Changes In Classroom Practice Research Articles

The oral presentation as a context for learning and assessment

Tests are said to be an important determiner of what actually happens in classrooms. There are claims for both positive and negative washback. However, there is still very little evidence of how washback from the test format affects learning and teaching activities in foreign language learning. There has been even less attention to the nature of the changes in classroom practice and student role when a novel test format is introduced. This article explores how the assessment format (academic oral presentations – AOP) in a university English course shapes students' group discussions in the classroom, and vice versa. Classroom observation data document interaction processes and facilitate investigation of the relationship between classroom discussions and assessed AOPs. We present a conversation analysis account of group discussions and explore the structure of oral presentations through a lexical signal framework. The analysis illustrates how classroom interactions develop and are sustained to facilitate collaborative learning. We relate the findings of this analysis to the structure, linguistic features and quality of the oral presentations of the students from the group discussions. This article argues that the assessment format can shape classroom activities so that there are enhanced opportunities for learning, and that the particular format investigated here – the AOP – has the potential to generate learning opportunities.

Implementing a Spanish for Heritage Speakers course in an English‐only state: a collaborative critical teacher action research study

This paper explores how critical teacher action research (CTAR) supported the process of developing and implementing a Spanish for Heritage Speakers (SHS) course in a high school, notwithstanding a low percentage of heritage language learners. The purpose of the paper was to explore how a teacher was able to navigate the secondary school structure, community/national Discourse, and her own classroom pedagogy to implement the SHS course. Data collection included teacher and teacher‐educator‐researcher journals, classroom observations, school board minutes, and student course work. These data were coded and analyzed into phases that represent the teacher's process of developing and implementing the course. Data demonstrated that this teacher's changing practice and involvement in program development were influenced by: her experiences with her students and her desire to provide more effective instruction for them; her enrollment in teacher education courses at the university; decisions by the administration; and discourses prevalent in the school and community/nation. Data suggested that teachers, school and district administrators, teacher‐educators, and families in the community all played significant supporting roles in the effort to create a successful heritage language course at the secondary level. By focusing on outcome, a critical aspect of CTAR, the teacher and teacher‐educator worked collaboratively to change classroom practices and curriculum in this secondary school to better support heritage Spanish speakers. Unlike some teacher action research projects that focus only on teacher classrooms or teacher education institutions, this collaborative research project generated recommendations for secondary teachers and administrators as well as teacher‐training institutions. These include the importance of administrative support, community involvement, framing language as social and dynamic, and course development in teacher development programs to teach heritage languages.

Applying a Cognitive-Affective Model of Conceptual Change to Professional Development

This study evaluated Gregoire’s (2003) Cognitive–Affective Conceptual Change model (CAMCC) for predicting and assessing conceptual change in science teachers engaged in a long-term professional development project set in a large school district in the southwestern United States. A multiple case study method with data from three teacher participants was used to understand the process of integrating and applying a reform message of inquiry based science teaching. Data sources included: responses to example teaching scenarios, reflective essays, lesson plans, classroom observations, and action research projects. Findings show that the CAMCC functioned well in predicting how these teachers made decisions that impacted how they processed the reform message. When the reform message was communicated in such a way as to initiate stress appraisal, conceptual change occurred, producing changes in classroom practice. If the reform message did not initiate stress appraisal, teachers rejected the professional development message and developed heuristic responses. In order to further research and improve practice, propositions for assessments related to the CAMCC are provided.

A comparative study of classroom teaching in Korea and Japan: a case study on reforming schools into learning communities

Some schools and teachers in Korea and Japan have begun practicing classroom-based reform according to similar visions of a learning community. The purpose of this study was to investigate reform efforts made by teachers in Korea and Japan toward turning classrooms into learning communities. Two elementary schools, School K in Korea and School T in Japan, were selected as major school sites. Research data was collected from two classrooms in each school through teacher interview and classroom observation. The results of our study showed that efforts made by teachers from the two countries, though aimed at similar goals to create learning communities and change classroom practices, produced different results. Teachers from both countries displayed differences in their views or attitudes toward the learning materials and the ways in which they build relationships with their students. These differences seemed to be derived from the different social and cultural contexts of the teachers in the two countries.

