Pedagogical Philosophy Research Articles

"Wat For Ever:" Student-Oriented Computing at the University of Waterloo

In 1965, four undergraduates at the University of Waterloo wrote Watfor, a fast student-oriented Fortran compiler for the school's IBM 7040, largely because the available Fortran compiler was slow and offered weak diagnostic and debugging tools. This article describes the birth and evolution of the Watfor family and explores how it fits into the University of Waterloo's unique-within-Canada cooperative education program and pedagogical philosophy.

Audit Culture: Why Law Journals are Ranked and What Impact This Has on the Discipline of Law Today

In this article we map the history of important changes in Australian legal education over the past 20 years, with a focus on the influence of the profession on legal education. Using Thornton’s account of contemporary law schools ‘jettisoning the critical’ as a starting point we sketch out a vision of legal education that retains a strong focus on critical thinking. We also ask what spaces for critical pedagogy might be created and argue that even in the context of current constraints it is possible for legal academics to teach in ways that are consonant with their values and pedagogical philosophies. As evidence of this, we set out some of the ways that we are undertaking this project in our own compulsory and elective courses at the Adelaide Law School.

34e Festival International de Films de Femmes

partner to complete activities and record audio for their instructor’s review. As students interact with material ranging from classroom vocabulary or numbers to Francophone professional athletes or “une alimentation équilibrée,” this textbook provides students who have diverse interests with ample opportunities to connect with each other and the Francophone world. The artistic illustrations, dynamic film, and opportunities for pronunciation practice and authentic communication combine into a thoughtful, well-conceived resource for language learners and educators alike, particularly in the university beginning-French classroom. University of Nebraska, Lincoln Sarah Faltin Osborn Film edited by Michèle Bissière 34e Festival International de Films de Femmes, Créteil, 30 mars–8 avril 2012. . The September 2012 issue of Les Cahiers du Cinéma includes a subtitle, “Où sont les femmes?” For thirty-four years now, the Festival International de Films de Femmes has been answering that question, although it would have benefited from more French-speaking films in 2012. FIFF retains its pedagogical orientation, pairing with local schools; the students can attend master classes given by filmmakers, afternoon film viewings with filmmakers and actors present, as well as create daily videos and newsletters . The online newsletter, le petit journal, was particularly well written and astute this year. The two master classes stood out this year. Marie Mandy discussed her work and her early problems, uncovering the mystery of why she started out in fiction, but has abandoned it altogether for documentaries; hers are always strong and on target. Her earlier film, Filmer le désir, remains a classic for exploring women’s desire as expressed by women filmmakers. She discussed her latest film, Mes deux seins, journal d’une guérison, shown this year in the section “Au cœur de l’Europe,” saying that she felt she had to make it, especially since “On ne peut pas séparer le fait d’être femme et d’être cinéaste.” Her intention was to follow the development of her illness, not “her” personal story alone, thus reminding us of declarations by others such as Agnès Varda and Claire Denis, who proclaim it necessary to include details of one’s own life in order to be an “honest” artist. Mandy further advised aspiring filmmakers to be mindful of including as many women as men in the crews and added that she would like to teach a class on the history of film, covering only films by women. She proclaims that the project would be interesting, if only from the point of view of the narrative , and pinpoints that women’s films often sport a circular narrative, moving away from the stalwart chronological story line. In Mes deux seins, however, Mandy did choose a chronological narrative, starting from the first diagnosis to the final “healing.” Instead of editing for seamless transitions between scenes and an objective, removed stance, she chose stories told to the camera, in the form of questions and interviews with other patients, finding that the final product evinces an “incredible intimacy” that could not have been achieved otherwise. Mandy’s current projects explore Web documentaries, because they not only Reviews 1245 allow for quicker distribution, but encourage fresher creativity as well. To her, a Web documentary can reach a greater audience, can avoid beginnings and ends altogether, and can conclude with a final result of arborisation, of branching-out in diverse directions. Hence, the Internet becomes an asset to creation rather than the feared plague, since the medium lends itself to non-linear, circular narration and is thus particularly well-adapted to feminine modes of expression. The other master class in 2012 was with Claire Simon, the head of the directing department at FEMIS. A well-known and respected filmmaker herself, Simon explained that the direction department is perhaps the most difficult one to lead, largely because it is the area most students want to pursue. Her pedagogical philosophy is hands-on and direct support; in order to support her methodology, she organizes workshops throughout the year where she invites filmmakers to interact with students, both in discussion groups and in technical workshops, aiding the students through various stages of their projects. Simon herself began in documentaries and...

