What Teachers Take from Professional Development: Cases and Implications

In this article, we report on an 18-month longmathematics professional development projectwith elementary school teachers. Using a modelwe developed, three participant case studieswere analyzed with respect to not only theprofessional development milieu, but also howthese teachers interacted with the professionaldevelopment experience. In particular we foundthat having teachers reflect on new, authenticreform-oriented mathematics learningexperiences leads some teachers to take aninquiry stance concerning their own teaching,resulting in self-sustaining changes in theirmathematics instructional practices. Thisimplies that professional development forelementary mathematics teachers should includechallenging mathematics learning experiencescomplete with opportunities to reflect on personal and professional implications.     

Bridge21: teamwork,technology and learning. A pragmatic model for effective twenty-first-century team-based learning

There have been calls for decades by many educational writers and commentators for a new model of learning to facilitate what is generally described as twenty-first-century learning. Central to this challenge is the required shift in responsibility for who leads and owns the learning – from teacher to student. Such a shift requires a pragmatic pedagogical model to facilitate the transfer of control and ownership of learning. Vygotsky’s ‘more able other’ identified the peer as a key figure in learning. Teamwork facilitates project-based learning and, when mediated with technology, proves an effective partner in creating an engaging and autonomous learning experience. This paper describes the rationale for the design of a team-based model of twenty-first-century learning, particularly drawing upon the team-based learning model of the World Scout Movement. Results from a year-long study of the implementation of the model in an out-of-school context with 288 second-level students are presented. The authors argue that Bridge21 is a candidate learning model for effective, implementable, twenty-first-century, team-based learning.     

Policy discourse analysis: negotiating gender equity

This analysis of activists' and bureaucrats' politicking for gender policy in Australia demonstrates the utility of discourse analysis. Feminist policy initiatives are special: they challenge hegemony and they circulate counter discourse. Policy elites try to manage and discredit them. Traditional policy frameworks are used to identify policy with policy mechanisms, policy communities, value shifts and the like. But the use of policy discourse analysis for this Australian story elicits key strategies for constructing and managing a counter narrative and maintaining a counter public of outsiders using insiders to institutionalize gender policies even as equity and social justice value priorities recede.     

Using Cognitive Interventions With Counseling Practicum Students During Group Supervision

The authors argue that students in counseling practicum courses experience many self‐defeating thoughts and anxieties. These worries can impede their performance as new counselors and can have a negative impact on the supervision process. The authors outline innovative methods used by cognitive therapists to address this anxiety. In addition, a model is presented for counselor educators to use cognitive restructuring techniques as a supervision tool. Summary Throughout their studies, counseling graduate students face many possible fears and anxieties that arise from their classroom experiences. The greatest fears and anxieties seem to be related to the counseling practicum experience. This experience is one in which students may feel incompetent, vulnerable, and unskilled as they begin to put their classroom knowledge and experiences into practice. If these fears and anxieties persist, students have a hard time making progress in the area of the counseling relationship and skill building. We have examined how practicum students' fears and anxieties might be addressed, using cognitive interventions. Such interventions allow students to take irrational thoughts and change them to rational thought patterns. This is accomplished by asking students to state their fears verbally, to think about the effects of the fears and the consequences, to think about intervening beliefs and thoughts, and to restate the fears in a rational manner. Our experience suggests that cognitive interventions are useful strategies to help practicum students combat fears and anxieties. Further research might examine the use of other behavioral interventions to address these fears. For example, does role‐playing a counseling technique in supervision make a student less anxious about applying it in a real counseling session? In summary, fear and anxiety can impede the preparation of counselors during their practicum experiences. Understanding the underlying thoughts that cause these fears can help students overcome self‐defeating thought patterns. Cognitive restructuring techniques have been shown to reduce tension and can be used with counseling practicum students to help relieve performance and supervision anxiety.     

Computer technology in education: Redefining the modes of educational transmission

In this paper, the author argues that there is some inevitability to the educational use of computers both in the First and the Third World. One of the issues that will be re-examined as a result of the spreading of computer technology into education will be the distinction between non-formal, formal and informal education. Distinctions between these three modes of educational transmission are usually made on the basis of (i) the type of learning and instruction involved, (ii) the organization of the instruction and learning, and (iii) the purpose or intent of the instructional process. Issues in the educational use of computer technology will affect each of these defining characteristics and present some special challenges to educational managers in the coming decade. The author makes special mention of the implications and challenges for managers in developing educational settings.     

English Teachers--Born or Made: A longitudinal study on the socialisation of English teachers

Much has been made in recent years of the different views teachers of English hold of their subject, but little work has been done on how these views are formed, or indeed how they may change over time. This paper, based on a longitudinal study conducted over two years, tracks one cohort of student English teachers, through their one-year post graduate course, at one department of education, into their first year of teaching. The research also provides detailed case studies from two other institutions.     

Alternative responses to child protective services: emerging issues and concerns

PROBLEM: Increased calls to "do something" about child protective services (CPS) have resulted in proposals or new "paradigms" for services to at-risk or abusive families. These new paradigms call for the reform or revamping of CPS through the development of a community-based alternative response to some reports of child abuse and/or neglect. METHOD: This article reports on outcomes for 1,263 "low" risk CPS referrals diverted to a community-based alternative response system. Data on child, family, and case characteristics and services provided are presented as well as outcomes associated with re-referral and placement post service provision. RESULTS: The risk level and severity of some of the referrals to alternative response systems seems inappropriately high. The rates of re-referral were similar for families who did or did not engage in assessment services, and were highest for families where domestic violence was present. CONCLUSIONS: Criteria for diversion to community alternatives to CPS must be clearly articulated and applied. Both CPS and alternative response system workers must have the skills required to address a family's recognition of the problem and degree of motivation to engage in problem resolution, and to understand their relationship to continued risk of CA/N.