Effects of Traditional Versus Montessori Schooling on 4‐ to 15‐Year Old children's Performance Monitoring

Through performance monitoring individuals detect and learn from unexpected outcomes, indexed by post‐error slowing and post‐error improvement in accuracy. Although performance monitoring is essential for academic learning and improves across childhood, its susceptibility to educational influences has not been studied. Here we compared performance monitoring on a flanker task in 234 children aged 4 through 15, from traditional or Montessori classrooms. While traditional classrooms emphasize that students learn from teachers' feedback, Montessori classrooms encourage students to work independently with materials specially designed to support learners discovering errors for themselves. We found that Montessori students paused longer post‐error in early childhood and, by adolescence, were more likely to self‐correct. We also found that a developmental shift from longer to shorter pauses post‐error being associated with self‐correction happened younger in the Montessori group. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that educational experience influences performance monitoring, with implications for neural development, learning, and pedagogy.     

Understanding Pre-Service Teachers' Emerging Practices Through Their Analyses of a Multimedia Case Study of Practice

The limits inherent in field experiences and the difficulties in learning howto use student thinking in instructional practice are significant challengesin pre-service teachers' preparation. In this research, we haveinvestigated how multimedia case studies of practice can support pre-service teachers in making meaning of complex classroom experiences andin developing strategies and rationales for using student thinking to guideinstruction. In this paper, we present a brief review of the research on casestudies to situate our particular approach that builds on the notion that amultimedia case study can be a site for investigation, analysis andreflection by pre-service teachers. We then report the results of examiningthe issues that one cohort of pre-service mathematics teachers (grades 7–12) identified as meaningful for them in terms of their own emergingpractice and the ways in which they connected the case study teacher'spractice to their own practice. We found that the pre-service teachers wereable to use their perspectives on a common practice to highlight some of thedilemmas and tensions found in teaching. In particular, these pre-serviceteachers focused on the difficulties encountered when trying to usestudent thinking and to follow their own mathematical goals in a lesson.They were able to frame many of the issues that they encountered in theirown practice (such as checking for student understanding and the use ofquestioning) in terms of their analysis of the case study teachers' practice.     

Signatures of quality teaching for Indigenous students

This paper presents findings from the validation of a survey instrument constructed in response to what Indigenous parents/carers and students believe constitutes culturally responsive pedagogies that positively influence Indigenous student learning. Characteristics of culturally responsive pedagogies established through interviews with Australian Indigenous parents, community members and students generated themes which were distilled into survey items by a team of Indigenous and other educators. The instrument was then put on trial with 141 teachers for statistical validation. Analyses employing the Rasch model confirmed that the instrument measured a unidimensional latent trait: culturally responsive pedagogy. Seven subscales, content validities of which were determined by a panel of experts, were also confirmed. Results highlighted differences between primary and secondary teachers’ self-reported practice, and important facets of teacher pedagogy in the two different school contexts emerged. Analyses of four of the subscales of the instrument—Indigenous cultural value, self‐regulation support, literacy teaching and explicitness—are presented in the context of current emphases on quality teaching and Indigenous student outcomes. The instrument can be used to measure teachers’ nuances in pedagogy, and the resulting teacher profiles can be used to assist teachers to focus on particular aspects of their pedagogy to meet the needs of their students.     

Concept mapping in research on mathematical knowledge development: Background,methods, findings and conclusions

The theoretical background and different methods ofconcept mapping for use in teaching and in research on learning processes are discussed. Two mathematical projects, one on fractions and one on geometry, are presented in more detail. In the first one special characteristics of concept maps were elaborated. In the second one concept mapping allowed students' individual understanding to be monitored over time and provided information about students' conceptual understanding that would not have been obtained using other methods. Regarding the students' individual concept maps in more detail there were some additional findings: (i) The characteristics of the maps change remarkably from fourth grade to sixth grade; (ii) There is some evidence that prior knowledge related to some mathematical topics plays a very important role in students' learning behaviour and in their achievement; (iii) Concept maps provide information about how individual students relate concepts to form organised conceptual frameworks; (iv) Long-term difficulties with specific concepts are able to be traced. These findings are discussed with regard to results of other studies as well as to their implications for the teaching of mathematics in the classroom.     