Makiguchi Tsunesaburo and Language, Value-Creative Composition Instruction, and the Geography of Identity in Community Studies: A Response to Politicized Imagining and Ineffective Critical Approaches

In this article, the author examines Makiguchi Tsunesaburo's philosophy and practice of human geography (jinsei chirigaku), community studies (kyodoka), and composition instruction based on “value-creating pedagogy” (soka kyoikugaku) for thinking through and responding to two competing trends intersecting language, identity, and education in the contemporary United States—the politicized imagining of America and increasingly ineffective critical approaches to second language education. As the politicized imagining and language policies Makiguchi faced in wartime Japan are echoed, though in substantively different form, in the contemporary United States, the author draws on Makiguchi's own words in these areas to think through and suggest ways contemporary educators can “create value” from the two aforementioned trends intersecting language, identity, and education in the United States.

EFL Students’ Writing Strategies in Saudi Arabian ESP Writing Classes: Perspectives on Learning Strategies in Self-access Language Learning

This study was part of a PhD research to explore the writing strategies of 121 second-year undergraduate Saudi student writers who are studying English as a foreign language and for specific purposes in one of the Saudi industrial colleges: Jubail Industrial College (JIC). The writing strategies under investigation had been classified into two categories (process-oriented writing strategies and product-oriented writing strategies) based on their instructional philosophies. A strategy questionnaire was designed to collect data. Although JIC writing classes were assumed to be product-oriented as reported by the majority of the participants’ description of their teachers’ writing approach, the results showed that almost all of the participants (95.9%) were mixing the two kinds of strategies. More surprisingly, the top five writing strategies used by the participants were process-oriented.

Multiage Instruction: An Outdated Strategy, Or A Timeless Best Practice

The purpose of this study was to explore the practices of multiage instruction with experts who have best practice knowledge or practitioner expertise in the multiage classroom. This investigation provided a foundation of knowledge on multiage instruction regarding strategies and challenges, the pros and cons of multiage instruction, and training and resources needed for the successful implementation of multiage instruction. A Delphi methodology was utilized which consisted of three rounds of surveys. The population comprised two panels of experts, multiage theory experts and multiage practitioner experts, based on required criteria for each panel set. A total of 21 experts completed Round One, which consisted of 55 Likert scale statements. A total of 20 experts completed Round Two, which consisted of 31 statements/questions. A total of 20 experts completed Round Three, which consisted of 29 statements. The findings in the study found the panel experts agreed that multiage instruction remains a credible practice today that should be recognized and supported by state boards of education. They also agreed that once oriented to the philosophy and after their child has spent time in the classroom, parents tend to be generally excited about the practice of multiage instruction. The experts further agreed that children of all abilities and needs can be successful in the multiage classroom. In terms of training and preparation, experts agreed that parents, teachers, school boards, principals, and superintendents should all receive training on the philosophy and strategies of multiage instruction in order for it to be a successful practice. There was consensus among the panellists in this study that it is difficult to find regular training and conferences geared for elementary teachers who work in multiage settings. Panel experts identified strategies that multiage teachers use including how the room is arranged, flexible grouping, theme-based learning, collaborative learning, and peer mentoring. Through open-ended questioning, panellists also identified challenges as well as training and resource needs.

Gender Perception as a Habit of Moral Perception: Implications for Philosophical Methodology and Introductory Curriculum

Gender Perception as a Habit of Moral Perception: Implications for Philosophical Methodology and Introductory Curriculum

Preservice Teachers’ Connections of Pedagogical Knowledge to Mentoring At-Risk Adolescents: Benefits and Challenges

Providing authentic encounters with secondary students may be a way to provide a realistic image of students’ academic challenges, and enhance preservice teachers’ skills, knowledge, and dispositions to better address the needs of their future academically, linguistically, socially, and culturally unique students. The purpose of our study was to examine preservice teachers’ experiences in mentoring at-risk high school adolescents. Specifically, we sought to identify the connections to pedagogy associated with their mentoring experience. Major findings generated five themes: (a) relationship building, (b) academic immediacy, (c) embracing a professional lens, (d) a student-centered pedagogical philosophy, and (e) self-efficacy.

