Building common knowledge at the boundaries between professional practices: Relational agency and relational expertise in systems of distributed expertise

The article develops an earlier account of relational agency (IJER 2005). Its starting point is a view of practices as knowledge-laden and emotionally freighted sites of purposeful and expert activity. Arguments therefore draw on cultural historical analyses of activities, practices and the institutions that shape them. Relational agency in inter-professional activities is seen to be mediated by common knowledge which is built in interactions at the points where the boundaries of practices intersect. The focus will be the development of common knowledge, described by Carlile (2004, p. 557) as a capacity to ‘represent the differences now of consequence and the ability of the actors involved to use it’, at the sites of intersecting practices. The argument, supported by evidence from four recent studies of interprofessional work, is that building and using common knowledge is an important feature of the relational expertise required for working across the practice boundaries on complex tasks.     

论新课程与中小学校长角色的创新

根据新课程标准的理念，校长应将应试教育背景下的管理角色进行创新：即从课程执行成为课程的研究、开发，由共性化课程的规范成为个性化课程的激励、开拓，由教师教学水平的考评成为教师专业自主化发展的改革、促进。     

Distributed and relative nature of professional expertise

This exploratory study investigates the distributed nature and complexity of professional expertise by examining the patterns of cognitive processes in novices and experts who are using ultrasound technology to make diagnoses. The study aims to identify and provide an explanation for such patterns in light of the recent debate on the locus of control underpinning human cognition. A distributed model of professional expertise based on the relationships between the four elements of socio-cultural disposition, tools and artefacts, strategies, and domain knowledge, is used to discuss the results. The findings illustrate the complexity of professional expertise, particularly when individuals depend on sophisticated tools to assist their thinking and reasoning.     

Making the simple more complex: the influence of job‐embedded professional development in supporting teacher expertise in reading

This paper explores how job‐embedded professional development supported a Year 1 teacher as he enacted his growing expertise in the teaching of guided reading. By analysing coaching conversations focussed on the teacher's guided reading practices, we studied the way his teaching developed over a 7‐month period. Our findings suggest the teacher gained deeper understandings in the domain of reading, which allowed him to be more responsive to children during guided reading. We discuss the factors that enhanced or inhibited his ability to implement what he learned and offer suggestions for supporting teachers through job‐embedded professional development.     

Blurring the boundaries: connecting research,practice and professional learning

Educational researchers can incorporate benefits for themselves and teacher participants by planning for interactions between research, practice and teachers’ professional learning from the outset of a project. However, the dual role of a researcher as a professional learning partner has rarely been explicated and theorised in studies of teacher–researcher relationships. The study described in this paper occurred in the context of early childhood education. The notion of a critical friend was extended and validated as a useful theorisation of the relationship. Four ways that I acted as a critical friend are described. The expertise, roles, boundaries and hybridity of a co‐constructed approach to research are discussed. The importance of a researcher as critical friend having research and theoretical knowledge to shift teacher knowledge and practice is argued. Implications for teacher–researcher partnerships in terms of strengthening coherence between research, practice and professional learning are suggested.     

中学美术教师的专业素质特征

新世纪全面综合的美术文化教育，要求中学美术教师不但具有敬业精神和勇于创新的精神，还必须形成与日俱进的美术教育观，充实、完善知识结构，掌握、运用现代教育技术，提高综合教学的整合力，树立“研究者”的理想，形成自己的理论体系，逐渐成为美术课程改革真正意义的主体形象。     

Gender and attitudes to work and family roles: the views of young people at the millennium

The last century, in particular the latter half, saw radical shifts in the roles and expectations of women in society. This article investigates the views of 14‐ to 16‐year‐olds in the year 2000 on work and family roles, exploring both their general views on gender roles and their own personal aspirations for the future. In general the young people believed that it was equally important for males and females to get good qualifications at school, to have worthwhile careers and that childcare should be a joint responsibility. They also believed that males and females could do any job they wanted to these days. Their views were tempered, however, by the inequalities that they saw around them in the workplace and in their own families. While young people’s attitudes may have changed, they are still choosing fairly gender‐typical subjects at school and aspiring to different types of occupation. The article concludes that while great strides have been made in changing attitudes towards gender equality, there is still a long way to go before equal opportunities are really achieved.     

