Case study of collaborative learning in two contexts : what do students gain?

This book presents important research advances in the study of teaching and teacher research as well as a review of motivation in education; mentoring; an evaluation of online learning; educational change and computer-assisted teaching.

Copyrights and creative commons licensing : pedagogical innovation in a higher education media literacy classroom

This article examines the role of copyrights in contemporary media literacies. It argues that, provided they are ethical, young people’s engagement with text should occur in environments that are as free from restriction as possible. Discussion of open culture ecologies and the emergent education commons is followed by a theorisation of both literacy and copyrights education as forms of epistemology: that is, as effects of knowledge producing discourses and practices. Because Creative Commons licenses respect and are based on existing copyright laws, a brief overview of traditional copyrights for educators is first provided. We then describe the voluntary Creative Commons copyright licensing framework (“some rights reserved”) as an alternative to conventional “all rights reserved” models. This is followed by an account of a series of workshop activities on copyrights and Creative Commons conducted by the authors in the media literacy classes of a preservice teacher education program in Queensland, Australia. It provides one example of a practical program on critical copyrights approaches, which may be adapted and used by other school and higher education institutions.

Contexts, hybrids and network governance : a comparison of three case-studies in infrastructure governance

While hybrid governance arrangements have been a major element of organisational architecture for some time, the contemporary operating environment has brought to the fore new conditions and expectations for the governance of entities that span conventional public sector departments, private firms and community organisations or groups. These conditions have resulted in a broader array of mixed governance configurations including Public Private Partnerships, alliances, and formal and informal collaborations. In some such arrangements, market based or ‘complete’ contractual relationships have been introduced to replace or supplement existing traditional ‘hierarchical’ and/or newer relational ‘network-oriented’ institutional associations. While there has been a greater reliance on collaborative or relational contracts as an underpinning institutional model, other modes of hierarchy and market may remain in operation. The success of these emergent hybrid forms has been mixed. There are examples of hybrids that have been well adopted, achieving the desired goals of efficiency, effectiveness and financial accountability; while others have experienced implementation problems which have undermined their results. This paper postulates that the cultural and institutional context within which hybrids operate may contribute to the implementation processes employed and the level of success attained. The paper explores hybrid arrangements through three cases of the use of inter-organisational arrangements in three different national contexts. Distilling the various elements of hybrids and the impact of institutional context will provide important insights for those charged with the responsibility for the formation and key infrastructure and public value development.

Critical literacy finds a "Place": Writing and social action in a low-income Australian grade 2/3 classroom

In a study of socioeconomically disadvantaged children's acquisition of school literacies, a university research team investigated how a group of teachers negotiated critical literacies and explored notions of social power with elementary children in a suburban school located in an area of high poverty. Here we focus on a grade 2/3 classroom where the teacher and children became involved in a local urban renewal project and on how in the process the children wrote about place and power. Using the students' concerns about their neighborhood, the teacher engaged her class in a critical literacy project that not only involved a complex set of literate practices but also taught the children about power and the possibilities for local civic action. In particular, we discuss examples of children's drawing and writing about their neighborhoods and their lives. We explore how children's writing and drawing might be key elements in developing "critical literacies" in elementary school settings. We consider how such classroom writing can be a mediator of emotions, intellectual and academic learning, social practice, and political activism.

Interactional competence in a paired speaking test : features salient to raters

Paired speaking tests are now commonly used in both high-stakes testing and classroom assessment contexts. The co-construction of discourse by candidates is regarded as a strength of paired speaking tests, as candidates have the opportunity to display a wider range of interactional competencies, including turn taking, initiating topics and engaging in extended discourse with a partner, rather than an examiner. However, the impact of the interlocutor in such jointly negotiated discourse and the implications for assessing interactional competence are areas of concern. This article reports on the features of interactional competence that were salient to four trained raters of 12 paired speaking tests through the analysis of rater notes, stimulated verbal recalls and rater discussions. Findings enabled the identification of features of the performance noted by raters when awarding scores for interactional competence, and the particular features associated with higher and lower scores. A number of these features were seen by the raters as mutual achievements, which raises the issue of the extent to which it is possible to assess individual contributions to the co-constructed performance. The findings have implications for defining the construct of interactional competence in paired speaking tests and operationalising this in rating scales.

