Showing papers in "Journal of In-service Education in 1990"

Video as a Tool for Teachers’ Professional Development

Abstract: This paper will discuss the production and use of classroom video‐tape as folows: 1) The academic (as opposed to technical) production of video‐tape of mathematics classrooms. 2) The use of video‐tape as an inservice education tool for teachers of mathematics. It results from extensive experience and research by members of the Centre for Mathematics Education at the Open University, UK, in filming real mathematics lessons of teachers of pupils in the 5 to 18 years age range, and the use of the material produced for teachers’ professional development. This use is two‐fold, including both face to face workshops with teachers and as a component of distance learning materials. The paper will not discuss technical details of filming or tape production 1 The two stages described are independent of each other. It is possible to produce video‐tape which others will use. It is possible to use videotape which others have produced. However, in what is described below, each stage has been enhanced by experience gaine...

Beyond Competency A Socio‐Technical Approach to Continuing Professional Education

Abstract: This paper is concerned mainly with the cultural influences on continuing education in the professions. It falls into three parts. It begins with a discussion of the relationship between technology, modernity and consciousness. Against this background, the reasons for the current emphasis on competency‐based continuing education in the professions are discussed. This emphasis, though necessary, is too limited, for reasons to be considered. The second part suggests a typology of professions using insights drawn from socio‐technical organisation theory (Woodward, 1958; Street et al., 1966). This typology leads to the conclusion that most high‐status professions are overly technicist in their professional ideologies. This emphasis is to be expected, given the wider techno‐bureaucratic structure of our society. Third, in order to raise the possibility of a professional perspective which goes beyond a technical component, a new approach to continuing education in the professions is generated.

Exploratory Group Technique: An Approach to Sensitising School — Focused Research

Abstract: A technique is described for sensitising normative school‐focused research by enabling the practitioner's perspective to be uncovered and systematically incorporated into research design. The procedure is based upon small group discussions, but involves specific procedures, sampling, timing and methods of recording. It is claimed that the approach not only permits teachers to articulate their views and practice in a manner which is relatively undistorted by received rhetoric, but also results in data which readily inform the design of normative research aimed at investigating the process of schooling. Two examples are given of the technique in operation, one concerned with investigating the ways that infant teachers value and use pictures and the other an evaluation of the implementation of GRIDS (Guidelines for Review and Internal Development in Schools) in a group of schools. In each case, the results of the exploratory group are shown to have substantially influenced the extent to which the related stu...