University of Cumbria Open Access Journals
Not a member yet
615 research outputs found
Sort by
Rethinking academic achievement: A reflective practice case study of teaching and learning on a university happiness and wellbeing course
Full text linkThis article is a reflective practice case study of my experiences teaching an innovative university-level course about happiness and wellbeing (positive education). I ponder questions such as: What is academic achievement? Can learning about happiness and wellbeing raise achievement? What does an education for the future look like? Drawing upon my own experiences of positive education, and upon a critique of the literature, I argue for a change of direction in the education system to focus on achievement and learning in terms of positive emotional and social development. This should include a shift from the obsession with standardised testing (grades, exam scores, and grade point average) to nurturing happiness and wellbeing in every aspect of students’ lives. However, harmonizing this vision within an education system besotted with end-point attainment and league table performance is problematic and faces numerous challenges
Schematic Driven Pedagogy (SDP): The Potential Impact for Autistic Children
Full text linkDiscussions surrounding early years’ theorist Piaget’s philosophy of learning schema styles and their potential impact upon children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder will be highlighted within this position paper. Furthermore, this paper will also focus on the need for a Schematic Driven Pedagogy implementation to connect both additional learning needs and early years pedagogies by exploring relevant literature within this field. The conclusions drawn from the most current literature suggests that a specific schema curriculum implementation designed for individual schemas could potentially provide many benefits for autistic children. Potential benefits explored within this paper include improvement within some social skills through the exploration of play-based situations adapted to individual schemas.
More than just workload: Factors influencing the success and retention of new teachers
Full text linkThis paper outlines research that set out to explore the acknowledged challenge of success and retention in the teaching profession in England. Through listening to early career teachers talk about what they deemed significant, the authors sought to interrogate the influences on success and retention. The research framework draws from an interpretivist paradigm and seeks to ascertain from a small, focused sample of sixteen individuals, the significant factors that they perceived to influence their experiences in the Primary sector. The research made use of narrative stories (Cousin, 2009) which enabled the researchers to go beyond what was happening, to address why it was happening and to ascertain how the individuals concerned made sense of their experiences. Within the data sample, eight key factors emerged as significant to the success and retention of the Early Career Teacher (ECT). The authors argue that the data found is significant, as current practice in England focuses on support through the newly developed Early Career Framework (ECF) (DfE 2019). This framework offers support through workload reduction, mentor support and a training package. Whilst this approach may go some way to enhance experiences for our new teachers the data suggests that much wider considerations are relevant. The findings of this research carry implications at all levels: schools, training routes and national policy
Does Classroom Architecture Count beyond the Early Years?
Full text linkThe importance of classroom architecture has long been recognized and supported as a significant factor in Early Years teaching and learning, garnering an explicit focus in policy and practice in Scotland. The same cannot be said of practices beyond the early years, where the explicit role of classroom architecture has been less clearly defined. In my study, I adopted an inductive approach, using a systematic literature review followed by a directed content image analysis to explore how the classroom architecture supports teaching and learning in the primary school for children ages 7-11. Within the study, classroom architecture was defined as the use and arrangement of furniture, organisation of resources, and sensory variables. The goal of the study was to better understand how classroom architecture supports teaching and learning to inform teacher practices in Scottish primary schools. Findings suggest classroom architecture is an essential element of positive teaching and learning environments for primary classrooms. Flexible and purposeful use of furniture, attention to seating arrangement, organisation and access to resources, and attention to the impact of sensory variables play a part in children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and can be used by the teacher to create positive instructional environments
More capable others? Education Studies undergraduates as near-peer mentors for year 12 students
Full text linkThis research focused on the benefits and challenges for second year Education Studies undergraduate students acting as near-peer mentors for year 12 students (aged 16-17). Near-peer mentoring often involves postgraduate students working with new undergraduates and is more common during Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) programmes. There is little research available, outside of STEM, about how near-peer mentors might influence the aspirations of students to access HE, or of the impact on undergraduate mentors themselves.
The student near-peer mentors were part of the Research Higher project in an area of England with unexplained low participation rates in HE. The project involved circa 200 students from local schools in a programme of weekly events where they designed and conducted their own research. Second year Education Studies undergraduate students supported two cohorts of year 12 students during their on-campus seminar activities. The findings draw on thematic analysis of undergraduate student interviews at the end of the project. They indicate that near-peer mentoring has unexpected benefits for undergraduate Education Studies students including meta-cognition about their own learning and confidence in working with older students. Recommendations for future near-peer mentoring programmes are proposed based on student feedback
‘I’ve just got to get through it!’ Student teacher-mothers negotiating the challenges of the Initial Teacher Education year
Full text linkThis paper reports on a study in which we interviewed eleven student teachers who were mothers. We wanted to understand the challenges the women faced in combining Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and motherhood, and about the factors that sustained them through the course.
