Towards a pedagogy of group work : Working the rhetoric of group work in an undergaduate curriculum and pedagogy unit at the University of Ballarat
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Davis, Robert , Russell, Rupert , Menon, E.
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Learning Vol. 12, no. 10 (2006), p. 205-211
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- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001856
Science students' perceptions of engaging pedagogy
- Authors: Darby, Linda
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Research in Science Education Vol. 35, no. 4 (2005), p. 425-445
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- Description: During their years of schooling, students develop perceptions about learning and teaching, including the ways in which teachers impact on their learning experiences. This paper presents student perceptions of teacher pedagogy as interpreted from a study focusing on students' experience of Year 7 science. A single science class of 11 to 12 year old students and their teacher were monitored for the whole school year, employing participant observation, and interviews with focus groups of students, their teacher and other key members of the school. Analysis focused on how students perceived the role of the teacher's pedagogy in constructing a learning environment that they considered conducive to engagement with science learning. Two areas of the teacher's pedagogy are explored from the student perspective of how these affect their learning: instructional pedagogy and relational pedagogy. Instructional pedagogy captures the way the instructional dialogue developed by the teacher drew the students into the learning process and enabled them to "understand" science. How the teacher developed a relationship with the students is captured as relational pedagogy, where students said that they learned better when teachers were passionate in their approach to teaching, provided a supportive learning environment and made them feel comfortable. The ways in which the findings support the direction for the middle years and science education are considered. © Springer 2005.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001317
Student response to the IT handicap
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Beales, Brad
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International journal of learning Vol. 12, no. 10 (2006), p. 39-43
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- Description: This paper investigates undergraduates' innovative reflection-as a scripted and performed comedy routine in their School Revue-on their introduction as pre-service teachers (PSTs) to the discourses of Information Technologies (ITs) in teaching in schools. It is a small case study that we present here, mondful of the lack of generalisability that this presents, but we feel that it does lend itself to a close examination of a wide array of issues, experiences and outcomes in this small group that wrote and implemented the sketch in the Revue. Given the primacy of the role of language in any educational undertaking, it is perhaps not surprising that the focus of this sketch is on language, particularly as it is received by students, in that group of novice IT for Education students.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001862
Complex learning theory-Its epistemology and its assumptions about learning: Implications for physical education
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Teaching in Physical Education Vol. 27, no. 1 (2008), p. 21-38
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- Description: Davis and Sumara (2003) argue that differences between commonsense assumptions about learning and those upon which constructivism rests present a significant challenge for the fostering of constructivist approaches to teaching in schools. Indeed, as Rink (2001) suggests, initiating any change process for teaching method needs to involve some understanding of the theories supporting it. Although there has been considerable discussion about constructivism in the physical education literature over the past decade, there has been less attention paid to the assumptions about learning and knowledge that underpin it. This article makes a contribution toward redressing this oversight in the literature by examining the epistemology and assumptions about learning that constructivist theories of learning rest upon. Drawing on the work of Davis and Sumara (2003), I suggest that the term "complex" learning theories may offer a more useful description of the sometimes confusing range of constructivist approaches. I provide examples of, and suggestions for, the application of constructivism in practice and within which the body forms a prominent theme.
Promoting learner voice in VET: developimg democratic, transformative possibilities or further entrenching the status
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Golding, Barry , Angus, Lawrence , Lavender, Peter
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Vocational Education and Training Vol. 65, no. 4 (2013), p. 560-574
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- Description: In order to critique the notion of ‘learner voice’ in vocational education and training (VET) policy, this paper draws from a project conducted by the authors on behalf of the Australian National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC). The term ‘learner voice’ is used extensively throughout NVEAC documentation to describe the engagement of ‘disadvantaged’ students within the VET system. However, the concept of ‘voice’ being advocated, we argue, is a particularly ‘thin’ one which is linked to notions of client feedback, managed participation and the commodification of training rather than any broad sense of democracy, equity or social transformation. The paper critically examines current practices in relation to learner voice within the VET policy framework and their implications for the contested role of VET in contributing to social equity and redress of social and economic disadvantage.
