Classroom-based Research and Evidence-based Practice
... Such unpredictable and varied interactions from user to user negate the possibility of me, the researcher, discerning a single objective understanding of how the e-textbook functions as a tool to support both pedagogical and learning actions. Instead, these variations suggest that knowledge claims resulting from this research are relative to my own knowledge and experience, and are drawn from my own interpretations of actions (Taber, 2013). ...
... When viewed within this paradigm, the reality of what occurs in social situations is relative rather than absolute. In contrast to the positivist paradigm in which there is one objective and true representation of reality, ontological relativists, under the constructivist paradigm recognise the possibility of multiple truths, each situated within an individual or group (Guba & Lincoln, 1989;Taber, 2013). For example, the constructivist researcher who observes activities in a classroom knows that each participant will experience and retell the same activities differently. ...
... Statistical generalisations cannot be made from case studies (Taber, 2013), and naturalistic generalisations (Stake, 1995) are difficult to make from single and even multiple case studies (Avenier & Thomas, 2015). However, providing thick descriptions of individual cases makes it possible for readers to draw insights and make judgments about the reported case's usefulness and applicability (Taber, 2013;Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). ...
Electronic texts have become ubiquitous in the United States over the past two decades, even frequently displacing traditional physical texts in classrooms. Electronic textbooks, or e-textbooks, are sometimes adopted as a cost-saving measure or a way to engage reluctant students. But integrating e-textbooks into pedagogical and learning practices is rarely a simple swap of paper for screen. Students who read academic texts from screens would often benefit from additional support from instructors, many of whom are underprepared to provide effective literacy instruction to students. Set within the framework of activity theory, this research took a multi-level approach to explore how teachers and students engaged with e-textbooks in one American high school. Four biology teachers and 159 of their students participated in this multiple case study that spanned two academic years and three learning environments due to Covid-related disruptions. Each of the learning environments – face-to-face, online, and hybrid – served as an individual case because it provided distinct spatial and temporal boundaries for the teaching and learning activities. Data sources included questionnaires, naturally occurring teaching and learning artefacts, and observation. Findings from this study suggest that these biology teachers engaged with the e-textbook in much the same way as they would a physical textbook during their pedagogical actions. Additionally, students did not have opportunities to engage with the e-textbook during class time; however, they did engage with it to complete homework assignments. The students’ potential to engage with the e-textbook was constrained by the teachers’ engagement practices as well as a rule that ensured students only engaged with the e-textbook when outside of class.
... There is a usual view that relates methodology with the selection of methods (techniques) for a study and their application for data analysis. However, a far more comprehensive notion of methodology comprises the researcher's attachment to different epistemological and theoretical traditions that influence not only the selection of methods, but also the framing of research questions and design Taber, 2012Taber, , 2013Treagust et al., 2014). Crotty (1998) argues that a research conceptualisation should entail four elements: epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology, and methods. ...
... Crotty (1998) argues that a research conceptualisation should entail four elements: epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology, and methods. Taber (2013) considers similar elements when referring to ontological and epistemological assumptions in research: theoretical perspective, methodology, research design, and the coherent employment of techniques for acquiring and analysing data. ...
... These elements jointly create what is often called the research paradigm, a worldview or basic belief that sets the value of research and guides the investigator not only in the choice of methods but also in some fundamental assumptions (Guba & Lincoln, 1994;Treagust et al., 2014). In other words, the research paradigm is seen as a 'reference point', 'vision', or 'philosophy' that amalgamates beliefs, values, and methodologies in research (Taber, 2013;Treagust et al., 2014). In practice, paradigms are how the researcher thinks about and makes sense of their study. ...
This article presents a theoretical work whose objective is the discussion of methodologies and methods in educational research, in particular those that analyze classroom discursive interactions. The first part discusses the two main research paradigms and their ontological and epistemological bases: positivism and interpretivism. Next, two methods for analyzing discursive interactions are presented and discussed, one for each paradigm. Systematic coding - within the quantitative context - is indicated to treat data from large samples, to describe general patterns and, by transforming the discourse into variables, to statistical comparisons or temporal analyses. The method is applied in a set of 42 episodes of group dialogue and the results are discussed in light of the nature of the research questions, showing what types of statistical tests can be performed. Within the interpretivist paradigm, sociocultural discourse analysis is presented as an example of qualitative method an it is applied to excerpts from classroom dialogues. The main finding is the identification of typologies that describe the ways in which teacher and students construct scientific explanations. In the final part, some possibilities and limits of each method are discussed and the conclusion defendes that both are complementary for the advancement of knowledge in the educational field.
... Recently, the call has been made for positive psychology to extend and complement the dominant quantitative research paradigm by also including qualitative studies that allow researchers to gain a deeper understanding of how well-being is cultivated (Hefferon et al., 2017;Lomas et al., 2020). According to Taber (2013), researchers in education should choose the paradigm (quantitative, qualitative, mixed) based upon whether their approach is "nomothetic," meaning that the aim is to look for general patterns that can be widely applied, or "idiographic," meaning that the aim is to focus on details that occur within individual cases or small samples to highlight finergrained evidence. ...
... The impetus for the current study arose from the fact that positive education research has prioritized studies on the outcomes of positive education with little examination of the processes for how schools go about embedding positive education (Waters & Loton, 2021). Research into processes lends itself to qualitative and mixed-methods research that uncover participants direct experiences (Taber, 2013). The current study used interviews, focus groups and school documents as the sources of data, however several other qualitative data collection methods are proving to be valuable in understanding and improving student and teacher well-being. ...
... Additionally, it must be made clear that "generalizability" is not the core goal to which qualitative research holds itself accountable (Given, 2008). Unlike the nomothetic approach which aims to look for general patterns that can be widely applied, the idiographic approach focuses on individual cases or small samples to highlight detailed descriptions about participant experiences (i.e., depth over breadth) (Taber, 2013). The current paper provides rich and detailed data about one school's experiences. ...
For more than a decade, the field of positive education has amassed growing evidence that school-based well-being interventions support and boost the mental health of students. Outcomes such as hope, subjective well-being, life satisfaction, pro-social behavior, school engagement and academic grades have all been shown to significantly increase following positive education interventions. While the growing science has created confidence about the outcomes that can be attained through a positive education approach, significantly less scientific attention has been given to the processes that schools employ to embed a positive education approach. In other words, the field has provided information about what positive education can lead to but has published comparatively little on how positive education becomes infused into schools. The aim of the current qualitative paper is to provide a descriptive case study of one school’s positive education approach before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A single-case study design was used to conduct a detailed description of how one school has embedded a positive education approach using the SEARCH framework which contains six pathways to well-being: strengths, emotional management, attention and awareness, relationships, coping, and habits and goals. Descriptions are provided for how SEARCH was embedded during on-campus learning before COVID-19 and how it was utilized during two periods of distance learning during the global pandemic. Results from the current study suggest that having a positive education framework, training all staff, having both student and staff well-being initiatives and cultivating a common language for positive education are core processes that create a sustained and adaptive culture of wellbeing. We hope that this case study inspires schools to use student well-being as a prevention tool in good times and as a crisis management tool in times of adversity.
... There is a consensual view that relates methodology with the selection and description of methods and techniques for a study, going far beyond the quantitative-qualitative dichotomy and its implications for data collection Taber, 2012Taber, , 2013. This comprehensive notion of methodology comprises the researcher's attachment to different epistemological and theoretical traditions that influence the selection of methods and framing of research questions . ...
