Linking critical pedagogy practice to higher education in Malaysia: insights from English language teachers

This study explores whether critical pedagogy is viable for meeting the goals of the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) 2015–2025. The MEB has a particular focus on societal improvement and the authors suggest that critical pedagogy should be considered as a way of teaching as it specifically aligns with the aims of government policy. However, there is uncertainty about how critical pedagogy might be enacted in the Malaysian higher education context because it is difficult to understand and practise. The authors interviewed English language critical pedagogues from various countries about their experiences and found four common themes across all cultures. These were: co-construction of knowledge between teacher and student; new levels of trust; the use of problem-posing techniques; and evaluation of teaching and the student experience. These findings provide a guide to practice and the authors conclude that for critical pedagogy to gain acceptance across Malaysia, consideration needs to be given to changing prevailing cultural norms, the strict social order, as well as the political landscape of the country.     

Software engineers helping themselves: The web resource collaboration center

Conclusion By implementing knowledge management features in an EPSS-like structure, the WRCC provided a more effective performance solution that was in alignment with the firm’s business objectives, making sure that both the employees’ learning and performance needs and the firm’s needs were addressed (Stone & Villachica, 2003). The activity of building a WRCC helped the software engineers learn about new tools and languages in the software engineering domain, while constructing a knowledge base to support their future learning and professional development in that domain. In addition, their work on the WRCC helped software engineers strengthen their connections to the larger software engineering communities of practice while they developed a local learning community that encouraged sharing, coaching and mentoring. Ultimately, the firm was able to reduce their reliance on conventional training by 70% - their original goal — by allowing the software engineers to create and use an on-the-job learning architecture that was more situated, social, transparent, open, flexible and respectful of their workplace learning and professional development needs.     

Competence of Irish and Polish teachers in the opinions of young Polish immigrants in Ireland

Since 2004, Ireland has experienced the arrival of immigrants from various countries from all over the world including Poland. The Polish came to Ireland with their families including children of school age obliged to attend compulsory education. These children have attended schools dissimilar from the ones they are accustomed to in their home country in terms of teacher–student relationships. The question then arises as to what an Irish teacher is like in the opinions of young Polish immigrants? Is the image different from the one of a Polish teacher, or does the peculiarity of this job make teachers in various countries alike? This research conducted among a group of Polish grammar school students in Ireland helps to answer these questions. This article is a comparative study of teachers’ competence, and their personality, as well as their substantive, methodological and educational competence. The information was obtained by group interview technique with Polish youth aged 13–15 studying in Irish secondary schools at junior cycle level.     

Aligning assessment with the needs of work-integrated learning: the challenges of authentic assessment in a complex context

Abstract

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a feature of university courses, both in professional areas, where it is commonplace, but also across many different disciplines. Assessment of WIL can be complex as it involves parties and settings external to the university, and it can be problematic because of difficulties in aligning learning activities during placements with what is or can be assessed by the university. This paper explores the relationship between students’ placement experiences and accompanying assessments in contexts where activities are tightly coupled with the curriculum, and in those where it is not. It draws on a qualitative analysis of student interviews and drawings by the interviewees of their WIL experiences, supplemented with analysis of unit guides. Our findings highlight that students’ perceptions of authenticity of assessment were undermined by misalignments between the student, university and industry. Assessment authenticity was perceived by students as based on alignment between their current and future selves in the assessment process, involvement of industry supervisors and relevance of placement activities to assessment activities. The paper discusses the complexity of coordination of educational activities with external partners, especially when one party drives assessment. It then suggests a reframing of WIL assessment to promote alignment and authenticity.     

Improving the comprehension of disabled readers

Students with learning disabilities (LD) often have difficulty comprehending what they read. Although reading comprehension problems frequently are associated with inadequate word recognition, students also have difficulties related to comprehension itself—a passive approach to the reading task, insensitivity to text structure, and poor metacognitive skills. The reading and language arts curricula that have emerged from today’s constructivist paradigm can pose problems for these students. Whereas the new curricula emphasize personal interpretations of text and relatively unstructured teaching strategies, students with LD do well with explicit, highly structured instruction. This paper introduces an instructional program designed to teach students with serious learning disabilities how to identify a story theme, and how to relate it to their own real-life experiences. The program focused on understanding a text as a whole, and integrating text meaning with concepts and experiences that are personally meaningful, goals shared by a constructivist approach. At the same time, the program incorporates the explicit, structured instruction that these students also need. A study to evaluate the program’s effectiveness is described, as are current efforts to refine the program to promote transfer of comprehension strategies.     

