Challenges for self‐assessment in religious education

This article explores the place of self‐assessment in religious education in the light of general research into self‐assessment, particularly as part of assessment for learning. In particular, it analyses the problems of ‘enculturation’ of learners into classroom assessment practice in religious education. The distinction between assessment of learning and assessment for learning is described and, applied to the distinction between learning about religions and learning from religion. The four types of self‐assessment are set out, with an analysis of the challenges facing teachers in getting pupils to apply common current assessment criteria to their own work. Overall, four problems arise from pupils using current assessment criteria. They are identified as: (i) the issue of ‘plasticity’, (ii) the timing of self‐assessment processes, (iii) the problem of assessment of affective qualities, and (iv) the confusion between self‐assessment and learning from religion. Finally, the implications of these problems for both further research and for pedagogy are discussed.     

The classification and framing of religious dialogues in two English schools

This article explores the place of discourse about religions in education by comparing two very different schools. It initially outlines some of the current debates around religious discourse, notably in dialogue. A theoretical frame for analysing religious discourse in schools is proposed, combining a theorisation of three levels of dialogue with both notions of classification and framing and with a distinction between the formal curriculum and the institutional curriculum. Research in ‘Flintmead’ and ‘Headley’ is then described: the former an elite Anglican private boarding school, the latter a secular non-selective state day school. The analysis shows how the schools build complex structures across the different dialogical levels, between and within the formal and institutional curriculum, with varying strengths of classification and framing. In particular, similar approaches to religious education sit alongside different discursive structures. The implications of the study for further comparison are discussed, and for understandings of religious dialogue.     

Teachers’ conceptions of learning philosophies: discussing context and contextualising discussion

With the introduction of any new initiative into the mathematics classroom, there is often an assumption that it will produce visible and measurable effects in teaching approaches and pupil progress. Yet, there is a body of research that tempers such optimism, drawing attention to a series of mitigating factors, for example, the deep-seated nature of teachers’ practices, their implicit or stated beliefs and values, and their lack of detailed awareness of how they perform in the classroom. Rather than make associative links between these factors and the success of the initiative, our intention is to examine the ways in which teachers are trying to interpret what the new scheme requires of them and how in turn, engaging with it causes them to re-describe both their pedagogic understanding and classroom practices relationally to earlier approaches. Employing data from a small project, we seek to examine four teachers’ moves to grapple with this attempted shift from one teaching paradigm to another by considering how certain key terms serve to anchor the teachers’ conceptions of themselves during this transition and find that their responses can be idiosyncratic and varied depending on the approaches in which they have been previously embedded. By using theoretical ideas from some neo-Marxist writers we examine these discursive shifts and their relevance to conceiving curriculum change. We suggest that the individual’s teaching practice develops as a result of it being understood and enacted through a succession of ideological filters, each adding to the cumulative experience of the teacher.     

Pathogenicity of bacterium, Xenorhabdus nematophila isolated from entomopathogenic nematode （Steinernema carpocapsae） and its secretion against Galleria mellonella larvae

INTRODUCTION Entomopathogenic nematodes of the generaSteinernema and Heterorhabditis have been used tocontrol a wide range of agriculturally important insectpests (Kaya and Gaugler, 1993). The mechanism bywhich these nematodes are able to infect and repro-duce in the insect host involves a mutual relationshipbetween the nematode and the symbiotic bacteria,Xenorhabdus spp. and Photorhabdus spp. (Akhurstand Dunphy, 1993; Forst and Nealson, 1996). Poinarand Thomas (1966) established tha…     

Taste aversion learning and schedule-induced polydipsia in rats

Experiment 1 sought to determine whether schedule-induced drinking could be abolished by means of a taste aversion. Polydipsic rats were given access to a .4% saccharin solution while they were exposed to an intermittent food schedule. Immediately after the session, they received an intraperitoneal injection of either lithium chloride or sodium chloride. Following a recovery day with water in the experimental chamber, the animals were again exposed to the saccharin solution. The poisoned animals (lithium chloride) drank very little saccharin compared to the control animals (sodium chloride), indicating that they had learned a taste aversion in only one conditioning trial. Experiment 2 established that polydipsic rats can learn a taste aversion despite a long delay between schedule-induced saccharin consumption and poisoning, and that the delay gradient displayed by polydipsic rats is similar to that observed in thirst-motivated rats.