“That’s a Big Bad Wolf!”: Learning through Teacher-Child Talk During Shared Reading of a Story Book App

Early Childhood Education Journal - Touch screen tablets and story book apps provide opportunities for teachers to support young children’s shared reading experiences. Much research has...     

Probing the amalgam: the relationship between science teachers’ content,pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge

ABSTRACT

This Special Issue aims to present evidence about the relationships between content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK); the development of these types of knowledge in novice and experienced secondary science teachers; and how CK, PK and/or PCK impact students’ learning. Since Shulman’s introduction of PCK as the feature that distinguishes the teacher from the content expert, researchers have attempted to understand, delineate, assess and/or develop the construct in pre- and in-service teachers. Accordingly, empirical findings are presented that permit further discussion. Outcomes permit post-hoc examination of a recent, collectively described, ‘consensus’ model of PCK, identifying strengths and potential issues. As we will illustrate, the relationship between CK, PK and PCK is central to this; that is, probing the hypothesis of pedagogical content knowledge as an ‘amalgam’ of content and pedagogical knowledge.     

Structure and development of pre-service physics teachers’ professional knowledge

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ professional knowledge is considered one of the most important predictors of instructional quality. According to Shulman, such professional knowledge includes content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge. Although recent research shed some light on the structure of the dimensions of professional knowledge, little is known how teacher education impacts pre-service physics teachers’ professional knowledge. In an effort to address this issue, we examined the content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge of N?=?200 pre-service physics teachers enrolled in different years of teacher education at 12 major teacher education universities in Germany. We used structural equation modelling (1) to examine the relations amongst pre-service physics teachers’ content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge, (2) to explore how the three kinds of knowledge and their relations differ across different stages of teacher education and (3) to identify factors affecting the level of each component of professional knowledge. Our findings suggest that content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge represent distinct types of knowledge. Furthermore, our findings show that in the first years of professional education, pedagogical content knowledge is more closely related with general pedagogical knowledge while in later years, it is more closely related with content knowledge, suggesting that it develops from a general knowledge about teaching and learning into knowledge about the teaching and learning of specific content. Finally, beyond school achievement and years of enrolment as predictors, we find in particular the amount of classroom observations to have a positive impact on the professional knowledge of pre-service physics teachers.     

Quantitative and qualitative approaches in educational research — problems and examples of controlled understanding through interpretive methods

In the methodological discussion of recent years it has become apparent that many research problems, including problems relating to the theory of educational science, cannot be solved by using quantitative methods. The multifaceted aspects of human behaviour and all its environment-bound subtle nuances, especially the process of education or the development of identity, cannot fully be taken into account within a rigid neopositivist approach. In employing the paradigm of symbolic interactionism as a suitable model for the analysis of processes of education and formation, the research has generally to start out from complex reciprocal social interactions instead of unambigious connections of causes. In analysing several particular methodological problems, the article demonstrates some weaknesses of quantitative approaches and then shows the advantages in and the necessity for using qualitative research tools.

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Zusammenfassung In der methodologischen Diskussion der letzten Jahre hat sich gezeigt, auch im Hinblick auf Theorieprobleme der Erziehungswissenschaft, daß eine ganze Reihe von Forschungsproblemen nicht mit quantitativen Methoden in den Griff zu bekommen sind. Die facettenreichen Aspekte menschlichen Verhaltens, einschließlich seiner situationsbedingten Nuancen, insbesondere der Erziehungsprozeß oder die Entwicklung der Identität, sind mit einem rigiden neopositivistischen konzeptionellen Rahmen nicht angemessen zu begreifen. Wenn dagegen das Paradigma der symbolischen Interaktion als adäquates Modell für die Analyse der Erziehungs- und Bildungsprozesse genommen wird, muß die Methodologie generell von komplexen sozialen Wechselbeziehungen anstatt von eindeutigen Kausalbeziehungen ausgehen. Indem einige methodologische Probleme exemplarisch diskutiert werden, sollen in dem Artikel einige Schwachpunkte quantitativer Methoden demonstriert werden. Darüberhinaus sollen Vorteile und Notwendigkeit des Gebrauchs von qualitativen Forschungsverfahren dargelegt werden.

