Reflection,realignment and refraction: Bernstein's evaluative rules and the summative assessment of reflective practice in a problem-based learning programme

ABSTRACT

Reflective practice is an essential component of experiential learning and is embedded within the curriculum at York Law School, where the undergraduate law programme is delivered using a problem-based learning model. Using qualitative data from a survey of the markers of one of the summative reflective tasks, and Bernstein's evaluative rules as a theoretical frame, this article explores the assessment traps exposed by this type of assessment. Thematic analysis of the markers’ statements introduces ‘reflection’, ‘realignment’ and ‘refraction’ as three of the potential effects of the summative assessment of reflective practice.     

‘Trying to get our message across’: successes and challenges in an evidence-based professional development programme for sport coaches

This paper reports data from the evaluation of a coach education programme provided by a major national governing body of sport (NGB) in the UK. The programme was designed for youth sport coaches based on research evidence that suggests that CPD is most effective in supporting practitioner learning when it is interactive, collaborative and located in practice. At the same time, the NGB was keen to ensure that in order to meet the objectives of the organisation, there was some consistency in delivery across the various practice sites. The research aimed to investigate how the original CPD programme was enacted across eight professional sports clubs, and to understand how professional knowledge was interpreted and negotiated between participants at the NGB and sports club levels. Over a 2-year period, data were collected from a series of focus groups and extended individual semi-structured interviews. Participants were 7 senior managers, 8 coach educators, 8 Academy club directors and 12 sports club coaches. Data were initially analysed inductively and, drawing on the theoretical work of Bernstein [(1999). Vertical and horizontal discourse: An essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2), 157–173, (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique (Rev. ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield], illustrate the numerous ways in which programme knowledge was interpreted, facilitated and blocked at different levels of the organisation. The paper adds new insights into the complexities of coach education settings and the inherent challenges faced when attempting to ‘roll out’ a coach education intervention – even when it is ‘evidence-based’.     

‘Catholic schooling with a twist?’: a study of faith schooling in the Republic of Ireland during a period of detraditionalisation

The role of faith-based schools is increasingly debated within a context of school reform, rights and plurality in multi-ethnic societies. The Catholic schooling system in the Irish Republic (always referred to as Ireland in the text) represents an interesting case internationally because of the extent to which Catholic education is structurally embedded as normative across the education system. Yet, Ireland is in a process of detraditionalisation and wider societal change. Drawing on Bourdieu and Bernstein, and a mixed methodological study of Catholic secondary schools, the article presents a typology of Catholic schooling in transition. This identifies a continuum of Catholicity among the study schools that is mediated by dynamics of social class in an increasingly competitive and diverse system. It is argued this has implications for considering the role of a recontextualised model of Catholic faith schooling, underpinned by principles of social justice in a multicultural and more secularly oriented society.     

Reappraising the pedagogic device’s evaluative rules: state-reformed examinations of Chinese middle schools in Singapore

Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device has two under-developed elements as far as its treatments of evaluative rules are concerned. It has never explained the processes through which an assessment’s hegemony is erected, and it overlooks the fact that evaluations can also be crucial apparatuses in social selection and exclusion. Using the historical example of state exam reforms on Chinese middle schools from the late-1950s to the mid-1960s, I seek to rectify these deficiencies in this article. I contend that assessments could actualize official pedagogic discourse more effectively when they also exert profound impacts on allocation of valued social positions and educational opportunities. My contention is illustrated by the case of postwar Singapore, where the ruling regime had more success in replacing the Sino-centric pedagogic discourse of Chinese institutions with a more Singaporean-centered one after state-run exams targeted to students’ futures in education and employment were imposed.     

统一Bernstein型算子线性组合的点态逼近

给出了九种算子统一的Ｂｅｒｎｓｔｅｉｎ表达式并给出了其线性组合的点态逼近结果。     

Recognising and revealing knowers: an enhanced Bernsteinian analysis of masonic recruitment and apprenticeship

The increasing opening of French freemasonry to lower social classes raises the question of how individuals from different social backgrounds can be assimilated into the practice of context‐independent ways of speaking and writing. I address these issues by, first, describing a selection by existing members based on the dispositions already possessed by noviciates; a replacement of social hierarchies by a masonic hierarchy; and a cumulative experience for members. Using one dimension of Legitimation Code Theory, I redescribe this process of selection and apprenticeship as being one of recognising and revealing knowers. That is to say, it focuses less on specialist knowledge than on knowers. Finally, I argue that analogical reasoning and tacit pedagogy are central to the issue of how a socially diverse population is integrated within freemasonry. This form of apprenticeship enables members who may not be oriented towards abstraction to learn to engage in the manipulation of context‐independent meanings.     

School readiness and pedagogies of Competence and Performance: theorising the troubled relationship between early years and early years policy

School readiness is currently a strong focus for education policy in England. However, understanding what it means to be ready for school, and how this is reflected in policy and enacted in practice, are sites of contention. This paper explores the genesis of the current disparity in understandings in the context of the English education system. A comparison of discourses reveals how early years is informed by distinctly different discourses which, transformed into practice, require different pedagogical approaches. This disparity is theorised within Bernstein’s Pedagogic Device and Pedagogies of Competence and Performance (Bernstein, B. 2000. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Theory, Research, Critique. London: Rowman and Littlefield.). This provides a theoretical framework which enables articulation of how these discourses are transformed into practice and the resulting pedagogical practices which are shown to be distinctly different. The paper outlines how a politically driven change in discourse has resulted in enforced pedagogical change in early years, and considers whether this is likely to achieve the stated aim of enabling all children to be ready for school. The implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

修正Bernstein算子的导数及其加权光滑性刻画

Della Vecchia等引进一种修正的Bernstein算子,它可以用来逼近端点具有奇性的函数。文章利用加权光滑模ω2φλ（ f,t） w和加权K 泛函K2φλ（ f,t2） w ,建立了该算子的导数与其目标函数的光滑性之间的等价关系,所得结论对权函数的参数a,b无上界限制,只要求a, b ＞0。     

Policy-as-discourse and schools in the role of health promotion: the application of Bernstein's transmission context in policy analysis

As one of the most important sites in and through which state agendas are articulated and disseminated, schools and teachers play critical roles in the implementation of state-driven policies and initiatives targeted at children and young people. This is especially pertinent in the current educational landscape where schools and teachers are vested with the responsibility to address a myriad of public health issues (e.g. smoking, alcohol education, etc.). The work of Basil Bernstein on pedagogic discourse is apposite to understanding how discourses external to the educational field (i.e. health promotion) become re-contextualised to serve educational purposes. Using Queensland's Eat Well Be Active (EWBA) policies as a backdrop, this paper draws on Bernstein's model of transmission context, and examines the discourses embedded within the policies. Through its focus on the classification and framing of the discourses within the EWBA policies, this paper aims to: (1) reveal the potential and expediency of Bernstein's model of transmission context in policy analysis; and (2) unmask the hegemony embedded within the policies.     

Competence or Performance? A Bernsteinian Analysis of Basic Competency Assessment in Hong Kong

This article analyses an assessment initiative known as the Basic Competency Assessment (BCA) in Hong Kong using Bernstein’s performance and competence models of pedagogic practice. On the one hand, BCA is aligned with a competence model through its official projection as a low-stakes, student-focussed and formative assessment. However, an examination of the public perception of and context for BCA reveals its high-stakes, disciplines-centred and summative nature; it is argued that BCA reflects a performance model with strong classification, strong framing and visible pedagogies. The example of Hong Kong illustrates the usefulness of Bernstein’s theory and extends the existing research on the interactions between local culture and pedagogic practices.