Mapping students’ ideas to understand learning in a collaborative programming environment

Recent studies in learning programming have largely focused on high school and college students; less is known about how young children learn to program. From video data of 20 students using a graphical programming interface, we identified ideas that were shared and evolved through an elementary school classroom. In mapping these ideas and their resulting changes in programs and outputs, we were able to identify the contextual features which contributed to how ideas moved through the classroom as students learned. We suggest this process of idea mapping in visual programming environments as a viable method for understanding collaborative, constructivist learning as well as a context under which experiences can be developed to improve student learning.     

Rhetoric or reality?

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a one-year research project carried out by researchers from the University of Strathclyde in one Scottish region and involving 12 comprehensive secondary schools. The main focus of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of support systems for young people who displayed challenging behaviour. The researchers examined the systems in place from the perspective of all stakeholders including teachers, pupils, parents and key personnel in other agencies including social work, community education and psychological services. The focus is upon the inter-agency dimension and in particular the barriers to inter-agency partnership, which impact upon effectiveness of support systems. The overall aim is to provide food for thought and suggest possible ways forward.     

The Elusive Search for Teacher Collaboration

Collaboration is a well-used term in the field of education, identified as promising practice for student learning and teaching learning alike. However, collaboration comes in different shapes and sizes, leading to radically different ends. The authors examine teachers’ own understandings and practices of collaboration with teacher colleagues within their school contexts and within a professional development model designed to allow for collaborative conversation between teachers. Implications for teacher education are then considered.     

Worthwhile work? Childcare,feminist ethics and cooperative research practices

Interdisciplinary research collaborations are often encouraged within higher education while the practicalities of such collaborations are glossed over. This project specifically addresses the praxis of research collaborations, exploring how feminist academics within different countries and disciplines came together to explore their mutual concern about the perceived worth and well-being of early childhood practitioners. Engaging in a formal methodological dialogue over eight months, seven academics discussed, analysed and dissected their different investments in research methods and intents, with the aim of agreeing to a common methodological framework. Unexpectedly, what emerged was not a product, but a process. We argue that this process offers much to those seeking deep collaboration in and through shared research. Building on a collective research interest, we found ourselves in a process of becoming, germinating the seed of a transnational research cooperative, based on trust and mutual respect, rather than the arid methodological contract originally envisioned.     

Engaging Students in Autobiographical Critiqueas a Social Justice Tool: Narratives of Deconstructingand Reconstructing Meritocracy and PrivilegeWith Preservice Teachers

This self-study involves instructors of a Social Justice in Education course at a large university who engaged preservice teacher education students with assignments intended to solicit their critical self-reflection and to facilitate an awareness of themselves as sociocultural beings. Our work responds to the continued need to involve preservice teachers in experiences that foster critical consciousness and cognizance of their own socialization. For the assignments, students were first asked to describe key moments in their educational experience in the form of a multimedia submission and reflection. After a semester of critical discussions and readings, students were then asked to revisit their initial projects and critique those using course concepts. In addition, they were prompted to include plans for themselves as future social justice educators. In this article, we analyze those student submissions, and we find that many reached new conclusions about social justice topics such as race and gender, critiqued personal and social artifacts, and recognized the connections between privilege and meritocracy. Despite the limitations in class size and structure, we affirm the potential value of a multistage autobiography assignment. We also explore instances of student resistance, wherein students avoided the assigned task and our requirement for self-reflection. We conclude by offering implications for teacher education and posit considerations for future adaptions of the assignment, including the necessity to engage students in opportunities to take social action and to move beyond critique.     

充分利用工作中的空闲时间

不论你是从事何种工作的，都会有一些无事可做的空闲时期。本期工作职场，我们为您提供一些建议，以充分利用工作中的这段空暇。     

The three-stage assessment process: Issues and implications

The three-stage process of assessment is a structured, complete approach to the appraisal of a whole child. These systematic procedures insure due consideration for all factors affecting educational functioning. Stage 1 is designed to detgermine physical, mental, or emotional disability; Stage 2 to identify significant educational needs; Stage 3 to identify specific learning competencies and necessary instructional and related services. When all three stages are correctly and adequately addressed, the inherent bias in standardized tests will be offset by the identificantion of learning competencies and the subsequent development of appropriate learning strategies.     

From Docent to Cyberdocent: Education and Guidancein the Virtual Museum

The paper explores the nature of docents'work in museums. From this is derived the concept ofthe docent function to describe different aspects ofthat work, some of which may be performed by otherpeople and also by objects such as maps andguidebooks. This analysis leads to the idea of theCyberdocent – an extension of the docent function totake advantage of new possibilities afforded byadvanced technologies. The potential of theCyberdocent in both virtual and real museums isinvestigated. The authors claim that it is theprovision of docent functions that make a physicalmuseum more than merely a collection, and equally, itis by the provision of Cyberdocent functionality thata virtual collection becomes a virtual museum.