Hong Kong university teachers’ conceptions and articulation of teacher care: towards building a model of caring pedagogy

Higher Education - This paper addresses university teachers’ conceptions and articulation of teacher care as informed by their teaching practice within the Hong Kong university context. The...     

The impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK for doctoral and early career researchers

Higher Education - Doctoral researchers and early career researchers (ECRs) are crucial to producing scientific advancements and represent the future of academic leadership. Their research...     

French teachers' intentions to use accommodated materials in learning and assessment

The implementation of inclusive practices in mainstream education remains particularly difficult in the French context and is influenced by various factors including the types of disability labels, and the type of assessment practices that are used. Indeed, how student disability is labelled could impact teacher attitudes by notably disfavouring students labelled with autism. Moreover, normative assessment is strongly linked with selection at schools—a function that works against teacher attitudes towards inclusive education. This article reports on a study in which we examined teacher intentions to use materials accommodated to special educational needs students, as a function of special needs labelling. Specifically, this refers to the use of labels for either a disability or special educational need, in connection to tasks associated with learning or assessment. The results of our study revealed that, for both types of labels, the intentions to use accommodated materials are lower when teachers are asked to assess student competence than when prompted to teach this competence. These findings are discussed with consideration to the incompatibility between selection in schools—which is aligned with the principle of meritocracy—and efforts to promote inclusive education practices.     

Conductive Education: towards an 'educational model'

Caroline Coles, Headteacher of Horton Lodge School in Staffordshire, and Liz Zsargo, Lecturer in Conductive Education at Keele University, consider the development of Conductive Education (CE) in the UK, and place it in the context of some of the sociological analyses of disability. They argue that CE can provide the basis for an educational model of disability (in which disability is seen as a result of a complex interaction between the environment and the individual), that all children have the right to an education suitable for their needs, and that a lack of access to an appropriate education can be a disabling factor.     

Teacher e-mail message strategies and students' willingness to communicate online

In light of the prevalent use of e-mail between teachers and students, researchers have highlighted the need to assess its uses and effects. Relying on the research and thinking of teacher immediacy and extra-class communication, we developed a scale that measures those e-mail message strategies that influence students' willingness to communicate online with their teachers. Next, we isolated those reasons that students use e-mail to interact with their teachers: (1) to clarify course material and procedures, (2) as a means of efficient communication, and (3) for personal/social reasons. Finally, we examined student characteristics such as gender and ethnicity, and history of e-mail use that may (or may not) influence their attitudes toward e-mail exchanges with teachers.     

A praxeological perspective for the design and implementation of a digital role-play game

This paper draws on an empirical work dedicated to discussing a theoretical model for design-based research. The context of our study is a research project for the design, the implementation and the analysis of Insectophagia, a digital role-play game implemented in secondary schools. The model presented in this paper aims at conceptualizing researchers’ and practitioners’ relationships with the notion that knowledge development takes place at a meta-didactical level when the participants develop a shared practice and a shared discourse on practice (a common praxeology). This is done through collaboration and teacher-centered design of innovative learning settings. This model emerges from a double approach: (1) a literature review on collaborative research in education and, (2) an analysis of the verbal interactions of practitioners and researchers involved in the project. The study emphasizes the development of knowledge among participants. It also emphasizes the importance of knowledge brokering for filling the gap between research and practice and thus, for the adoption of digital technology by practitioners.     

Participatory concepts of multidisciplinary/professional working on an Early Childhood Studies degree course in the UK

This paper aims to explore democratic values in higher education pedagogies, as related to an Early Childhood Studies (ECS) degree course in an English university. It seeks to find out what constitutes a multi-disciplinary course from both student and tutor perspectives. It is contextualised by the concepts of participation embedded in the idea of multi-professional team work, in order to establish how these ideas could contribute a strong ethical focus to the concept of multidisciplinary study. The study was designed within the paradigm of participatory action research and findings suggest that, although students make links between different disciplinary discourses, tutors feel that their professional identity and knowledge can be constrained by the course structure. The paper suggests that more work needs to be done on the validation of early childhood courses to allow opportunities for multi-professional working to be modelled.