The Impact of Assessing Technology Competencies of Incoming Teacher Education Students

In an effort to establish a baseline of technology competency among our entering education students, our College of Education began implementing the Assessment of Technology Competencies (ATC) in Fall 2003. This performance-based assessment evaluates word-processing, presentation, spreadsheet, graphic/drawing, and Internet skills. Although students are not required to pass the ATC, failure impacts their final grade in an Introduction to Education course. This paper explores the impact this assessment has had on the students' use and development of technology in subsequent courses. Student perceptions of the ATC and its impact were elicited through a self-reported survey administered in a junior-level education course. Results indicate that the ATC has facilitated technology use among the participants. Respondents also revealed that their high school experiences with technology adequately prepared them for passing the ATC, despite the fact that most students are unable to pass the ATC in the first attempt.     

Language play in the classroom: encouraging children's intuitive creativity with words through poetry

This article begins by identifying that children have a spontaneous predilection for playing with language, engaging in poetic discourse even before their first poetry lesson. Although children's language play is relatively unresearched in the classroom, in a case study of two groups of pupils aged between 10 and 11, it was observed that children engaged in creative word play, and that this was generated in response to interaction with poetry and each other. This article suggests that children's poetical experiences may best be nurtured by building bridges between children's existing knowledge of language play and the specialised knowledge of poetry taught in the classroom through a teaching methodology based on socio‐constructivist principles.     

A tale of 804.573 horses: Arithmetic teaching in Victoria 1860–1914

Between 1860 and 1902, the arithmetic curriculum in government elementary schools in Victoria, Australia changed little. It was based on British models and valued highly computational skills, speed and accuracy. Teaching practice was dominated by the payment by results examination, and was mechanical, rules-based and often ineffective. By the end of the nineteenth century, dissatisfaction with both the principles and practice of this instrumental form of education was widespread; and the ideas of the New Education were incorporated into the courses of 1902 and 1911. However, teaching practice lagged behind the new aims, and continued to be largely mechanical, rules-based and abstract. The inspectors continued to demand the computational skills of the old courses, and the education and training of teachers did not keep pace with the new demands.     

Singing our song: the affordances of singing in an intergenerational,multimodal literacy programme

This exploratory case study examined the affordances of singing as a multimodal literacy practice within ensembles that featured art, singing and digital media produced in an intergenerational programme that served a class of kindergarten children and community elders. The programme that was set up by the study in collaboration with a rural school and elders' organisation saw participants meet one afternoon a week for most of a school year. Study questions concerned the meaning making and relationship‐building opportunities afforded to the participants as they worked through chains of multimodal projects. Data were collected using ethnographic tools in an elders' home where the projects were completed and in the kindergarten where project content and tools were introduced to the children and extended by the classroom teacher. Themes were identified through the juxtaposition of data in relation to the literature and study questions. Results indicate that singing provided opportunities for participants to form relationships and make meaning as a group while combining modes. Study findings foreground the communicative power of singing and suggest how singing, when viewed through a multimodal lens, might be a potent tool for multimodal literacy learning.     

A Conceptual Model (The Six Mirrors of the Classroom) and It’s Application to Teaching and Learning About Microorganisms

In this paper a conceptual model of instruction “the six mirrors of the classroom” used as a frame for teaching a learning topic, the microorganisms are depicted. The paper consists of four sections: (a) the six mirrors of the classroom model (SMC); (b) the SMC as implemented in the expository and cooperative modes of instruction in classrooms and results; (c) a “Journey of Inquiry into the Wonderful World of Microorganisms” (JIWWM), developed according to the Science–Technology–Environment–Peace–Society (STEPS) approach; and (d) teaching and learning the JIWWM, in ninth-grade classes, within the SMC model. The results show that science topic can be taught in the frame of the mirrors of the classroom. When the instructional goals of the teachers used the mirror “1, classroom organization” and mirror “6, pupils’ social behavior” and the third ring around the all six mirrors cooperative skills were practiced, academic outcomes were achieved, and attitudes toward environmental preservation and peace improved. The SMC model can serve as a valuable tool for teachers, since it can design their teaching and learning settings in a more controlled environment, in terms of objectives, teachers’ and students’ social behaviors, and academic outcomes.     

An education that pierces what the knife cannot: A student perspective

If personalized medicine is the way of the future, and the physician's approach to each patient becomes more individualized and team‐based, so must the professors' approach to the medical student experience. Mayo Medical School has an innovative curriculum designed to respect and enhance the individual interests of its students. A former educator herself, and now a medical student, the author advocates for further creative curriculum design to enhance healthy student attitude learning in medical school. In her personal testimony to the healing power of art and story, she cautions institutions that ignore integrating humanities into their curriculum that their student physicians will build self‐protective barriers without self‐reflection. She argues students must have more avenues to express their emotions during difficult transitions and ethical dilemmas. This commentary describes extracurricular student projects during anatomy, and includes an example of student reflective writing in anatomy. The author suggests that narrative medicine as an emerging discipline would be an effective educational strategy when applied to any aspect of the medical curriculum, and should be considered by more medical schools for further progress in medical education. Anat Sci Educ, 2010. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Youth enterprise: the role of gender and life stage in motivations,aspirations and measures of success

‘Enterprise’ has increasingly become part of the United Kingdom’s political grammar and efforts to develop entrepreneurial traits and activities in young people have been a key strand of this policy focus. As the 2008 economic recession saw a curtailed youth labour market, enterprise emerged as an appealing policy ‘solution’ to youth unemployment. Traditional measures of enterprise chart the numbers of new businesses and their survival rates. This article argues these measures tell us little about new business owners: who they are, their motivations, experiences or, own definitions of success. Further, and crucially, such measures ignore the structural constraints surrounding enterprise and the range of social factors that may determine the extent of ambition, and willingness or capacity to take risks. This article argues that although gender and life stage were contributing factors, the young people’s structurally disadvantaged positions emerge as the most significant feature of why the move into self-employment did not tend to increase their economic stability as promised. This provides an important insight into the real-life experiences of young people who are engaging in enterprise activities in the contemporary economic context, as well as the role of third sector organisations in overseeing the transition from education to work.