Focus in creative learning: drawing on art for language development

This article asks what happens to the learning of young children when they work regularly with a professional visual artist in their school. Through Creative Partnerships, a national programme initiated in 2002 to bring creative professionals into schools across England, some school children have had the opportunity for sustained project work with artists. Examined here is the context in which children (ages 4, 5, 6 and 7) worked one day a week during the academic year of 2003–2004 with Roy Smith, resident artist in Hythe Community School. Key to the children's drawing, painting and talking was close focused attention on details of three‐dimensional objects, portraits, still‐life works and their own creations. Smith's conversations with the children routinely included three and four‐syllable technical terms, biographical details of artists' lives and comparative critiques. Within several months, the art of the children reflected understanding of concepts such as foregrounding, and they showed confidence in working with problems Smith set up for them (“What do you think would happen if …?”). Particularly important here is the combination of manual and linguistic work that demands attention to detail, receptive understanding of complex terms and processes, and familiarity with the analytical and sequential thinking needed to identify and solve problems.     

Teacher‐pupil dialogue in the guided reading session

Drawing on the findings of an ESRC‐funded project, this article concerns the quality of teacher‐pupil dialogue in the guided reading session of the Literacy Hour and its relationship to pupils' powers of comprehension. We recorded and analysed examples of discussions during the guided reading session in four primary schools, visiting each of them three times. On each school visit, we recorded the same group of six Year 6 children (10–11‐year‐olds) working with their class teacher. The results of the study suggest that talk in this context is teacher‐dominated. The teacher: usually asks questions to which s/he already knows the answer; normally selects which pupil is going to speak next; keeps a tight grip on the topic of conversation; and does most of the talking. We argue that there is a case for making time available during the guided reading session for a period of discussion in which pupils are invited to play a more leading role in shaping the topic of conversation.     

Changing aims of computing education: a historical survey

Computing education has been an important and sometimes contentious issue ever since the advent of modern computing. Debates about computing education have closely followed job markets, technological development, academic interests, societal concerns, and changes in the perception of computing. The themes in computing education debates can be characterized by emergence and formation, standardization and organization, accommodation to change, and divergence. The focus of computing education has expanded outward from the computer to programming, algorithms, and information, as well as to the organizational, social, and cultural environment of computer systems.

This survey gives computing education researchers an overview of some of the central issues and disputes in computing education over the brief history of modern computing. The survey highlights the emergence of educational initiatives, concepts, joint efforts, and institutions of computing education, and outlines the relatively short history of computing education research. The survey is structured around four overlapping themes: computing education as technological training, as training for software development, as a central element for the field’s academic recognition, and as training for computational problem-solving in any domain of knowledge. Each theme has played a role throughout the history of modern computing, but their relative emphases have changed over the years.     

Brazil: Opportunity and crisis in higher education

The current situation in Brazilian higher education is discussed in the context of (i) its historical background; (ii) the 1968 reform and its unintended consequences; (iii) the recommendations of the 1985 Presidential Commission on higher education. The implications of these recommendations in terms of the introduction of inter-institution differentiation and greater autonomy are explored with particular reference to the part played in the eventual shelving of the proposals by pressure groups in the Brazilian system. Though pressure groups may block radical changes, continuing debate on the issues raised can form the background to piecemeal and incremental changes in the desirable direction.This article was written while the author was a fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley.     

The British Department for International Development and Knowledge-based Aid

A number of trends have led development cooperation agencies to embrace the idea of becoming 'knowledge agencies', more efficient and effective users of knowledge both internally and in their work with their recipients/partners. At the same time, agencies have become fascinated with the role that knowledge can play in national development strategies. This paper seeks to highlight some of the unresolved tensions that emerge from this new agency area of interest. In so doing, it will focus on the case of the Department for International Development (DFID), the British development cooperation agency. In common with many other agencies, DFID has been developing its own policy for better internal knowledge management. At the same time, through its research strategy and support to the Global Development Network, DFID is developing its own theory/practice of how it should support partner countries' knowledge generation and dissemination. Through an analysis of key DFID texts, supported by interviews and reflections on participation in virtual and real discussion forums, this paper suggests a number of challenges for DFID's knowledge strategy.     