Creating a materials samples collection to support the engineering curriculum

PurposeEngineers fundamentally solve problems. Engineering students are obtaining the education necessary to develop problem‐solving skills and tools. Olin College of Engineering was founded on the philosophy that a hands‐on, entrepreneurial, design‐centered engineering education would create engineers ready to solve current and emerging problems. This paper aims to discuss the philosophy and development of Olin College and the Olin College Library, and then to address its evolving materials collection.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents the development of Olin College, its philosophy and discusses its evolving materials samples collection.FindingsOlin's library has embraced the college's philosophy through the development of a realia, or learning objects collection that supports multiple intelligences. Moving beyond these learning objects, library staff wanted to build a collection of materials samples that enhance the engineering curriculum, and specifically design, sustainability and materials science courses. Students use the objects to make project decisions and for inspiration. The hands‐on nature of the collection aligns with the pedagogical philosophy of the college. These objects are physically available and also are beginning to have digital representation. A growing partnership between the library and specific courses is helping build the collection, while subscriptions from vendors assure a steady growth of new objects.Practical implicationsThe collection requires three phases of thought and development beyond acquisitions: display of objects, storage of objects, and the digital representation of objects. The digital representation has several layers of development, from database building to metadata decisions to object photos to the workflow and policy decisions.Originality/valueThe paper discusses the philosophy and development of the Olin College materials samples collection.

SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS CONSTRUCTIVIST ENVIRONMENT: A BULGARIAN CASE

The present study addresses the pedagogical philosophy of secondary science teachers in Bulgarian schools. Information on science teachers’ methods of teaching and learning has been gathered by an interview protocol consisting of six open-ended questions, with a numerical scoring analysis: Teachers Pedagogical Philosophy Interview. The results report that the majority of Bulgarian teachers surveyed rank in the middle of the scale which is an indication that they blend teacher-centred and student-centred style of instruction. A previous our research based on a different survey instrument led to similar conclusions. In addition, the survey reveals that teachers show attitudes to change their teaching methods and classroom practices towards the constructivist approach. Key words: constructivist environment, teachers’ attitudes, Teachers Pedagogical Philosophy Interview.

MODELS FOR LEADERSHIP IN CURRICULAR INNOVATION: CONCORDIA’S CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING IN SOCIETY

This paper provides an overview of emerging trends in Innovative engineering pedagogy incorporating interdisciplinary ventures in universities. These trends encompass both pedagogical philosophies and institutional modes of delivery. We examine similar models across North America, with special reference to the Canadian context. We conclude with a case study of Concordia University’s Centre for Engineering in Society (CES), a small academic unit of interdisciplinary humanities and social science scholars housed within the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science and staffed by disciplinary experts working together with engineers; CES presents a unique model in Canada. The CES model offers some promising opportunities for engineering education as it pursues its mission to articulate the difference between the competent technician and the professional as citizen and leader who pilots the technological trajectory of society. The presence of non-engineering faculty members leads to interdisciplinary research and collaboration, improved integration of risk, social impact and equity assessment in curricular and project design, and innovation in addressing CEAB graduate attributes. CES also presents a neutral space for activities that cross engineering and computer science boundaries, in particular collaborative global engineering projects, humanitarian engineering, and groups such as Engineers without Borders. Challenges include faculty and students indifference to non-technical subject matter, inability to negotiate critical studies of technology, and a tendency for marginalization of faculty without technical expertise.

Personalized Content Provision for Virtual Learning Environments via the Semantic Web

In this paper we discuss how we may personalize e-learning along three distinct axes, namely: teaching and learning pedagogical philosophies, personalized educational processes to taste and the coo...

Dissenting Patriots: Anna Barbauld, John Aikin, and the Discourse of Eighteenth-Century Republicanism in Rational Dissent

Summary Sister and brother Anna Letitia Barbauld (née Aikin; 1743–1825) and John Aikin (1747–1822) are two famous Rational Dissenting writers who strategically appropriated republican discourse to advance the Dissenting cause. Both make the case that, far from being subversive, Rational Dissent actually granted its adherents the independence that, from a republican perspective, was considered essential to true patriotism. In a fresh formulation of republican discourse, they present the strength of the Rational Dissenting commitment to ‘free inquiry’ as security for continuing independence, enabling liberal Dissenters to act as patriotic guardians of British virtue and liberty against the dangerous effects of luxury, even as they continued to contribute towards the development of the British commercial economy and to promote the benefits of commerce, traditionally regarded with hostility by classical republicans. Effectively exploiting the classical republican belief in the central role of education, Barbauld and Aikin particularly sought to publicize the role that the Dissenting academies had played in producing patriots by making ‘free inquiry’ the basis of their pedagogical philosophy and practice.

