Prospective primary teachers’ shift in locus of control and pedagogy focus

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education - This paper presents the findings of an empirical research project, designed with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology. Our goal was...     

‘Beyond 2015’, within the modern/colonial global imaginary? Global development and higher education

Efforts to emphasize higher education’s role in development have grown in recent years, but important questions remain about the motivations and effects of these initiatives. In this paper, we employ the concept of a ‘modern/colonial global imaginary’ to consider the impact of the enduring power relations and uneven politics of knowledge in the relationship between higher education and development. Specifically, we consider the Association of Commonwealth Universities’ (ACU) ‘Beyond 2015’ campaign, which was launched in anticipation of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals. We argue that despite the ACU’s intention to provide ‘a platform for diverse voices, particularly from the global South’, the campaign was structured in a way that discouraged dissenting perspectives. More broadly, we consider available possibilities and limitations for challenging mainstream development agendas.     

Empowering learners with personalised learning approaches? Agency,equity and transparency in the context of learning analytics

Abstract

The emergence of personalised data technologies such as learning analytics is framed as a solution to manage the needs of higher education student populations that are growing ever more diverse and larger in size. However, the current approach to learning analytics presents tensions between increasing student agency in making learning-related decisions and ‘datafying’ students in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting data. This article presents a study that explores staff and student experience of agency, equity and transparency in existing data practices and expectations towards learning analytics in a UK university. The results show a number of intertwined factors that have contributed to the tensions between enhancing a learner’s control of their studies and, at the same time, diminishing their autonomy as an active agent in the process of learning analytics. This article argues that learner empowerment should not be automatically assumed to have taken place as part of the adoption of learning analytics. Instead, the interwoven power relationships in a complex educational system and the interactions between humans and machines need to be taken into consideration when presenting learning analytics as an equitable process to enhance student agency and educational equity.     

‘Everywhere they say that it’s harmful but they don’t say how,so I’m asking here’: young people,pornography and negotiations with notions of risk and harm

Debate about pornography and minors has mainly centred on questions of control, regulation and media policy; the urge to protect children from dangers of sexually explicit content being the primary motivator of these conversations. Instead of discussing the use of pornography by minors in the light of relevant research findings, public discourse on these issues is more usually shaped by views of sexual cultures as inherently dangerous to minors, and young people as vulnerable, easily harmed, and endangered by the media. This paper builds on data consisting of 4212 questions about sexuality that were sent by young people in Finland to experts on sexual health. Only 64 (1.5%) of these contributions explicitly focused on pornography. The small number of porn-related submissions suggests that for young people there are other more important concerns in the field of sexuality than pornography, on which adult guidance is sought. This paper argues that young people’s perceptions of pornography are more diverse than is typically assumed in public debate. Young people challenge risk talk by constantly referring to the vagueness of the alleged harm that characterises the discourse of danger that can be found in much public discussion. According to the findings of this study, blurry notions of harm bother young people more than the actual pornographic content they encounter.     

Trying to Include but Supporting Exclusion Instead? Constructing the Roma in Slovak Educational Policies

Based on a social constructivist theoretical framework, this research study examines how the design of proinclusive educational policies and the general public construct the Roma students and parents in Slovakia. For this purpose, data from two selected educational policies and five focus groups conducted in five regions in Slovakia were analyzed. The findings demonstrate that the Roma are constructed negatively as irresponsible dependents and deviants not valuing education and incapable of making wise decisions about their lives. These findings can be considered relevant for policy formulation processes because proinclusive policies may sabotage their own goals if negative social constructions of a certain societal group are embedded in them.     

Das Volksbildungswesen der Sowjetunion (UDSSR)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Can narrative cutscenes improve home learning from a math game? An experimental study with children

Little is known about the instructional effects of narrative framing elements in child learning games. In this study, second and third graders (M_age = 8.24) played one of two versions of a successful, commercial mathematical learning game at home for 2 weeks (N = 95; between-subject design). The versions differed in the presence/absence of a background story conveyed through comic cutscenes at the beginning and the end of the game. Results showed that children played the game intensively in both conditions: despite not being forced to do so. Plus, they also learned from the game. As expected, children assigned to the cutscenes condition interfaced with the cutscenes. However, no between-group difference was detected in pre-post learning gains, parent-reported engagement, self-reported enjoyment, time spent with the game and the number of solved in-game tasks (all |ds| < 0.29). Altogether, no advantage or disadvantage from the narrative comic cutscenes was revealed.     

Active recovery of the finger flexors enhances intermittent handgrip performance in rock climbers

This study aimed to (1) evaluate the effect of hand shaking during recovery phases of intermittent testing on the time–force characteristics of performance and muscle oxygenation, and (2) assess inter-individual variability in the time to achieve the target force during intermittent testing in rock climbers. Twenty-two participants undertook three finger flexor endurance tests at 60% of their maximal voluntary contraction until failure. Performances of a sustained contraction and two intermittent contractions, each with different recovery strategies, were analysed by time–force parameters and near-infrared spectroscopy. Recovery with shaking of the forearm beside the body led to a significantly greater intermittent test time (↑ 22%, P?P?P?相似文献   

Roles,practices and contexts for acting as agents of social justice – student teachers’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Student teachers are oftentimes encouraged to apply theoretical principles of social justice to their professional practice. However, this can be problematic when theoretical knowledge is contested or if it is inconsistent with the practices in their future workplaces. Studies in this area often examine student teachers’ beliefs and understanding of their roles without taking account of how concrete working contexts shape what they see as possible in their practice. This study explored how students in two teacher education programmes based at the University of Edinburgh perceived their roles, practices and contexts for acting as agents of social justice. Mixed methods were used for data generation and triangulation including a questionnaire survey (n = 299) and scenario-based interviews (n = 9) to explore how students think about social justice issues in context. Student teachers generally saw agency for social justice as part of their role. Their understanding of the ways of addressing context-embedded issues of social justice focused on classroom practices while they raised concerns about how their practice depends on others in the system. We discuss the implications of these findings for teacher education.