Examining practice to address policy problems in teacher education

This article puts forward a case for addressing policy problems in the rigorous pursuit of new practices in faculties of education. Recent policy developments in pre‐service teacher education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia are discussed in terms of a programmatic rift between study in foundational disciplines, on the one hand, as component bodies of knowledge included in a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree, and, on the other hand, the practical experiences provided in a 1‐year Professional Development Program. This article includes a discussion of underlying assumptions about the nature of learning to teach that inform a framework for a B.Ed. programme that attempts to strike a better balance and more meaningful integration of academic study and the practice of teaching. The concept of schools of practice is discussed in the context of some of the author's experiences in the Professional Development Program. Excerpts from ‘the Summerfest letters’ ‐ taken from a summer school in science that was taught by SFU education students to a class of elementary children ‐ are presented to demonstrate a potential policy direction to educate teachers in practice.     

如何在网上挣外快

当今社会是一个信息化的时代,电脑逐渐成为每家每户不可或缺的"伙伴"。除了将电脑作为休闲娱乐的工具之外,我们也可以利用它得天独厚的优势赚取外快。本文将向读者介绍一些实用的网络赚钱方法。     

Developing writing skills of learners with persistent literacy difficulties through explicit grammar teaching

The benefits of grammar instruction in the teaching of writing is contested in most English‐speaking countries (Jones et al., 2012). The majority of Anglophone countries abandoned the teaching of grammar in the 1950s based on the conclusions that it had no positive impact on learners’ development of reading, writing and language (Locke, 2005). Through an action research design, this study aims at gaining a further understanding of how the explicit teaching of grammar in context can benefit learners with persistent literacy difficulties by adapting the Grammar for Writing materials (Myhill, 2013). It intends to improve educational practice (Koshy, 2010) through action, analysis and reflection.     

Interrogating ourselves to promote the democratic production,distribution, and use of knowledge through action research

ABSTRACT

This article is a report of a critical co-autoethnography action research (AR) study of Allan Feldman’s life in AR relative to the development of knowledge democracy (KD). For nearly 30 years he has been doing, studying, and writing about AR, first as a doctoral student and then as a professor. Prior to this he engaged in reflective practice as a secondary science teacher. In this study we ask how his life in AR has contributed to KD, and what actions he and others can take to increase the contribution of AR to KD. The meaning-making processes used throughout relied heavily on collaborative conversations with a critical friend (Frederick Bradley), self-reflective writing, and interrogation of the literature and Feldman’s previous writings. The findings suggest that while his work has been situated in democratic and critical aspects of AR, little of it fits in with current conceptions of KD. They also indicate that a reconfiguration of how we think about, practice, facilitate, and study AR might be necessary if we are to fall more in line with the ideals of KD. We contend the methods and results of our study can be used by others in the field, who seek to interrogate their participation in this way, and help them promote the democratic production, distribution, and use of knowledge.