Conceptions of literacy in primary and secondary school teachers     

Alec Webster  Michael Beveridge  Malcolm Reed 《Journal of Research in Reading》1996,19(1):36-45

Recently, teachers have been described as lacking an organised and consistent understanding of how children acquire literacy. Arguments about falling standards have been aired in the media, and links drawn between methods currently in favour in UK schools, and an apparent failure of children to acquire ‘basic skills'. Proposals have now been made by the Department for Education which give greater prominence to more structured, skill-based primary teaching which, it is claimed, will raise standards and better prepare children to meet the demands they face as they move into secondary school. This study analyses teachers’ conceptual maps of literacy teaching as the preliminary phase of a research programme aimed at describing and enhancing pupils’ functional use of literacy across the curriculum. The analysis is based on a four-quadrant model of adult-child proximation. Using a questionnaire format, important similarities and contrasts were found between the views of primary and secondary teachers. However, the study does reveal that teachers have complex models of literacy which underpin their work and do not adhere to simplistic, uni-dimensional methods.  相似文献   

Overreporting and underreporting of child abuse: teachers' use of professional discretion     

Webster SW  O'Toole R  O'Toole AW  Lucal B 《Child abuse & neglect》2005,29(11):1281-1296

OBJECTIVE: According to mandatory reporting laws for professionals, the relationship between initial recognition that a child may have been abused and the subsequent reporting of that suspected case of child abuse to the responsible agency would, at first glance, appear to be clear. However, this relationship has developed into one of the major social policy controversies of the recent past. Our major goal is to present research findings that address this social policy debate concerning the problems of underreporting and overreporting, focusing specifically on teachers. METHOD: A factorial survey design, that combines the advantages of the factorial experiment with those of surveys, was employed in a probability sample of teachers (N=480) who responded to vignettes in which case characteristics were systematically manipulated. Teachers responded with judgments about whether the vignette was child abuse and the likelihood that they would report this suspected case. Characteristics of the teachers and their work setting (school) were also measured. RESULTS: When comparing the teachers' recognition and reporting scores, we found that they gave the same score for 63% of the vignettes they judged, gave higher reporting than recognition scores (overreporting) for 4% of the vignettes, and gave higher recognition than reporting scores (underreporting) for 33% of the vignettes. Discrepancies between recognition and reporting (over and under reporting) were related to characteristics of the case, teacher, and school where the teacher was employed. CONCLUSIONS: Teachers in our Ohio sample evidence the use of professional discretion in making judgments about the recognition and reporting of child abuse and do not appear to make these judgments with equal certainty. Their use of discretion is more likely to result in underreporting than overreporting.  相似文献   

Digging behavior in 12 taxa of muroid rodents     

Daniel G. Webster  Myles H. Williams  Roger D. Owens  Vance B. Geiger  Donald A. Dewsbury 《Learning & behavior》1981,9(2):173-177

The digging behavior of 12 taxa of muroid rodents was observed on sand and peat substrates. Overall, significantly more digging was performed on peat than on sand. The percentage of animals of each taxon that dug was found to be positively correlated with both the duration of digging and the number of bouts of digging and negatively correlated with latency to dig. Differences across taxa in the duration of digging were correlated with field observations of the nesting behavior of these taxa; taxa that frequently utilize subterranean nest sites exhibited more digging than those that do not. The motor patterns used in digging are described;Mus musculus was the only species that appeared to exhibit a unique digging pattern. Digging behavior appears to be a pattern that is readily elicited in the laboratory, related to behavior in the field, and appropriated for further laboratory study.  相似文献   

How a Deweyan science education further enables ethics education   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Scott Webster 《Science & Education》2008,17(8-9):903-919

This paper questions the perceived divide between ‘science’ subject matter and ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’ subject matter. A difficulty that this assumed divide produces is that science teachers often feel that there needs to be ‘special treatment’ given to certain issues which are of an ethical or moral nature and which are ‘brought into’ the science class. The case is made in this article that dealing with ethical issues in the science class should not call for a sensitivity that is beyond the expertise of the science teacher. Indeed it is argued here that science teachers in particular have a great deal to offer in enabling ethics education. To overcome this perceived divide between science and values it needs to be recognised that the educative development of learners is both scientific and moral. I shall be using a Deweyan perspective to make the case that we as science teachers can overcome this apparent divide and significantly contribute to an ethics education of our students.  相似文献   

A reply to Peter Boghsonnian and James Lindsay's, ‘What comes after postmodernism?’     

Russell Webster 《Educational Philosophy and Theory》2019,51(7):679-680

  相似文献   

Leading in the age of post-socialist education transformations: Examining sustainability of teacher education reform in Latvia     

Colin Webster  Iveta Silova  Amy Moyer  Suzanne McAllister 《Journal of Educational Change》2011,12(3):347-370

As the former socialist countries of Southeastern/Central Europe and the former Soviet Union have embarked on their journeys from authoritarian to democratic societies in the early 1990s, education systems across the region have experienced major changes. From curriculum revision to education finance reforms, virtually no aspect of the education systems has remained untouched. While all post-socialist reform efforts have striven for large-scale, sustainable change, some initiatives were more successful than others, and many reform efforts were short-lived. Focusing on pre-service teacher education reform in Latvia, this article seeks to understand how educational leadership contributes to sustainability of educational reform in the dynamic context of post-socialist education transformation processes.  相似文献   

Break for Physical Activity: Incorporating Classroom-Based Physical Activity Breaks into Preschools     

Danielle D. Wadsworth  Leah E. Robinson  Karen Beckham  Kip Webster 《Early Childhood Education Journal》2012,39(6):391-395

Engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is essential to lifelong health and wellness. Physical activity behaviors established in early childhood relate to physical activity behaviors in later years. However, research has shown that children are adopting more sedentary behaviors. Incorporating structured and planned physical activity breaks into classroom transition times is an inexpensive and effective technique to increase children’s physical activity during school hours. However, this approach has not been studied in preschool settings. The purpose of this paper is to provide a simple, cost-effective method that incorporates structured physical activity into the preschool curriculum through classroom based physical activity breaks. Results of a case study along with an overview of the implementation of physical activity breaks are discussed.  相似文献   

School-Level Environment and Student Outcomes in Mathematics     

Webster  Beverley J.  Fisher  Darrell L. 《Learning Environments Research》2003,6(3):309-326

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between school-level environment and student outcomes. The study involved 620 teachers and 4645 students from 57 Australian secondary schools. Student outcome measures included mathematics achievement, career aspirations and students' attitudes and beliefs about success in mathematics. Teachers' perceptions of their school environment were measured using the School-Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ). Because previous research has shown that factors at the school level, such as environment, influence education at the classroom level, data regarding the instructional practices of teachers were included in the analysis in order to investigate this further. The results of these analyses show that various factors of the school-level environment were linked to improved student outcomes. Relationships were also found between teaching practices and student outcomes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

Measuring Up in Education     

Steven A. Stolz  Scott Webster 《Educational Philosophy and Theory》2017,49(4):312-314

  相似文献   

Working with students in the medication era: Do we all have to know how to diagnose and treat mental conditions?     

Kip Alishio  Joshua Hershs 《About Campus》2005,10(1):2-7

A marked increase in the number of college students on medications for depression, attention deficit disorder, and other conditions may have intimidated us into believing that we all need to be medical experts. The author argues that what educators need to do is accept our limitations and recognize that our traditional strengths may be just what the doctor ordered.  相似文献