Understanding professional learning for Computing teachers from the perspective of situated learning

ABSTRACT

Situated learning theory maintains that there is a relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs; learning is embedded in activity, context and culture. In terms of professional learning for teachers, this implies that effective learning takes place within a community where experts and novices meet and where practice is modelled; such a community needs to be deeply relevant to everyday practice in the classroom. In this paper, we discuss Computing At School, a grass-roots organisation that has grown up over the last 10 years through teacher communities, and also with broad support of academia and industry. In a time of increased interest in the inclusion of computer science in school curricular, Computing At School is a community of practice of all teachers affected by curriculum change in Computing and models an innovative approach to professional learning that is based on community and support. We describe here how Computing At School draws on situated learning theory to contribute to the development of Computing in the curriculum, evidencing both the journey and lessons learned.     

Year-long teacher professional development on fifth grade student science outcomes

ABSTRACT

We first examined the effects of a year-long professional development (PD) programme for elementary science teachers on fifth grade student performance on state-mandated science achievement tests of students from a treatment and a comparison group of teachers in the 2009–2010 academic year. Then, we investigated the longer-term impacts by comparing the 2010–2011 student test results of the teachers one year after receiving treatment in 2009–2010 with the students of teachers who received treatment during 2010–2011. Test scores were analysed using a propensity score matching method to examine the relationship between the PD and student achievement. Results showed that even though the treatment teachers were out of the classroom 20% of the school year to attend the PD, there was no difference between their students’ science achievement scores and those of the comparison teachers who were in the classroom every day. This is an important finding because many principals and parents are reluctant to provide teachers with release time for PD. We also determined that students of teachers one year after participating in the PD significantly (p?<?0.001) with a medium effect size (η²?=?.088) outperformed students of teachers who had just completed the programme. This suggests that it takes time for teachers to implement new teaching strategies and that to observe the impact of an intervention programme, it may be important to expand the timeframe of the programme evaluation.     

Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications

This article offers a review of the major literature about attitudes to science and its implications over the past 20 years. It argues that the continuing decline in numbers choosing to study science at the point of choice requires a research focus on students' attitudes to science if the nature of the problem is to be understood and remediated. Starting from a consideration of what is meant by attitudes to science, it considers the problems inherent to their measurement, what is known about students' attitudes towards science and the many factors of influence such as gender, teachers, curricula, cultural and other variables. The literature itself points to the crucial importance of gender and the quality of teaching. Given the importance of the latter we argue that there is a greater need for research to identify those aspects of science teaching that make school science engaging for pupils. In particular, a growing body of research on motivation offers important pointers to the kind of classroom environment and activities that might raise pupils' interest in studying school science and a focus for future research.     

Book review

The following book is reviewed.Challenging democracy: international perspectives on gender, education and citizen MADELEINE ARNOT & JO-ANNE DILLABOUGH (Eds), 2000 London: Routledge-Falmer. xiii + 337pp, 04152031163,£18.99 paperback, 0415203155 £55.00 hardback     

An exploration of undergraduate students’ views on the effectiveness of academic and pastoral support

Background: Academic and pastoral support is fundamental to the achievement of a high-quality student learning experience.

Aim: This study reports on full-time undergraduate students’ views on the effectiveness of academic and pastoral support in one higher education institution. The intent of the study was to explore how academic and pastoral support is provided and gain an appreciation of the value placed on each method of support used.

Method: 935 students from a range of subject disciplines responded to a Bristol-on-Line Survey questionnaire.

Findings: Analysis of quantitative data revealed that a wide range of support strategies are used and valued by students.

Conclusions: Of significance was the emphasis placed on peer support and the skills required by staff providing support. Implications for policy and practice to enhance the student learning experience are discussed.     