... These elements jointly create what is often called the research paradigm, a worldview or basic belief that sets the value of research and guides the investigator not only in the choice of methods but also in some fundamental assumptions (Guba & Lincoln, 1994;. In other words, the research paradigm is seen as a 'reference point', 'vision', or 'philosophy' that amalgamates beliefs, values, and methodologies in research (Taber, 2013;. In practice, paradigms are how the researcher thinks about and makes sense of their study. ...
... Interpretivist studies are critiqued for being anecdotal or not methodically rigorous, resulting in a lack of generalisation or scalability. Positivist researchers might be seen as superficial and limiting, as they do not grasp the inner contradictions and assume that the same finding or solutions can be applied in every context (Taber, 2013). ...
This thesis studies the adherence of a talk-intensive approach to teaching and learning in the Brazilian context. While classroom talk is often classified as monologic due to being narrow and controlled by teachers, educational research has identified a kind of collaborative and cognitively productive talk that positively affects learning outcomes. This dialogic talk is rare in most classrooms. Many teacher professional development programmes have been designed to bridge this gap. This project builds on this vast literature to explore three key aspects in the development of a more dialogic classroom talk: small-group work, conceptual learning, and whole-class teaching. To produce such a dialogic case, an intensive, small-scale, researcher-led intervention was implemented in one primary school. The programme lasted for three months and consisted of three modules, each focusing in one of the aspects highlighted above. Data consisted of pre-post knowledge tests, audio recording of small-group work, video recording of whole-class teaching, and interviews. Classroom talk was analysed through both quantitative and qualitative methods. Within the Brazilian research field, this study is arguably the first with such aims and scope. In small-group talk, students spent only half of the time talking about the task’s content, when they used one third of dialogic utterances. Group talk features varied reasonably across tasks and no positive variation was found regarding dialogicity. It is argued that the students did not appropriate the use of ground rules for talk effectively. Although statistically significant, only small effects were found on students’ learning (knowledge tests). This result was discussed in relation to the role of different teaching modalities, talk formats, and classroom climate in promoting the co-construction of knowledge. The investigation showed how talk served as a means for learning. More specifically, five types of explanatory sequences were identified when teachers and students collectively built scientific explanations. In whole-class teaching, episodes of teachers’ dialogic practices were analysed and revealed which conditions favoured such emergence. Overall, this research sheds light on the potentialities and challenges of dialogic practices in a Brazilian primary school. The study contributes with new empirical data by systematically mapping groups’ and teachers’ discursive practices over seven tasks and nine lessons. Pre-designed classroom materials were very productive in fostering dialogic talk and teachers made many different decisions to render their own lessons more dialogic. Finally, the broad scope of this thesis—connecting professional development, use of classroom materials, student learning, and classroom talk— allowed putting forward recommendations for future intervention such as duration, pace, content, data-based reflective inquiry, and dialogic culture.
... Thompson, 2013 informs the methodology chapter is the theory of the research, A research paradigm is the approach to an educational enquiry or the context within which educational research is conducted (Taber, 2007;Taber, 2013 These are depicted as a spectrum that extends from the subjective to the objective approach (Burrell & Morgan, 1979) (see Appendix 4). The paradigmatic decisions constitute the highest level of research thinking and are described as the underpinning research philosophy (Taber, 2007;Taber, 2013). ...
... Thompson, 2013 informs the methodology chapter is the theory of the research, A research paradigm is the approach to an educational enquiry or the context within which educational research is conducted (Taber, 2007;Taber, 2013 These are depicted as a spectrum that extends from the subjective to the objective approach (Burrell & Morgan, 1979) (see Appendix 4). The paradigmatic decisions constitute the highest level of research thinking and are described as the underpinning research philosophy (Taber, 2007;Taber, 2013). These important paradigmatic decisions were made prior to the selection of methodology (i.e. ...
... research process or tradition) and methods (i.e. research instruments) (Hitchcock & Hughes, 1995;Cohen et al. 2011). The chosen paradigmatic position influenced these subsequent decisions (Taber, 2007;Taber, 2013). The hierarchy of the decisions that took place and their relationship to paradigm, methodology and methods is shown (see Appendix 4). ...
This thesis examines the other individuals involved in schools and classrooms who are not teachers or teaching assistants. Many terms exist for these individuals including external agents, providers and specialists. This is set within a policy background of government reports, Acts and initiatives from the early 1900s. Those invited in to be involved in schools includes statutory agencies, military-style organisations, the voluntary sector, community members and employers. The literature which examines the involvement of these external agents in schools does so from a narrow perspective, such as a specific agent type or policy initiative. In contrast, the aim is to identify the full range of agents involved across four case study schools through a broad approach in that it does not focus on a type of agent (e.g. employers); a specific initiative (e.g. extended schools) or period (e.g. 1960 to 2000). There is a lack of discussion within the literature from the agent perspective. To counteract this gap, the perceptions of agents are compared against those of school staff, in terms of the rationales for their involvement in schools. The aim is to determine if the involvement of agents is in relation to government invitations or if other rationales exist. The contribution to knowledge is in terms of this broad approach to the identification of agents, against the approach taken in previously studies. It also adds knowledge in that it compares the perceptions of both external agents and school staff about the rationales for involvement.
... While many doubt that any objective reality exists (Fairhurst & Grant, 2010;Quale, 2007), those who assume its existence argue that the link to it is mediated through social experience (Khagram et al., 2010). From an epistemological view on knowability of this reality (Dancy, 1985;Moser, 2002), there is much agreement that it cannot be known through our cognitive processes and that it depends on each person's preconcepts and prior experience (Knight & Saunders, 1999;Taber, 2007). Research on perception confirms this by showing that 'direct' (unmediated) and 'indirect' perception are not clearly separated (Norman, 1983, p. 731). ...
... The rationale behind the choice of participants for this study was to gather a variety of opinions and experiences that would enable me to pursue intriguing questions (Mason, 2018) and to have a sufficient representation of each of the 4 subgroups (referred to as ALPHA mentors, ALPHA mentees, BETA mentors and BETA mentees). For pragmatical reasons (Marshall, 1996;Taber, 2007) I decided on a minimum of four participants from each subgroup. Sampling approaches are 'not rigidly defined' in qualitative research (Coyne, 1997, p. 623) and taking a randomised approach to sampling is not as important as in quantitative designs; it may in fact lead to an unrepresentative sample (Seawright & Gerring, 2008;Suri, 2001). ...
... -Focus of the mentoring work and description of the process (Taber, 2007;Knight & Saunders, 1999). I interviewed a mentee and a mentor from the BETA programme for this purpose, both for almost two hours, in which time we covered a range of topics. ...
The qualitative research reported on in this thesis explores the possibility of raising the quality of teacher education and job satisfaction for beginner teachers in the Czech Republic, through being mentored by a more experienced teacher. Mentoring is conceptualised as systematic, regular support over a longer period of time, providing mentees with guidance through reflection on their work. The literature review investigates the multilayered dimensions of effective mentoring, and identifies a need for studying it in the context of attitudes and skills on the part of both the mentor and the mentee, as well as the organisational culture of the school and the general working conditions of teachers throughout the country. Therefore, a qualitative design is chosen to afford teachers a voice, in order to examine whether they find mentoring useful, and which underlying factors exert impact on their experience. Two separate cases of mentoring programmes (one pre-service and one in-service) are explored by interviewing 24 beginner teachers and mentors. Subsequent thematic analysis identifies factors influencing the mentoring experience at a) the personal level, b) the school level and c) the structural level. Mentoring proves beneficial for improving beginner teachers' self-efficacy, but signs of conformity and a lack of professional responsibility, characteristic of communist schooling, are identified as inhibitive to reflection on one's own teaching. Also, the three-level framework emphasises a need to consider the complexity of the system and contextual factors when conducting research on teacher education, especially in post-communist countries. These factors should also be taken into account in policy planning.