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Résumé Il est apparu évident dans le débat méthodologique de ces dernières années que de nombreux problèmes liés à la recherche, y compris ceux relatifs à la théorie des sciences de l'éducation, ne pouvaient être résolus au moyen de méthodes quantitatives. Les aspects aux facettes multiples du comportement humain et toutes ses nuances subtiles liées à l'environnement, notamment le processus d'éducation ou le développement de l'identité, ne peuvent être retenus pour une approche néopositiviste rigide. En considérant le paradigme de l'interaction symbolique en tant que modèle convenable pour l'analyse des processus d'éducation et de formation, la recherche est généralement partie d'interactions sociales réciproques complexes plutôt que de relations de causes non équivoques. En analysant quelques problèmes méthodologiques particuliers, cet article révèle quelques faiblesses des approches quantitatives et montre les avantages et la nécessité de l'utilisation d'instruments de recherche qualitatifs.

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This paper is a revised version of a lecture given on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Institute for Pedagogical Research at the University of Oslo in August, 1986. The paper is dedicated to the Institute and to Günther Patzig who celebrated his 60th birthday on 28 September, 1986.     

Setting by numbers: datafication processes and ability grouping in an English secondary school

ABSTRACT

With the rise of accountability policies since the early nineties, the daily operation of English schools has profoundly changed. Through the in-depth analysis of ability grouping practices in one English secondary school, this paper aims to explore how the accountability shift and datafication impacted the practice of student grouping and students’ experience of education. The paper documents how an English secondary school which had fully endorsed the comprehensive ideal gradually shifted from mixed ability teaching to a rigid system of hierarchically arranged attainment-based grouping structure over a period of decades, and explores the pedagogical dilemmas that data-driven governance generates. The paper concludes that the school’s data-driven practice creates an environment of competition and an experience of incessant insecurities for the students which unsettlingly echo the culture of the late neoliberal labour market.     

Process over product: the next evolution of our quest for technology integration

Educational technology research and development - The purpose of this paper is to introduce the next evolution of our quest for technology integration, one that moves away from the product of...     

Impact of a Temporary Food Shortage on Children and Their Mothers

Kenya experienced a severe drought and temporary food shortage during a study on mild malnutrition. Effects of the temporary food shortage on energy intake, weight, and behaviors were evaluated in schoolchildren and in toddlers and their mothers. Schoolchildren were seriously affected, showing significant declines in their energy intake, age-corrected weight, activity on the playground, and classroom attention. Toddlers appear to have been somewhat protected since their energy intake, weight, and play and language behaviors were stable. Maternal caregiving of toddlers declined for the group as a whole, but individually those mothers who maintained family food levels delegated responsibility for toddlers to other caregivers. While the food shortage affected poorer families more than those of higher SES, declines in the behaviors of schoolchildren occurred regardless of SES and previous level of nutrition, suggesting that food shortages can have behavioral consequences for schoolchildren in all communities.     

Schulformwechsel im zweigliedrigen Schulsystem

This study focuses on students who change from the academic to the non-academic school track after grade 7 (probationary year) in Berlin. We examined which individual student characteristics (e.?g., performance, school biography, family background) predict school change after the probationary year. We were particularly interested as to whether there are secondary effects of social background, after controlling for differences in performance. Our analyses were based on data from a study which included a whole cohort of school track changers (N?=?754) who were compared with students that remained at the academic track (N?=?1470). In order to predict the change of school type, multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results revealed significant differences between both groups regarding all observed characteristics. Performance-related characteristics were the best predictors of track change. After controlling for these characteristics, no further significant effects for other predictors were observable (i.?e., no secondary effects of social background were present).     

University research in flux: Policy debate in Australia

After a brief golden age Australian university research faces a difficult future. Two notions, utility and concentration, have become the catchwords of the emerging policy initiatives. Both have tended to be interpreted narrowly and simplistically, utility as having immediate technological applications that will bring economic benefits, and concentration to argue for breaking the teaching-research nexus, reducing the research workforce and thus achieving cost savings. As proposed, both initiatives require more centralised control of research policy and funding. Despite the outstanding record of Australia's universities in research and the absence of evidence to support the benefits claimed for the new initiatives, the pressure for change is gaining momentum. The problems facing Australian universities have much in common with those in other Western countries, although unique solutions must be sought for every setting. This paper argues that, in Australia, the adoption of the easy solution of increased concentration, short-term utility, and centralised control, is likely to compromise the established excellence and diversity in basic research, and to lead to an overall reduction in the scale of university research. Before any changes are instigated, there is a pressing need for a broad-ranging review based on widespread participation in a debate about needs and priorities, and rigorous research into the performance of the existing system and the potential benefits of the changes proposed.