Whitehead's Contribution to Ecological Thought: Some Unrealized Possibilities

The organizers of this conference have given me a difficult task: that of finding heretofore unfound implications of Whitehead's philosophy for environmental thought. The task is not difficult because implications of Whitehead's philosophy for environmental thought are hard to find. They are easy to find. The problem is that so many people have found them that finding something new to say is not easy.In what follows, however, some new implications are actually ferreted out. They fall under three headings: a) the interrelations between three ways of thinking about the environment: bioregionalism, land ethics, and the philosophy of organism; b) the implications of Whitehead's philosophy of organism for environmental aesthetics; and c) the implications of Whitehead's philosophy of organism for human communities (sustainable communities) viewed as interfused with living nature.     

E Pluribus Unum: Mohawk Indian Students’ Views Regarding the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance

This study examined 191 high school students’ willingness to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, their reasons for participating or not participating in saying the Pledge, and their thoughts about the Pledge during this daily school ritual. The study was conducted in a rural town next to the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation. The majority of the students chose not to recite the Pledge, and Mohawk students were less likely to recite the Pledge than their classmates.     

A study of technical signs in science: implications for lexical database development

Both classroom instruction and lexical database development stand to benefit from applied research on sign language, which takes into consideration American Sign Language rules, pedagogical issues, and teacher characteristics. In this study of technical science signs, teachers' experience with signing and, especially, knowledge of content, were found to be essential for the identification of signs appropriate for instruction. The results of this study also indicate a need for a systematic approach to examine both sign selection and its impact on learning by deaf students. Recommendations are made for the development of lexical databases and areas of research for optimizing the use of sign language in instruction.     

Does teacher professional development affect content and pedagogical knowledge: How much and for how long?

We examine the impact of teacher professional development on a key aspect of teacher quality—teacher knowledge. Specifically we use English Language Arts teacher content and pedagogy assessments to determine whether the California Professional Development Institutes significantly improve teacher content knowledge and whether teachers retain that knowledge six months after the institutes are completed. The results indicate that teachers vary significantly in pre-institute knowledge on the four assessed domains, that they demonstrate significant knowledge growth between the pre- and post-assessments, but that practical classroom experience hinders knowledge retention as measured six months later. Further, pre-exiting knowledge gaps are not systematically reduced thereby not alleviating the uneven distribution of teacher quality among California elementary schools.     

Collaborative approaches in initial teacher education: lessons from approaches to developing student teachers’ use of the Internet in science teaching

In many countries, governments are keen to persuade teachers at all levels to seek to enhance the learning of their students by incorporating information and communication technologies within their classrooms. This paper reports on the development of collaborative approaches to supporting use of the Internet by Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) science students on initial teacher education (ITE) courses in England, drawing on data from five higher education institution (HEI)–school partnerships across four years. A mixed-method approach was used, involving questionnaires, structured interviews, lesson observations and case studies. The outcomes of the first three years identified barriers to practice and suggested the need to develop more collaborative approaches to development. The focus of this paper is on examining ways in which university faculty tutors and mentors or cooperating teachers can work together with students on PGCE courses in developing practice. The lessons from this focus on the Internet, no longer a new technology, have enabled us to identify implications for HEI partnerships in ITE and suggest a need for further collaborative structures in order to support and develop practices, including those involving the innovative use of new technologies in the post-industrial society.     

The role of pupil voice as a trigger for teacher learning in Lesson Study professional groups

This paper focuses on the role of pupil voice as a trigger for teacher learning and for improving teaching quality. This is investigated in the context of Lesson Study (LS), a professional development model that can incorporate pupil voice into teachers’ collaborative reflections on lessons. Data are from two LS groups of mathematics teachers in London (one primary and one secondary school). Video-recorded pupil interviews and teacher discussions were transcribed. Episodes of teacher discussions were coded for reference to pupil input and subsequent impact on future plans. Qualitative analysis of discussions examined whether some pupils’ input was favoured over others’. Results are significant in pointing to LS as a mechanism for attending to pupil voice. In so doing, it is suggested that pupil input provided a challenge for teachers in their interpretations of pupil learning, evaluating lessons and planning, and in contributing to teacher learning from LS.     

Learning conversations: teacher researchers evaluating dialogic strategies in early years settings

Learning conversations, dialogic interactions with adults, are important opportunities for children to develop their thinking as well as their speech and language skills. This area of teachers' practice is informed by a well-established body of research evidence and professional guidance literature. The design and facilitation of this practitioner research project was framed by a metaphor for teachers' professional learning as ‘interplay’ between the vertical domain of public, published, knowledge and the horizontal domain of the teachers' practical wisdom. The teacher researchers used a framework based on the published literature to analyse video clips of their conversations with children in early years workplace settings. The study highlights the power of video analysis as a prompt for professional learning within a practitioner research framework. The use of conversation strategies by these teachers involves a balancing act between competing agendas within their workplace setting. In addition to mediating the strategies proposed by the research evidence base to suit their own early years workplace settings, in part by emphasising speech and language development, the teacher researchers identified a useful strategy, based on transportable identity, of ‘stepping out’ of being a teacher, for example by positioning themselves as a playmate or family member.