Equipping young people to engage with media driven science experiences: beyond science knowledge to science literacy and discerning consumers of news.

This paper reports on a study of a curricular intervention for pupils (age 10-13 years) in the UK aimed at supporting critical engagement with science based media reports. In particular the study focused on core elements of knowledge, skills and attitudes identified in previous studies that characterize critical consumers of science presented as news. This was an empirical study based on classroom observation. Data included responses from individual pupils, in addition video recording of group activity and intentional conversations between pupils and teachers were scrutinised. Analysis focused on core tasks relating to different elements of critical reading. Pupils demonstrated a grasp of questioning and evaluating text, however the capacity to translate this experience in support of a critical response to a media report with a science component is limited in assessing the credibility of text and as an element in critical reading.

Improving Science literacy through interdisciplinary collaboration using media reported science.

The capability to respond critically to science in the news is recognised as one aspect of science literacy. Consequently, science-related news reports are an essential resource for science teachers wishing to promote critical reading as the foundation of a critical response to media reported science. Consequently Science education in schools should prepare students to engage with informal sources of science, including news media, in the world beyond formal science education. An interest in science news media is not limited to the science specialist. Science news provides an authentic context for teachers of science and English to collaborate in promoting interdisciplinary learning. The challenges of using science related news, as a context for cross-curricular collaboration, highlight the professional development needs of both science and English teachers working in this context. This qualitative study with over 150 pupils involved secondary school science and English teachers working collaboratively using media reported science resources and collated data from interviews, pre and post intervention tasks, pupils’ classwork and teacher notes. The outcomes of the project showed pupil engagement and greater capacity to carry knowledge and skills across traditional subject boundaries. Teachers reported increased understanding of the pedagogy of the alternative subject specialist and increased confidence to move outside their subject in order to facilitate pupil learning. This study would suggest that adopting an interdisciplinary approach could enhance learning for pupils and increase the confidence and capability of teachers. Additionally teachers’ engagement in professional conversations focusing on pupil progress was noteworthy.

Can they go it alone? Addressing criticisms of coteaching.

This paper responds to Wassell and LaVan’s paper on the transition from a preservice coteaching experience to independent teaching as a beginning inservice teacher. Wassell and LaVan describe coteaching as an alternative to traditional teaching. In our response, we argue that coteaching can also be applied alongside independent teaching in preservice courses, as opposed to an alternative to independent teaching, which has been shown to alleviate some of the transition issues described by Wassell and LaVan. We then present a critical discussion of different models and vocabularies of coteaching which apply in different sociocultural settings to expand the concept of coteaching. We attempt to extend Wassell and LaVan’s use of Guba and Lincoln’s (Fourth generation evaluation, 1989) authenticity criteria from the research methodology towards considering the criteria also as a framework for coteaching as practice for preservice and cooperating teachers. Finally, we reflect on the role of critical ethnography in Wassell and LaVan’s study in terms of the researchers’ intervention and whether improvements in the transition can be effectively introduced which do not require such intervention. We conclude our discussion with some suggestions to take forward this important work.

Situating relational ontology and transformative activist stance within the ‘everyday’ practice of coteaching and cogenerative dialogue.

This paper attempts to advance the thinking in Stetsenko’s paper by situating the concepts of relational ontology and transformative activist stance in the context of coteaching and cogenerative dialogue. In so doing, we hope to make Stetsenko’s ideas more operational in terms of access and application by researchers, teachers, policy makers and other stakeholders in education. Stetsenko argues that moving from relational ontology to a transformative activist stance can be considered as moving from participation to contribution. When this model was applied to coteaching and cogenerative dialogue, it was apparent that the coteaching and cogenerative dialogue moved further, from contribution to shared contribution, adding even greater potential for transformation. The paper also discusses the use of cultural historical activity theory in articulating the relationships, dynamics and interpretations of coteaching and cogenerative dialogue in relation to the wider context of their application.

Building professionalism and employability skills: embedding employer engagement within first-year computing modules

This paper outlines a means of improving the employability skills of first-year university students through a closely integrated model of employer engagement within computer science modules. The outlined approach illustrates how employability skills, including communication, teamwork and time management skills, can be contextualised in a manner that directly relates to student learning but can still be linked forward into employment. The paper tests the premise that developing employability skills early within the curriculum will result in improved student engagement and learning within later modules. The paper concludes that embedding employer participation within first-year models can help relate a distant notion of employability into something of more immediate relevance in terms of how students can best approach learning. Further, by enhancing employability skills early within the curriculum, it becomes possible to improve academic attainment within later modules.

Teaching Programming - Understanding Lecture Capture YouTube Analytics

ABSTRACT
The proliferation in the use of video lecture capture in universities worldwide presents an opportunity to analyse video watching patterns in an attempt to quantify and qualify how students engage and learn with the videos. It also presents an opportunity to investigate if there are similar student learning patterns during the equivalent physical lecture. The goal of this action based research project was to capture and quantitatively analyse the viewing behaviours and patterns of a series of video lecture captures across several university Java programming modules. It sought to study if a quantitative analysis of viewing behaviours of Lecture Capture videos coupled with a qualitative evaluation from the students and lecturers could be correlated to provide generalised patterns that could then be used to understand the learning experience of students during videos and potentially face to face lectures and, thereby, present opportunities to reflectively enhance lecturer performance and the students’ overall learning experience. The report establishes a baseline understanding of the analytics of videos of several commonly used pedagogical teaching methods used in the delivery of programming courses. It reflects on possible concurrences within live lecture delivery with the potential to inform and improve lecturing performance.