How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

The culture of education

How to ... be a reflective practitioner.

Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice

Whilst many definitions of formative assessment have been offered, there is no clear rationale to define and delimit it within broader theories of pedagogy. This paper aims to offer such a rationale, within a framework which can also unify the diverse set of practices which have been described as formative. The analysis is used to relate formative assessment both to other pedagogic initiatives, notably cognitive acceleration and dynamic assessment, and to some of the existing literature on models of self-regulated learning and on classroom discourse. This framework should indicate potentially fruitful lines for further enquiry, whilst at the same time opening up new ways of helping teachers to implement formative practices more effectively.

Developing a theory of formative assessment

This article adopts a complexity theory framework to review the literature on teachers’ professional development practices, the generative systems of these practices, and the impact that learning experiences have on their knowledge and changes in classroom practices. The review brings together multiple strands of literature on teacher professional development, teaching and learning, teacher change, and organizational learning. In doing so, it illustrates that process–product logic has dominated the literature on teacher professional learning and that this has limited explanatory ability. The review demonstrates the ways the elements of three subsystems (the teacher, the school, and the learning activity) interact and combine in different ways and with varying intensities to influence teacher learning. The limitations of studies focusing on specific elements or subsystems are highlighted. The article concludes that to understand teacher learning scholars must adopt methodological practices that focus on ex...

Conceptualizing Teacher Professional Learning

The study explores how teachers use the ideas that pupils offer when consulted. Six teachers (two each in English, Maths and Science) and their Year 8 classes at three secondary schools were involved. The research was carried out in three stages. During the first stage the focus was on eliciting pupils’ ideas about classroom teaching and learning and teachers’ responses to their pupils’ ideas. Six pupils from each class were interviewed individually about each of three observed lessons. Transcripts of these interviews were fed back to the teachers. Teachers were interviewed about their reactions to them. During the second phase teachers’ use of pupil ideas was investigated and both the teachers’ and the target pupils’ evaluations of what happened were sought. In the third stage, each teacher was visited some six months later, in the following academic year, to explore how far the pupil ideas had had a lasting impact on the teachers’ practice and what use the teachers were making of pupil consultation. Our...

Pupil Voice: Comfortable and Uncomfortable Learnings for Teachers.

This paper stems from the ESRC TLRP Learning How to Learn—in Classrooms, Schools and Networks Project, and explores how Assessment for Learning (AfL) relates, conceptually, to learning how to learn (LHTL). The term LHTL was intended to draw attention to a primary focus on learning practices, and we have related the processes of AfL to LHTL. A third and more common term ‘learning to learn’ (L2L) has recently come to the fore in the teaching and learning practices of schools. This paper explores the relationships between all three, in three main sections. First, the meaning of the concept LHTL is explored. This is approached initially using the analysis of Dearden, followed by an exploration of the links with other research in the literature on learning. This exploration examines the construct L2L and argues against its implication that there is a distinct capacity with generality of application across all forms of learning. The second section considers the ways in which teachers and schools might give more...

Learning how to learn and assessment for learning: a theoretical inquiry.

This article reports the findings of a survey of 558 teachers in England. It describes how conceptual and empirical insights from the literature informed the construction of questionnaire items to provide answers to questions about the way in which teachers value different classroom assessment practices and how congruent with these values they perceive their practices to be. Results from item, factor and cluster analyses reveal three underlying dimensions of assessment practice, sizeable values-practice gaps on two dimensions that appear to be in tension (promoting learning autonomy and performance orientation), and differences among teachers which show that over half of this sample report that they are unable to sustain practices across all dimensions in line with their values. We conclude that teachers are demonstrably committed to the values (not just the methods) of assessment for learning within a moral framework that gives importance to the quality of students' learning, yet they experience and need...

Beyond method: assessment and learning practices and values

This paper explores three influences on the effectiveness of teacher professional development for improving schools – the individual teacher, the learning activities in which teachers participate and the structures and supports provided by schools for teacher learning. It does so by relying on survey data collected for a national study of teacher professional development in England. The analysis indicates that while the professional development of teachers in England is generally ineffectual and lacks school level systems and supports, the professional development and supports for professional learning by teachers in high performing schools display many of the characteristics associated with effective professional learning. Given the results showing a link between school factors and professional learning and the lack of influence of individual teacher factors, the paper concludes that the previously reported importance of school capacity in influencing learning and improvement is supported by the findings.

David Pedder

Papers

Conceptualizing Teacher Professional Learning

Pupil Voice: Comfortable and Uncomfortable Learnings for Teachers.

Learning how to learn and assessment for learning: a theoretical inquiry.

Beyond method: assessment and learning practices and values

The lost promise of teacher professional development in England