Professionalism in medical education

Medical professionalism in today's society requires the exhibition of a range of qualities deployed in the service of patients, rather than more traditionally defined aspects such as mastery, autonomy and self-regulation. These qualities incorporate demonstrated clinical competence; aspiring to excellence in practice while demonstrating humility and recognition of personal limitations; exercising professional judgement; and maintaining a fiduciary relationship with patients by the earning and maintenance of trust.     

Professional development for university scientists around issues of equity and diversity: Investigating dissent within community

We investigated the role of dissent in a community of university scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and social scientists engaged in a 2‐year professional development project around issues of equity and diversity. Members of this teacher learning community explored issues related to gender and ethnicity in science education, and attempted to develop course materials and instructional strategies inclusive of students from underrepresented groups. We focused our attention on those professional development sessions (6 of the 19) devoted to a contentious yet integral topic in science education: the gendered and multicultural nature of science. We examined conversations initiated by a member's concerns to learn how dissent led (or failed to lead) to new insights into feminist science studies scholarship or to greater understanding of ways to address equity issues in undergraduate science education. We also explored how teacher learners' resulting views of feminist science studies scholarship informed (or failed to inform) changes in their own educational practices. From our qualitative analyses, we highlight the challenges in balancing respect for members' individual voices with collective progress toward project goals, and in structuring conversations initiated by dissent to provide adequate space for deliberation and movement toward deeper understanding of equity and excellence. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 738–771, 2002     

Speaking Subjects: the Development of a Conceptual Framework for the Teaching and Learning of Spoken Language

Although the National Curriculum demands a wide range of speaking and listening activities in the primary classroom and the National Oracy Project has stimulated a rich variety of empirical work by teachers on children's spoken language, there is still an underdeveloped conceptual framework to the primary oracy curriculum as a whole. This article argues that the recent SCAA (School Curriculum and Assessment Authority) Exemplification of Standards booklet and video sent to every primary school in the country only raises once again some of these unresolved conceptual issues. It attempts to begin to construct a useful conceptual framework for classroom oracy using different concepts which help to frame the familial culture of the young child, the oral culture of the media and the cognitive and rational culture of school discourse.     

Damaging confusions in England's KS2 reading tests: a response to Anne Kispal

This article is written in response to the article published in issue 39.3 of this journal, in November 2005, on the nature of the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum reading tests: ‘Examining England's National Curriculum assessments: an analysis of the KS2 reading test questions’ by Anne Kispal of the National Foundation for Educational Research. It argues that, far from providing a valid and rewarding assessment experience for pupils as Kispal suggests, the primary English tests at the end of KS2 are invalid as a measuring instrument and are having a damaging effect on pedagogy. The tests and the information on them provided by the Qualifications and Curriculum Agency are based on a misleading unidimensional conception of reading literacy attainment. Because the test assessment simply adds together marks achieved for very different cognitive skills, it propagates a dysfunctional model of literacy pedagogy that conflates and confuses two separate developmental trajectories – word reading and text comprehension. The article goes on to argue that the unidimensionality of the national tests and their pedagogic apparatus has constricted the primary English curriculum in ways that are damaging for young pupils and for the national need for creativity and enterprise.     

Listening to the Boys: English boys' views on the desirable characteristics of teachers of sex education

This paper explores the preferences of boys regarding the characteristics of teachers of sex education. Sex education in English schools is delivered as a compulsory part of National Curriculum Science and in most schools is further explored in time given over to personal, social and health education. Research was carried out in a variety of schools from both the state and private sectors, by the use of focus group interviews and questionnaires. Due to the existing law in England and Wales regarding parents' right of withdrawal from classes, only boys of 16 or over were used in this research. Boys want teachers to be empathetic, non-judgemental and able to create a 'safe environment' in order to facilitate the discussion of difficult subjects. Most boys believed that the age and sex of the teacher had little bearing on whether they could deliver the subject well; more important was their ability to generate trust, keep control of classes and use relaxed and informal methods of delivery. Unanimously the boys believed that history and English teachers were more able to fulfil these requirements whereas science and mathematics teachers were considered to be unable to adapt to the relaxed styles required. There was a general belief that teachers should be specially trained in this area of the curriculum. Disagreement was found in areas such as the use of outsiders to deliver sex education. The implications of this research for teacher educators, teachers in training and schools are considerable. Unless boys work with teachers they respect and trust they will continue to have little time for this area of the curriculum, to the detriment of their future relationships.     

Using online technologies to extend a classroom to learners at a distance

The authors studied a course in which an instructor allowed individuals at a distance to participate. Although these students were not formally enrolled in the university where the class took place, the instructor gave them full access to all course materials and encouraged them to complete course assignments. The authors examined the time and technical proficiency required to involve learners at a distance. We surveyed these learners to determine their perceptions of the course and examined their work. Learners at a distance reported receiving some benefit from the course, particularly in terms of learner–content interaction. We surveyed students in the face‐to‐face classroom to determine whether having students participating at a distance in the same class affected their perception of the course. They reported no impact. The implications and limitations of these results are discussed.     

What Jim Crow’s Teachers Could Do: Educational Capital and Teachers’ Work in Under-resourced Schools

This article explains how Jim Crow’s teachers—former teachers of legally segregated schools for blacks—prepared and motivated disadvantaged students in spite of funding and resource deprivation. According to the author, black teachers fashioned situated pedagogies for the acquisition of educational capital that could be used in exchange for jobs, rights, and social power. Findings reveal three strategies of opportunity which provide some clues to how urban teachers today can educate poor children of color in under-resourced schools, such as generating materials and supplies, situating curriculum and instruction, and mobilizing human resources. The analysis draws upon 44 oral history interviews with former teachers in the coastal plains of North Carolina, as well as secondary historical sources.     

Raising Literacy Standards: The True Story

As the Literacy Hour becomes compulsory in primary schools across Britain it is important to consider its impact on the primary teaching profession and the factual basis on which its aims and structures are based. This article claims that the National Literacy Strategy is a deskilling initiative which itself is based on unsubstantiated claims that its proposals are more effective than previous methods. It enshrines a mythology that teachers do not teach literacy effectively and need to be retrained to do so. The article examines the evidence for this myth and finds there are no research findings of any validity whatsoever to support it. The article goes on to point to the real and inescapable correlation between literacy attainment and social and economic status, a finding which shows up in several different pieces of valid research. Working on the supposition that the Labour Government does genuinely care about the long tail of failure provided by the 20 per cent or so of children who come from the poorest socio-economic groups, the article goes on to discuss a reconceptualisation of this problem. Building on the work of social anthropologists, particularly that of Brian Street, it suggests the direction in which valid research-based policy and pedagogy should take to address it.