Guest Editor’s Introduction to Special Theme Issue: Part 2 Pedagogical Meanings Emerging in Practice

Abstract

Seldom does an individual exceed his own expectations.(Anonymous)IntroductionThis is the second part of two issues of the International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning in 2008 both of which relate in a variety of ways to the theme of meanings emerging in practice. This theme was the major focus of the Third International Conference on Pedagogies and Learning in Brisbane, Australia in 2007 and several articles were post-conference submissions. In this issue, Part two, there are eight anonymously peer reviewed articles and a book review. Although two articles (the third and eight) were not submitted for the conference theme they are highly pertinent to the investigation of the way pedagogical meanings are emerging in practice. Similarly, the book review highlights the longer term impact of authoritative pedagogies and on the mobility of both staff and students in higher education, with this article and all others strongly reflecting the current global context of cultural, economic, linguistic and political diversity and controversy that surrounds the nature of and the ongoing demand for particular outcomes.Overall these articles cause one to reconsider the concept of learning, and the nature of pedagogies and practices for twenty-first century learning. Besides drawing attention to how may be conceptualised by young children in primary school, and the importance of student voice in the development of effective environments in schools, they draw attention to a range of issues impacting on preservice teacher education and the role and impact of ICT in learning. These papers also provide a variety of valuable insights into approaches to improve pedagogical practices across sectors, including primary, secondary and tertiary, and in particular raise awareness of issues impacting on arts education, child protection education, languages education and the use of ICT.OverviewIn his first article Caroline Lodge highlights the importance of involving students in dialogue about the concept of learning, learner expectations and their own as a way to help them become better learners and for to become better teachers. While remaining conscious of the school improvement, accountability agenda, within which today's teachers' work, she provides an exciting and lucid description of classroom pedagogical developments that demonstrate through dialogue. She both emphasises that talk, and particularly dialogue, is a key process for developing meta-cognitive abilities relating to learning and as a result teachers understand the of their pupils in new ways and change their pedagogy as a result.Article two, by Denise Murray reminds us how the use of ICT in classrooms has developed and changed over time as has the technology itself. She reports on how evidence-based practice has informed pedagogical change and in the way ICT has been used in second language learning, concluding that for effective instruction needs to be carefully scaffolded to include modelling language, explicit teaching of the characteristics of language, and feedback that is timely, specific and multimodal. In article three, Wong Yew Leong and Charlene Tan describe their use of audio-visual media such as film and podcasts in their pedagogical approach to the challenge of teaching philosophy to secondary school students. They describe how these students learn to examine and evaluate their own reasoning as well as that of others. Besides highlighting the use of ICT they provide a convincing argument for the teaching of philosophy as contributing to students' devlopment of critical and creative thinking skills. …