<b> Dickens y la pedagogía: algunas perplejidades sobre la filosofía educativa victoriana</b>

http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/198464444714 La filosofía educativa del utilitarismo clásico fue criticada por razones muy similares, aunque por medios muy distintos, tanto por J.S.Mill como por Dickens. Frente a una concepción de la escuela que la convertía en un paso previo a la cárcel o la fábrica, Dickens propone un ideal educativo cuyo fin sería la felicidad de los individuos y la mejora real de sus condiciones de vida. Su estudio se aborda mediante su crítica a la doctrina pedagógica más influyente en el período victoriano, el utilitarismo de Bentham, y por otro lado mediante los personajes e instituciones que aparecen repetidamente en sus novelas, que son una parodia de la moral ascética que se enseñaba en las escuelas pero, sobre todo, en el seno familiar. Como conclusión, se muestra que las propias novelas de Dickens son un caso práctico de su proyecto educativo, pues enseñan fomentando la fantasía y la sensibilidad.

Participatory research in an arts integration professional development program

Drama for Schools (DFS) is an arts integration professional development program rooted in critical pedagogy and constructivism that emphasizes partnerships between school districts and a major research university. As a part of the research initiative embedded in this professional development program, DFS began an Arts integration Research Teacher (ART) Fellow initiative. Four teachers who had been in DFS for at least a year participated in the ART Fellow program researching the impact of drama-based instruction in their classrooms. The purpose of this article is to present findings from the ART Fellows partnership and to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the model. Methods used in this analysis included measures of student outcomes and perspectives from both ART Fellows and DFS program staff. While findings were largely non-conclusive about the impact of arts integration on student outcomes, the ART Fellow program influenced how teachers and the DFS staff viewed participatory research as an extension of the program’s critical pedagogical and constructivist philosophy. This article discusses the implications for using a teacher-as-researcher approach to professional development and strategies for improving successful implementation in a school-based context.

The Back Page: My Favorite Lesson: Crazy Algebra Objectives

This article describes an unusual technique for reviewing and relating algebraic concepts and the impact the lesson had on the instructor's pedagogical philosophies.

The role of virtual learning environments in a primary school context: An analysis of inscription of assessment practices

AbstractVirtual Learning Environments (VLEs) appear to be one of the most widely used computer‐based technologies for teaching and learning, and may emerge as a potential tool for e‐assessment. However, little is known about how VLE tools are used in various forms of assessment and what kinds of teaching practice the use of such technologies brings about. Based on interviews and personal diaries, actor‐network theory is applied to describe and understand emerging teaching practices with VLE tools, such as multiple‐choice tests, portfolios and collaborative writing tools. A tight relationship is found between the documentation of student attainment, the teacher‐student‐parent conference and the use of VLE tools, all constituting a network of aligned interests in assessment.Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic The use of educational technology (e‐assessment) brings about new assessment practices such as peer‐ and self‐assessment. Most studies in e‐assessment are related to higher education and further education. There is a growing interest in how e‐assessment can foster new educational goals, such as metacognition, creativity, project work and communication skills. What this paper adds A primary school perspective on e‐assessment, in particular the implementation of e‐assessment in a school system where traditional grading is not applied. An insight into how the virtual learning environment plays a part in establishing a new assessment practice. Deeper knowledge about the usefulness of actor‐network theory in empirical educational research. Implications for practice and/or policy There is a need for a critical perspective on virtual learning environments as tools for assessment and what kinds of pedagogical philosophies they can support. The use of a virtual learning environment can foster certain assessment practices, and has the potential to influence assessment policies at all levels of education.

The Accompaniment: Assembling the Contemporary (review)