Promoting Quality and Variety Through the Public Financing of Privately Operated Schools in Qatar

In 2002, Qatar began establishing publicly funded, privately operated “independent schools” in parallel with the existing, centralized Ministry of Education system. The reform that drove the establishment of the independent schools included accountability provisions such as (a) measuring school and student performance and (b) distributing school performance information to parents. Because parental demand for the new schools exceeds supply, the effectiveness of parental choice in promoting accountability is limited. The independent schools showed higher student achievement (in elementary grades) and significant changes in classroom practices on the basis of 2005–2007 data. In 2009, the government announced that all ministry schools would convert to independent schools. In addition, over time, vouchers would become available to allow per-student funding to be used in some private schools.

Developing learner-centred education among secondary trainee teachers in Malawi: The dilemma of appropriation and application

This article is mainly concerned with the capability of trainee teachers to implement learner-centred practice at one of the teacher education institutions in Malawi. The notion of learner-centred education has assumed a positive policy position for teaching and learning in both primary and secondary sectors not only in Malawi, but also in the wider world. However, there is no clear evidence on the extent to which trainee teachers or indeed qualified teachers develop and utilise learner-centred education during their classroom pedagogical practices. The appropriation and application of a pedagogical theory involves adopting tools for thinking that are made available by various social agents, structures and systems within cultural learning settings. The findings in the study indicate that appropriation and application of learner-centred education is constrained by various factors. These findings resonate with findings from other countries and indicate that progressive pedagogical notions aligned with social constructivism promoted in teacher education institutions have not resulted in widespread change in classroom practice. Teacher educators and policy makers need to be aware of this and examine relevant ways and possibly adaptations that can be reasonably made to ensure that secondary teaching appropriately benefits from the strength of learner-centred pedagogy.

Teaching word recognition to children with severe learning difficulties: an exploratory comparison of teaching methods

Background: Some children with severe learning difficulties fail to begin word recognition. For these children there is a need for an effective and appropriate pedagogy. However, conflicting advice can be found regarding this derived from teaching approaches that are not based on a shared understanding of how reading develops or the skills that the non-reader needs to master. Purpose: In this research, three techniques for teaching word recognition in this context are described and compared: (1) the handle technique, (2) morphing method and (3) word alone. It also discusses whether it is appropriate for such small-scale research to influence pedagogy. Programme description: The handle technique uses an abstract mnemonic cue used to teach word recognition, and previous research indicates it is more successful than the presentation of words alone. The morphing method transforms a word into a photographic picture and a previous study suggested that it might also be more effective that presenting words alone. Sample: Six children between 11 and 13 years of age were selected. The criterion for selection was being unable to recognise any words from the British Ability Scales Reading Test. All the children attended a school for children with severe learning difficulties. Design and methods: A three-condition related design was used. The order in which the conditions were presented was counterbalanced and each child was taught 12 words, four words in each experimental condition. The children encountered each of the three methods and overall each word was taught via each method. Within conditions (teaching methods), the presentation of words was randomised. The number of words that the children could read (without cues) before each session was recorded, following the presentation of the uncued words in a random order. The difference in the number of words recognised between the three conditions was considered using a non-parametric statistical analysis. Results: The results suggest that the handle approach might be a more effective method of teaching word recognition. Conclusion: Research in this area is necessarily small in scale. However, it is ongoing and cumulative, and can give insights into potentially beneficial changes in classroom practice.

Exploring tensions in developing assessment for learning

This paper is based on a study of classroom practice of primary school teachers who were engaged in a programme of professional development to implement formative assessment in their classrooms. The programme sought to develop the skills and expertise of teachers to enable formative assessment to be used to support and improve the learning of students. This study examined changes in practice in these teachers’ classrooms, their students’ learning experiences, pedagogical decision‐making, and the challenges experienced by teachers and students in developing assessment for learning. Activity theory was used as an analytical tool and enabled the identification of important contradictions in the changing system that produced tensions and difficulties but also provided driving forces for change. The development of formative assessment practices was of necessity accompanied by a culture change in the complex classroom systems. For teachers change was characterised as a process of expansive learning that was motivated by a contradiction between the teachers’ beliefs about learning and the existing culture in the classroom. The change in classroom practice was enabled by the formative assessment philosophy and a range of mediating artefacts.

