity their knowledge in the domain. Case studies describe the interplay between the various aspects of the learning process in the development of conceptual understanding. A comparative study shows the importance of three factors to students' understanding of concepts and their ability to use the ray model: the computerized environment (versus written instruction of similar kind); a task design that addresses directly conceptual difficulties; and the explicit reformulation of ideas.     

教师的教学能力在研究性学习中的提升

新一轮课程改革以来,研究性学习成为中小学课堂上的一大“亮点”,教师的教学能力直接影响了学生的研究性学习。在研究性学习中,教师应具备指导学生学习、教学设计创新等九项能力。     

Impact on student teachers' conception of learning and teaching from studying a course in educational psychology

This study investigates changes in the conceptions of learning and teaching among undergraduate student teachers. A qualitative content analysis of essays using metaphors to describe learning and teaching written by 256 students at the beginning and end of an educational psychology course was used as the main research procedure. It was found that there was an increase in the share of students that see learning and teaching from a cognitive-constructivist perspective and a decrease in the share that see learning and teaching from a behaviourist perspective by the end of the course. In addition, the study revealed that the coherence in the nature of the metaphors describing learning and teaching increased by the end of the course. However, there was practically no increase in the number of essays describing learning from a socio-constructivist perspective, a fact that points to a need to pay more attention to the manifestations of learning in different communities of students, that is, to a relevant knowledge that teachers need in their everyday work.     

Understanding the Complexity of Becoming a Teacher Educator: Experience,belonging, and practice within a professional learning community

This article reports a literature review of self-studies by beginning teacher educators examining their experiences of the transition from classroom teaching to teacher educator. The authors conclude that becoming a teacher educator involves several complex and challenging tasks: examining beliefs and values grounded in personal biography, including those associated with being a former schoolteacher; navigating the complex social and institutional contexts in which they work; and developing a personal pedagogy of teacher education that enables construction of a new professional identity as a teacher educator. This research provides beginning teacher educators with a reference point for understanding their personal and professional transition to university-based teacher education. It also provides teacher education faculty and administrators with key information about how the transition from teacher to teacher educator can be supported and enhanced within professional learning communities.     

浅议“自主学习教学理念”在教学实践中的运用

《全日制义务教育普通高级中学英语课程标准》(实验稿)中明确指出"要发展学生自主学习能力"。本文通过分析当前学校教育存在的问题,阐明了"自主学习"的含义及特性,说明培养中学生英语自主学习能力的重要性和必要性,并就自主学习课堂教学模式做些探索。     

The unbearable lightness of organizational learning theory: organizations, information technologies, and complexities of learning in theory and practice

Over the last decades the notion of learning has become increasingly popular both as an intellectual site of investigation and as an organizational aspiration. However, learning has many—sometimes contradictory—meanings. For pragmatic sociologists and researchers in science and technology studies (STS) the notion may appeal because of its connotations of ongoing and unpredictable transformation. Yet, a more predominant viewpoint associated with cognitive research, conceive of learning in terms of organized and controllable change processes. We characterize the latter viewpoint as the unbearable lightness of learning. We use Argyris and Schön’s model of organizational learning to illustrate some of the problematic theoretical assumptions and empirical consequences, which are entailed by viewing learning in exclusively cognitive terms. Prominent among these is the inability to analyze social and technologically mediated organizational learning. In conclusion, we argue that alternative models for organizational learning could find inspiration in science and technology studies.     

An interactive learning environment designed to increase the possibilities for learning and communicating about radioactivity

Information and communication technology (ICT) is a natural part of most people's everyday life, and has also been introduced in schools. Previous studies have tended to focus on issues related to competency of teachers and lack of computer technology in schools. Focus now seems to be moving towards studies that help us understand how ICT may be used to enhance students learning. This article explores the learning environment Radioactivity from the Norwegian Viten project in order to provide insights into how features of the environment may influence student learning. A characteristic of the features of Radioactivity is provided and discussed in light of a set of quality principles for digital learning resources developed by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.     

