How can a clinical research approach contribute to knowledge-building for the teaching profession?

This article explains what clinical research is and why it is necessary. The term ‘clinical’ refers to an academic way of solving practical problems. Clinical research starts from a view of science that not only acknowledges the value of rational analysis and empirical research, but also acknowledges the need for human skills and connoisseurship. In education, skills and connoisseurship can be developed by being responsibly engaged in classrooms. The (tacit) knowledge acquired in classrooms enables researchers to perceive more relevant factors in practice and enables them to understand the problems of teaching better. Clinical research is a type of action research in the sense that it acknowledges the epistemic function of doing, thus emphasizing the need for integrating scholarship and craftsmanship.     

The importance of environment for teacher professional learning in Malta and Scotland

Current reforms in the Maltese and Scottish educational contexts can only be fully implemented if teachers radically transform the way they teach. Teacher professional learning is an important mechanism that policy-makers, school leaders and administrators have to achieve this. Teacher professional learning is, above all, situated within the specific social workplace environment of teacher practice. Thus, schools need to be recognised as important sites of professional learning for teachers. In Malta and Scotland teachers were asked about their professional learning to identify how the learning environment within individual schools affects professional learning. In both countries, collaboration and school leadership were key components in determining a school’s learning environment. Data analysis led to the production of examples of expansive and restrictive features. Policy-makers, school leaders and administrators can use these features to examine how schools operate in terms of helping or hindering professional learning in the school environment.     

学术不端文章的特征与成因分析——以《岩土力学》文章为例

【目的】了解学术不端文章与其作者所在机构、作者的职称、学历等因素与之间的相关性,为编辑部初审提供参考。【方法】 以《岩土力学》在线网站2014年收到的3032篇文章为统计样本,按照第一作者所在机构、职称、学历为统计指标对包括被发现的34篇有学术不端行为在内的文章进行了分类统计。【结果】来自985高校、211高校及中科院作者的稿件,出现学术不端的比例最低,来自勘测设计施工单位作者的稿件发生学术不端的比例最高,来自一般高校和专业研究院作者的稿件出现学术不端的比例介于前两者之间。副高职称和中级职称作者的文章发生学术不端的比例远高于正高级职称作者和中级以下职称作者。作者的学历高低与其文章出现学术不端的比例的高低没有相关关系。【结论】 在审稿过程中,对来自勘测设计施工单位或专业研究院的稿件,特别是中级或副高职称作者的稿件,应该仔细审稿。靠作者自身的学术道德修养来抑制学术不端文章的出现是不现实的,制定约束学术不端的行为的准则或立法是铲除这一顽疾的根本措施。     

影响区域高校开展社会服务的因素及对策研究

经过区域高校、区域社会等多方面的努力，我国区域高校的社会服务工作基本走上了正轨，并取得了显著的成绩，但也存在不少问题。为保证区域高校社会服务工作的顺利开展，必须转变思想，构建合理的人才结构，进行学科专业建设，争取本区域政府与企业的支持。     

提高高校图书馆馆员业务素质的探索与实践

本文对新形势下如何提高高校图书馆馆员业务素质的问题进行了探讨，介绍了笔者所在图书馆让馆员参加教学实践和科研实践、鼓励馆员成为业务能手、借馆外智力带动队伍发展的思路、措施和实践效果。     

论我国团体标准化主体边界之认定

团体标准具有促进科技创新等重要作用。在我国有关团体标准的主体制度中，是否要对团体标准化主体的边界以“法人资格”为限制，值得进一步讨论。实践中，存在一定数量的产业技术联盟等社会团体可能未获“法人资格”，但却具备了开展团体标准化活动的专业能力。诚然，无须将“法人资格”作为硬性的准入门槛，而应将“专业能力”作为必备的资格条件，并突出技术组织对团体标准化活动的的支撑作用。继而有必要通过法制化路径引入主体备案制度，为非法人社会团体在标准化领域创造合法空间，从而在一定程度上缓解实际需求与相对严苛的现行法律环境之间的张力。     

Effects of coaching on teacher use of sociocultural instructional practices

This study evaluates a performance-based instructional coaching model intended to improve teacher pedagogy and classroom organization for educating diverse student populations. Elementary teachers (N = 21) participated in a 30-h workshop and seven individual coaching sessions across an academic year. The coaching model promoted use of the Standards for Effective Pedagogy, five research-based practices known to increase student achievement. Findings demonstrate performance-based instructional coaching led to statistically significant (a) improvements in teacher pedagogy, (b) patterns of teacher growth, and (c) changes in classroom organization. Implications for improving teachers’ ultimate achievement, the coaching protocol, and research are addressed.     

Resisting plateauing: Four veteran teachers’ stories

This paper describes and interprets the career experiences of four veteran secondary teachers and their ability to resist plateauing. Three areas of veteran teacher research informed this study: career stages, plateauing, and resiliency. In-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted to investigate and depict the meanings these teachers attached to their career experiences.Several factors emerged for each participant’s resilience. First, building leaders influenced their enthusiasm and professional growth. Second, positive effects on students’ lives affirmed their work. Third, interactions with colleagues promoted growth, and individual support systems helped them bounce back from career frustrations.     

Developing a pedagogy for teaching self-study research: Lessons learned across the Atlantic

This article reports on a collective self-study from our multiple and unique experiences of teaching self-study research in the Netherlands and the United States. Through the methodology of dialog, we merged what we learned from our individual studies which resulted in six guidelines for a pedagogy for teaching self-study research. Without claiming that the six guidelines have full applicability to all teaching contexts, we offer instead a discussion of the complexities and value of framing a pedagogy of self-study research. This study provides a conceptual, theoretical, and practical base for further studies to build a knowledge base on this topic.     

Acting as accountable authors: Creating interactional spaces for agency work in teacher education

In this paper, relying on the sociocultural framework of learning, we report on the results of an ethnographically-grounded investigation of agency work among nine pre-service teachers: The main objective is to determine how agency emerges and is constructed in situated discourse practices within the context of a teacher education program embedded in the collective inquiry approach. Our study identifies the forms of agency that emerged in the collective discussions of the classroom community, evidencing pre-service teachers’ transformative agency, relational agency and epistemic agency. This study also shows that the negotiation and framing of agency, and acting as accountable authors, involves changes in teacher-student positions, such as crossing and transforming traditional expert-novice boundaries, as well as recognizing and crediting this crossing of boundaries. The methods and conditions for supporting students’ agency work in teacher education are discussed.