Metacognitive analysis of pre-service teacher conception of Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) using blogs

Previous studies have sought to ascertain Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) conception in pre-service teachers. This exploratory study investigated the problems outlined in the literature surrounding the development of TGfU understanding among pre-service teachers (n = 44) of the curriculum instruction model. Blog postings were analysed over an eight-week period to identify the varying levels of student conception of TGfU using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy in order to ascertain whether there are specific aspects of TGfU conception that prevent learning of deeper concepts. The study found that students move through at least two SOLO levels of metacognitive development. For pre-service teachers, TGfU represents a challenge to their pedagogical paradigm. This may limit their understanding of TGfU when they perceive that it is not antithetical to their existing paradigm but rather it represents a balanced approach to achieving the goals of skill-based instruction.     

Film Directors

Alexander Sesonske, Jean Renoir: The French Films, 1924-1939 ( Cambridge: Harvard University Press -- $25.00 cloth/ $9.95 paper)

Martin Williams, Griffith: First Artist of of the Movies (New York: Oxford University Press -- $12.95)

Tony Rayns (ed.), Fas sbinder ($8.25 paper/$17.50 cloth)

Peter Baxter (ed.), Sternberg ($9.50 paper/$17.50 cloth)

G. K. Hall "Reference Publications III Film" series (Boston: C.K. Hall, 1979 except 1980 for Penn volume -- at prices shown below)     

An Ordinal Pattern Analysis of Four Hypotheses Describing the Interactions between Drug-addicted, Chronically Disadvantaged, and Middle-Class Mother-Infant Dyads

This study investigated mother-infant interactions in 18 dyads. All participants were African American and enrolled in an early intervention program because the infants (2–26 months of age) had developmental disabilities or were at high risk for developmental disability. Some mothers had used drugs during their pregnancy, and all mothers were of low or middle socioeconomic status. Dyads were videotaped interacting at 4 different times, separated by at least 5 months in time. Videotapes were rated in terms of infant involvement and maternal responsivity in the interaction. 4 hypotheses concerning the pattern of maternal interaction across time were tested using ordinal pattern analysis. The hypothesis that mothers would become less responsive to infants over time (H_D) as a function of drug addiction, poverty, or serious developmental delay was supported for only 4 of the 18 dyads. There was support for the hypothesis (H_j) that mothers naturally increase their responsivity over time ( N = 6) and support for the hypothesis (H_T) that mothers' interactive sensitivity fluctuates in relation to infants' involvement in the interaction over time ( N = 7). Ordinal pattern analysis has advantages in determining how well competing hypotheses describe individuals within populations relative to approaches that identify differences that apply to entire populations.     

A Longitudinal Study of Parental Stress and Support: From Diagnosis of Disability to Leaving School

Parental stress attributed to both a child with an intellectual disability and their youngest child without a disability was examined over a seven year period. Stress and support were also examined in relation to the life stages of disability diagnosis, starting school and completing school. Stress attributed to the child with a disability was greater than stress attributed to the youngest child without a disability and remained high over the seven year period, however, an increased level of stress was attributed to the child without a disability. In terms of life stages, diagnosis of intellectual disability in a child remained as the most stress‐inducing of the life events included in the study, however, most parents had also experienced heightened stress at the time their child started school, and also during the transition from school to work. The support parents found most helpful reflected their changing focus of worry over time. The implications and limitations of this study arc discussed.     

Comparing conventional and resource based education in chemical engineering: student perceptions of a teaching innovation

While the adoption of resource based education (RBE) in the teaching of individual engineering subjects is not novel, the introduction of RBE throughout an entire university department is unprecedented. The purpose of this longitudinal study with second year Chemical Engineering students (n = 31) was to detect, quantify and describe the consequences for teaching and learning of some concerns that had arisen in students as a result of the introduction of RBE. These concerns appeared to pose some formidable obstacles to the successful implementation of RBE within the academic department. 62 obstacles to effective study that were rated both serious and frequently occurring (major problems), were identified in conventionally taught course units and in RBE units, using personal interviews, the nominal group technique, and a modified perceived problems inventory (Cruickshank et al., 1974; Otto et al., 1979). Major study problems were isolated in each of the main learning resources provided in RBE and in conventional course units. Resource based education generated study problems for students that were quantitatively and qualitatively different from study problems encountered under conventional engineering education. Conventionally taught course units generated study problems in the lecture and student assessment components of the course, whereas RBE confronted students with new and major problems with use of the resource laboratory, with reference materials, with tutorials, and with student assessment demands.     

Every child matters: Can educational psychology contribute to radical reform?

This is a time of radical change for all services working with children in the UK. For educational psychologists recent publications outlining government strategy have created an urgent need to consider future directions that go well beyond those discussed in the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE, 2000 Department for Education and Employment (DfEE). (2000) Educational psychology services (England): Current role, good practice and future directions London The Stationary Office  [Google Scholar]) report on educational psychology services. In this paper we suggest that decisions about strategic direction and developments in practice should be based on a shared set of values focused clearly on the rights of children and young people. In particular, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989 United Nations (1989) Convention on the rights of the child Retrieved 16th November 2003 from www.unhchr.ch./html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm.  [Google Scholar]) could provide the framework for a compact between the profession and children. This will require an evaluative focus within educational contexts that goes beyond school satisfaction surveys. Both schools and support professionals will need to demonstrate the achievement of improved outcomes for pupils. Difficult questions about the value added by educational psychologist involvement can no longer be evaded.     

Risk,identity and change: Becoming a mature student

This article looks at the stories mature students tell about the risks of higher education, in terms of its effects on identity and the implications for relationships with their families and former friends. Two sources of risk are highlighted in their stories; firstly, risks stemming from challenges to established gender roles in the family, which are mediated by the effects of social class; and secondly, risks that accompany the movement away from working class habitus which is an inevitable consequence of being in higher education. To be 'educated' is to stake a claim to a new identity which can be threatening both to one's own sense of self or to others. This may be experienced either as being seen by others as superior, or as feeling superior to others, but in both cases, there is an implicit challenge to former relationships. In their accounts, students describe how they try to manage relationships with families and former friends in order to minimise the disruption to their lives. Whatever strategy they adopt has consequences for their self-identity, which is experienced as fragmented and compartmentalised. In this process of becoming a different person, gender and class interact to produce specifically gendered and classed experiences of this painful transition.     

Scepticism and gullibility: the superstitious and pseudo-scientific beliefs of secondary school students

A survey of the superstitious and pseudo-scientific beliefs of secondary school students (N=2159) was undertaken, with some follow-up interviews. Gender differences were found at all ages with females generally less sceptical than males. An exception was a belief that aliens from another planet had visited the Earth, about which males were consistently less sceptical than females. The average level of scepticism increased steadily on going from Key Stage 3 students (11-13 years), through Key Stage 4 (14-16 years), to the sixth-form science students (17-18 years), with a further increase in scepticism in a sample of pre-service science teachers. Nevertheless many school students were very gullible and this should be of concern to science educators.