Letting experience in at the front door and bringing theory through the back: Exploring the Pedagogical Possibilities of Situated Self-Narration in Teacher Education

As a means of exploring what ‘learning through experience’ in teacher education might look like, situated self-narration is both conceptualized and performed here as the discursive practice through which already familiar and remembered experience may re-presented and re-organized from a forward-looking vantage point. Drawing on poststructuralist views of language and subjectivity and framed by a “pedagogy of possibility” (Simon, 1992 Simon, R. 1992. Teaching against the grain: Texts for a pedagogy of possibility, Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group.  [Google Scholar]), situated self-narration involves three main discursive strategies: interruption, interrogation and interpretation. By way of illustration, I use memory to interrupt my relationship to the dominant narrative of ‘English Teacher as avid reader’ and interrogate my everyday experiences of being a girl as mediated by popular culture, in both cases, drawing on a poststructuralist understanding of identity as an evolving constellation of discursive practices and foregrounding the distinctive qualities of one’s experiences as a possible source of agency. I consider the pedagogical possibilities of such identity work in the context of English teacher education, specifically in terms of teaching theory through the back door (Luke, 1993). I engage what it means to say that the way we “word the world” matters (St. Pierre, 2000 St. Pierre, E. 2000. Poststructural feminism in education: An overview. Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(5): 477–515. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) through my own interpreted experience as an evolving yet situated subjectivity; a consciousness-that-teaches.     

Where is the “theory” within the field of educational technology research?

Critics often characterise the study of educational technology as under-theorised. To test this assertion and to determine the extent of this criticism, the present paper reports an in-depth analysis of the 503 most recent empirical articles published in three selected education-technology-related journals (Computers & Education; Learning, Media and Technology; and British Journal of Educational Technology). These journals were selected because they publish studies related to all education settings rather than focusing on only a certain segment such as higher education; they have broad geographical catchment; and they were the most highly ranked journals in terms of their 2017 journal citation impact factor. The present paper examines how explicitly existing theory was identified in previous research, how theories were applied and how often these theories were advanced in education technology research. In the majority of cases, explicit engagement with theory was absent. Many studies either were wholly bereft of theories or made vague use of theory. Where theory was explicit, the articles were more likely to use theory to conceptualise the research, to inform the data collection or analysis process and to discuss the results. Very few articles reported findings that help us to learn something new about a particular theory (ie, little evidence of theory advancement).     

General population norms about child abuse and neglect and associations with childhood experiences

BACKGROUND: A variety of definitions of child abuse and neglect exist. However, little is known about norms in the general population as to what constitutes child abuse and neglect or how perceived norms may be related to personal experiences. METHODS: We conducted a random-digit-dialed telephone survey of 504 Washington State adults. Respondents were asked whether they believed each of 34 behaviors, identified in focus groups as possibly physically, sexually or emotionally abusive or neglectful, constituted abuse or neglect. Then, they were asked whether they had experienced 33 of the behaviors. RESULTS: Five of the six behaviors with the highest levels of consensus were for sexual abuse, whereas only one emotionally abusive behavior had a high level of consensus (95% agreement). Consensus that spanking constituted abuse increased with severity. Those respondents who reported experiencing a particular behavior were significantly less likely to believe the behavior abusive for 11 of the 33 behaviors and more likely to believe the behavior abusive for two of the behaviors. Where comparisons were possible, there was a high level of consensus that behaviors identified as abusive in Child Protective Service operational definitions constituted abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported childhood experiences were associated with perceived norms about child abuse. A better understanding of community norms about child abuse and neglect may be helpful in communicating with the public or allow for better targeting of educational messages through the media, parenting education classes, and so forth.     

Cross-lagged cross-subject bidirectional predictions among achievements in mathematics,English language and Chinese language of school children

This study aimed to explore the cross-lagged association of achievements in mathematics and languages. While the effect of language on achievements in mathematics is well-documented, few studies have examined the reciprocal relationships among mathematics, the Chinese language and the English language in the same study. This study conducted a secondary analysis of longitudinal achievement data collected through the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) in Hong Kong. The sample comprised 48,547 third-grade, unbalanced bilingual students who were measured three times over six years: in 2007 (in Grade 3), 2010 (Grade 6) and 2013 (Grade 9). Multilevel cross-lagged analysis found prior achievement in a subject was the strongest predictor of achievement in that subject three years later. Furthermore, cross-subject bidirectional prediction was found among achievements in mathematics, Chinese language and English language for students from Grade 3 to Grade 6 and from Grade 6 to Grade 9.     

