How young people respond to learning spaces outside school: A sociocultural perspective

This article focuses on educational enterprises outside the formal sector, such as museums, botanical gardens and interactive science centres. International research is drawn on to illuminate how design, culture, educational strategies and settings combine to affect the way in which young people respond to experiences on offer, leading to analysis of the impact of such settings in promoting learning, and the likely implications for those who staff such venues. Aikenhead’s concept of the educator as ‘culture broker’ is developed to suggest ways in which learning might be best supported. It envisages a shift from ‘delivery’ strategies targeted at large groups towards approaches which focus on what learners choose to know about using dialogue between children and ‘known and trusted people’. Analysis of observed responses in various settings is undertaken from a sociocultural perspective using the notion of communities of practice. Implications for the roles of education managers and their staff in further research are developed.     

Being an Artist Teacher: A Liberating Identity?

Education as a liberating and democratic process remains an aim and belief in discourses within the field and beyond. The arts also have a tradition in which ‘artistic freedom’ is valued even if what constitutes artistic freedom is contested. In this article an educational discourse in which dialogue is considered a means to personal and collective liberation through education is highlighted and related to ‘artistic freedom’ and the dual roles of artist and teacher, in which learners and teachers are encouraged to contribute to and change culture as well as study and absorb it. Conceptualisations of the artist teacher and professional development and practices associated with these are considered to open up creative possibilities for art teachers without undermining other positive aspects of identity as a teacher and practitioner.     

Technology enhanced feedback tools as a knowledge management mechanism for supporting professional growth and school reform

Attempts at school reform and improvement have experienced difficulty creating and implementing feedback systems that energize and sustain change efforts. If the call for reform at all levels of education is to be met, attention must be given to establishing effective feedback mechanisms in educational institutions as they embark on improvement efforts. The purpose of this article is to describe application of an educational design metaphor to create a Knowledge Management System that provides teachers with timely and constructive feedback about their professional practice. This system includes the way in which a corpus of professional knowledge about differentiated content and instruction, classroom grouping, evidence-based practice and classroom management can be embedded in a set of tools that provides multiple stakeholders (teachers, students, administrators) the opportunity to generate feedback about instructional practice. Use of the approach is discussed within the broader context of Knowledge Management as a vehicle to extend the role of feedback in school reform and improvement within a long term pilot application in one school.     

Analysis of self-regulated learning processing using statistical models for count data

Researchers often use measures of the frequency of self-regulated learning (SRL; Zimmerman, American Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 166–183, 2000) processing as a predictor of learning gains. These frequency data, which are really counts of SRL processing events, are often non-normally distributed, and the accurate analysis of these data requires the use of specialized statistical models. In this study, we demonstrate how to implement and interpret count statistical models in path and latent profile analyses to investigate the role of SRL as a mediator of the relation between pretest and posttest conceptual understanding. Our findings from a sample of 170 college students using a computer to learn about the circulatory system show that SRL does mediate the aforementioned relation, and that count models are a more accurate representation of SRL processing data than standard analysis models based on ordinary least squares estimation. The results of our path analyses revealed which specific SRL processes were related to learning, above and beyond the effect of prior knowledge. Our latent profile analysis revealed two groups of participants, indicative of Brophy’s (2004) model of schematic and aschematic learners. We conclude with implications and future directions for basic and applied SRL research.     

FIRST YEAR IMPLEMENTATION OF A PROJECT-BASED LEARNING APPROACH: THE NEED FOR ADDRESSING TEACHERS�� ORIENTATIONS IN THE ERA OF REFORM

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which three teachers’ professional experience and existing orientations toward teaching and learning mathematics and science influenced their implementation of a project-based curriculum (i.e. project-based learning (PBL)). Data sources included interviews, videotapes of classroom activity, and a teaching philosophy questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using an iterative coding technique. We found coherency between the teachers’ perceived orientations and their emergent ideas about PBL, their sense of PBL as being compatible with their goals, and the specific challenges with which they struggled. All the teachers wanted their students to be successful; however, different definitions of success led to quite different approaches toward teaching, and for the most part, these differences appeared to have occurred because of existing orientations the teachers held for teaching their discipline. Implications for professional development taking into account teachers’ orientations and thus their professional experience are discussed, as well as disciplinary challenges to using PBL.     

银戒指

丽兹一直小心保存着戒指,但她却不愿打开它. 丽兹站在父亲的床边,他患癌症已有多年了."不要哭,丽兹,"父亲对她说,"死神来临的时候,我不能再陪在你身边了,我要你答应我不会难过."他还说,她会得到很好的照顾."我有件礼物给你,亲爱的丽兹.这是我们家的传家之宝,它蕴涵着三个愿望."     

Preparing Students for Professional Roles by Simulating Work Settings in Counselor Education Courses

The authors describe a method for preparing novice counselors for professional environments by using classroom meetings of semester‐long courses to simulate college student affairs divisions, community agencies, school counseling offices, and other work settings.