Educational Complex Research Articles

Practical application of ecological dynamics for talent development in cricket

Talent development in sport is a comprehensive area of research with various conceptualisations of how the body moves and how skills are developed. The sports coaching environment is often criticised for a lack of evidence-based approaches to talent development, driven by limited access to appropriate sources of information. The current conceptualisation of motor learning, which harnesses dynamical systems theory and ecological psychology, is a complex and underdeveloped area in sport. Recommendations for talent development are often lost in complex pedagogies, so there is high demand for practical information on the translation of this knowledge. At its core, ecological dynamics views the body as a complex system which can reorganise to solve challenging problems in different ways, and emphasises that personal experiences, the task and the environment are all interacting. The specific elements of nonlinear development (person), representative learning design (task) and the talent development pathway (environment) are key elements for cricket coaching that are yet to be synthesised for the coaches who provide early learning experiences.

Two‐way immersion teacher preparation

AbstractThe purpose of this qualitative study was to document the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed for effective two‐way immersion (TWI) teacher training based on the perspectives of those practicing in the field. The research questions explored how preservice teachers, practicing TWI teachers, and TWI administrators perceived the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed for effective TWI teaching, how they viewed the challenges for TWI teacher preparation programs and the role of a TWI field experience. The findings revealed that field experiences in a TWI classroom are essential for learning the complex pedagogy required for effective dual language education. The findings also showed that long‐term study abroad experiences in regions other than the mother country are necessary for expanding novice TWI teachers' language skills, specifically the learning of other dialects. Additional findings showed that TWI teachers' work extends beyond typical teacher capabilities, such as the teaching of academic content and literacy in two languages. This study also found that passion is fundamental for effective TWI teaching because it can inspire teachers to advocate for the program model and multilingualism. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that TWI teacher preparation programs require specialized dual language education courses and field experiences.

Exploring the unique contributions of teachers’ syntax to preschoolers’ and kindergarteners’ vocabulary learning

Adult interactions with young children provide important language experiences necessary for children to develop the early precursor skills to be ready to read. This study examines the complexity of preschool and kindergarten teachers’ syntax and the relations between teachers’ syntax and children’s vocabulary development. Thirty-three teachers’ syntax was examined during three instructional contexts: book reading, morning message, and small-group activities. Results suggest that, in general, few teacher background factors were systematically linked to more complex syntax in the classroom, although teachers of minority backgrounds used more complex syntax. Teachers’ syntax was not related to global classroom quality, suggesting that syntax represents a unique facet of the learning environment. Finally, a significant relation emerged between the complexity of teachers’ syntax and children’s vocabulary development, beyond the effects of a series of teacher and child covariates, including classroom quality. This association was driven particularly by the complexity of teachers’ language during morning message and small groups. Together, the results imply that complex syntax is an important source of linguistic information for word learners, and that teachers’ syntax may be another, often overlooked but potentially malleable dimension of classroom quality.

Facilitating teachers as action researchers and reflective practitioners: new issues and proposals

ABSTRACTIn this article I reflect on my experiences facilitating teachers as researchers and reflective practitioners and the importance of enhancing the dynamic and complementary relationship between theory, research, practice and reflection at every step of action research. Given the complexity of teachers’ participation in action research, I drew on a reflexive research-based account within a second-order process of action research to support a group of teacher-researchers to rethink their understanding of participatory education and transform their own practices. This research-based account describes the challenges faced, the decisions made, and the actions taken, all shaped by ongoing dialogues with teachers’ beliefs and practices, with the goals of action research, and with the processes of gradual transformations observed in both the teachers’ thinking and practice and in my own as a facilitator. The present study adds to the discussion of the interrelationships between theory, research, practice and reflection by providing an example of their enactment at every step of action research in order to support participatory education.

