Bringing web‐enhanced courses to communities of learners in early childhood teacher education     

Edyth J. Wheeler  G. Patricia Wilson  Terry R. Berkeley 《Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education》2013,34(4):237-242

Abstract

In our graduate programs in early childhood education, we model constructivist practice in the belief that teachers are better able to understand and implement constructivist principles having experienced them in their work. In this practice we attempt to be explicit about constructivist practice in our program and in elementary classrooms. As we examine and modify our constructivist pedagogy, one key question for teachers and ourselves emerges: What does a classroom based on constructivist pedagogy look like in early childhood (K‐2)? The goal of this research is a clearer understanding of constructivist pedagogy in the context of primary classrooms. The study was designed using qualitative methods in order to understand the experiences in classrooms guided by constructivist theory. The classroom participants are six teachers who graduated from a Master's degree program based on constructivist principles. Analysis of the six classrooms indicated 24 key elements of constructivist classrooms. A focused analysis of three constructivist teachers and their classroom supports these elements and indicates three broader characteristics: the important role of children, authentic and purposeful interactions among classroom participants, and engagement in academic activity. A vignette of a constructivist classroom is provided to present the essence of our findings while maintaining participants' views and voices.  相似文献   

Pre-service teachers' performance from teachers' perspective and vice versa: behaviors,attitudes and other associated variables     

Raimundo Castaño  Raquel Poy  Raluca Tomşa  Noelia Flores 《Teachers and Teaching》2013,19(7):894-907

In a rapidly changing world, the mission of education deserves some reflection. Mutual understanding and assessment between trainers and trainees offers a way to promote discussion concerning goals, values, and strategies that should be promoted at schools. This study offers the views of 153 pre-service teachers and their respective trainers during their practicum. We aimed to determine if an association exists between the scores of pre-service teachers and teachers regarding behaviors and attitudes shown by the first. We also want to analyze the extent to which pre-service teachers rate the importance of different educational strategies as well as the extent to which teachers use these strategies in their daily work. We also aim to determine to what extent self-rated behaviors and attitudes of pre-service teachers are associated to their ratings on importance and utilization of different educational strategies. Two questionnaires were utilized to gather the data. Results revealed higher scores on self-evaluation than others’ evaluations; utilization of diverse educational strategies was associated to evaluations on pre-service students’ responsibility, ability to detect and meet students’ needs, and final grade in practicum. Association between pre-service teachers’ self-evaluation and evaluation on the importance of different educational strategies revealed large associations between climate for the expression of ideas, teaching methodology, and the importance given to using language appropriate to the level of the students. Average ratings on importance and utilization of different teaching strategies resulted in high scores, with utilization of teaching methodologies obtaining the lowest scores. Gender resulted in significant differences on importance, with women scoring higher than men. Importance scores were significantly higher than utilization scores. High associations were found between self- and others’ evaluations on values related to compliance with rules, as well as on behaviors associated to maintain order and discipline in the classroom. Differences in views of teaching, importance, and utilization of different teaching strategies should be debated in order to advance our understanding of effectiveness of educational practices.  相似文献   

‘Support our networking and help us belong!’: listening to beginning secondary school science teachers     

Alison Fox  Elaine Wilson 《Teachers and Teaching》2013,19(6):701-718

This study, drawing on the voice of beginning teachers, seeks to illuminate their experiences of building professional relationships as they become part of the teaching profession. A networking perspective was taken to expose and explore the use of others during the first three years of a teacher’s workplace experience. Three case studies, set within a wider sample of 11 secondary school science teachers leaving one UK university’s PostGraduate Certificate in Education, were studied. The project set out to determine the nature of the networks used by teachers in terms of both how they were being used for their own professional development and perceptions of how they were being used by others in school. Affordances and barriers to networking were explored using notions of identity formation through social participation. The focus of the paper is on how the teachers used others to help shape their sense of belonging to this, their new workplace. The paper develops ideas from network theories to argue that membership of the communities are a subset of the professional inter‐relationships teachers utilise for their professional development. During their first year of teaching, eight teachers were interviewed, completing 13 semi‐structured interviews. This was supplemented in Year 2 by a questionnaire survey of their experiences. In the third year of the programme, 11 teachers (including the original sample of eight) were surveyed using a network mapping tool in which they represented their communications with people, groups and resources. Finally, three of the teachers (common to both samples) were then interviewed specifically about their networking practices and experiences using the generation of their network map as a stimulated recall focus. The implications of the analysis of these accounts are that these beginning teachers did not perceive of themselves wholly as novices and that their personal aspirations to increase participation in practical science, develop a career or work for pupils holistically did not always sit comfortably with the school communities into which they were being accommodated. While highlighting the importance of trust and respect in establishing relationships, these teachers’ accounts highlight the importance of finding ‘peers’ from whom they can find support and with whom they can reflect and potentially collaborate towards developing practice. They also raise questions about who these ‘peers’ might be and where they might be found.  相似文献   

