Using activity theory as a lens to analyse interaction in a university–school initial teacher education and training partnership

The development of beginning teachers' practice during a school placement is a multiplicity of mediated interactions between university- and school-based systems. Both systems have the common aim of training effective teachers. However, day-to-day internal institution matters can cause tension between the learning goals set out for the beginning teacher by the university and the schools' drive to ensure maximum student performance in ‘high stake’ national tests. This article reports on an intervention intended to equip beginning teachers with the capacity to learn, through purposive activity, in an authentic classroom environment. The context of the learning was to address the conceptual difficulties that secondary school pupils (aged 11-16) have in understanding scientific concepts within the constraints of a ‘curriculum delivery’ lead culture. The results show that beginning teachers are able to extract principles, which might assist them in new contexts in the future. The interactions which took place during the intervention within a school University Initial Teacher Education and Training partnership were analysed using activity systems.     

Exploring the Effect of Verbal and Nonverbal Cues on Perceptions of Deception

How impressions of credibility are formed in trial type settings is examined using 173 participants. It is hypothesized that the severity of the penalty faced by an accused individual will increase participant involvement with the accused's testimony. Involvement is predicted to interact with verbal and nonverbal cues associated with deception to influence jurors’ honesty judgments. Although penalty severity did not influence participant involvement, results indicate that involvement moderates the effect of verbal cues, but not nonverbal cues, on perceptions of deception.     

A Good Story: Children With Imaginary Companions Create Richer Narratives

In line with theories that children's pretend play reflects and extends their narrative skills, children with imaginary companions were predicted to have better narrative skills than children without imaginary companions. Forty-eight 5½-year-old children and their mothers participated in interviews about children's imaginary companions. Children also completed language and narrative assessments. Twenty-three of the children (48%) were deemed to have engaged in imaginary companion play. Children with and without imaginary companions were similar in their vocabulary skills, but children with imaginary companions told richer narratives about a storybook and a personal experience compared to children without imaginary companions. This finding supports theories of a connection between pretend play and storytelling by the end of early childhood.     

Fit(ness) to teach?: disability and initial Teacher education in the republic of Ireland

The lack of diversity in the teaching profession is recognised internationally [Schleicher, A. 2014. Equity, Excellence and Inclusiveness in Education: Policy Lessons from around the World. Paris: OECD]. Research shows consistently that teachers from majority socio-economic and ethnic groupings dominate, often in contrast to school populations. While studies in the USA and the UK have shown that teachers with disabilities are significantly under-represented compared to the general population, there has been a dearth of research in this area in Ireland, including in relation to initial teacher education (ITE). Following a review of the literature and an overview of the study’s methodology, we present findings exploring 2014 ITE applicants and entrants with respect to their dis/ability status and intersections with other socio-demographic variables based on data gathered in the Diversity in Initial Teacher Education in Ireland national research project, establishing the first national dataset about disability in Irish state-funded ITE. While we identified increases in the proportion of disabled students entering ITE, especially at postgraduate level, applicants with disabilities were significantly less likely to be accepted into undergraduate primary ITE than were those without, and there was considerable variation in the proportions from different categories entering ITE. We end by discussing the significance and implications of our findings in terms of practice, policy, and further research.     

Familiarity and relatedness: Effects on social learning about foods by Norway rats and Mongolian gerbils

In recent experiments in which the social influences on feeding in Mongolian gerbils were investigated, observer gerbils acquired food preferences from conspecific demonstrators only if the demonstrators and observers were either related or familiar. Even then, the effects of demonstrator gerbils on observers’ food choices lasted less than 24 h. In similar experiments with Norway rats, the familiarity/relatedness of demonstrators and observers had little effect on social learning, and the demonstrators’ influence on observers’ food choices lasted many days. We examined the causes of these differences and found that, after observer gerbils interacted with either unfamiliar or familiar conspecific demonstrators that had been fed using procedures typically used to feed demonstrator rats, they showed long-lasting social learning about foods, whereas observer rats interacting with conspecific demonstrators that had been fed as demonstrator gerbils normally are fed showed effects of familiarity/relatedness to demonstrators on their social learning about foods. Procedural differences, rather than species differences, seem to be responsible for reported inconsistencies in social learning about foods by rats and gerbils.     

WISC-R performance of children referred to a university center for learning disabilities

This study compared the WISC-R performance of 40 children ranging in age from 6–6 to 15–10, referred to a university center for suspected learning disabilities, with that of two clinically defined groups of learning disabled children. The university center children were found to have WISC-R profiles similar to those of the learning disabled children, with higher overall levels of performance. It was speculated that these children avoid classification as learning disabled by virtue of possessing higher cognitive abilities than those children who are classified. Implications were raised concerning the role of university centers with children experiencing learning difficulties and the accuracy of parental perceptions of learning disabilities.