Mechanisms of inherited cancer susceptibility

A small proportion of many cancers are due to inherited mutations in genes, which result in a high risk to the individual of developing specific cancers. There are several classes of genes that may be involved: tumour suppressor genes, oncogenes, genes encoding proteins involved in DNA repair and cell cycle control, and genes involved in stimulating the angiogenic pathway. Alterations in susceptibility to cancer may also be due to variations in genes involved in carcinogen metabolism. This review discusses examples of some of these genes and the associated clinical conditions caused by the inheritance of mutations in such genes.     

An exploration of the impact of the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme on wellbeing from the perspective of pupils

ABSTRACT

The Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme is an evidence-informed intervention delivered by teaching assistants and supervised by educational psychologists. In this research, semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the impact of the ELSA programme on wellbeing from the perspective of pupils. A thematic analysis of the data set identified the following themes: “Feelings and Emotions”, “Engagement”, “Resilience”, “Hopes and Aspirations” and “Relationships”. The findings suggest the ELSA programme has a perceived positive impact on multiple components of pupil wellbeing. These components include positive emotions, negative feelings, engagement, resilience, optimism, accomplishment and relationships, as described by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and Seligman’s “PERMA model”. The positive wellbeing changes experienced by the pupils occurred through strategies, talking, and forming a close relationship with the teaching assistant. Overall, this research provides evidence to suggest a positive impact of the ELSA programme on pupil wellbeing.     

Physical Education,Citizenship, and Social Justice: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

This article examines the complex but seldom articulated relationship of primary physical education, citizenship, and social justice. We argue that to conflate physical activity and sport with physical education in unacknowledged ways may serve to perpetuate the status quo. More significantly, the current emphasis on activity through competitive sport in the teaching of physical education in primary schools is both reductive and educationally limiting, affecting not only teachers’ professionalism but the wider educational experience of young people. The trend towards competitive sport at the expense of a broader educational experience further represents a potentially serious omission: an abrogation of responsibility on the part of schools in England and Wales to meet the statutory requirements of the Education Reform Act (1988). On the thirtieth anniversary of the Act, we adopt a novel approach, utilizing Foucauldian ideas, to examine movements in the development of policy and understand the contemporary context as a means to suggest more propitious ways forward.     

Mapping the development of a new MA programme in higher education: comparing privately held perceptions of a public endeavour

After spending a year working on the development of a new online Master’s programme in higher education, members of the development team were interviewed to reveal their thoughts about the nature of the programme. The dialogue of each interview was summarised as a concept map. Analysis of the resulting maps included a modified Bernsteinian analysis of the focus of the concepts included in terms of their semantic gravity (i.e. closeness to context) and the degree of resonance with the underpinning regulative discourse of the programme. Data highlight a number of potential issues for programme delivery that centre around the use of appropriate language to manage student expectations in relation to the process of learning and the emotional responses this can stimulate, as well as the tensions that can be foregrounded between the demands of teaching and research within a university environment.     

On the Relation Between Teachers’ (In)formal Learning and Innovative Working Behavior: the Mediating Role of Employability

Teachers’ innovative work behavior and professional development is receiving more attention lately. More precisely, it is argued that teachers’ formal and informal learning is crucial to anticipate and deal with continuous changes and innovations in technology and didactics, for example. Therefore, this study researches the teachers’ innovative work behavior by studying relations between (in)formal learning activities, employability (i.e. five competences: occupational expertise, anticipation and optimization, personal flexibility, corporate sense and balance) and innovative working behavior (IWB, i.e. ideas generation, promotion and realization). Furthermore, the mediating role of employability between learning and innovative working behavior is studied, too. Based on path analysis conducted on questionnaire data from 301 primary and secondary school teachers from the French-speaking community of Belgium, findings conclude that employability competences are related to both formal and informal learning, but the relationship between informal learning and employability is stronger. Next, making a distinction between the frequency and use of social informal learning is relevant given the differentiated role the different components play. Feedback use in particular seems to play an important role in teachers’ employability and IWB. Finally, it can be concluded that employability partially mediates the relation between the undertaking of (in)formal learning activities and dimensions of innovative working behavior. Results imply that schools should pay more attention to supporting teachers’ informal learning since it’s crucial for improving their ability to innovate and to be able to deal with changes in the dynamic world of education.