Language learning and antiracism: some pedagogical challenges

It is often argued that the study of a foreign language can influence the attitudes and behaviour of learners. One of the goals of language teaching is to challenge stereotypes and encourage learners to engage with the cultural forms that can be accessed through a new language. Through learning a language it is hoped that learners will draw on their experiences to reflect critically on their own cultures and identities. We set out to examine these claims with respect to an advanced Open University French course for adult speakers of English. This article reports on a documentary analysis of the course materials for a particular unit and of a very small opportunity sample of student work and tutor comments. The unit sets out to provide a positive view of France as a multicultural society. The analysis focuses on the extent to which the materials and the tasks help learners engage with issues of racism, xenophobia, antiracism and human rights. We found that issues of race and racism are not presented in their complexity and that the materials and learning tasks unwittingly tend to reinforce stereotyped views. We suggest that attention should be given to helping students develop skills of intercultural evaluation. This requires an understanding of human rights on the one hand and of the various forms and manifestations of racism and xenophobia on the other. We conclude by proposing some guidelines for course writers and teachers that invite them to include a range of perspectives, including those of minorities. This attention to materials and pedagogy should enable students to engage critically with issues of race, identity and culture as they learn a foreign language.     

民主公民的教育：1995-2005年公民教育的研究、政策与实践述评

公民教育在2002年已经成为英格兰中学阶段的国家法定课程。最近,在全英国,以至欧洲和全球范围内也正在开展类似的改革。我们考察了欧洲和全球背景下国家课程的发展,探究不断增长的内在支撑民主公民教育(EDC)的人权方面的国际共识;确立了一些小的主题开展研究,如:多元性与一元性、世界公民教育、作为公民的儿童、民主的学校教育、学生对民主和公民社会的理解、学校和社区的当代角色、欧洲公民身份、学校层面公民教育的实施,等等。     

Executive function skills of 6–8 year olds: Brain and behavioral evidence and implications for school achievement

Academic and social success in school has been linked to children’s self-regulation. This study investigated the assessment of the executive function (EF) component of self-regulation using a low-cost, easily administered measure to determine whether scores obtained from the behavioral task would agree with those obtained using a laboratory-based neuropsychological measure of EF skills. The sample included 74 children (37 females; M = 86.2 months) who participated in two assessments of working memory and inhibitory control: Knock–Tap (NEPSY: Korkman, Kirk, & Kemp, 1998), and participated in event-related potential (ERP) testing that included the directional stroop test ( DST, Davidson, Cruess, Diamond, O’Craven, and Savoy (1999)). Three main findings emerged. First, children grouped as high vs. low performing on the NEPSY Knock–Tap Task were found to perform differently on the more difficult conditions of the DST (the Incongruent and Mixed Conditions), suggesting that the Knock–Tap Task as a low-cost and easy to administer assessment of EF skills may be one way for teachers to identify students with poor inhibitory control skills. Second, children’s performance on the DST was strongly related to their ERP responses, adding to evidence that differences in behavioral performance on the DST as a measure of EF skills reflect corresponding differences in brain processing. Finally, differences in brain processing on the DST task also were found when the children were grouped based on Knock–Tap performance. Simple screening procedures can enable teachers to identify children whose distractibility, inattentiveness, or poor attention spans may interfere with classroom learning.     

Foreign Language Teaching to Adults: Implicit and explicit political education

Political education may occur within skills-based subjects such as foreign languages. However, this may be problematic in that learners wish to develop linguistic rather than political skills, and teachers are unprepared political educators. A language course is also about the cultures of the peoples who speak the language, including political institutions. Politics has a logical place within a language course but the word culture does not inevitably evoke political institutions. Within Europe, language education is part of the political project of creating a more integrated market and transnational political entity. Political education is an implicit part of the study of a foreign language. This article examines some of the materials provided to adult, part-time students of the British Open University's language courses. It highlights some elements of the courses that are quite explicitly political education. It also draws on interviews with some of those involved in making the courses to explore the debates and decisions concerning the cultural content and particularly the representations of the target culture. It attempts to make explicit some of the implicit assumptions behind the making of a language course.     

Teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and action in the digital age

Beginning teachers are entering the profession with increasing confidence in their ability to use digital technologies which has the potential to change the way teachers of the future make pedagogical decisions. This paper explores how pedagogical reasoning and action might occur in the digital age, comparing Schulman’s 1987 model with the reality for a small sample of digitally able beginning teachers as part of the emerging generation of teachers. The latter were examined through a multiple case study during their first year of teaching as they made decisions about using digital technologies within their teaching practice which gave an insight into pedagogical reasoning and action through the use of open‐ended interviews and observation. The conclusion drawn is that while the pedagogical reasoning and action model remains relevant, it was based on an assumption that teaching involves knowledge being passed from a teacher to their students, which was found to restrict innovation by digitally able teachers. A broader interpretation of knowledge and teaching within this model building on emerging learning theory could help reform practice once again, providing a framework for teachers in the digital age.     

Groupitizing reflects conceptual developments in math cognition and inequities in math achievement from childhood through adolescence

Understanding the cognitive processes central to mathematical development is crucial to addressing systemic inequities in math achievement. We investigate the “Groupitizing” ability in 1209 third to eighth graders (mean age at first timepoint = 10.48, 586 girls, 39.16% Asian, 28.88% Hispanic/Latino, 18.51% White), a process that captures the ability to use grouping cues to access the exact value of a set. Groupitizing improves each year from late childhood to early adolescence (d = 3.29), is a central predictor of math achievement (beta weight = .30), is linked to conceptual processes in mathematics (minimum d = 0.69), and helps explain the dynamic between the ongoing development of non-symbolic number concepts, systemic educational inequities in school associated with SES, and mathematics achievement (minimum beta weight = .11) in ways that explicit symbolic measures may miss.     

Professional development design: Embedding educational reform in New Zealand

Teacher professional development variously supports ongoing skill development, new knowledge, and systems change. In New Zealand, the implementation of major assessment reforms in senior secondary schools provided opportunity to investigate teacher professional development as a function of the particular stage of an educational reform. Multi-method data sources including teacher surveys and school case studies were employed to evaluate professional development during the embedding stage of a standards-based assessment system, revealing a positive relationship between professional satisfaction and teacher involvement in setting priorities for the professional development. Other positive features were networking, personalized learning, and facilitator expertise. This research illustrates the importance of tailoring professional learning to implementation phase of an organizational change.     

Radio audience research: Challenging the ‘gold standard’

Since 1992, the BBC and the commercial radio sector have carried out radio audience research using a jointly agreed methodology ‐ one producing data that until recently enjoyed the status of a ‘gold standard’. In 2000, increasingly strident calls for this human recall methodology to be replaced by new, electronic forms of audience measurement led to the breakdown of a consensus that had served much of the industry well in concealing legitimate concerns about reliability and appropriateness.

This chapter sets current radio audience research in both historical and international contexts, and examines the recent controversy over different methodologies that apparently produce contrasting results. It uses data produced by a number of approaches to highlight inconsistencies that, if not resolved, may damage radio's credibility among advertisers, regulators and industry observers alike.

It describes the very public dispute that led to the formation of the breakaway Little Guys Radio Association by the former Sun editor, Kelvin MacKenzie ‐ and in response, research by Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd into competing systems of electronic measurement. In doing so, the chapter asks fundamental questions about what constitutes listening to the radio, and whether mere exposure ‐ if not legitimised by recall ‐ is sufficient to justify the industry's claims on the revenues it derives from licence fees and advertisers.     

Negotiating Digital Divides: Perspectives From the New Zealand Schooling System

This article explores digital divides identified in research literature and considers educational policy directions that may mitigate or enhance future inequities. A review of literature identified three categories of digital divides in society; access, capability, and participation. To explore the strategic focus in schooling, data were gathered from a national survey of New Zealand school board chairs and the interviews of eight school principals. The focus in schooling was found to be on the access divide for students with variation across socioeconomic contexts. Developing capability was centered on teacher rather than student capability, which may reflect the notion of the teacher as a “digital immigrant” and students as “digital natives.” To bridge future digital divides, schooling policy needs to focus on developing student digital capability and preparing all future citizens to be able to participate in a digital world. (Keywords: BYOD, digital, divide, equity, inclusion, New Zealand, policy)