Impacting teacher mathematical knowledge and attitudes with grade‐appropriate methods

Sixty‐five fourth‐grade, fifth‐grade and sixth‐grade teachers in the Midwestern United States participated in professional development opportunities designed to increase their mathematics content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge over a two‐year series of workshops. Through the use of pre‐tests and post‐tests assessing content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, the researchers show that teachers can increase both content and pedagogical knowledge through professional development using grade‐appropriate methods. In addition, researchers found that teachers showed positive changes in five areas of beliefs and attitudes, including perceptions of student ability in mathematics. Taken together, these changes indicate a strong potential for changes in classroom practices.

The Middle Ground in Action Research: Integrating Practical and Critical Inquiry

Advocates of action research propose formalizing teacher inquiry to empower teachers to leverage their “insider” knowledge to change classroom practice. Currently there is disagreement between theorists who promote action research as practical or critical inquiry. This article defines the characteristics and history of action research in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. This review provides evidence of the theoretical divide between practical and critical action research, promoting the exploration of a middle ground. By encouraging a dialogue between proponents of both forms of action research, educators will gain new insights about teacher practice and the factors that promote or hinder critical teacher reflection.

Changing Classroom Practice Through the English National Literacy Strategy: A Micro-Interactional Perspective

How and why is national policy translated into interactions between teachers and pupils? This article examines the enactment of the English National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in a case study of two literacy lessons, which are drawn from a yearlong ethnographic study of the NLS in one school. Although the teacher taught directly from and adhered closely to the prescribed materials, curricular contents were recontextualized into habitual classroom interactional genres, and the open questions that constituted the primary aim of the lesson were suppressed. In explaining these enactment patterns, the author supplements analysis of teacher knowledge and policy support with consideration of conditions of teacher engagement with the policy and the durability of interactional genres, rooted in pupil collusion and habitus.

Blended Learning for Professional Development: An Evaluation of A Program for Middle School Mathematics and Science Teachers

Background Improving the subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers of mathematics and science is a key priority for many jurisdictions. Blended learning is a promising, yet so far seldom used model for supporting teacher professional development. This model combines the advantages of traditional face-to-face interaction with the flexibility of online learning. Purpose In this study, we examine two one-year professional development programs for middle-school mathematics and science/technology teachers that employed blended learning. The goal of our research was to understand how the program affected teacher attitudes toward and pedagogical practices in these subjects and on student perceptions and learning of the subjects. Participants Participants in the study were 68 mathematics and 65 science/technology teachers in grades 6, 7, and 8 in several school districts in a large urban center, along with their students: 477 students from the mathematics teachers’ classes and 551 from the science/technology teachers’ classes. Program The blended learning program, known as the Teacher eLearning Project (TeL), began at the start of the school year with a module that consisted of a daylong face-to-face session followed by an eight-week online session. The first year of TeL focused on the mathematics teachers who had a total of three modules to complete; in the second year, science/technology teachers had two modules. Research design We used Guskey's (2000) five-level evaluation framework to assess the impact of the programs on teachers’ attitudes and knowledge, institutional support for the programs, changes in classroom practices, and student perceptions and learning of the subjects. Data were obtained using a pre-post design that included surveys, classroom observations, and key informant interviews. Findings Overall our results indicate that the program appeared to influence positively teacher attitudes and content knowledge in certain curricular areas and motivated many to transform their classroom practice to varying degrees. Despite this, student responses were mixed: students viewed mathematics less favorably by the end of the program, but became more positively inclined towards science/technology. Conclusions The blended learning model shows potential for teacher professional development, although further research preferably through controlled studies is needed. Aspects that need to be examined further include the nature of the online tasks given to teachers, the role of the online facilitators, the impact on student achievement, and the implications of providing teachers with less release time than was available in this study.

