Engineers' professional learning: a practice-theory perspective

With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical acquisition and transfer of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices – site walks and design review meetings – in which learning takes place.     

Developing positive school–home relationships through structured conversations with parents of learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Parents play a crucial role in their children's education, and their active involvement can lead to better outcomes. However, evidence suggests that parental engagement and confidence among perhaps the most vulnerable group of learners – those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – may be lower than for those without difficulties. We report on research exploring a model for developing positive home–school relationships, known as ‘structured conversations with parents’, which was implemented as part of a comprehensive intervention to improve outcomes for learners with SEND (the Achievement for All pilot). Our research design utilised both quantitative and qualitative elements, including school‐level surveys, parent questionnaires, interviews with key personnel and stakeholders, and case studies of pupils/parents in participating schools across 10 local authorities in England. Our analyses suggest that the structured conversations with parents were successful in achieving their intended outcomes, albeit with important caveats in relation to issues of individual differences, implementation fidelity/adherence and sustainability.     

Rethinking argumentation-teaching strategies and indigenous knowledge in South African science classrooms

Our response to Hewson and Ogunniyi’s paper focuses, on the one hand, on some of the underlying tensions associated with alinging indigenous knowledge systems with westernized science in South African science classrooms, as suggested by the new, post-apartheid, curriculum. On the other hand, the use of argumentation as a vehicle to accomplish the alignment when the jury is still out on the appropriateness of argumentation as a pedagogical and research tool heightens the tension. We argue that the need for education stakeholders from indigenous heritages to value, know and document their own indigenous knowledge becomes paramount. The textualizing of indigenous knowledge, as has been done in western science, will create repositories for teachers to access and may help with the argumentation strategies such as advocated by the authors.     

Anticipatory Feelings About Dissection: An Exercise for the First Day of a Gross Anatomy Course

Studies have demonstrated that students experience a variety of intense emotions in anticipation of human anatomical dissection, including enthusiasm, gratitude, responsibility, apprehension, detachment, anxiety, and spiritual or moral reflection. The exercise described here provides an opportunity to start a conversation about the complexity of students’ emotional reactions to the anatomy experience. The intention of this exercise is to normalize the variety of emotions that anatomy students experience, both to demonstrate to students that their emotions are normal and to encourage the empathy for others' reactions which may differ from their own. In the lecture hall setting before the first day of dissection, students are asked to draw how they feel about the dissection experience and are provided an opportunity to discuss their drawings with their peers. The course director then provides a slide show demonstration of drawings from previous years, and experienced anatomy faculty facilitate a large group discussion in which students react to the drawing exercise and slide show and ask questions which are addressed by the faculty. This exercise provides an opportunity for students to practice appropriately communicating about emotionally complex experiences in a professional setting. The exercise is straightforward to implement and is easily modifiable for different class sizes and curricular structures.     

Shared Book Reading: Parental Goals Across the Primary Grades and Goal-Behavior Relationships in Junior Kindergarten

Two studies are reported. The first investigated goals for reading with their children held by 294 parents in a cross-sectional sample from junior kindergarten through Grade 3, how these goals are related to parent beliefs about the development of literacy skills, and how these goals may differ across the primary years. The second examined how goals relate to parent behavior. From a different sample of 119 parents completing the same goal survey and observed in shared book reading, a subsample of 42 parents with contrasting goals was selected for analysis. Findings indicated 5 distinct parent goals for shared book reading—Stimulate Development, Foster Reading, Bond With Child, Soothe Child, and Enjoy Books—with the goals of enjoying books and bonding with the child rated the highest and equally highly at each grade. These were followed by fostering reading, stimulating their child's development, and lastly soothing their child. The goal of fostering reading was more highly rated by parents of Grade 1 children than by parents of children in any other grade. Only a modest relationship between goals and beliefs was found. Finally, parents who rated fostering reading high as a goal engaged in more print-referencing behaviors and echoed more reading than did parents with contrasting goal profiles.     

A primer-test centered equating method for setting cut-off scores

This study evaluated the use of a new primary field test method based on test equating to address inconsistent classification among field tests. We analyzed students' information on the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER), mile run (MR), and VO2max from three data sets (college: n = 94; middle school: n = 39; elementary school: n = 96). Using the college and elementary school data, the equivalent relationship between PACER and MR scores was first established by the Kernel equating method. This yielded MR scores derived from PACER (mile run PACER equated [MR PEQ]), which were used to predict maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and classify students according to the FITNESSGRAM Healthy Fitness Zones. We compared the results to the predictions and classifications based on measured VO2max, MR and PACER-predicted VO2max and cross-validated the relationships using the middle school data. We found the test conversion to be accurate and that the MR PEQ scores functioned similarly to the original MR scores. Both performed better than the original PACER scores in predicting VO2max and classifying students. The middle school data generally supported these results. The proposed method is accurate and effective in setting a new field test onto the same scale of a primary field test and determining its cut-off scores.     

Educating Human Resource Development Leaders At The University Of Texas At Austin: The Use Of Action Learning To Facilitate University-Workplace Collaboration

Human resource development professionals are increasingly being called on to move beyond their technical roles and to bring their knowledge of the human dimension of organizations to leadership roles. Taking into account the challenges of a rapidly changing world, I redefine leadership and then describe how the university and program participants' workplaces collaborate to help learners develop the necessary leadership skills. The difficulties and rewards of implementing an action learning program as a part of a graduate degree are explored. Some of the difficulties addressed include differences between the cultures of universities and the workplace, an incompatibility between action learning and the kind of learning traditional to universities, and the challenges to the habitual behavioral, emotional, and thought processes of both faculty and students. Some of the rewards include the solution of difficult problems in work organizations, advancement of learners' careers, and the development of more effective learning strategies by both faculty and students.