МОДЕРНИЗИРОВАННАЯ СТРУКТУРА УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЙ СИСТЕМОЙ

The paper reports the aim of the work which with the use of common techniques used in the theory of graphs is applied in order to develop a simulator of an updated management structure for an educational system (improved one, taking into account a current state of an educational sphere), the purpose of its creation consists in costs reduction of different resources at the amalgamation of various companies and enterprises of an educational sphere into a local educational complex (EC). 
 As a result of an investigation there is developed a graph model of an updated organizational structure of the consolidated educational system (ES). The simulator developed and aimed for updating the created organizational structure of the EC allows analyzing the particulars of the available organizational structure and managing financial flows within the ES itself, and it also contributes to the growth of management process effectiveness in existing and updated educational institutions.

Opinber stefna, skólakerfið og hlutverk kennara: Viðbragðsbúnaður skólans

Undanfarna áratugi hefur alþjóðleg umræða í velferðarsamfélögum beinst að vægi skólans sem undirstöðu velsældar einstaklings og samfélags. Hér er kannað hvernig þessi umræða hefur þroskast við íslenskar aðstæður. Markmið greinarinnar afmarkast við að bregða upp mynd af áhrifum opinberrar skólastefnu á Íslandi á stöðu skólans, kennara og nemenda í nútímasamfélagi. Aðferðin sem hér er notuð er að setja fram sögulegt ágrip af þróun skólamála og yfirlit um niðurstöður nýlegra íslenskra rannsókna um aðstæður og margvíslegar þarfir nemenda og um viðbragðsbúnað skólans gagnvart þeim. Í því sambandi er vikið að vandasamri stöðu kennarans við að sinna kennslu og uppeldishlutverki jafnframt því að láta sig varða velferð hvers barns, einkum innan grunnskólans. Einnig er athygli beint að rökum sérfræðinga fyrir þverfaglegu starfi innan skólans og kerfasamstarfi milli skóla, heilbrigðisþjónustu og félagsþjónustu. Rökin varða einkum börn sem eru tilfinningalega berskjölduð vegna áfalla eða félagslegrar jaðarstöðu. Á grundvelli þeirrar vitneskju sem fengist hefur á þessu sviði er sú niðurstaða rökstudd að aukið fagafl innan skólans ásamt kerfasamstarfi kringum barn í vanda og fjölskyldu þess sé forsenda þess að draga úr álagi á kennara og koma í veg fyrir að kröftum þeirra sé dreift. Aukinheldur hafi slíkt samstarf á grunnskólastigi forvarnargildi fyrir framtíðarstöðu ungs fólks á vinnumarkaði, sem getur falið í sér þjóðhagslegan ávinning. Ræddar eru lausnaleiðir í átt að betri árangri, meðal annars með endurskoðun laga, stjórnskipulags og framkvæmdar stefnu sem mótuð hefur verið.

Teachers leading teachers – understanding middle-leaders’ role and thoughts about career in the context of a changed division of labour

ABSTRACTThis longitudinal study aims to create in-depth knowledge about the phenomena of middle-leadership and career in school by identifying (1) driving forces for seeking and maintaining middle-leading positions, (2) opportunities and difficulties in maintaining the middle-leading role over time, and (3) underlying thoughts of career disclosed in the respondents’ expressions. Five different reasons for seeking middle-leading positions are identified and driving forces for maintaining the position are categorised as either internal reward/non-observable outcomes or external reward/observable outcomes. Furthermore, the results show that different types of difficulties arise in distinct phases and that middle-leaders’ needs for support therefore vary over time. Additionally, the complexity of teachers’/middle-leaders’ career thinking clearly emerges, and implications for practice are discussed.

Seeing through the eyes of the teacher? Investigating primary school teachers’ professional noticing through a video-based research methodology

ABSTRACTDigital video technology has been increasingly employed to investigate teacher professional noticing. While extensive research has been undertaken to explore the specialised knowledge base underlying teacher professional noticing, there is a need to more closely examine the methodological consequences of video-based approaches for understanding the nature of professional noticing. This paper draws upon a recent study that investigated primary school teachers’ professional noticing of mathematics and science classrooms to discuss issues, challenges, and opportunities that emerge with a video-based research approach. In this study, the latest video technology was employed to allow primary school teachers to take active roles in capturing, selecting and reflecting on significant classroom events on their own and with colleagues. Drawing upon examples from this study, this paper highlights the methodological potential and challenges of video-based approaches to investigating teacher noticing in classrooms, and discusses how this noticing relates to reflection stimulated by classroom videos. It further reveals the tension between the dual priorities of empowering the teacher participants in research and enabling valid interpretations by the researchers in an attempt to gain insight into the complexity of teachers’ professional noticing.

