Teach For/Teach First candidates: what conclusions do they draw from their time in teaching?

Teach For and Teach First programs now constitute a significant pathway into teaching in a number of countries. One criterion for selection into these programs is leadership capacity, and evidence indicates that many candidates do move into leadership roles in education, business, and policy in the years following their time as a Teach For/Teach First candidate. Given their capacity to influence policy directions and school practice, and to speak with the authority of at least some experience in challenging schools, it is important to understand the types of conclusions they draw from their time in teaching, and the solutions they propose to the problems of educational inequality. This study set out to explore the types of attributions made by 76 Teach For candidates for the low achievement of disadvantaged students, and what they consider to be potential means of effectively addressing the achievement gap. Participants gave most importance to the types of people attracted to and retained in teaching, and placed relatively little importance on improving school resourcing or addressing systemic and structural contributions to educational disadvantage. Implications for those training and working with Teach For candidates are discussed.     

Online educational videos according to specific didactics: the case of mathematics / Los Vídeos educativos en línea desde las didácticas específicas: el caso de las matemáticas

Abstract

The vast number of online educational videos available at the moment has generated an emerging area of research concerning their level of suitability. This study considers the epistemic quality of educational videos on mathematics, focusing on the specific content of directly proportional distributions. A qualitative study is used, based on the application of theoretical and methodological tools from the onto-semiotic approach to knowledge and mathematics instruction, principally the notion of epistemic suitability and the identification of algebraic levels. The sample consists of the 31 most popular videos in Spanish on YouTube? on directly proportional distributions. Analysis reveals interesting results on these kinds of resources. In general, it is observed that they are weak in epistemic suitability, which does not seem to affect their level of popularity. Moreover, the existence of videos with inaccurate arguments or incorrect procedures, together with the diversity of algebraic levels used, indicates that teachers should be careful when selecting them and only recommend those that better suit their students’ needs.     

Changing literacies,changing formations: the role of elicitation in teacher action research with new technologies

As new technologies promise to be an enduring feature of the landscape of teachers’ work, we consider how teachers implicitly bring stories forward into their classroom explorations with new media as a part of their ‘informal learning’. By ‘stories’ is meant specific classroom texts as well as preferred teacher practices with those texts. The article represents a reflection on the methodological role that ‘elicitation’ can play in drawing out teacher thinking during a time of professional change, thinking that would otherwise likely remain embedded, particularly when teachers’ attention is focused forward on innovation in practice. The methodological use of ‘elicitation’ emerged in the first year of an ongoing teacher action research study, in which seven teachers have been involved in a professional development initiative that actively engages teachers in examining changing literacy formations, beginning with the teachers’ own literacy formations. The methodological practice of elicitation borrows from phenomenology, ethnomethodology, narrative research, reader response theories, curriculum theory and psychoanalysis, and emerged as a way to acknowledge the life histories that teachers were bringing to their professional development with new media. We suggest that elicitation can potentially draw out deep and sustaining sources of a teacher’s commitment, as well as resistance, to change. It can help disclose the tensions between commitment and resistance that even teachers who voluntarily undertake to incorporate new technologies into their practice may experience. Within a teacher action research framework, elicitation can also serve to remind teachers (and others) of the value of what they know and are learning, thus contributing to teachers developing a ‘scholarship of practice’ in response to any actual or perceived ‘intensification’ of their work.     

The impact of international programs on pedagogical practices of their participants: a Russian experience

International exchange and training programs play a significant role in the development of international cooperation between educators from different nations. More and more teachers and school administrators participate in exchange programs and implement new curricular and instructional practices in their institutions. The objectives of this interpretive exploratory case study were (a) to investigate the impact of international exchange and training programs on pedagogical practices of Russian school teachers and administrators and (b) to find out how participants of international programs apply, implement, and transfer their experiences and knowledge that they obtain during their programs. The data were collected through personal interviews, observations, and materials from several debriefing sessions in 2005. The study demonstrated that the participation in international programs significantly impacts educators’ pedagogical practices, expands the range of their instructional approaches, makes program alumni more culturally sensitive and perceptive, and influences their interpersonal relations in schools, their professional growth, and social status. This research can be of interest to perspective participants of international programs and practitioners who develop and organize international programs for educators.     

