Developing a Microteaching Studio for Student Teachers of Home Economics

St Angela's College of Education for Home Economics is an associate College of the National University of Ireland, with a small annual intake (28 students) for a four‐year B.Ed. degree.

A consequence of the College's association with NUI was the introduction of microteaching as part of the Education component of the degree. In order to meet fully the requirements of such a programme, the College undertook the development of a microteaching studio, specifically focused upon the teaching of Home Economics.

In this brief article, the authors explain the thinking and planning that went into the installation of the studio.     

Markets,schools and the convertibility of economic capital: the complex dynamics of class choice

While economic capital is not synonymous with cultural, social or symbolic capital in either its constitutional or organizational form, it nevertheless remains the more flexible and convertible form of capital. The convertibility of economic capital has particular resonance within ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland. The state’s reluctance to fully endorse an internal market between schools has resulted in middle‐class parents using their private wealth to create an educational market in the private sector to help secure the class futures of their children. Using data from recent studies of second‐level education in Ireland, and data compiled on the newly emerging ‘grind’ schools (private tuition centres), we outline how the availability of economic capital allows middle‐class parents to choose fee‐paying schooling or to opt out of the formal school sector entirely to employ market solutions to their class ambitions. The data also show that schools actively collude in the class project to their own survival advantage.     

Misunderstanding duty: Vices of culture, ‘aggravated’ vice,and the role of casuistical questions in moral education

Abstract

This paper considers the role of ‘vices of culture’ in Immanuel Kant’s account of radical evil and education. I argue that Kant was keenly aware of a uniquely human tendency to allow a self-centered concern for status to misunderstand or co-opt the language of dignity and equal worth for its own purposes. This tendency lies at the root of the ‘vices of culture’ and ‘aggravated vices’ that Kant describes in the Religion and Doctrine of Virtue, respectively. When it comes to moral education, then, it will be crucial that the developing agent have a clear understanding of the shared dignity of rational agents and the particular duties (e.g. gratitude and beneficence) that are defined, in part, by their tendency to alter (a different kind of) status among agents. I argue that the casuistical questions that Kant attaches to these discussions in the Doctrine of Virtue are an example of a pedagogical device that might help pupils to overcome this tendency so closely associated with radical evil.     

Effects of Familiarity and Type of Encoding on Proofreading of Text

A handful of studies have claimed that error detection is improved by a proofreader’s prior encounter with the text to be scanned for errors. In these studies, however, the beneficial effect of text familiarity on proofreading has been obtained via surface encoding tasks (prior reading or proofreading). This raises the question of whether the effect is dependent on the type of encoding operations performed on the text prior to proofreading. In Experiment 1, familiarization required that subjects read an error-free passage and then either type the passage verbatim (surface encoding) or write an essay by relying on the information contained in the passage (deep encoding with generation). In Experiment 2, subjects generated sentences (deep encoding with generation), assessed whether sentences described drawings (deep encoding), or typed sentences (surface encoding). Familiarity, irrespective of the nature of the encoding operations, improved proofreading times but only surface encoding or deep encoding without generation made proofreading more accurate. In Experiment 3, text generation fostered greater subjective familiarity than either surface or deep encoding alone. It is argued that this form of enhanced familiarity may lead to expectancy effects in proofreading performance.