Assessment for Learning in teaching English to Young Learners: teachers’ understanding, classroom practice and impact on interactions

It has been suggested that Assessment for Learning (AfL) plays a significant role in enhancing teaching and learning in mainstream educational contexts. However, little empirical evidence can support these claims. As AfL has been shown to be enacted predominantly through interactions in primary classes, there is a need to understand if it is appropriate, whether it can be efficiently used in teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) and how it can facilitate learning in such a context. This emerging research focus gains currency especially in the light of SLA research, which suggests the important role of interactions in foreign language learning. This mixed-method, descriptive and exploratory study aims to investigate how teachers of learners aged 7-11 understand AfL; how they implement it; and the impact that such implementation could have on interactions which occur during lessons. The data were collected through lesson observations, scrutiny of school documents, semi-structured interviews and a focus group interview with teachers. The findings indicate that fitness for purpose guides the implementation of AfL in TEYL classrooms. Significantly, the study has revealed differences in the implementation of AfL between classes of 7-9 and 10-11 year olds within each of the three purposes (setting objectives and expectations; monitoring performance; and checking achievement) identified through the data. Another important finding of this study is the empirical evidence suggesting that the use of AfL could facilitate creating conditions conducive to learning in TEYL classes during collaborative and expert/novice interactions. The findings suggest that teachers’ understanding of AfL is largely aligned with the theoretical frameworks (Black & Wiliam, 2009; Swaffield, 2011) already available. However, they also demonstrate that there are TEYL specific characteristics. This research has important pedagogical implications and indicates a number of areas for further research.

The Development of Dalton`s Atomic Theory as a Case Study in the History of Science: Reflections for Educators in Chemistry

The inclusion of the history of science in science curricula-and specially, in the curricula of science teachers-is a trend that has been followed in several countries. The reasons advanced for the study of the history of science are manifold. This paper presents a case study in the history of chemistry, on the early developments of John Dalton`s atomic theory. Based on the case study, several questions that are worth discussing in educational contexts are pointed out. It is argued that the kind of history of science that was made in the first decades of the twentieth century (encyclopaedic, continuist, essentially anachronistic) is not appropriate for the development of the competences that are expected from the students of sciences in the present. Science teaching for current days will benefit from the approach that may be termed the ""new historiography of science"".

Learning in and through drama : The necessity to use multiple theoretical perspectives in order to understand how learning takes place in drama

The complexity of learning implies that learning seldom is about just one thing. It can be said that learning processes are interdisciplinary. Within educational contexts, learning is not limited to constructed school subjects. In drama education, learning is simultaneously about drama as aesthetic expression and content because drama always is about something. The mainly focus can be on form, content or social aspects. The different aspects are always present, but may be more or less foreground or the background depending on the purpose of education. How do development concerning understanding of form, content, and social interaction, interact in a learning process in drama? My research is based on the view that learning at the same time takes place as an individual, internal process and a socially situated, inter-subjective process. Can learning in drama imply learning that can be transferred between different situations, a transformative learning and if so, how? Transformative learning includes cognitive, affective and corporal and social action aspects and means that the individual's frames of reference are transformed, evolved, to become more insightful and flexible which implies a change of personality. It leads to an integrated knowledge that can be applied in different contexts.   In the paper that will be presented at the conference, theories about how we learn in drama will be discussed in relation to my empirical research concerning drama and learning.

Literacy Practices in and out of School in Karagwe : The case of primary school literacy education in rural Tanzania

This study has investigated the question of relation between literacy practices in and out of school in rural Tanzania. By using the perspective of linguistic anthropology, literacy practices in five villages in Karagwe district in the northwest of Tanzania have been analysed. The outcome may be used as a basis for educational planning and literacy programs. The analysis has revealed an intimate relation between language, literacy and power. In Karagwe, traditional élites have drawn on literacy to construct and reconstruct their authority, while new élites, such as individual women and some young people have been able to use literacy as one tool to get access to power. The study has also revealed a high level of bilingualism and a high emphasis on education in the area, which prove a potential for future education in the area. At the same time discontinuity in language use, mainly caused by stigmatisation of what is perceived as local and traditional, such as the mother-tongue of the majority of the children, and the high status accrued to all that is perceived as Western, has turned out to constitute a great obstacle for pupils’ learning. The use of ethnographic perspectives has enabled comparisons between interactional patterns in schools and outside school. This has revealed communicative patterns in school that hinder pupils’ learning, while the same patterns in other discourses reinforce learning. By using ethnography, relations between explicit and implicit language ideologies and their impact in educational contexts may be revealed. This knowledge may then be used to make educational plans and literacy programmes more relevant and efficient, not only in poor post-colonial settings such as Tanzania, but also elsewhere, such as in Western settings.

