Research methodology,education, and theoretical fashions: Constructing a methodology course in an era of deconstruction

In this article a case is made both for the utility of deconstructive questions and also for the danger of taking such questions as a sole or overriding methodological agenda in education. The discussion is mounted by attention to grounded contexts and dilemmas rather than by a commitment to abstract concerns about ''power'' or ''Other'' or ''polyphony of voices.'' The framing dilemma is how one might construct a research methodology course that is not based on positivism, relativism, or a reification of current theory as an enduring answer for students. The article takes two substantive fields of inquiry in education- (1) inequality and access in education and (2) gender and education- to argue that following through some substantive issues for educational research can provide ways of thinking about the relative merits, power, pertinence, and relationships among quantitative, qualitative, and deconstructive agendas. Finally, the article outlines a research methodology course constructed by the author to attempt to put into practical form the assumptionsabout education and research methodology that are argued in this article.     

Teacher characteristics and teacher performance

This study investigated effects of seven demographic and psychological characteristics of teachers on their performances during student teaching. Student teachers' performances were examined in relation to their ages, prior student teaching experiences, scholastic aptitudes, attitudes toward teaching, moral reasoning abilities, conceptual levels, and degrees of ego development. Results indicate that student teachers' performances were dependent in a nontrivial way on their ego development and to a much lesser degree on other characteristics.     

Evaluation of outreach services for primary care and mental health; assessing the impact

Objectives: This paper reports an evaluation, carried out for London Health Libraries, of the impact of outreach services to primary care and mental health workers in 13 different settings. The main aims of the project were to identify the impact being made by the service, and to produce best‐practice guidelines for outreach services in this kind of community setting. Methods: Analysis of documents, analysis of any evaluation already carried out, interviews with outreach librarians, survey of a representative sample of users (eight services). The services evaluated were very diverse in terms of setting, structure, functions and activities. The evaluation was therefore largely qualitative. Emphasis was placed on trying to identify critical incidents, where it could be shown unambiguously that the outreach services made a difference to practice. Findings: Service recipients felt better informed, more up to date, more aware of resources, more confident and supported in their work, and saved time. Direct impacts, such as improved patient care, cost savings, etc., were more difficult to establish. Conclusions: The study identified the main areas of impact, and the main factors which affected this. Recommendations for good practice in such outreach services are made. Lessons of this evaluation for impact studies in general are presented, in particular the difficulty of assessing ‘direct’ impacts.     

Language Teacher Identities in the Southern United States: Transforming Rural Schools

Foreign language (FL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching present considerable challenges in the rural U.S. South. Local language ideologies, budgetary considerations, and challenges in other curricular areas (e.g., math and science) lead to marginalizing both FL and ESL in schools. This article examines the personal and professional trajectories of in-service language teachers in K–12 settings in the state of Mississippi to better understand how participants conceptualize their practice and their roles in schools. By analyzing the interview discourse of nine teachers, we found that both ESL and FL teachers positioned themselves against dominant ideologies and educational policies and constructed themselves as agents of change in the classroom, school, and community at large. This study contributes to the argument for integrating FL and ESL in rural areas, where both groups need support, and provides suggestions for ESL-FL teacher collaboration in rural schools.     

Talking and thinking together at Key Stage 1

In this paper, we describe an innovative approach to promoting effective classroom‐based groupwork and the development of children's speaking and listening at Key Stage 1. This approach, known as Thinking Together, was initially developed for use with Key Stage 2 children. The work reported here explains how this approach has now been applied to the teaching of speaking and listening at Key Stage 1. The approach is founded on contemporary sociocultural theory and research. At the heart of the Thinking Together approach is a concern to help children build and develop their knowledge and understanding together, through enabling them to practise and develop ways of reasoning with language.     

A Dynamic Framework to Guide the Implementation and Evaluation of Educational Technologies

One vision for Ontario schools is that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) will profoundly change both teaching and learning. Given the diversity of school settings, however, system-wide ICT integration and implementation must necessarily be defined in multiple ways. This paper presents a decision-making framework for guiding the infusion of ICT into different school settings. First, sustainability of the ICT initiative is the identified as the key goal. Next, multiple contextual variables are distilled into five essential qualities. Then, sustainability and the essential elements are combined. The result is a dynamic framework that can be used to identify specific priorities for implementation and strategies for evaluation of ICT initiatives. Finally, it is illustrated how the framework can be used to guide the successful infusion of ICT in any situation, regardless of a school's previous experience with ICT.     

Reconciling theory, research, and practice: A models and modelling perspective

This paper addresses one approach to reconciling theory, research, and practice,namely, a multitiered teaching experiment involving a models and modelling approach to learning. The four-tiered teaching experiment explored in this paper involves participants at different levels of development who work interdependently towards the common goal of finding meaning in, and learning from, their respective experiences. The research examined here is concerned with the design and implementation of experiences that maximise learning at each level. These experiences involve the construction and application of models, which are used to describe, make sense of, explain, or predict the behaviour of some complex system. Two classroom studies are presented to illustrate how a theory of models and modelling can guide the development and implementation of a multitiered teaching experiment. A focus on the teachers' construction of models of teaching and learning is presented to illustrate how theory and research can assist the practice of classroom teachers.