Children's thinking and poetry

'We didn't do poems.'We used to do it as a punishment when we were talking."Whenever we did something wrong, all the class had to stand up and say two poems, one was about Abu Ben Adam and the other was about a girl who went to a party and fell off her chair.' (First year pupils)     

A taxomony of Engineering Design tasks and its applicability to university Engineering Education

Engineering Design is rightfully regarded as a key element within all university Engineering courses and most laboratory assignments and project work seek to optimise the student's acquisition of knowledge and understanding of this process. Within this paper Engineering Design has been classified into a new 'hierarchy of task level' each one defined by an increased degree of design freedom that an Engineer has to consider. It is argued that this classification accurately reflects the varying complexity of tasks found within real world industrial environment. The optimal matching of these task levels to university course assignments is discussed and limitations identified. The need for further design experience within a wider industrial context is shown to be essential if the nature of design freedom is to be fully appreciated by the next generation of professional Engineers.     

Learning to Learn to Teach: An ``Experiment' Model for Teaching and Teacher Preparation in Mathematics

This paper describes a model for generating andaccumulating knowledge for both teaching andteacher education. The model is applied firstto prepare prospective teachers to learn toteach mathematics when they enter theclassroom. The concept of treating lessons asexperiments is used to explicate theintentional, rigorous, and systematic processof learning to teach through studying one's ownpractice. The concept of planning teachingexperiences so that others can learn fromone's experience is used to put into practicethe notion of contributing to a sharedprofessional knowledge base for teachingmathematics. The same model is then applied tothe work of improving teacher preparationprograms in mathematics. Parallels are drawnbetween the concepts emphasized for prospectiveteachers and those that are employed byinstructors who study and improve teacherpreparation experiences. In this way, parallelsalso are seen in the processes used to generatean accumulating knowledge base for teaching andfor teacher education.     

The Contested Terrain of Reproduction: class and gender in schooling in India

This article addresses the need to elaborate the concept of resistance by creating an historically specific and more nuanced typology of student behaviours in schools, in the context of the particular configuration of capitalism and patriarchy in India. In particular, responses of upper/upper‐middle class and lower‐middle/working class girls are analysed. It is argued that socio‐economic background, as well as the structure of the school itself, plays a vital role in directing the channels taken by the students’ resistances. Data for this research project were gathered in the summer of 1986, from two schools in Calcutta, India.     

Using Massively Multiplayer Online Role‐Playing Games for Online Learning

This article addresses the use of a massively multiplayer online role‐playing game (MMORPG) to foster communication and interaction and to facilitate cooperative learning in an online course. The authors delineate the definition and history of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), and describe current uses of MMORPGs in education, including their experiences with constructing and using the MMORPG Second Life. In addition, the authors detail with practical examples the process of using MMORPGs to support cooperative learning activities, and explore future uses and research questions for using MMORPGs in education and training.