Changes in teachers’ beliefs after a professional development project for teaching writing: two Chinese cases

A plethora of research has found that teachers’ beliefs directly influence their classroom practices and teaching outcomes. While numerous studies in second/foreign language writing have examined the effectiveness of different innovative approaches on students’ learning to write, there is a paucity of research on writing teachers’ beliefs about these approaches and how their beliefs change in the process of their professional development. Such a lacuna becomes prominent in English as a Foreign Language contexts, especially in China, where there are numerous calls for changing the nature of classroom practices from product-focused to process- and student-centred instruction. In order to fill this gap, this brief article reports on a case study regarding changes in two Chinese English teachers’ beliefs after attending a professional development project for teaching writing. A key research question guides this study: What changes, if any, did the two teachers experience in their teaching beliefs during the project? Two writing teachers were voluntarily recruited for a case study. Findings show that the professional development project for teaching writing broadened the teachers’ understanding of different writing theories, provided a clear model of how to integrate these new approaches into regular writing courses, changed their instructional focus and shifted their perception of teachers’ roles in teaching practice.     

Assessing pupils’ skills: implications for research in education

The subject of this article is the structure and evolution of skills developed by pupils at primary level. Starting from an analysis of the panel data provided by the French Ministry of Education, the main object of this paper is an original measurement of skills using structural models. The findings of this research raise two complementary issues. The first issue concerns the cross‐curricular nature of skills suggesting a logic of disciplinary interdependence. The acquisition of a skill may be strongly correlated to the acquisition of other skills belonging to the same subject area or to other subject areas. The notion of a set of skills is used to account for the connections between the different aspects of acquired skills. The second issue concerns the evolution of skills over time. Here the aim will be to identify the kinds of skills that are the most predictive of subsequent educational success. This issue is highly relevant for educational policy‐making. It is hoped that the results presented in this paper will improve one’s understanding of the ways in which schools might provide pupils with the best chances of success in the earliest stages of their educational career.     

Accidental digitoxin intoxication: an interplay between laboratory and clinical medicine

Introduction:

Two Italian adults arrived at the Emergency Department referring diarrhea, nausea and vomiting for 4 days; weakness, fatigue and visual hallucinations were also complained of. Patients reported the ingestion of some leaves of a plant, which they supposed to be “donkey ears”, a week before. Physical examination showed hypotension and bradycardia and ECG examination disclosed sinus rhythm and repolarization abnormalities (scooping of the ST-T complex) in both patients and a 2:1 AV block in the man.

Materials and methods:

Digoxin concentration was evaluated twice for each patient (at the admission and after 4 hours) by the automated immunoassay system ADVIA Centaur^®. Digitoxin concentration was evaluated by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

Results:

Despite clinical picture was suggestive of digitalis intoxication, digoxin levels were undetectable. Due to the more severe clinical picture, the male patient was treated with anti-digoxin antibodies (Digifab^®) achieving a good clinical improvement and remission of the AV block within two hours. Initial diagnosis was confirmed by LC-MS/MS showing high digitoxin concentrations, but digoxin was undetectable. Patients remained stable and 48 hours later were discharged from the hospital.

Conclusion:

Whereas digoxin determination frequently relies on monoclonal antibodies which do not cross-react to digitoxin, polyclonal antibodies constituting Digifab^® recognize a large spectrum of cardiac glycosides, including digitoxin. This report emphasizes the primary role of the clinical approach to patients in the emergency setting and how an active communication and a continuous sharing of professional experiences between Laboratory and Clinicians ensure an early and correct diagnosis.     

Thanks,but no-thanks for the feedback

Feedback is an emotional business in which personal disposition influences what is attended to, encoded, consolidated and eventually retrieved. Here, we examine the extent to which students’ perceptions of feedback and their personal dispositions can be used to predict whether they appreciate, engage with and act on the feedback that they receive. The study is framed in psychological theories of mindset, defensive behaviours and new psychometric measures of the psychological integration of assessment feedback. Results suggest that, in this university population, growth mindset students were in the minority. Generally, students are fostering self-defensive behaviours that fail to nurture remediation following feedback. Recommendations explore the implications for students who engage in self-deception, and the ways in which psychologists and academics may intercede to help students progress academically by increasing their self-awareness.     

Assessing and Addressing Student Barriers: Implications for Today's College Classroom

The increasingly diverse set of learners in colleges and universities poses considerable challenges for educators. Dorothy A. Osterholt and Sophie Lampard Dennis explain the four domains of learning they have identified and suggest ways to apply them to help students overcome a variety of obstacles to learning.     

“Et sachiez qu’il se repenti fort quant yl y envoia” (Jean de Joinville,Vie de saint Louis). Par-delà la désillusion mongole. Mœurs et légendes “tartares” au temps du roi Saint Louis

The passage that John of Joinville, faithful companion of Louis IX, devotes to the Mongols in his chronicle of the Seventh Crusade, known as “La Vie de Saint Louis”, cross-conceives two structures under the sign of hope: historical facts and legends on the one hand, and Christian sensibilities on the other, giving way to a set of “ethnological” observations about what are presented as “barbarian” customs. The text gives a faithful reflection on sentiments which agitated the Crusaders and their King: hope and disillusion. But Joinville's testimony goes far beyond that: it is first and foremost a testimony of love upon which history could be re-written.     

Bursting paradigms: a colour wheel of practice-research

ABSTRACT

In this article, I question practice as a research paradigm by exploring its position in relation to non-positivist qualitative methodologies. Frayling’s [1994. Research in art and design. Royal College of Art Research Papers, 1(1), 1993/4] distinctions between research into, through, and as (for) practice are expanded to explore overlaps between these approaches. I argue for the need to understand the nuances of different epistemologies and ontologies that underpin diverse disciplinary approaches to practice-research. This is done through an analysis of a selection of Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded projects to find out how they are using and/or embedding practice in the research process. The resulting Colour Wheel of Practice-Research illustrates a spectrum of positions of practice in relation to research, suggesting existing research paradigms are bursting at the seams and that the “disciplinary matrix” of practice might offers other ways of knowing. The reason I have chosen to focus primarily on AHRC-funded projects is because it explicitly states its support of “practice-led research” and that it “remains dedicated to this area of research”. This article aims to add to knowledge of how and why practice-research is of continuing interest to research councils, universities, and those identifying as practice-based/led researchers.     

The Psychometric Properties of the Short and Long Versions of the Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire

The Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire was developed to effectively measure affective, cognitive, and behavioral aspects, represented by the interpersonal constructs of closeness, commitment, and complementarity, of the quality of the relationship within the context of sport coaching. The current study sought to determine the internal reliability and factorial validity of the long (the 29-item Long Version Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire) and short (11-item Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire and 13-item Greek Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire) versions of the Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire with a sample of 800 Chinese coaches and athletes. Results supported the internal reliability across all Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire versions examined, while confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) only supported the factorial validity of the three-factor first-order model of the 11-item Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory, research, and practice.