... There are a number of limitations when attempting to interpret learners' productions, as the things that students write only provide indirect evidence of how far (if at all) their understanding and learning have developed (Taber, 2007). Especially when analysing a limited number of students' work, it is likely to reflect only 'a facet of a repertoire of available ways of thinking' (Taber, 2007, p.146), and it is difficult to know if any learning is a development or pre-existing. ...
... One possible reason for the discrepancy between the frequency of these devices is that the use of short sentences and epithets may be harder skills for students to understand and feel confident to use within their work. On the other hand, students may equally have gathered the skill-set from these oral activities, but for this particular task decided not to use them within their story (Taber, 2007). It is also difficult to verify whether the short sentences used in Student B's narrative were the intentional use of a device for effect or an accidental feature. ...
... For example, students may have added these devices into their narrative writing because they were influenced by a book they were reading, or by a creative writing lunchtime class that they attend. Or indeed whether their learning was developmental or pre-existing (Taber, 2007). Moreover, due to the small sample size, and disparity of the results, it is difficult to reliably generalise these findings to the rest of the class narrative writing. ...
This research project seeks to examine, using approaches drawn from a case study, how oral storytelling within the classroom can influence various aspects of narrative writing. Therefore, certain teaching strategies and oral activities were implemented in a sequence of lessons which aimed to develop the style and content base of students’ narrative writing.
... Driven by the data, codes were designed to capture the reported barriers (Taber, 2013). Repeating coding patterns were thematically clustered (Taber, 2013). ...
... Driven by the data, codes were designed to capture the reported barriers (Taber, 2013). Repeating coding patterns were thematically clustered (Taber, 2013). Moreover, teachers' rankings were utilised so as to prioritise thematic clusters in the order of their relevance to teachers' daily contextual challenges. ...
This paper presents a contextual investigation of social, cultural and political factors hindering the integration of mathematical problem solving in Egyptian classrooms. Centered around a one-size-fits-all mathematics curriculum and examination scheme, the current national agenda for schooling seeks to govern all schools in Egypt. Using the Goodson Change Model and based on six teacher focus groups, this study seeks to map out school-government power relations and to use this mapping as a basis to explore, from the teachers' perspective, barriers to the classroom integration of mathematical problem solving. The study also seeks to explore the degree to which reported barriers are socio-culturally bound. Results re-emphasise the importance of a powerful school microculture. The ability of a school to enforce its own mathematical pedagogy despite external pressures and cultural norms turns out to be less a question of a school's socio-cultural standing and more a question of the strength of the school's microculture.
... Simply demonstrating that initial differences do not reach statistical significance (i.e., at a level that would only occur by chance with very low probability) is a very limited test of equivalence (Taber, 2013). Any choice of p value is somewhat arbitrary, but it has been suggested that if using p for this purpose then a substantially higher value of p, p 4 0.5 (not reached here when comparing conceptual understanding at pre-test), should be adopted as a suitable criterion for equivalence (Taber, 2019) -simply because it at least answers the nominal question ''are the measured differences between the groups likely to be due to chance variation rather than systematic differences?'' ...
... It may often seem to those involved in a study that differences in outcomes that are non-significant, i.e., not sufficiently statistically unlikely to reach significance, may still be of practical importance (and indeed effect sizes may seem more informative here). It may be useful to consider a distinction that has been made between theory-directed and context-directed research (Taber, 2013). In theory-directed research, the main motivation for a study is to examine a generalisable theoretical question (such as about the efficacy of PhET simulations in teaching chemistry topics) and a choice of research site(s) and sample is then made as an instrumental means of obtaining findings that can be generalised to a wide range of contexts. ...
This comment discusses some issues about the use and reporting of experimental studies in education, illustrated by a recently published study that claimed (i) that an educational innovation was effective despite outcomes not reaching statistical significance, and (ii) that this refuted the findings of an earlier study. The two key issues raised concern how the research community should understand the concept of refutation when comparing across studies, and whether the adoption of inferential statistics in a study should bind researchers to accept the inferences such tests suggest.
... Practitioner research is a type of research that is deeply grounded in the practicalities of the workplace. The simplest definition of practitioner research is that it is research conducted by people who also work within the profession and context that they are researching (Taber, 2013). This may be teachers conducting research into their own teaching or that of their colleagues although it could refer to any professional conducting research into their own context. ...
... ISSN 2056-7804 Vol. 3, 2016 66 practitioners which is positioned as ethnography, case study or auto-ethnography. Therefore, practitioner research is a term which spans across a range of methodological positions (Taber, 2013). ...
(Workshop presented at Kaleidoscope 2015, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge): Selena and James are both enticed by the promise of communicating educational research in creative ways. They will each bring into this discussion their perspectives, informed respectively by arts-based methodologies and practitioner research, as they briefly talk about existing examples of alternative forms of communicating Master’s and doctoral level studies in the field of education (ranging from drama, fiction, film and design projects). All participants are then invited to engage in a group-work activity to try out presenting their research in a poem, or a play or a picture, followed by a collective reflection session to discuss how we can communicate educational research in alternative forms while still producing high-quality research.
... Sadeghi and Abutorabi (2017) state that one of the crucial aspects of showing progress in professional development is to increase the abilities of a teacher to develop a critical assessment of the event, to analyze and implement the accessible evidence from the research to smoothly transform the role of teacher to be perspective evidence-based practitioners. Taber (2007) believes that there is an expectation from every classroom teacher to assess his work and improve it using some evidence comprehensively. Two levels have been defined for evidence-based practice. ...
Understanding the research concept, its obstacles, and motivation is necessary to provide better academic services and opportunities for teachers less active in conducting research. To this end, 40 lecturers from an English Language Center with various qualifications and adequate teaching experiences in the Omani EFL context were selected as the population of this study. A questionnaire initially designed by Borg (2009) to measure/gauge? lecturers' views on research was used to collect the data. The findings revealed that the lecturers showed lower levels of research engagement due to problems such as a lack of methodological knowledge, heavy teaching loads, and unclear job specifications. In addition, objectivity was considered an essential criterion while conducting research, and published materials on the Internet were stated to be the primary source of reading about language-related resources. They also believed that conducting research would only moderately affect their teaching techniques. The findings of this study should help reduce the concerns and obstacles among lecturers and engage them more in the research area by focusing on the problems and facilitating the use of accessible resources to encourage them to conduct more research studies. Policymakers, managers, institutions, and teachers play essential roles in the new way of developing curricula, which considers teachers as researchers.
... Possessing the skills of investigation, exploration, inquiry, problem-identification, problem-definition, and problem-solving, among others, confers the possessor with numerous capabilities with which to engage meaningfully and intelligently his/her mysterious environment, seeking truth and evidence to back that truth. In higher education academic practitioners respect evidence-based practice (Taber, 2007) and action research promotes collection of evidence on the immediate experiences of practitioners to understand and effect change in professional practice. Quality practices attract the attention of peers and invite supporters and competitors, while change improves the same quality practices to maintain competitive advantage and relevance. ...