Participants faced practical and emotional challenges, including financial difficulties, feelings of guilt, and time and workload pressures. They had encountered structural barriers in the Higher Education Institution, where policy and practice emerged as exclusionary and largely unhelpful in anticipating and accommodating their needs as student teacher-mothers.
Despite the difficulties they faced, the women portrayed themselves as active in shaping their own experiences at university, on school placement and at home, within the constraints of the competing demands of ITE and motherhood. They emphasised their agency in making the decision to train to become teachers, in their motivation to qualify as teachers so that they could offer their families a better life, and in strategizing to overcome the various obstacles they encountered. They described forward planning, prioritising and managing time, themselves and their families to ‘get through’ the ITE year, which was, essentially, viewed as a temporary stepping stone for which they needed to make short-term sacrifices. 
Blurring the boundaries of formative and summative assessment for impact on learning
Full text linkEncouraging all students to meaningfully engage with feedback on summative assessments is a vexing challenge for educators (Watling, 2016). Using formative feedback techniques as a formal part of a summative assessment allows for a guaranteed ‘feed forward’. Group crits in the form of students and staff viewing their own and others work in an auditorium, are commonly used in the field of Filmmaking for low stakes, formative assessment purposes only. Students often engage in analysis and evaluation of their work in order to hopefully feedforward into their summative assessments. This paper explores using the ‘group crit’ for their actual summative assessment instead of simply as a formative activity. The crit then becomes a vehicle that incorporates valuable staff and peer to peer feedback within the assessment process itself, thereby incorporating low stakes formative assessment, as part of high stakes summative. Using my own teaching of Screen Drama (fiction production involving actors) to first year students I reflect on my practice and conclude with recommendations for tutors to draw from. Key conclusions from this research include that more students engage effectively with this type of feedback and with greater feed forward when it takes place within the summative assessment process itself.
 
Teaching philosophy statements as a vehicle for critical reflection
Full text linkThis work considers what can be gleaned from critically reflecting on several teaching philosophy statements to facilitate professional development. Specifically, three statements, written in 2015, 2019 and 2021 by the author, were investigated using qualitative reflexive thematic analysis to help identify static and dynamic themes within the different educational contexts they represent. This process helps one notice aspects of thinking and practice; the loss of subjective specificity and more articulate ideas around dialogic teaching within a social constructivist paradigm were observed. This reflective process represents a novel utility in statements already written by many educators as well as a useful process for helping professionals develop their teaching philosophies, locating their teaching within the profession, and developing as reflective practitioners
New forms of Teacher Professional Development: Developing Epistemic Collaborative Communities via Social Networks
Full text linkIn this position paper, we explore the potential of social networks for teacher professional development. Networking is a crucial skill in professional careers, supporting the individual’s personal and professional learning. Collective teacher interactions online can facilitate collaborative professional development and support collective epistemic engagement. Social networks can be considered as ‘third spaces’ between formal and informal learning to support professional development, also integrating international and intercultural aspects. Research questions addressed here include implications of online engagement on teachers’ initial and in-service training and impact of social networks on innovations in professional practices and local communities.
Preservice teachers’ commitment to teaching and the likelihood of retention in the profession
Full text linkTeacher education for primary and lower secondary school has received harsh criticism in many countries, also in Denmark. Teacher education programmes experience high dropout rates and has low appeal to potential students. The purpose of this study is to explore how preservice teachers’ perceptions of campus experiences and field experiences are related to their prospective commitment to become a teacher as well as to their turnover intention. This focus is important because research indicates that prospective commitment to a profession is an important factor in sustaining good professional practices among preservice teachers as well as in preventing early exit from the programme. Structural equation modelling was used for the data analysis in this study. A survey was carried out with 1,435 participating Danish preservice teachers at four different campuses. The preservice teachers were asked to voluntarily complete a paper-based questionnaire after they had completed at least one teacher practice period. The analysis indicated that perceived relevance of subject didactics teaching and theory–practice interactions in the school-based section of teacher training are the most important elements in explaining both the prospective commitment of preservice teachers to their future profession as teachers and their turnover intention.