‘I do not like what I am becoming but…’: transforming the identity of head teachers in Catalonia

The aim of this article is to elucidate how a new system of school and teacher assessment in Catalonia is transforming the conceptions, practices and identity of head teachers, especially younger ones. It begins by considering the impact of global neoliberal policies on educational practices, highlighting their Foucauldian productive nature. It then examines the educational context of Catalonia during the last 30 years, emphasising the changing role of head teachers and the impact of neoliberal governance. This is followed by an account and analysis of in-depth interviews with four head teachers, focusing especially on how the head teacher’s objectives, practices and identities are being transformed, or produced, as a result of the new neoliberal ‘assessment regime’. It ends with a discussion on the importance of refusal and resistance to this process and the need to reconsider basic educational and social questions.     

A Topical Trajectory on Survival: an Analysis of Link-Making in a Sequence of Lessons on Evolution

This study explores the concept of link-making in relation to communicative strategies applied in the teaching and studying of biological evolution. The analysis focused on video recordings of 11 lessons on biological evolution conducted in a Swedish 9^th grade class of students aged 15 years. It reveals how the teacher and students connected classroom conversations, the frequency of references to conversations in whole-class settings, and the development of a theme focusing on species survival and extinction. Detailed examples from the data illustrate how this theme developed from its initiation during the first lesson, through discussion and clarification, to its wrapping up during the last lesson. They further illustrate how students made sense of what the teacher said and wrote, and how the teacher postponed issues, explained and developed topics, provided opportunities for link-making, organised the class, motivated students, and checked their understanding. The study’s methodological approach offers a way of including several time dimensions within research. Based on our findings, we conclude that the excerpts examined here did succeed in building ‘islands of coherence’ in the co-construction of curricular content. Moreover, the topical trajectory in relation to species survival provided opportunities for constructing a ‘scientific story’ in the classroom.     

Perspectives on Conceptualizing Developmentally Appropriate Sexuality Education

Despite recognition of the importance of a developmentally appropriate approach to sexuality education, there is little direct guidance on how to do this. This study employed in-depth interviews with experienced sexuality educators and developers of sexuality education materials to identify how this concept is understood and applied in the field. Developmentally appropriate sexuality education was conceptualized consistently across interviews to include (a) addressing developmentally relevant topics, (b) adapting content to cognitive development, (c) accommodating developmental diversity, and (d) facilitating the internalization of sexual health messages. However, these views fell short of incorporating the breadth of knowledge offered by adolescent development research.     

A mathematical experience involving defining processes: in-action definitions and zero-definitions

In this paper, a focus is made on defining processes at stake in an unfamiliar situation coming from discrete mathematics which brings surprising mathematical results. The epistemological framework of Lakatos is questioned and used for the design and the analysis of the situation. The cognitive background of Vergnaud’s approach enriches the study of freshmen’s processes at university. The mathematical analysis and the results specifically underscore the in-action definitions and the zero-definitions and highlight the need of similar mathematical experiences in education, particularly focused on defining processes and the exploration of a research problem.     

Are implicit learning abilities sensitive to the type of material to be processed? Study on typical readers and children with dyslexia

This study aims to examine the impact of the linguistic nature of the material to be tracked in a serial reaction time task on the performance of typical readers and children with dyslexia. In doing so, we wished to detect eventual differences in the mobilisation of implicit learning skills between typical readers according to their experience with the written word (8‐ vs 10‐year‐olds) on the one hand, and between typical readers and children with dyslexia, on the other hand. Experiment 1 confirms the efficiency of implicit sequence learning in typical readers regardless of the nature of the item being tracked. Experiment 2 indicates that the sequence learning of children with dyslexia is sensitive to the nature of the target. Children with dyslexia show differences in the evolution of response times according to the nature of the item to be tracked.     

Virtualization and new geographies of knowledge in higher education: possibilities for the transformation of knowledge,pedagogic relations and learner identities

This article considers some of the ways in which the transformative power of Web 2.0 digital technology is reconfiguring learning, knowledge and academic identities in the contemporary university. Through a focus on five specific examples, we consider the impact of virtualization processes on spatiality, materiality and embodiment, and pedagogic relations. We argue for the benefits of taking a microsociological approach in order to reflect on the potential of virtualization to bring about new geographies of knowledge production and as a means to identify the ways in which potential transformations are uneven, problematic and contested.     

Fostering active processing of instructional explanations of learners with high and low prior knowledge

Despite the potential advantages of instructional explanations, evidence indicates that they are usually ineffective. Subsequent work has shown that in order to make instructional explanations effective indeed, one successful strategy is to combine them with indications of the limitations in learners' understanding that they are intended to revise, which makes learners deeply process the explanations. We explored whether this is so for both learners with low and those with high prior domain knowledge. In one experiment, 77 participants with low and high prior knowledge learned about plate tectonics from a multimedia presentation. In addition to the presentation, half the participants received instructional explanations combined with indications, whereas the rest received instructional explanations with no indications. After using the materials, the participants solved retention and transfer tests. Results showed that low prior knowledge learners learned more from explanations including indications of their misunderstandings, whereas high prior knowledge learners profited from instructional explanations either with or without the indications. We discussed theoretical and practical implications.     

Choosing whether to resist or reinforce the new managerialism: the impact of performance‐based research funding on academic identity

This article uses four academics’ gendered and cultural responses to life in a university in Aotearoa New Zealand under the new managerialist regime. Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) requires academics to submit evidence‐based portfolios every six years to categorise and rank them, with government funding assigned accordingly. When the authors met as members of a writing group, the talk often turned to negative aspects of PBRF. Using co‐operative enquiry, the four co‐researchers began writing observations of their individual experiences, differences and identities to help them reflect and understand the impact of the changed environment. The four phases of writing as enquiry were: deciding on a focus, writing observations, engaging with the written accounts and interpreting the outcome through metaphor. The article process facilitated a positive outcome by helping the authors regain a sense of collegiality and mutual support, along with a sense of preserving their academic identity by writing and publishing as a group.