Learning from students,inquiry into practice,and participation in professional communities: Beginning teachers' uneven progress toward equitable science teaching

In this research project, we investigated two beginning secondary science teachers' efforts to learn to teach science in ways that build from and celebrate the ethnic, gender, linguistic, and academic diversity of their students. To do so, we followed Troy and Brian from their preservice teacher education experiences through their first year of teaching 8th grade physical science at local junior high schools. We also conducted a follow‐up observation and interview with each participant after he had moved past the beginning stage of survival in the teaching profession—once in his fourth year of public school science teaching. Through qualitative analysis of interviews, classroom observations, and teachers' written work, we identified patterns and explored commonalities and differences in Troy and Brian's views and practices tied to equity over time. In particular, we examined successes and challenges they encountered in learning to teach science for all (a) from their students, (b) from inquiry into practice, and (c) from participation in professional communities. In our implications, we suggest ways teacher educators and induction professionals can better support beginning teachers in learning to teach science to all students. In particular, we highlight the central roles both individual colleagues and collective school cultures play in aiding or impeding beginning teachers' efforts to learn from students, from practice, and from professional communities. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 586–612, 2007.     

The potential of teaching schools in enabling student teacher learning for the teaching profession

In 2011 the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa was promulgated. This framework proposes the establishment of teaching schools to strengthen pre-service teacher education. This study arises from this initiative. A generic qualitative study was undertaken to explore the views of research participants from selected teacher education institutions and schools in South Africa on the potential of teaching schools to enable student teacher learning for the teaching profession. The key findings are that teaching schools can potentially make a distinctive contribution towards enabling student teacher learning for the teaching profession through student teachers experiencing good teaching in a model environment and through coordinating experiences in coursework and at the school. The discussion of the findings points to the distinctive potentialities of teaching schools for strengthening teacher education. The notion of hybridity and third space is invoked as a heuristic to shed light on the developing of a true collaborative relationship between the teacher education institution and the teaching school for enabling student teacher learning for the teaching profession.     

Windows into teaching and learning: professional growth of classroom teachers in an online environment

The Windows into Teaching and Learning (WiTL) project was developed by researchers at one large urban institution in the southeast region of the United States as a way to facilitate online clinical experiences for content area methods students during summer coursework. Utilising both synchronous and asynchronous elements, WiTL addressed the issue of students gaining meaningful clinical experiences in coursework offered during the summer. Though the purpose of WiTL was initially for methods students to engage in observations of and conversations with practising classroom teachers, an unanticipated outcome occurred. In this paper, the authors describe the WiTL process and discuss the impact it had on the professional growth of the practising classroom teachers. The results indicate that WiTL encouraged teachers to utilise reflective practice in rethinking their pedagogy and used technology to facilitate professional learning community among classroom teachers.     

Designing for learning in the Yellow House: a comparison of instructional and learning design origins and practices

ABSTRACT

For the past two decades, there has been persistent debate around whether there is a difference between the fields of instructional design (ID) and learning design (LD). While differences in the two approaches are certainly apparent, there are cross-over points that can provide ID and LD researchers and practitioners with opportunities for dialogue about the purposes and remit of research-based practices for optimal design. Though potentially disruptive, initiating dialogues among learning and instructional designers could lead to more thorough and critical analyses of both ID and LD repertoires. Should boundary crossings occur, there is a potential for a third space for the contemplation, research, and practice of design. A goal of this article is to use the notion of Van Gogh’s Yellow House as an anchoring metaphor for the third space – a location for shared discourse, inspiration, collaboration, and challenge for a community of designers of/for learning. Using the impressionist and expressionist terminology to help elucidate the ways of thinking of designers of both traditions, this article examines the history, underlying philosophical approaches, methodologies, and design goals of ID and LD. We conclude that the emergence of a third space for design can help us move beyond the LD and ID dichotomies. We suggest that a socio-materialist perspective alleviates issues of incommensurability by acknowledging ontological multiplicity.     

高职计算机课程教学设计与教学方法的探索与实践

以高职《计算机文化基础》课程为例探讨基于现代信息技术条件下综合运用多种教学方法实施教学,论述了适合高等职业技术教育的教学设计与教学方法的新探索与实践。