Caring Teachers and Symbolic Violence: Engaging the Productive Struggle in Practice and Research

Symbolic violence may not be a desirable theory to apply to public schooling—its structuralist limitations render it deterministic, lacking in human agency, and unpalatable to researchers and educators who see schools as viable and productive sites of social transformation. Perhaps for these reasons, it seems little has been written about symbolic violence in schools, and what has been written tends to focus primarily on the symbolic, institutionalized violence imparted by schools and teachers upon students. In this article, I offer a shift in these perspectives. I present symbolic violence as a productive analytical tool in identifying modes of resistance to specific damaging effects of schooling institutions. I also illustrate how symbolic violence victimizes one particularly caring teacher, rendering her compliant in her own victimization, without voice to accurately name her struggles, and—because of her ethic of care—complicit in reproducing damaging institutionalizing practices. Using ethnographic data, I explore symbolic violence via one teacher's reflective, critical narratives. I draw upon the tenets of dialogicality in language to help make more visible the often intangible elements of symbolic violence. And at various points in the article, I discuss the implications of engaging an analytic that ultimately runs counter to my own epistemology, turning to Maxine Greene for insight in the struggle.     

Banning Queer Blood: Rhetorics of Citizenship,Contagion, and Resistance,by Jeffrey A. Bennett

The Voice in Speech. By Clara Kathleen Rogers. Boston: Published by the Author, 1915. Cloth, pp. 123. $1.25.

Correct Pronunciation. By Julian W. Abernethy, Ph.D. New York: Charles E. Merrill Co., 1912. Pp. 173.

The Technic of the Speaking Voice. By John R. Scott. Published by the Author, Columbia, Mo.: Cloth, pp. 534.

The Structure of an Effective Public Speech. By Harry B. Bradbury. Greenfield, Mass.: T. Morey &; Son, 1915. Pp. 85, cloth, 60 cents.     

PARENT ATTACHMENT AND EARLY ADOLESCENTS’ LIFE SATISFACTION: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF HOPE

Research using an attachment theory framework has provided evidence that parent attachment is one of the crucial determinants of psychological adjustment in adolescents, including global life satisfaction (LS). This study investigated the interrelationships among parent attachment, hope, and LS during early adolescence, including the mediation effect of hope in the relationship between parent attachment and LS. A sample of 565 middle‐school students in Grades 6 through 8 participated. Results showed statistically significant relationships among all three variables, and hope partially mediated the relationship between parent attachment and LS. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Tourists of History: Memory,Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero,by Marita Sturken

Cultural and Scientific Speech Education Today. Compiled and Edited By W. Aethur Cable. Expression Company, Boston 1930, pp. 206; $2.00.

Contemporary Speeches. Compiled by James M. O'Neill and Floyd K. Riley. New York: The Century Company, 1930; pp. xviii, 558.

Modern Literature for Oral Interpretation (Revised Edition). By Gertrude E. Johnson. New York: The Century Company, 1930; pp. 638; $2.50.

Influencing Behavior Through Speech. By Howard Hubert Higgins. Boston: The Expression Company, 1930: pp. ix, 346; $2.50.

Strategy in Handling People. By Ewing T. “Webb and J. B. Morgan. Boulton, Pierce and Company, 232 East Erie Street, Chicago, 1930; pp. 260; $3.00.

Ralph Dennis

The Story of the Drama (Beginnings to Commonwealth). By Joseph Richard Taylor. Boston: The Expression Company, 1930; pp. xxv, 555.

Medieval Rhetoric and Poetic. By Charles Sears Baldwin. New York: Macmillan, 1928, pp. xi, 321, $2.50.

Greek Rhetoric and Literary Criticism. By W. Rhys Roberts. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1928, pp. 164.

Acting, Its Theory and Practice. By Lane Crauford. New York: Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1930: pp. xiii, 248; $3.00.

The American Public Mind. By Peter Odegard. New York: Columbia University Press, 1930; pp. 308. Teachers are always being told that “here is a book that must

David Lloyd George. By J. Hugh Edwards, M. P. New York: Sears and Co., 1929, 2 vols.

Evangelized America. By Grover C. Loud. New York: Lincoln McVeagh, 1928.

The Stammering Century. By Gilbert Seldes. New York: John Day Co., 1928.

Conversation. By Andre Maurois ; translated by Yvonne Dufour. New York: E. P. Dutton &; Company, 1930; 82 pp.