Establishing mathematics for teaching within classroom interactions in teacher education

Teacher educators’ processes of establishing “mathematics for teaching” in teacher education programs have been recognized as an important area for further research. In this study, we examine how two teacher educators establish and make explicit features of mathematics for teaching within classroom interactions. The study shows how the establishment of mathematics for teaching is dependent on the use of keywords from the mathematics education domain, the introduction of variation, and the use of generic communicative strategies. As such, the study could be seen as a contribution to ongoing research on how mathematics teacher educators interactively deal with mathematics for teaching.     

Teachers' talk on students' writing: Negotiating students' texts in interdisciplinary teacher teams

This paper examines how a team of teachers in a Norwegian upper secondary school responds to, negotiates, and evaluates students' writing in and across different disciplines. The purpose is to identify discourse strategies and professional development as the teachers discuss students' texts, and to explore how the teachers develop a shared understanding of how writing relates to students' learning. The findings show how the teachers' discourse reflects an emerging understanding of how writing is both a subject-specific and interdisciplinary skill conducive to learning, but also how institutional traditions and discipline-specific concerns together allow for and constrain teachers' learning.     

Managing the link between higher education and the labour market: perceptions of graduates in Greece and Cyprus

Abstract

The paper investigates the experience of employed higher education graduates in two countries with high rates of graduate unemployment. It examines the employment experience of graduates and their perceptions regarding the contribution of higher education to their employment and career prospects. Qualitative research was used to collect information from 58 university graduates in two Southern European countries, Greece and Cyprus. Respondents provided information on the skills and competencies acquired through higher education and utilised in the world of work. In both countries, modest links were reported between jobs and graduates’ field of study, as well as between knowledge and non-knowledge-based competencies acquired through higher education, and the requirements of the graduates’ jobs. The findings are used as the basis for suggestions that can enhance graduate employability and contribute to the management of the link between higher education and the labour market.     

List of Reviewers 2006

ASCTRACT

This study aims to analyze the potential and constraints of group-based extension approaches as an institutional innovation in the Vietnamese agricultural extension system. Our analysis therefore unfolds around the challenges of how to foster this kind of approach within the hierarchical extension policy setting and how to effectively shape and enable learning groups. The analysis draws on qualitative data from case studies of five newly established extension groups in Son La province, collected between 2007 and 2008. Content analysis was applied as the main analytical tool. The basic principles of group-based learning approaches are still underdeveloped, mainly due to a non-supportive institutional environment and a command-and-follow mentality. Extension groups suffer from an insufficient distinction between social processes and technical procedures. Finding an appropriate balance between enhancing leadership and supporting collective responsibility is identified as key to sustain groups. The research identified room for adjustments in group-organizational issues since the external institutional environment is hard to change. The particular value of this paper lies in addressing how to organize group-extension approaches in the context of reformed extension systems in a transitional socialist setting.     

Developmental and contextual factors in the role of severe childhood trauma in geriatric depression: The sample case of former indentured child laborers

The purpose of this study was to quantify the association between childhood traumatic experiences and geriatric depression (GDS) in a population of elderly who were exposed to severe childhood trauma. We aimed to identify the role of childhood maltreatment exposure in geriatric depression and the developmental and contextual factors that exacerbate this relationship. We interviewed 141 former indentured child laborers (58 females) about their experiences as children and their current depressive symptoms (M_age = 77, SD = 6.8). Participants provided their age, the year they were first indentured, duration indentured, current physical health, completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Child maltreatment, specifically emotional abuse, was strongly associated with geriatric depression symptoms. These effects were specific to individuals who were removed from their biological families between the ages of 3 and 9 years, and for children who were indentured for 6–12 years. Finally, depression partially mediated the association between medical conditions and daily health impairment, but not for individuals “at risk” for depression by virtue of their maltreatment experiences. This study was conducted with a specific subpopulation of elderly and therefore may not generalize to all geriatric depression, nor to all generations or populations with exposure to childhood adversity. This study demonstrates the importance of using a developmental framework to understand how childhood maltreatment facilitates increased risk for the development of depression in late life.     

A phenomenographic study of students' conceptions of quality in learning in higher education in Rwanda

The aim of this study is to understand the different ways that university students conceptualise quality in learning by drawing on a phenomenographic approach. A total of 20 students in higher education in Rwanda were interviewed and analysis of the interviews generated an outcome space of conceptions of quality in learning as transformation, practice, knowledge durability and employability. The findings illustrate the importance of the relationship between education and work as an important aspect of conceptions of quality in learning. This relationship connects to the discourse of employability in which graduates are expected to become flexible and adaptable to changes in context and over the course of time.     

On the Performance of Likelihood-Based Difference Tests in Nonlinear Structural Equation Models

This article investigates likelihood-based difference statistics for testing nonlinear effects in structural equation modeling using the latent moderated structural equations (LMS) approach. In addition to the standard difference statistic T_D, 2 robust statistics have been developed in the literature to ensure valid results under the conditions of nonnormality or small sample sizes: the robust T_DR and the “strictly positive” T_DRP. These robust statistics have not been examined in combination with LMS yet. In 2 Monte Carlo studies we investigate the performance of these methods for testing quadratic or interaction effects subject to different sources of nonnormality, nonnormality due to the nonlinear terms, and nonnormality due to the distribution of the predictor variables. The results indicate that T_D is preferable to both T_DR and T_DRP. Under the condition of strong nonlinear effects and nonnormal predictors, T_DR often produced negative differences and T_DRP showed no desirable power.     

PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS’ CHALLENGES IN TEACHING REASONING-AND-PROVING

The activity of reasoning-and-proving is at the heart of mathematical sense making and is important for all students’ learning as early as the elementary grades. Yet, reasoning-and-proving tends to have a marginal place in elementary school classrooms. This situation can be partly attributed to the fact that many (prospective) elementary teachers have (1) weak mathematical (subject matter) knowledge about reasoning-and-proving and (2) counterproductive beliefs about its teaching. Following up on an intervention study that helped a group of prospective elementary teachers make significant progress in overcoming these two major obstacles to teaching reasoning-and-proving, we examined the challenges that three of them identified that they faced as they planned and taught lessons related to reasoning-and-proving in their mentor teachers’ classrooms. Our findings contribute to research knowledge about major factors (other than the well-known factors related to teachers’ mathematical knowledge and beliefs) that deserve attention by teacher education programs in preparing prospective teachers to teach reasoning-and-proving.     

Caring and Daring Discourses at Work: Doing Gender Through Occupational Choices in Elderly Care and Police Work

This paper aims to problematise how gender is being done—1. through occupational choices in two occupations that are traditionally gender divided, elderly care and police work, and 2. through the division of work assignments in police work. Interviews with care workers and police officers are analysed using a “doing gender” perspective, a post-structural notion of subjectivity inspired by Michel Foucault and positioning theory. We argue that a caring discourse operates in elderly care workers’ and police officers’ statements concerning occupational choices, while a daring discourse operates in statements concerning occupational choices within police work. Through these discourses, gender is being done in different ways; caring dispositions are constructed as totally female within the context of elderly care but as more gender-neutral in police work. At the same time, a macho or daring attitude is constructed as a male attribute in police work. Such constructions may have social consequences in terms of dividing work tasks for police, where male officers work in more prestigious and “dangerous” areas, while female officers are left with less prestigious, more caring-associated working areas.