Collaborative Interactions at the Microcomputer Keyboard

Abstract Two studies are reported, both concerned with microcomputer use in the context of collaborative groups. The first study, conducted with eight year‐olds, examines whether the opportunity to practise a problem solving task in pairs produces better subsequent individual performance on the task than does individual practice. Evidence was found for such peer‐facilitation only when children were constrained to collaborate by the imposition of a ‘dual key’ entry requirement. The second study, conducted with 11‐year‐olds, compares the functioning of two types of group over a series of sessions during which the children were introduced to database software. Groups formed on the basis of nominations of preferred working partners were found to demand less teacher intervention and to make fewer minor errors than groups formed on the basis of arbitrary allocation. The possibilities offered by the microcomputer in the classroom for experimentally rigorous but ecologically valid research are discussed.     

Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Science in the European Union: The ‘ETAN Report’

This article examines the position of women in science in academe in the European Union. It draws upon some of the data collected for the 'ETAN' (European Technology Assessment Network) report, Science Policies in the European Union: promoting excellence through mainstreaming gender equality, published recently by the European Commission. The data demonstrate how irrespective of discipline, proportion of female undergraduates in the discipline, and country, women leave scientific careers in disproportionate numbers at every stage, but particularly after the post-doctoral level. The article outlines three approaches to developing gender equality: equal treatment, positive action and gender mainstreaming, and shows how the position of women in science might be improved by the application of these three approaches by universities and research institutes. It concludes by asking some questions about whether more women at the top in science would make a difference to how science is done, what science is done and what is regarded as excellent in science.     

Teachers as writers: learning together with others

In the context of renewed interest in teachers' identities as writers and the writers as artist‐educators, this paper reports upon the findings of “Teachers as Writers” (2015–2017). A collaborative partnership between two universities and a creative writing foundation, the study sought to determine the impact of writers' engagement with teachers on changing teachers' classroom practices in the teaching of writing and, as a consequence, in improving outcomes for students. The project afforded opportunities for writers and teachers to work together as learners in order to improve student outcomes. The study involved two complementary datasets: a qualitative dataset of observations, interviews, audio‐capture (of workshops, tutorials and co‐mentoring reflections) and audio‐diaries from 16 teachers; and a randomised controlled trial (RCT) involving 32 primary and secondary classes. The findings reveal that the teachers' identities and assurance as writers shifted significantly. The Arvon experience also led to pedagogic shifts which the students reported impacted positively upon their motivation, confidence and sense of ownership and skills as writers. However, these salient dispositional shifts did not impact upon the young people's attainment. The professional writers gained new understandings which substantially altered their conceptions of writers' potential contribution in schools.     

Stitching texts: gender and geography in Frankenstein and Patchwork Girl

This paper considers how two related texts—one in print and one in hypertext—are locations for adolescents to undertake the work of ‘literary anthropology’ in considering questions of gender and subjectivity. The first text is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which invites readers to grapple with questions of how adolescents negotiate relations with their parents and others, of how masculinity and femininity are produced and construed, and of how cultural mores inform both processes. The second is Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl, a hypertext novel that parodies the former. Both texts offer a multilayered reading experience for adolescents juxtaposing print and digital technologies, themes of boundary and displacement, and issues of identity and sexuality.     

Role of technology in the design of learning environments

Learning Environments Research - The design of learning environments is being increasingly investigated, largely as a result of higher-education providers being challenged by both societal and...     

Knowledge based systems for teaching and learning maths

The main task of an educational system is to generate instructional situations which induce students to learn knowledge and problem solving abilities as applied to a cognitive domain.
To this end, an instructional dialogue must be seen as a process aimed at making student and teacher learn from each other: the student has to learn the subject matter from the teacher, while the teacher has in turn to learn from the student how to regulate instructional interaction. The process relies on different kinds of expert knowledge: experience of the domain, about the actual student, and of teaching methods and objectives. This means that an instructional dialogue cannot be realised without an explicit representation of all the kinds of knowledge involved.
Research has established that Knowledge Based Educational Systems (KBESs) can be the keystone in building effective learning tools, but because of the difficulty in realising a system of this kind, most existing systems are prototypes and are intended only as workbenches for the computational analysis of educational processes.
This paper analyses the main problems which underlie the realisation of such systems, with reference to research into knowledge based systems intended for use with teaching/learning mathematics.     

Patterns of interaction in the processes of joint reflection by student teachers

Although some research results indicate that joint reflection can improve student-teachers’ reflection, it is not clear how the interaction between student-teachers during a joint reflection process helps this to happen. The aim of this paper is to explore how the organisation of joint activity in processes of joint reflection assists students’ reflection, by identifying patterns of joint reflection (considering all the participants rather than only tutor–student dyads) and by discussing the functional role of these patterns within the students’ processes of reflection and internalisation. Two cases of joint reflection processes between a group of student teachers (15 and 13) and their tutors were examined. In each case, five seminars lasting around one-and-a-half hours each were videotaped and analysed, and individual written reflections after each seminar were gathered and scored. Results showed that joint reflection developed in each case according to different interaction patterns, and that individual written students’ reflections improved from seminar 1 to seminar 5 in one of the cases, but not in the others. These results suggest a relationship between interaction patterns of joint reflection and progress in students’ individual reflection.     

The double-edged sword: Critical reflections on traditional and modern technology in outdoor education

The outdoor education experience continues to be influenced by a proliferation of modern technological innovations, most of which have been accepted and even embraced by educators with little inquiry. Seldom do instructors of outdoor programmes consider the impact that modern techniques and equipment can have upon students' learning. This paper argues that in an unexamined adoption of this technology, some of the potential positive impacts for participants can be compromised, including a direct and meaningful connection to the natural world. As such, modern technology has become a possible mediating influence for participants in outdoor education programmes. The paper examines some of the pedagogical issues of modern technology as a mediator of experience as well as several elements of educating in the outdoors with traditional technology. Woven into the discussion is the question of whether modern technology encourages more people to become involved in outdoor activities or merely works toward the separation of humans from the rest of nature.     

Supporting collaborative reflection in teacher education: a case study

The aim of this paper is to understand how certain educational supports promote preservice teachers’ learning to reflect in collaborative settings. To address this issue, we present a case study on collaborative reflection among 14 preservice teachers and one teacher educator over the course of five weekly consecutive sessions. The results suggest that collaborative reflection can be supported by organizing the process according to a twofold dynamic: from analysis to synthesis, and from open facilitation to directive facilitation. Six different types of assistance related to this dynamic, and provided by the teacher educator, are identified and qualitatively described: framing, oppositional voice, counterpoising alternatives, asking for the dilemma, problematizing, and modelling.     

Race and Color: Two Sides of One Story? Development of Biases in Categorical Perception

Categorical perception is a phenomenon that leads people to group stimuli into categories instead of perceiving their natural continua. This article reviews the literature of two biases connected with categorical perception: categorical color perception and the other‐race effect. Although these two phenomena concern distant targets (colors and faces) and imply different biases (one attentional, one mnemonic), they share at least three commonalities. First, they both involve the chunking of continuous dimensions into categories. Second, adult categories are shaped by cultural processes. Third, infants' discrimination performance seems universal and guided by perception. In this article, it is proposed to look for a common developmental mechanism that clarifies the shift from a perceptual to a sociocognitive knowledge of the environment. New perspectives are discussed.