Transformative pedagogy: Dinka playgroups as spaces for cultural knowledge productions of Western science

Cultural Studies of Science Education - As increasing numbers of families migrate from a range of countries into communities where Western science is viewed as valued curriculum content, a need for...     

Acting as accountable authors: Creating interactional spaces for agency work in teacher education

In this paper, relying on the sociocultural framework of learning, we report on the results of an ethnographically-grounded investigation of agency work among nine pre-service teachers: The main objective is to determine how agency emerges and is constructed in situated discourse practices within the context of a teacher education program embedded in the collective inquiry approach. Our study identifies the forms of agency that emerged in the collective discussions of the classroom community, evidencing pre-service teachers’ transformative agency, relational agency and epistemic agency. This study also shows that the negotiation and framing of agency, and acting as accountable authors, involves changes in teacher-student positions, such as crossing and transforming traditional expert-novice boundaries, as well as recognizing and crediting this crossing of boundaries. The methods and conditions for supporting students’ agency work in teacher education are discussed.     

Service-learning in engineering: a valuable pedagogy for meeting learning objectives

Service-learning is an educational practice that has been used successfully in many disciplines, and is defined as ‘a credit-bearing, educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility’ (Bringle, R. and Hatcher, J., A service-learning curriculum for faculty. Michigan J. Community Service-Learning, 1995 Bringle, R. and Hatcher, J. 1995. A service-learning curriculum for faculty. Michigan J. Community Service-Learning, 2: 112–122.  [Google Scholar], 2, 112–122). This research examines a first-year biological engineering design course that incorporated a service-learning project. Students participated in a survey and in focus groups to explore how well the service-learning project helped them to meet EC 2000 a–k objectives. Results showed that the service-learning project was a useful teaching method for accomplishing the learning objectives set forth by the instructor and by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology. Women and non-white participants in this study generally assessed their learning outcomes to be greater than white males, which could have important implications in the recruitment and retention of such students in engineering.     

学习方式研究对我国教学的启示

学习动机和策略是不可分割的整体,称之为学习方式。学习方式决定了学习效果。不同的学习个体对学习的认识不同,采用的学习方式不同,导致学习结果上的质的差别。通过对学习方式研究理论成果与国内学者的相关实践的透视,发现通过对学生在学习过程中学习方式的测定,能反映学生的真实学习;通过鼓励学生在学习过程中采用深层式学习方式,能引导学生进行深层式学习,达到高的学习质量。这在中国也具有普遍性。学习方式研究的思想、方法也切合素质教育的需求和现代教学观的转变。     

Reconceptualising engineering education: Creating spaces for outcomes and dialogical agape

Most of the current theoretical perspectives espousedby many South African engineering educators arecommensurate with some radical internationaldevelopments in the engineering realm. Thesedevelopments are aimed at getting students to think,or go beyond the information given with theintegrative skill of bringing knowledge, skills,understanding and experience together in problemsolving activities and environment, which providesstudents with the best kind of preparation forlifelong independent learning. The rationale of thispaper is determined by an understanding thatengineering education at most higher educationinstitutions in South Africa is dominated by theacquisition of content, that is, ``knowing-that'.Limited epistemological and pragmatic space are beingallowed for students to engage critically withengineering knowledge, as well as to apply suchknowledge skillfully. This idea of engineering education isincommensurate with a general principle that ought toshape any form of education whereby students ought toengage not to do ``this or that', but to learn how tothink, understand and imagine themselves.In the first part of the paper a critical reflectionon the literature aims to establish connectionsbetween an understanding of engineering education andpatterns of meaning which make the concept what it is.Secondly, it is argued that an eclectic approach toengineering education is necessary in order that bothfacts (``knowing-that') and skills (``knowing-how')acquisition and application become the rationale whichwould enhance and expand engineering teaching andlearning beyond its present reduction to factual,technical content. Finally, it is shown that an eclecticapproach to engineering education has its limitationsand needs to be supplemented by the notion ofdialogical agape (love) which allows space fortransformatory learning, respect for persons and``imaginative reconstructions' of learning that canmove beyond the boundaries of socially negotiatedoutcomes.     

