On the many metaphors of learning … and their associated educational frames

Current landscapes of curriculum discourse and educational practice are examined by focusing on co-evolutions of metaphors for knowledge, learning and teaching across four prominent ‘frames’—namely, Standardized Education, Authentic Education, Democratic Citizenship Education and Systemic Sustainability Education. It is argued that these frames become compelling and resilient (or repulsive and nonsensical)—not because of what they explicitly assert, but because of the coherence of their implicit webs of vocabulary, metaphor, image and ideological association. While some of these frames/webs may be embraced as complementary, more often they are treated as conflicting or incoherent—in part, it would seem, because of tensions among their mainly implicit substrates of figurative association.     

Cookbook Procedures in MBL Physics Exercises

This paper presents the results of a controlled experiment comparing the conceptual mechanics learning gains as measured by the FCI between two laboratory groups. One group completed cookbook labs while the other completed the IE labs in RealTime Physics.     

Issues in alternative graduate education

Most educators are aware that alterantive graduate programs exist in the United States. Few educators understand the exact nature and scope of these programs or the variety of issues that confront their development and viability. This introductory article defines alternative graduate education and identifies the issues and concepts considered to be critical to the conduct of nontraditional graduate study.     

Butches,Bullies and Buffoons: Images of Physical Education Teachers in the Movies

The purpose of this study was to examine the cinematic images of physical educators during the past decade. This study is approached from two perspectives: (a) framing and (b) social cognition. Framing, an approach to media studies most often reserved for critical analysis of news, provides useful generalities for a formative study of movie images, which directs explicit attention toward the construction and use of media frames. Contemporary social cognition theory blends social learning theory with an understanding of the power of media images. Media observers (i.e. movie viewers) can acquire symbolic representations of behavior through media images and these images are powerful and informative enough to inform subsequent behavior. Using the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), each researcher compiled a list of movies. After an initial list from the IMDB was compiled, researchers added films that they knew, from personal knowledge, included physical education teachers. A final list of 18 movies was distributed to each of the four coders, with a stipulation that the coding take place during a specified time period of no more than three months. Each researcher observed the videotapes independently while noting the dialogue and camera shots of all scenes involving physical educators for emerging frames of reference regarding physical education teachers. Ethnographic content analysis, a media studies variation of the constant comparative method, aided in the identification of frames (categories and themes) that emerged from the data. The researchers independently made notes concerning the video observations and then later developed a system of classification by comparing notes and discovering regularities within the data. The constant comparative method was used to assist in the assessment and grouping of framing approaches. Agreement between researchers had to be 100% for a frame to be included in research findings. It was agreed that frames had to be constructed by both verbal and visual indicators in the films, and it had to be strongly associated with at least three films. Although nuances in setting, plot and the personalities of characters might arguably make frames in each film studied 'unique', several frames emerged as characteristic of depictions of physical educators: (a) there is no distinction between physical educators and coaches, (b) physical educators are incompetent teachers, (c) physical educators are drill sergeants and are the proverbial 'bully from hell' who enjoys seeing a student humiliated, and (d) characteristics of physical educators are gendered: women are often depicted as 'butch' or lesbian; men, as buffoons devoid of 'masculine' leadership qualities. An understanding of these frames is important because it provides clues about social cognition and behavior in regard to issues of physical education--from the classroom to the school board meeting, from decisions made about participation in physical education class to decisions made about the priority of physical education in the school setting.     

Understanding school districts as learning systems: Some lessons from three cases of complex transformation

We report on a study of three school jurisdictions in the province of Alberta. The original premise for the research on which this report is based was to investigate the diverse ways that school districts had administered resources that were provided through a major initiative to improve learning in the province. This account is not centrally concerned with how funds were utilized; rather, we report on how districts?? strategies and emphases within the initiative offer windows into the their systemic characters. The range of manifest characters, we argue, is a useful construct to inform policy, ensure the presence of necessary supports and structures, implement appropriate accountability measures, and set reasonable goals for large-scale initiatives in education.     

Texting,textese and literacy abilities: a naturalistic study

In this study, we examined texting behaviours, text message characteristics (textese) of actual sent text messages and the relationships between texting, textese and literacy abilities in a sample of 183 American undergraduates. As compared to previous naturalistic and experimental studies with English‐speaking adults, both texting frequency and textism density (proportion of textese) were greater, but category density analyses were similar to a recent experimental study with undergraduates. Interestingly, whilst overall textism density was negatively related to reading and spelling, some textism categories (e.g., omitted apostrophes) were negatively related to literacy skills, while others (e.g., accent stylisation) were positively related to literacy skills. The use of predictive texting was a moderator in this relationship. Our results may help explain the discordant findings between children and adults with regard to textese use and literacy skills, and also highlight the importance of conducting analyses of category density and predictive texting in studies of texting and literacy.