Discerning Pedagogical Quality in Preschool

A well‐developed and researched conceptual framework exists for identifying undergraduate students' conceptions of learning. In addition, research has been reported on teachers' conceptions of teaching as they relate to their conceptions of learning. The research reported in this paper takes the existing framework into a new area, postgraduate supervisors' conceptions of “research”. It is hypothesized that the development of a conceptual framework that identifies postgraduate students' conceptions of “research”, and how these articulate with the conceptions of research held by their research supervisors, will enable support mechanisms to be developed and used to assist students early in their candidature. In addition, supervisory practice will benefit from being aware of, and sensitive to, the variety and potential effect of these conceptions. While it is recognized that there are strong cultural influences on conceptions of research, this project has focused initially on the conceptions of research generally adopted by Western academic institutions. However, the students involved in the study were not necessarily of a Western educational background. This paper outlines the results of research undertaken to date in identifying supervisors' conceptions. In addition, it discusses supervisors' views on: the purpose of research and what characterizes “good” research and good researchers. Various strategies reported by supervisors to assist their students to develop more comprehensive and sophisticated conceptions of research are also discussed.     

The influence of contrast effects upon teachers’ marks

A marking exercise is described in which 336 teachers evaluated three samples of written work, which differed in quality and authorship. The sequence of the work samples was rotated such that each piece of work was seen and marked in each of the three possible positions. This allowed comparisons to be made between the marks awarded to work of varying standards when it preceded or followed other work of contrasting quality. There was a tendency for the good piece of work to be assessed more favourably when it followed work of a lower standard than when it preceded such work. Conversely, the poor quality work was assessed more harshly when it followed, rather than preceded, work of contrasting quality. Furthermore, two samples of work preceding work of a contrasting quality produced greater biasing effects than a single sample.     

Motivation and the adult Irish language learner

What motivates adult language learners in the city of Belfast to enrol and remain in an Irish class in the first years of the twenty-first century is the subject of the research study reported here. The research is placed within the context of the long history of interest in Irish revival in the city as far back as the eighteenth century and is related to relevant literature on motivation and language learning. The paper provides results from quantitative data collected by means of questionnaires issued to learners throughout the city. An overwhelming interest in culture is what primarily motivates these learners to enrol in an Irish class. Learners are also motivated by a strong sense of identity and by a felt obligation to help preserve the language. The paper illuminates issues of language restoration and the links between identity and language preservation. The research reported here contributes to the literatures on motivation, on adult learning and on language survival.     

Teaching Shabanu: the challenges of using world literature in the US social studies classroom

This paper discusses inclusion of global literature in social studies curricula, especially in teaching about women of the world. It analyses the attraction of, and difficulties with, a popular work of young adult fiction, Shabanu, often taught in US middle‐school social studies and humanities classrooms. It uses the framework of post‐colonial, feminist theorizing and critical, post‐structuralist considerations in history and literature to analyse the novel. It draws on several sources: my experiences in incorporating the book into a teacher‐education course in social studies education; interviews with teachers and teacher educators; testimonials about the book available on the Internet, including the reactions of Muslim groups in the USA; and interviews with Pakistani‐American students about their reactions to the book.     

Encouraging professional autonomy: Reflective practice and the beginning teacher

Helping those teachers designated as Subject Induction Tutors in secondary schools who support Newly Qualified Teachers to become autonomous, self-reflecting practitioners has been the basis of a participatory action research project based at the University of Leicester. The first part of the paper explores the notion of professional autonomy in terms of staff development, professional communities and the encouragement of critical reflective dialogue. The second part presents some strategies for continuing professional development, with illustration of their impact that appear to provide for greater professional autonomy.     

NAPCE Newsletter

It is Jeremy Henzell-Thomas's conviction that the contemporary preoccupation with the so-called ‘clash of civilizations’ is as ill-founded as it is unhelpful. The assumption of an adversarial stance to which it leads is fuelled by, and affirms, a polarized thinking which does disservice to fundamental truths about unity and diversity. Drawing on theology and philosophy, he examines the etymology of key words –‘identity’, ‘authenticity’, ‘originality’, ‘fitra’ (nature) – to argue for the need to transcend difference in order to achieve (universal) identity. ‘We share a common identity as human beings, and, beyond that, a common origin within the source of Creation.’ If we are to honour the spiritual needs of young people and provide an education which is genuinely holistic, we need teachers who are prepared to listen to what young people are saying and to enter into a relationship with them that goes beyond the personal, the social and the moral.     

Bridging the gap: an alternative tool for course evaluation

The increasing perception of students as customers of services puts a stronger focus on improving the quality of the student experience. Satisfaction with aspects of service, such as access, flexibility and fitness for purpose can be assessed through student feedback questionnaires. The results of these surveys may not immediately suggest strategies for making improvement. How to bridge any gaps between what students look for and what they experience requires knowledge of student expectations and experiences separately. This paper describes an alternative evaluation tool, QUEST, based on a service template approach and explains how it has been used for evaluating the level of student satisfaction with HE distance education courses. QUEST is web‐based and produces a measure of satisfaction for a range of service quality aspect of the course provision. The results can be interrogated at several layers of detail to produce a clear picture of where issues arise and to identify how they might be addressed. The paper describes how these outputs from an evaluation might be interpreted to suggest strategies for improving the fit between what students look for from a particular course of study and what they experience.     

Learning about the world of the student: writing poetry for teacher–student understanding

The authors aim to assist teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the inner lives of students especially those with special educational needs. This aim is pursued in two ways. The first is an exploration of the experience of writing poetry using the students' sentiments, actual words and phrases – a poetic engagement. The second is to argue for the transformative potential of this poetic engagement for the practitioner seeking to ‘get alongside’ the student.     

Science Education and Health Education: Locating the Connections

Context-based chemistry education aims to improve student interest and motivation in chemistry by connecting canonical chemistry concepts with real-world contexts. Implementation of context-based chemistry programmes began 20 years ago in an attempt to make the learning of chemistry meaningful for students. This paper reviews such programmes through empirical studies on six international courses, ChemCom (USA), Salters (UK), Industrial Science (Israel), Chemie im Kontext (Germany), Chemistry in Practice (The Netherlands) and PLON (The Netherlands). These studies are categorised through emergent characteristics of: relevance, interest/attitudes/motivation and deeper understanding. These characteristics can be found to an extent in a number of other curricular initiatives, such as science-technology-society approaches and problem-based learning or project-based science, the latter of which often incorporates an inquiry-based approach to science education. These initiatives in science education are also considered with a focus on the characteristics of these approaches that are emphasised in context-based education. While such curricular studies provide a starting point for discussing context-based approaches in chemistry, to advance our understanding of how students connect canonical science concepts with the real-world context, a new theoretical framework is required. A dialectical sociocultural framework originating in the work of Vygotsky is used as a referent for analysing the complex human interactions that occur in context-based classrooms, providing teachers with recent information about the pedagogical structures and resources that afford students the agency to learn.