Education and poverty in Western Europe

Conclusions Educationists in Europe have an established tradition of exploring educational disadvantage from a socio-cultural perspective, as indicated by the focus on social justice in education. Their concerns have been with relatively small-scale phenomena: the context in which particular disadvantaged groups are educated, leading to specific recommendations for local areas. Policy-makers, in contrast, are concerned with combating social exclusion at the national or Europe-wide level, primarily as a means of reducing unemployment and social unrest. The initiatives they set in motion necessarily take a wider perspective and pay little heed to diverse needs, aspirations and goals among the socially excluded. There is a need for European educationalists to increase their own awareness of the European context—not simply the national context—in which they work. They need also to develop perspectives on major European initiatives to combat social exclusion, the effects of which will remain otherwise unexplored by a community of educationalists with a history of interest in and commitment to challenging educational disadvantage. Original language: English Joanna McPake (United Kingdom) At present, Deputy Director of the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, University of Stirling. Formerly, Senior Researcher and Programme Manager, Scottish Council for Research in Education. Her principal research focus is on aspects of teaching and learning in school. Since 1996 she has been (with Ghazala Bhatti) co-ordinator of the Social Justice and Intercultural Education Network of the European Educational Research Association. Recent publications include: ‘A mirror to ourselves? The educational experiences of Japanese children at school in the UK’ (with J. Powney, 1998); andEducation of minority ethnic groups in Scotland (with J. Powney, S. Hall and L. Lyall, 1998). Ghazala Bhatti (United Kingdom) Ph.D. Director, Modular Master's Degree on ‘Equity and change in the public services’, University of Reading. Formerly, a primary and secondary school teacher. Her current professional interests in the field of education concern ethnicity, gender and social justice. She is the joint convenor (with Joanna McPake) of the Social Justice and Intercultural Education Network of EERA. Recent publications include:Asian children at home and at school: an ethnographic study (1999) andA journey into the unknown: an ethnographic study of Asian children (1995). This article consists of reflections on recent research presented at the European Conference on Educational Research by the joint co-ordinators of the Social Justice and Intercultural Education network of the European Educational Research Association.     

Expressive Vocabulary Predicts Nonverbal Executive Function: A 2-year Longitudinal Study of Deaf and Hearing Children

Numerous studies suggest an association between language and executive function (EF), but evidence of a developmental relationship remains inconclusive. Data were collected from 75 deaf/hard-of-hearing (DHH) children and 82 hearing age-matched controls. Children were 6–11 years old at first time of testing and completed a battery of nonverbal EF tasks and a test of expressive vocabulary. These tasks were completed again 2 years later. Both groups improved their scores on all tasks over this period. DHH children performed significantly less well than hearing peers on some EF tasks and the vocabulary test at both time points. Cross-lagged panel models showed that vocabulary at Time 1 predicted change in EF scores for both DHH and hearing children but not the reverse.     

Childhood homelessness,resilience, and adolescent mental health: A prospective,person-centered approach

School districts and other service providers are increasingly aware of the substantial mental health needs of students experiencing family homelessness. Past findings are mixed regarding whether homelessness conveys unique risk beyond the risks associated with extreme poverty. With prospective longitudinal data on homelessness experiences across childhood, we utilized latent profile analysis as a person-centered approach to conceptualizing mental health outcomes in adolescence for 3,778 youth. We considered literal family homelessness as well as families living doubled-up, and we employed propensity score matching to identify a comparison group of nonhomeless students balanced across a range of covariates to address systematic bias. Results indicated that students who experienced literal homelessness during childhood were significantly less likely to demonstrate profiles of resilience in mental health functioning. We considered our approach and findings in light of challenges and opportunities particularly relevant to the school context.