Place matters: pedagogies of food, ecology and design
- Authors: Green, Monica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Environmental Education Research Vol. 19, no. 2 (2013), p.
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- Description: This study uses theories of place inhabitation, relationships to food, place ecologies, and place-based pedagogies to examine the educational value of food gardens and related environmental and health initiatives in primary (elementary) schooling in Australia. It assumes that food gardens and their school ground contexts are important ecopedagogical sites for renewing children’s relationships with proximal, everyday places. The study highlights how schools are engaging with socioenvironmental challenges through pedagogical frameworks that support education for sustainability. These frameworks are significant in that they position children as active agents who experience deep levels of embodied learning. A key premise of the thesis is that young learners are experientially capable of developing an ecoethical awareness if they are to become ecologically proactive subjects and citizens. Empirical work drew on case study approaches and arts-based auto-ethnographic methodologies to identify the pedagogical potential of food gardens and school ground ecologies. Fifty-three children aged 8–12 years, three gardening/environmental education teachers and three principals from three Australian primary schools (2×Victoria; 1×Tasmania) worked ethnographically with the researcher during 2007–2009. Data were primarily derived from semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Other key sources included children’s mapping work, field notes, photos, and the researcher’s journal. Key features of the data collection were: many of the students participated in ‘walking interviews’ that encouraged garden- and school ground-based stories at sites of their choice, coupled with 15 days of participant observation of garden and classroom-based lessons to provide further contextualization. Analysis of interviews and lessons involved a ‘storyline’ approach to interpreting findings. Theoretically informed discussions of the empirical data highlight the following: across the three schools, recognizing the role and significance of teachers’ work and the value of integrated approaches to pedagogy are central requirements for designing, implementing, and evaluating place-oriented curricula. In each case study, relational pedagogies of connection and responsibility afford learning opportunities that can bring children into deepened contact with local places and people. Collectively, the initiatives undertaken by the schools and their wider communities are ‘positive’ and ‘hopeful’, and their examples show how school garden-based ecopedagogies can play a critical role in the renewal of more sustainable people–place relations.
Sustainability education : Researching practice in primary schools
- Authors: Green, Monica , Somerville, Margaret
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Environmental Education Research Vol. 21, no. 6 (2015), p. 832-845
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- Description: Many teachers are keen to implement sustainability education in primary schools but are lacking the confidence, skills and knowledge to do so. Teachers report that they do not understand the concept and cannot integrate sustainability into an already overcrowded curriculum. Identifying how teachers successfully integrate sustainability education into their teaching practice can offer important insights into how these perceived problems can be overcome. The paper is based on data from the third year of a longitudinal study about teacher education and teacher professional learning for sustainability in primary education. The third year of the study investigated teachers’ understandings of sustainability and how sustainability education is manifested in eight rural and regional primary schools in Victoria, Australia. Data included photographs of school grounds and sustainability projects, audio recordings of focus groups with teachers and principals, and field notes of meetings with school staff. Sustainability education was found to be an emergent practice necessarily constituted in the relation between teachers, students and community members and the materialities of local places. Partnerships were found to be an essential part of integrated sustainability programmes which extended into communities and places beyond the schools. The processes of learning involved pedagogies of creative problem-solving and inquiry learning that enabled children to lead the way. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.
I started letting the teachers in’ : what factors contribute to successful educational outcomes for disengaged young adults?
- Authors: Brandenburg, Robyn
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Pedagogy, Culture and Society Vol. 29, no. 3 (2021), p. 397-413
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- Description: This paper identifies and examines the narratives of the lived experience of young adults who had been previously disconnected from mainstream education but who are completing, or have successfully completed, an education in an alternative education programme in a regional city in Australia. It highlights the factors that contribute to successful educational outcomes and foregrounds the pedagogical practices that contribute to success. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven current and/or past participants. The narratives and narrative portraits reveal that the structure of learning and teaching environments, supportive relationships, as well as opportunities to identify goals and ambitions and manage fear and anxiety were key factors in achieving successful educational and personal outcomes. Success is influenced by pedagogical practices that are underpinned by an ethos of care, respect and flexibility. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.