Queer trepidations and the art of inclusion

Contemporary research and pedagogy related to sexualities and schooling in Australia, Aotearoa1/New Zealand and the United States often focuses on ways to alleviate homophobia and heterosexism in the hope of creating schools that are more inclusive of lesbian and gay (and very rarely bisexual, transgender and intersex2) (LGBTI) teachers and students. Within this paradigm, the notion of what comprises sexualities is often taken as given. Alternatively, researchers and educators may invoke essentialising narratives in order to make arguments for the inclusion of students and teachers who adopt LGBTI identifications. Drawing on a theoretical framework influenced by the work of Deborah Britzman3 and other queer theorists within and outside education this article interrogates these strategies of inclusion. In particular, I focus on research methodologies and pedagogies related to sexualities and schooling devised in the name of inclusion of young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT)4 in secondary educational contexts. This analysis, which is based on my doctoral studies, commences with a consideration of queer theories and the art of inclusion. Subsequent to this I analyse pedagogies of inclusion and methodologies of inclusion, and, their nexus with queer theories.

(Im)plausibilities: a rhizo-textual analysis of policy texts and teachers' work

In this paper I argue for the use of Deleuzian theories in educational contexts. In particular, I am interested in the use of the concept of rhizomes, and the analysis of texts as rhizomes, drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's work in A Thousand Plateaus (1987). I discuss the possibilities for using rhizomatics in educational contexts through an exploration of the construction of an 'apparatus of social critique' (Buchanan, 2000). I then describe a rhizomatic understanding of the relationships between teachers and policy texts, which can disrupt commonsense understandings of these relations. I provide examples from my own research (Honan, 2001) of a rhizo-textual analysis of policy texts. This rhizo-textual analysis involved an exploration of the construction of the subject position, teacher, within one policy text, as well as a mapping of two teachers' readings of this text. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for using Deleuzian theory in educational contexts, implications for both policy developers and educational researchers.

The lived experience of gay men caring for others whith HIV/AIDS : resilient coping skills

There is a dearth of research conducted on the relationship aspect of gay men caring for gay men. This Australian research conducted in 2002 investigated the emotional effects of HIV/AIDS on the gay male carers of gay men with the disease. This study was phenomenological inquiry and employed van Manen's approach to content analysis. Twelve participants for the study were recruited. The results produced emergent themes relating to coping with HIV/AIDS, living day-to-day with HIV/AIDS, coping with the last phase of AIDS towards death, saying goodbye and remembrance. This research highlights the resilient coping style of carers of persons living with HIV/AIDS. The research also gives rise to recommendations for practice and educational contexts in terms of the support and care considerations for persons living with HIV/AIDS and their carers.

What is international about international education?

International education is meeting the needs of students in a variety of educational contexts. The thesis examines the influence international education has on schools and concludes that there is the possibility for a better understanding of globalisation and, in doing so, the potential to improve our global civil society.

'Go Grrrl!' : constructions of femininity in the textual practices of elite girls' schooling

In this paper I consider the utility of discourses of ‘girl power’ for understanding, and complicating, the way youthful femininities are produced in schooling. The paper is concerned with expanding the possibilities for how queer theoretical resources might be utilized within studies of girls and schooling. Existing studies have drawn upon Judith Butler’s notion of a ‘heterosexual matrix’ for understanding, and attending to, the way normative discourses of heterosexuality underpin the school-based production of youthful femininities. The term ‘heterofemininities’ has been used in order to label these school-produced intersections of sex/gender/sexuality. Drawing on discourses of ‘girl power’ that gather around ‘voice’ and responsibility, I propose that the production of ‘hetero-femininities’ within educational contexts might be further explored, and thus complicated, when the significance of discourses of ‘girl power’ is considered. I analyse young women’s discussions of key ‘girl power’ icons in popular culture, generated through fieldwork in an elite girls’ school in Australia. In this analysis I explore the intersections of gender/sexuality/girl power that are produced in the young women’s textual practices.