Formatively assessing teamwork in technology-enabled twenty-first century classrooms: exploratory findings of a teamwork awareness programme in Singapore

Teamwork, one of the core competencies for the twenty-first century learner, is a critical skill for work and learning. However, assessing teamwork is complex, in particular, developing a measure of teamwork that is domain-generic and applicable across a wide range of learners. This paper documents one such study that leverages technology to help provide a formative assessment of teamwork. It focuses on the self and peer ratings of a teamwork measure and a pedagogical method, which was trialled as a teamwork awareness programme in a mainstream Secondary School in Singapore. This teamwork awareness programme was incorporated into the school’s Interdisciplinary Project Work curriculum. Findings of students’ experiences of the programme are described. The teamwork competency dimension of “team emotional support” was rated highest amongst students. Also, students’ report gains in teamwork awareness, mixed engagement in reflective practices, and on the real-world relevancy of the programme. Discussions and implications of the findings follow.     

KVOS in the Local,Public Interest: Early Broadcasting and the Constitution of the Local

This article contributes to scholarly literature on local stations in early radio broadcasting history. Taking KVOS in Bellingham, WA as a case study, it attends to how regional geography in conjunction with station operators, broadcasting policy, and audiences helped to define localism in relation to broader national, regional, and international identities forming at the beginnings of early radio and between 1930–1953. KVOS’ history demonstrates how radio was always bound up with the production of locality and how local identity was constituted in and through its relation to broader collective sensibilities taking shape at the time.     

Organizational Change and Renewal: Can Strategic Communication Methods Ease the Pain? A Case Study from the University of Southern Queensland

ABSTRACT

Strategic communication is not solely the remit of library managers and directors, but is the product of internal culture and engagement with the organization's brand. Libraries need to communicate strategically, in order to demonstrate to individuals across the organization that their message is on point, and that they understand, are committed to, and actively support the university's goals. Much of this work happens via the myriad of interactions library staff at all levels have with students and staff (and indeed community members) of all kinds. When the attitude and behavior of library staff does not truly reflect the library's and the university's branding or goals, this undermines more explicit measures of value. It is important for the leadership of academic libraries to understand and influence how every library staff member views his or her role in the organization, so that their communication is reflective of a confidence in themselves and their profession, and a solid understanding of their institution and the higher education landscape. In large-scale organizational change, both intellectual and emotional buy-in to the organization can wane. We seek to show how a people-centered change process, rather than adversely affecting staff buy-in, could instead increase buy-in to the organizational change.     

Supporting the Teaching of Information Literacy with First Year Bsc Nursing Students: The Case for a Printed Workbook

Information literacy (IL) is increasingly considered to be an important life skill and there are a number of challenges that librarians face in implementing an effective IL program. This article examines the experience of library staff at Birmingham City University (BCU) and how they developed a printed workbook to be embedded within sessions attached to a first year Nursing degree academic skills module. Previous approaches to IL input with Nursing students will be discussed. The changes that were made and the impact of these changes on students, academic and library staff are then considered. Since the implementation of the workbook, feedback from students and staff has been encouraging concerning its purpose and value. Possible future developments are then suggested.     

Computer supported collaborative learning in schools: a distributed approach

This paper briefly surveys current work in the emerging area of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and describes how the technology can be extended to exploit communication between computers. A number of applications which might make use of network support, distributed CSCL, are reviewed and a simple prototype distributed CSCL application is described and evaluated. The work has highlighted issues concerning the value, viability and development of distributed CSCL software. It would appear that valuable opportunities for the development of such software exist but it is unclear how these applications might be developed using existing hardware. Conclusions are presented regarding the future of network supported CSCL.