Medicine as a Community of Practice: Implications for Medical Education.

The presence of a variety of independent learning theories makes it difficult for medical educators to construct a comprehensive theoretical framework for medical education, resulting in numerous and often unrelated curricular, instructional, and assessment practices. Linked with an understanding of identity formation, the concept of communities of practice could provide such a framework, emphasizing the social nature of learning. Individuals wish to join the community, moving from legitimate peripheral to full participation, acquiring the identity of community members and accepting the community's norms.Having communities of practice as the theoretical basis of medical education does not diminish the value of other learning theories. Communities of practice can serve as the foundational theory, and other theories can provide a theoretical basis for the multiple educational activities that take place within the community, thus helping create an integrated theoretical approach.Communities of practice can guide the development of interventions to make medical education more effective and can help both learners and educators better cope with medical education's complexity. An initial step is to acknowledge the potential of communities of practice as the foundational theory. Educational initiatives that could result from this approach include adding communities of practice to the cognitive base; actively engaging students in joining the community; creating a welcoming community; expanding the emphasis on explicitly addressing role modeling, mentoring, experiential learning, and reflection; providing faculty development to support the program; and recognizing the necessity to chart progress toward membership in the community.

TADALURING Microteaching Learning Model (TMLM): Preparing Professional Teacher by Pre-Service Training

As a certified professional, teacher forms indispensable roles in achieving the learning objectives. The complexity of teacher’s profession decidedly requires the teacher to master a number of competencies and skills. One of them is to master the basic teaching skills. Realizing the complexities of the teacher’s profession and the requirement of teacher’s profession, LPTK –Faculty of Teacher Training and Education– which produces professional teacher, requires enhancing the teacher’s quality and creativity through pre-service teaching and training. Microteaching is one of the efforts to prepare the candidate for a professional teacher in higher education. The growth of a number of students being served with the availability of micro teaching laboratories is, however, disproportionate. Consequently, the problems faced are the time management, the laboratory utilization, the availability of sufficient microteaching infrastructures as well as the implementation of micro teaching itself. One of the ways to solve the problems is to develop a microteaching model adapting the force driving sophisticated ICT named TADALURING Microteaching Learning Model (TMLM). The Instructional Systems Design (ISD) made use of developing the model is Borg and Gall procedures. The cyclical phases of conducting the research were preliminary research, development, field-testing, and dissemination. The research finding indicates that the trial-tested model is stated valid, practical, and effective. The TADALURING Microteaching Learning Model (TMLM) is essentially accentuated on a face-to-face classroom, online and offline practices.

‘It’s not about punitive’: exploring how early-career teachers in high-poverty schools respond to critical incidents

ABSTRACTThis article explores how early-career teachers working in high-poverty schools in Australia account for their decision-making during critical classroom incidents. Classroom management solutions are problematized by investigating how two teachers take up particular positions, make decisions, and enact what they believe to be ‘quality teaching’ in context. Through a combination of interviews and observations of teachers ‘in situ’, we examine what these teachers do, why they do it, what informs their decisions, and how they reflect on their actions. The complexity of teachers’ work in schools located in high-poverty areas is highlighted. We argue that both early-career teachers prefer to position themselves within ‘pastoral’, in contrast to ‘disciplinarian’, discourses, as part of constituting the school as a site of possibility and teachers who advocate for youth growing up in poverty.

