How an orientation to learning influences the expansive–restrictive nature of teacher learning and change

This study examined teachers’ learning situated in a school to reveal factors that support and hinder learning in the workplace. The investigation analyzed teachers’ orientation to learning, examining beliefs, practices, and experiences about teachers’ learning in relation to change in the workplace. A hypothesis is that teacher learning and change is complex and unable to be fully understood outside of practice. Evidence is provided on the factors and forms of learning activities that appear to strengthen an expansive learning environment and those which contribute to a more restrictive learning environment. A distinctive finding was that teachers’ orientation to learning is related to self-reported change. Another promising finding with the potential of better understanding the interrelated combination of how teachers’ beliefs, practices, and workplace factors influence change was related to dissonance for learning. The implications for practice involved determining how to continue to support and strengthen an expansive workplace learning environment.     

The difference of literature: Writing now for the future of young readers

CLIE is pleased to print the 1992 Sidney Robbins Lecture, given at the Annual Conference of The International Association of School Libraries at The Queen's University, Belfast. Sidney Robbins founded this journal in 1970, arising from the series of Children's Literature Conferences which be had initiated at St. Luke's College, Exeter, where be worked. He died in 1971.Aidan Chambers began his career as a secondary school teacher of English and drama. For the last twenty-seven years he has been an author of fiction for young readers and a part-time tutor of pre-and inservice teachers. In 1969, with his wife Nancy, he founded Thimble Press, publisher of the magazineSignal and various guides to and monographs on children's books. He is a visiting lecturer in literature for children at Westminster College, Oxford.     

Incidental spatial memory in the domestic dog (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis familiaris</Emphasis>)

We built upon previous work by Fujita et al. (2012, Animal Cognition, 15(6), 1055–1063) to create an experiment that investigated the presence of incidental memory for the spatial location of uneaten food in the domestic dog. Here, we dissociated potentially incidental spatial memory from the incidental memory for the characteristics of objects, in this case, food bowls. Eighteen household domestic dogs of various breeds and age were presented with four bowls. Each bowl contained either a novel object, treats the dog could consume, treats it could not consume, or it was left empty. Following a delay, the dogs returned to the laboratory and were presented with empty bowls in the same spatial orientation as the initial exposure and could move freely between bowls. This experiment required no previous training outside of basic obedience and so avoids the possibility that performance on the test was a conditioned response. We hypothesized that domestic dogs would be able to remember the location of uneaten food when presented with an unexpected memory test. We found that dogs in this study showed no evidence that they encoded spatial location in the absence of other cues that could be used to distinguish food bowls at specific locations. This suggests that dogs in previous experiments were more dependent on incidentally encoding the “what” and “in what” of this task than the “where,” in the absence of features making each location distinct.     

现代化全自动摄像系统计时与裁判工作方法的研究

“全自动摄像系统计时器”是体育竞赛中的新一代全自动终点计时装置。它既给裁判员带来很多方便,节省资金,又能快速、准确、适时地裁决出运动员到达终点的名次、道次和成绩,保证了体育竞赛的公平与合理。     

Migration change model: Exploring the process of migration on a psychological level

There have been many studies into how acculturation progresses for migrants upon arrival in their destination. However, outside of studies of forced migration, few researchers have examined the pre-departure period as important for understanding the context of the migration experience. This study was designed to develop a model of the migration experience beginning before migrants leave their country of origin and continuing through the acculturation process. Migration can be viewed as a major change in behavior, particularly when migrants are self-selected. We therefore modified the Stages of Change Model (DiClemente & Prochaska, 1982) into a proposed model of voluntary migration. A thematic analysis was then conducted on a dataset consisting of the posts made to three online migration forums for British migrants to New Zealand. The resulting Migration Change Model incorporates four stages of the migration process: precontemplation, contemplation, action and acculturation as well as a path for return or onward migration. The salient factors for the migrants in each of these stages included: intrapersonal factors and familial connections (precontemplation); macro and micro factors (contemplation); stress and coping (action), and psychological adjustment and sociocultural adaptation (acculturation). More studies that address the pre-departure period as part of a process of migration are needed, particularly for adult migrants who have a wealth of experiences before departing their country of origin.     

Confronting the Absurd: An educational reading of Camus’ The stranger

Abstract

This article examines the concept of the stranger and the experience of strangeness in Albert Camus’s The stranger. These themes have a range of synergies with educational thought. They also lead us to other concepts that may have a place in educational debate, in particular the concepts of the absurd and rebellion. This train of thought also has potential for educational practice. If we accept that strangeness has a positive place in education, Camus is insightful in allowing us to examine its pedagogical foundations and the wider conditions necessary to give rise to the experience of strangeness.     

What type of teachers do we intend to train? An analysis of teacher profiles in MERCOSUR curricula

Over the last decades, teachers have often been identified as ‘key’ players for the improvement of education systems. The successive waves of reform taking place in Latin America since the 1990s have aimed at initial and continuous teacher training. The main changes intended to improve the quality and lengthen the duration of initial teacher training; additionally, the variety of teacher training courses was widened and diversified. This work focuses on the teacher training curricula currently in force for the MERCOSUR member states (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay). Special attention will be paid to the definitions of the profile that is intended for future teachers, as it is believed that this dimension makes it possible to reveal the different types of expected performance, which will allow us to move towards the dimension of the educational practices. The results obtained from the comparative analysis indicate that the abilities/competences put forth by the four countries are relevant and complementary with each other. Studies of this kind are a step forward in the definition of common policies for MERCOSUR countries aimed at strengthening and articulating teacher training and, specifically, at recognizing teacher qualifications and favouring mobility among countries.