Teacher collaborative inquiry as a professional development intervention: benefits and challenges

The paper reports on a collaborative learning project coded as the teacher inquiry community that was carried out over a year in a private higher education institution to improve the professional capability of language-based subject teachers. Nine teachers completed the project all of whom were females and shared work experience of 2–29 years. Six of them held some form of qualification in education, and all except for one possessed at least a basic degree in some field. The study focused on three questions namely teacher benefits, impact of practice, and application of solutions. Findings revealed that the former two questions were well substantiated for most teachers, but the same thing could not be said of the third. While a number of senior teachers benefitted at the level of classroom implementation, the others explained away their inability to incorporate new ideas in their teaching. Individual characteristics and personality, and culture seemed to make a difference. However, the study concluded that the collaborative learning model could serve as a viable mechanism for the teachers’ professional development.     

Parent Scaffolding in Children's Oral Reading

Parent coaching strategies during shared book reading were analysed according to the principles of scaffolding in a sample of 46 parent-child dyads during the latter half of grade one. The ways that parents responded to each of a child's oral reading errors or miscues were coded into levels of assistance that reflected increasing support at each successive level. In addition children's attempts at rereading miscued words were coded as successful or not. Parents often provided a string of feedback clues and analyses revealed that the level of support parents provided shifted up or increased when their child was unsuccessful in rereading a word after feedback. With increasing level of parental support children's success in rereading misread words increased. Moreover, children with weaker word recognition skill were offered feedback at higher levels of support by their parents. These results demonstrate how parents and children co-construct the feedback that parents provide when listening to their children read and the sensitivity on the part of parents to children's reading performance.     

SIGNIFICANCE AND DIALOGUE IN LEARNING AND TEACHING

A bstract .  In this essay Andrew Metcalfe and Ann Game argue that although the term "dialogue" is commonly used in educational theory, its full significance is diluted if it is seen as a matter of exchange or negotiation of prior positions and identities. As a meeting point, they argue, dialogue suspends the senses of time, space, and ontology on which identities are based. It is therefore not simply metaphorical to say that dialogue changes lives and opens minds. Using empirical material from interviews with Australian students and teachers, Metcalfe and Game draw out the relational qualities of genuine dialogue and the significance they have for how we understand everyday classroom life.     

#SheBelieves: the use of Instagram to frame the US Women’s Soccer Team during #FIFAWWC

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine of the representation of women athletes during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. More specifically, we examined how individuals used various event-related hashtags (ie #SheBelieves and #FIFAWWC) on Instagram during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup to frame identity, and challenge or reinforce gender stereotypes from the bottom-up. A content analysis of athlete photos containing #FIFAWWC (n = 706) and athlete photos containing #SheBelieves (n = 629) revealed that users primarily portrayed women athletes as athletically competent. Specifically, nearly 90% of Instagram posts containing either #FIFAWWC or #SheBelieves portrayed athletes in either athletic action or preparing for athletic action. These findings demonstrate that social media provide an opportunity to challenge gender stereotypes in women’s sports and thereby illustrate that social media users are willing to create their own frames around women athletes.     

Globalization and the Emergence of For-Profit Higher Education

Globalization and the revolution in technological communications are major forces of change in higher education. This environment, when coupled with the needs of adult learners and the rising costs of tuition at traditional colleges and universities, has stimulated the emergence of for-profit, degree-granting higher education in the United States. This paper examines the growth of for-profit higher education, provides a cost/profit analysis, and gives examples of for-profit universities that are increasing international in scope. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these developments for traditional colleges and universities.     

Advocacy,Resources, Teachers: Continuing Challenges for Art Education

Industrial art education entered nineteenth century Massachusetts schools as an educational reform, but was not completely successful for a variety of reasons. Key factors contributing to this failure included, first, conflicting rationales used in advocating art education. Second, discrepancies between authoritative taste and early consumer choice in art reproductions threatened the power of reformers, notably Walter Smith. Third, differing assumptions about art among art specialists and classroom teachers, compounded by growing distinctions between men’s and women’s sphere of action, made it difficult for teachers to fully participate in the reform process. Late twentieth century reform policies may also fail without recognition of multiple justifications, with over-reliance on top-down expertise, or with lack of attention to teachers’ beliefs and needs.