Education Commons^™

Funneling Versus Focusing: When Talk, Tasks, And Tools Work Together To Support Students’ Collective Sensemaking, Sara Hagenah, Carolyn Colley, Jessica Thompson

Sara Hagenah

Rigorous and responsive science teaching is based on supporting all students in making progress in their understanding of important science ideas over time. In this article, we explore how did classroom talk patterns of funneling and focusing support student sensemaking. We share how talk, tasks, and tools within classroom activity work together to either funnel students toward reproducing normative scientific answers or focus students on deepening their understanding about unobservable causal mechanisms of phenomena. We use classroom examples from two science lessons where students used data to describe and communicate about how and why stars change over time. By recognizing …

Out-Of-Field Teaching In Australian Secondary Schools, Paul R. Weldon

Dr Paul Weldon

This report considers the extent to which Australian secondary school teachers are teaching subjects other than those in which they have specialised. It provides new data on the extent of out-of-field teaching overall and in a selection of subject areas, based on further analysis of the 2013 Staff in Australia’s Schools (SiAS) survey. In addition, the report uses new questions in the SiAS 2013 survey to assess the proportion of students affected by out-of-field teaching in selected subjects.

Learning To Teach With Technologies What Pre-Service Teachers Say About Their Experiences, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle (consultant)

It is the intention of the Australian Government, that over the next five years, as a result of the Digital Education Revolution, all secondary schools in Australia will have achieved computer to student ratios of one-to-one. This investment in infrastructure brings with it many challenges. Two of these facing Australian educators are: In what ways can advantage be made of such a significant investment in schools’ infrastructure?; and What preparation do pre-service teachers require to enable them to meaningfully include technologies in their classroom activities? To provide some insights into these two questions, this paper draws on data collected from …

How Mobile Phones Help Learning In Secondary Schools, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Nadja Heym

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This research took place in 2007-8, at a time when mobile phones had become small, personal computers, providing clock, calendar, games, music player, Bluetooth connection, Internet access, and high-quality camera functions in addition to voice calls and short messaging. The Mobile Life Youth Report (2006) found that by the time they reach secondary school, 91% of 12 year olds in the UK have a mobile phone. Even though recent phone models, sometimes called ‘smart phones’, allow users to read pdf formats, spreadsheets and word-processed files, they have been more usually seen as disruptive, rather than useful, in school education

The Impact Of Eportfolios On Learning, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Colin Harrison, Charles Crook, Gordon Joyes, Lindsay Davies, Tony Fisher, Richard Pemberton, Angela Smallwood

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This report presents the potential impact of e-portfolios on learning and teaching. It is based on case studies of eight projects that are in the early stages of e-portfolio use within the primary, secondary, further education (FE), higher education (HE) and adult and community learning (ACL) sectors. The report is primarily aimed at policy-makers. Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Children’s Services, the e-strategy published by the DfES in 2005, sets a target of providing a ‘personalised online learning space for every learner that can encompass a personal portfolio’; this should be available to every school by 2008 (DfES, 2005). In …

My Grandfather Is Dead: Narratives Of Culture And Curriculum, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Frank Vetere

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Curriculum, the term used to denote a course of study, has been understood in recent years as a documented program developed by experts and managed by an education authority. In many cases this has resulted in a focus on the experience and the goals of dominant cultures, so that minority groups do not feel well-represented in the curriculum. In this paper we explore the possibility of young people using mobile devices to enrich their curriculum by contributing content that encapsulates aspects of their lives. In a short project, we provided indigenous secondary school students from both urban and isolated communities …

Ict Acheivers Program, Anne-Marie Chase, Greg Powell

Dr Anne-Marie Chase

School Focused Professional Development And The Interaction Of Teachers, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This study is concerned with school focused professional development in Fairhills High School. Data from teachers in the school has been analysed in order to provide a basis for planning a professional development program in the light of government initiatives. In particular, the study analyses the communication patterns within the school in an attempt to ascertain the extent of collaboration which occurs between teachers, and the factors which influence professional interaction. Recommendations for professional development at Fairhills High School are based on discussion of the data. In addition, the study suggests implications for all schools. The results reported in this …