Education 3.0: breaking the mold with technology

In order to meet the needs of today's knowledge economy, education needs to move beyond the industrial age approach of treating all learners as if they are the same and adopt a learner-centered model of education suitable for the information age. To support this model, a new and transformative technology is needed that focuses on mastery and customized learning. This article reviews the existing approaches to educational technology before proposing a new, customizable, open, and interoperable technology: a personalized integrated educational system (PIES) that provides full functionality for students, teachers, parents and other stakeholders and bridges the gaps between formal and informal learning. PIES' four primary functions: record keeping, planning, instruction, and assessment, as well as secondary functions, are defined and described. Future challenges and research opportunities are also identified.     

Reading in pairs Network: a training model based on peer learning (pairs of teachers and school networks) for the sustainability of educational innovation / Red Leemos en pareja: un modelo de formación basado en el aprendizaje entre iguales (parejas de profesores y redes de centros) para la sostenibilidad de la innovación educativa

Abstract

This article presents a study on a Primary and Secondary Education teacher training network from Catalonia for the implementation of the Reading in pairs program. The goal is to describe, analyse, and assess the training model’s characteristics in relation to the learning promoted among participants, as well as the possibilities of actually incorporating educational innovation in the schools. The results suggest that this formative ecosystem permits a degree of learning and understanding of the program and its conceptual foundations that is relevant to the ability to implement it creatively and to adapt it to each school so that its sustainability is guaranteed.     

‘Teaching between the lines’: discussing,interpreting and writing stories together / ‘El aula entre líneas’: hablamos,interpretamos y escribimos historias conjuntamente

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to carry out a writing workshop in a collaborative setting in which the teacher and the 14 year-old students made up stories while being observed by a researcher. We used a qualitative methodology similar to the Ethnography of Communication and Discourse Analysis, in which narrative and analytical analyses are seen as complementary, in order to interpret all aspects of the participants’ activities. The analysis of the conversations held in the different working situations defined by the presence or absence of the teacher shows that the guiding role played by the teacher is essential in terms of the students’ acquisition of knowledge concerning the generalization of meanings, the organization of social relations and the structuring of the task. Likewise, within a group of peers involved in working towards a common goal, one or several of them tend to take on the guiding role when the teacher is not present.     

教师纠正性反馈语与故事转述：可理解输出假设验证的专业学生视角

以故事转述为路径来探寻英语专业学生语言可理解性输出假设理论在中国环境下的现实性,研究发现：1．故事转述中“要求-不要求”、“提醒-不要求”、“不要求-不提醒”组口语表现有显著差异;“提醒-不提醒”、“要求-提醒”、“要求-不提醒”组学生的表现没有差别;2．教师的纠正反馈语可以提高专业学生语言的“可理解性输出”的频率,学生对于老师跟常用的“诱导法”、“重复法”反应更敏感;3．教师的“诱导法”有利于学生口语水平的提高。     

Pedagogy in the multimodal classroom: an analysis of the challenges and opportunities for teachers

Contemporary commentary notes that students are frequently ahead of their teachers in their ability to manipulate and be creative with the internet, digital programs, and mobile technology. In this context it is important to ask, ‘What knowledge do teachers need to teach in the contemporary context where texts are elaborately multimodal, constructed not just of print but of image, sound, and movement?’ This paper proposes some signposts to assist teachers with navigating in this environment. Using teachers’ and researchers’ reflections on practices in a diverse range of settings, both primary and secondary, the analysis explicates the challenges that teachers face in this multimodal context and elucidates some ways they can effectively operate within it. In particular, it argues that it is teachers’ expertise as analysts and critics of texts that needs to guide their planning and teaching in this ‘new’ text world.     

From mainstream school to pupil referral unit: a change in teachers’ self-understanding

As teachers are at the heart of education, a substantial number of studies have researched the perception that mainstream school teachers have of themselves in relation to their work. This investigation extends this field of inquiry by examining how teachers’ self-understanding is altered when they transfer from mainstream to special school education. This study adopts the methodology of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) to examine in detail how three female teachers in inner London experienced the transition from mainstream secondary schools to teaching in alternative provision for excluded students referred to as a pupil referral unit (PRU). Central to IPA is how an individual experiences a substantial change in life and the influence this may have on his or her world views. The research approach adopted is, therefore, idiographic and reliant on the experiences of a small number of participants. The findings from this investigation indicate that the participants chose to leave mainstream school education when they came to the self-realisation that they wanted to engage in more creative and personally engaging professional practice with a stronger moral purpose. When they started to teach at a PRU, the more persistent and personal relationships with their students brought about a substantial change in self-understanding.