Dominant discourses and teacher education : Current curriculum or curriculum remembered?
- Authors: Johnston, Robbie
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 35, no. 4 (Nov 2007), p. 351-365
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- Description: Research findings from a longitudinal, classroom-based study of Bachelor of Education students in Tasmania suggest that three dominant discourses of schooling are powerful shapers of pre-service teachers' pedagogical decisions in relation to the teaching of SOSE (studies of society and environment). These discourses appear to inform teaching practices and contribute to uncritical SOSE learning experiences for children. The findings from this naturalistic research grounded in teacher education suggest that teacher preparation programs should encourage far greater critical reflection on curriculum documents. In particular, the findings highlight tensions for teacher educators in selecting between experiential and/or interdisciplinary, critical approaches to teacher education. These issues are illustrated in the teaching of SOSE as locality focused knowledge. What this means for the selection of fieldwork sites for children's learning and teacher education pedagogies is explored in this paper.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003005007
A scale for monitoring students' attitudes to learning mathematics with technology
- Authors: Pierce, Robyn , Stacey, Kaye , Barkatsas, Anastasios
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Computers and Education Vol. 48, no. 2 (2007), p. 285-300
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- Description: The Mathematics and Technology Attitudes Scale (MTAS) is a simple scale for middle secondary years students that monitors five affective variables relevant to learning mathematics with technology. The subscales measure mathematics confidence, confidence with technology, attitude to learning mathematics with technology and two aspects of engagement in learning mathematics. The paper presents a model of how technology use can enhance mathematics achievement, a review of other instruments and a psychometric analysis of the MTAS. It also reports the responses of 350 students from 6 schools to demonstrate the power of the MTAS to provide useful insights for teachers and researchers. 'Attitude to learning mathematics with technology' had a wider range of scores than other variables studied. For boys, this attitude is correlated only with confidence in using technology, but for girls the only relationship found was a negative correlation with mathematics confidence. These differences need to be taken into account when planning instruction. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003004898
From slogan to pedagogy : Teacher education and reflection at the University of Ballarat
- Authors: Smith, Patricia , Zeegers, Margaret , Russell, Rupert
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 10, no. (2004), p. 3357-3371
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000806
Re-deploying techniques of pastoral power by telling tales on student teachers
- Authors: Tsolidis, Georgina , Pollard, Vikki
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Teaching Education Vol. 18, no. 1 (2007), p. 49-59
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This paper draws on interviews undertaken with second year student teachers. They describe their motivations for wishing to enter the profession and imagine the type of teacher they wish to become. These student teachers express a desire to make a difference as strong motivation for wanting to enter the profession. This is not uncharacteristic. Here we explore this motivation as possibly illustrative of an uncritical adoption of teacher subjectivities underpinned by notions of pastoral power. The argument is made that current debates that reinscribe the binary between teacher as 'moral' and teacher as 'market-orientated' may make teacher subjectivities premised on pastoral power a more intuitive and attractive choice. The desire to make a difference can be worthwhile. However, if read as a non-reflexive expression of pastoral power, it can also risk consolidating teachers as knowing what is best for students and students as disempowered. In this context, these interviews are used as a means of telling tales on student teachers in order to reflect on our own practices as teacher educators. What do their words tell us about the ways the profession is being imagined in the current social context? How do students' tales reflect the messages transferred through our own classes? And finally, how can retelling these tales help to create practices that are more responsive to students' motivations and imaginings and the current professional contexts? We argue that it is important to explore techniques of pastoral power and the potential for these to delimit rather than expand multiple subjectivities within teacher education. Telling tales on student teachers, in this context, is a means of reflecting on our own practices as teacher educators and is an apt beginning and integral part of this redeployment of techniques of pastoral power.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003004991
Critical pedagogy and situated practice : An ethnographic approach to pre-service teacher education
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Smith, Patricia
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 10, no. (2004), p. 3455-3461
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000804
Introduction to themed issue new pedagogies for school and community 'capacity building' in disadvantaged schools and communities
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Learning communities Vol. 3, no. (2006), p. 3-6
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- Description: The educational landscape is changing dramatically and profoundly for schools and communities across Australia and other western countries. It is no longer the case that children automatically do not attend their local neighbourhood school, nor can it be assumed that within public schools that there is a heterogenous social mix. What we have is an increasingly segregated, stratified and residualised system of education in Australia as neo-liberal policies of so-called 'choice' do their pock-marking with those who can afford it 'opting out' to private education, leaving behind those without the resources to exercise choice.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001904
Accessibility and emotionality of online assessment feedback: Using emoticons to enhance student perceptions of marker competence and warmth
- Authors: Moffitt, Robyn , Padgett, Christine , Grieve, Rachel
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Computers and education Vol. 143, no. (2020), p. 103654
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Assessment feedback is one of the most powerful learning tools, and in higher education this feedback is increasingly being provided online. The current study investigated the inclusion of emoticons as a method through which to enhance student perceptions of the accessibility and emotionality of written online assessment feedback. Undergraduate students (N = 241) were presented with an online faux essay along with associated written feedback typical of the comments students would receive in the higher education context. The feedback was identical except for the inclusion of emoticons. Using a between-groups design, emoticons were manipulated in two ways: frequency (none, 1, 3, or 6) and valence (happy, sad, or confused). The use of happy emoticons produced significantly higher perceptions of marker warmth when compared to no emoticons, or when negatively valenced emoticons were included. Furthermore, marker competence was significantly higher when 3 happy face emoticons were presented in the feedback than when 3 sad or confused faces were included. Student perceptions of feedback quality and marker professionalism were not affected by emoticon use. Thus, the results suggest that instructors can use positively valenced emoticons to inject some fun, warmth, and emotionality in written online assessment feedback without sacrificing feedback quality or professional integrity. •Experimentally manipulated emoticon valence and frequency in assessment feedback.•Including happy emoticons in feedback increased perceptions of marker warmth.•Marker competence was rated higher with happy than sad or confused face emoticons.•Feedback quality and marker professionalism were unaffected by emoticon inclusion.•Happy face emoticons convey emotionality without compromising feedback quality.