Collaborative learning on‐line: Overcoming the tyranny of distance

“My first experiences with the web were full of anxiety. Now I just love ... coming home to see if I have any [email] messages. I can't imagine how I could have done the research without knowledge of databases. That sort of knowledge is priceless really, especially for a distance education student.” (Efia)     

Developing Teachers' Classroom Interactions: A Description of a Video Review Process for Early Childhood Education Students

This article describes a video review process for providing feedback to students and documents students' teaching practices using the CLASS in a practicum course and student teaching. Students videotaped themselves in their field-based settings and then met with the course instructors and classmates in small groups to review strengths and challenges of their teaching using the CLASS framework of teacher–child interactions. These videos were also coded by trained CLASS observers across 10 dimensions in the areas of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Results from preservice teachers' CLASS ratings indicate a pattern similar to national data sets using the CLASS, higher scores in the emotional support and classroom organization domains than in the domain of instructional support. Also, findings from the current study revealed that CLASS scores declined from students' practicum placement to the end of student teaching in the domain of emotional support and specifically in the dimensions of regard for student perspectives and behavior management. The process of using videos for providing feedback in field-based experiences is discussed as well as implications for teacher development in light of students' CLASS scores and changes in CLASS scores.     

Early Training in Oral Comprehension and Phonological Skills: Results of a Three-Year Longitudinal Study

A sample of 1,273 4-year-old children were followed for 3 years. The children participated in 1 of 2 comprehension training programs, or in a phonological awareness training program. The comprehension programs explored the possibility of improving young children's oral comprehension in an educational setting. The first focused on the component skills of comprehension; the second involved storybook reading. Phonological awareness and oral language comprehension skills were measured repeatedly in the course of the study. The data were analyzed using multilevel growth-curve models. The results showed that it is possible to improve oral comprehension if the training focuses on its component skills and extends over 2 semesters. When these conditions were met, training effects still existed 9 months after the program had ended. Finally, phonological training improved phonological awareness but not comprehension, and comprehension-skill training improved oral comprehension but not phonological awareness.     

More than just a group: teacher collaboration and learning in the workplace

Teaching is often characterized as an isolated activity, yet opportunities for teachers to work and learn together in schools are increasing. Underlying this shift is the view that as teachers work on new practices and teaching challenges together, they will express varied perspectives, reveal different teaching styles and experiences, and stimulate reflection and professional growth. Despite strong research interest in teacher learning groups, few studies have looked at the relationship between teachers' conversations and collaboration outside the classroom and their actual classroom teaching. Drawing on data from a larger study of literacy instruction with middle‐school teachers, this article describes how three teachers participated in an ongoing literacy program with a research group. Two were seventh‐ and eighth‐grade language‐arts teachers, the third was a special‐education teacher who taught a substantially separate class of cognitively delayed and learning‐disabled students. Case studies of each teacher draw on meeting observations, classroom observations and interviews to describe how each participated in after‐school meetings, how they used the work of the group in the classroom, and how they brought teaching successes and challenges back to the group. Although each of the teachers participated actively in the teacher learning group and changed their practice, the teachers with the most advanced teaching of literacy practices did not bring that expertise into the teacher group as fully as they might have. The analysis raises questions about how teachers participate and learn and how to structure teacher groups to maximize teacher learning.     

Drama as an Experiential Technique in Learning How to Cope with Dying Patients and their Families

This paper discusses a teaching experiment in which participation and observation of a drama helped first year nursing students to consider ways of dealing with death and dying. Workshops included dramatised scenarios of critical incidents demonstrating different peoples' experiences of the death of a fictional patient in hospital. Two nurse teachers performed a two-part drama about the experiences of a patient just diagnosed with terminal cancer. Live performances were presented to large groups of students and followed by small group discussions. Drama as a teaching method was well received, and the combination of drama and group discussion was considered very effective by students, who requested more similar sessions. Drama appears highly satisfactory for achieving learning in the affective domain, and can be added to teaching methods for improving communication skills and coping strategies with nursing students who will be caring for the dying. However, further research is necessary.     

Developing alternative frameworks for exploring intercultural learning: a critique of Hofstede's cultural difference model

Hofstede's model of cultural difference has been used widely for exploring aspects of culture in educational settings. In this paper, we review Hofstede's model and explore some of its limitations, particularly in relation to the field of higher education. These limitations include an oversimplification of cultural differences, inconsistencies between his categories, lack of empirical evidence from educational settings and overall a model of culture as static (instead of dynamic). We argue that educationalists interested in the field of students’ experiences in internationally diverse settings ought to treat Hofstede's model more critically. Other models are recommended that take into account flexible notions of culture, based on research evidence from a range of educational settings, which can be critically and explicitly examined against different educational theories.     

