'Not Without Dust and Heat': The Moral Bases of the 'New' Academic Professionalism

This paper challenges the view that academic professionalism resides in the professional 'autonomy' of the academic, the 'self-regulation' of academics as an occupational group, and the differential 'status' of academic workers. This still influential (though residual) notion of academic professionalism, it is argued, leads to institutional stasis. What is required is greater reflexivity by academics in respect of their underlying professional values. In particular the piece challenges the academic community (of which the author is a member) to re-think academic freedom – the bedrock of professional identity within that community – in terms of increased inclusivity: 'freedom for all' rather than 'freedom for academics' The paper touches on issues relating to practice and organisational structure, but focuses primarily on the need for academics to shift the moral bases of their claim to professionalism. In so doing, it also challenges the post-Dearing consensus that the debate on academic professionalism can be adequately conducted in terms of 'standards' and 'outcomes'. A prime purpose of the paper is to promote debate and discussion by setting a different kind of agenda (a moral agenda) and by couching that agenda within a different kind of discourse (one that invites and admits moral speculation).     

Change in beliefs after first-year of teaching: The case of Turkish national curriculum context

The impact of national curriculum context on mathematics related beliefs of 12 beginning middle grades mathematics teachers was investigated after the teacher education program and first-year teaching through interviews and a combination of three belief frameworks. National curriculum requirements, lack of effective mentoring programs, and preservice tutoring experiences were detected as the major factors impacting beliefs. Participants simultaneously had teacher-centered and student-centered beliefs, causing inconsistency in beliefs and practices. While participants’ preservice and first-year experiences contrasted, they developed contextual beliefs to deal with the difficulties. Reflections on teacher education and beginning teacher support policies in national curriculum contexts were discussed.     

Integrating Free Computer Software in Chemistry and Biochemistry Instruction: An International Collaboration

At the Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia, we used their new computer facilities to introduce chemistry graduate students to biochemical database mining and quantum chemistry calculations using freeware. These hands-on workshops allowed the students a strong introduction to easily accessible software and how to use this software to begin to explore computer modeling. Each workshop was scheduled for 2 h and each included a tutorial exercise to familiarize the students with the main menus and features of the software. In addition, accompanying lectures and practical laboratory sections were provided. Both courses were taught in Spanish although the written instructions were in English. This was not a problem since these students have a comfort level with reading English. Student feedback following these workshops was highly enthusiastic and positive. This international collaborative will impact both the teaching and research goals for this cohort of graduate students.     

Scaffolding middle school students’ content knowledge and ill-structured problem solving in a problem-based hypermedia learning environment

This study investigated the effects of domain-general and domain-specific scaffolds with different levels of support, continuous and faded, on learning of scientific content and problem-solving. Students’ scores on a multiple-choice pretest, posttest, and four recommendation forms were analyzed. Students’ content knowledge in all conditions significantly increased from pretest to posttest. However, the continuous domain-specific condition outperformed the other conditions on the posttest. Although domain-general scaffolds were not as effective as domain-specific scaffolds on learning content and problem representation, they helped students develop solutions, make justifications, and monitor learning. Unlike domain-specific scaffolds, domain-general scaffolds helped students transfer problem-solving skills when they were faded. Several suggestions are discussed for making improvements in the design of scaffolds to facilitate ill-structured problem solving.     

Young adolescents' metacognition and domain knowledge as predictors of hypothesis‐development performance in a computer‐supported context

Recently, the importance of ill‐structured problem‐solving in real‐world contexts has become a focus of educational research. Particularly, the hypothesis‐development process has been examined as one of the keys to developing a high‐quality solution in a problem context. The authors of this study examined predictive relations between young adolescents' metacognition, prior domain knowledge, and hypothesis‐development performance in a computer‐supported environment. Data were collected from 11‐ and 12‐year‐old Korean students (N = 101). A hypothesised model in predicting hypothesis‐development performance was evaluated using structural equation modelling. Both metacognition and prior domain knowledge significantly predicted young adolescents' hypothesis‐development performance. Implications and limitations of the present study and issues, including the experimental design, are discussed.     

Is ‘the posthuman’ educable? On the convergence of educational philosophy,animal studies,and posthumanist theory

Formal education in Western society is firmly rooted in humanist ideals. ‘Becoming human’ by cultivating certain cognitive, social, and moral abilities has even symbolised the idea of education as such in Enlightenment philosophical traditions. These ideas are increasingly coming under scrutiny by posthumanist theorists, who are addressing fundamental ontological and epistemological questions about defining an essential ‘human nature’, as well as the elastic boundary work between the human and nonhuman subject. This paper responds to the ongoing discussions on the diverse articulations of posthumanism in education theory and animal studies by investigating possibilities of a shared conceptual framework that allows for a productive dialogue between them. By analysing some of the meanings attached to the notion of posthumanism in education theory and animal studies, the paper begins to identify some instabilities of humanist traditions/ideals of education and explores posthumanist challenges to research on the institutionalised production, mediation, and development of knowledge.     

论亚洲远程教育方法与技术的融合

由于传统媒体的单向传输方式,远程教育在很长时间都没有很好地发挥其教学功能。现代教育技术的发展克服了原有的技术问题,在很大程度体现了双向交互功能,从文本会议形式到目前使用的博客,以及实时性视频会议系统,这些技术条件都为远程教育发展开辟了美好的前景。传统的观念只是将远程教育形式作为一种无奈的选择。这种认识并不是没有依据的。其主要观点是以往的学习者无法获得更多的技术,同时教学方法的采用也没有真正与技术自身的特质相匹配。即便是在今天,我们依然可以观察到在许多情况下,远程教育的教学方法与技术之间并没有达到真正意义上的和谐与统一。     

Injury prevention in male youth soccer: Current practices and perceptions of practitioners working at elite English academies

Forty-one practitioners inclusive of physiotherapists, sports scientists and strength and conditioning coaches from the academies of elite soccer clubs in the United Kingdom completed an on-line questionnaire which examined their: (1) background information; (2) perceptions of injury occurrence and risk factors; (3) screening and return to play; and (4) approach to designing and delivering injury prevention programmes with a response rate of 55% (41/75). Contact injuries were the most common mechanism reported and players between 13–16 years of age were perceived to be at the greatest risk. Pertinent risk factors included: reduced lower limb and eccentric hamstring strength, proprioception, muscle imbalances, and under developed foundational movement skills. Joint range of motion, jump tests, the functional movement screen, overhead and single leg squats were the most utilised screening methods. Training modalities rated in order of importance included: resistance training, flexibility development, agility, plyometrics and balance training. Training frequency was most commonly once or twice per week, during warm-ups, independent sessions or a combination of both. Injury prevention strategies in this cohort appear to be logical; however, the classification of injury occurrence and application of screening tools to identify “at risk” players do not align with existing research. The frequency and type of training used may also be insufficient to elicit an appropriate stimulus to address pertinent risk factors based on current recommendations.