Developing Problem-Solving Practitioners

This article presents a research project on thedevelopment of pre-service mathematicsteachers' skills and understanding ofthemselves as pedagogical problem solvers. Theproblems were similar to those they are likelyto encounter in their future mathematicsclassrooms. The project took place within aBachelor of Education program. The articledescribes changes in the students' attitudestowards problem-based learning and examines thecritical incidents that were catalysts forthese changes to occur. The project addressedan important issue in the current Hong Kongcontext, with the emphasis on quality learningand instruction. With curriculum reforms inprimary education, teachers are required torespond to changes and implementrecommendations within the constraints ofday-to-day classroom management. They need tobe critical and informed professionals.Therefore, we argue that by adopting aproblem-solving approach to teaching, teacherswould be better able to view themselves ascompetent problem solvers who are able todevelop various strategies to deal withchange.     

Determining organizational readiness for an ILS migration—A strategic approach

In 2013, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries embarked on a strategy to determine its readiness for a migration from its existing Integrated Library System (ILS) to a new cloud-based Library Services Platform (LSP). This article discusses a process for determining whether the time is right for an organization to move to a cloud-based LSP, and it will focus on the process undertaken at UNLV Libraries, describing the outcomes and lessons learned.     

Paradise lost at San Francisco state

Editor's Note: From time to time,Academic Questions, under the heading “Voces Academicae,” publishes interviews with teachers and scholars whose experiences and reflections provide a telling commentary on the nature of contemporary university life. In this interview four faculty members at San Francisco State University discuss the great strike of 1968 and its continuing impact on the life of their institution.     

Growing up-growing older the professional early childhood educator

It's hard! You feel as stale as the purple paint rotting in the easel. But you get ready for another day with children. You feel as tired as Gary had looked when he handed you the note from his mother explaining that he had vomited the whole night through, but was sure to “make” it through the day.     

Doing time and motion diffractively: academic life everywhere and all the time

This article offers a diffractive methodological intervention into workplace studies of academic life. In its engagement of a playful, performative research and writing practice, the article speaks back to technocratic organisational and sociological workplace ‘time and motion’ studies which centre on the human and rational, and presume a linear teleology of cause and effect. As a counterpoint, we deploy posthumanist new materialist research practices which refuse human-centric approaches and aim to give matter its due. As a means to analyse what comes out of our joint workspaces photo project we produce two ‘passes’ through data – two diffractive experiments which destabilise what normally counts as ‘findings’ and their academic presentation. The article deploys the motif of ‘starting somewhere else’ to signal both our intention to keep data animated, alive and interactive, and to utilise visual and written modes of seriality as enabling constraints which produce a more generative focus on the mundane, emergent, unforeseen, and happenstance in studies of daily working life.