Changing classroom practice at Key Stage 2: the impact of New Labour’s national strategies

The article examines the impact of New Labour policies—particularly the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies and the subsequent Primary National Strategy—on classroom practice at Key Stage 2 in England. Evidence is drawn from fieldwork conducted in 2003–2005 from a sample of 50 schools, replicating a study conducted a decade previously in the same schools. The data base consists mainly of 188 transcribed in‐depth teacher interviews and fieldnotes from observation of 51 lessons. By comparison with other research studies on primary classroom practice from the 1970s through to the mid‐1990s, our study suggests that there have been more changes in the last five years in teaching styles and in classroom organisation throughout the whole curriculum at KS2 than in the previous two decades. Such changes include a dramatic increase in whole‐class teaching, the use of learning objectives shared with pupils and changes in pupil seating arrangements. Through compliance with centrally imposed changes in pedagogy, teachers’ experiences have led them to change some of their professional values concerning desirable pedagogy. The article concludes by considering some of the implications of our evidence for theories of educational change and of teacher professionalism.

Curriculum reform in post-1990s sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract The article uses both primary and secondary sources to examine why learner-centredness, outcomes- and competency-based education and national qualifications frameworks were favourably received at local level in sub-Saharan Africa but have not resulted in widespread change in classroom practice. It argues that they found local favour because they were not entirely new ideas, and were ambiguous enough to be seen as key vehicles for achieving not so much educational, as economic, social and political goals. It suggests that the failure of implementation could lie in expectations that education would lead to transformation without paying necessary attention to implementation and capacity.

Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Technology-based Classrooms

This paper reports on an exploratory, longitudinal study that analyzes and interprets the evolution of teachers’ beliefs regarding learning teaching and technology, and their instructional practices, in the context of integrating technology-based information-rich tasks in six 4th-6th grade classrooms. The study used multiple research tools, interviews, questionnaires and observations, focusing on both teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices. The findings reveal that following multi-year experiences in technology-based classrooms, teachers’ educational beliefs had changed quite substantively, demonstrating multiple views rather than pure beliefs. The study argues that teachers’ beliefs form a mosaic of complementary visions, even conflicting ones. It also shows that it is easier to change classroom practices than educational beliefs.

What hinders change in classroom practice? Lessons from the field and future directions in Pakistan

This paper discusses a complex issue: why teacher education input and interventions have limited or no impact in the classrooms. It discusses some practical examples and issues and their implications for teachers’ learning and motivation to develop teaching. Analysis of the findings suggests that as teachers re‐entered the reality of the school situation after taking a teacher education course, they did not continue to sustain the process of their learning or improvement and easily succumbed to the dominating culture of their schools. In other words, in‐service education projects falter at the implementation stage. The paper raises some important issues relevant to mathematics teacher education to illustrate conditions and challenges for successful implementation in Pakistan. It is expected that this discussion will stimulate teacher educators in Pakistan and at large to reflect on their own ways of working with teachers, and to challenge the assumptions that inform and shape their theoretical perspectives and practices.

A Study of Students' Metacognitive Beliefs About Foreign Language Study and Their Impact on Learning

This article reports on an investigation into the language learning beliefs of students of French in England, aged 16 to 18. It focuses on qualitative data from two groups of learners (10 in total). While both groups had broadly similar levels of achievement in French in terns of examination success, they dffered greatly in the self-image they had of themselves as language learners, with one group displaying low levels of self-eficacy beliefs regarding the possibility of future success. The implica tions of such beliefs for students' levels of motivation and persistence are discussed, together with their possible causes. The article concludes by suggesting changes in classroom practice that might help students develop a more positive image of them selves as language learners.

Special Issue: International Education in the Asia-Pacific Region Introduction by the Guest Editors

