Using computer-delivered natural speech to assist in the teaching of reading

The findings of a pilot study designed to evaluate a computer system developed to assist in the teaching of reading to beginners are presented. The system uses digitised speech and the content is based upon a reading scheme already in use in the schools. Twenty children, ten in the intervention group and ten in the control group, in two schools were involved over a four-week period. Subjects were tested on a standardised reading test, a list of the 30 most frequently occurring words in written English, and on words from the published scheme. The experimental group improved their scores significantly more than the control group only on the standardised reading test. The results suggest the system can be helpful and that its effect goes beyond the words being practised.     

Motion Pictures

The American Film Institute Guide to College Courses in Film and Television (Washington, D.C.: Acropolis. Books, 1973—$5.95, paper)

Joseph McBride, Orson Welles (192 pp.)

Colin McArthur, Underworld USA (176 pp.)

Alan Lovell and Jim Hillier, Studies in Documentary (176 pp.)

Joel E. Siegel, Val Lewton: the Reality of Terror (176 pp.)

Arnold Gassan's A Chronology of Photography (Light Impressions, Box 3012, Rochester, N.Y. 14614, 1972—$10.50/ 7.95)     

From Data Collectors to Data Producers: Shifting Students’ Relationship to Data

This paper contributes a theoretical framework informed by historical, philosophical and ethnographic studies of science practice to argue that data should be considered to be actively produced, rather than passively collected. We further argue that traditional school science laboratory investigations misconstrue the nature of data and overly constrain student agency in their production. We use our “Data Production” framework to analyze activity of and interviews with high school students who created data using sensors and software in a ninth-grade integrated science class. To understand the opportunities for students to develop act with and perceive agency in data production, we analyze in detail the case of one student as she came to use unfamiliar technologies to produce data for her own personally relevant purposes. We find that her purposes for producing data emerged as she worked, and that resistances to her purposes were opportunities to act with and perceive her own agency, and to see data in new ways. We discuss implications for designing science learning experiences in which students act as agents in producing and using data.     

How times change: Secondary teachers' job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in 1962 and 2007

In this article we explore the level of job satisfaction and the sources of job dissatisfaction for 210 secondary school teachers in southwest England and compare our results with the results from a similar study published in 1962. Using anonymous questionnaires, we asked 210 secondary teachers in southwest England (63% female) to rate their level of job satisfaction and to rate 16 sources of job dissatisfaction that we adapted from the 1962 study. Teachers in 2007 rated their job satisfaction significantly lower and ordered the sources of job dissatisfaction significantly differently than did teachers in 1962. Whereas teachers in 1962 were most concerned with external sources of job dissatisfaction (e.g. salary, condition of buildings and equipment and poor human relations), teachers in 2007 expressed the most concern about factors relating to teaching itself (e.g. time demands and pupils' behaviour). The changes in sources of dissatisfaction hold true for male and female teachers, with no difference in rankings according to years of teaching experience.     

Can ‘pooling teaching tips’ be more than ‘pooling teaching tips’?

Abstract

There is increasing interest in how academic development of various kinds influences university teaching and student learning. To date the focus has been on formal, expert-led opportunities to learn how to teach. Our institution has developed a less formal, participant-led forum for teaching staff that was initially established to share ideas on teaching techniques and skills. We report here on participant-led research that explores if and how this model of group learning works, and how it might relate to other models that have been applied to tertiary teaching development. Authors adopted a self-study research framework incorporating a collaborative autoethnography. The data emphasises how participants use this forum as a community of practice, as a means for deep engagement with learning about teaching, and as a means to rationally manage their learning against a backdrop of challenges associated with learning to teach in research-led higher education.