Reframing Resources in Engineering Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The notion of “resources” is often framed in an economic sense: money, time, equipment and the like. The authors reconceptualise this notion, situating resources as embedded in curricular frameworks, teacher practice and student experience. This leads them to define resources as “the potential to participate in socio-cultural action” which is illustrated in this article through a series of reflections on the part of the authors, all within the context of engineering education. First, they demonstrate that curriculum can be productively thought of as a route marker for the development of resources that students need in order to enact their role as professional engineers. Thereafter, they show that lecturers bring tacit resources of trust, care, creativity and credibility to the teaching and learning space, and that these are necessary to overcome the inertia that often resists the transformation of teaching and learning practice. Finally, they reflect on how students’ prior learning experiences can be harnessed as a resource for teaching and learning. In so doing, they present resources as tied to sociocultural practices and personal and institutional histories, and encourage others to take up these ideas so as to consider how resources, viewed in the authors’ sense, are valued within (engineering) education.     

The Paradox of Case Study

One of the advantages cited for case study research is its uniqueness, its capacity for understanding complexity in particular contexts. A corresponding disadvantage often cited is the difficulty of generalising from the single case. Such an observation assumes a polarity and stems from a particular view of research. Looked at differently, from within a holistic perspective and direct perception, there is no disjunction. What we have is a paradox, which if acknowledged and explored in depth, yields both unique and universal understanding. This paper revisits this problem in case study research. It argues that, with the pressure for quantification and the growth of multi‐site case study design in policy research, the original vision and utility of case study for understanding complex educational phenomena has been clouded and thereby an opportunity diminished for new ways of knowing     

Interpreting pupil participation into practice: contributions of the SEN Code of Practice (2001)

It is three years since the revised Code of Practice for special educational needs (Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2001) was implemented within schools in England. In this document renewed emphasis was given to pupil participation, building upon and strengthening previous requirements. The inclusion of pupil participation in this document, which governs the ways in which schools must operate, provided cause for optimism by raising the status of the topic and embodying a tool by which to implement the participation rights of the child within the education system. This article scrutinises the sections on pupil participation within the Code for their potential to advance the field. It raises some crucial questions, opening up new areas for debate on the subject. It refers to research insights into participation from the perspective of pupils themselves to illustrate the issues being raised. The article calls for the participation of the pupils themselves to be acknowledged and accounted for, alongside current requirements that professionals encourage pupil participation and account for their perspectives.     

Prolog programming techniques

In this paper we introduce the concept of a Prolog programming technique. This concept is then distinguished both from that of an algorithm and that of a programming cliché. We give examples and show how a knowledge of them can be useful in both programming environments and in teaching programming skills. The extraction of the various techniques is outlined. Finally, we discuss the problem of representing techniques where we conclude that the most promising approach is the development of a suitable meta-language.     

Busy yet passive: (non-)decision-making in school governing bodies

School governing bodies in England have considerable powers and duties, and their formal role positions them as decision-makers. This article draws on qualitative research in the governing bodies of four maintained schools. Using deliberative democracy as a sensitising concept, the article considers some processes by which decisions are made (or not made) in governing bodies. Without claiming that governors never make decisions, it explores constraints and limitations on their ability to do so. Governors exhibit a paradoxical combination of busy-ness and passivity. On the one hand, governing bodies are constituted and structured around activity and technically decisions were made. On the other, decisions could rarely be attributed to active choices by governors. Rather, their more passive agreement with actions and positions was presented as almost unavoidable ‘common sense’, either due to the national policy context or the headteacher’s presentation of the available options.     

Contemporary Art and the Role of Interpretation: Reflections from Tate Modern's Summer Institute for Teachers

Recent research indicates that the taught curriculum in art and design secondary school education pays scant attention to meaning‐making in visual art. This article explores possibilities for teaching interpretation through a report on an action‐research project based on Tate Modern's Summer Institute for Teachers. In doing so it argues for the value and necessity of interpretation as a taught skill.     

Students’ qualification in environmental and sustainability education—epistemic gaps or composites of critical thinking?

In an ‘age of measurement’ where students’ qualification is a hot topic on the political agenda, it is of interest to ask what the function of qualification might implicate in relation to a complex issue as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and what function environmental and sustainability issues serve in science education. This paper deals with how secondary and upper secondary teachers in discussions with colleagues articulate qualification in relation to educational aims of ESD. With inspiration from discourse theory, the teachers’ articulations of qualification are analysed and put in relation to other functions of education (qualification, socialisation and subjectification). The results of this study show three discourses of qualification: scientific reasoning, awareness of complexity and to be critical. The discourse of ‘qualification as to be critical’ is articulated as a composite of differing epistemological views. In this discourse, the teachers undulate between rationalistic epistemological views and postmodern views, in a pragmatic way, to articulate a discourse of critical thinking which serves as a reflecting tool to bring about different ways of valuing issues of sustainability, which reformulates ‘matter of facts’ towards ‘matter of concerns’