Reconceptualising higher education pedagogy in online learning

The purpose of this collaborative inquiry project was to examine teacher education practices in two early childhood degree programmes in a school of education at a regional university in Australia. All students are enrolled in these online courses as distance learners. The reconceptualised online pedagogy immersed students, peers and their lecturers in ‘teaching through assessment’ (Edwards, 2010) in a collaborative online environment that mirrors the complexity that students are experiencing in their workplaces. This article describes the pedagogical and conceptual underpinnings we used to reconceptualise our degree programmes. It also outlines our evolving conceptualisations of learning as knowledge creation (Hong & Sullivan, 2009) in the context of our teaching and learning in online courses.     

Creating systems for lifelong learning in asia

This paper investigates the formation and establishment of lifelong learning support systems in six Asian countries, including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong(SAR), Thailand, and the Philippines. The countries included in this research are quite diverse and unique in their basic characteristics. Despite the divergent values, systems, and social roles, since the 1990s, the basic ideas and trends have been toward a somewhat integrated model in which each component of the system was geared to function for serving the global knowledge economy. In this paper, the process of recent lifelong learning system development in the selected six Asian countries was traced in two ways: global aspects and local peculiarity. I argued in this paper that the cases in Asia mostly follows the ‘global trends’, especially with the ‘business mind’ of global capitalism. I also suggest that Asian experiences can provide several distinctive characteristics rarely observed elsewhere: new role in mitigating diploma-disease, building centralized supporting system between central and local governments, the impact of colonial legacy, unbalance between HRD and humane-orientations, and preservation of the emphasis of adult basic education.     

Ambience in social learning: student engagement with new designs for learning spaces

An imperative to develop the social experience of learning has led to the design of informal learning spaces within libraries. Yet little is known about how these spaces are used by students or how students perceive them. Field work in one such space is reported. The general private study practice of undergraduates was captured through audio diaries, while activity in the learning space was directly observed, and students provided reflective perspectives in focus groups and through spot conversations. Results suggest such spaces are popular and yet stimulate limited group work. Yet other, less intense, forms of productive collaboration did occur and a taxonomy of four such types of encounter is offered. Of particular importance to students was access to a ‘social ambience’ for study. The results encourage institutions to design for a mixed economy of student choice over learning spaces and to consider modes of encouraging diversity in their use.     

成人教育学和自我指导学习--成人学习理论的两大支柱

成人学习理论迄今没有形成一个统一的答案或者理论模式能够对有关成人学习的一切做出解释,但是,成人教育学和自我指导学习这两个基本理论却构成了成人学习的两大支柱型知识基础.     

开放教育法律诊所式网上教学法探究

法律诊所式教学法将法律实践融入到理论学习中,有助于提高学生的实践能力和综合素质。无论从开放教育培养目标、法学学科性质上看,还是从开放教育法学课程教学特点、教学对象、教学条件上分析,法律诊所式网上教学法都适用于开放教育法学人才的培养。法律诊所式网上教学法的实施主要分为三个阶段:小组成员在课堂上讨论、在网上进行课程教学、学习总结。为保证法律诊所式网上教学的顺利开展,教师应做好充分的准备工作,如熟悉课程内容、收集典型案例、在网上公示案例、对学生进行分组等等。     

The digital history and pedagogy project: Creating an interpretative/pedagogical historical website

The Digital History and Pedagogy Project (DHPP) is an interpretive/pedagogical collection of Web-based historical resources designed for use in inquiry-based learning in high school and university classrooms. It has been created by faculty and graduate students at a large urban college of education. This paper provides a rationale for the project rooted in current literature; presents a theoretical framework for this and other similar projects; and describes five current digital historical resources (DHRs) within the context of our framework.     

