University of Cumbria Open Access Journals
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Pilot study: Can the draft film Broken support trainee teachers’ understanding of autism communication issues in mainstream classrooms?
Get PDFThe draft film Broken (Rimmer, 2020) is an artistic impression that aims to articulate dysfluency from an autistic viewpoint. This paper reports on a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of the film as a tool to support trainee teachers’ understanding of fluency issues in autistic pupils in the mainstream classroom. The study positions what is a personal perspective as articulated in the film within the wider autism literature, and reports and discusses trainees’ responses to the film. Implications for future Initial Teacher Education in this area – including resultant adaptations of the film – are discussed
“We need to change what we’re doing.” Using pedagogic action research to improve teacher management of exemplars
Get PDFThis paper outlines two cycles of pedagogic action research exploring the pre-emptive formative use of exemplars which were embedded into teaching sessions mid-way through a module entitled ‘Perspectives on Childhood.’ Students were asked to bring their own formative work to a workshop in which exemplars-based activities were provided. The activities were intended to enable first-year students to perceive the quality of their conceptual grasp of important subject-matter, giving them a timely opportunity to change and improve their approaches to study if necessary. The research question was: how could the teaching team improve their pedagogic practices surrounding exemplar-use to develop their students’ capacity to identify the quality of their own formative work and hone their self-regulatory learning skills? The first cycle of action research revealed that a surprisingly high proportion of participating students experienced considerable difficulty in drawing valuable inferences and, hence, in using the exemplars-based activities effectively to review and adjust their own current task-related performance. These findings productively disturbed the teaching team’s assumptions and practices about managing the exemplars-based activities, leading to important transformations in their thinking and the subsequent management of the exemplars in the second cycle and beyond.
The paper reports the fresh insights, conceptual changes and practice-developments this process of collaborative enquiry promoted. These include the pedagogic transformations that were collaboratively developed amongst the team in the highly situated local context, but also the theoretical inferences that may be drawn for the sector more widely. The implications for teacher management of exemplars, and, especially, the value of adopting an ‘inner feedback’ (Nicol, 2018) perspective - focusing on students using exemplars explicitly to make comparisons to simulate the pedagogically-valuable elements of the processes of peer review (Nicol, 2019) -are particularly highlighted
STEM Education in Northern Ireland: Is it an example of systemic failure?
Get PDFFive years have now passed since the last government review of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in Northern Ireland (Perry and Irwin, 2015). This small-scale qualitative study set out to analyse the progress made and challenges faced within STEM education in Northern Ireland, and to draw out implications for education and teacher education. Individual filmed interviews were carried out with a range of education professionals and representatives from industry and politics (n=11), followed by small group interviews with pupils finishing the junior phase of their schooling (n=13). Findings reveal high levels of pupil engagement but also, and in contrast to many other countries, the study highlights frustration among STEM professionals at a lack of investment in STEM education at all levels. The study also identifies additional challenges in promoting inquiry-based learning approaches to STEM education in the current high-stakes assessment environment. Conclusions are drawn for education and teacher education.
 
‘What goes on in there?’ How post-graduate trainee teachers make use of an online learning community using social networking sites?
Get PDFThis study explores the role that social networking sites play in the learning of post-graduate trainee teachers. It is part of a larger study that explored the role that technologies played in student learning via a Networked Learning framework. It draws upon the content posted to closed groups on social network sites, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, to explore two aspects of the impact these groups have.
Firstly, the impact on social cohesion; in other words, how the social network site groups support interaction online and subsequently, face-to-face interactions. Secondly, the impact on learning that interactions in these groups has. It uses a threefold analysis strategy: the temporal distribution of usage, the context for interactions and the topic of interactions.
It finds that there is a strong social element to student interactions which includes interactions relating to social activities but also interactions which provide moral support and encouragement as well as elements of humour. In addition to this are learning related interactions. These are widespread and cover both academic and professional learning. However, this is largely limited to interactions related to details, support, help and guidance rather than profound theoretical discussions.
The survey combines the analysis of the content and context of interactions with a temporal analysis of interactions to explore how the use of these interactions changes in relation to key events in the course such as assignment submissions or school placements. It finds that the participants are discerning users who adopt a functional approach to social network interactions. They make extensive use of such sites prior to assignment submissions or the release of assignment feedback. But, on the other hand, at times of high workload, such as school placements, they will prioritise activity with the greatest potential impact on their success. In other words, they do not allow themselves to be overly distracted by social networking.
It concludes that the social network site groups play an important role in supporting students to succeed on a busy and stressful course. Also, that students draw on social media in equal measure for social cohesion and learning related interactions. However, it must be noted that the learning interactions are typically around-task interactions rather than interactions at the heart of their learning.
 
Betydningen av vennskap og sosiale relasjoner som ung
Get PDFThis article examines the significance of friendship and social relations in young people`s lives. This is illuminated through two young women with low socioeconomic backgrounds, and their experiences from being children, youth and young adults. The article is written within the MaCE project, which is a cooperation between Norway, England and Denmark. We have used a qualitative, unstructured interview, called the indirect approach to interact with the youth. The goal of using this method is to gain insight into the informant\u27s secret world by obtaining information without asking directly for it. Furthermore, we have approached these young women`s stories through a thematically analysis. The stories show that the informants` experiences with friendship or lack of it have great importance. A recurrent element is how the informants struggled to understand the social codes and often chose to be alone in order to avoid a possible rejection. This seems to result in a negative pattern, which seems to be hard to break out of. In addition, the informants often talk about the lack of friendship and social relations in the context of their feeling of loneliness and mental struggles. This is illustrated by Bourdieu\u27s theory of social and cultural capital, as well as Søndergaard\u27s theory of social exclusion
My social autoethnography: How one teacher educator used digital communication to help tell his own stories?
