The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1, Reason and the Rationalization of Society

by J. Biggs and C. Tang, Maidenhead, England,
Open University Press, 2007, 360 pp., £29.99, ISBN-13: 978-0-335-22126-4

Teaching for quality learning at university

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Becoming Critical: education, knowledge and action research

The aim of this study was to apply the flipped classroom strategy in teaching English grammar to examine its impact on secondary school students’ performances, perceptions, and attitudes toward learning English independently. The researcher implemented the flipped classroom strategy by selecting videos based on the students’ textbook and uploading those videos on the Edmodo site before each lesson to provide opportunities for active learning interactions. The students of the experimental group (n = 20) were required to watch the videos to learn by themselves and to come to class prepared to ask for clarification, if needed. They also practiced what they had learned under the teacher’s supervision by completing collaborative and competitive tasks in groups or pairs. Meanwhile, the control group students (n = 23) received in-class only traditional teaching. They learned the grammatical lessons without the help of any videos. The statistical analysis of the post-test results showed that adopting the flipped classroom strategy appeared to play a role in enhancing the students’ grammar performances, as the mean score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group, but this difference was not statistically significant. The students’ responses to a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews indicated that their attitudes’ towards using the flipped classroom strategy in the EFL class were positive.

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The Flipped Classroom Impact in Grammar Class on EFL Saudi Secondary School Students’ Performances and Attitudes

In the previous issue of PLAIO, Wihak, Harris, Friesen and Van Kleef (2012) introduced the PLIRC (Prior Learning International Research Centre) Research Database: a single, PLAR-focused, full-text database to provide easy access to research and act as a link between researchers, public policymakers and practitioners. Population of the database with existing literature is currently underway. Maintaining currency of the database will be the shared, ongoing effort of the prior learning research community around the world.

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What Counts as Research

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) technology and pedagogy have gained recognition globally for their success in supporting second language acquisition (SLA). In Saudi Arabia, the government aims to provide most educational institutions with computers and networking for integrating CALL into classrooms. However, the recognition of CALL’s efficacy does not translate into easy acceptance and integration in English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) classrooms in Saudi schools, particularly where teaching of both English language and information and communication technologies (ICT) is subject to religious and cultural constraints. There are other barriers that impede native Arabic speakers from learning English. Accordingly, the research question addressed in this paper is an exploration of the overt and covert factors that affect CALL use and integration in Saudi Arabian secondary schools. A case study approach using mixed methods was employed to interview and observe a sample of teachers and school inspectors in urban and rural secondary schools. Results were supplemented with an online questionnaire and analysed using both descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

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Integrating Computer-Assisted Language Learning in Saudi Schools: A Change Model

The article considers current teachers’ participation in educational research in England and whether Stenhouse’s perception that such involvement was necessary to stall the political undermining of democratic teacher professionalism has been addressed. Stenhouse instigated the emergence of the teacher-as-researcher movement, whereby teachers engaged with a process that created knowledge and practice. From 1979, when the Conservative Margret Thatcher became Prime Minister, the increasing dominance of globalised knowledge economies turned knowledge away from being a process into a product. Teacher and student education became controlled and consumed by increasingly competitive educational institutions.  Learning became aimed at assuring the attainment of higher grades to increase the country’s economic growth and profit, leading to democratic teacher professionalism being undermined. However, contemporary research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has indicated that teacher professionalism should involve teachers in conducting classroom-based individual or collaborative research. In addition, a recent academic inquiry by the British Education Research Association has concluded that teachers as researchers, in both literate and practical terms, will have a positive impact on learner outcomes by developing an education system that has the internal capacity to direct its own progress. At the same time, the Department for Education in England commissioned a two-year study to assess progress towards an evidence-informed teaching system. Taking a systematic literature approach, the present article considers the extent to which current teacher education and practice encourage teacher research as a form of developing pedagogical practice, in other words, praxis, in order to re-establish democratic teacher professionalism in England. It also explores whether there are alternative practices to create the same, or a similar, outcome.

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Praxis, Pedagogy and Teachers’ Professionalism in England