The counterfeit presentment: an early 20th century model of intercollegiate debate as civic education

ABSTRACTThe relationship of intercollegiate debating to debating or argument as it occurs in civic spaces has always been a contentious issue since the start of competitive debates. In the early days of the communication field, William Hawley Davis and James M. O'Neill exchanged critiques of one another's view of the appropriate model for a debate contest. This essay suggests that Davis’ model of the “counterfeit presentment” serves as a much better form of debate than O'Neill's competition-based model. Re-examining the counterfeit presentment as a theory of intercollegiate debating gives us a complex pedagogy that prepares students for a civic space that is uncertain and where the standards for argument evaluation are unstable. I argue that Davis’ model makes debate a constitutive, rhetorical event that, instead of providing objective, clear standards for reasoned argument, confronts students with verisimilitude to arguments that hold sway in civic spaces.

Formación del Docente y Pedagogía de la Complejidad en el Contexto de la Educación

La naturaleza del acto pedagógico en el contexto de la Educación, comporta una complejidad relacional sistémica que compromete la formación y la identidad profesional del docente. En este sentido, la presente investigación se propone como objetivo fundamental, la formación del docente y pedagogía de la complejidad en el contexto de la Educación. La investigación se fundamenta epistemológicamente en los postulados del pensamiento complejo, el cual según Morín (2001), es un pensamiento que postula la dialógica, la recursividad y la hologramaticidad como principios pertinentes. El modelo de investigación se corresponde con el paradigma cualitativo-interpretativo propuesto por Carr y Kemmis (1998), el cual está orientado a interpretar las estructuras de significados subjetivos que construyen los actores sociales acerca de la realidad, lo cual se logrará con apoyo en el método fenomenológico-hermenéutico, utilizando como técnica de recolección de la información la entrevista en profundidad.

Education's Complexity in the Context of Human Development

Claiming to be a complex approach, the updated worldwide Sustainable Development Goals agreement broadens its educational scope and acknowledges the integrated and indivisible character of human development through diverse dimensions. Complex systems research provides ways to improve our understanding of the complexity of education and to explore how education fits within the context of human development. To account for ‘effect‐based’ research on education complexity, using the American Community Survey data, we developed a model by inferring a probabilistic network structure of diverse aspects of human development dimensions including education. We explored the model by network analysis methods to discover the intrinsic relationships among education variables and the extrinsic relationships of education with other dimensions of human development in the USA. The results confirmed the well‐known rationale of the relationship between education and wealth, and expanded the understanding of complexity of education as it is part of the life course (timing of individual development) and of the cultural construction of identity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Typology for an Online Socrates Café

Background/ContextIncreased polarization of viewpoints in the United States may have detrimental consequences for democratic pedagogy. The goals of civil society require a reliance on democratic values, and active participation is necessary for a strong civil society that demands the common good be deliberated in democratic ways. Discussion as pedagogy has been advanced for furthering democratic learning spaces in higher education with adults and in teacher education programs. Opportunities to participate in democratic discussions may also be created in online courses to prepare students who are literate in multiculturalism and an inclusive society. Engaging students in discussion that facilitates diverse perspectives and that challenges taken-for-granted assumptions is necessary.PurposeThis article explores the theoretical frameworks of a pedagogy of process called a Socrates Café, resulting in a typology for an online Socrates Café. This framework may assist instructors to create and sustain purposeful online discussion forums that engage students in deliberative discussion to develop democratic learning spaces and civil discourse. If democratic pedagogies are enhanced when people deliberate in online discussions by sharing their reasoning with each other, listening to competing points of view, considering new evidence, and treating one another as political equals, then the Socrates Café has much to offer as a pedagogical process.Research DesignDrawing on scholarship from key pedagogical and dispositional components, this analytical essay offers a typology that finds its theoretical roots in several areas, including: philosophical forum, discussion and dialogue, critical inquiry, habits of mind, intellectual traits, critical reflection, and civil discourse.Findings/ResultsFrom both the pedagogical and dispositional components of the Socrates Café, we develop an integrative framework for guiding the creation and ongoing development of an online discussion. Our purpose in creating the framework was to determine those pedagogical and attitudinal dispositions that were foundational elements of the online Socrates Café: clarity of thinking and other habits of mind; attitudes of empathy, confidence, open mindedness and scholarliness; and questioning and dialogue.Conclusions/RecommendationsThis essay concludes that the online Socrates Café is fraught with unavoidable contradictions resulting in a pedagogy of process that is negotiated and dynamic, but also purposeful and intentional. The integrative framework proposed in this work assists students to examine who they are as scholars, practitioners, and members of a democratic society. The inherent tensions between the competing values that situate the Socrates Café make it a complex pedagogy that invites students to encounter issues that surpass the self and connect them with larger societal problems, enhancing the potential for discussions that are purposeful and result in an expansion of perspectives. Supporting students as they negotiate these and other contradictions and paradoxes in a functional Socrates Café has immense potential for facilitating democratic spaces in pedagogy for civil discourse.