Get PDFThis paper inhabits the increasingly popular space of autoethnographic study. The piece is designed to critique and contextualise the process and usefulness of autoethnography as a way of making meaning. The study centres on how one highly experienced teacher and newly appointed teacher educator is using narrative writing to unpick and locate their skillset in a period of swift change and marked transition. One of the reasons for this choice is the freedom that autoethnography allows. Autoethnography is frequently dismissed as vague and self-indulgent as a method of social research. This paper will propose that autoethnography is a rigorous and powerful research method. It deploys some innovative methods of data collection, analysis and dissemination. The paper\u27s discussion of the literature will naturally help interrogate debates around where autoethnography sits in the intellectual landscape related to qualitative research. The study found that using grounded theory as a research methodology helped arrive at potentially illuminating theories and self-knowledge. These were limited, however, by the underlying risk of indulgence, subjective autobiographical writing and participant bias. The paper also has potential value as a way of helping early career teachers explore critical incidents
Understanding barriers to discussion-based learning: using an epistemological perspective to theorise student teachers\u27 perceptions
Get PDFDiscussion-based learning (DBL) has the potential to develop valued higher-order thinking skills and dispositions that are key to teacher professional learning and development. However, whilst much is known about effective classroom teaching strategies, students’ lived experiences of discussion-based pedagogies are relatively under-reported. This study therefore adopts a qualitative/interpretivist approach to examine how a group of student teachers perceived and described their experiences of learning through discussion. Data were drawn from five female student teachers who were interviewed in their penultimate year of study. The findings suggest that the participants were mostly indifferent to, and often critical of the place and value of DBL. Moreover, how they articulated their views was connected to firmly held views about teaching, learning and knowledge that seem incompatible with the underpinning principles of discussion-based learning. This initial exploration of student teachers’ lived experiences of classroom discussion therefore offers educators a fresh way to problematise and conceptualise the challenges of student engagement and participation in discussion-based learning, and to consider approaches that challenge students’ deeply held assumptions about knowledge and learning.  
‘We had dreams’ – In-between duty and ability A qualitative study of academic expectations and support from home within young men with minority background
Get PDFThis article’s main theme is high school dropout within young men with minority background. Studies show that this group of students are most likely to quit high school. Here, a young man with minority background is examined in order to answer the research question What does a young man with a minority background say about academic expectations and support from home? The young man, which is in his early 20’s, has begun, interrupted, and re-continued his schooling. He is now a student in vocational studies, and has been interviewed about his school experiences and support from home. This study is part of the project Marginalization and Co-Created Education (MaCE). Therefore, the qualitative method that has been used to get insight into this man`s experiences is the indirect approach. This form of data collection has enabled the informant to decide which topics from his school history he finds most important to share. The data analysis is based on a social constructivism, which means that the researcher\u27s knowledge is constructed through the interaction between researcher and informant. However, it is important to point out that it is primarily the informant’s perspective that is emphasized in this study. The findings show that his parents seem to have high expectations of him to excel academically. This seems to have influenced the young man\u27s view of himself. To sum up, academic support from home is absent, but the academic expectations appear to be enormous. Thus, the idea of academic success seem to make the move from the parents\u27 home country worthy
Peer assessment in Irish medical science education: Exploring staff assessment literacy and assessment practice
Get PDFThe approach to, and the type of, assessment(s) that a Higher Education (HE) programme employs can be key factors in the effectiveness of assessment as a tool of learning. Peer assessment (PA) has the potential to develop the evaluative competence of students in HE. In the Republic of Ireland (RoI) there are three Institutes that each deliver a professionally validated honours degree programme in Medical /Biomedical Science. The aim of this paper is to report on the experiences and views of the academic staff involved in these three programmes with respect to assessment. Presented here is one aspect of a larger study into assessment practices in the education of Irish Medical Scientists with the overall aim being the development of a framework for the structured inclusion of PA. An insight into the current practices, experiences and views of staff is an essential step in the development of an effective framework. All academic staff (n=80) involved in the three programmes were invited to complete an online anonymous survey. Employing a mixed methods design, the survey incorporated closed questions e.g. subject area, years of experience and formal teaching qualifications, and open questions including staff’s understanding of the terminology of assessment, if they use PA, their reasons for choosing PA and any challenges they may have encountered. Thirty-five staff responded to the survey; all three institutes were represented. The thematic analysis of the qualitative data demonstrated that staff generally see assessment as a ‘measure’ (grade or mark) of understanding and knowledge. The distinction between formative and summative assessment was not clear for all staff; 19/33 staff described summative assessment as an ‘end of module’ exam and 13/33 staff referred to formative assessment as being ‘continuous’ or ‘ongoing’. There was clear evidence of a lack of use of terms associated with assessment; such as ‘assessment as, of and for learning’. Eleven of the respondents use PA in their module(s), they reported the positives and challenges of PA as they experienced e.g. increased student engagement, importance of student preparation. The results of this study confirm the need for, and provides a justification of, building a best practice framework for PA in HE Medical Science education in RoI