Illuminating and facilitating professional knowledge through case work

In the spring of 2002 the Ontario College of Teachers began a research project in order to foster awareness of the Standards of Practice for the 187 000 teachers in the province. Case work, in which 18 teachers representative of the College's membership wrote narratives describing their professional dilemmas, was the methodology chosen. Through reflection and collaborative group work these practitioners co‐created a set of cases, mapping them back to the standards in order to ascertain how the standards had been embedded or absent from their daily practice. To validate the effectiveness of this method, we used the cases in pre‐service, in‐service, principal and supervisory personnel venues. We also recorded the impact of the ‘case institute’ in a focus group session with the original writers. Augmented by commentaries from internationally known teacher educators, this text will be sent to all provincial school boards as part of a resource kit to educate teachers about the standards of practice.

Au printemps 2002, l'Ordre des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario amorçait un projet de recherche ayant pour but de sensibiliser les 187 000 enseignants de la province aux normes d'exercice de leur profession. L'étude de cas rédigés par 18 enseignants membres de l'Ordre est la méthode qui allait servir à présenter divers dilemmes professionnels. Ainsi, ces praticiens ont réfléchi et travaillé ensemble pour présenter des cas et les rattacher aux normes afin de déterminer la présence ou l'absence des normes dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Pour valider l'efficacité de cette méthode, nous avons mis les cas à l'épreuve lors d'activités organisées pour les étudiants des facultés d'éducation, des enseignants en perfectionnement professionnel, des directeurs d'école et des agents de supervision. Nous avons également réuni les 18 rédacteurs pour discuter de l'impact des ateliers de rédaction de cas. Le texte, auquel s'ajoutent les commentaires d'éducateurs de renommée internationale, fera partie de la trousse de ressources qui sera envoyée à tous les conseils scolaires de la province pour initier les enseignants aux normes d'exercice de la profession.

Im Frühjahr 2002, unternahm das Ontario College of Teachers einen Forschungsprojekt mit dem Ziel, das Bewußtsein der Normen der Praxis unter den 187,000 Lehrer des Bundeslandes Ontario zu fördern. Die gewählte Methodologie war die Untersuchung von spezifischen Fallberichten, in denen 18 Lehrer, die repräsentativ für die Mitglieder der Organisation dastehen, ihre Entscheidungen im beruflichen Alltag begründeten. In einem von Überlegung, Zusammenarbeit und Gruppenarbeit geprägten Verfahren schufen diese Lehrer und Lehrerinnen einen Korpus der Fälle, die sie anschließend zu den Berufsnormen zurückverfolgten, um festzustellen, wie die Normen sich in der täglichen Praxis eingebettet hatten oder das Gegenteil. Um die Wirksamkeit der Methode zu bestätigen, wurden Einzelfälle in vorberuflichen, beruflichen, Direktor‐ und Aufsichtsstellen‐bezogenen Umgebungen ausgesucht. Die Wirkung der Falluntersuchungen wurde auch in einer Diskussionsrunde mit den Autoren aufgenommen. Dieser Text, bereichert durch Kommentare von Lehrerausbildern von internationalem Ruf, wird an alle Schulverwaltungen im Bundesland Ontario als Bestandteil eines Ressourcen‐Compendiums versandt, mit dem Ziel, Lehrer über die Normen der Berufspraxis weiterzubilden.

En la primavera del 2002, el Colegio de Profesores de Ontario inició un proyecto de investigación para crear conciencia entre los 187,000 maestros en la provincia sobre los estándares de práctica profesional. La metodología elegida fue el ‘Estudio de antecedentes’ en la que un grupo representativo de la membresía del Colegio, conformado por 18 maestros, redactó historias contando sus dilemas profesionales. Tras mucha reflexión y trabajo mancomunado de equipo, estos profesores crearon colectivamente un conjunto de casos, trazando un mapa vinculándolos a los estándares y así poder determinar de qué manera estos estándares habían estado arraigados en su práctica profesional cotidiana o si los habían dejado de lado. Para validar la eficacia de este método, aplicamos los casos en varios contextos docentes: estudiantes de la facultad de educación, capacitación profesional para docentes, directores de plantel y superintendentes de las juntas directivas escolares. También tomamos nota del impacto del ‘Taller para la redacción de casos’ en una sesión de enfoque grupal con los propios autores. Este texto, que ha sido complementado con comentarios de capacitadores de maestros conocidos internacionalmente, será enviado a todas las Juntas Directivas de las escuelas provinciales como parte del kit de recursos para educar a los profesores sobre los estándares de práctica profesional.     

Toward Developing a Behavioral Counselor Education Model

Counselor education currently does not have a training model that is systematically employed and contains provisions for individual differences or promotes the development of programs for facilitating transfer of training. In the proposed model, counselor educators must decide which of the counseling student's thinking, feeling, and acting behaviors will become the focus of training efforts. The staff creatively implements its conceptualized behavioral curriculum goals through the application of learning principles to specified counseling student behaviors that are assessed to determine if whether or not the desired behavior changes are occurring.     

