Is it possible to access the ‘voice’ of pre‐school Children? Results of a research project in a pre‐school setting

This paper presents a rationale for consulting with very young children to enable their voices to be heard, and taken into consideration, when planning pre‐school provision. It goes on to suggest that the expressed preferences of pre‐school children can be taken as an accurate account of their thoughts and feelings. This is tested through a case study of six 4‐year‐olds in a nursery setting. The research enabled a comparison to be made between what the children said were their favourite areas of nursery life, and their preferences as noted by adults. In five out of six cases, adult perspectives were the same as child perspectives. The paper ends with some exploration of the factors that contribute to reliable consultation with very young children.     

Root clustering for rational convex regions

We restrict the discussion of root clustering (exclusion) to rational convex regions. A region in this family is constructed as the intersection of an infinite number of half planes. The root clustering criterion involves the positivity of a set of polynomials with respect to the region's parameter.     

Understanding Teacher Candidate Misconceptions and Concerns about Differentiated Instruction

While teacher education programs are expected to teach effective methods of differentiating instruction, limited research to date has examined the meaning-making processes through which candidates build an understanding of this complex philosophy of teaching and learning. Drawing upon activity theory, this interpretive qualitative study examined how candidates’ understandings of differentiation's conceptual and practical tools—and their concerns about its implementation–changed as they encountered accurate, in-depth information about the model in a course on differentiation. Data sources included interviews, assignments, and observations. Findings suggested candidates entered the course with common misconceptions about differentiation's conceptual tools. Although many candidates originally conceptualized differentiation as a set of practical tools, they later viewed it as a conceptual framework that guides practice. As candidates appropriated practical tools of differentiation, common concerns about implementing differentiation diminished. Implications include questions teacher educators who teach candidates about differentiation should pose to guide their own instruction.     

Leading in the eye of a storm: how one team of administrators exercised disaster resilience

Higher Education - Global climate change threatens university campuses around the world. However, prior research suggests that universities around the globe tend to prioritize preventing further...     

‘Walking in a Foreign and Unknown Landscape’: Studying the History of Mathematics in Initial Teacher Education

This article develops the argument that students in initial teacher education benefit in terms of who they are becoming from developing awareness of and engagement in the history of mathematics. Initially, current school mathematics practices in the UK are considered and challenged. Then the role of teachers’ relationship to mathematical subject knowledge and of teachers’ engagement in critical thinking are considered. Connections are made between these concerns and studying the history of mathematics in initial teacher education classrooms. I then draw on the perspectives and practices of the mathematics teacher educators at one institution to understand these connections better and to exemplify them. Issues of equity are threaded throughout.     

Developing a procedure for learning and assessing peer review in a forensic science programme

Peer review of forensic casework is essential for ensuring quality and reducing error rates. However, it is not a common component of forensic science degree courses, and there are no published studies, guidelines or methods for teaching and learning forensic peer review. This study describes a method of learning, teaching and assessing forensic peer review through the use of group work to prepare checklists for reviewing casefiles and expert witness reports, followed by individual peer feedback. Example checklists and assessment criteria are provided. The peer feedback comments on expert reports were categorised revealing that suggestions are the most frequent type of feedback provided, followed by questions. Through a questionnaire, participants strongly agreed that the learning and teaching process described here was relevant to their future professional practice, and that through the use of checklists they understood the criteria for effective forensic peer review. It emerged from a semistructured interview that limited time led some students to surface review expert reports, that peers were seen as legitimate sources of knowledge, and additional feedback from lecturers was required. This study may be relevant to other areas where professional peer review is used, such as open source software development, nursing and community pharmacy.