Universities in Zimbabwe have universally adopted a full-year integrated undergraduate student workplace-based learning pedagogy following the precedent set in 1991 by one pioneering university, the National University of Science and Technology. In this explorative study I analyse participants’ views, reflections and understanding of how the full-year model of workplace-based learning enhances quality academic practices and impacts on short, medium and long-term visions and opportunities for students and other stakeholders. I employed the embedded concurrent mixed methods research design (Creswell&Clark, 2007) using interviews with lecturers, university administrators and industry supervisors, as well as open-ended questions in three matched versions of a questionnaire to students, lecturers and industry supervisors respectively. The same questionnaire provided quantitative data that was statistically analysed. Interviews were conducted with 24 participants from the university under study, industry and other universities, while 363 university students, 40 NUST lecturers and 34 industry supervisors responded to the respective questionnaires. Students, lecturers and industry supervisors concurred on the coherence between industry experiences and university learning, the beneficial experiences at the workplace, and the relevance of those experiences to society, confirming the expressed view that industry-based learning promoted quality learning and teaching, and enabled students to become work-ready. However there were perceptions of inadequate student supervision and assessment, unsatisfactory student welfare safeguards, inadequate research enthusiasm among lecturers, and the lack of involvement of the whole spectrum of industry categories. There was an underlying regard for lifelong learning enabling societal transformation into the increasingly dominant industrialised culture. Lecturers indicated an appreciation for a holistic orientation to teaching and learning (Taylor, 2009), and were inclined towards adopting the hermeneutic approach to education (Danner, 2002). It is recommended, among other things, to revitalise effective practices through staff development efforts, increasing student knowledge and empowerment, and strengthening collaborative platforms between the university and its industry partners. Chief among the suggestions for future research is the understanding and promotion of student welfare during their placement in the workplaces.
... The perspectives also drive questions for more formal inquiry, including classroom-based research (Taber, 2013), action research (Mertler, 2020), and full-scale formal studies using a range of methods. What actually happens when students use the tool? ...
... co.uk), before being stored and handled using NVivo software. The constructionist methodology employed embraces the multiple realities present in the data (Gergen, 2015), as well as foregrounding the co-constructing role played by the researcher (both as an educator, and in the subsequent analysis of the data) (Hennink et al., 2020;Taber, 2007;Waring, 2017). Maintaining a reflexive awareness on the part of the researcher was important, given my position within the research field. ...
Among the growing body of literature concerning teaching and learning about the Holocaust, very little research has explored the experiences of teachers from an emotional perspective. This study considers the emotion work done by educators who are teaching about the Holocaust at the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Through the lens of ‘emotional labour’, the study explores how the educators articulate their emotion work, and how they manage their emotions in situ . The findings reveal a complex interplay of emotion work and self-preservation that results in educators variously altering the extent to which they are ‘present’ and how they choose to withdraw themselves emotionally from certain exhibits or spaces at the museum. The study also reveals the benefits of the informal emotional support network that exists between the educators, as well as the various routines they adopt to help them manage their emotion work. It is argued that the findings of this paper highlight a need for further research into how teachers teach about emotionally difficult histories such as this, in similar and more diverse contexts.
... In research on the assessment of an individual's MA, two main methods are used, on-line methods and off-line methods . The pros and cons of both methods have been debated on Taber, 2013) revealing different results (Veenman, 2005). To study MA in this dissertation, rigorous evaluation of the methods was undertaken. ...
The purpose of this doctoral thesis was to deepen existing understanding of teachers’ metacognitive awareness (MA), defined here as the individual’s ability to be aware of, understand and specify one’s thinking about learning. This model of MA draws a theoretical distinction between two main components: knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition. The dissertation’s aims were theoretical, methodological and empirical in nature.
The theoretical aim was to examine teacher support for learner MA. Study I assessed the utility of the widely used current theory of MA for examining MA among Finnish teachers (N = 208). As teacher MA impacts the support provided to learners, Study II assessed the suitability of this theoretical model for examining learners’ (N = 578) MA. A theoretical account of how learner self-evaluation links to overall MA was examined. In Study III (N = 1045), a new theoretical model of support for MA was constructed on the basis of the findings of Study I and Study II. The methodological aim was to develop a measure of perceived teacher support for learner MA. Study I assessed the utility of a measure operationalized in terms of the current theoretical model, using an instrument adapted for international use, and translated and validated in Finnish. Study II assessed the suitability of the new theoretical account for examining learner MA. In Study III, a new instrument for measuring perceived teacher support for learner MA was developed and tested, based on Study I and Study II. The empirical aim was to explore how teachers support learner MA. Study I and Study II confirmed the validity and reliability of the self-report measures in a Finnish education context, and the underlying theoretical model’s ability to account for these data. As a further empirical issue, Study III explored teachers’ perceived support for learner MA across different teaching domains.
The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the data from Study I and Study II revealed good/acceptable fit of the factor structure of both measures of MA, whose utility was separately confirmed for both teachers and learners. Study II confirmed the hypothesis that self-evaluation serves as a reference component linking knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition. Self-evaluation was therefore examined in Study III as a key element of MA. The results of Structural Equation Modelling in Study II confirmed that learners’ knowledge of conditions (conditional knowledge) predicted learners’ knowledge of learning content selection (declarative knowledge), as well as knowledge of self-evaluation of learning. Activity in planning one’s own learning predicted monitoring and debugging activity during learning, as well as activity in self-evaluation of learning strategies at the end of the learning process. Study III explored perceived teacher support for learner MA across different teaching domains in terms of three main components: knowledge of learning objects, regulation of learning strategies and self-evaluation.
The findings clarify how teachers currently address the challenges of teaching 21st century skills such as lifelong learning and metacognition. As learners’ responsibility for their own learning is increasingly highlighted at all levels of education, teacher support for learner MA becomes crucial. The findings indicate that while special teachers provide most support for learner MA, subject teacher support for MA varies across components within subject groups. There was also a statistically significant difference between genders, in that women supported learner MA more systematically than men for all components and across all teacher groups.
In sum, the findings confirm the validity of the proposed measures and can be used to inform ways of teaching and learning in teacher education. The results also confirm the perceived need to develop teachers’ ability to support learner MA, both during pre-service education and in-service further education.
... We adopted a mixed methods research methodology. Corpus linguistics exploration and pedagogic intervention was followed by a qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigm (Taber 2013) to explore the adoption and use of DDL in a professional military context. ...
This research investigates the use of Data-driven learning (DDL) tasks in the teaching and learning of acronyms in a specialised corpus. Our target population is professional military staff (n=16). The researchers collected and analysed the Salvage and Rescue of Submarines Corpus (SAR) where the patterning of acronyms, neglected in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), plays a substantial role. Using a mixed-methods methodology, this research looked at the students' interaction with DDL, as well as at the subsequent interviews with the students. Deductive and inductive paper-based DDL tasks with concordance lines of acronyms were used with two groups of students of different rank. Both groups found the tasks challenging and showed mixed reactions towards concordance lines. While there has been a much-needed emphasis on tools and corpus methods training in DDL, we suggest that conversations with adult, professional students about the nature of instructed language learning and language patterning are absolutely essential to promote a more active learner role in DDL approaches.
... In terms of the participants' perceptions of their lives in the UK and the factors that they identified as influential to the changes in their beliefs, the findings support previous studies that have highlighted that a teacher's professional identity tends to be the core element in how they conceptualise themselves (Ma and Gao 2017;Yang 2019) and the classroom as a highly significant factor (Moloney and HuiLing 2015). This is particularly the case when teachers see a positive effect on learning outcomes as a result of their adaptation to the local context (Taber 2013). ...
