Conditions for Learning: Partnerships for Engaging Secondary Pupils with Contemporary Art

This article examines the findings of the London Cluster research, ‘Critical Minds’, in which the Institute of Education, University of London (IoE) worked in collaboration with Whitechapel Chapel Art Gallery (the lead London gallery), Bow Arts, Chisenhale Gallery and Space ‐The Triangle, and four east London comprehensive schools. By collaborating with art departments and by focusing on learning within the gallery context, the research team questioned whether the perceived constraints of traditional art and design pedagogy can be overcome by changing the conditions in which learning takes place. The following analysis focuses on these conditions as outlined in the research report's recommendations.     

The efficacy of embedding special education instruction in teacher preparation programs in the United States

This study examined the effects of embedding special education instruction into preservice general education assessment courses. Participants were teacher candidates in the United States enrolled in a required evaluation and measurement course (n=208). A self-report survey was developed assessing knowledge of and attitudes toward teaching students with learning disabilities. Results indicated that embedded instruction significantly increased teacher candidate's knowledge of inclusion terminology and assessment adaptations (p<.01), and improved confidence levels in meeting the needs of students with learning disabilities improved by 60% over the control group. These results suggest the need to provide faculty in the content area adequate professional development opportunities to ensure that current special education best practices are embedded across the curriculum of teacher candidates.     

Mindful hands,gestures as language: listening to children

This paper explores ideas of language as a cognitive tool and the role of gesture in expressing children's interests and levels of knowledge. The context is a group of three‐year‐old children who participate in a weekly music session with a trained musician. The authors present drawings from photographs of children's hands and interpret them, using contextual information, to explain how the positioning of the children's hands reflects their internalized understandings and can be viewed as a rich symbolic language. A discussion of the early childhood curriculum and the use of finger plays has been included to suggest that gesture was initially viewed as part of ‘the whole child’ but, today, activities like finger plays have become ritualized exercises. It is suggested that if adults do not listen to the language of hands they are depriving themselves of a valuable window into children's thinking and learning.     

KEY INFORMANTS' PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHER LEARNING IN SCOTLAND

ABSTRACT:   This article outlines the policy context for teachers' learning and continuing professional development in Scotland and considers this in relation to the perspectives of key informants gained through interview. The analysis draws on a triple-lens conceptual framework and points to some interesting contradictions between the policy text and the expressed aspirations of the interviewees. Current policy and the associated structural arrangements are viewed as broadly positive, but interviewees express concerns that an unintended emphasis on contractual arrangements might inhibit the more transformative elements of professional learning.     

Rethinking Learner-Centred Education: Bridging Knowledge Cultures

Abstract

This article argues that learner-centred education needs to shift from a discussion only on pedagogical activities such as group-work and other cooperative learning strategies. It suggests that the focus of learner-centred education should be on the cultural world of the African child and how this influences the way in which he/she learns Western science. The African child often experiences cognitive dissonance/perturbation when learning Western science. The article draws on insights from the theory of collateral learning which was originally developed by Jegede. It argues that unless policymakers and teachers take into consideration the cultural frameworks of learners, there will not be a sound basis for improving school science and school mathematics in South Africa. Spending more on resources and increasingly testing learners, as is currently done in South Africa, will not improve school science in South Africa. Improving school science in part depends on rethinking leaner-centred education, which means critically looking at the important role that cultural frameworks of learners play in learning Western science.     

Propriety, process and purpose: considerations of the use of the telephone interview method in an educational research study

While the use of the telephone has increased as a means of collecting research data in a range of areas, there are few examples of studies where telephone interviews have been conducted to collect qualitative data. The field of educational research is no exception to this. This paper focuses on a study carried out in Higher Education (HE) investigating student withdrawal. It explores the ethics of interviewing by telephone a group of former students; issues that arose in the carrying out of the research, particularly relating to the quality of the data; and the impact of the study’s purpose on its conduct. The paper discusses the value of telephone interviewing to collect qualitative data and offers some practical suggestions for future use.     

A critical reflection on the multiple roles required to facilitate mutual learning during service-learning in Creative Arts education

In this article, I critically reflect on my own learning during a community-based, service-learning pilot project, highlighting the multiple roles that were required of me as facilitator. I provided opportunity for student teachers in a Creative Arts module to engage with youth from a local township community. The purpose of the participatory action research was to explore how this process enhanced reciprocal learning. Data were generated through multiple qualitative methods in four cycles of interactive activities. Adapting to the challenges of community-based learning necessitated that I was flexible enough to know when to don the hat of educator or research designer and when to be less directive to promote professional development and intercultural competencies. I learned to value relational platforms, enable diverse modes of communication and find workable strategies for mutual learning. By sharing my lessons learned, I hope to provide a better understanding of the facilitator’s multiple leadership roles.     

What Really Matters in Synagogue Education: A Comparative Case Study of a Conventional School and an Alternative Program

This article examines case studies of two part-time synagogue education programs, a conventional “Hebrew School” and an alternative program modeled after Jewish summer camp. Using the lens of teaching of Bible to children in Grades 3–5, the study provides insight into similarities and differences between the two types of programs and the impact of the program structure on the proliferation and/or staying power of one or the other. I found that factors of success in synagogue education may not be dependent on a program’s structure (“school”/“camp”) but, rather, on factors such as professional learning and content knowledge, among others.     

Preparing for the First Birth: Mothers' Experiences at Home and in Hospital in Australia

The aim of this research was to explore the experiences of a group of first-time mothers who had given birth at home or in hospital in Australia. Data were generated from in-depth interviews with 19 women and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. One of the categories to emerge from the analysis, “Preparing for Birth,” is discussed in this article. Preparing for Birth consisted of two subcategories, “Finding a Childbirth Setting” and “Setting Up Birth Expectations,” which were mediated by beliefs, convenience, finances, reputation, imagination, education and knowledge, birth stories, and previous life experiences. Overall, the women who had planned home births felt more prepared for birth and were better supported by their midwives compared with women who had planned hospital births.     

Science and sociability: women as audience at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1831-1901

This essay recovers the experiences of women at the meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) from its founding in 1831 to the end of the Victorian era. It aims to add to research on women in science by reconsidering the traditional role of women as consumers rather than producers of knowledge and to that on science popularization by focusing on audience experience rather than on the aims and strategies of popularizers. The essay argues that, in various ways, the ubiquitous and visible female audience came to define the BAAS audience and "the public" for science more generally. The women who swelled the BAAS audiences were accepted as a social element within the meetings even as they were regarded critically as scientific participants. Portrayed as passive and nonscientific, women allowed the male scientific elites to distance themselves from their audiences. Arguing from diary and other evidence, we present examples that complicate existing notions of audiences for science as necessarily active.