Cooperative learning that features a culturally appropriate pedagogy

Many recent intercultural studies have shown that people cooperate with each other differently across cultures. We argue that cooperative learning (CL), an educational method originating in the USA and with fundamental psychological assumptions based on Western values, should be adjusted to be culturally appropriate for any non‐Western cultures in which it is applied. In the light of this assertion, this paper reports a series of experiments conducted in Vietnamese upper‐secondary schools. One group was provided with a series of lessons designed according to mainstream CL practice. Another group was provided with similar lessons but these were modified so as to be more culturally appropriate in terms of leadership, reward allocation and group composition. Findings show that (1) the role and the type of leadership, although not a key element of mainstream CL theories and practice, proved to be influential; (2) groupings based upon existing friendships, rather than upon cognitive ability, appeared to be important. A key finding was that the group receiving a culturally modified programme appeared to work harder during, and gain more satisfaction from, collaborative learning activities.     

Preparing teachers for inclusive education: using inclusive pedagogy to enhance teaching and learning for all

As the concept of ‘inclusive education’ has gained currency, students who would previously have been referred to specialist forms of provision, having been judged ‘less able’, are now believed to belong in mainstream classrooms. However, it is often argued that teachers lack the necessary knowledge and skills to work with such students in inclusive classrooms. This paper reports findings of a study of a new initial teacher education course that starts from the premise that the question is not whether teachers have the necessary knowledge and skills to teach in inclusive classrooms, but how to make best use of what they already know when learners experience difficulty. The theoretical rationale for the development of the course is outlined and examples of how teachers might engage in more inclusive practice are presented.     

Shared and personal learning spaces: Challenges for pedagogical design

The development of new tools for collaboration, such as social software, plays a crucial role in leisure time and work activities. The aim of this article is to summarize the research in the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). This is done particularly from the perspective of the blurred line between individual (personal) and group-level (shared) learning that the use of the new tools has forced us to re-think. First, individual and group-level perspectives to learning are discussed to make sense of the major notions of how learning is understood in CSCL research. Second, based on this theoretical grounding, it will be further elaborated what this means to the pedagogical design of educational practices utilizing emerging technological landscapes. And third, two different empirical examples will be presented to illustrate the variety of emerging technological landscapes meeting the needs of future learning.     

Developing Movement as inclusive pedagogy

This article details the emergence of a training framework to support professional development in inclusive Movement teaching. This arose from a collaborative research project in spring 2008 (supported by the Training and Development Agency, UK), between two universities in England and Israel. Movement education is surprisingly underused globally, even in the early years, with some recent revival within special education. This is despite the long-recognised importance of interactive physical activity for underpinning children's development, and particularly for those with special educational needs, supported by findings from neuro-science. The training framework falls within a hermeneutic view of the teacher informed by humanistic psychology and reflective practice, with Movement seen as an empowering, creative and dialogic pedagogy.     

Creating spaces: Testimonio,impossible knowledge,and academe

This article examines what it means to engage seriously with speech and writing events, such as testimonio, articulated by people whose theoretical base lies primarily in experience outside the walls of academe. I argue that we dismiss such unfamiliar scholarship to the detriment of all involved. If we are truly committed to learning, then we must expose ourselves to language forms and cultural norms that are different from those with which we are familiar. We must learn from them how to acknowledge the limits of our analysis and how to find "impossible knowledge" in unaccustomed places.     

Towards better teaching: productive pedagogy as a framework for teacher education

In this paper, we explore Productive Pedagogy (PP) as a framework for enhancing teacher education. Reporting results from a study involving student teachers’ application of the four principles of PP during an internship, we consider whether PP brings a firmer knowledge base to their work. Based on our analysis of the data, we argue for a more fundamental reorganisation of teacher education to fully integrate PP, if the framework is to have a significant and lasting impact on graduates’ teaching. Such a shift requires a reassessment of teacher education priorities to focus more on the substance and purposes of teaching.