First-year students working with exemplars: promoting self-efficacy,self-monitoring and self-regulation

In this paper, we explore first-year undergraduate students’ experiences and perceptions regarding the use of exemplars, with reference to the development of student self-regulation. The study was carried out at a tertiary education institution in New Zealand where the second author was a lecturer. This author used exemplars with two classes of first-year students enrolled in a core introductory paper taught as part of the students' undergraduate business studies degree. Data were gathered through three complementary approaches: students’ responses to a short anonymous survey at the end of each of the four sessions where exemplars were used, written notes in the teacher’s Teaching journal and semi-structured interviews with student volunteers. When strategically employed as part of the teaching design, it was found that exemplars have the capacity to motivate, enhance students’ self-efficacy, promote understanding of task requirements, expand knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to the structure of academic tasks, support and advance subject knowledge, and develop evaluative and productive knowledge and expertise. We concluded the use of exemplars with these students demonstrated their potential as tools for the promotion of student self-efficacy, self-monitoring and to a lesser extent, self-regulation.     

论《易经》本源概念的传播——以文化负载词英译为例

《易经》中蕴含着丰富的本源概念,从一定意义上说,《易经》文化负载词就是其本源概念的载体。要想有效传播《易经》中的本源概念,必须寻求最佳译语样例。在翻译原型论的视角下,发现能否取得最佳译语样例取决于能否找到最佳源语样例,即译语理想原型必须同源语理想原型相应。     

Coming full circle: from teacher reflection to classroom action and places in‐between

The article shows the experience of professional development over the course of a decade of one teacher’s career nested against the backdrop of one reforming middle‐school context in the USA. Through the use of four fine‐grained narrative exemplars, the campus professional development trajectory is examined from the vantage point of Daryl Wilson, an eighth‐grade literacy teacher who participated in the research study for 10 years. By using narrative inquiry as both a method and a form to feature Daryl’s and some of his colleagues’ experiences of teacher learning within the context of school reform, the strengths and challenges of the various iterations of professional development are discussed. In the final analysis, the narrative exemplars show Daryl Wilson’s meaning‐making as he moves from an isolated form of teacher reflection to full‐blown classroom action where his students’ learning and his colleagues’ professional development are also implicated. However, before coming full circle, Daryl experiences some less‐than‐satisfying teacher learning situations in‐between.     

No longer exempt from good practice: using exemplars to close the feedback gap for exams

In this paper, we discuss the anomaly between the increasing interest in feedback in current education research, the continued role of time-limited, unseen examinations as a form of assessment and the dearth of literature on feedback related to such exams. We argue that while exams have long been regarded as different from other forms of assessment, it is not justifiable to exempt them from the good practice that can, and does, inform these other types of assessment. We suggest a solution to providing timely, effective feedback for end of course examinations is to move the feedback emphasis to ‘feedforward’ by implementing exemplars (examples of real students’ work, generally of different qualities). This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to investigate whether there was a relationship between student use of exemplars before the exam and the final exam grade achieved (n?=?520), and to explore students’ and lecturers’ perspectives about the effectiveness of and engagement with exemplars. Quantitative findings suggested that those students who accessed exemplars did score better in their exams than those that did not. Qualitative data revealed that exemplars were received positively by students and lecturers, and we use this to provide practical suggestions on exemplar good practice.     

Exemplarist moral theory – some pros and cons

ABSTRACT

The article makes a number of critical remarks concerning Linda Zagzebski’s exemplarism. On the positive side, I argue that one of its strengths is the focus on motivation as an important factor in moral education whilst, on the negative, I draw attention to two issues. The first is that Zagzebski’s notion of moral exemplars is insufficient since it is too narrow, merely focusing as it does on high standard moral heroes while neglecting more usual moral agents who at least in some respects may also play the role of exemplars. Secondly, I find Zagzebski’s view of admiration (as a fundamental notion in building a moral theory) to be somewhat circular.     

The significance in using role models to influence primary school children’s moral development: Pilot study

ABSTRACT

This article reports on a pilot study aiming to examine a role-modelling character education project through an Aristotelian framework, by adopting a virtue-led approach. Aristotle famously believed virtues should be taught to children at a young age through habituation, which gradually develops into phronesis-guided virtuosity, and he considered what nowadays is referred to as ‘role modelling’ as having a large influence on children through the emotion of emulation (zēlos). Therefore, the pilot study aims to answer the question to what extent a virtue-led role modelling intervention in character education can influence students’ moral development. The intervention teaches school-appropriate virtues to students in a primary school in Saudi Arabia. While the study is just starting, this article focuses on some pertinent and problematic preliminary questions about conceptual assumptions and research design.     

Constructive guidance and feedback for learning: the usefulness of exemplars,marking sheets and different types of feedback in a first year law subject

Criteria and standards‐based assessment models are increasingly being adopted by universities as effective practice. However the promise of these models of assessment may not be realised unless teachers can find ways of making criteria and standards understandable to students. Exemplars or examples of previous students’ work of high and low quality can make criteria and standards concrete. Recent research has focussed on the use of exemplars to help students understand criteria and standards, and less emphasis has been given to exemplars simply as guides for students. This mixed methods study explores students’ perceptions of the usefulness of exemplars and different types of feedback for guiding them in completing assessments. A combination of engaging in marking and discussing exemplars, and receiving individualised and standards‐based feedback provides the most helpful guidance for students’ effective learning.