A new model of collaborative action research; theorising from inter-professional practice development

The development of pedagogies to meet the needs of diverse communities can be supported through inter-professional practice development. This article explores one such experience, that of speech and language therapists developing a new video-based coaching approach for teachers and teaching assistants in multi-cultural settings with high numbers of children learning English as an additional language. To support them in developing and trialling the coaching approach, the expertise of a teacher-educator and educational researcher was provided through a university business voucher. It is this working relationship that the article has as its practical focus, as it transformed to one of collaborative action research. The action research is described, providing the context for a discussion of the characteristics of collaborative action research and the proposal of a new model. This model offers a way of conceptualising collaborative action research through time, and of recognising the importance of the partners’ zones of proximal, contributory and collaborative activities in sustaining change and knowledge-creation.     

Challenging White Jesus: Race and the Undergraduate Bible Classroom

Abstract

In this article, we offer analysis of and propose means of resistance to White Jesus in undergraduate Bible survey courses. White Jesus functions as a proxy for the operation of white normativity in contexts of religious education. Research on a cohort of first-year undergraduate students demonstrates the durability of race as a factor in students’ experiences and outcomes in required Bible courses. After interpreting these findings in light of literature on race, biblical studies, and higher education, we suggest strategic pedagogical interventions that instructors can employ to resist white normativity.     

Lessons learned from a decade implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education in resource poor settings: The World Starts With Me

Today, more than half of the world population is under the age of 25 years and one in four is under age 18. The urgency of expanding access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) notably for children and young people in Africa and Asia is greater than ever before. However, many challenges to the implementation and delivery of CSE in resource poor settings have been identified in the literature. CSE’s effectiveness could be strongly improved if these challenges were better met. This paper aims to contribute to those much-needed improvements by sharing lessons learned from a decade of implementation of one particular CSE programme, The World Starts With Me, among various populations in 11 low income countries in Africa and Asia. The aims, content, reach and effectiveness of the programme are described. Next, the challenges for implementation and delivery at student, teacher, school and context level are discussed with reference to the wider knowledge base in this area. Finally, suggestions are provided for ways forward including the increased sensitivity of programmes for normative and practical barriers to sexual health, further advancement towards gender transformativity, a far-reaching expansion of comprehensive forms of teacher training and coaching, and a serious stepping-up of multilevel ‘whole school’ approaches.     

Understanding the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and technology use in education: a systematic review of qualitative evidence

This review was designed to further our understanding of the link between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their educational uses of technology. The synthesis of qualitative findings integrates the available evidence about this relationship with the ultimate goal being to facilitate the integration of technology in education. A meta-aggregative approach was utilized to analyze the results of the 14 selected studies. The findings are reported in terms of five synthesis statements, describing (1) the bi-directional relationship between pedagogical beliefs and technology use, (2) teachers’ beliefs as perceived barriers, (3) the association between specific beliefs with types of technology use, (4) the role of beliefs in professional development, and (5) the importance of the school context. By interpreting the results of the review, recommendations are provided for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers focusing on pre- and in-service teacher technology training.     

Enhancing pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK): a mixed-method study

Educational technology research and development - The main aim of this two-step mixed-method study was to explore the effectiveness of the strategies used to prepare pre-service teachers for...     

The balance model: Hindrance or support for the solving of linear equations with one unknown

The use of concrete models for teaching students how to solve equations is often debated in scientific literature. This article aims to examine the balance model and to identify the issues that divide scientists. We based our reflections on the results of an empirical study and analysis of the various arguments put forward by supporters and opponents of the model. We describe learning situations that were the subject of the empirical study, which involved forty students in two 8th-grade classes. The aim was to teach the formal solving method, which involved performing the same operations on both sides of the equation using, notably, the balance model. Analysis of students' reasoning showed that the presence of negative numbers gave rise to many errors. The difficulties presented by negative numbers were reviewed, eight months later, during an interview with five students, chosen from those who took part in the experiment. Within that context, we discuss the relevance of the balance model and analyse the arguments put forward by researchers who either defend or reject its use.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Education of gifted pupils in Hungary

where she directs the Department of Didactics. Main research interests: the teaching and learning process; curriculum theory; educational evaluation.     

Cultural Differences in Korean- and Anglo-American Preschoolers' Social Interaction and Play Behaviors

48 Korean- and 48 Anglo-American children were observed in their preschool settings to examine the role of culture in organizing children's activities and in shaping their pretend play behavior. Observers recorded the presence or absence of preselected social behaviors and levels of play complexity. Parents completed a questionnaire about play in the home, teachers rated children's social competence, and children were given the PPVT-R and a socio-metric interview. Korean parents completed an acculturation questionnaire. The findings revealed cultural differences in children's social interaction, play complexity, adult-child interaction and play in the home and in the preschool, adult beliefs about play, scores on the PPVT-R, and children's social functioning with peers. The results suggest that children's social interaction and pretend play behavior are influenced by culture-specific socialization practices that serve adaptive functions.     

Between tradition and modernity: girls’ talk about sexual relationships and violence in Kenya,Ghana and Mozambique

This paper interrogates the influence of a tradition-modernity dichotomy on perspectives and practices on sexual violence and sexual relationships involving girls in three districts of Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique. Through deploying an analytical framework of positioning within multiple discursive sites, we argue that although the dichotomy misrepresents the complexity of contemporary communities, it is nonetheless deployed by girls, educational initiatives and researchers in their reflections on girls’ sexual practices and sexual violence. The analysis examines variations between communities in patterns of and perspectives about sexual relationships, transactional sex and sexual violence. It illuminates ways in which features of ‘modernisation’ and ‘tradition’ both exacerbate and protect girls from violence. Across contexts, girls actively positioned themselves between tradition and modernity, while positioning others at the extreme poles. Education initiatives also invoked bipolar positions in their attempts to protect girls’ rights to education and freedom from violence. The paper concludes by considering the implications for educational intervention and the potential for the analytical framing to generate richer, more contextualised understandings about girls’ perspectives, experiences and ways of resisting sexual violence.     

Employability and higher education: the follies of the ‘Productivity Challenge’ in the Teaching Excellence Framework

This article considers questions of ‘employability’, a notion foregrounded in the Green and White Papers on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The paper first questions government imperatives concerning employability and suggests a series of mismatches that are evident in the rhetorics in this area. This summary opens up elements of what I am calling the first ‘folly’ in the field. The second section of the paper considers recent research with individual academics engaged in employability activity. This research suggests another series of mismatches in the aims and outcomes of ‘employability initiatives’ and opens up a further series of ‘follies’ in the day-to-day practices of academics and students’ responses to them. The third section of the paper turns to academics’ reports of student behaviour in relation to the outcomes of their degree. This section develops an argument that relates to the final ‘folly’ associated with the current focus on employability. I argue that students’ focus on outcomes (which at face value suggests they have internalized the importance of employment) is contributing to the production of graduates who do not have the dispositions that employers – when interviewed – say that they want. The highly performative culture of higher education, encouraged by the same metrics that will be extended through the TEF, is implicated then in not preparing students for the workplace.