职业中学专业教师心理健康浅析

教师担负着教书育人的重任,教师的心理健康作为教师心理素质的一个重要方面,则通过长期的、潜移默化的作用对学生的发展产生着很大的影响.的确,目前教师的心理健康状况普遍较差,特别是职业学校的教师,因其教育环境的特殊性,他们的心理健康状况更是不容乐观.这就需要教育行政部门、社会、学校共同努力,采取积极有力且行之有效的措施,共同解决.因此,针对教师心理健康上障碍的具体表现,分析其成因,提出相对的解决办法,是非常必要的.     

Writing for professional recognition in higher education: understanding genre and expertise

ABSTRACT

This study draws on the theoretical frameworks of genre theory and writing expertise to explore how educators manage and excel in writing for professional recognition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four educators from different disciplines in which participants discussed their experiences of preparing and writing for Senior Fellow. Despite the fact that writing for professional recognition can be a contentious genre to manage with its reflective features favouring those from certain disciplinary backgrounds, the participants described positive and affirming experiences. The findings also suggest that educators are strategic in their approach, and that the writing process can have unexpected affordances including a developed knowledge of writing, professional confidence and a sense of empowerment. The findings have implications for developing systems and resources to support educators preparing for fellowship.     

Cooperative learning and team culture in schools: Conditions for teachers’ professional development

The study done in Slovenia examined grammar and elementary teachers’ perceptions of cooperative learning. The sample consisted of 542 Slovene elementary and grammar school teachers, who teach Slovene. The main question of the research was how teachers assess the value of group learning in comparison to individual forms of learning. From their perceptions, we can draw conclusions about their development, the introduction of group work within lessons and about the encouragement of pupils towards collaborative learning. The main finding of the research is that elementary school teachers place greater importance on group learning than grammar school teachers. In addition, when teachers are grouped according to their years of experience (seniority), there are differences in their assessment of group learning. However, it is not possible to get a linear pattern from the results (e.g. showing that years of experience do or do not contribute to the perception of the importance of group learning), a finding which supports the critical opinion that teachers’ experience depends not only on the quantity (years of experience), but also on the quality of experience.     

The building of weak expertise: the work of global university rankers

University rankers are the subject of much criticism, and yet they remain influential in the field of higher education. Drawing from a two-year field study of university ranking organizations, interviews with key correspondents in the sector, and an analysis of related documents, I introduce the concept of weak expertise. This kind of expertise is the result of a constantly negotiated balance between the relevance, reliability, and robustness of rankers’ data and their relationships with their key readers and audiences. Building this expertise entails collecting robust data, presenting it in ways that are relevant to audiences, and engaging with critics. I show how one ranking organization, the Times Higher Education (THE), sought to maintain its legitimacy in the face of opposition from important stakeholders and how it sought to introduce a new “Innovation and Impact” ranking. The paper analyzes the strategies, methods, and particular practices that university rankers undertake to legitimate their knowledge—and is the first work to do so using insights gathered alongside the operations of one of the ranking agencies as well as from the rankings’ conference circuit. Rather than assuming that all of these trust-building mechanisms have solidified the hold of the THE over its audience, they can be seen as signs of a constant struggle for influence over a skeptical audience.     

Inter‐agency approaches to the development of a school‐based student health service

Young people living in rural areas lack opportunities for accessing health advice and care without reference to a parent, carer, or other adult. In this article Jane Harrison and Jane Bullock provide the rationale for the development in 1997 of Bodyzone, a school‐based health service to address this problem. Presented here as a case study, Bodyzone, twenty of which have been started in Oxfordshire, demonstrates the value of such a service to young people and teachers. The multi‐agency sessions are held once a week either on school premises or in youth or sports centres nearby. The service is accessed by self‐referral and the sessions are drop‐in. The provision of this service enables young people to begin to take responsibility for their health and to meet health professionals on their own territory, rather than that of the agency.     