This study investigated the impact that the experience of living and teaching in the United Kingdom (UK) had on the belief development of three native Chinese language teachers. The study used a multifaceted approach to analyse the teachers as social beings and their belief development beyond the confines of the classroom. The analysis is based on data derived from an innovative methodological tool, a metaphorical drawing task, combined with narrative inquiry and interviews to elicit implicit beliefs. The findings show that the teachers’ various social roles as parents, members of clubs, participants in professional communities and observers of the broader social-political system in the UK, as well as the classroom environment, all contributed to changes in their beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning. Implications for classroom practice and teacher development are discussed.
... Though in both cases the objectives laid out prior to the project shifted somewhat, it did allow me to approach the observations more aware of what objectives the teachers at least had for the students. There was initially some concern that such an interview may have an impact on the project objectives or individual lesson plans (Ritchie, 2003), but none of the changes to the initial plan could reasonably be seen to have been influenced by this discussion, which could have compromised the naturalistic character of the case study (Taber, 2013). The other purpose of the interviews, to understand better the concepts the students may have been previously exposed to in lessons, was also successful. ...
This thesis explores the nature of learning in students engaged in project-based learning (PBL) projects based in secondary science subjects. The literature review first establishes a working definition of learning, and then goes on the characterise project-based learning both in terms of its aims and associated methods. This gives rise to two research questions- how do students learn while engaged in project-based learning, and what effects to different aspects of project learning have on the learning taking place. The methodology then provides a rationale and description of the case study method selected to answer these questions. The cases themselves are three students, pseudonymed Hamish, Hannah, and Jane, who were at the time of their participation Year 12 students at the local University Technical College (UTC), a school specialising in STEM subjects. The students were observed during weekly sessions of their Challenge projects, which represent PBL projects in a STEM subject completed with the collaboration of a local employer. Hamish’s project focussed on the management and preservation of a local waterway, while Hannah and Jane worked on a Computer Science project featuring data visualisation and marketing. Each of the participants also completed a series of interviews about their experiences within the project, both in terms of the content knowledge and skills and in terms of their attitudes towards their projects. What was revealed through these interviews was that even within the same projects, student learning and experience was variable. While all three participants met the objectives of their projects, they did so in different capacities, and appreciated the chance to do so. They also each had different responses to the delivery of their projects, based primarily on their own (reported) learning style. This was due primarily to the nature of the projects, and the autonomy students were encouraged to show throughout the project.
... Durum çalışması, bir durum hakkında nitel ve nicel teknikleri kullanarak derinlemesine bilgi edinmeyi sağlayan bir araştırma yöntemidir (Patton, 2002). Durum çalışması kompleks bir durumun içinde neler olduğunu ortaya çıkarmak ve durumla ilgili ayrıntılı veri toplamak için kullanılır (Taber, 2007). En belirgin özelliği ise güncel bir olgu, olay, durum, birey ve gruplar üzerine odaklanıp, derinlemesine incelemeye çalışmasıdır (Ekiz, 2009). ...
For the use of concept maps as a widespread evaluation tool, it is necessary to determine which concept mapping method reveals the knowledge of the student in a valid and reliable manner in the reliable and efficient manner. This study is concerned with the efficiency of four different concept mapping tasks which are Novak type, numbering type, fill in the nodes and fill in the relations methods as an assessment tool. For this purpose, the opinions of the participants about the process were indicated by providing to prepare the concept maps with different methods by participants. In this study, the opinions of the pre service chemistry teachers were examined with a case study based on qualitative approach. The opinions of the participants were determined by using Diary1, Diary2, written questions about the opinions of Concept Map, semi constructive interview with the pre service teachers, focused group discussion, in class discussions, videotaped records and field notes of the instructor. In the study, the validity of the data was achieved by data sources triangulation According to the results of this study, the Novakian and numbering methods are much time consuming in terms of preparing and scoring. However, both these methods are much more sufficient and distinguishing assessment tools than filling the blank methods. They must be preferred to filling the nodes method if there are no time constraints and the rater is professional enough. The fill in the blank maps are very suitable for the summative assessment since they are easy to prepare, score and impartial. However, it should be considered the chance scores which will be able to affect the points especially in the fill in the nodes maps.
... In the empirical sciences, such as chemistry and chemical education, texts are not primarily valued as texts (that is, as a particular literary construction), but as representations of ideas. A research report will offer knowledge claims, which will be supported by a line of argument based on the interpretation of data as supporting evidence (2). A review article that revisits a canon of existing studies is similar, but with the previously published works taking the role of data for the review. ...
Academic authorship is a key concept in scholarly publication. Publications bring academic credit, and authorship is the accepted way of recognizing who deserves that credit. Similarly, authorship ensures accountability for the claims published in research journals. Journals, therefore, commonly require the submitting author to make some form of declaration that the submitted manuscript includes an accurate author list. Academic authorship is not focused on the process of writing a scholarly article, but on the intellectual work which is reported in that article. Generally academic works offer knowledge claims, which are considered useful contributions when judged as novel and well supported by argument and evidence. The research paper is therefore an account of an argument based on considerable work undertaken prior to the writing process, and authors are those who have contributed substantial intellectual work to the study. All named authors need to approve the submitted manuscript, as they will be considered to share accountability for it if published, but it is not necessary for all authors to substantially contribute to the writing as long as they have contributed to the thinking behind it. Even though the criteria for academic authorship are straightforward, there is much scope for dispute in interpreting the principles. The chapter discusses the nature of academic authorship and the possibility for inadvertent and deliberate errors in assigning authorship. The chapter also suggests some simple guidelines to minimize the potential for problems to develop over questions of authorship.
... 4. Para lograr cambios sustanciales también es fundamental que se supere la supremacía exclusiva de la llamada "práctica basada en la evidencia" (Taber, 2013;Wodarski y Hopson, 2012) según la cual, los docentes deben integrar la investigación en la toma de decisiones casi como la aplicación de una fórmula exacta a un problema determinado. ...
This article analyzes the main obstacles that the relationship
between educational research and teachers faces. It
assumes the presence of a widening gap which is taking
them along distant and almost antagonistic paths that do
not favor the progress of education. The characteristics of
five “invisible walls” that interpose between both concepts
are exposed: research as a kind of knowledge built between
four walls and away from the everyday reality of teachers,
the useless topics chosen by researchers, the lack of research
training of teachers, the poor results of the studies
and the specialized language in which the research is
communicated. The article ends with some reflections and
suggestions to overcome these walls and achieve a more
conciliatory discourse between researchers and teachers.
... 4. Para lograr cambios sustanciales también es fundamental que se supere la supremacía exclusiva de la llamada "práctica basada en la evidencia" (Taber, 2013;Wodarski y Hopson, 2012) según la cual, los docentes deben integrar la investigación en la toma de decisiones casi como la aplicación de una fórmula exacta a un problema determinado. ...
El presente artículo analiza los principales obstáculos que enfrenta la relación entre la investigación educativa y los docentes. Se asume la presencia de una brecha cada vez más grande que la está llevando por caminos distantes y casi antagónicos, y que no favorece el progreso de la educación. Se exponen, de igual manera, las características de cinco “murallas invisibles” que se interponen entre ambos conceptos: la investigación como un tipo de saber construido entre cuatro paredes y alejado de la realidad cotidiana de los docentes, las temáticas inútiles que eligen los investigadores, la escasa formación en investigación del profesorado, los resultados poco concretos de los estudios, y el lenguaje especializado en que es comunicada la investigación. El artículo finaliza con algunas reflexiones y sugerencias para superar estas murallas y lograr un discurso más conciliador entre investigadores y docentes.
