Student's pedagogical knowledge: a source of pedagogical content knowledge

This paper presents the results of interviews with Year 5 and 6 students about their views of effective teaching practices in mathematics. The students interviewed were part of a largescale study into improving middle years mathematics and science. Their views confirm findings from the literature and other data sources from the project, and provide valuable insights into student perceptions of effective teaching practice in middle years mathematics.

The classmate PC 1:1 eLearning project in Australia

Increasingly on the agendas of governments and educational leaders is an impetus to increase the number of computing devices in schools across Australia. There is much expected, promised and hoped for in developing 1:1 eLearning pedagogies, or ubiquitous approaches in ICTs. In 2008, the Intel Classmate PC 1:1 eLearning Project investigated the effects on classroom practices which arose from the provision of low-cost mobile learning devices for each student to use in a collaborative learning environment. The overall goal of the research was to provide evidence and understanding about the impact of 1:1 eLearning on student/teacher and student/student interactions, pedagogical and curriculum practices and student learning. This presentation draws from six primary school case studies, across three States of Australia. Significant successes and challenges were experienced across the diverse sites of these studies. Through these schools’ participation in this pilot study, five key factors have been identified as contributing to, or hindering the adoption and implementation of the devices. These included: ICT infrastructure, connectivity and hardware; Teacher attributes; Pedagogical and curriculum approaches; Teacher professional knowledge, and; School leadership.

An innovation framework based on best practice exemplars from the Australian School Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics (ASISTM) project

This report describes research into 16 ASISTM projects selected to be broadly representative of exemplars in innovation. Case studies of each project were constructed from interviews with a range of key participants, and used to develop and refine an innovation framework that is used to make sense of and describe the key features of each project. The major issue binding these projects was found to be that of student interest and engagement, and this was pursued through involving students in contemporary science, technology and mathematics (STM) practices in authentic settings. The findings point to an enriched set of purposes of STM education implicit in these projects, a set of pedagogical practices that are varied and consistent with contemporary educational thinking, and a varied array of 'actors' recruited to these projects.

Crash landing at INSEAD : initiating a grounded theory of the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games for teaching aspects of entrepreneurship

A practical teaching difficulty arising in a conducive environment provided opportunity to turn the particular problem into a case study with generic implications. Little research has been conducted on the use or effectiveness of simulation games for teaching entrepreneurship. In the context of established literature critiquing the effectiveness of simulation games as teaching devices in managerial contexts and at a point where problems in using a simulation game as part of entrepreneurship course became evident, the authors designed and executed a single-case research project to generate initial theoretical propositions about the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games for teaching various concepts and aspects of entrepreneurship. The case analysed the perceived learning environment created when the Sky-High simulation was played by 41 MBA students taking an elective entrepreneurship course at INSEAD. The research design embodied the established methodological principles specified by Yin (1989), for effective case research. Theory building was based upon the grounded-theorizing procedures articulated by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Analysis and synthesis produced a grounded theory, in the form of a normative argument, containing four attribute categories and associated properties required of a simulation game to make it an efficacious teaching device in entrepreneurship contexts. The establishment of this grounded theory has made it both desirable and feasible to contemplate creation of an ISO quality standard for educational simulation games.

Community resilience, climate change, sustainability & engagement : adventures in creative project-based education on the Eyre Peninsula

Teaching sustainability ethics and creative practical technological applications holistically, in a multi-disciplinary ethos, with real community engagement is fraught with pedagogical and logistical issues. This paper reviews a highly community-acclaimed tertiary course/project, offered at the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture & Urban Design at the University of Adelaide, undertaken on the Eyre Peninsula in 1st semester 2009. The course successfully enhanced student appreciation of rural community capacity building and economic fragility issues while undertaking a project-based approach to interrogating and working with rural communities to devise and demonstrate potential micro-relevant design and planning initiatives that could strengthen community resilience, climate change adaptiveness, and validate natural resource management aims within townships. The project involved some 120 students in 6 host communities through 6 local municipalities with the full support of the Natural Resource Management (NRM) Board and Local Government Association (LGA).

The paper reviews the project, its historical evolution, aims, objectives, learning strategies, community aspirations and outcomes, and positions such against various professional education accreditation frameworks. The methodological learning process, including its philosophical, pedagogical and instruments outcomes are reviewed and interrogated. The student learning outcomes, University reputation impact, and community impact, professional practice knowledge and skill attributes, and instrumental outcomes are also reviewed drawing upon evidence derived from extensive meetings, questionnaire surveys, synergistic NRM-sponsored research projects, student evaluation of teachings (SELTS), and local media coverage of the project.

The project has received applause from the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) and Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA), and preliminary endorsement from the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), as being integral to the School’s curriculum that achieves their professional accreditation expectations of key learning experiences relevant to climate change, master planning and design, and community engagement. The project offers a possible educational model that enriches student experience and learning and addresses recent generic university community engagement policy expectations.