The emergence of the marketing professional in schools

Abstract

The marketisation of schools has emerged as a defining feature of the education landscape. While the role of principals and lead teachers in carrying out marketing work was investigated in the late 1990s, there has been scant evidence of how the people and practices of marketing in schools have evolved into the twenty-first century. Expanding on existing literature on educational marketing practices in schools, and through in-depth interviews with a unique sample of school marketers, this study explores the emergence of the school marketing professional. The interviews reveal the diverse backgrounds and experiences of these individuals, the transfer of their business skills into schools and the tensions in professional boundaries with educators who traditionally performed school marketing activities. Ultimately, the study furthers insights into the co-existence of educational and managerial agendas in the schools market.     

Training and professional expertise: Bridging the gap between new information and pre-existing beliefs of teachers

This article puts forward the “congruence” hypothesis which states that the effectiveness of training is dependent upon the correspondence between trainee's pre-existing cognitions (especially beliefs) and the knowledge that training is intended to convey. The hypothesis implies that a diagnosis of teacher knowledge should be a component of training programs. Two cognitive-oriented models of training (a concept-based model and an experience-based model) that differ in the degree to which they diagnose teachers' pre-existing cognitions are tested with respect to their impact on knowledge acquisition. The results supported the congruence hypothesis. Teachers' beliefs were found to filter the knowledge acquisition process: The greater the correspondence between teachers' beliefs and what was presented in training, the more likely learning was to take place. On the other hand, taking beliefs into account by diagnosing beliefs to facilitate greater congruence was not found to be an effective strategy. Apparently, other interventional techniques will have to be considered if teachers' beliefs are to be integrated with professional knowledge.     

Science achievement of english language learners in urban elementary schools: Results of a first‐year professional development intervention

This study is part of a 5‐year professional development intervention aimed at improving science and literacy achievement of English language learners (or ELL students) in urban elementary schools within an environment increasingly driven by high‐stakes testing and accountability. Specifically, the study examined science achievement at the end of the first‐year implementation of the professional development intervention that consisted of curriculum units and teacher workshops. The study involved 1,134 third‐grade students at seven treatment schools and 966 third‐grade students at eight comparison schools. The results led to three main findings. First, treatment students displayed a statistically significant increase in science achievement. Second, there was no statistically significant difference in achievement gains between students at English to Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) levels 1 to 4 and students who had exited from ESOL or never been in ESOL. Similarly, there was no significant difference in achievement gains between students who had been retained on the basis of statewide reading test scores and students who had never been retained. Third, treatment students showed a higher score on a statewide mathematics test, particularly on the measurement strand emphasized in the intervention, than comparison students. The results indicate that through our professional development intervention, ELL students and others in the intervention learned to think and reason scientifically while also performing well on high‐stakes testing. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 31–52, 2008     

Rethinking the learning space at work and beyond: The achievement of agency across the boundaries of work-related spaces and environments

This paper focuses on the notion of the learning space at work and discusses the extent to which its different configurations allow employees to exercise personal agency within a range of learning spaces. Although the learning space at work is already the subject of extensive research, the continuous development of the learning society and the development of new types of working spaces calls for further research to advance our knowledge and understanding of the ways that individuals exercise agency and learn in the workplace. Research findings suggest that the current perception of workplace learning is strongly related to the notion of the learning space, in which individuals and teams work, learn and develop their skills. The perception of the workplace as a site only for work-specific training is gradually changing, as workplaces are now acknowledged as sites for learning in various configurations, and as contributing to the personal development and social engagement of employees. This paper argues that personal agency is constructed in the workplace, and this process involves active interrelations between agency and three dimensions of the workplace (individual, spatial and organisational), identified through both empirical and theoretical research. The discussion is supported by data from two research projects on workplace learning in the United Kingdom. This paper thus considers how different configurations of the learning space and the boundaries between a range of work-related spaces facilitate the achievement of personal agency.     

Inter‐agency partnerships and Integrated Community Schools a Scottish perspective

Integrated Community Schools (ICS) in Scotland provide a focus for studying the role of inter‐agency partnerships in supporting more inclusive schools and their communities. In this article, Lyn Tett examines two types of intervention, those designed to coordinate supportive programmes within and outside schools, and those that have acted as a catalyst to restructure local authorities' education and children's services. It is argued that inter‐agency work is difficult and change requires time, resources and commitment to building a meta‐strategy that will allow all relevant interest groups to find a way forward. Inter‐agency programmes can contribute to social inclusion, it is suggested, by sustaining projects that prioritise collaborative partnerships with all the community.