El dialogo Socratico como razonamiento colegiado

Thinking with clarity and avoiding contradictions are some of the contributions of philosophy to bioethics, politics or the public sector.  Through philosophical practice, some of the subjects generally treated in educational contexts are now applied within the world of industry or the private company.  Thus, Socratic Dialogue turns into a very powerful tool to reveal deeper levels of group decision making.  The author explains the steps of this particular appraoch and how this methodology works in reality using an example of his personal practice.

Gender inequality and education : changing local/global relations in a ‘post colonial’ world and the implications for feminist research

This article explores the relationship between education reform and gender equity, both within and between nation states. Utilising feminist critical policy analysis and post-colonial theory, it examines how education reform over the past decade has impacted on gender equity, and how educational reform is itself gendered. It considers the nature of gender restructuring; maps significant shifts in gender equity policy in the wider context of educational and social inequality debates; and through an analysis of recent research on gender identity, schooling and leadership argues that gender can no longer be privileged when identifying and responding to educational inequality. Key assumptions underpinning how social change and education reform delivers equity are questioned, concluding with feminist theorising about how social justice may inform equity policy and practice in culturally diverse educational contexts.

Female physical educators in all boys' schools - opportunities for enhancing social interactions?

The significance of physical education (PE) and sport in a boys’ school has long been highlighted as a device for the privileging of hyper-masculine identities (tough, stoic & assertive) at the expense of marginalised masculinities and femininities. The propensity for some “members of male sporting clique’s to engage in practices of bullying, shaming, violating and excluding” (Hickey, 2008, p. 148) raises important questions about how the practice of boys’ PE and sport can sometimes lead to unhealthy and damaging social interactions between different types of boys. In response to this rhetoric, some boys’ schools have acted to employ female PE teachers to disrupt “concern about the codes of unity, entitlement and privilege that can be forged among groups of boys whose identities are strongly aligned with sporting forms of hyper-masculinity” (Hickey, 2008, p. 148). Given this potential, we suggest that there is something unique or different about working in spaces or contexts around boys’ physicality. More specifically this paper raises questions about the particular implications for a PE teacher’s professional work, particularly as a female PE teacher.

In current educational climates the performance of boys in social and educational contexts attracts considerable concern. Better understanding the contributions and capacities of female PE teachers in all boys’ schools, (as localised social and political environments in which gendered identities are formed) is warranted. Professional identities and “the meaning of gender is negotiated in everyday interactions” (Priola, 2007, p. 23) implicating the culture of all boys’ schools as significant in the development of ideas around effective, gender inclusive, pedagogical practices. Drawing on case study data, this paper seeks to explore how notions of effectiveness about boys’ PE are formed, with intent to make visible the extent to which female PE teachers influence dominant gendered practices of social interaction in all boys’ PE settings.

How did I get here? The experiences of female physical education teachers in all boys' schools

Historically, physical education and sport were constructed as curriculum practices for boys to explore, channel and hone their masculinity. While much has changed since their induction into the curriculum, there is a prevailing view that sport and physical education continue to operate as powerful conduits to the dominant masculinity. In a climate where the underachievement of boys’ in social and educational contexts is becoming increasingly concerning, much of the literature attributes factors such as a lack of male role models, the feminisation of education and the lack of ‘boy friendly’ curriculum and pedagogy as key contributors to the current dilemma. The role of physical education and sport in the gender socialisation process poses some important questions about the place of female physical educators in this ‘male component’ of the curriculum. Foremost here are questions about the capacity of female physical educators to provide effective learning and socialising opportunities to young males. This paper draws on research into the experiences of female physical education teachers working in all-boy schools to discuss issues of gender, power and pedagogy.

Ethical leadership

What is ethical leadership? Have you ever wondered what your ethical responsibilities are as an educational leader in 21st century educational contexts, or where to look for ethical guidance? As teachers in early childhood, primary and secondary schools, vocational education and higher education contexts, we all share the complexities of managing relationships effectively, respectfully and fairly. The Victorian Institute of Teaching reminds us that as teachers that 'we hold a unique position of trust and influence, which we recognise in our relationships with students, parents (caregivers and guardians), colleagues and the community.' Along with our unique position, educational contexts in contemporary times are complex, there are competing and contradictory agendas that we need to contend with, ever increasing and changing accountabilities, and yet as teachers we are expected to always be inclusive, equitable and fair decision makers. So, how can we be ethical leaders?