Let us introduce ourselves! We co-edit the University of Bedfordshire's Journal of Pedagogic Development (JPD), and are delighted to have been asked to write the editorial for this edition of IJEDICT. Even if our publications do not share a common readership, we believe that the JPD embodies ideas and ideals similar to editors' ambitions for IJEDICT: to encourage strong submissions from different parts of the world; to inform our readers of good practice emerging from other continents; and to try to form a picture of what constitutes contemporary pedagogy. Like IJEDICT, we are focused on identifying and strengthening the links between research and practice in ICT education and development. Both research and practice are predicated on an epistemologica! position, in other words, how we think individuals learn.Technology has an important role to play in epistemology as a mediating resource, linking teacher and teaching with learner and learning. However, we fully support the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee's (JISC) aphorism that '...it is the pedagogy, not the tool, that comes first' (2008:17). Pedagogy is epistemology in action. So the pedagogies we adopt using ICT in practice depend on how we think individuals learn. And that is where research is so valuable. It gives us findings with which we can present evidenced judgements on practice to support the development and adoption of contemporary pedagogies. Although the UK would not be considered a developing economy, universities here are operating in the same technologised world but from a different historical and political socio-economic base. This has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that academics in the UK tend to construct pedagogies based on the concept of a 'traditional' learner, rooted in nineteenth century conservatism with Oxbridge elitism at its core.IJEDICT and JPD have different emphases - you foreground technology, we focus on pedagogy - but the epistemology on which both publications are predicated is centred on the learner, and not on socio-economic background. Like IJEDICT, we are happy to say that the JPD has included strong submissions and disseminated good practice from every continent apart from Antarctica (we're still working on Antarctica!), despite being in existence only two years. We are also intent on forming a picture of what constitutes contemporary pedagogy - or even what constitutes a 'traditional· learner.At UoB we are challenging the concept of 'traditional' learner. We are a 'widening participation university', focused on encouraging students to enter higher education who might not necessarily see themselves as potential graduates. The concept of 'traditional' also embraces the pedagogies used in teaching and learning. The JPD is part of this challenge to traditional pedagogies and we admit that we find redefining the concept problematic. Is there any such thing as a 'traditional' learner - or even a 'traditional' distance learner? With distance learning programmes, both technology and pedagogy are vital components but are interdependent on one another, and an academic tutor online might be obliged to assume roles that are often beyond the customary scope of teaching per se - the assumption of pastoral care roles, for instance, more ordinarily suited to a counsellor.Some of our UK distance learners have overcome considerable disadvantages. More explicitly, some would seem to qualify for the status of a paradigm of resilience (Chapman Hoult, 201 1). A full-time learner from Norway, who was in their armed forces as a submarine commander, had been given a year off to complete a Masters. However, when a situation arose in Afghanistan, the learner was recalled to train soldiers in Cyprus. This caused a lapse in her studies, which we managed successfully, but just as normality was returning, her husband was sent to Afghanistan for six months (he was a pilot in the American army). Since she knew the situation out there, this became a very stressful time for the learner, and keeping her active with her studies required supporting her personally as well as supporting her studies. …

Distance Learning across Continents: What Is a 'Traditional Learner' Anyway?

The investigation discussed in this paper was motivated by a finding revealed through analysis of the dissertation grades of final year undergraduates on an education honours degree. A third of dissertations received grades equating to third class honours or fails and this was viewed by the Faculty as being unacceptable. As a Fellow of the UniversityA¢â¬â¢s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning with a focus on personal development, I was asked by the course leader to identify possible causes and suggest changes. My critical reflection on the dissertation suggested that its creation is predicated upon Personal Development Planning (PDP) processes practised through the mediation of the tutorial. I am investigating the effectiveness of the tutorial to support learner development over a two year period, contributing to an overarching action research project undertaken by the National Action Research Network (NARN). This paper presents the outcomes of the first cycle of my action research, involving the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from students and dissertation supervisors. At this stage it appears that the design of the dissertation meets the needs of some students but not all, particularly the lower third of the sample cohort. Furthermore some students, including a number of thirds and fails, do not perceive tutorial support as essential for the successful completion of their dissertations. Overall, it appears that the tutorial process requires review in order to support the autonomous and/or collaborative learning needed for effective learner development.

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An investigation into the undergraduate dissertation tutorial as a Personal Development Planning (PDP) process to support learner development

This study is focused on the introduction of threshold concepts (Meyer and Land, 2006) to mathematics teachers in Finland, Portugal, Spain and the UK as part of their professional development. A multidisciplinary team drawn from the four participating countries developed a methodology to identify threshold concepts in the teaching of ratio. A flexible multiple case study approach with an exploratory perspective allowed the attenuation of differences arising from the contexts of each of the four countries and research teams whilst providing a basis for comparative analysis. The research design involved combining technologies such as pathfinder associative networking and knowledge mapping software, developed specifically for the research, and traditional methods. Through this methodology, it was intended that teachers from Finland, Portugal, Spain and the UK in early secondary education would be supported in identifying threshold concepts in their teaching of ratio. Currently, the concept of 'ratio' is taught as a series of core concepts including proportion, fractions, percentages, comparison, and combining objects in all four countries, and in all four countries learners find the mastering of ratio ‘troublesome’ (Perkins, 1999: Hodgen, et al., 2011). Therefore 'ratio', or a component core concept of ratio, may be identified by teachers as having the characteristics of a threshold concept. We proposed that the identification of threshold concepts would help teachers address the conceptual difficulties associated with the teaching of ratio. The threshold concepts identified would then be shared with teachers across the four nations. Resources would be developed to tackle the ‘troublesome’ aspects, and be made available online as part of disseminating the research and its findings. Although the bid narrowly missed being funded, the experiences of establishing effective communication pathways have led to co-operation and collaboration in other areas of scholarship and research. This paper highlights not only the substantive parts of the bid its overall rationale and methodology, but also offers some reflections on the process of constructing a collaborative funding bid with European partners based on teacher engagement.

Threshold concepts and their use in the professional development of mathematics teachers: a methodology for collaboration across four European countries

Andrea Raiker

Papers

Integrating Computer-Assisted Language Learning in Saudi Schools: A Change Model

Praxis, Pedagogy and Teachers’ Professionalism in England

Distance Learning across Continents: What Is a 'Traditional Learner' Anyway?

An investigation into the undergraduate dissertation tutorial as a Personal Development Planning (PDP) process to support learner development

Threshold concepts and their use in the professional development of mathematics teachers: a methodology for collaboration across four European countries