Children's Understanding of Knowledge Acquisition: The Tendency for Children to Report That They Have Always Known What They Have Just Learned

Children's attention to knowledge-acquisition events was examined in 4 experiments in which children were taught novel facts and subsequently asked how long they had known the new information. In Experiment 1, 4- and 5-year-olds tended to claim they had known novel animal facts for a long time and also reported that other children would know the novel facts. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, using facts associated with chemistry demonstrations. In Experiments 3 and 4, children were taught new color words. 5-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, distinguished between novel and familiar color words, reporting they had not known the novel words before the test session, but they had always known the familiar words. 4-year-olds in Experiment 4 were better able to distinguish novel and familiar color words when the teaching of the novel words was an explicit and salient part of the procedure.     

Supporting fathers to engage with their children's learning and education: An under‐developed aspect of the Parent Support Adviser pilot

The Parent Support Adviser (PSA) role, piloted in 2006–2008 in 20 local authorities (LAs) in England, offered preventative and early intervention support to families where there were concerns about children's school attendance or behaviour. Overall, this was a highly successful initiative in terms of supporting parental engagement with their children's schools. However, this article presents evidence drawn from 162 interviews (with PSAs, their line managers and coordinators in 12 case study LAs) showing that there was one key area in the PSA pilot that was less successful—the engagement of fathers. The article examines views about how to engage fathers and of the barriers explaining the overall absence of fathers from the PSA project. It highlights the dissonance between policy and practitioner guidance, on the one hand, and practice, on the other, with regard to the relative failure to engage fathers with this important initiative.     

A critical appraisal of four approaches which support teachers’ problem‐solving within educational settings

This paper critically appraises four problem‐solving approaches, based on a range of theoretical perspectives and procedures, which are currently used in educational settings to support adults to find solutions to complex problems that arise within classrooms and the wider school community. The four approaches are: Circles of Adults; Teacher Coaching; Collaborative Problem‐solving Groups; the Staff Sharing Scheme. The principle aim of all of these interventions is to enable school staff to generate solutions to problems so that children and young people who are causing concern are perceived in ways which lead to more constructive actions and outcomes. A second aim is to build the capacity of those working in schools by developing their skills and self confidence as problem‐solvers and decision‐makers; the assumption being that they will be more able to solve similar problems in the future largely on their own, without the need for extensive external support. The paper then considers the relative strengths and limitations of each approach in relation to practice.     

Trainee teachers’ experience of reflection

This article reports an investigation of trainee teachers’ experience of reflection whilst undertaking a teaching qualification for the post-compulsory sector. The study used a sequential, mixed-methods design, employing a structured questionnaire and a semi-structured interview; 127 individuals completed the questionnaire about their experience of reflection and keeping a reflective journal. The questionnaire responses were used to select a sample of 15 individuals for interview. The findings indicate that, whilst the majority value reflection and believe keeping a journal is useful, finding time to reflect can be problematic. Two potential areas of difficulty are identified, namely, individual preferences for engagement with reflection and the use of reflective journals. Where course requirements are at variance with an individual’s preferred approach, difficulties with reflection may be experienced. Therefore this article recommends that course requirements need to allow flexibility to enable individuals to try different techniques and adopt whichever they are most comfortable with.     

The role of Women's/Gender Studies in the changing lives of British women

This paper explores the role played by part-time Women's/Gender Studies (WGS) courses in women's lives in the UK through interviews with 35 women who were among 8000 students who studied one of the UK Open University's undergraduate interdisciplinary WGS courses between 1983 and 1999. A thematic analysis of these interviews shows how these mainly working and lower middle-class, mature women were living through a time of great social change for women. The WGS course they studied helped them understand these changes and grasp the educational, social and employment opportunities that opened for UK women after 1980. The authors reflect on these social and educational changes and using Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach (2011) analyse the capabilities these women developed through their study of these courses, which helped them to change their own lives and the lives of others around them. Looking forward, the authors argue that WGS courses have the potential to develop these capabilities in a time of economic recession and reduced opportunities for women.     

‘Reading’ the nursery classroom: A Foucauldian perspective

This paper examines ways in which styles of language usage mediate attempts at describing classroom practice. The authors' particular focus centres on discursive power and they seek to illustrate some of the effects and consequences of applying certain Foucauldian concepts and analytical procedures within depictions of interactions between children and with the teacher in a nursery classroom. The paper begins by introducing an example of children's play. To this are applied analyses which stem from readings of Foucault. In so doing, it is shown how power both permeates and defines subjective positionings and where, as a consequence, individuals experience themselves as both powerful and powerless. A second example is offered in which a teacher talks to a child. The authors' analyses of this can, they believe, be perceived as a reflexive act, where the teacher's own beliefs, including her feminism, are critiqued and redefined.     

RESEARCH REPORT

The study explores teachers’ experiences of teaching a context‐based chemistry course, Salters Advanced Chemistry, as compared with teachers of a conventional course. Second, main factors that appear to influence decisions over whether or not to adopt context‐based courses are investigated. Two hundred and twenty‐two teachers’ views of a context‐based and a conventional school advanced chemistry course were obtained from a questionnaire. Responses were analysed in six dimensions: motivation, chemical knowledge and development of concepts, learning activities, assessment, challenge to teachers and students, and teacher support. Both sets of teachers agreed that the context‐based course is more motivating to study and teach, that students would be more interested in chemistry and more likely to go to university to study chemistry, that students would be better able to study independently but that it is more demanding to teach and study. The groups differed principally about concept development and teaching strategy. The context‐based teachers believed that their course gave as good a foundation for further study as a traditional course and that the spiral curriculum was advantageous. Conventional course teachers disagreed with both statements. One significant implication to emerge from the study is the crucial role played by in‐service support in influencing the impact of a curriculum innovation.