Factors mathematicians profess to consider when presenting pedagogical proofs

This paper concerns proof presentation at the university level. We report on a study in which we observed ten mathematicians constructing or revising proofs for pedagogical purposes. We highlight the factors that they claimed to consider when completing these tasks. We found that intended audience and medium (lecture or textbook) influenced proof presentation. We also found that, although mathematicians generally valued pedagogical proofs featuring diagrams and emphasizing main ideas, these mathematicians did not always incorporate these aspects in the proofs they constructed or revised.     

Citizenship,civic education and politics: the education policy context for young Australian citizens

Citizenship education in Australia is embedded throughout the school curriculum. Despite a coherent policy context for the inclusion of citizenship and civic education at all levels of schooling, the links between education and civic minded citizens are tenuous. This paper explores these connections by drawing on the views of participants in an international community service program between Western Australia and Tanzania. By situating the interview data in relation to the policy goals, the paper argues that the current policy framework ‘sanitises’ the political nature of modern citizenship. The results from this study demonstrate that students have little understanding of the connections between the civic, the social and the political realms of citizenship. These results suggest that the current policy context does not adequately prepare young people to position themselves in the political realm.     

Inter-professional collaboration in action research

This article describes an example of inter-professional action research conducted by teachers and university-based researchers/teacher educators in a vocational college in the Netherlands. The research was aimed at the professional learning of the teachers on their pedagogical approach to a new curriculum initiative. Despite a difficult context in the Netherlands for a type of action research in which teachers and researchers work in democratic collaboration on the improvement of teaching practices, this inter-professional collaboration worked out well. The participants worked, inspired by shared commitment towards the students, as equal partners. In the findings and conclusion insights developed about key elements for inter-professional collaborative research, such as the importance of common relevance, shared responsibility for the research and mutual trust and respect for differences in professional identities and working conditions are addressed.     

BioOne and SPIE: A reflection on the first 3 years of the nonprofit platform partnership

• There is great potential for organizations to form collaborative partnerships, particularly in the nonprofit environment, which can reduce costs and aid in strategic development.
• Regular and transparent communication with internal and external stakeholders is critical to the health of any partnership, especially when doing something new or novel.
• Reciprocal service-level agreements with clear expectations and ongoing evaluation ensure the collaboration keeps pace with commercial alternatives.
• The SPIE-BioOne partnership was built to scale and incorporate future collaborators to further reduce costs and bring new ideas to the user group.

     

Interpreting young people's self-expression through characters and relationships in collaborative creative writing

White Water Writers is an intervention that offers school pupils the opportunity to collaboratively write a novel in a week. The current study uses thematic analysis to interpret the voices of young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities through the characters and relationships created in this fictional writing. The main themes derived from the data were: heroism and villainy, associated with characteristics such as responsibility and control; fictional powers, linking to personal agency; social relations, including positive relationships with peers and authority figures; and anthropomorphism, for exploring new emotions and interactions between humans and animals. This suggests that creative writing may be a useful lens through which to explore young people's views of their lived experiences.