Puppets Promoting Engagement and Talk in Science

Research into classroom interactions has shown that talk that promotes reasoning can help children in their learning of science. Such talk can only be generated when teachers are willing to take a dialogic approach that is stimulating and provides opportunities for children to articulate their ideas. This research set out to determine whether the use of large puppets would help teachers to change the nature of their whole class discourse to enhance children’s talk and engagement in science. The study was carried out with sixteen teachers of children aged 7–11 years in schools in London and Manchester, UK. Through adopting a mixture of research methods, including classroom observation and teacher and child interviews, the research provides evidence that the use of puppets significantly increases the amount of teacher discourse oriented towards reasoning and argument, and decreases the amount of talk that focuses on recall. Through the puppets, teachers also use more narrative to set the science in stimulating contexts, and encourage children in their contributions to whole class discussion. Interview data also show the positive effects of puppets on children’s motivation and engagement in science. The findings have led to further major funding for professional development in the use of puppets in the UK, and research into the reasons why the use of puppets is so effective.     

Mapping Children’s Discussions of Evidence in Science to Assess Collaboration and Argumentation

The research reported in this paper concerns the development of children’s skills of interpreting and evaluating evidence in science. Previous studies have shown that school teaching often places limited emphasis on the development of these skills, which are necessary for children to engage in scientific debate and decision‐making. The research, undertaken in the United Kingdom, involved four collaborative decision‐making activities to stimulate group discussion, each carried out with five groups of four children (10–11 years old). The research shows how the children evaluated evidence for possible choices and judged whether their evidence was sufficient to support a particular conclusion or the rejection of alternative conclusions. A mapping technique was developed to analyse the discussions and identify different “levels” of argumentation. The authors conclude that suitable collaborative activities that focus on the discussion of evidence can be developed to exercise children’s ability to argue effectively in making decisions.     

How young children view mathematical representations: a study using eye-tracking technology

This paper reports on a study which investigated the support needs of pupils in mainstream school with a chronic illness or physical disability. The research was carried out in three local education authorities covering both rural and urban areas. In-depth, qualitative data were collected from 33 pupils in secondary school; 58 parents of primary and secondary school pupils; and 34 primary and secondary school teachers. Overall, the data from young people suggest variability in the support offered to pupils by teachers, even by teachers within the same school, and highlights the importance of teachers' awareness and understanding of special health needs. A number of areas where young people need support from teachers were identified, including: dealing with school absence; taking part in school activities; peer relationships; explaining the condition to other pupils; and having someone to talk to about health-related worries. Data from teachers and parents indicate that school staff need assistance with obtaining health-related information; ensuring health-related information is passed between and within schools; providing emotional support; the provision of medical care; and coordinating support for this group of pupils. The implications of the findings for teachers, schools and educational policy are discussed.     

The hope of biography: the historical recovery of women educator activists

UNESCO formed the concept of fundamental education in hopes that the programme could end poverty, bring world peace and serve indigenous people. When UNESCO’s first pilot project appeared to fail, the organisation developed centres where fundamental education workers learned to use such techniques as libraries, museum displays, films and radio, instruction in vernacular languages, and literacy campaigns. Modelled on progressive education, these techniques shared four tendencies that contradicted the aims of fundamental education. First, the programmes seemed to impose a modern scientific culture on indigenous societies. Second, the fundamental education workers found themselves manipulating indigenous people to accept what the programmes offered. Third, when officials used words aimed at helping, they seemed to mask the cultural traits that the programmes implied. Fourth, the fundamental education workers tended to translate failure as an indication of the need for increased efforts rather than as events questioning the wisdom of the programmes.     

Planning to Unmask Potential Through Responsive Curriculum: The “Famous Five” Exercise

Barriers to the identification of gifted students from traditionally underserved groups have been well documented. Although contemporary definitions of giftedness give heed to both performance and potential, the literature provides little concrete direction for how “potential” can be recognized, particularly in underperforming students who have lacked access to the kind of high-quality, personally relevant, and appropriately challenging curriculum likely to bring their talents to the fore. It is argued that high-quality curriculum can serve as an effective catalyst for the emergence of diverse talent but that such an objective must be a deliberate focus of curriculum planning. The “Famous Five” exercise presented in this article is a heuristic procedure that has been used with experienced educators and is designed to stimulate the thinking of curriculum developers as they design opportunities for unmasking diverse gifted potential.     

Public accountability in the age of neo‐liberal governance

In this paper we consider two discussion-based parents' forums at two secondary schools. We ask whether such forums can be considered as part of the small, local associative mechanisms which theorists claim have the potential to encourage a more vibrant and interactive public conversation concerning state provided welfare services. We conclude that they cannot - at least in any simple way. However, a study of the forums does raise several interesting issues to do with parents' relationships with schools, the differential resources that particular class fractions bring to bear in developing their relations with teachers, and the responses of the schools to parental voices. Access to higher education and good jobs emerges as the most important element in securing children's futures (and thus of ‘putting the family first’). Yet all the respondents see this as involving their children gaining advantages over others. What is missing from these accounts is an attempt to describe what might be done about any injustice that is recognised, or how the life-chances of the others' might be better protected. Equality of opportunity and equality of citizenship do not emerge as public issues in these versions of access to higher education and good jobs. Instead we have accounts of how to do the best for one's children in a situation of scarcity of both these resources, (Jordan et al. 1994:197) I think it goes right back to the family and they [the parent body] put the children first, right the way through life they put the children first, and they recognise that to get a good job in the end they've got to have qualifications and they want a good school (headteacher, Carson School).     

Transition to postgraduate study: postgraduate ecological systems and identity

This paper explores and examines the distal and proximal systems which construct social science postgraduate study in the UK and analyses the emergent identities of postgraduate students as they negotiate the multiple and interacting practices in their transition to study. The data represent part of a one-year research project, funded by the Higher Education Academy, in which staff and students from five UK universities participated. The paper takes a socio-cultural perspective and situates staff and students in the wider macro context of policy and practice surrounding postgraduate study as well as exploring the micro processes which construct the proximal experience of the transition. We argue that the silence surrounding postgraduate transition in the literature must be addressed in light of existing literature and the present research, both of which suggest that the systems which construct postgraduate study are complex and challenging to students, who do not always receive the support they require. We discuss the practices which implicitly assume expertise in postgraduate students in contrast to student self-identification as confused and struggling. Commonalities with other educational transitions are identified but we argue that there are distinct aspects to postgraduate transition which require greater breadth of research with both successful and unsuccessful postgraduate students.