Relevance,challenge and motivation: The ingredients of a novel managerial development program     

Gail Hart  Gaynor Austen  Tom Cochrane  Robyn Daniel  Neil Thelander  Robyn Tweedale 《International Journal for Academic Development》2013,18(1):47-57

The Division of Information and Academic Services (DIAS) is a large service division (over 400 staff) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). In 2002 it supported a novel one‐month rotation of roles by the three department directors. The rotation was conceived as an important professional development opportunity for each of the directors and by example, to other divisional staff. It was also designed to fast track a more collaborative culture across the Division and identify opportunities for improved services. The three‐way nature of the exchange created a particular tension and a unique learning opportunity. Each director simultaneously played the role of novice manager, critical friend and reflective observer. The learning opportunity was relevant because it was contained within the one institutional culture. It was challenging because it demanded a shift in professional perspective, and motivating because it fostered a collegial working environment where change was welcomed, supported and reinforced. Overall, the directors and the staff viewed the rotation positively. Each director gained a better understanding of the operations the other departments either through direct engagement in a “host” department or by inclusion in three‐way director debriefing sessions. The initiative was evaluated using a third party process to gather feedback from the staff involved. Some important opportunities for collaboration have been identified and implemented. All three directors have emerged from the experience feeling better able to seek and offer advice about management and organizational issues. There is greater empathy for the challenges inherent in each of the departments and a greater willingness and confidence to accept a divisional responsibility for complex cross‐departmental projects. Increasingly, there is a collective and shared understanding of how to get things done across the organization. Most importantly, it suggests a novel model of academic development that has the potential for broader application.

La Division of information and Academic Services (DIAS) constitue un vaste service (plus de 400 employés) de la Queensland University of Technology (QUT). En 2002, elle a mis en place une nouvelle rotation mensuelle en qui a trait au rôle des trois directeurs de départmant La rotation était conçue comme une opportante de développment professionnel pour chacun des directeurs et, à titre d’exemple, pour les autres membres du personnel de la division. Elle visait aussi à accélérer la mise en place d’une culture davantage collaborative dans l’ensemble de la division, en plus d’identifier des opportunités pour ameéliorer les services. La nature tridimensionnelle du changement a ceéé une opportunité d’apprentissage unique et fut paticulièrement pertinente parce qu’elle avait lieu à l’intérieur d’une culture institutionalle. Chaque directeur jouait simultanément le rôle d’apprenti‐gestionnaire, d’ami critique et d’observateur réflexif. L’initiative a été évaluée par l’entremise d’un processus impliquant des tierces parties de façon à recueillir des informations auprès du personnel impliqué. Les trois directeurs sont ressortis de l’expérience avec une plus grande empathie en ce qui a trait aux défis inhérents à chacun des départments, ainsi qu’une plus grande volonté et confiance relativement à leur attribution de responsabilités divisionnelles pour des projets inter‐départementaux complexes. De plus en plus, il existe une compréhension collective et partagée des dimensions relatives à l’accomplissement de certaines tâches ausein de l’organisation. De façon importante, ceci suggère un nouveau modèle de développement académique, lequel a un potentiel correspondant à des applications plus vastes.  相似文献   

Pedagogies for social justice: did Bernstein get it wrong?     

Carolyn Williams  Steve Wilson 《International Journal of Inclusive Education》2013,17(4):417-434

This paper explores the often‐touted incompatibility between ‘intellectual rigour’ and ‘relevance’ as this has manifested in Australian debates over Queensland’s New Basics and ‘productive pedagogies’, and associated initiatives such as the New South Wales Quality Teaching Framework. This debate can be located in longer‐standing concerns about how best to meet the educational needs of students who experience social disadvantage. In particular, we focus on the way Bernstein’s concept of ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ discourse has been used by him and others to argue against attempting to make academic knowledge more ‘relevant’ by introducing elements of students out of school lives into the classroom. Drawing on examples from the literature, we trouble Bernstein’s contention that academic and ‘everyday’ knowledge represent different, incompatible knowledge forms that cannot be successfully integrated. This troubling creates an opening for reconsidering the relationship between ‘intellectual rigour’ and ‘relevance’. We argue that we can and should pursue the bringing together of ‘intellectual rigour’ and ‘relevance’ as a means to engage better all students, but particularly those who experience social and educational disadvantage, and improve their learning outcomes. Accordingly, we call for challenging, at a theoretical, practical and policy level, the perception that learning cannot be made relevant without sacrificing intellectual rigour. We also call for more research on teachers already integrating ‘intellectual rigour’ and ‘relevance’, and for teacher professional development and scaffolding to achieve this and to moderate multiple student perspectives and claims to ‘relevance’.  相似文献   