This special issue of the AJE is focused on international education, globalisation and identities in schooling and higher education in the nations of the Asia-Pacific. Two of the papers concern international education in Australia and the others discuss aspects of education in Malaysia, Singapore, China and Korea. A common theme of all the papers is the transformative character of global shifts as they are played out at the levels of nation, locality and individual. It becomes increasingly obvious to us that not only are individual identities changeable, we live in a world of 'plural affiliations' (Sen, 1999) in which the nation is only one claim on identity, and national identity too is contested and is open to change. The nation is an imagined community fostered by human practice, rather than a timeless truth, the inheritance of ancestry and geography, as once we thought. The openness of identities in education becomes more obvious when we consider cross-border aspects such as what happens to students who enroll in a foreign country, and what happens to the institutions that educate them; and what happens to research in a country where scholars used to work mainly in the national language but now work in English as part of the global research system. But intensified changes are happening within national education systems as well as in the growing volume of traffic between them. Globalisation is not just something coming into nations and into classrooms from outside. It is inside as well. Globalisation and education Following Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, & Perraton (1999, p. 2) we can define 'globalisation' simply as the widening, deepening and speeding up of all forms of worldwide interconnectedness. However there is no single de-territorialised process of globalisation that affects all nations, all institutions and every student in the same way (Sidhu, 2004). 'Educational changes in response to globalisation share certain defining parameters but still vary greatly across regions, nations and localities' (Carnoy & Rhoten, 2002, p. 6). Here it is important to emphasise, against notions of globalisation as a pre-given structural force originating in the economy or elsewhere that is somehow independent of human agency, that there are no global transformations, no global flows of effect, that are independent of human subjects. Globalisation in education involves not just transformations of economic and cultural circumstances but transformations in people themselves. Global convergence and encounters with difference bring transformations in people's living practices, their imaginations (Appadurai, 1996) and the discourses and languages within which their sociability is practised. This is true of all walks of life, but particularly true of education, a sector marked by extensive and intensive global networking (especially at the post-school stage), and global influences in government educational policy and institution-level notions of good practice. This transformative capacity means that globalisation has an immense, continuing and open-ended educational potential: both the potential to educate and self-educate, and the potential to transform our longstanding educational institutions and habits inherited from the past. We find that, in education, globalisation becomes manifest in changing classroom practices in schools, vocational education and training (VET) institutions and universities; changing administrative perspectives; the international marketing of programs, which can introduce tensions between educational and business goals; and especially in the complex processes of people themselves living in more than one cultural/educational zone. Further, people are active agents not only in changing in response to the shifting global environment ('other-determined' transformation) but changing in ways they choose for themselves ('inner-determined' transformation) and these outer and inner elements have an almost infinite potential for permutation. …

State-Mandated Accountability in High Schools: Teachers’ Interpretations of a New Era

This article addresses conflicting statements about the impact of accountability policies in which some argue that testing undermines good teaching, while others claim that it stimulates improvement. The authors begin with the assumption that it is important to explore implementers’ cognitive perspectives in order to understand a policy’s effects. Using a sensemaking perspective, they examine teachers’ responses to accountability in three high schools selected because they were deemed to have a strong teacher culture that supported quality education. The schools were located in states with diverse histories of accountability legislation, but in districts with well-established local accountability policies. Findings suggested that sensemaking activity occurred in all three schools and was associated with teachers’ interpretation of accountability policies and with their efforts to change classroom practice to be consistent with accountability policies. Active efforts by district-level administrators to mediate sensemaking affected teachers’ attitudes toward accountability policies and standards-driven reform.

Paving a ‘third way’? A policy trajectory analysis of education action zones

Presented at its launch in 1998 as the quintessential ‘third way’ welfare policy, the English education action zones (EAZ) experiment was one of a number of area‐based initiatives in the UK designed to tackle social exclusion in disadvantaged localities. The policy was premised upon the idea that different bodies—public, private, voluntary, and community—should work together to deliver ‘joined‐up solutions’ to ‘joined‐up problems’. This paper reports on the findings of an ESRC‐funded research project1 designed to investigate the origins, operation, and impact of the policy by interrogating the claims of its advocates and the counter‐claims of its critics. Overall, the research concluded that neither the hopes nor fears surrounding the policy have been realized. The impact of the policy within zones has been limited and patchy. There have been instances of innovation and positive shifts in parents' perceptions, but these have not been matched by consistent improvements in pupil performance or embedded changes in classroom practice. Nor have zones brought about new and more democratic modes of educational governance. However, initiatives take time to embed, and those working in zones experienced difficulty reconciling the need for innovative strategies to tackle disadvantage with the pressure of short‐term targets. Moreover, while the impact of the policy in particular localities has been limited, it may have contributed to a reordering of the politics of education, and, in particular, an erosion of some of the ‘old’ binaries around which allegiances have traditionally been structured. This paper argues that, as might be expected from a ‘third way’ policy, the policy has blurred the conventional oppositions of ‘left’ and ‘right’, ‘government’ and ‘governed’, and ‘public’ and ‘private’ sectors. Paradoxically, it has also reinforced new binaries—e.g. between ‘wreckers’ and ‘reformers’ and ‘standards’ and ‘structures’—and created new boundaries—between zone and non‐zone schools and policy ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’.