Curriculum Design of a Flipped Classroom to Enhance Haematology Learning

A common trend in higher education is the “flipped” classroom, which facilitates active learning during class. The flipped approach to teaching was instituted in a haematology ‘major’ class and the students’ attitudes and preferences for the teaching materials were surveyed. The curriculum design was explicit and involved four major components (1) the preparation of the students; (2) the weekly pre-class work; (3) the in-class active learning strategies and (4) closing the learning loop using formative quizzes. Each of these components is discussed in detail and was informed by sound pedagogical strategies. Several different sources of information and several freely available software tools to engage the students are discussed. Two iterations are reported here, with improved pass rate for the final examination from 47 to 48 % in the traditional class to 56–65 % in the flipped classroom approach. The majority of students (93 and 89 %) came to the class prepared, after viewing the screencasts and engaged fully with the activities within the face-to-face time. The students perceived that solving case studies (93 %) was the most beneficial activity for their learning and this was closely followed by the production of essay plans (71 %). The majority of students recommended that this approach be repeated the following year (69 and 75 %).     

Scientific conviction amidst scientific controversy in the transatlantic livestock and meat trade

A century before the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Great Britain and North America grappled with pleuro-pneumonia - a disease in cattle that had equally maddening consequences. Towards the end of the 19th century, this condition was at the heart of a transatlantic trade dispute that lasted for decades and attracted the attention of livestock farmers, diplomats, shipping moguls, veterinarians, public health regulators and journalists the world over. Scientific controversy aggravated the situation when there were doubts about the scientific judgment of Privy Council veterinary officials, who were simultaneously conducting disease-diagnosis activities and pushing for tighter regulations at British ports. At this point, William Williams, principal of the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, waded into this troubled arena. His strong convictions spawned a long-running disagreement with the British Government over the diagnoses of pleuro-pneumonia in cattle imported from the USA and Canada.     

Infants' use of shared linguistic information to clarify ambiguous requests

Do infants use past linguistic information to interpret an ambiguous request for an object? When infants in this research were shown 2 objects, and asked for 1 with an indefinite request (e.g., "Can you get it for me?"), both 15- and 18-month-olds used the speaker's previous reference to an absent object to interpret the request. The 18-month-olds did so even when the request was made after a 2.5-min delay. When the request was made by a person who did not participate in the conversation, the infants did not use the previous verbal information. These results demonstrate infants' ability to use language as a source of information in ambiguous contexts and indicate an early appreciation of the shared nature of conversation.     

School-psychological providers: A national survey of state departments of education

To identify professional groups that are providing psychological services in the schools, the present national survey of state departments of education was conducted. Fifty-nine percent of states currently mandate services of school psychologists by law, and a variety of allied professional groups were identified as also providing psychological services in the schools. Specific information about provider groups and service mandates is reported. Recommendations relevant to the provision of quality school-psychological services and utilization of multiple providers are given.     

Variable uses of alternative conceptions: A case study in current electricity

Recent research related to the design of science instruction is often based on conceptual change theory and requires assessments of what knowledge students bring to instruction. The premise of this study was that it is also important to understand when and how students apply their knowledge. Fourteen elementary and middle school teachers in an in-service physics course were asked to solve qualitatively a variety of series and parallel circuit problems and explicate their reasoning. These teachers were found to share a common core of strongly held propositions that formed a coherent, but incorrect and contradictory model of sequential current flow. Yet their predictions about the circuits were highly variable. The variability in predictions resulted from differences and contradictions in additional “protective belts” of propositions, and differences in the ways in which the teachers changed and selectively applied those propositions to different problems. Understanding the variations in not only what teachers knew, but also the differences in when and how they applied their knowledge complicated the task of designing instruction. However, it also made possible the design of more precise instruction in which the teachers were required to recognize, confront, and reconcile specific inconsistencies in their beliefs.     

Performing under pressure: Exploring the psychological state underlying clutch performance in sport

Clutch performance is improved performance under pressure. However, little research has examined the psychological state experienced by athletes in these situations. Therefore, this study qualitatively examined the subjective experience underlying clutch performance across a range of sports (e.g., team, individual) and standards (Olympic to recreational athletes). Sixteen athletes (M_age = 27.08 years; SD = 6.48) took part in in-depth, semi-structured interviews primarily after an exceptional performance (M = 4.38 days later; SD = 3.14). Data were analysed inductively and thematically. Clutch states involved 12 characteristics, including heightened and deliberate concentration, intense effort, and heightened awareness, which distinguished the experience of clutch from other optimal psychological states such as flow. Other characteristics, such as perceptions of control, were also reported and supported previous experimental research on clutch. These findings present in-depth qualitative insights into the psychological state underlying clutch performance, and are discussed in relation to the existing literature on optimal psychological states in sport.