The National Literacy Strategy and setting: an investigation in one school

This article investigates the policy of setting that is commonly being seen as an organizational tool for effective delivery of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS). It is suggested that teachers are finding the increased amount of whole-class teaching to a diverse range of abilities, as prescribed by the NLS, problematic. This case-study researches both teachers' and children's perspectives on the Literacy Hour as taught in mixed-ability classes and in sets. Reflective commentaries and pupil questionnaires were used to collect data over two years. The results indicate a complex range of issues, both pedagogical and organizational, which need be considered before setting can be promoted as a strategy for literacy delivery. I conclude that there is a need for urgent research into the effectiveness of setting as a means of teaching the Literacy Hour.     

Computer-based instruction for improving student nurses’ general numeracy: is it effective? Two randomised trials

In response to concern over the numeracy skills deficit displayed by student nurses, an online computer programme, “Authentic World®”, which aims to simulate a real-life clinical environment and improve the medication dosage calculation skills of users, was developed (Founded in 2004 Authentic World Ltd is a spin out company of Glarmorgan and Cardiff Universities, Cardiff, Wales UK.). Two randomised controlled trials were conducted, each at a UK University, in order to investigate the impact of Authentic World® on student nurses’ general numeracy abilities. All first year nursing students who gave consent were randomised equally into an intervention or control group. The intervention group were given access to Authentic World®. The primary outcome measure was the students’ scores on a general numeracy test. The Intention to Treat (ITT) analysis in both trials revealed a small negative effect of Authentic World® on general numeracy, which was statistically significant in one trial. However, compliance with the intervention was very low in both trials, with only 24 and 12% of students allocated to the intervention groups spending more than 15 minutes using the programme. Providing nursing students with access to Authentic World® is not an effective use of resources since use of the programme appears to be very low.     

Mine or Yours? Development of Sharing in Toddlers in Relation to Ownership Understanding

To examine early developments in other‐oriented resource sharing, fifty‐one 18‐ and 24‐month‐old children were administered 6 tasks with toys or food that could be shared with an adult playmate who had none. On each task the playmate communicated her desire for the items in a series of progressively more explicit cues. Twenty‐four‐month‐olds shared frequently and spontaneously. Eighteen‐month‐olds shared when given multiple opportunities and when the partner provided enough communicative support. Younger children engaged in self‐focused and hypothesis‐testing behavior in lieu of sharing more often than did older children. Ownership understanding, separately assessed, was positively associated with sharing and negatively associated with non‐sharing behavior, independent of age and language ability.     

‘It wasn't too easy,which is good if you want to learn’: an exploration of pupil participation and Learning to Learn

This article explores the process of Learning to Learnb from the pupils’ perspective. The Learning to Learn in Schools Project started in 2003 and includes teachers and pupils from primary and secondary age phases in four local authorities. Key to the project has been a focus on the collaborative exploration of metacognition in practice. With the increased prominence of pupil participation and learner voice in the rhetoric of education during this time, the inclusion of learner perspectives in the project was perhaps inevitable. However, there appears to be something beneficial about the definition of Learning to Learn (L2L) used by the project that supports the development of such participation. As the project progressed, and the incidence of pupil participation increased, evidence from the contexts needed to support learning-based dialogues also developed as well as, crucially, understanding of how the interplay between L2L and pupil participation operates. This article therefore explores the link between the rhetoric of the pupil participation agenda and an understanding of L2L from the pupils’ perspective.     

Picturing an Occupational Identity: Images of Teachers in Careers and Trade Union Publications 1940–2000

Visual sources in the form of teachers’ journals and careers literature constitute an important part of the material culture of the teaching profession, and demand examination for their impact on occupational identity. The material allows for a range of interpretations and the approach taken here is speculative, in both methodologies and analysis. This paper examines how visual imagery, as a ‘communicative symbol’ and as a ‘social fact’, has actively contributed to the formation of gendered teacher identities. An analysis of the extensive archives available at the Trade Union Congress Library was central in revealing a set of recurring themes over a period of 60 years. This iconography was then located in its wider historical, pedagogical and cultural contexts and possible interpretations of these gendered representations of the occupational identity of teachers suggested.     

The Teaching of the Visual Arts in the Lay Teacher Programme in Mid Araguaia,Brazil

This paper reports on a teaching experience which took place in a course for the qualification of primary school lay teachers in the mid-Araguaia region in mid-western Brazil. The greatest challenge was to work with the heterogeneity of the group of adult teacher/students from varied ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds (homesteaders, immigrants from other areas of the country, and Indians of the Tapirapé and Carajá tribes), taking into account their multiple understandings and experiences in an attempt to maintain their individual identities while constructing new knowledge.     

Toddlers' prosocial behavior: from instrumental to empathic to altruistic helping

The study explored how the meaning of prosocial behavior changes over toddlerhood. Sixty-five 18- and 30-month-olds could help an adult in 3 contexts: instrumental (action based), empathic (emotion based), and altruistic (costly). Children at both ages helped readily in instrumental tasks. For 18-month-olds, empathic helping was significantly more difficult than instrumental helping and required greater communication from the adult about her needs. Altruistic helping, which involved giving up an object of the child's own, was the most difficult for children at both ages. Findings suggest that over the 2nd year of life, prosocial behavior develops from relying on action understanding and explicit communications to understanding others' emotions from subtle cues. Developmental trajectories of social-cognitive and motivational components of early helping are discussed.     

Electrical engineers’ perceptions on education – electromagnetic field theory and its connection to working life

This paper investigates electrical engineers’ perceptions on their education in Finland, with particular emphasis on the basic electromagnetic field theory courses and their applicability in working life, using two online surveys (n=99 and n=120). The answers show a reasonably good satisfaction with the electrical engineering studies in general, but limited practical usefulness of the field theory courses in working life. However, both respondent groups mentioned that electromagnetic field theory should belong to the basic electrical engineering curriculum, which suggests a need to strengthen the connections between the different topics in the curriculum to enable a better holistic understanding of electrical engineering.