Paul Rabinow, The Accompaniment: Assembling Contemporary. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. 248 pp. I. Anthropology is awash in novelty. New digital networks propagate and expand new political possibilities; synthetic biology creates new life-forms; new reproductive technologies require new legal recognitions of relationality; transnational connections produce new opportunities for engagements and encounters beyond boundaries. Emergence and possibility are very DNA of contemporary thinking. Meanwhile, of course, innovation in methods of anthropology-from multi-sited fieldwork to new forms of collaboration and communication through networks-is valued and celebrated precisely in order to capture and understand new ethnographic objects and contexts, and to form a new anthropology. Paul Rabinow has been one of most consistent chroniclers of biotechnical novelties and, reflexively, of anthropological response to what he calls the contemporary. He has produced pairs of books at regular intervals over past 15 years, one book reporting on his engagements with life sciences and then another reflecting on these engagements as a means to develop conceptual equipment adequate to this space of unexampled novelty. The part of latest entry in this intermittent series appears before research report. The latter, co-authored with Gaymon Bennett, comes out of their joint work as co- Principal Investigator and Director of ethical oversight, respectively, within a new institution for synthetic biology at Berkeley. They have chosen to call their thrust of NSF-funded center Practices and book, to be released later this year, is called Designing Human Practices. Alongside that book is aptly named The Accompaniment: Assembling Contemporary, a heterogeneous set of essays that together respond to challenge of remaking-remediating or reconstructing-the intellectual vocation as it is confronted by institutional and scientific novelties. In addition to providing his reflections on research in synthetic biology and parallel efforts he has made to reshape graduate teaching in anthropology, these essays together constitute an account of Rabinow's own long period of fieldwork in anthropology-his participation in universities, research teams, and philosophical pedagogy, and his various attempts to experiment with anthropological writing. What does it mean to think today, Rabinow asks, and how can we construct practices within universities that will foster thinking about contemporary problems? More crucially, what intellectual practices are most conducive to finding companions and contemporaries-inviting others to accompany us in responding to issues of day? Rabinow's technique of report and reflection in paired volumes, of course, was set with his first two books, an ethnographic monograph and recently-reissued Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco (2007). Then, problem was less novelty of objects of knowledge than status of tradition and of culture as guides to understanding people's action and its forms, under changeful sign of modernization. Tradition, he wrote in 1975, in a phrase he has quoted in his recent attempts to define contemporary as a space of anthropological research, is a moving image of past, opposed not to modernity but to (2008:2). If life sciences are, as ethical thinkers fear, new space of alienation for and from humanity, then this is not, Rabinow tells us, something we can measure against any fixed background or measuring stick of the human or the social or even the modern. Rather this is a moving ratio that forms a problem-space for reflection, through engagement with practices that constitute this space of novelties. This engagement in a mobile problem-space, however, presents some perennial challenges for Rabinow anthropologist, such as institutional barriers to cooperation, blocked forms of collaboration, personal affinities, and potent misunderstandings. …

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's <em>Wizard of the Crow</em> and Postcolonial Pedagogy

The encyclopedic nature of Ngũgĩ's Wizard of the Crow makes it an overt summing up of the author's previous work. At the same time, the novel explicitly positions itself as a break from what came before by rethinking the anticolonial ideologies contained in the earlier work in light of what Wizard of the Crow references as an expanding postcoloniality. This shift can be seen in the philosophy of pedagogy the novel puts forward. Unlike the radical oppositionality of the anticolonial stance, postcolonial pedagogy is depicted as contingent, conflicted, but because of its decentralized, nonhi - erarchical nature potentially better able to redefine the field of possibili - ties than a radicalization of the master's tools. Wizard of the Crow refuses to retreat from the intellectual's obligation to oppose and critique global exploitation and inequality, positioning postcolonialism not as an abandon- ment or surmounting of anticolonialism as much as a re-imagining of its goals in changed circumstances. The novel seeks to imagine a decolonizing form of education that can stand against without replicating patriarchy and colonial hierarchy.

Constructivist Pedagogy and Symbolism: Vico, Cassirer, Piaget, Bateson

Constructivism is at the heart of a pedagogical philosophy going back to Vico, whose view of the interrelationship of the arts and sciences sought to reconstitute the classical paideia. The Vichian idea that human beings can only know the truth of what they themselves have made has theoretical and practical consequences for Vico's pedagogy and view of the university. Vico's ideas on education are extended in the modern period by such thinkers as Cassirer, Piaget and Bateson. At the basis of Cassirer's pedagogical philosophy is his theory of the symbol, the symbol being a universal and transcendent modality in culture. The result of this unifying theory is that symbolism, which is pervasive across the disciplines, provides a moral and ethical means for integrating communication about teaching. Cassirer's thought is compatible with Piaget's, which emphasizes the pluralism of experience and the role of dynamic learning in the construction of meaningful order. Piaget's constructivism assumes that an operational bridge exists to link together the hard sciences, the human sciences, and the historical disciplines. This systems view of epistemological matters is similar in many respects to the one advanced by Gregory Bateson, which is explored in the paper's final section.