Pedagogy of connections : findings of a collaborative action research project in outdoor and environmental education

Improving human-nature relationships is often a stated aim of outdoor education, yet this aim is not always made explicit in practice. This paper reflects on a pedagogical intervention which aims to find ways to explicitly develop students' connections with natural places through a tertiary outdoor and environmental education program. It describes the intervention process, which is guided by principles of collaborative action research. Furthermore, the intervention uses a multi-pronged teaching approach incorporating repeated visits to natural places utilizing different 'ways of knowing', weekly readings, journal writing, collaborative discussions, and others. We summarize the key findings of the research project and report that repeated visits to a natural place using different ways of knowing (e.g., historical, scientific, ecological, artistic, experiential, etc.) are influential in improving connections. We conclude with a discussion of the opportunities and dilemmas of using action research as a form of pedagogy.

A professional learning program based on a representation intensive pedagogical approach

A representation-intensive pedagogical approach challenges students to generate and negotiate the representations (text, graphs, models, diagrams) that constitute the discursive practices of science, rather than focusing on the text-based, definitional versions of concepts. Previous research conducted on a small scale with a few topics and teachers successfully demonstrated enhanced outcomes for students, in terms of sustained engagement with ideas, and quality learning, and for teachers’ enhanced pedagogical knowledge, and epistemological understanding. This paper explores the efficacy of embedding a representations-intensive pedagogical approach into a state-wide professional learning program that was delivered to Victorian secondary science teachers in 2010/2011. The professional learning program involved participating teachers undertaking two successive days of professional development, then completing a small classroom-based project in their schools before returning for the third day of professional development. The program was supported by online drupal website. In determining the impact of the professional learning program on the teachers’ practice data was collected in the form of program participant surveys, presentations of the teachers’ classroom-based projects, focus group interviews and phone interviews. Teachers demonstrated the applicability of this pedagogical approach by adapting it to a variety of science topics.

Empowering teachers through a professional learning program that focused on a representation intensive pedagogical approach

A representation-intensive pedagogical approach challenges students to generate and negotiate the representations (text, graphs, models, diagrams) that constitute the discursive practices of science, rather than focusing on the text-based, definitional versions of concepts. It thus represents a more active view of knowledge than traditional structural approaches. Previous research conducted on a small scale with a few topics and teachers, successfully demonstrated enhanced outcomes for students, in terms of sustained engagement with ideas, and quality learning, and for teachers enhanced pedagogical knowledge, and epistemological understanding. This paper explores the efficacy of embedding a representations-intensive pedagogical approach into a state-wide professional learning program that was delivered to secondary science teachers in Victoria, Australian, in 2010/2011. The professional learning program involved participating teachers undertaking two successive days of professional development, then completing a small classroom-based project in their schools before returning for the third day of professional development. The program was supported by on online drupal website. In determining the impact of the professional learning program on the teachers’ practice data was collected in the form of program participant surveys, presentations of the teachers’ classroom-based projects, focus group interviews and phone interviews.

Children and university architecture students working together : a pedagogical model of children’s participation in architectural design

Increasing efforts have been made to engage children in the design of the built environment, and several participatory models have been developed. The aim of this paper is to propose a pedagogical model for children's genuine participation in architectural design, developed in an architectural education context. According to this pedagogical model, children (primary school students) and youth (university architecture students) work in teams to develop the architectural design proposals. This model was developed through a joint educational project between Deakin University and Wales Street Primary School (both institutions are based in Victoria, Australia). In the four-week duration of the project, first year architecture students worked with Grade 3 and 4 primary school children to design a school playground. The final product of the project was a 1:20 scale model of a playground, which was installed and presented at the end of the fourth week. The project received positive feedback from all the participants, including children, architecture students, university lecturers, primary school teachers and architects. In addition, it achieved a high level of children's genuine participation. This model can be refined and applied in new situations, and potentially with other primary schools working with Deakin University.

Teaching in the iWorld: developing a repertoire of pedagogical discourse around the usage of touch screen devices in early years classrooms

 Touch-screen devices have been enthusiastically adopted by schools across Australia and Canada. Their ease of use means that they are accessible by very young children, and these children often have free access to these devices in their home, however the devices tend to be ‘domesticated’ in the school context (O’Mara and Laidlaw, 2011). In the short period of their availability, a plethora of educational applications have been developed for these devices. This paper addresses emergent themes from our 2011-2013 Canadian/Australian project, Literacy learning in playful spaces: using multi-modal strategies to develop narrative with young learners, funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Development Grant). In our analysis of the discourse around the introduction of portable touch screen devices into school literacy classes (published texts, teacher interviews, classroom observations), we noted that much of the public discourse is slanted towards the idea of “teacher-proofing” the curriculum. Initially the teachers we have been working with saw the apps themselves as complete, as doing all the work and the discourse around the devices was around what apps are “best”, and “is there an app for that?” It was only with more experience and time that teachers were able to harness the range of affordances of the devices—their capacity for recording audio, video, pictures etc., and start to categorise the apps themselves. In this paper we suggest ways in which current literacy models might be used to develop a repertoire of pedagogical discourse around these devices, providing language and framings for teachers to think about how these new tools might best be used to enhance literacy teaching and learning. O’Mara, J. & Laidlaw, L. (2011). Living in the iWorld: Two literacy researchers reflect on the changing texts and literacy practices of childhood. English Teaching: Practice and Critique 10 (4): 149-159. Available: http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/view.php?article=true&id=754&p=1

