Sex Education in the New Zealand Primary School: A tangled skein of morality,religion, politics and the law

This article examines the political struggle from 1945 to 1999 over the place of sex education in the New Zealand primary school. It begins with the 1945 prohibition on sex education and goes on to chart the various political, legal and community manoeuvres leading up to the introduction of the 1999 health curriculum, which includes sex education for primary schools. Along the way there have been various conflicts but for the time being an uneasy truce prevails between liberals, who achieved the introduction of sex education into the primary school curriculum, and conservatives, who managed to make pupil participation voluntary.     

Metacognition and Human Performance Improvement Originally published in 1988, PIQ 1.1

An understanding of the uses of metacognition provides a powerful tool toward developing quality and efficiency in task learning and performance. Metacognition is the executive controller of cognitive processes responsible both for self regulated learning and work performance outcomes. Comprehension monitoring and motivation are two prime components of metacognition which are responsible for commitment to, and definition of, goals, monitoring progress toward goals, and activating the appropriate thinking skills to achieve goals. Specific thinking skill categories of attention, organization, and elaboration are described with examples of how specific techniques in each category can optimize learning and job performance. Research on training of metacognitive skills through both detached and embedded skill-development programs is reviewed. In addition, ways to compensate for metacognitive skills when training is not cost-effective are described. The relationship between metacognitive skills and effective management of work performance is stressed.     

Supporting students' preparation for the viva: their pre-conceptions and implications for practice

In universities theories and concepts are created and used within a disciplinary context, and some understanding of this context is necessary if students fully are to make sense of their studies. Thus, we investigate computer scientists' perspectives on their discipline. Biglan characterises Computer Science as being hard, rather than soft and as being applied, rather than pure. Therefore, Computer Science is associated with the engineering disciplines. Although many computer scientists support this view, others see the discipline as being identified more properly with Mathematics and/or the sciences. We suggest some reasons for the difference of opinion and highlight the implications for what students might learn about the disciplinary context.     

OBSTACLES AND OPPORTUNITIES: CREATING EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCHOOLS

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to highlight key findings from a study of 24 early childhood preservice teachers as they moved away from a reliance on traditional interpretations of child‐centered curricula toward one of collaborative inquiry. Participants enrolled in a 15 week undergraduate teaching methods course were assigned to teaching teams to implement collaborative projects with the same group of 3–5‐year‐old children. The study utilized both quantitative and qualitative measures to assess conceptual level, changes in reflectivity, and inquiry‐oriented teaching. Results suggest that the emergence of collaborative inquiry among preservice teachers is a dynamic and diverse process not readily assessed by static measures or discreet skills. Collaborative projects did provide a context for creating communities of learners within which time, space and opportunity to practice, reflect and use language and other tools contributed to young teachers’ development of inquiry.     

Sharing teacher knowledge at scale: teacher inquiry,learning design and the representation of teachers’ practice

Sharing teachers’ professional knowledge remains challenging. Teachers’ development often remains ad hoc or local, and attempts to scale this up have proved problematic. To address this, research in areas such as ‘learning design’ has explored the use of formal representations of practice. This proposes that educational practice can be improved by documenting, sharing and building on what teachers already do. Whilst this has led to some successes, it has not resulted in the widespread transformation of practice. This paper reviews the literature about sharing teacher knowledge. The challenges of scaling up development are then considered in relation to two theories that help explain the challenges: Communities of Practice and Sociomateriality. This analysis is illustrated through case studies in Norway and the UK. These show that teachers already create and share artefacts that represent their pedagogic knowledge. However, they found formal representations, such as learning designs, difficult to work with. The paper concludes that scaling up teacher development using abstract formalisms is unlikely to succeed. Instead, teachers value stories and the materials they already create in their day-to-day practice. It is this intermediate level of representation, between direct experience and formal abstraction, that offers the most promise for sharing practice.