Thinking relationally about studying ‘up’

In this paper, the authors argue that despite a resurgence of elite studies, the majority of existing scholarship works to reify and legitimize social inequality through its language and method. In particular, the authors utilize Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of relational thinking to review and critique contemporary research on elite education and the ways in which such scholarship relies on a stratificationist approach to class analysis. Ultimately, this paper argues that future research on social class, and elite studies in particular, could benefit from using Bourdieu’s relational approach as a means to better address the challenges of social inequality.     

Re-defining ‘learning about religion’ and ‘learning from religion’: a study of policy change

The study of how policy processes shape religious education as a curriculum subject, rather than within faith schooling, is relatively unexplored. This paper applies a policy analysis perspective to an important distinction in non-confessional English religious education, which has also been adopted internationally: ‘learning about religion’ and ‘learning from religion’. The changing nature of the distinction in English policy documents from 1994 is examined in the light of three main voices of influence on educational policy: neo-conservatives, neo-liberals and progressives. These changes are also analysed through three policy contexts: influence, text production and practice. Revisions to policy wording are interpreted in the light of this theory, showing the growing significance of neo-liberalism, and the nature of compromise, amendment and ambiguity. The implications for an understanding of the inter-relationship between policy, pedagogy and practice are then considered.     

‘The Beauty Walk,this ain't my topic’: learning about critical inquiry with adolescent girls

This study analyses and describes the links between the curriculum policies of one urban school district in the US and an intervention by the economics firm Standard &; Poor’s (S&;P). It characterizes the languages and values introduced to the district leadership by S&;P as ideologically neoliberal. This school‐level case study that makes clear the connections between the introduction of neoliberal languages and values, local‐level curriculum policies, and the resulting experiences of teachers and children in the US. In the end, it offers a case study of the ways corporate forces, such as S&;P, are extending their reaches beyond national and state‐level policy bodies to local communities to further legitimize the neoliberal project and to ‘reform’ schools in ways that grow their own profitability.     

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.     

‘Paradoxical health education’: learning about health in Kenyan teacher training colleges

This paper suggests the term ‘paradoxical’ to understand how health education (HE) is carried out and experienced as contradictory and inconsistent by student-teachers who learn about health in Kenyan teacher training colleges (TTC). The claim is that students, apart from formal HE lessons, also learn about health in non-curricular HE, which influences their actions in tangible ways. Bourdieu, medical anthropology and critical educational theory were used to understand processes of cultural negotiation, the production of HE discourses and how learning appears to be a mix of moralities and action competence. This long-term fieldwork used ethnographic methods, including participant observation, interviews and focus-group discussions conducted in three TTCs in Central and Eastern Kenya. The study concludes that regardless of institutional HE norms, student-teachers develop critical awareness and action competencies, learning to deal with health in more active, concrete and practical ways than those conveyed in HE lessons.     

The ‘truth’ of academic development: how did it get to be about ‘teaching and learning’?

The nature of academic development in contemporary universities has been a recent focus in the literature. Highlighting the diversity of practices that exist under its name, ‘academic development’ has been described by some as an ambiguous project and a fragmented field, while others suggest a more coherent project, pointing out a near universal concern with, in particular, teaching and learning. Through an exploration of the practices of the first academic developers in New Zealand, and a consideration of the particular institutions in which they were operating, this article draws on the work of Foucault to consider the modalities of power that were available to them. This exploration is used as a basis from which to consider the systems of truth that began to emerge as a result of the early appointees' practice, in particular their original and enduring concern with teaching and learning as objects of knowledge.     

What can moment-by-moment learning curves tell about students’ self-regulated learning?

