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Understandings and misunderstandings of metaphors and images in science textbooks among minority students in Norwegian primary schools
No full textOn the basis of ongoing research on student’s reading of textbooks in natural science we want to discuss how metaphors and images are understood and not understood by students from cultural project is financed by the and linguistic minorities in primary school. Our literacy Norwegian Research Council (NFR) and conducted in a primary school with more than 75 % students from cultural minorities. We will give some examples from observations in the classrooms and interviews of students in pairs in order to show how the use of images and language, and especially verbal and visual metaphors create understanding and/or confusion. We will also discuss how textbooks can be improved to communicate better for students in general as well as for students from ethnic and linguistic minority cultures. We draw upon literacy theories (Bråten, Kress & van Leeuwen), functional linguistics (Halliday, Maagerø) and a variety of theories of metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson,Littlemore, Cameron, Deignan)
Textbooks and Teaching Resources: A Case Study from the Early Childhood Classroom - Australia
Get PDFIn 2008, the Australian Federal and State Governments developed new educational goals to support and guide the development of a new Australian National Curriculum, which is to be implemented in 2013 in all Australian educational settings.As part of this Australian National Curriculum, the early childhood sector is to follow an Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) that reflects a play based, negotiated curriculum that sharpens the focus of intended learning outcomes in a framework of classroom pedagogy and practice.
This new national curriculum requires major structural reforms inearly childhood education which will affect the roles of teachers and families and their expectations of teaching and learning in early childhood education settings. The development of the Early Years Learning Framework, as part of the Australian national curriculum, has presented an opportunity for publishers to produce teaching and learning materials to support the new curriculum and the pedagogy underpinning it.
This paper will explore a case study centred on how early childhood teachers resource their teaching and learning and plan the use of teaching and learning resources. The paper will use two research methodologies to provide data for this case study. The paper will use the TEXTOR observation tool (Walker & Horsley, 2003) to gather data on the resources used in the observed lessons. The case study will also use the Learning Design Sequence (Selander, 2007) framework to explore the planning and learning design processes that the teacher used in the preparation of the unit of the work and the way that the teacher prepared teaching and learning materials to support the teaching and learning plans.
The research focused on methodologies that involved classroom observations and teacher interviews, and provided data on the exploration of the effectiveness of teaching and learning materials used in the early childhood classroom. The results from the study indicated that publisher and teacher consultation is essential to the creation of valuable, relevant, skill based teaching and learning materials that complement the pedagogical approach of the teacher and align with curriculum requirements of the new Australian national curriculum
Editorial
Get PDFWe are very pleased to present the latest issue (Volume 3, Number 2, December 2010) of the e-Journal of the International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media. The next issue of the IARTEM e-Journal, Volume 4, Number 1, will be published in July, 2011
Editorial
Get PDFWe are very pleased to present the latest issue (Volume 4, Number 1, July 2011) of the e-Journal of the International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media. The next issue of the IARTEM e-Journal, Volume 4, Number 2, will be published in December, 2011
Pictures from Ethnia: Peepholes into Otherness A brief analysis of pictures used in Norwegian music textbooks for the 8th Grade
Get PDFIn the Norwegian national strategy plan Equal Education in Practice it is stated that “To ensure proper subject and linguistic learning outcomes, it is also important that multicultural reality should be reflected in the teaching materials” (2007:16). This means that the multicultural society should also be reflected in textbooks for music.One might think this would be relatively easy, as the subject itself is “cultural”. For other subjects such as mathematics, I suppose it could be claimed that they are socially and culturally neutral (although I also would argue against this view). But the very nature of music is culture; as a result the (multi)cultural perspective is not as subtle as it is in some other subjects. On the other hand, an analysis of this is not just a simple case of pinpointing the multicultural, such as counting the black people, or the use of artists and examples from different parts of the world. It must delve more deeply into the conception that representations of “cultural otherness” create in the mind of the readerthose represented through pictures.
This article deals with my own uneasiness when encountering pictures and text about non-western culture and music in some music textbooks. I will explore how otherness and exotism can be said to represent an imaginary nation, a particular geographical place corresponding to a Western fantasy, which I will call Ethnia. I will use some of the pictures and a small passage of text from Tempo (Hjertass and Johansen, 2000) and Opus – Musikk for ungdomstrinnet (Andreassen, 2006), which are two music textbook (8th – 10th grade), to reveal how an educational discourse manifests itself when constructing and representing cultural otherness. There is a danger of focusing on race, ethnicity or otherness, even if it is done with a will to improve the situation for “the Other,” because it can instead separate and exotify this “Other” even more; not liberate or empower them, but colonize them in a new way. I hope that my critical intentions here will be so clear that it will account for a possible cognitive enlargement of the gap between a we-majority and a them-minority.
