Reading in pairs Network: a training model based on peer learning (pairs of teachers and school networks) for the sustainability of educational innovation / Red Leemos en pareja: un modelo de formación basado en el aprendizaje entre iguales (parejas de profesores y redes de centros) para la sostenibilidad de la innovación educativa

Abstract

This article presents a study on a Primary and Secondary Education teacher training network from Catalonia for the implementation of the Reading in pairs program. The goal is to describe, analyse, and assess the training model’s characteristics in relation to the learning promoted among participants, as well as the possibilities of actually incorporating educational innovation in the schools. The results suggest that this formative ecosystem permits a degree of learning and understanding of the program and its conceptual foundations that is relevant to the ability to implement it creatively and to adapt it to each school so that its sustainability is guaranteed.     

Equity in Education for/with Refugees and Migrants—Toward a Solidarity Promoting Interculturalism

This special issue brings to the forefront the complex educational challenges faced by migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. It focuses on different ways of understanding equity in relation to education for/with refugees and migrants. The core articles gathered for the special issue originate from the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE) conference on the theme of “Equity in and Through Education” held in Glasgow, UK, between May 31 and June 3, 2016. Thus, the special issue addresses the question of equity in diverse local, national, and transnational contexts and from an interdisciplinary approach.     

Future themes of mathematics education research: an international survey before and during the pandemic

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Before the pandemic (2019), we asked: On what themes should research in mathematics education focus in the coming decade? The 229 responses from 44...     

Which Techno-mathematical Literacies Are Essential for Future Engineers?

Due to increased use of technology, the workplace practices of engineers have changed. So-called techno-mathematical literacies (TmL) are necessary for engineers of the 21st century. Because it is still unknown which TmL engineers actually use in their professional practices, the purpose of this study was to identify these TmL. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with engineers with a background in different educational tracks in higher professional education (e.g. civil, chemical, biotechnical and mechanical engineering). As a result of the data analysis, 7 commonly used TmL are identified: data literacy, technical software skills, technical communication skills, sense of error, sense of number, technical creativity and technical drawing skills. Engineers also noted a discrepancy between their education and workplace needs; they characterized mathematics in their education as an island with limited relevance. These findings lead to recommendations for the future of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in higher technical professional education that can help students learn STEM for the future.     

Self-esteem and coping strategies among deaf students

Research studies on the determinants of self-esteem of deaf individuals often yield inconsistent findings. The current study assessed the effects on self-esteem of factors related to deafness, such as the means of communication at home and severity of hearing loss with hearing aid, as well as the coping styles that deaf people adopt to cope with everyday life in a hearing world. Data were collected among the deaf students of California State University, Northridge. Hierarchical regression modeling showed that identification with the Deaf community significantly contributed to positive self-esteem. Results also revealed that deaf students with greater degree of hearing loss and with bicultural skills that help them function in both the hearing and the Deaf community generally have higher self-esteem. Implications for further study are discussed.     

Contextualising Vocational Knowledge: A Theoretical Framework and Illustrations From Culinary Education

The nature of knowledge in vocational education is often described in dichotomies such as theory versus practice or general versus specific. Although different scholars now acknowledge that vocational knowledge is more than putting bits of theoretical and practical knowledge together, it is still unclear how vocational knowledge should be theorised instead. In this article we theorise the idea of contextualising vocational knowledge to understand the nature of vocational knowledge and illustrate this process of contextualising with empirical examples from culinary education. We adopt an activity-theoretical focus on contextualising that involves both particularising and providing coherence. We posit a cognitive process of meaning making where meaning derives from seeing the relationships of parts to the whole. The aspects of the nature of coherence and the relation between concepts and actions seem rather underdeveloped in vocational education theory. To characterise this process at a micro-level, we enhance the activity-theory approach with an inferentialist one. Inferentialism offers a way to focus on reasons and inferential relations between concepts and actions that provides coherence in vocational knowledge. To characterise the broad spectrum of processes relevant for vocational knowledge, we propose the terms “conceptualising” and “concretising”. Conceptualising involves inferring what follows from understanding a concept in a particular situation in relation to the meaning of other concepts. Concretising involves inferring what follows from understanding an aspect of the occupational practice in which students are participating. We argue that this way of framing vocational knowledge helps to better understand its nature and development.     

Learning,using and exchanging global competence in the context of international postgraduate mobility

The paper offers a theoretically grounded analysis of international postgraduate students’ perspectives on the importance and development of global citizenship knowledge and competences while they are studying, and how these are valued and enacted afterwards. It draws on a series of interviews with non-Western international postgraduates during their studies in the UK and upon return to their home countries. It uses the concepts of social and cultural cosmopolitan competences as a framework to discuss the perceived benefits of educational mobility, and the possibilities and limits of social connectedness and openness in the internationalised university environment.     

A closer look at bilingual students’ use of multimodality in the context of an area comparison problem from a large-scale assessment

In this article, we use multimodality to examine how bilingual students interact with an area task from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in task-based interviews. Using vignettes, we demonstrate how some of these students manipulate the concrete materials, and use gestures, as a primary form of structuring their explanations and making mathematical meaning. We use our results as a basis to challenge the possible deficit perspective of bilingual students’ mathematical knowledge in current assessment practices. Choosing tasks that afford multiple modes of engagement and recognizing multimodal explanations in assessment practices has the potential to move us towards a better understanding of what bilingual students know and can do mathematically.