... In order to answer these questions, a three-phase research framework was applied, using a qualitative emergent design (Maykut & Morhouse, 1994;Morrow, 2005;Taber, 2013). First, we assembled an initial inventory of 230 applications, based on online recommendations for educational apps available on the web for any teacher or user. ...
This paper presents five emergent categories of uniqueness with regard to learning with mobile applications (apps), and suggests an overarching profile to characterize such apps. The proposed profile is the result of an analytic process conducted in order to answer the question in the title The categories are organized into three levels The micro level focuses on interactions and includes (i) interaction with the device and (ii) interaction with the environment. The intermediate level focuses on activities and includes (iii) location-based learning and (iv) supporting any learning environment. The macro system level includes (v) applications as part of a complex system Common to these emergent categories is the experience of learning in blended spaces. This primary pedagogical principle leads to additional principles such as embodied cognition, the device as a discovery machine, and open playful design. The paper discusses the interrelationships between these principles, and concludes with drawing a profile of uniqueness, enabling utilization of such principles for deep understanding of the environment and for promoting new literacy of 'mobile system thinking'.
... Case-study research models provide in-depth information about a situation by using qualitative and quantitative techniques (Patton, 2002). It is mainly employed to unveil details of a complex situation and collect in-depth information on it (Taber, 2007). ...
People who claim that applying Novakian concept maps in Turkish is problematic base their arguments largely upon the structural differences between the English and Turkish languages. This study aims to introduce the indexing method to eliminate problems encountered in Turkish applications of Novakian maps and to share the preliminary results of its application. For this purpose, 20 pre-service chemistry teachers who had mastered the concept-mapping method after seven weeks of intense education were asked to prepare concept maps on the topic of atoms by using both the Novakian and indexing methods. The maps were qualitatively assessed by experts regarding informational content. The participants were asked to state in writing their opinions about the indexing method. The resulting analysis revealed that the participants were able to express the relation between two concepts more realistically when they used the indexing method, and the resulting maps were much richer in informational content. Almost all participants (95%) stated that the new method was more convenient in terms of reflecting the necessary mental information. The results of the study show the indexing method to be a much more convenient and informative way of preparing concept maps for both teachers and students.
... They can be suitable for testing the general level of support for specific misconceptions already identified in a population (Taber, 2000a), but it has long been accepted among researchers in science education that more-in-depth approaches are needed to explore student thinking (Bell, 1995;Gilbert, Watts, & Osborne, 1985;White, 1985). This reflects general understanding of the difference between exploratory and confirmatory approaches to research that qualitative, in-depth approaches to exploring specific learners and contexts are needed to support the identification of suitable items that are valid for use in survey instruments (Taber, 2007). Ünal et al. used interviews to complement their written probe, and the potential of interviews to investigate student thinking is illustrated in the extract from transcripts presented in the paper. ...
Learners often find studying secondary school chemistry challenging, and commonly develop alternative understandings of the subject, variously labelled by researchers as misconceptions, alternative conceptions, conceptual frameworks, and so forth. An example of enquiry into this area is provided by Ünal, Cotu & Ayas in a recent paper in the Journal of Turkish Science Education. Ünal and colleagues explored student misconceptions relating to the fundamental concept of covalent bonding, and classified student responses in their study according to both the soundness of student comments, and the presence of misconceptions. Research of this kind is complicated by both the nature of the simplifications used to teach chemistry at this level (which complicate decisions about what is taken to constitute sound student knowledge), and the difficulty of appreciating the nature of student misconceptions, which may actually vary considerably in their significance for progression in student learning. This commentary offers a reconsideration of Ünal and colleagues results in the light of previous published research into student understanding of chemical bonding, which suggests that Turkish Secondary School students thinking about Bonding seems to reflect a previously reported alternative conceptual framework.
... Carr defines practical wisdom as, "the capacity to make wise and prudent judgements about what, in a particular situation, would constitute an appropriate expression" (Carr, 2006, p. 426). In addition to these concerns, other researchers have emphasised the need for evidence-based practice and the use of scientific-based data 2 D. Vázquez collection to enhance teaching practices (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2008;McGregor & Cartwright, 2011;Pollard, 2002Pollard, , 2008Taber, 2007Taber, , 2013. For this study, I was interested in my reflective practice in a broad sense. ...
This is a case study of my reflections on teaching a first-year undergraduate tutorial on Ancient Greek Philosophy in the UK. This study draws upon the notion of reflective practice as an essential feature of teaching, in this case applied to Higher Education. My aim is to show how a critical engagement with my teaching practices and the overall learning experience modified, developed, or strengthened my practices, attitudes, and teaching philosophy during the course of one term. Methods for data collection included a weekly logbook, student questionnaires, teaching observations, reflective exercises, and peer discussions. The findings shed light on the complexities of teaching Greek philosophy to small groups and the challenges of the practitioner's reflective process in this teaching.
Using an in-depth longitudinal research approach, this study has examined how Korean Air, a major global full-service network airline, manages its wastes in an environmentally sustainable manner. The study period was from 2007 to 2021. Korean Air has defined and implemented a "Green" Management Policy that underpins its sustainability goals. The airline's waste management is underpinned by the 3Rs Waste Management Framework. Korean Air aims to reduce wastes wherever possible. Where this is not possible then the airline aims to re-use its wastes. Wastes that are unsuitable for re-use are recycled when their characteristics are suitable for such an approach. Wastes that cannot be re-used, recycled, or incinerated are disposed to landfill. The airline's cabin wastes are disinfected and incinerated in accordance with the relevant regulations. Wastes generated by Korean Air can be broadly split into domestic waste generated from transportation services and designated or hazardous waste generated from aircraft maintenance. The case study found that there was an overall upward trend in Korean Air's annual recycled wastes from 2010 to 2019. The airline's incinerated wastes exhibited a general upward trend from 2007 to 2019. Koreans Air's annual wastes disposed to landfill displayed a general downward trend during the study period. Koreans Air's annual wastes were influenced by the reduced passenger traffic and flight operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the global aviation industry and has the global pandemic resulted in a downturn in passenger traffic and flight operations.
Creative writing is a teaching strategy employed increasingly less frequently as students progress through their secondary education. From my own school experience and observing other teachers, many such tasks are set in Year 7 but then later give way to the pressure of preparing students for exams. In the first Professional Placement of my postgraduate teacher training, I observed a Classical Civilisation teacher set her sixth form students to write a poem about Hector or Andromache from the Iliad Book 6. Although there was some initial reluctance, students largely engaged with the task and we were both impressed by the results. This prompted me to carry out my own research project to explore further the potential impact of creative writing, following the argument that one way into a text is to understand the characters within it.
