Voices of reform from the classroom: teachers’ approaches to change

Abstract

This paper reports on case studies of three teachers managing an education reform focussed on assessment, during a busy period of curriculum change in an Australia state Participants attended multiple professional development opportunities including a number of state-wide, systemically-facilitated assessment workshops. The most significant finding to emerge, as narratives of change unfolded over a nine- month period, was the diversity of teachers’ approaches to change. All three were insightful about practices that required change and could identify personal and professional attributes that would assist their management of change. All teachers attended the same systemic workshops and all had access to the Education Department’s published literature about assessment. Yet they organised and implemented change in very different ways. Each teacher’s approach was based on personal assumptions about learners and learning, the reform they agreed to implement, and their preferred approaches to incorporating new assessment practices into their existing repertories. Approach taken was a major determinant of experience of change and thus is an aspect of change management important to inservice-providers, teachers and school leaders. The paper concludes with an overview of a PD package designed with the findings of this research project in mind.     

Understanding concepts in social science: towards an effective evaluation strategy

The understanding of concepts in social science was investigated by interviewing students studying two foundation courses in Social Science at the Open University. The investigation was carried out using the research paradigm of phenomenography (Marton, 1981) where the content of learning is seen as a quality rather than as a quantity. There were two aims of the research.

1. To discover the different understandings that students hold of particular important concepts in Social Science.
2. To use the method as a method of formative evaluation to influence the production of new course materials.

This paper concentrates on describing the results in terms of two evaluation strategies: Formative evaluation, where the students' understandings of the concept before the course were used to influence the teaching strategy of the remade course. Summative evaluation, where the students' answers before and after the course were compared to evaluate their learning on the course.     

The preparation and immunogenic properties of an ultraviolet-inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine

Details of the preparation and the immunogenic properties of an ultraviolet-inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine are described. The data presented indicate that the SK murine strain of the virus may be inactivated by controlled irradiation and yet retain sufficient immunizing potency to protect mice against 1,000 to 10,000 M.L.D. of the active virus administered intraperitoneally or intranasally.     

Stress,Interviewer Support,and Children's Eyewitness Identification Accuracy

Few studies have investigated how stress affects eyewitness identification capabilities across development, and no studies have investigated whether retrieval context in conjunction with stress affects accuracy. In this study, one hundred fifty‐nine 7‐ to 8‐ and 12‐ to 14‐year‐olds completed a high‐ or low‐stress laboratory protocol during which they interacted with a confederate. Two weeks later, they attempted to identify the confederate in a photographic lineup. The lineup administrator behaved in either a supportive or a nonsupportive manner. Participants who experienced the high‐stress event and were questioned by a supportive interviewer were most accurate in rejecting target‐absent lineups. Results have implications for debates about effects of stress on eyewitness recall, how best to elicit accurate identifications in children, and developmental changes in episodic mnemonic processes.     

Number sense and the calculating child: Measure,multiplicity and mathematical monsters

ABSTRACT

Children and animals of all kinds are said to develop some degree of number sense. The search for ‘number neurons’ and neural correlates of computational thinking aims to identify biological primitives to explain the emergence of number sense. This work typically looks for the sources of number sense in organisms, but one might extend this search and study the possibility of a calculating matter more generally. Such a speculative project explores the implications of the non-human turn within the posthumanities. In this paper, I draw primarily on the work of Vicky Kirby and Gilles Deleuze in order to focus on becoming-monster through calculation. I show how calculation, as a machinic and empirical act that both serves and troubles images of mathematical truth, has always played a unique role in the production of mathematical monsters. I then discuss calculating children who participate in abacus clubs and annual abacus competitions, calculating at inhuman rates with imaginary abacuses. I argue that a new materialist philosophy of immanence demands a radically new approach to number sense.     

Developing Critical Social Justice Literacy in an Online Seminar

The purpose of this article is to report on an effort to cultivate a critical social justice perspective and critical social justice praxis among educators enrolled in an online graduate program. Although the entire program was organized around themes of equity, collaboration, and leadership, this study focused on educators’ perspectives of the purposes, pedagogy, and outcomes of one course, Critical Pedagogy. Fourteen of the 19 students enrolled in the online course participated in one of six online focus groups following the conclusion of the course. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the researchers identified the different ways in which students responded to the course, what they learned, and how they enacted their learning as well as the features of the course that the students believed contributed to their learning and practice. The study provides insight into features of online pedagogy that appear to facilitate transformative learning. It further provides insight into the kinds of content and assignments that may promote critical social justice praxis among educators.     

TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION TO LEARNERS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: PREDICTORS OF TEACHER SELF‐EFFICACY AND OUTCOME EXPECTANCY

Learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit difficulty in the area of reading comprehension. Research connecting the learning needs of individuals with ASD, existing effective practices, teacher training, and teacher perceptions of their own ability to teach reading comprehension is scarce. Quantitative survey methodology and hierarchical regression analysis were utilized to investigate teacher preparedness to use effective practices, along with the job‐related factors of experience, administrator support, learner verbal ability, and instructional setting, as predictors of (1) teacher perceived self‐efficacy and (2) teacher perceived outcome expectancy teaching reading comprehension to learners with ASD. Study findings, based on 112 teacher participants, indicate that teachers with a higher confidence in using effective practices have both a higher perception of their own ability to teach comprehension (self‐efficacy), and a higher expectation of their own ability to increase instructional outcomes in learners with ASD (outcome expectancy). Implications for practice include professional development recommendations and provision of ongoing support from principals and administrators.