Between policy and a hard pedagogical place: the emotional geographies of teaching for citizenship in low socioeconomic schools

Reflecting an international trend, Australian education policy increasingly charges schools with fostering active citizens who have the will and capacity to improve the democratic fabric and drive needed social change. This policy prescription also resonates with some teachers’ critical commitments to pedagogical practices that encourage young people to see themselves as transformative citizens capable of engineering a more just and equitable society. In particular, in low socio-economic school contexts, however, the pursuit of such practices may be subject to the complex physical and emotional geographies that attend the project of schooling in such contexts. In this article, I consider the empirical data derived from my recent discourse analysis of two schools in which teachers have introduced what I have termed the pedagogies of active citizenship. Both of these schools are located in low socio-economic Australian communities, that is, communities where structural, socio-geographic and socio-economic forms of marginalisation are an issue. I consider what motivates, enables and authorises such teachers, as well as what risks may attend the championing of such pedagogies in contexts that are subject to conflicting or competing education discourses and priorities. Theoretically, I draw on ideas of risk as well as on a growing body of scholarship that is concerned with the emotional geographies of citizenship and schooling.

The role of the facilitator in a project/design based learning environment

The Project Oriented Design Based Learning (PODBL) is a teaching and learning approach (TLA) that is based on engineering design activities undertaken during a project. PODBL encourages independent learning and a deep approach to student learning outcomes. The Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET) is a new engineering building with cutting edge technology facilities at Deakin University. It acts as a catalyst for a pedagogical change in the way that Engineering is delivered. This paper is focused on the role of the facilitator in a project/design based learning environment and it also looks in to appropriate staff development training for a project/design based learning environment.

Intercultural engagement through pedagogical practices

Previously, in Victoria, Intercultural Understanding was embedded in the context area of ‘Languages Other than English' and taught by LOTE specialist teachers. Positioned in the new National Curriculum as a ‘General Capability' it will become the shared responsibility of all Australian teachers and so directly impact on them and their pedagogical practices. This prioritizing of Intercultural Understanding acknowledges the role of pedagogical practice in developing national and international social cohesion as well as meeting national economic imperatives (MCEETYA 2008, Banks 2011). The diverse social context of schooling is one in which many students experience negative intercultural experiences (Mansouri et al 2010) and yet it is also a site rich with potential for positive intercultural experiences and development of cosmopolitan dispositions (Noble, 2013 Rizvi 2009; Lo Bianco 2006); particularly ‘vernacular' cosmopolitanism (Robbins, 1998; Turner 2010). Drawing on case studies from two primary schools participating in an ARC-funded national research project, this presentation considers the impact on teachers' attitudes and pedagogies as they reflect on and enact teaching to promote intercultural understanding. With a focus on critical engagement with texts (including student, teacher and community multimodal texts) the teachers design pedagogies to support the three key areas recognising culture and developing respect; Interacting and empathising with others; and reflecting on intercultural experiences and taking responsibility (ACARA, 2012). Vicarious, virtual and face-to-face opportunities for enhancement of self-awareness and cultural acknowledgment; experiencing and exploring cultural difference; and for critical reflection on cultural encounters (Bredella, 2003) will be explored. Of interest is teacher and student agency (Fielding, 2001; 2004) in the selection of resources, development of knowledge, critical reflection and approaches to dealing with sensitive issues.

A cooperative pedagogical program linking preschool and preparatory teachers: a pilot study

THE TRANSITION TO FORMAL schooling is a significant milestone for young children and their families. Congruence between an early childhood setting and school experience is known to impact on children’s positive start to school. Despite policy efforts at the Victorian state level, preschool educators and Foundation teachers do not have a strong understanding of the curriculum, pedagogical and assessment practices used in the alternate setting. This paper reports on the ‘Alliance Project’ that sought to support preschool educators and Foundation teachers to work cooperatively to better understand each other’s practices. Drawing from sociocultural theory, the Alliance Project employed an interventionist methodology to work with preschool educator and Foundation teacher pairings on a joint planning initiative. Participants on the Alliance Project gained increased familiarity with the alternate setting’s curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices, and an increased capacity to work cooperatively across both settings to address the needs of transitioning children.