Using video clubs to develop teachers’ thinking and practice in oral feedback and dialogic teaching

ABSTRACT

The authors report outcomes of an evaluation of a ‘video club’ intervention to improve the feedback and dialogic teaching practice of 91 teachers from 11 primary schools in England. Participating teachers worked collaboratively in a sequence of six video clubs over a six-month period. To understand teacher engagement they examine videos of video club meetings; online platform use metrics; surveys; selected videos of classroom practice; focus groups; and interviews. They evaluate change in teachers’ thinking and practice using survey results for participants compared to a comparison group of non-participating teachers at the intervention schools. The survey includes a new instrument for gathering evidence of teachers’ thinking and practice in feedback. The results suggested changes in thinking and practice for teachers who self-reported as engaging highly with the intervention. They conclude by discussing the potential of video technology within professional development and the challenges of researching changes in thinking and practice.     

Positive and negative aspects of relationship quality and unprotected sex among young women

The aim of this study was to examine both positive and negative aspects of relationship quality in relation to condom use. Sexually active young women aged 14–18 years (n = 111; 34% non-white) were recruited from community clinics and schools in the Midwest USA and provided data via an online survey. The number of unprotected sex acts in the past month with the most recent male partner was regressed on relationship quality with that partner, adjusting for demographics and other characteristics. Negative relationship quality was associated with a greater number of unprotected sex acts among women reporting a low level of positive relationship quality and among women taking hormonal/IUD contraception. Positive relationship quality was associated with unprotected sex among women who reported multiple partners in the past month. Both positive and negative aspects of relationship quality may confer risk for unprotected sex. This risk appears to be modified by patterns of contraceptive use and other sexual behaviours. Health professionals and sexual health educators may be more effective in promoting condom use if they ask questions about both positive and negative aspects of young people’s relationship quality and tailor their conversations based on the responses received.     

The Si Huan Playgroup: an initiative to provide non-formal early childhood education experiences to children of migrants in Beijing

This paper is about an experiment in non-formal early childhood education for migrant children in Beijing. The Si Huan Playgroup was set up by a group of volunteers in 2004 and is built on ideas of early childhood pedagogy, equity, life-long learning and non-formal education. Non-formal education has implications for policy makers as this is a model that has the potential to build capacity in disadvantaged communities and provide educational experiences for preschool children. The model, as envisaged by the participants of the Si Huan Playgroup, is a provider of preschool education, operates on a volunteer basis that aims to be an educational experience for both the volunteer parents and the children. The playgroup operates alongside existing preschools in the formal education sector. Policy makers in Beijing can see tensions around the growth of a sector that is developing outside regulatory and legislative guidelines. The Si Huan playgroup has been closed down by the authorities a number of times. In this paper we outline the history and growth of the Si Huan Playgroup, explore the theoretical underpinnings of non-formal education and discuss the problems inherent in such an initiative, as well as commenting on the sustainability of such a model.     

Salt,time, and metaphor: examining norms in scientific culture

As has been widely discussed, the National Research Council’s (NRC) current policy in United States education advocates supporting students toward acquiring skills to engage in scientific practices. NRC policy also suggests that supporting students in the practices of science may require different approaches than what is required for supporting student engagement with scientific content. Further, acquiring skills in scientific practices is not limited to gaining proficiency in utilizing tools that support scientific inquiry: students must also understand how to interpret information generated from such tools. These tools of scientific practices are embedded within scientific culture, which from Sewell’s perspective, is comprised of both practice and semiotic code (symbols and meanings). To become scientifically literate students must learn to utilize this code in practice. Author Germà Garcia-Belmonte identified one example of learning to utilize the semiotic code in scientific practice and considers challenges faced by undergraduate physics and engineering students within that context. Garcia-Belmonte observes students struggle to interpret symbols and meaning (the visual display generated) while engaging in practice (utilizing an oscilloscope) and posits that two, culturally bound, competing, linguistic metaphors of time may be the cause. Ultimately, however, the author does not explore beyond hypotheses. Although his theory may be correct, the paper serves as a reminder of the responsibility we have to students. As educators, it is useful and beneficial to make observations and develop theories surrounding why our students struggle. However, in addition to theorizing on why, for example, a particular scientific norm might present challenges for our students, we must remain mindful that challenges may not be uniform and may vary considerably according to students’ culture(s). Engaging with students and soliciting specific information regarding the challenges they face allows us, as educators, to both examine whether students’ reported challenges align or conflict with our own perceptions of those challenges, and subsequently devise and test methods toward supporting students in overcoming their challenges.     

Modeling presentations: toward an assessment of emerging classroom cultures of modeling

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Though there is an extensive research literature on understanding and assessing individual modeling competencies, less attention has been given to...     

