Sharing teacher knowledge at scale: teacher inquiry,learning design and the representation of teachers’ practice

Sharing teachers’ professional knowledge remains challenging. Teachers’ development often remains ad hoc or local, and attempts to scale this up have proved problematic. To address this, research in areas such as ‘learning design’ has explored the use of formal representations of practice. This proposes that educational practice can be improved by documenting, sharing and building on what teachers already do. Whilst this has led to some successes, it has not resulted in the widespread transformation of practice. This paper reviews the literature about sharing teacher knowledge. The challenges of scaling up development are then considered in relation to two theories that help explain the challenges: Communities of Practice and Sociomateriality. This analysis is illustrated through case studies in Norway and the UK. These show that teachers already create and share artefacts that represent their pedagogic knowledge. However, they found formal representations, such as learning designs, difficult to work with. The paper concludes that scaling up teacher development using abstract formalisms is unlikely to succeed. Instead, teachers value stories and the materials they already create in their day-to-day practice. It is this intermediate level of representation, between direct experience and formal abstraction, that offers the most promise for sharing practice.     

Prediction of self-reported knowledge with over-claiming, fluid and crystallized intelligence and typical intellectual engagement

We investigated the usefulness of the Over-Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ) as a measure of cognitive abilities. In OCQs respondents are asked to rate their familiarity with items of academic or everyday knowledge (Paulhus, Harms, Bruce, & Lysy, 2003). Some items exist in reality (reals), and others do not (foils). We developed four OCQs, each consisting of 40 reals and 8 foils from the domains of Science, Humanities and Civics. The OCQs were administered in a longitudinal rotation design to 112 participants who attended the 9th school grade at the beginning of the study. In latent variable regression analyses 53% of variation in the reals could be explained by fluid and crystallized intelligence and over-claiming as indicated by responses to foils. Further variation in responses to reals and foils was explained by intellectual engagement. Our results show that self-reported knowledge, although positively related to measures of ability, to a large extent reflects over-claiming.     

The effects of child maltreatment on language development

The separate effects of child neglect, abuse, and their interaction upon language development as measured by the Preschool Language Scale were examined in four groups of children (n = 79) in a quasi-experimental design. There were three groups of maltreated subjects, all drawn from a treatment center: an abused only group (n = 13), a neglected only group (n = 7), and an abused and neglected group (n = 31); a non-maltreated group (n = 28) was drawn from a day care center. Abuse, neglect, and their interaction were used to predict both auditory comprehension and verbal ability as separate criteria in two stepwise multiple regression equations, where the variance attributable to gender and mother's status on Aid to Dependent Children had been removed. Child neglect was found to predict significantly both auditory comprehension and verbal ability. Neither child abuse nor the interaction between abuse and neglect significantly predicted either dependent variable. These findings suggest that child neglect may be the critical type of maltreatment associated with language delay.     

Genetic influences in different aspects of language development: the etiology of language skills in 4.5-year-old twins

The genetic and environmental etiologies of diverse aspects of language ability and disability, including articulation, phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and verbal memory, were investigated in a U.K. sample of 787 pairs of 4.5-year-old same-sex and opposite-sex twins. Moderate genetic influence was found for all aspects of language in the normal range. A similar pattern was found at the low end of the distribution with the exception of two receptive measures. Environmental influence was mainly due to nonshared factors, unique to the individual, with little influence from shared environment for most measures. Genetic and environmental influences on language ability and disability are quantitatively and qualitatively similar for males and females.     

The differential effects of prior knowledge on learning: A study of two consecutive courses in earth sciences

We studied the occurrence and nature of learningin a university first year Introduction toGeomorphology course, and its relations with priorknowledge taught in a prerequisite course, and withthe prior knowledge in the to be learned subjects. Tendimensions of knowledge were tapped before and afterthe course by conventional and cognitive structuremeasures that were derived by the concept mappingmethodology. The fine-grain analysis of learningoutcomes yielded the following results: (a) studentsacquired only a small portion of the content in thecourse Introduction to Geomorphology, (b) the priorgeological and geomorphological knowledge did notaffect the learning of the new geomorphologicalcontents, (c) the minor effects appeared within ratherthan across knowledge dimensions, and they affectedmainly the learning of smaller knowledge units, and(d) concept definition cannot be considereda valid probe of knowledge. The differential effects of prior knowledge question thecentral, global and undifferentiated role that schematheories ascribe to prior knowledge in futurelearning. They call for greater reference to theexposed dimensions of knowledge by suggestingadditional factors to be considered in the sequencingof courses, as well as to the acquisition of complexknowledge with partial meaning of the basic knowledgeunits, and the use of new cognitive structure probesof knowledge.     

Longitudinal study of preadolescent sport self-concept and performance: reciprocal effects and causal ordering

Do preadolescent sport self-concepts influence subsequent sport performance? Longitudinal data (Grades 3, 4, and 6) for young boys and girls (N= 1,135; mean age = 9.67) were used to test reciprocal effects model (REM) predictions that sport self-concept is both a cause and a consequence of sport accomplishments. Controlling prior sport performance (performance-based measures and teacher assessments), prior sport self-concept had positive effects on subsequent sport performance in both Grade 4 and Grade 6 and for both boys and girls. Coupled with previous REM studies of adolescents in the academic domain, this first test for preadolescents in the sport domain supports the generalizability of REM predictions over gender, self-concept domain, preadolescent ages, and the transition from primary to secondary school.