Learning in the global classroom : a guide for students in the multicultural university

This unique and fascinating book is written for tertiary level students in the multi-cultural classroom, whether studying abroad or at home alongside international students. It relates a genuine understanding of the student perspective of learning in a multi cultural classroom, highlighting how students possess different learning styles and attitudes to teaching and learning and demonstrating that students not only face language issues, but also numerous other unanticipated challenges.

Reproducing successful rituals in bad times : exploring interactions of a new science teacher

Teaching is emotional work. This is especially the case in the first years of teaching when new teachers are particularly vulnerable. By understanding changes in teacher emotions in the early years of teaching we hope to identify strategies that might ultimately reduce teacher attrition. As part of a larger study of the transition of new teachers to the profession, this ethnographic case study explores how a new science teacher produced and reproduced positive emotional interaction rituals with her students in her first year of teaching. We show how dialogical interactions were positive and satisfying experiences for the teacher, and how they were reproduced successfully in different contexts. We also illustrate how both teacher and students used humor to create a structure for dialogical interactions. During these successful interactions the students used shared resources to satisfy their teacher that they were engaging in the relevant science content. The implications of what we have learned for the professional development of new teachers are discussed in relation to an expanded understanding of teacher emotions.

Using computers in the music classroom

Computers are now being widely used in the making of music and the extent of computer use in the music that we hear is farlarger than most people realise. This paper will discuss how computer technology is used in music, with particular reference to music education.

Why a child needs a critical eye, and why the art classroom is central in developing it

It is a common acceptance that contemporary schoolchildren live in a world that is intensely visual and commercially motivated, where what is imagined and what is experienced intermingle. Because of this, contemporary education should encourage a child to make reference to, and connection with their ‘out-of-school’ life. The core critical underpinnings of curriculum based arts appreciation and theory hinge on educators and students taking a historical look at the ways artists have engaged with, and made comment upon, their contemporary societies. My article uses this premise to argue for the need to persist with pushing for critique of/through the visual, that it be delivered as an active process via the arts classroom rather than as visual literacy, here regarded as a more passive process for interpreting and understanding visual material. The article asserts that visual arts lessons are best placed to provide fully students with such critique because they help students to develop a ’critical eye’, an interpretive lens often used by artists to view, analyse and independently navigate and respond to contemporary society.

Lego robotics : an authentic problem solving tool?

With the current curriculum focus on correlating classroom problem solving lessons to real-world contexts, are LEGO robotics an effective problem solving tool? This present study was designed to investigate this question and to ascertain what problem solving strategies primary students engaged with when working with LEGO robotics and whether the students were able to effectively relate their problem solving strategies to real-world contexts. The qualitative study involved 23 Grade 6 students participating in robotics activities. The study included data collected from researcher observations of student problem solving discussions, collected software programs, and data from a student completed questionnaire. Results from the study indicated that the robotic activities assisted students to reflect on the problem-solving decisions they made. The study also highlighted that the students were able to relate their problem solving strategies to real-world contexts. The study demonstrated that while LEGO robotics can be considered useful problem solving tools in the classroom, careful teacher scaffolding needs to be implemented in regards to correlating LEGO with authentic problem solving. Further research in regards to how teachers can best embed real-world contexts into effective robotics lessons is recommended.

