Thinking about difference in student supervision

Over the past decade, educators have given greater recognition to the influence of race and culture on practice and policy. Whilst educators are now including specific courses that take account of diversity, scant attention has been paid to how these issues may be addressed in student supervision. This article reports on a qualitative study examining how three experienced supervisors addressed difference in student supervision. Supervisory approaches were compared examining the supervisors' goals, focus, supervisory strategies, theoretical orientation, contribution made to student learning and the limitation of their particular approach. These findings emphasise the complexity of addressing difference in supervision, and suggest that some additional issues to address in supervision.

Developing critical thinking skills through active teaching and learning strategies: a literatre review

Clinical decision-making is an integral part of nursing practice. Critical thinking skills are required by nurses to make effective clinical decisions that have positive outcomes. This paper is a review of literature related to critical thinking and decision making and identifies the teaching and learning strategies that are most likely to encourage these abilities in nurses.

Increasing access to mathematical thinking

This article is a contribution to understanding of teacher actions that can contribute to a successful mathematics learning experience, defined as one that engages all students, especially those who may sometimes feel alienated from mathematics and schooling, in productive and successful mathematical thinking and learning. We offer an example of a task that can form the basis of such a learning experience. The key elements are that the task is open-ended, that the teacher offers specific pedagogical prompts to support student leaning, that the teacher builds a sense of community by ensuring that there are some common experiences, and the teacher prepare prompts that can be used to support students who are experiencing difficulty, or to extend those students who complete the
basic task readily.

Children's mathematical thinking in different classroom cultures

The relationship between normative patterns of social interaction and children's mathematical thinking was investigated in 5 classes (4 reform and 1 conventional) of 7- to 8-year-olds. In earlier studies, lessons from these classes had been analyzed for the nature of interaction broadly defined; the results indicated the existence of 4 types of classroom cultures (conventional textbook, conventional problem solving, strategy reporting, and inquiry/argument). In the current study, 42 lessons from this data resource were analyzed for children's mathematical thinking as verbalized in class discussions and for interaction patterns. These analyses were then combined to explore the relationship between interaction types and  expressed mathematical thinking. The results suggest that increased complexity in children's expressed mathematical thinking was closely related to the types of interaction patterns that differentiated class discussions among the 4 classroom cultures.

Increasing access to mathematical thinking

The authors describe their current project that examines ways to maximise learning opportunities for students in upper primary and lower secondary mathematics classes. There are two aspects to the project: the type of tasks posed, and particularly ways to assist students experiencing difficulty with those tasks; and the steps that teachers can take to overcome structural barriers to mathematical learning by being explicit about classroom processes.

Re-thinking students 'at risk'

There are some students in the secondary schools who are considered to be 'at risk' and more likely to fail in the future simply because they do not accept traditional school-based modes of learning as being relevant. However, recent applied learning initiatives in the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) have re-engaged many of these young people in schooling by treating them more like young adults and recognising that secondary schools must now cater for a greater diversity of career pathways.

The graphic calculator as a thinking tool : perspectives from the classroom

For over a decade, the graphic calculator has been promoted not only as a computational tool, but also as a thinking tool - for example, as an aid to enhance conceptual understanding, as a problem-solving tool and as a means of enabling students to engage in meaningful investigations. However, research studies focusing on these aspects have shown mixed results and have mostly focused on graphs and functions.

This paper reports on one aspect of a case study in a year 10 mathematics classroom - the role of the graphic calculator as a thinking tool. Data from observations of nine statistics lessons and interviews with the teacher and five students, are analysed from three perspective's: the teacher's intentions with respect to the use of the graphic calculator as a tool to promote conceptual understanding as opposed to procedural competence; the opportunities afforded during the lessons for student investigation; and students' views of how the graphic calculator enhanced conceptual understanding.

The results provide insights into ways in which students perceive the graphic calculator as promoting conceptual understanding, as well as some of the difficulties encountered in practice in a classroom where the teacher clearly intends to use the graphic calculator as a thinking tool.