Many students in primary education learn arithmetic using adaptive learning technologies (ALTs) on tablets every day. Driven by developments in the emerging field of learning analytics, these technologies adjust problems based on learners' performance. Yet, until now it is largely unclear how students regulate their learning with ALTs. Hence, we explored how learners regulate their effort, accuracy and learning with an ALT using moment-by-moment learning curves. The results indicated that moment-by-moment learning curves did reflect students’ accuracy and learning, but no associations with effort were found. Immediate drops were associated with high prior knowledge and suboptimal learning. Immediate peaks were associated with robust learning and pointed to effective student regulation. Close multiple spikes showed moderate learning and lower initial levels of accuracy but, with system support, these students seemed able to regulate their learning. Separated multiple spikes indicated reduced learning and accuracy and potentially signal the inability of students to regulate their learning. In this light, moment-by-moment learning curves seem to be valuable indicators of accuracy regulation during learning with ALTs and could potentially be used in interventions to support SRL with personalized visualizations.     

Motivated learning with digital learning tasks: what about autonomy and structure?

In the present study, the ways in which digital learning tasks contribute to students?? intrinsic motivation and learning outcomes were examined. In particular, this study explored the relative contributions of autonomy support and the provision of structure in digital learning tasks. Participants were 320 fifth- and sixth-grade students from eight elementary schools throughout the Netherlands. The results show that a digital learning task that combined autonomy support and structure had a positive effect on both intrinsic motivation and learning outcomes in students. A digital learning task that only provided structure also had a positive effect on learning outcomes, but a digital learning task with only autonomy support did not yield a similar effect.     

Pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs about foreign language learning

Beliefs are central constructs in every discipline which deals with human behaviour and learning. In addition to learner beliefs about language learning, language teachers themselves may hold certain beliefs about language learning that will have an impact on their instructional practices and that are likely to influence their students’ beliefs about language learning. This article reports on a study of beliefs held by 217 full-time undergraduate students (142 females and 75 males) enrolled in English Language Teaching (ELT) programmes at seven state universities in Turkey. Horwitz’ BALLI was used to collect data. The data reveal that where some of the results carried by pre-service teachers might surprise language teaching educators and teacher trainers, some others probably confirm their experiences and intuitions.     

From ‘doing’ to ‘doing with learning’: reflection on an effort to promote self-regulated learning in technological projects in high school

Project-based learning is undoubtedly one of the best instructional methods for developing students’ broad learning capabilities, beyond teaching specific subject matter. However, experienced engineering teachers often tend to concentrate on merely teaching pupils the technical side of project work. This paper describes a programme aimed at fostering self-regulated learning among high schools pupils working on projects in electronics, control systems and robotics. The programme sought, for example, to promote pupils’ conceptual knowledge regarding the subjects they dealt with in their projects, enabling the learners to gain experience using simulation, laboratory testing and troubleshooting in a system that they were constructing. The change in project work also required pupils to document systematically all stages of system development and reflect on their learning by preparing a printed or web-based ePortfolio on the project. Outcomes of the in-service training course given to teachers countrywide and the first signs of change in project work in schools are reported.     

Engaging with blended learning to improve students’ learning outcomes

When blended learning is embraced to enhance learning in engineering (architectural), design and architecture, we argue it is a best-practice instructional mode. Blended learning is the seamless amalgamation of carefully selected online modules with face-to-face instruction. This paper evaluates case studies of the introduction of blended learning in these disciplines. It demonstrates that students who do not engage with blended learning are academically disadvantaged. Alignment of the blended mode of delivery and the mode of assessment is next considered. Two case studies of the introduction of blended modes of assessment, for improved student satisfaction with feedback, are evaluated. Finally, the reliance upon non-faculty to provide both blended learning and assessment is evaluated using qualitative research methods to establish the barriers to adoption of what is now considered best educational practice.     

Working with ‘Diverse Bodies,Diverse Identities’: an approach to professional education about ‘diversity’

The complexity and diversity of populations in contemporary Western societies is becoming a significant public policy issue. The concept of ‘diversity’ has come to represent cultural, ethnic, racial and religious differences between the ‘dominant group’ and immigrant and indigenous populations. ‘Diversity training’ is amongst many strategies being implemented to address social and economic objectives in complex societies. This paper discusses and critically evaluates a professional education programme, ‘Diverse Bodies, Diverse Identities’, that is offered to human service practitioners and social work students in Victoria, Australia. It is concluded that a range of approaches is needed to address ‘diversity’ in contemporary societies.     