Muslim Female Students Confront Islamophobia: Negotiating Identities In-between Family, Schooling, and the Mass Media

Abstract: This article researches how Muslim students in Canada negotiate identity in an extremely complex discursive terrain of the unofficial Islamophobia curriculum of family, schooling, and mass media. Critical examination of the exclusion of Muslims from school policies and the absence of Muslim experiences and perspectives in the Ontario Language Curriculum are highlighted. This article aims at developing teacher educators, in-service teachers and teacher candidates’ critical multicultural awareness of how Muslim minority students negotiate the absence of their culture in the secondary language curricula. Drawing from postcolonial feminist perspectives and curriculum theory this research was conducted with seven young Muslim women as participants. Findings indicate while absent in the official secondary language curriculum, the unofficial curriculum represents Muslim women as the cultural “other” sustained through the unofficial school curriculum and media portrayals. This study argues for a need to involve teacher educators, in-service teachers and teacher candidates in complicated conversations on cultural and linguistic differences, engagement with life-experiences of cultural minorities, development of complex pedagogies, critical media literacies and multicultural practices that are diverse and inclusive.

A Reflexive Eye on a Collaborative Action Research Project in School

This article presents a reflexive analysis of a collaborative action research project based on the “Nordic tradition” of action research. In this project I, in the role of researcher, worked with a team of four teachers in a Norwegian primary/lower secondary school to develop teaching practice focused on students’ learning. I have retrospectively analysed data from my research diary, meetings and interviews. The article describes how the collaboration and the relationship between the teacher team and the researcher developed, and how this process contributed to the teachers’ professional development. The results shed light on the complexity of teacher- researcher- relationships, and demonstrate the importance of engaging in reflexivity in collaborative action research.

MATERIAIS DIDÁTICOS PARA EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL EM UNIDADES DE CONSERVAÇÃO: AS POSSIBILIDADES DE USO DA HIPERMÍDIA

The development and application of new information and communication technology (ICT) have opened many possibilities in education. In Environmental Education, the use of ICTs can provide awareness, as well as virtual knowledge of differentiated places and their social and environmental problems, no matter how spatially distant users are from the visited environment. Considering these issues from an Environmental Education outlook linked to pedagogy of complexity, a course material was built focused on Victorio Siquierolli Municipal Park in Uberlândia, in the state of Minas Gerais, which images, texts and sounds were implemented in digital form. The hypermedia has been tested and evaluated by students, and the results are the basis for reflection on the hypermedia’s architecture and potential for its use in Formal Environmental Education. Key words: formal environmental education, Victorio Siquierolli Park, hypermedia.

‘You can speak German, sir’: on the complexity of teachers' L1 use in CLIL

Classroom code switching in foreign language teaching is still a controversial issue whose status as a tool of both despair and desire continues to be hotly debated. As the teaching of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is, by definition, concerned with the learning of a foreign language, one would expect the value of code switching to constitute an important part in CLIL research. This paper sets out to argue that the use of the majority language in CLIL by teachers follows an educationally principled approach. It is expressed within an instructive and regulative register, motivated by behavioural, classroom and task management, and knowledge scaffolding considerations. Through a comparative data coding process using MAXQDA, several dimensions of code switching were identified and elaborated on. These dimensions included principledness, contextualisation, conflictuality, domain sensibility, linguistic deficit awareness, language learning, and knowledge construction support, as well as affectivity. Taking this complex web as a reference point, the paper ends proposing six theses on code switching and recommending its relevance to CLIL teacher training.