Evaluation of the Somos Fuertes HIV prevention programme in college women

The goal of this study was to examine the impact of a culturally appropriate HIV prevention and sexual empowerment curriculum workshop on female college students at a Hispanic-serving institution in the USA. Female participants in the Somos Fuertes: Strong Women Making Healthy Choices curriculum (n = 175) from a variety of ethnicities completed pre- and post-surveys during the academic years 2007–2008, 2008–2009, and 2009–2010. Paired t-tests were conducted to examine pre- and post-results on five scales: perceived sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk, perceived HIV risk, intended use of barriers during sex, effective communication skills, and behavioural self-efficacy. The analyses showed significant differences with at least medium effect sizes for all variables except perceived STI risk. The evaluation results demonstrate that the workshop offers a viable curriculum to implement on college campuses interested in affecting change related to HIV prevention strategies in a multicultural female population.     

Children's Beliefs about Long-Term Retention

In 2 experiments, we examined pre-school, grade 1, and grade 3 children's metamemory about long-term retention. Specifically, we examined beliefs about the type of information most likely to be forgotten and beliefs about the impact of suggestions and retroactive interference on memory. Children made and explained paired-comparison judgments concerning the differential forgetting of peripheral versus central information, whether misinformation effects would arise from suggestions by others, and whether retroactive interference would arise from experiencing two similar events. The major findings were that ( a ) most children believed that events central to a story would be retained better than peripheral details; ( b ) in preschool and first grade, children believed that memory was invulnerable to suggestion (from a parent or a sibling), but in third grade, children believed suggestion could adversely affect memory; ( c ) most preschoolers believed that retroactive interference effects would not occur, whereas most first and third graders acknowledged that they would; ( d ) older children believed that both suggestibility and interference were less likely given a retention interval of several months compared to 1 day; and ( e ) in explaining their beliefs, children assigned sensory-behavioral factors a major causal role in determining what would be remembered over the long term. These results are discussed in terms of the development of beliefs about memory and the mind in general.     

Enhancing relevance: Embedded ARCS strategies vs. Purpose

The hypothesis of this study assumes that the cognitive effects of motivation result primarily from the relevance of what is being learned, that is, whether the ideas being studied are meaningful and whether they fulfill the goals of the learner. This study compared the effects of intrinsic relevance (material fulfilling a purpose or need of the learner) with embedded, extrinsic relevance-enhancing strategies based on the ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) Model of Instruction on perceived motivation and the learning outcomes of identification, terminology, comprehension, and drawing. Both intrinsic and extrinsic strategies enhanced the motivation of the college learners and their performance on identification, terminology, and comprehension questions following instruction. Embedded relevance-enhancing strategies resulted in greater motivation and performance gains than did intrinsic relevance. She is currently teaching reading and writing strategies to elementary school children. His publications include the recently completedHandbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology, reviewed in this issue. Francis M. Dwyer is Professor of Instructional Systems at the Pennsylvania State University, where he has been a leading researcher in the role of visuals in instruction. He is a past-president of AECT.     

How Sustainable Are In‐service Teacher‐training Courses?

The present research addressed the issue of ‘life after a course’. The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of four in‐service teacher‐training courses at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in terms of their usefulness and relevance to the teachers’ needs on return to school. An end‐of‐course evaluation questionnaire and a follow‐up questionnaire were sent six months after the courses to see if there were any significant differences in the participants’ views on the effectiveness of a course at two different time points. Qualitative data collected from interviews between the tutors and participants six months after the courses were also analysed to find out which aspects of the courses were considered to be most useful to the teachers on their return to school, and why they were useful. The findings from the research give valuable insights into the design of teacher‐education courses.     

Increasing tootling: The effects of a peer‐monitored group contingency program on students' reports of peers' prosocial behaviors

In most educational ecologies, attention and consequences are focused on inappropriate behavior. Often students observe and report peers' antisocial behavior (i.e., tattle) and teachers investigate and consequent (i.e., punish) those behaviors. In the current study, a withdrawal design was used to investigate a corollary system. Fourth‐grade students were trained to observe and report peers' prosocial behaviors (i.e., tootle), and interdependent group contingencies and public posting were used to reinforce those reports. Although the first intervention phase showed much variability, subsequent phases showed that an intervention composed of public posting and interdependent group contingencies increased prosocial behavior reports. Results are discussed in terms of using this system to increase student and teacher awareness of and reinforcement for incidental prosocial behaviors. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Optoelectrofluidic field separation based on light-intensity gradients

Optoelectrofluidic field separation (OEFS) of particles under light -intensity gradient (LIG) is reported, where the LIG illumination on the photoconductive layer converts the short-ranged dielectrophoresis (DEP) force to the long-ranged one. The long-ranged DEP force can compete with the hydrodynamic force by alternating current electro-osmosis (ACEO) over the entire illumination area for realizing effective field separation of particles. In the OEFS system, the codirectional illumination and observation induce the levitation effect, compensating the attenuation of the DEP force under LIG illumination by slightly floating particles from the surface. Results of the field separation and concentration of diverse particle pairs (0.82–16 μm) are well demonstrated, and conditions determining the critical radius and effective particle manipulation are discussed. The OEFS with codirectional LIG strategy could be a promising particle manipulation method in many applications where a rapid manipulation of biological cells and particles over the entire working area are of interest.