Arm-waving Mathematics: Sound,if Not Rigorous

This article suggestes some teachniques, herein referred to as ‘arm-waving’, which utilise analogies, graphs and examples to illustrate the contribution of mathematisc to statistical concepts without a rigorous treatment of the mathematics used.     

Perspectives on the standards agenda: exploring the agenda's impact on primary teachers' professional identities

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate teachers' perspectives on the practical implementation of the standards agenda and its impact on their professional identities. Q-methodology was used alongside semi-structured interviews with UK primary school teachers. The study explored the views of 25 teachers in six schools, selected through purposive sampling to give a range of individual and institutional demographics. Teachers in this research commented on the impact the standards agenda has had on parental and societal judgements that affect their identity as professionals. Teachers held differing positions on whether they experienced constraint or flexibility when implementing standards objectives. These differing positions were mainly influenced by whether they taught above or below Year 3. Teachers who found flexibility in the agenda's objectives had less occupational stress and increased ownership of their own actions and the standards agenda. Teachers' positions were complex and changed according to situational influences at a classroom level.     

Identification of the Gifted Redefined With Ethics and Equity in Mind

Throughout his focus article, Robert Sternberg discusses the theoretical underpinnings and rationale behind his emerging Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership (ACCEL) model. In the process, he raises several critically important issues, including the misuse of IQ testing as the major method for identifying gifted students, the need to address real-life problems by focusing on creativity and concerned citizenship, and the potential for principled, ethical leadership to make a real difference in the world now and in the future. The intent of this response article is to pick up on these major themes, extend the conversation, emphasize the necessity for expanding enrichment programming to include marginalized young people for whom the playing field is not level, and help set the stage for wider implementation of the ACCEL framework to enhance identification, instruction, and learning in gifted education.     

Future apprenticeships in England: the role of mediation in the new model

Apprenticeship systems across the globe are having to adapt to changing international economic and social trends. England is no exception. This article examines the latest model of apprenticeship in England from the perspective of the ‘mediators’ who work at local and regional level with employers to construct and deliver the majority of current apprenticeships. The role of these actors is examined through a conceptual framework analysing different forms of mediation in the context of ‘the modern expanded state’. Their views were collected through 27 focus groups in nine regions of England in Spring 2016 and involving over 100 participants. These data suggest that the new apprenticeship model faces a number of challenges; notably how to engage small and medium-sized enterprises and how to better support the mobility and progression of apprentices. Participants advocated the development of regional and local networks comprising employers, FE colleges and other providers, HEIs and local government, as ways of sustaining the ‘apprenticeship market’, providing learner progression routes and stimulating employer demand for skills. The article concludes by suggesting a set of necessary local and national conditions if these networks are to have an impact on the successful development of the new apprenticeships.     

Languages discourses in Australian middle-class schools: parent and student perspectives

Much of the literature on social class and language study in schools argues that for middle-class parents and their children, languages are chosen for their capacity to offer forms of distinction that provide an edge in the global labour market. In this paper, we draw on data collected from interviews with parents and children in middle-class schools in Australia to demonstrate how a complex amalgam of elite, cultural identity and/or trade language discourses came into play to explain the choice (or not) to study a language and the choice of specific languages. For many of the parents languages provided a limited form of ‘civic multiculturalism’, as a means of better understanding and respecting the ‘other’. We argue that the value attributed to high status languages via this discourse, means their continued presence in schools hoping to attract middle-class parents, but their relative absence in schools with largely working-class populations, where more ‘practical’ concerns dominate.     

Becoming Poetry Teachers: Studying Poems Through Choral Reading

Abstract

The poet, Seamus Heaney, argues that transformations for both teachers and students may be engendered through recognising the connections and distinctions between the language of poetry and the language of everyday life. This article explores some of the ways in which choral reading of poetry, using multiple voices like musical instruments, may change student teachers’ perceptions of poetry. Five small groups of Secondary English student teachers on an initial teacher education Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course constructed choral readings, each group working with a different poem. During the session, they wrote journal entries about how creating the readings and listening to other people led them to think differently about studying poetry with students in the classroom as future secondary English teachers. Several months later, a small voluntary group met to recollect the session and consider more critically the potential of choral reading as one possible approach to teaching poetry.     

Phenomenological Aspects of Ecosystemics

This paper outlines key ideas in phenomenology and phenomenological psychology in order to clarify some of the processes which are used in ecosystemics. Occasionally writers take the view that a phenomenological approach indicates simply that we are concerned with an individual's experiences or that we are dealing with subjective perspectives. This paper shows that the important theoretical perspectives and specific techniques of phenomenological psychology provide the basis for important aspects of the ecosystemic approach.