The metaphor and reality of contextual transfer

The article reports on the first phase of a large‐scale qualitative research project that explored the perceptions of training practitioners on how they understood the process by which we carry our knowledge and skill across different contexts. Clearly, this is a process of transition, where it is the individual who moves across the contexts and consequentially adapts, reshapes and makes decisions as to the applicability of his/her current competence within the new context of situation. The research has uncovered the complexity of this transition and the decision making involved, and provided participant support for some of the emerging theories of learning which take the concept of learning away from that of bounded learning where the material to be learnt in already known and there are experts who can transmit the necessary knowledge and skill to one of expansive learning where what is to be learned is not stable or well defined or understood ahead of time. The outcomes of the research, which are embedded in the developed model, suggest that we need to use formal learning to prepare our learners for the challenge of expansive learning.     

Examining Differences in Students’ Beliefs and Attitudes: An Important Element of Performance-Based Assessment Systems for Teacher Preparation Programs

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) program review process increasingly emphasizes the importance of performance-based assessment of early childhood teacher preparation programs. As part of the effort to address performance-based assessment requirements, the teacher educator program described in this study examined students’ beliefs related to developmentally appropriate practice, attitudes toward children, and perceived competencies at different points in the program and upon graduation. One hundred eighteen students and 78 recent graduates participated. Results suggest that students’ beliefs are more consistent with developmentally appropriate practices and with a progressive or child-centered approach at later points in the program. In general, participants felt they were more competent in what they know about early childhood practices than in how they implement the practices. Students nearing completion of the program and those who had graduated reported that they knew more about early childhood practices than students enrolled in early courses in the program, and graduates felt they were more competent to implement early childhood practices than students not enrolled in the program. Results are discussed in terms of implications for examining teacher preparation programs.     

Fifteen years on: the legacy of section 28 for LGBT+ teachers in English schools

ABSTRACT

This article examines the legacy of Section 28 of the Local Government Act in England for LGBT+ school teachers between 1988 and the repeal of the Section in 2003. Section 28 stated that ‘A local authority shall not – (a) intentionally promote homosexuality… (b) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. A questionnaire examined the ways in which LGBT+ teachers in England experienced their work environments in 2017–18. The current perceptions of LGBT+ teachers who experienced Section 28 were compared with the perceptions of those LGBT+ teachers entering the profession after the repeal of Section 28 in 2003. Responses suggest that Section 28 continues to adversely affect the LGBT+ teachers who experienced it. These teachers are, in 2017–18, less open about their sexuality, unlikely to engage in the school community with their partner and more likely to see their teacher and sexual identities as incompatible. Whilst a climate of oppression, discrimination and harassment consistent at the time of Section 28 also played contributed to LGBT+ teachers’ experiences, despite advances in equalities legislation those teaching during the Section 28 era are still deeply affected by their experiences.     

Is day care safe? A review of research on accidental injuries

A major concern about the effects of day care has been the safety of the children who participate. Although studies are limited, a body of research literature is beginning to emerge that provides some important information about the magnitude of accidental injuries in day care centers.Charles W. Snow is Professor and Jane King Teleki is Associate Professor, Department of Child Development and Family Relations; David M. Cline is Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine; and Kathleen Dunn is Clinical Instructor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health Policy, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.     

Comparing demand functions when different price manipulations are used: Does unit price help?

Six hens pecked a key (Experiment 1) or pushed a door (Experiment 2) to obtain food reinforcement. In both experiments and as an analogue of price changes, the response requirements were varied in two ways: by increasing the number of responses required and by increasing the required force of each response. The two price manipulations (response number and response force) had different effects on behavior and produced different-shaped demand functions when the rates of consumption were plotted logarithmically against the price analogues. Irrespective of response topography, when the number of required responses was varied, the data paths appeared linear, with slopes close to −1.0. When the required force of each keypeck and doorpush was varied, the data paths were clearly curved, with increasingly steep downward slopes as the force increased. Using the concept ofunit price did not fully remove the different effects of the two price manipulations. Those differences are best attributed to the differing times needed in order to complete each response unit under those price manipulations.     

Oral Communication Skills in Higher Education: Using a Performance-Based Evaluation Rubric to Assess Communication Skills

This study used The Competent Speaker, a rubric developed by the National Communication Association (S. P. Morreale, M. R. Moore, K. P. Taylor, D. Surges-Tatum, & R. Hulbert-Johnson, 1993), to evaluate student performance in general education public speaking courses as a case study of student skills and programmatic assessment. Results indicate that students taking the general education public speaking course are below satisfactory standards on five of the eight competencies defined by the National Communication Association and are above satisfactory standards on two of the eight competencies. Implications for this particular program, other communication departments, and communication across the curriculum in general education are discussed. We also offer suggestions for those in other disciplines or educational settings in the use of performance evaluation rubrics for assessing other student skills/knowledge and for training new teachers.

Recognizing the face of Johnny, Suzy, and me: insensitivity to the spacing among features at 4 years of age

Four-year-olds were tested for their ability to use differences in the spacing among features to recognize familiar faces. They were given a storybook depicting multiple views of 2 children. They returned to the laboratory 2 weeks later and used a "magic wand" to play a computer game that tested their ability to recognize the familiarized faces and their own face based on the spacing of features. Children performed at chance levels. Follow-up studies confirmed that they had attended to internal facial features and validated the stimuli. The results contrast with studies showing some sensitivity to the spacing of features in infants and preschool children; multiple mechanisms of face processing may make use of spatial relations and develop at different rates.     

Using Sociocultural Theory to Understand the Relationship between Teacher Change and a Science-based Professional Education Program

This paper focuses on a model of teacher change based on a study of a science discipline-based professional education program and on an understanding of teacher change in terms of an agency| structure dialectic. Professional education programs should expand teachers' capacity to act in a range of fields. Conducted over one year, this study used socio-cultural theory to examine the role of cultural schema and resources in the enactment of new pedagogical structures by two teachers who demonstrated widely variable responses to their experience of a professional chemistry education program. Hermeneutic and phenomenological methods of study supported the examination of teacher actions and narratives as sources of data. The analyses of these data sources resulted in greater understanding of the relationship between schema, resources and structure and the relationship between structure and teacher agency. Structures are dynamic and if a teacher uses a resource such as an inquiry-based instruction protocol without the attendant cultural schema such as the value of questioning then the structure that is implemented will be different from that the teacher experienced in the professional education program. This understanding supported an explanation of teacher change in terms of teacher agency that constituted our learning from the study and resulted in changes to aspects of the professional education program.     

Referencing and identity,voice and agency: adult learners' transformations within literacy practices

Referencing skills contribute much to the emergence of voice in students' academic writing. Such skills have a bearing on the identity of learners as writers. In referring certain ideas to certain sources, the writer is able to distinguish voices of others and, in doing so, provide space for the hearing, or establishment, of their individual voice. However, an understanding of the rationale behind referencing and taking on the techniques required for its conventions often proves a complex, intimidating affair for students. Much fear is incited within learners by the convention of referencing, together with the scourge of plagiarism. Thus, rather than learners being ensconced within the academic environment through being able to relate to and engage with other voices, thereby acquiring agency in their writing, issues around referencing can actually serve to alienate them from the academic environment and deter them from their own agency. It may involve much practice and discussion before students see referencing as an asset in their writing. This process entails deconstructions, renegotiations and reconstructions of relationships with ideas and identities. This paper focuses on the relationship of agency and the issue of referencing in the development of an authorial identity for adult learners in the academic institution.