Identifying didactic knowledge: An empirical study of the educationally critical aspects of learning about information systems

This paper backgrounds and illustrates an approach to researching didactic knowledge. Underlying the approach are some of the frameworks developed from the student learning research. Based on these frameworks the experience of learning about a particular phenomenon is theorised as having educationally critical aspects. Without addressing these aspects in learning experiences, students are highly unlikely to achieve the target understanding desired by the teacher. The approach developed to research educationally critical aspects compares scholarly and student experiences of learning about a phenomenon using the analytical framework of a structure of awareness. An application of the approach is reported in the form of a phenomenographic study which researched didactic knowledge about the concept of an information system (IS). Multiple, previously unreported, educationally critical aspects of learning about the concept of an IS were identified. Some implications of this finding for the design of IS undergraduate curricula, textbooks, teaching strategies and learning tasks are proposed. Finally, the research approach is promoted as a means to investigate didactic knowledge about other phenomena.     

Setting or mixed ability? Teachers’ views of the organisation of pupils for learning

This paper examines how staff in schools formulate decisions about pupil organisation. A small sample of primary and secondary schools from across Scotland was involved in the study.
In 1996 Her Majesty's Inspectors published a report entitled Achievement for All (SOEID, 1996) which, it was envisaged, would form the basis of school evaluations into the effectiveness of classroom organisation. This report, and in particular the six principles on which it suggested effective organisational arrangements should rest, formed the organising framework for the study.
The study had three main aims:

• 1. 

  to ascertain the extent to which the principles outlined in the HMI report had been used by school staff when making decisions about which form of organisation to use

       

New data and prior belief: The two faces of scientific reasoning

Kuhn (1989) has argued that at the heart of the ability to reason scientifically is the process of differentiating existing mental models (i.e. theory) from new data. In this regard she has proposed a developmental sequence in which, in the early stages, theory and data are fully integrated and are used interchangeably. Later, when theory and data are compatible, they tend to be moulded together as ‘the way things are’, but when they are incompatible conflict is avoided by the use of strategies which bring the two into line: these strategies often include selective attention to the data. Only at the upper levels of this developmental spectrum are theory and data conscientiously differentiated, with each being used to reflect on the other. This paper analyses the responses made by Year 11 students to problems which required them to evaluate a prediction based on some provided data. The problems were set in two contexts, one scientific and one social, and the predictions to be evaluated combined plausibility/implausibility and validity/invalidity. The response patterns were very similar to those described by Kuhn, and the implications of this for teachers, especially those attempting to use conflict based teaching approaches, are developed. Specializations: science teacher education, scientific problem solving, changing students’ alternative conceptions. Specializations: psychological theories applied to science education.     

Action learning in John Lewis

A small group of training professionals within the John Lewis Partnership set up an action learning group about 2 years ago. The main aim was to explore the technique for our own learning and development. The timing and lifespan of the group reflected the generally strategic and long-term nature of our projects. One of these was to introduce action learning to a group of operational managers in one of our department stores. Key benefits which arose for this group were: the opportunity to spend time thinking about one aspect of work in a focused way; the learning that arose both about the action learning experience as well as about our projects; the challenge provided by the group, which proved an incentive to move work along quickly; the bonds of trust and support established which have continued after the group ended it's life. We have been able to learn from our own experience and that of the pilot operational managers group to help us expand both the use and the usefulness of action learning for the organization.     

That noun phrase may be beneficial and this may not be: discourse cohesion in reading and writing

This paper examines the effects of attended and unattended demonstratives on text processing, comprehension, and writing quality in two studies. In the first study, participants (n = 45) read 64 mini-stories in a self-paced reading task and identified the main referent in the clauses. The sentences varied in the type of demonstratives (i.e., this, that, these, and those) contained in the sentences and whether the referent was followed by a demonstrative determiner and noun (i.e., an attended demonstrative) or a demonstrative pronoun (i.e., an unattended demonstrative). In the second study, 173 persuasive essays written by high school students were rated by expert judges on overall writing quality using a standardized rubric. Expert coders manually counted the number and types of demonstratives (attended and unattended demonstratives) in each essay. These counts were used to predict the human scores of essay quality. The findings demonstrate that the use of unattended demonstratives as anaphoric references is disadvantageous to both reading time and referent identification. However, these disadvantages become advantages in terms of essay quality likely because linguistic complexity is a strong indicator of high proficiency writing. From a text processing and comprehension viewpoint, the findings indicate, then, that anaphoric reference is not always beneficial and does not always create a more cohesive text. In contrast, from a writing context, the use of unattended demonstratives leads to a more linguistically complex text, which generally equates to a higher quality text.     

Availability and use of educational media in secondary schools in Ondo State

The author reports on a pilot study aimed at identifying what items of educational media were available in selected schools in Ondo State, Nigeria, and the extent of their use. A twenty-eight item questionnaire was used to assess availability. use, attitude of principals and support for instructional media. Seventy-seven schools from different parts of Ondo State participated in the study. The results showed that these secondary schools were generally very poorly equipped with educational media and that the level of use was very low. The reasons for this are fourfold: economic, political, the lack of training and the lack of co-ordination among the agencies responsible. Recommendations include the rationalisation of small schools, a programme of workshops and seminars and the involvement of classroom teachers in the planning and production of educational broadcasts.     

The GLOBE Visualization Project: Using WWW in the Classroom

Though commercial interest in the World Wide Web is growing, the potential uses of the medium as a learning tool are numerous. The GLOBE Visualization Project is one such educational application. We have designed and implemented a WWW-based, user-friendly, language-independent, graphical user interface providing access to visualizations created for GLOBE, a multinational program of education and science. The target users of the system are K–12 students and their teachers from over 1100 schools in 39 countries; other clients include the GLOBE scientific investigators and members of the public internationally. Navigation is intuitive, and employs the metaphors of a Control Panel which changes the image appearing in a Viewscreen. The interface can be learned empirically by persons of all ages regardless of technical expertise or native language; context-sensitive help is provided for users who prefer documentation. The GLOBE Visualization server is on the World Wide Web at URL http://globe.gsfc.nasa.gov/globe/.     

An evaluation of the role of email in promoting science investigative skills in primary rural schools in England

This project evaluated the effect of collaboration via email links on the quality of 10–11 year old students’ science investigative skills in six primary rural schools. After a joint planning meeting, sixty children collected, identified and shared information via email about moths in their area, in order to produce a joint booklet. All email traffic was monitored throughout the project. Indepth structured observations and interviews were carried out at the schools. Children completed daily diaries. The children demonstrated a variety of science skills, particularly observation and recording. Their competence and confidence in using computers, handling email and in manipulating a data base developed during the project. The project identified a number of important issues relating to teacher inservice training requirements, the importance of a suitable progression of IT experiences throughout the school, development in cooperative groupwork for children, and software design.     

Warranting Practices: Teachers Embedding the National Numeracy Strategy

This paper explores the notion of the 'evidence-based practitioner' in relation to the National Numeracy Strategy (NNS). The exploration is dealt with in the context of a pilot study of the implementation of the NNS one year before its national launch in September 1999. We begin by describing some of the milestones encountered in the relatively short life history of evidence-based practice (EBP) and exploring some of its various articulations. Challenging the appropriateness of current externally derived formulations of 'evidence' we develop the notion of 'warranting' in order to examine alternative ways in which teachers legitimate their professional practice in relation to the NNS. We conclude that what we observe is a series of shifting and multiple meanings and justifications, carrying different constraints and possibilities for practice.