A Teacher’s Mediation of a Thinking-Aloud Discussion in a 6th Grade Mathematics Classroom

This article presents a Vygotsky-inspired analysis of how a teacher mediated a “thinking aloud” whole-group discussion in a 6th grade mathematics classroom. This discussion centered on finding patterns in a triangular array of consecutive numbers as a phase towards building recursive and direct algebraic formulas. By a “thinking aloud” discussion we mean a conversation wherein students exchange and further develop ideas-in-the-making with their peers under the teacher’s guidance. Drawing upon Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we treated the selected discussion as a text. We then analyzed how the teacher mediated the conjoined making of this text so that it served as an interpersonal gateway for students to practice searching for patterns and signifying these patterns in propositional form. This analysis was guided by the following questions: How did the discussion as a text-in-the-making mean what it did? What was the role of the teacher in the conjoined making of this text? Our study illustrates the power of SFL for capturing the inner grammar of instructional conversations thus illuminating the complexities and subtleties of the teacher’s role in mediating semiotic mediation in mathematics classrooms.     

Action learning guided by Tao for lifelong learning

Information Technology brings about rapid changes in working environment, quickly rendering skills and knowledge gained in formal learning institutions obsolete. Even as they prepare students for their first career, institutions also need to equip students with skills necessary for lifelong learning. The Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore has accordingly structured its curricula into Academic Studies and General Studies where the former focuses on core subjects (broad based knowledge-specific studies), and the latter on general knowledge (multi-disciplines catering to various interests for lifelong benefits). A 12-week course, ‘Introduction to Tao for Effective Action Learning’ which focuses on learning processes was developed and has been taught by the author, for undergraduates at NTU since July 2001. The course materials were derived from the author's Ph.D. thesis ‘The Tao of Action Learning’ (Sam, 2000). This paper explains the nature of the action learning programme at NTU and includes one account from participant students.     

EXPLORES教学模式探析与应用研究

培养具有创新意识,能综合运用所学科学理论和技术手段,具备分析并解决工程问题能力的未来工程师,教学与社会需求紧密集合,缩小从学校步入企业的差距感,是美国辛辛那提大学学者提出的EXPLORES教学理念的核心思想。该文探讨了堆于知识泛化、自主解决问题、工程项目驱动的教学模式。以数字化制造教学为例,打造具有代表性的企业数字化制造车间模拟环境,打破课程界限,引入具有实际工程背景的项目,通过分组合作方式,展开教学实践。以期提高学生对实际工程领域中机械制造技术的认知,使教学更贴近社会需求。为促进学生从高校到工程技术岗位上的无缝转变提供建议与参考。     

Telecommunications

Rufus P. Turner's The Illustrated Dictionary of Electronics (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1980---$19.95/14.95)

Sam Fedida and Rex Malik's The Viewdata Revolution (New York: John Wiley, 1980--- $34.95)

The latest from the Harvard Program on Information Resources Policy (200 Aiken, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 02138)     

Countering and exceeding ‘capital’: a ‘funds of knowledge’ approach to re-imagining community

This article discusses how the ‘funds of knowledge’ approach (FoK) offers a socially just alternative to the logics of capital, by drawing on knowledge assets from students’ family and community lifeworlds to build engaging and rigorous learning, supporting school–community interactions that build capacities. We explain how we applied FoK in an action research project – Redesigning Pedagogies in the North (RPiN) – to design curriculum and pedagogy in schools of a high-poverty region. With reference to RPiN, we also observe how high-poverty regions, and their schools, appear to be undergoing complex unsettlements, as effects of globalisation, which raise problematic questions about who/what is ‘the local community’. We argue that this calls for new thinking, both sociological and ethical, which can refine the FoK approach to take fuller account of the diverse and complex spaces of social-historical life in new times. We conclude by considering a pedagogical approach through which learners in such regions can re-imagine hopeful forms of community.     

School Improvement Efforts: Qualitative and Quantitative Data from Four Naturally Occurring Experiments in Phases III and IV of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study

Abstract

Phase III of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES‐III) was designed to provide rich, qualitative and quantitative data on the characteristics of more and less effective schools. Data were gathered on eight matched outlier pairs of schools. Unbeknownst to the authors at the beginning of LSES‐III, four of the eight historically ineffective schools were engaged in school improvement efforts. None of these efforts was guided from the state or district. This serendipity provided an opportunity to observe improvement efforts which were of the “naturally occurring” ‐‐ as opposed to externally developed, mandated or otherwise offered ‐‐ variety. The four projects are described, complete with five year follow‐up data. The efforts are seen as falling along two dimensions: technical changes designed to raise achievement test scores; and efforts focused on a point along a continuum ranging from orderliness to excellence, and designed to raise students’ academic achievement. Comparisons are made to more formally planned school improvement efforts.     

An Evaluation of a Residential PSE Course for an Academic A-Level Class

In England, the presence of an established church places its adherents within the social mainstream. Other religious groups have been tolerated though suffering social and educational disadvantages. With the passage of time through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, minority religious groups such as Irish Catholics have been assimilated into the host culture, and allowed to have their own schools.

However, it would appear that contemporary movements of people to the United Kingdom have retained loyalties not only to their own religion, but, in some instances to their own language, which they perceive as a vital element of their own culture and identity. Demands for schools, within the state-funded system, for minority religious groups have not lessened. As faith schools in England increase in number, their role in a multicultural society becomes increasingly problematic. Lessons about changing models of assimilation and identity can be learnt from a brief review of the historic Irish Catholic experience that, in turn, can illuminate the current experience of a Greek Orthodox school in south London.     

Referral and placement recommendations of teachers toward gifted handicapped children

Three male students between 10 and 13 years of age, who possessed WISC‐R Full Scale IQ's of greater than 120 and documented problems in decoding skills were assessed with respect to cognitive processing abilities (Cognitive Assessment System) and found to have marked deficits in successive coding. A process based remedial program, combining global training on tasks requiring successive processing with tasks involving the application of successive processing to decoding in reading, was implemented within approximately six weeks (15 hours) of training. The remedial program included guided practice and verbal mediation to assist students to internalize and generalize the cognitive strategies. Improvements following remediation were manifested uniquely for each of the students. The differences appeared to be related to the entry skill levels and preferred strategies of each student, as well as to the dimensions of attention and motivation. Results offer an extension of cognitive theory regarding the functioning of students, and may also provide an assessment option allowing earlier identification and remediation for such students.