Appropriate use of cohesive devices is an important writing skill. Recently, there has been growing research on cohesiveness in ESL students’ texts at university level. However, research into secondary school students’ writing and learners’ perceptions of cohesive devices has remained underexplored. This case study investigated the use of connectives, a particular type of cohesive device, by nine ESL secondary school learners. In this study, qualitative data were collected from classroom observations, students’ compositions, and semi-structured group interviews. Techniques of corpus-assisted discourse analysis were applied using UAM CorpusTool. The findings show that the main problem faced by high-proficiency learners was the overuse of connectives, while average- and low-proficiency learners tended to overuse and misuse them. The findings also reveal that inadequate knowledge of connectives, low awareness of genre, and poor understanding of writing requirements were possible reasons for these problems. Based on the findings, practical implications for language teachers and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Amid policy and practitioner interest, much has been written about school leadership and culture. Even so, research has had difficulty empirically connecting leadership with student results. In a high-stakes environment, understanding the impact of leadership matters, particularly to schools in England, where with increasing autonomy, school leaders are accountable for students’ examination results. This paper highlights recent convergence in the EER field as older models of instructional, transformational and distributed leadership are progressively integrated. Exploring modern models of leadership, ‘Leadership for Learning’ is adopted as a theoretical base. Using this base, the perceptions of 2,496 English lower secondary school teachers’ and 154 principals’ are examined. These are compared alongside schools’ GCSE and OfSTED results. Based on the OECDs TALIS 2013 survey, and with a response rate of 75 percent for schools and 83 percent for teachers, a typology of teachers’ views is constructed using exploratory cluster analysis. Three clusters of teachers’ views of leadership are found. When linked with school outcomes, higher levels of Leadership for Learning are found in schools with higher GCSE results and inspection outcomes. To explore possible relationships between leadership and school outcomes, both teachers’ and principals’ views of culture and leadership are combined. Using regression analysis, a medium sized relationship is found between these combined factors and GCSE results. Variation in teachers’ perspectives makes a notable impact. This suggests a benefit to coherence in teachers’ views. Although only cross-sectional in nature, these results are cautiously optimistic and suggest that new models of leadership, such as Leadership for Learning, may lead to improved outcomes.
Nunca antes en México, como ahora, se le ha otorgado tanta importancia a la educación en derechos humanos (EDH). Programas de educación y capacitación son considerados al mismo tiempo como estrategia correctiva para reparar las violaciones y los abusos cometidos, así como mecanismo preventivo clave en la construcción de una cultura de respeto por los derechos humanos en el país. A pesar de la importancia que se le ha dado a la EDH y los miles de programas que cada año se ponen en funcionamiento en el país, no existe un análisis del impacto y alcance de los mismos. No hay investigación o información sistematizada que permita examinar cómo estos programas son implementados, qué resultados ofrecen y cuáles son las limitantes de la EDH como modelo educativo. El presente estudio de caso cualitativo, con un enfoque interpretativo y de carácter exploratorio, analiza el conocimiento profesional y las prácticas docentes de educadores y capacitadores en derechos humanos en México para entender los alcances y las limitaciones de la EDH.
Wir präsentieren einen forschungsgestützten Reformansatz, mit dem die Beratungskompetenz angehender Lehrkräfte gestärkt werden soll. Lehrkräfte sind Ansprechpersonen bei einer Vielzahl schulischer Beratungsanlässe. Um auf diesen von Studierenden bislang teilweise noch wenig beachteten Aspekt ihrer Professionalisierung einzugehen, wurde ein Seminar inkl. Evaluationskonzept entwickelt. Ziel ist es, angehende Lehrkräfte zu sensibilisieren, zu motivieren und Gelegenheiten zu schaffen, Beratungs-Skills einzuüben und sich als selbstwirksam zu erleben. Dabei spielen reflexionsbezogene und praktische Lerngelegenheiten in Kleingruppen eine besondere Rolle. Um dies in den großen Kohorten im Lehramt zu ermöglichen, wird auf ein Peer-Learning-Format zurückgegriffen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird aus dem aktuellen Forschungsstand eine evidenzbasierte Konzeption des Theorie-Praxis-Seminars abgeleitet und mit dem Evaluationskonzept sowie ersten Ergebnissen einer Pilotierung präsentiert. Wir diskutieren, wie die Beratungskompetenz von Lehramtsstudierenden im Rahmen der universitären Ausbildung weiter gefördert werden kann.
The relationship between master’s thesis work and teachers’ professional development has rarely been explored empirically, yet. Drawing upon a larger study, this paper investigates how teachers who were studying for or who have recently graduated from Master of Education programmes offered in five countries – Poland, Portugal, England, Latvia, Romania – perceive the usefulness of dissertation/thesis work for their professional development and how they attempt to use their MA research results in their (future) teaching practice. Results suggest that although most respondents recognized their MA dissertation/thesis work as having a positive impact on their professional development by enhancing their professionalism, personal development and growth, and understanding the relationship between research and practice, they were less confident about the use of MA research findings in their (future) workplaces. These results are discussed in the context of current challenges regarding master’s level education for teachers, national governments’ educational policies, and the relationship between research, teachers’ practices and professional development.
The teaching profession is undergoing significant changes, some of which are imposed by the new paradigm of education. This new context marks the shift from the teachers’ position as ‘knowledge users’ towards the more complex position of ‘knowledge creators’. In this new professional culture adapted to a changing society, teaching as a profession is understood as undergoing a continuous transformation and innovation process, while the professionals in the educational field appear to be research users and research promoters able to think thoroughly about their own professional needs and the new topics arising in their field. There is, therefore, a shift from a passive to an active position, enabling educators to become aware of how complex their field is and to understand that it cannot be acknowledged and managed from outside the social, cultural, historical, philosophical, and psychological contexts shaping it. Taking into consideration the characteristics of the new professional culture, this paper is focused on the development of research skills as one of the teachers’ core skills. The study is framed at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where the Student Perception Research Integration Questionnaire (SPRIQ) of Visser-Wijnveen et al. (2015) was applied to measure students’ perception of research integration in university courses (n=113). Additionally, analysis of the documents on the syllabus of each course of the BA in Primary Education programme was applied to review the research component of initial teacher education curricula. Findings from students’ responses show that they are more consumers than producers of research. We emphasise the importance of student teachers being able to both consume as well as produce research in order to develop professionally.
Postgraduate students involved in delivering undergraduate teaching while working toward a research degree are known as graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). This study focused upon the problems and benefits arising from this dual role as researchers and teachers, as perceived by GTAs at the University of Cambridge. To this end, GTAs at Cambridge were invited to participate in an online survey (n = 153). Teaching is seen to offer a wide range of benefits to GTAs, including benefits to the GTAs’ own research, transferable skills development, career development and teaching skills. Time pressures emerged as the principal problem associated with the role. The data are consistent with findings from previous studies, while also providing further detail about the nature of the benefits and problems. In particular, additional insights are offered relating to benefits and problems associated with different teaching activities, and disciplinary differences.
The objective of this case study is to consider the role of pupil talk in the translation of Latin. I consider that ‘talk’ within the Latin classroom is an important pedagogical tool to support the development of pupil knowledge and understanding and to promote independent learning. Firstly, I am particularly interested in pupils’ early acquisition of the Latin language through ‘talk’. In this study, I wanted to explore how they use talk to support each other and the issues they encounter, the use of available and additional support resources and the extent of grammatical terminology within their talk. With the latter, I was curious to investigate how much terminology infiltrated pupils’ speech, or indeed if it was absent, and the subsequent effect both of these might have. The oral translation of Latin is an accepted and traditional part of learning for pupils. Throughout my PGCE teacher training course, I have observed that the majority of pupils frequently and independently consult or choose to work with another pupil when translating. I considered it was both a valid and valuable learning strategy to explore and analyse in some depth. Such research would provide a constructive insight into this accepted but sometimes overlooked learning tool, and therefore could realistically inform and improve my future teaching practice. Lastly, research into pupil talk has its own intrinsic worth, as transcripts provide both thought-provoking and informative evidence of their own. Thus, I was keen, within my placement school, to discover and consider how the pupils responded and talked about the language together in pairs.
