Building a Professional Learning Community: Teachers’ Documentation of and Reflections on Preschoolers’ Work

This study describes teachers’ experiences in a preschool professional learning community (PLC) in order to gain understanding of the role of documentation in group learning. A central underlying assumption of PLCs is that teacher learning involves talking with colleagues about teaching and grappling with the issues embodied in everyday classroom life. We utilized a qualitative case study design in order to emphasize the situated and contextual nature of teachers’ professional learning in context. Data sources included the following: observations of PLC sessions, interviews with participating teachers, and the classroom documentation teachers shared during the sessions. We found that the incorporation of documentation in the PLC made implicit assumptions about children visible in order to be scrutinized. In addition, the teachers’ reflections on the documentation highlighted conflicting notions about teaching as either technical practice or inquiry. In contrast to traditional delivery approaches to teacher learning, we argue that PLCs focused on documentation encourage teachers to problematize practice rather than simplify it. The process of reflecting on children’s work made shifts in thinking about the nature of teaching possible.     

Transforming what they read: helping eleven‐year‐olds engage with Internet information

This article explores an issue of great current concern: how do we help primary aged children to engage with, and to benefit from, information from the Internet? The notion of ‘engagement’ is considered in the context of constructivist learning theory. A short case study based on a small‐scale research project in a primary school classroom in England is presented in order to illustrate the difficulties that arise when children undertake information handling work involving access to vast amounts of information. The end products from two groups of children are found to be far from what might have been expected from children of their ability, background and experience. Engagement with the ideas contained in non‐fiction texts is isolated as a crucial factor. Approaches, including the EXIT model, are presented and considered as ways in which engagement might be encouraged.     

A review of photovoice applications in environment,sustainability, and conservation contexts: is the method maintaining its emancipatory intents?

Abstract

Photovoice, a Participatory Action Research method developed by Wang and Burris, has gained popularity as a pedagogical tool to engage youth with environmental, sustainability, and conservation issues. Influenced by Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, feminist theory, and documentary photography, photovoice supports reflection about place, critical dialogue about community issues, and social change by reaching policymakers. Some scholars have modified the method and applied varying frameworks to increase relevance for diverse participants. However, adaptation also may lose the original tenets. Through a scoping review, this study examined methodological applications to science, conservation, and sustainability education and whether emerging approaches align with Wang and Burris’ original goals. The scoping review identified and analyzed four applications of photovoice: i) place as pedagogy, ii) conservation and sustainability, iii) STEM teaching; and iv) decolonizing education. Current scholarship shows promise for photovoice in environmental education applications to support participatory, diverse, and equitable educational settings, but some projects would benefit from more explicit attention to the original emancipatory intents of the method.     

Contents Volume 16 (2003)

Volume Contents

Contents Volume 16 (2003)     

Peer Review in Education: Promoting Collaboration, Written Expression, Critical Thinking, and Professional Responsibility

This article discusses the application of the peer review process as a pedagogical instrument for the promotion of written expression, collaborative work, critical thinking, and professional responsibility among Informatics and Engineering majors. The approach is introduced with a motivation, followed by a discussion about common principles of current learning paradigms and the peer review process. This work is being conducted in Brazil, where we intend to promote a learning paradigm shift through the application of peer review in education. A framework for this application is outlined, together with an account of results from experiences and a discussion about the skills that this approach exercises, especially with regard to widely accepted curricula and codes of ethics and professional conduct. Further research and development efforts are conjectured.     

Different,yet similar: factors motivating international degree collaboration in higher education. The case of Finnish-Russian double degree programmes

ABSTRACT

The study investigates factors motivating universities to engage in international degree collaboration. The Finnish-Russian university framework is used as the locus for studying international collaboration. The paper employs resource dependency and institutional, stakeholder and market push and pull perspectives in a conceptual model explaining the drivers of international degree collaboration. The research focuses on the interaction of the various factors that motivate partners to seek international degree cooperation, possible sources of conflict, and issues of compatibility and complementarity. In particular, the study compares the roles of different stakeholders and the institutional contexts of Finland and Russia. The motives of the Finnish and Russian universities included in the study were found to be generally compatible, yet different enough to complement each other.     

‘Fathers and sons’ in Xenophon’s teaching of the man taking care of himself

This article considers the oeuvre of Xenophon (c.430–354 bc) as providing an insight into the concept of ‘care of the self’ in Greek education. In many of his works the leading characters are men who take care of themselves through education. Addressing the theme of ‘fathers and sons’, Xenophon aimed to show that ‘care of the self’ is a particular way of upbringing in the family and in the polis, where the older instruct the younger in fulfilling their duties according to their age, following model examples of thought and conduct during work and leisure. Thus, with the help of specific situations involving parents and children, mentors and their pupils, Xenophon established a general framework for understanding the ancient citizens and family men, to whom education and self-education were a special means of finding their own identity in their culture.