A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing as a Powerful Tool to Become a More Professional Teacher Educator

Reflection nowadays is a major goal in teacher education. One of the primary conditions for student teachers to become reflective professionals is the guidance of a reflective teacher educator. In this article we try to show that teacher educators can benefit from the work of scenario writing to become more reflective professionals themselves. We will not give a scientific explanation about scenario writing, we simply tell the story of the adventure we were involved in during the past two years. Nevertheless, at the end we add some theoretical notions illuminating this 'learners' log'. Aujourd'hui le de´veloppement de la capacite´ de re´flexion est un aspect important de la formation des enseignants. Pour que les e´tudiants puissent devenir un jour des professionnels 're´flexifs', ils ont besoin d'un guide professionnel: un professeur 're´flexif' lui-même. Pour de´velopper leurs capacite´s de re´flexion, les professeurs peuvent certainement se servir de la technique du sce´nario. C'est ce que nous essayons de de´montrer dans cet article. Nous ne donnons pas un expose´ scientifique sur les techniques d'e´criture de sce´narios. Nous racontons tout simplement l'aventure que nous avons ve´cue ces deux dernie ¤ res anne´es. Ne´anmoins, nous ajoutons quelques notions the´oriques pour illustrer ce journal d'un 'apprenti'. En la actualidad, la reflexio´n es uno de los objetivos ma´s importantes de la formacio´n del profesorado. Una de las condiciones principales para que los profesores se conviertan en unos profesionales reflexivos es la orientacio´n de un formador del profesorado reflexivo. En este arti´culo, tratamos de ilustrar que los formadores del profesorado se pueden beneficiar del trabajo de crear escenarios para convertirse ellos mismos en unos profesionales ma´s reflexivos. No proporcionaremos una explicacio´n cienti´fica de la creacio´n de escenarios, simplemente contaremos la historia de la aventura en la que nos vimos envueltos durante los dos u´ltimos años. No obstante, al final añadiremos algunas nociones teo´ricas que iluminen este "diario de aprendices". Reflexion ist heutzutage ein Hauptziel der Lehrerausbildung. Eine wesentliche Voraussetzung dafu¨r, daß Lehramtsstudierende zur beruflichen Reflexion befa¨higt werden, besteht in der Reflexivita¨t der sie betreuenden Lehrenden. In diesem Beitrag versuchen wir aufzuzeigen, daß Lehrerausbilder aus dem Verfassen von Szenarios fu¨r die berufliche. Reflexionsfa¨higkeit selbst Gewinn ziehen ko¨nnen. Wir werden das Entwerfen von Szenarien nicht wissenschaftlich erkla¨ren, sondern wir werden einfach erza¨hlen, in welches Abenteuer wir in den letzten Jahren verwickelt waren. Trotzdem werden wir am Ende einige theoretische Anmerkungen machen, die das Logbuch des 'Lerners' erla¨utern sollen.     

Not all Dull alike—the Question of Terminology

This article was also written especially for the Walsall Seminar. Its author was at the time Head of the Remedial Advisory Centre at Wolverhampton and is now Research Officer for the Birmingham Educational Priority Area Project.     

Cognitive training for children: Effects on inductive reasoning,deductive reasoning,and mathematics achievement in an Australian school setting

Inductive reasoning is a core cognitive process of fluid intelligence, predicting a variety of educational outcomes. The Cognitive Training for Children (CTC) program is an educational intervention designed to develop children's inductive reasoning skills, with previous investigations finding substantial effects of the program on both inductive reasoning ability and classroom learning. The present study assessed both individual and small‐group CTC training against a no‐treatment control condition to investigate the effects on inductive and deductive reasoning and mathematics achievement in a primary school‐aged Australian cohort. Students who received individual training outperformed those in the control condition on measures of inductive and deductive reasoning, and those in the small‐group condition also outperformed the control condition on a measure of inductive reasoning 3 months following training. However, hypotheses regarding transfer effects to mathematics achievement were not supported. Directions for future research, focusing on extended longitudinal studies and motivational variables, are discussed.     

Laptops meet schools,one‐one draw: m‐learning for secondary students with literacy difficulties

Mobile technology‐enhanced literacy initiatives have become a focus of efforts to support learning for students with literacy difficulties. The Laptops Initiative for Post‐Primary Students with Dyslexia or other Reading/Writing Difficulties offers insights into and addresses questions about ICT policy making regarding m‐learning technologies for students with literacy difficulties. Thirty‐one schools participated in this initiative. Adopting an intepretive perspective, research and data analysis centred on four school case studies and involved classroom observations, teacher, student and principal interviews as well as a survey of teachers in other participating schools. Findings are presented under three headings: laptop deployment models (fixed, floating and fostered), constraints and supports for teacher and student agency, and technology‐enhanced literacy pedagogy. We conclude by noting the increasing appeal of m‐learning to support literacy and how schools mediate access to laptops and associated literacy learning.     

Positing Alterity,Positing Metaphysics: A Short Note on Alistair Miller on Levinas

In ‘Levinas: Ethics or Mystification?’ (Miller, 2017), Alistair Miller presents a searing indictment of the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and a dismissal of claims for its importance for education. He provides a summary account of Levinas's philosophy and, in relation to this, refers briefly to a number of authors who have related Levinas's work to education. This account is at fault, however, in fundamental ways, and this leads to errors in the conclusions that he draws. The present short paper does not attempt to address these problems in the round but rather focuses on a particular aspect of his phrasing in constructing the account, taking this as a significant pointer to the nature of the misinterpretation as a whole.