The Regime of Self-Evaluation: Self-Conception for Teachers and Schools

Self-evaluation in inspection policy has become a global phenomenon. The idea is that it increases levels of teacher and school autonomy, wherein both schools and teachers have more ownership and responsibility over their work. In turn, such a process has allowed for greater accountability, which is then said to provide high quality education and, therefore, greater competitive advantage amongst knowledge-based economies. In both England and Ireland, self-evaluation has become a demanding procedure that is meant to complement external inspections of schools and teachers. In this article, I will argue that self-evaluation, whilst having the potential to become a worthwhile endeavour, does not live up to its name. In the first instance, the criteria used for self-evaluation are not internally generated but externally imposed. Thus, I would like to discuss the extent to which visions of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ education developed by inspecting bodies influence the way in which teachers and schools assess themselves. Furthermore, I will raise questions as to what appropriate criteria for teaching might look like. In doing so, I shall try to show that what is now current is a debased form of self-evaluation that is not only detrimental to the self-perception of teachers, but inadequate to what any coherent notion of the ‘self’ might be. In light of work by the philosopher Charles Taylor in particular, I will argue that the self is not something that can be examined in the way that is imagined in these inspection systems but is rather something dynamic and unfixed, constituted within a wider community of practice and, therefore, not amenable to evaluation in quite the way that is supposed.     

Vocabulary acquisition and reading ability

Lexical acquisition ability for aurally taught words was studied in fourthgrade children. Reading ability, intelligence, and working memory were evaluated as predictor factors in vocabulary learning. Reading ability was found to predict facility at learning the novel phonological sequences, while intelligence was the only factor which accounted for performance level for the semantic content of the words. The working memory measure, digit span, failed to make a significant contribution to either the phonological or semantic outcome measures. Examination of two subgroups of skilled and less-skilled readers indicated that less-skilled readers had more difficulty acquiring the phonological information for new words. No between-group differences were found in long-term retention or in the ability to provide definitions for the newly learned words. The findings suggest that the vocabulary deficits of less-skilled readers stem, at least in part, from difficulty establishing accurate phonological representations for new words.     

Building the mentoring relationship: humanism and the importance of storytelling between mentor and mentee

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we describe a mentoring program designed to help prepare high school seniors at Arizona State University Preparatory Academy for postsecondary education. Specifically, we address the usefulness of ‘humanistic mentoring,’ a form of mentoring that stresses the importance of reciprocity, mutuality, and empathy in the mentor/mentee relationship. We further describe how sharing stories was useful in developing such humanistic relationships. Based on etic-thematic coding of interviews from 13 of the mentees, a humanistic lens for mentoring and sharing personal stories is productive for both developing relationships and passing on knowledge.     

Mathematics anxiety,prior experience and confidence to teach mathematics among pre‐service education students

Poor performance in mathematics among students, at a variety of grade levels, has been attributed, in part, to mathematics anxiety (Bulmahn & Young, 1982 Bulmahn, BJ and Young, DM. (1982). On the transmission of mathematics anxiety. Arithmetic Teacher, 30(2): 55–57.  [Google Scholar]; Kelly & Tomhave, 1985 Kelly, WP and Tomhave, WK. (1985). A study of math anxiety/math avoidance in preservice elementary teachers. Arithmetic Teacher, 32(5): 51–53.  [Google Scholar]; Hadfield & McNeil, 1994 Hadfield, OD and McNeil, K. (1994). The relationship between Myers‐Briggs personality type and mathematics anxiety among preservice elementary teachers. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 21(1): 33–46.  [Google Scholar]). Some investigators have related this phenomenon to gender effects (Cooper & Robinson, 1989 Cooper, SE and Robinson, D. (1989). The influence of gender and anxiety on mathematics performance. Journal of College Student Development, 30: 459–461. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) mathematics self‐concept and test anxiety (Bandalos et al., 1995 Bandalos, DL, Yates, K and Thorndike‐Christ, T. (1995). Effects of math self‐concept, perceived self‐efficacy, and attributions for failure and success on test anxiety. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(4): 611–623.  [Google Scholar]), or poor test performance (Dew et al., 1984 Dew, KM, Galasi, JP and Galassi, MD. (1984). Math anxiety: relation with situational test anxiety, performance, physiological arousal, and math avoidance behaviour. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 31(4): 580–583.  [Google Scholar]; Hembree, 1990 Hembree, R. (1990). The nature, effects, and relief of mathematics anxiety. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 21(1): 33–46. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Others, most notably Fiore (1999 Fiore, G. (1999). Math‐abused students: are we prepared to teach them?. Mathematics Teacher, 92(5): 403–406.  [Google Scholar]) have attributed mathematics anxiety to what is referred to as math abuse or ‘any negative experience related to an individual’s doing mathematics’ (p. 403), particularly at the hands of adults such as parents and teachers. Limited research, however, was located that examined the relationship between pre‐service teacher education students’ experiences with formal mathematics instruction, and their future professional practice. Specifically, more needs to be known concerning the manner in which past experiences at school may have influenced both attitudes towards the subject as well as confidence in teaching it.