Re-engaging adolescent students in science : an experienced teachers' classroom

Adolescents are both aware of and have the impetuous to exploit aspects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) within their personal lives. Whether they are surfing, cycling, skateboarding or shopping, STEM concepts impact their lives. However science, mathematics, engineering and technology are still treated in the classroom as separate fragmented entities in the educational environment where most classroom talk is seemingly incomprehensible to the adolescent senses. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of young adolescents with the aim of transforming school learning at least of science into meaningful experiences that connected with their lives using a self-study approach. Over a 12-month period, the researcher, an experienced secondary-science teacher, designed, implemented and documented a range of pedagogical practices with his Year-7 secondary science class. Data for this case study included video recordings, journals, interviews and surveys of students. By setting an environment empathetic to adolescent needs and understandings, students were able to actively explore phenomena collaboratively through developmentally appropriate experiences. Providing a more contextually relevant environment fostered meta-cognitive practices, encouraged new learning through open dialogue, multi-modal representations and assessments that contributed to building upon, re-affirming, or challenging both the students' prior learning and the teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge. A significant outcome of this study was the transformative experiences of an insider, the teacher as researcher, whose reflections provided an authentic model for reforming pedagogy in STEM classes.

Developing shared understandings of standards-based assessment : online moderation practices across geographically diverse contexts

This thesis investigates the place of online moderation in supporting teachers to work in a system of standards-based assessment. The participants of the study were fifty middle school teachers who met online with the aim of developing consistency in their judgement decisions. Data were gathered through observation of the online meetings, interviews, surveys and the collection of artefacts. The data were viewed and analysed through sociocultural theories of learning and sociocultural theories of technology, and demonstrates how utilising these theories can add depth to understanding the added complexity of developing shared meaning of standards in an online context. The findings contribute to current understanding of standards-based assessment by examining the social moderation process as it acts to increase the reliability of judgements that are made within a standards framework. Specifically, the study investigates the opportunities afforded by conducting social moderation practices in a synchronous online context. The study explicates how the technology affects the negotiation of judgements and the development of shared meanings of assessment standards, while demonstrating how involvement in online moderation discussions can support teachers to become and belong within a practice of standards-based assessment. This research responds to a growing international interest in standards-based assessment and the use of social moderation to develop consistency in judgement decisions. Online moderation is a new practice to address these concerns on a systemic basis.

Book Review: "Rethinking Learning in Early Childhood Education" written by Nicola Yelland, Libby Lee, Maureen O’Rourke & Cathie Harrison

There is a growing body of work that responds to the impact of the rapid uptake of information and communication technology (ICT) on education (Buckingham, 2003; Cheung, 2003; Cuban, 2003; Leung, 2003; Prensky, 2005; Green & Hannon, 2007; Brooks-Gunn & Donahue, 2008; Lyman et al, 2008). Mostly, this work has been positioned in the context of upper-primary or secondary classrooms. More recently, there has been a growing call for research about the impact of ICT on the early years or in early childhood contexts. This text initiates a response to that call. The authors concur that today’s children are a generation who create, learn, work, play and communicate very differently from their parents and teachers (Buckingham, 2003), and that classroom activity needs to reflect this difference.

Assessment for learning - Why the theory needs the practice

Assessment for Learning is a pedagogical practice with anticipated gains of increased student motivation, mastery and autonomy as learners develop their capacity to monitor and plan their own learning progress. Assessment for Learning (AfL) differs from Assessment of learning in its timing, occurring within the regular flow of learning rather than end point, in its purpose of improving student learning rather than summative grading and in the ownership of the learning where the student voice is heard in judging quality. Since Black and Wiliam (1998) highlighted the achievement gains that AfL practices seem to bring to all learners in classrooms, it has become part of current educational policy discourse in Australia, yet teacher adoption of the practices is not a straightforward implementation of techniques within an existing classroom repertoire. As can be seen from the following meta-analysis, recent research highlights a more complex interrelationship between teacher and student beliefs about learning and assessment, and the social and cultural interactions in and contexts of the classroom. More research is needed from a sociocultural perspective that allows meaning to emerge from practice. Before another policy push, we need to understand better the many factors within the assessment relationship. We need to hear from teachers and students through long-term AfL case studies both to inform AfL theory and to shed light on the complexities of pedagogical change for enhancing learner autonomy.