Teacher supervision and evaluation challenges: Canadian perspectives on overall instructional leadership

This inquiry focuses on the overall instructional leadership approaches used by exemplary principals in three high performing Canadian provinces to overcome three persistent obstacles to effective teacher supervision and evaluation: (a) the management challenge, (b) the complexity challenge, and (c) the learning challenge. Analysis of data collected from interviews, focus groups, observations, field notes, documents, artifacts, and reflective research journals yielded the following four assertions: (a) Shared, distributed, and collective approaches to overall instructional leadership deepen and widen impact. (b) Effective supervision and evaluation are part of a career-long continuum of practice that fosters teacher growth while ensuring quality teaching. (c) There are multiple learning pathways to effective overall instructional leadership. (d) Policy contexts that place teacher supervision and evaluation practice within a broader conception of overall instructional leadership are beneficial.     

Developing multiliteracies in a technology-mediated environment

Evolving technologies and globalisation presents educators with the challenge of creating learning experiences to help students develop competencies to enable them to function successfully in a dynamic society. Today’s learner is expected to be multiliterate – able to analyse and construct multi-modal texts. A qualitative embedded multi-case study was conducted to investigate the learning experiences and multiliteracy outcomes for students engaged in an educational program with a media studies focus. The program, designed for a secondary school English curriculum, was underpinned by multiliteracies pedagogy and delivered within a technology-mediated environment. This paper reports a single class case drawing upon examples from small group cases embedded within the class. The findings suggest that educational programs underpinned by multiliteracy pedagogy supported by technology can provide meaningful learning experiences for students whilst achieving multiliteracies focused learning outcomes. For this to occur important factors such as teacher technology competencies and expertise, access and integration of technology and facilitation of effective learning scaffolds should be considered.     

Lessons Learned: Findings from MIT Initiatives in Educational Technology (2000–2005)

Since 1999, MIT has undertaken an extensive effort in creating and implementing educational technology. Broadly speaking, there have been two kinds of efforts: developing web-based services for higher education and creating educational technology applications for use in the classroom. This article reviews a group of projects that produced educational technology applications for use in the classroom or for classroom-based activities and were assessed by educational researchers in the Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL). From those in depth studies, as well as less extensive involvement with a half dozen more initiatives, we draw three major findings on the role and impact of educational technologies as they were developed and used at MIT over 6 years: (1) the most successful educational technologies meet a specific instructional need that has been unmet or poorly met by traditional media; (2) too much technology or technology that does not work well can be detrimental; and (3) there are important relationships between the technologies and the learning environments in which they operate.

Evaluation of a lower-body compression garment

The aims of this study were to determine how custom-fit compression shorts affect athletic performance and to examine the mechanical properties of the shorts. Ten male and 10 female track athletes on a university's nationally competitive track team, specializing in sprint or jump events, participated in the study. Testing utilized the compression shorts with loose-fitting gym shorts as the control garment. Several significant effects were revealed for the custom-fit compressive garment. Although 60 m sprint time was not affected, hip flexion angle was reduced. Skin temperature increased more and at a faster rate during a warm-up protocol. Muscle oscillation was decreased during vertical jump landing. Countermovement vertical jump height increased when the participants were wearing the custom-fit compression garment. In materials testing, the elasticity of the compressive garment provides increased flexion and extension torque at the end range of extension and flexion, respectively, and may assist the hamstrings in controlling the leg at the end of the swing phase in sprinting. The compressive garment significantly reduced impact force by 27% compared with American football pants alone. Through various mechanisms, these findings may translate into an effect on athletic performance and a reduction in injuries.     

The useful archive

Archives have historically been remote and inaccessible, but the Internet wrests the archive from a passive role for custodians into an active role for publishers and readers. This paper examines the implications of a networked archive on archiving, reading, publishing, and access.