Improving pre‐service teacher learning through peer teaching: process,people and product1     

Graham Parr  Jeni Wilson  Sally Godinho  Lyn Longaretti 《Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning》2013,21(2):187-203

This research investigates the perceptions of first‐year Bachelor of Teaching students (primary and secondary) and Diploma of Education students (secondary) about their peer teaching experience in a postgraduate subject called Curriculum and Assessment. Peer teaching is a learner‐centred approach to teaching and learning that is intended to provide significant benefits for learners' knowledge, skills and metacognition. However, concerns have been raised over the quality of the learning and teaching and the risks associated with such a pedagogy. In the present study, student responses to questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews were analysed, using a mixed methods approach, with respect to three broad and somewhat interconnected categories: process, people and product. These responses suggested a wide range of reactions to peer teaching, but overall students feel they benefited from the experience. The findings of this study should be of interest to lecturers and students in pre‐service teacher education courses, especially. Knowledge about peer teaching, learning and assessment would be especially valuable for both education lecturers and beginning teachers seeking to design and manage learner‐centred pedagogy in their own primary, secondary and tertiary classrooms. However, the results of this research would have far‐reaching appeal for all teaching and learning contexts.  相似文献   

Recalled Age at Menarche: A Follow-up to the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study     

S. R. Siegel  L. True  K. A. Pfeiffer  J. D. Wilson  E. M. Martin  C. F. Branta 《Measurement in physical education and exercise science》2021,25(1):78-86

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Development of complex executive function over childhood: Longitudinal growth curve modeling of performance on the Groton Maze Learning Task     

Thomas B. McGuckian  Peter H. Wilson  Rich D. Johnston  Shahin Rahimi-Golkhandan  Jan Piek  Dido Green  Jeffrey M. Rogers  Paul Maruff  Bert Steenbergen  Scott Ruddock 《Child development》2023,94(3):648-658

This longitudinal study modeled children's complex executive function (EF) development using the Groton Maze Learning Task (GMLT). Using a cohort-sequential design, 147 children (61 males, 5.5–11 years) were recruited from six multicultural primary schools in Melbourne and Perth, Australia. Race/ethnicity data were not available. Children were assessed on the GMLT at 6-month intervals over 2-years between 2010 and 2012. Growth curve models describe age-related change from 5.5 to 12.5 years old. Results showed a quadratic growth trajectory on each measure of error—that is, those that reflect visuospatial memory, executive control (or the ability to apply rules for action), and complex EF. The ability to apply rules for action, while a rate-limiting factor in complex EF, develops rapidly over early-to-mid childhood.  相似文献   

Assessing the learning of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream school physical education     

Anthony Maher  Tom van Rossum  David Morley 《British Educational Research Journal》2023,49(1):110-125

In the UK, one consequence of neoliberalism has been the development of test cultures in schools and standardised assessment strategies used to judge all pupils against within and across curriculum subjects. Few studies to date have explored the influence of this on assessing the learning of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and none have centred physical education (PE). This study used the concept of ableism and semi-structured interviews to explore mainstream secondary school PE teachers’ views and experiences of assessing the learning of pupils with SEND. Based on the findings, we discuss the importance of schools disrupting hegemonic, ableist modes of thinking that cast pupils with SEND as being of inferior ability when compared with their peers and thus being disadvantaged by standardised, normative assessment practices. Specifically, we identify a need for senior leaders and teachers in schools to recognise the needs and capabilities of pupils with SEND, through more holistic assessment approaches that focus on social, affective, cognitive and physical learning and development. We end by discussing the significance of initial teacher education and teacher networks to support this endeavour and advocating for the amplification of the voices of pupils with SEND, given that they have expert knowledge about the perceived inclusivity of assessment in PE because they can draw upon their lived and embodied experiences.  相似文献   

Rewarding academics: Experiences of the Tenure Track System in Pakistan     

Tayyeb Ali Khan  Nasira Jabeen  Tom Christensen 《Higher Education Quarterly》2023,77(3):427-446

Pakistan introduced the Tenure Track System (TTS) as a new performance-based reform in public universities in 2005. The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of higher education authorities, university leaders and tenure-track faculty about the implementation of this reform. This is a qualitative interpretive study and utilised a nested case study design, focusing on two cases—Science Faculty and Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty in a large provincial university. It utilises three perspectives taken from organisation theory—instrumental, cultural and myth perspectives. The main results show instrumental problems of hierarchical authority and horizontal coordination, lack of expertise to implement, cultural compatibility problems through active resistance from some groups and active use of symbols to modify the impression of a challenging reform implementations. Summing up, this is a Western-inspired reform that meet challenging conditions in Pakistan, making is rather less successful.  相似文献