A Literature-Driven English Programme’s effectiveness in improving the writing skills of Grade 7 Singaporean students

A Literature-Driven English Programme (LDEP) was designed and tested in naturalistic conditions in four diverse secondary schools in Singapore over a span of five to six weeks during 2004. These schools included single-sex and co-educational schools. The sample provided, within and across the schools, different levels of performance in a graded situation; multiple teachers and classes; and control and experimental conditions for the curriculum implementation. In the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the findings, it was found that the LDEP was effective in enhancing the narrative writing skills of many of the students in the experimental group.     

用“做数学”理念探究“随机事件及其概率”

生活中的随机现象无处不在,概率问题到处可见.几何画板的动画演示可以让学生体会概率的理论性和频率的可变性,澄清生活中的错误认识,联系"实验"、"问题"与"生活",学到"好玩的"、"有用的"的数学,培养学生实验法探究知识的能力.     

Stories of practitioner enquiry: using narrative interviews to explore teachers’ perspectives of learning to learn

The Campaign for Learning’s Learning to Learn Phase 4 was a research project in which teachers undertook practitioner enquiry to explore innovative pedagogies under the umbrella term of learning to learn. In 2008, to gain greater understanding of what this process meant to the participating teachers the research team at Newcastle University undertook narrative interviews which examined three key areas: the motivation for undertaking practitioner enquiry, the experience for both teachers and students, and the support needed to facilitate success. This paper examines how the decision to use narrative interviews in conjunction with an iterative validation process supported a meaningful and ethical exchange between the teachers and researchers, where knowledge generation was foregrounded, and how despite each teacher producing a unique, highly contextual story, cross-narrative themes emerged which have enabled the research team to broaden our understanding of practitioner enquiry.     

What is “natural” about “natural contexts”?: Cultural construction of human development (and its study)

Abstract

The issue of using natural contexts to study human development is crucial for theoretical innovation within developmental psychology. It is argued that the opposing natural versus laboratory contexts is a culturally constructed artifact. All laboratory (or any other specially set-up contexts) are versions of the naturalistic contexts, within which developmentalists can access the redundant processes of development that are constrained by conditions in the person-environment transaction.     

Philosophical and Socio‐Cognitive Foundations for Teaching in Higher Education through Collaborative Approaches to Student Learning

This paper considers the implications for higher education of recent work on narrative theory, distributed cognition and artificial intelligence. These perspectives are contrasted with the educational implications of Heidegger's ontological phenomenology [being‐there and being‐aware (Da‐sein)] and with the classic and classical foundations of education which Heidegger and Gadamer once criticised. The aim is to prompt discussion of what teaching might become if psychological insights (about collective minds let loose to learn) are associated with every realm of higher education (not just teacher training).     

The labour of learning to reflect

This article presents a polyphonic narrative of reflection in action across two institutional contexts; a university and a primary (elementary) school. It traces an honours student’s research on reflection and her supervisor’s reactions as reader. Both engage in construction and reconstruction of their basic beliefs about reflective practice as they engage with each other and these contexts. This research resulted in both people accepting that reflection is a public text with a specific genre to be mastered. Issues of power surround what can be shared with whom within the institutions as political sites. Students engage in strategic compliance whether to attract teachers’ attention or to avoid it. Notions of trust and openness often mask power. This article poses that learning to reflect is hard labour.     

Creating and translating knowledge about teaching and learning in collaborative school–university research partnerships: an analysis of what is exchanged across the partnerships,by whom and how

Whilst there is a growing body of literature on practitioner research and the role of collaborations and partnerships that include universities in that process, there are relatively few studies examining the role of the university in any depth. We reflect on 12 years of working in school–university collaborative research partnerships through an analysis of the exchanges between teachers and academics as documented by interviews, case studies and project reports. We draw upon a sample of 90 teachers in 51 schools covering all phases of compulsory schooling. Focusing on the exchanges between the university and partnership schools, we extend the idea of radical collegiality to encompass teacher to academic dialogue in the process of mutual transformation. We contribute to the development of greater conceptual clarity regarding school–university research partnerships and their potential to contribute to the creation and translation of knowledge about teaching and learning. The interplay of the project as the context, the role of enquiry and the development and use of tools by the participants is outlined and a model for understanding the dynamics of school–university partnerships proposed. We suggest that the project as a space‐ and time‐limited context inclusive of partner institutions may have the scope to reconcile the tension between an impetus for exclusive bonding and the flexibility of bridging across structures in social networks. We conclude that the model of the exchanges between partners is fruitful in unravelling the relationship between theory and practice in the pursuit of knowledge about teaching and learning.     

Analysing teacher professional development through professional dialogue: an investigation into a university–school partnership project on enquiry learning

The paper considers data in one Higher Education Institution (HEI) from written reports and from interviews with trainee teachers and their teachers charged with the assessment of one training standard for secondary Initial Teacher Training in England: Professional Values and Practice. It explores the extent to which four elements of this standard can be measured as outcomes of performance. It reveals that assessment judgements draw on a wide range of evidence and are often subjective, context‐specific and broadly interpreted. In their current form these statements do not lend themselves easily to assessment. Recommendations include greater clarity in the statements about what might be expected of a beginning teacher in terms of particular professional competences as performance statements; opportunities for assessment in relation to a ‘developing professionalism’ rather than ‘managed professionalism’ (and compliance); and a broader framework that can take account of two dimensions in particular: (1) creating an environment for pupil learning and (2) teacher professionalism.     

Critical incidents as formative influences on the work of educational researchers: understanding an insider perspective through narrative enquiry

Drawing on insights from phenomenological sociology and various strands of socio-cultural theory, this paper reports the findings of a qualitative investigation into critical incidents as formative influences in the research orientation and research cultivation of 22 academics working in research-intensive university education departments. The study first outlines the context in which educational research has taken place, focusing on evidence of tension and conflict associated with differences in epistemological and professional orientation. The research findings indicate two ideal-type categories of educational research professional: the ‘intellectual-academic’, motivated primarily by the intellectual virtue of research excellence and accountability to the academic community; and the ‘humanistic-professional’, motivated by service to the wider community. It is concluded that a synergy of both orientations is necessary in producing quality research that is both rigorous and meaningful to a constituency of stakeholders extending beyond the immediate interests of academe.