Preparing Students for Team-Based Care for Vulnerable Populations

Health professionals have an obligation to improve both the health of the individual and the public in a time of scarce resources. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), Healthy People Curriculum Task Force and professional education accreditation standards indicate the need for health care professionals to demonstrate competencies related to community engagement, basic health promotion skills and the ability to work effectively in interprofessional teams. An Interprofessional Course, IPE 413: Developing Care for a Vulnerable Population provides students the opportunity to collaborate to address health needs in cooperation with a community partner. Students work in teams to address the complex health care needs of an individual community member. The one hour elective course is open to students from nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, social work, and exercise science. Efforts are underway to explore the possibility of offering this course to medical students. Students are assessed on the knowledge and experience gained through this interprofessional experience using the Team Skills Scale and student reflections. Faculties from each of the disciplines utilize a collaborative model in the instructional design of the course. The content is co-taught and faculty not only role model interprofessional care, but also serve as mentors and resource personnel for the students as they work with their clients. Received: 07/10/2015 Accepted: 08/28/2015 © 2015 Laughlin et al. This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. H IP & Team-Based Care for Vulnerable Populations EDUCATIONAL STRATEGY 2(4):eP1087 | 2 Introduction Higher education in the health sciences is under multiple demands to prepare learners for the future of health care with a significant focus on team-based care, also known as interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). According to the American Hospital Association (AHA, 2015), practicing primary care providers are challenged to meet the current needs of health care populations. The AHA identifies that health care providers need “to practice to reach their potential in a team-based model of care delivery” (AHA, 2015, p. 5). In 2011, the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice were established as the foundational skills all health care providers need for effective team-based care (Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011). Since this time, the accrediting bodies of the health science professions have put in place more stringent curricular requirements for interprofessional education (IPE) in order to prepare the health professions students for practice demands (Zorek & Raehl, 2013). Currently, academic institutions are now charged with implementing interprofessional education in order to prepare health sciences students for team-based care. Academic institutions have used multiple pedagogies to help students attain skills in collaboration and team-based care including simulation, case analysis, and service-learning. Dow, Blue, Konrad, Earnest, and Reeves (2013) identified challenges facing interprofessional education in higher education among the health sciences in regards to attaining the skills described in the Core Competencies (Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel [IPEC], 2011). One unmet area for IPE is related to health care providers working in underserved areas with vulnerable populations (Dow et al., 2013). Dow and colleagues (2013) report that current IPE has not been adequately preparing health sciences students for the complexities of providing care to patients affected by health disparities due to multiple social factors. According to Dow et al, “a student planning to practice in a resource poor, primary care setting needs specific skills in teamwork, leadership, and follower-ship that bolster collaboration by allowing all health care professionals to practice at the top of their licensed abilities” (Dow et al., 2013, p.353). An appropriate, yet complex pedagogy to prepare students for meeting the needs of vulnerable populations is community-based service learning. Several models regarding this approach to IPE have begun to emerge in the literature as exemplars in meeting the gap identified by Dow et al. (2013). Frequently identified in the literature as a pedagogical approach is the use of free clinics, which involve collaborative faculty participation and student involvement (Moskowitz, Glasco, Johnson, & Wang, 2006; Shrader, Thompson, & Gonsalves, 2010; Wang & Bhakta, 2013; Arndell, Proffitt, Disco, & Clithero, 2014; Farlow, Goodwin & Sevilla, 2015). These types of clinics in underserved communities are one avenue for exposing students to IPE with vulnerable populations. Students report learning how to collaborate and meet community needs in free clinic settings. Educational experiences with underserved populations also allow students the opportunity to learn the importance of overlapping roles and how to collaborate with limited resources to meet patient needs. This article will identify how an interprofessional community-based clinic course for health professions students frame their understanding of IPCP and builds proficiency based on the IPEC Core Competencies.