Practitioners’ learning and school reform: lessons from ‘extension with parallel block scheduling‘ 1

This paper documents local practitioners'divergent understandings of the purpose of one language arts innovation‐Extension with Parallel Block Scheduling. This study posits that the strikingly different lessons they learned from the innovation grew out of a potent legacy of past policy and the active and underspecified climate of current instructional policy. Further, both the structural features of the innovation itself and the lack of shared discourse across the district impeded practitioners’ ability to construct shared meanings. The author speculates how the innovation might have provided opportunities for practitioners to learn from their divergent understandings in order to deepen and enact reformed language arts

     

Making ‘space’: young people put at a disadvantage re-engaging with learning

Young people who disengage or disconnect from school are often demonised within the media and the wider public imagination, from a largely individualized and pathological positioning. Policy explanations and responses are often unhelpful in their focus on a range of ‘deficit’ attributes – poverty, poor parenting, dysfunctional families, low familial achievement, aspiration and motivation, and other ‘at risk’ categories. This paper offers a different explanatory framework that foregrounds the experiences of some young people who had disengaged from school and resumed learning under a very different set of conditions to the ones that had exiled them from schools in the first place. Using a socio-spatial framework, the paper explores the notion of ‘relational space’ as it was appropriated and reclaimed by these young people, in explaining how they saw themselves as constructing viable and sustainable learning identities for themselves.     

Students’ conceptions about a fair assessment of their learning

The objective of this study is to know the conceptions of primary and secondary school students about what constitutes a fair assessment. To achieve this aim, a phenomenographic study was carried out with 32 students. In a broad sense, the results showed that there were two types of conceptions. On one hand, a conception of fair assessment related to equality, transparency, objectivity, and evaluation of class content; that is, an egalitarian conception of fair assessment. On the other hand, a conception associated with ideas such as adaptation, diversification of tests, and qualitative assessment, even taking into account students' effort and attitudes, which define a conception of fair assessment linked to equity. These conceptions are associated with the concepts of legal justice and social justice, respectively and they contrast with the nature of external evaluations currently carried out.     

Student and novice teachers’ stories about collaborative learning implementation

Despite the research evidence on the effectiveness of collaborative learning (CL), the implementation of this teaching strategy has not yet found a profound place in teaching practice. As a consequence, several studies have investigated teachers’ motives regarding and experiences with the use of CL. Most of these studies concern however senior teachers, whereas new generations of teachers are important actors in the process of educational innovation. Hence, it is crucial to explore novice teachers’ stories about CL implementation: what motivates them to implement this teaching strategy, what hinders them and how do they handle the challenges they are confronted with? The answers to these questions may provide useful information for improving the teacher education curriculum regarding CL. In this respect, the present study intends to study pre-service and beginning teachers’ experiences with CL in classroom practice, after a formal training pertaining to CL as part of their teacher education programme. The aim is to identify the main challenges student and novice teachers encounter when they want to implement CL in their teaching practice, and how they position themselves in these challenges. A qualitative case study design with in-depth interviews in the Flemish context (Belgium) was used to gain access to the particular experiences of each teacher, and to the processes of interpretation and meaning-making that go with those experiences. Participants were interviewed individually one week before graduation (n?=?15). After at least half a year of experience in the teaching profession, 10 participants were interviewed for a second time. In the present study, we present the results from a cross-case analysis, using the method of constant comparative analysis to identify similarities or differences, and to capture recurring patterns within the data. The findings reveal several dilemmas that illustrate the conflicting options teachers are facing in relation to their colleagues, their pupils, the curriculum and in the classroom context when they intend to implement CL. In particular, the following dilemmas were identified: two dilemmas related to professional autonomy (student teachers: teacher autonomy vs. pre-service performance assessment; novice teachers: teacher autonomy vs. institutional conformity), further dilemmas related to teachers’ beliefs about pupils’ readiness for CL vs. evidence about pupils’ readiness for CL, investing in innovation vs. curriculum and job pressure, and pedagogical intentions vs. contextual constraints. In most conflicting situations, student and novice teachers position themselves in the challenge by opting for non-implementation.