What stories do I tell now? New times and new narratives for the adult educator

Globally, the world of adult education has been much transformed in recent years. While there has been an expansion in the provision made available to adults, the profile of that provision has shifted with a greater emphasis placed on work‐related and certificated education and training, and an increased diversity in learning settings. This has led to a sense of crisis over the meaning of adult education as a specific form of provision and what it means to be an adult educator.

This article examines the ways in which these changes have found expression in the narratives through which adult educators construct their practices and experiences as meaningful. We argue that there is an interaction between the impact of contestation and change in the field of adult education and learning, its narrative or story‐telling practices and the processes by which the identities of adult educators are formed. We examine the significance of this interaction by drawing on three inter‐related themes‐‐the so‐called turn to textuality, the changes taking place in the economy and the organisation of work including the work of adult educators, and contemporary debates over (post) modern identities. In this way, we demonstrate the significance of new theoretical perspectives in providing insights into the contemporary condition of adult educators.     

Flexibility,reflexivity and reflection in the contemporary workplace

Within contemporary changes there is an increased reflexivity wherein social formations, organizations and individuals are required to change, to learn to change, and change to learn. Lifelong learning has become central to education and economic policy, with an increased emphasis on individuals, workplaces and providers of learning opportunities becoming more flexible. This article explores some of the evidence for the emergence of different workplace practices and identities in response to and as part of the development of reflexive modernization and the significance of pedagogies of reflection in these changes. It suggests that pedagogies of reflection are integral to reflexive modernization, flexible lifelong learners and changes in the workplace.     

A study of students' perceptions of the organisation and effectiveness of fieldwork in earth sciences education

This paper reports the findings of a preliminary evaluation of an in-service training programme designed for practising geology/earth science teachers in Portuguese high schools and intended to enhance the effectiveness of fieldwork activities organised by them for their students. Among the points particularly stressed during the in-service training were that students should be adequately prepared for fieldwork through classroom-based activities prior to the fieldwork itself and that to arrive at the maximum educational benefit for the students, they should be involved in collaborative group-based investigation. The findings, derived from an enquiry among students following their exposure to fieldwork, revealed that in both these aspects teachers failed to put theory into practice, probably as the result of a lack of confidence to implement novel procedures. On the positive side, the students reported that they enjoyed the social interaction with other students that the fieldwork made possible and the opportunity to work independently of the teachers.     

Commentary: School reform,teaching and learning

This commentary on the papers starts with the view that reform policies are additive, layered and unpredictable. Given this nature of reforms, the author suggests certain lessons for policymakers and policy researchers to learn. First, that a theory of learning should underlie policymakers’ implementation decisions. Second, that the multiplicity of reforms may block genuine learning. Third, that understanding the relationship between policy and practice requires an ‘inside‐out’ perspective which takes the changing of educational practice as the central concern rather than the policy environment.     

Evaluating students' science notebooks as an assessment tool

The idea of using science notebooks as a classroom assessment tool is not new. There is general agreement that science notebooks allow teachers to assess students' conceptual and procedural understanding and to provide the feedback students need for improving their performance. In this study we examined the use of science notebooks as an unobtrusive assessment tool that can also be used by individuals outside the classroom (for example, school district personnel), and as a means for obtaining information about students' learning and their opportunities to learn. More specifically, in this study students' science notebooks were used as a source of data about the (a) implementation of a curriculum's intended activities, (b) students' performance, and (c) quality of teachers' feedback. Our results indicated that: (1) Students' science notebooks can be reliably scored. Unit implementation, student performance, and teacher feedback scores were highly consistent across raters and units. (2) High and positive correlations with other performance assessment scores indicated that the student performance score can be considered as an achievement indicator. And (3) low performance scores across the two units revealed that students' communication skills and understanding were far away from the maximum score and did not improve over the course of instruction during the school year. This result may be due, in part, to the fact that no teacher feedback was found in any of the students' notebooks across the six classrooms studied. This may reflect some characteristics of the teachers' assessment practices that may require further professional development.     

The average IQ of sub-Saharan Africans assessed by the Progressive Matrices: A reply to Wicherts,Dolan, Carlson & van der Maas

Wicherts, Dolan, Carlson & van der Maas (WDCM) (2010) contend that the average IQ in sub-Saharan Africa is about 76 in relation to a British mean of 100 and sd of 15. This result is achieved by including many studies of unrepresentative elite samples. Studies of acceptably representative samples indicate a sub-Saharan Africa IQ of approximately 66.