Educational poetics: an aesthetic approach to action research

In this article, Gitlin and Peck argue that much of the development of action research has been based on a reconstructed view of science (i.e., a science that is more contextual, less law‐like, less causal, but still accurately represents reality and is teacher centered as opposed to researcher centered). In contrast to this reconstructed view of science, the authors suggest it is time to look at the limits and possibilities of basing action research on an aesthetic view of knowledge production. Gitlin and Peck do so by providing an outline of educational poetics that uses imagination and creativity to unearth and challenge limiting conceptions of commonsense as the action research participants enter into a freedom quest, to utilize imagination and creativity, our inherent human potential, to think beyond the categories and codes that tie us to the status quo.     

A Combination of Hand-held Models and Computer Imaging Programs Helps Students Answer Oral Questions about Molecular Structure and Function: A Controlled Investigation of Student Learning

We conducted a controlled investigation to examine whether a combination of computer imagery and tactile tools helps introductory cell biology laboratory undergraduate students better learn about protein structure/function relationships as compared with computer imagery alone. In all five laboratory sections, students used the molecular imaging program, Protein Explorer (PE). In the three experimental sections, three-dimensional physical models were made available to the students, in addition to PE. Student learning was assessed via oral and written research summaries and videotaped interviews. Differences between the experimental and control group students were not found in our typical course assessments such as research papers, but rather were revealed during one-on-one interviews with students at the end of the semester. A subset of students in the experimental group produced superior answers to some higher-order interview questions as compared with students in the control group. During the interview, students in both groups preferred to use either the hand-held models alone or in combination with the PE imaging program. Students typically did not use any tools when answering knowledge (lower-level thinking) questions, but when challenged with higher-level thinking questions, students in both the control and experimental groups elected to use the models.     

Expanding the landscape: developing knowledgeability through communities of practice

Rapid changes in the Higher Education (HE) sector are increasing the pressure on teaching staff to introduce technology-enhanced learning experiences into the curriculum. Institutions therefore need to provide effective means of enabling academics to successfully transition to these new modes of curriculum delivery. This paper reports on an inquiry into the efficacy of a community of practice (CoP) approach trialled at a HE institution to contribute to the design of a renewed, blended curriculum. Analysis indicated that participation in the CoP had a positive impact on academics’ sense of community and their knowledgeability in relation to new teaching approaches.     

Ready...Fire...Aim! Toward meaningful technology standards for educators and students

Conclusion I applaud ISTE, AASL, AECT, and the other organizations involved for tackling the “messy work” of developing standards for the use of technology and information resources in schools. And, at the same time, I call for a “second generation” of standards that define realistic expectations for teachers based on the subjects and levels they are called upon to teach. I propose that professional organizations from each subject work with ISTE and AECT to complete this huge task, and I propose that we consider as a “next step” the creation of a set of on-line learning experiences through which teachers can gain the identified skills and knowledge by using the very technologies we’re hoping they’ll embrace in their own teaching. There’s an old saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do.” As far as educational technologies are concerned, this is also true. For many, the goal seems to have been simply to “get more computers into the schools,” without much thought about purpose. To return to Phil Schlechty’s metaphor, It’s generally been a brief and misguided “Ready” stage (occupied with questions like “How many do we need?” “What type?” “Where?” and “How shall we connect them?”), followed by “Fire!” (the acquisition and installation of equipment). What we need is: “Ready” (the creation of appropriate teams of people who will combine their insights to plan for the district)... “Aim” (a series of discussions about what technologies can accomplish for schools and the students they serve)... “Fire” (acquisition, installation, and professional development according to plan)... “Aim” (an assessment of how well the technologies and related programs met the intended goals, and a new planning effort designed to close the gap)... “Fire” (acquisition and implementation designed to eliminate the gap)... “Aim” (another gap assessment)... “Fire” (another attempt to close gaps)..., And so on.     

Accountability,autonomy and stress: principal responses to superintendent change in a large US urban school district

This study investigates how principals in a large US urban school district responded to two different superintendents who employed contrasting leadership styles and utilised divergent organisational schemes. We originally conducted interviews with principals in 2007, when the district's superintendent asserted fierce performance demands and limited principals’ site-based discretion in favour of protecting and exerting central office power. We conducted interviews again in 2013 after a new superintendent had relaxed school test score expectations and distributed the central office's previously tight, centralised control into largely self-directing sub-regions. Our findings demonstrate that superintendent change noticeably affected how principals understood and encountered accountability, autonomy and stress. To help make sense of our findings, we employ a three-part conceptual framework drawn from the study of educational leadership. We conclude by considering implications, including the notion that unrelenting stress has become a permanent part of the modern urban US principalship.     

Australian and British Media

Outside Interference: The Politics of Australian Broadcasting (South Melbourne: Macmillan Co. of Australia, 1979—A$6.95, paper)

Susan Kippax and John P. Murray's Small Screen, Big Business: The Great Australian TV Robbe (Angus & Robertson Publishers, P.O. Box 290, North Ryde, N.S.W. 2113—A$1.95, paper)

Comparing Theatre and Film: A Contemporary:View, by Jeff Peck (22 pp., A$2.00, paper)

Newspaper Circulation in Australia, 1932-1977, by Murray Coot (33 pp., A$2.50, paper)

Patricia Edgar and Ursula Callus' The Unknown Audience: A Study of Children's Responses to Television Programmes (Media Centre, School of Education, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic. 3083, Australia—A$4.00 1 paper)

Children's Television Behaviour by Kevin Sharman (Australian Council for Educational Research, Frederick St., Hawthorn 3122—A$5.00)

Cinema Papers No. 20 and 21 (bimonthly from 664 Victoria St., North Melbourne 3051—A$19.80 per year by air)

The Social and Cultural im acts of Transnational Enter rises by Krishna Kumar (Transnational Corporations Project, Department of Economics, Yniversity of Sydney, Sydney 2006—A$10.00)