Music is traditionally one of the school subjects that uses textbooks less often (Bachmann et al., 2004), so it is important to look more closely at the praxis in classrooms if one wants to say more about the way these texts are experienced by the pupils. Nevertheless, I believe a textbook, containing a type of distilled knowledge, does tell us something; as monuments in a society’s discourse about ethnicity, youth culture, music and school. The aim is therefore more to investigate certain discursive formations within the Norwegian society, than to be specific in terms of what the textbook’s influence are or could be in the schools
The role of textbooks and other teaching and learning resources in higher education in Australia: change and continuity in supporting learning
Get PDFThis paper investigates the role of textbooks and online learn ng resources in university study. In a large scale Australian research project the course coordinators and lecturing staff of twelve university courses were interviewed to elicit data on the resources that are prescribed to support student learning, the role of textbooks in teaching and learning; resource shifts between online and paper based resources; and the links between assessment and learning resources. The paper also reports on the student perspective of similar issues from students involved in sample of twelve undergraduate university courses. The research presented here reveals that textbooks produced by commercial publishers were recommended in every university course. Furthermore the use of these textbooks reflects a typology of integration into the learning design of the course to support student learning. The research found that a resource shift to the sole recommendation of online resources was not occurring, and that the provision of these online and digital resources was complementary and designed to support traditional learning resources.Regarding student use of learning resources, the research concluded that students indicated that they are time-poor and as a consequence, their capacity to engage fully with all learning resources recommended by course coordinators and tutors is limited. Although students did listen to the messages about learning resources conveyed by their tutors, their motivation was driven by the demands of their course assessment and as a result, students prioritised their focus on specific resources. The resources at the top of the priority list related specifically to successful completion of assessment tasks
Developing intercultural language learning textbooks: Methodological trends, engaging with the intercultural construct, and personal reflections on the process
Get PDFHistorically, textbook development for languages education has reflected methodological trends in languages learning, from grammar-translation methods used in the first half of the twentieth century, through audio-lingual, notionalfunctional, communicative language learning and other methodological paradigms. A current methodological trend – arguably more an ‘orientation’ to languages learning than a ‘method’ – involves developing ‘intercultural’ perspectives. In this orientation,learners are invited to constantly consider the interrelationship of language and culture; what this interplay means within variable cultural contexts; to work ‘across and between’ the languages they know and are learning; and to think reflexively on how developing understandings of new languages and cultures ultimately affects them as individuals and members of communities.
The authors have been researching and working with intercultural language learning over a number of years. In response to the need for resources reflecting this orientation and their own desire to see how this might be realised in commercially available materials (textbooks and online support), Lesley Harbon, Michelle Kohler and Anne-Marie Morgan have developed a textbook series with an intercultural orientation for Australian middle years learners of Indonesian. The journey in developing these materials has raised many questions and challenges, including considering how a diversity of perspectives about languages and cultures might be represented and catered for in ‘static’ resources. This article situates the current trend towards intercultural language learning within an historical context of textbook development and language teaching methodologies; explores current understandings of the intercultural construct and considers how this understanding has influenced the writing of the series; and provides reflections on the complexities and challenges of development of this resource
Production and adaptation of materials for teachers and students: understanding socio-cultural diversity in marginalised and disadvantaged contexts.
Get PDFThis paper will investigate how the development and adaptation of educational materials by teachers and students can promote an understanding of socio-cultural diversity in marginalised and underdeveloped communities. Textbooks cannot alwaysaddress the diversity of teaching/learning situations in a classroom, nor can they always provide material suited to different educational contexts.The paper will outline recent research on the representation of diversity in materials, including projects and initiatives dealing with the production of materials in marginalised communities.We will begin by presenting a brief review of studies on the lack of cultural and linguistic diversity in textbooks and teaching materials. This will be followed by discussion of the advantages of teacher-developed didactic materials in supporting socio-cultural diversity in marginalised communities and contexts. Finally, we will suggest ways to encourage the production of these materials, together with case studies.Teachers encounter many difficulties in producing materials: lack of time for production and trial; lack of teacher training in this area; limited institutional recognition of the process and lack of space to exhibit materials. This paper will look at the role of universities and other institutions in materials development; offer guidelines for the development and evaluation of these resources; and consider whether teacher-developed materials constitute an alternative or complement to textbooks
Editorial
Get PDFWe are very pleased to present the latest edition (Volume 3, Number 1, June 2010) of the IARTEM e-Journal. The next issue of the IARTEM e-Journal , Volume 3, Number 2, will be published in December 2010
Teaching a world language for local contexts: The case of Namibian textbooks for the teaching of English
Get PDFEnglish was chosen as the official language when Namibia gained its independence in 1990. While many other countries use English language textbooks that have been produced for a world market, Namibian authorities set out to develop their own. Fivetextbooks for grades 8 – 12 were published during the years 1993-1999. These books have been described as unusually successful, not only in the way that they help students learn the language. Equally important is the fact that texts, topics and exercises have been selected in order to support the students’ general education and help them develop the knowledge and skills they need as citizens of a new, democratic nation. The process of developing and producing the books has also been referred to as efficient and innovative. This article casts light on some aspects of the books as well as the production process. The aim is to provide documentation and also to present an example that textbook developers as well as teachers elsewhere can learn from and be inspired by