Skilling for the Workforce: A tertiary education response to enrich professional development

Tertiary educators are being directed by government policy: to develop a learning environment where participants become more than passive receivers of knowledge and to skill the workforce through technical skills and competency‐based education. Professional development is needed for compliance, and to develop and maintain generic, productivity, and technical attributes relevant to the profession. Profession and career development, for continued employability and professional recognition, involves “skilling for the workforce” through enriched self‐directed and lifelong learning. The article examines what could be a tertiary education response on the part of universities. This is through developing a learning environment which addresses the various motivating policies and common educational drivers in professional practice. It further examines the suitability of Work‐Integrated Learning (WIL), as a recognised integrative learning environment, to provide a foundation for effecting self‐directed professional development.     

The development of research supervision: “Turning the light on a private space”

Educational development for research supervisors is still a recent phenomenon. Early optional sessions on research supervision have now been replaced, particularly in the UK, continental Europe, and Australasia, by comprehensive and, in some cases, mandatory programs. Yet some of these programs focus solely on the administrative roles and responsibilities of supervisors, attempting to provide technical “fixes” that deny the genuine difficulties and complexities involved in supervision relationships. Some research supervisors resent the intrusion of educational developers into what many of them have regarded as a private pedagogical space. They interpret such programs as further instances of the quality assurance agendas of governments and university administrators, and are justifiably suspicious of what some describe as the colonial underpinnings of educational development. These reactions create tensions for educational developers. This article explores why educational development can be problematic for research supervisors. It then charts some current supervision educational development programs that seek to go beyond administrative interpretations of supervision. Finally, it examines whether the “Compassionate Rigour” supervision program, developed to address these difficulties, manages to respond respectfully and sensitively to supervisors’ educational development needs.

Le développement pédagogique des superviseurs de recherches demeure un phénomène récent. Les séances optionnelles portant sur la supervision de recherches de jadis ont été remplacées, particulièrement au Royaume‐Uni et en Australasie, par des programmes approfondis et, parfois, obligatoires. Pourtant, certains de ces programmes se concentrent seulement sur les rôles et les responsabilité des superviseurs au plan administratif, cherchant de la sorte à fournir des ‘trucs’ qui ne tiennent pas compte des difficultés et complexités réelles sous‐jacentes aux relations de supervision. Certains superviseurs de recherches n’apprécient guère l’intrusion des conseillers pédagogiques au sein de ce que d’aucuns considèrent être un espace pédagogique privé. Ils interprètent de tels programmes comme des composantes additionnelles des programmes de maintien de la qualité mis en place par les gouvernements et les administrations universitaires. Ces superviseurs redoutent, à juste titre, ce que d’aucuns décrivent comme les bases coloniales du développement pédagogique. De telles réactions instaurent créent des tensions pour les conseillers pédagogiques. Cet article explore pourquoi le développement pédagogique peut apparaître problématique aux yeux des superviseurs de recherches. Ensuite, il décrit certains programmes actuels de développement pédagogique reliés à la supervision qui cherchent à dépasser les interprétations strictement administratives de la supervision. Finalement, il examine le programme de supervision ‘Compassionate Rigour’, développé dans le but de palier à ces difficultés, pour voir si celui‐ci répond à la fois respectueusement et sensiblement aux besoins des superviseurs en matière de développement pédagogique.     

Choosing a secondary school for young people on the autism spectrum: a multi-informant study

Deciding on a secondary school for children with autism is notoriously difficult for parents. While current UK legislation emphasises the choice that parents of children with special educational needs should have in educational decision-making, there is a dearth of research in this area, which means that little is known about how parents come to make decisions about secondary school placements and the types of support, if any, they receive from professionals. The present study aimed to determine the factors that immediately influence secondary school choice for young people with autism in one London local authority from the perspectives of multiple informants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of children with autism (n?=?7), young people themselves prior to secondary school entry (n?=?6), parent advisors (n?=?5) and secondary school professionals (n?=?5). Parents emphasised the anxiety and burden of the decision-making process. There was, however, substantial agreement among adult groups on the factors necessary for a successful secondary school placement: a nurturing, flexible and inclusive environment that emphasised both academic and life skills. Few adults, however, mentioned the importance of children's social relationships – a factor that featured prominently in the reports of young people. These findings highlight both the different perceptions of those involved in making decisions about the educational placements of children with autism and the challenges associated with weighing up these potentially conflicting perspectives. More work is needed to ensure both that information is transparent and accessible to all parents and that young people are actively involved in decisions that ultimately affect their lives.