There is an extensive research programme in science education which reports on student thinking, knowledge, understanding and learning in science subjects. Research reports in journals commonly present knowledge claims about these important foci, and often in such reports these core notions (thinking, understanding, knowing, learning) are treated as relatively unproblematic - as though they can be ‘taken for granted’ within the discourse of science education, and as if the process of uncovering thinking, understanding, knowing and learning is relatively straightforward given available research techniques. Yet such foci - another’s thinking, knowing, understanding and learning - are not observables, but rather have to be inferred from phenomena that can be observed in research. Indeed, these foci are arguably at the level of theoretical constructs that act as components of explanatory schemes for making sense of people’s behaviours (such as how they respond to research probes). It is argued that researchers need to be more aware of the difficulties in accessing the mental lives of others, and to be more explicit in their reports about the modelling processes involved in developing accounts of the thinking, understanding, knowing and learning of research participants.
Science education is a key area of activity internationally. Science education is a major field of practice, with science (and individual science disciplines) being taught and learnt at various levels, both formally (for example in schools) and through more informal approaches (such as the learning that takes place when people visit science museums) all around the world.
Current science education reform initiatives require fundamental changes in how science is taught and in how teachers are supported to engage in alternative ways of science teaching (Rocard, 2007; Osborne & Dillon, 2008; National Research Council, 2007).
In a climate where, it is claimed, children now spend very little time out of doors because adults fear for their safety and impose a ‘zero risk childhood’ on them, Forest School aims to offer learners the opportunity to take ‘supported risks’. This study investigated perceptions of risk associated with the outdoors, held by children, their parents and practitioners, and whether accessing Forest School impacts on these perceptions of risk. Practitioners were generally either strongly risk-averse or strongly permissive; Forest School influenced them to be less risk-averse in some respects. Parents held ambiguous perceptions, wanting to keep their children very safe but also to help them develop strong and confident attitudes to risk. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
A great deal is known about student thinking in many scientific topics, as this has been a major focus of educational enquiry over several decades. Much of this research has been undertaken from ethnographic or phenomenological perspectives - where the main concern was developing authentic accounts of how students understood a wide range of concept areas, rather than exploring the cognitive processes involved. The theoretical entities invoked to label findings, such as intuitive theories, alternative conceptions and conceptual frameworks have been the subject of much critical debate. The lack of agreement on how learners' ideas reflect underlying cognitive structure has hindered the application of research findings to informing teaching and developing pedagogy. However, theoretical perspectives from areas of cognitive science are increasingly offering more principled frameworks for thinking about the nature of cognitive structures and learning processes. In particular, approaches which model cognition as being multi-levelled are beginning to make sense of the diverse and seemingly incoherent range of claims about student thinking in science, and to suggest testable hypotheses. A synthesis of cognitive science and science education research has considerable potential to exemplify a new scientific approach to the study of teaching and learning.
This chapter offers an overview of the process of publishing reports of research in chemistry education. The chapter considers both issues of what makes a submission suitable for publication in a research journal and practical issues of what authors need to do, and what they should expect, at different stages of the process.
School science practical activities have been criticised for exposing learners to a series of phenomena disconnected from the conceptual frameworks needed to understand them. Such activities are successful in the ‘domain of observables’ but not the ‘domain of ideas’. Few resources exist for classroom teachers wishing to improve the effectiveness of practical activities in the domain of ideas. This report describes an action research project to develop a scaffold for biology practical lessons. This scaffold separates inquiry questions and the techniques needed to address them, and thus combines two approaches to scaffolding in a single tool (‘problematising’ and ‘reducing the degrees of freedom’). Analysis of the speech of 16–17 year olds in the study class (n = 23) was used to assess their engagement in the domain of ideas. Following the scaffold’s introduction, the learners were found to speak more about relevant ideas and concepts during practical activities. When the scaffold was partially faded, the learners continued to demonstrate engagement with the domain of ideas. The approach reported here would seem to have much potential for supporting learning from ‘minds-on’ biology practical work in a variety of contexts.
This chapter offers an overview of methodological issues within science education research and considers the extent to which this area of scholarship can be understood to (actually and potentially) be scientific. The chapter considers the nature of education and educational research, how methodological issues are discussed in educational research and the range of major methodological strategies commonly used. It is suggested that the way research is discussed, undertaken and reported seems quite different in science education from research in the natural sciences as science education studies are informed by quite diverse paradigmatic commitments. The nature of educational phenomena is such that it is unlikely that science education could adopt the kind of disciplinary matrix that can guide researchers in the natural sciences (by allowing much methodological thinking to be implicit and taken for granted within a field). However, Lakatos’s ‘scientific research programmes’ (SRP) offer a view of research traditions that can encompass social science research. From this perspective, it is possible for progressive SRP to operate in science education.
The use of concept mapping as a tool to measure the meaningful learning of students is the focus of this study. The study was carried out with 24 last year students (22 years old) from the Department of Chemistry Teaching at Fatih Faculty of Education, Karadeniz Technical University (KTU). Prospective Chemistry Teachers (PCT) were asked to create concept maps using a list of given concepts related to gases. An examination of the PCTs' maps revealed that the students could not form hierarchical maps even after being shown examples of the basic elements and meaningful propositions between the concepts. After being provided with feedback about their concept maps and trained to form non-hierarchical concept maps, the students were asked to create new maps. This time they were allowed to use either hierarchical or non-hierarchical maps. When their new maps were examined, we found that most of the PCTs formed non-hierarchical maps. However, they still could not form meaningful relationships between the given concepts. We also found that the PCTs had some misconceptions about gases and kinetic molecular theory that explains gas behavior. The study ended up with some suggestions and implications for educators and researchers related to pre-service teachers' training.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and characterise students’ historical thinking as they attempt to work simultaneously with two second‐order concepts – change and diversity, to examine student difficulties in so doing and to reflect on the value of certain teaching approaches.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a case study using data gathered from teaching and learning experiences across five history lessons taught to two Year 9 classes.
Findings
“Diachronic diversity” may be a useful characterisation of the distinctive student accomplishment of linking change and diversity in discursive historical analysis. An elaboration of shortfall in the form of “proto‐diachronic diversity” helps to establish the boundaries of that achievement and the possible properties that future curricular goals and assessment might privilege.
Practical implications
History teachers may need to find ways of integrating teaching of change and diversity rather than expecting the two to merge naturally after separate analyses. Possible impediments may include difficulties with language and limitations in students’ existing concept of “change”.
Originality/value
“Diachronic diversity” points to a new curricular category for characterising a particular disciplinary property of student thinking and learning in history lessons.
As school-based action research has taken a higher profile in UK schools, the place of ethics warrants particular attention. This paper draws on evidence from a taught online Master of Education course collated via chat room discussion where 53 researching teachers were asked to explore policy within their own institution regarding school-based action research ethics. None of these teachers identified the existence of any such policies but described instead current practices. We analysed their reported school-based action research practices and discovered three major categories of response: the unexamined use of gatekeepers; the unsupported use of existing ethics guidelines (such as those of the British Educational Research Association); and the conflation of legal and ethical demands by schools. We raise questions relating to the relationship between ethics and education and call for all those involved in school-based action research to take part in developing action research ethical policy in school.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.