Education - Collected Works
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ItemChanges in teachers’ epistemic cognition about self–regulated learning as they engaged in a researcher-facilitated professional learning community(Taylor & Francis, 2019-04-09)Research into teachers’ epistemic cognition is emerging as a key to understanding the quality of teachers’ knowledge for teaching. Typically, investigations into the quality of teachers’ knowledge have been situated within traditional subject areas, such as science or maths. However, developing good quality teacher knowledge about improving students’ abilities to engage in self-regulated learning (SRL), across subject areas, is equally important. Studies have demonstrated gaps in teachers’ knowledge and epistemic beliefs about SRL – the foundations for teachers’ epistemic cognition about SRL. This paper introduces a model of teachers’ epistemic cognition about SRL, and reports a micro-analytic study with four secondary science teachers who undertook a 12-week researcher-facilitated Professional Learning Community (PLC). Thematic and numerical analysis of interviews and lesson plans indicated that the PLC facilitated teachers’ reflexive examination of their knowledge and their epistemic beliefs about SRL. Improvements in SRL content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and constructivist beliefs were observed consistently for three of the four teachers. Providing opportunities, such as a facilitated PLC, to enable teachers to reflexively examine their epistemic cognition about a generic subject such as SRL, may be a necessary step in translating research about learning and instruction into classroom practices.
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ItemAssessing young children’s learning: Using critical discourse analysis to re-examine a learning story(Early Childhood Australia Inc., 2017-06)The current policy contexts of many countries demand that early childhood educators are able to articulate their practice in new ways. For example, the need to assess and report positive learning outcomes in multiple ways to policy-makers, families and educational systems is a feature of contemporary early childhood education and care. This theoretical paper introduces a multi-dimensional framework to support the assessment of young children’s learning and then provides an example of how modified tools drawn from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) can be used to effectively examine these dimensions of learning. CDA is a multidisciplinary methodology that integrates the study of language with a consideration of wider social practices. It offers a perspective from which to examine how ways of thinking, speaking, acting and being are drawn from, and also contribute to the particular discourses that are made available within social institutions (in this case, early childhood centres). CDA focuses on how language establishes and maintains social relationships and identities. This paper provides an example of how some of the tools made available in CDA can enhance assessment practices with young children. It is argued that CDA enables early childhood educators to re-examine young children’s learning in new ways. The processes outlined in this paper have the potential to inspire early childhood educators to embrace assessment as an opportunity to articulate, celebrate and communicate young children’s ways of knowing in new ways.
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ItemTo Teach or Not to Teach in the Early Years: What Does this Mean in Early Childhood Education(IntechOpen, 2018-11-05)Pedagogy in the early years has often been constructed as a choice between child-centered, play-based, or teacher directed learning. Child-centered learning is often characterized as “following the child’s interests.” This chapter examines this under-theorized notion by re-visiting constructivist theory, re-examining the differences between constructivism and critical social constructionism and in the process explores many underpinning beliefs about knowledge in early years pedagogy. Examples of critical social constructionist pedagogy, drawn from some of the “big ideas” in the Social Sciences are provided in an attempt to blur the boundaries between the binaries that have dogged educational reform in the early years for decades.
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ItemGiving institutional voice to work-integrated learning in academic workloads(International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 2018)Little is known about how university institutions are coping with increased placement demands in professional disciplines, and what this means for the quality and integrity of the Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences offered within degree programs for all partners concerned. The first stage of a critical ethnographic study is reported in this paper. It forms part of a larger, ongoing study that seeks to generate critical perspectives on the impact and effects of an inquiry-based WIL philosophy that fosters sustained, meaningful university-community partnerships across a suite of Early Childhood programs. Institutional insights into the workload of university staff responsible for these programs are presented, revealing the complexities and possibilities of what this form of work involves in efforts to sustain meaningful, reciprocal partnerships over time. Findings reveal challenges to the relational foundations of this work and the potential implications for universities to reconsider the nature of their engagement with community in the education of deliberate professionals.
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ItemMainland Chinese students’ self-appraisals of their psychological dispositions at school(Springer, 2017-10-17)This paper reports mainland Chinese students’ self-appraisals about their psychological dispositions whilst at school. Increasing interest has turned to factors such as resilience, wellbeing, flourishing, happiness and satisfaction, which in turn are predicted to be associated with factors such as emotional stability, achieving personal goals, social fulfilment and quality of life. Such psychological dispositions are developed in conjunction with the influences of social systems such as schools. Although a number of researchers have collaborated with schools to investigate students’ dispositions in English speaking countries, similar research in mainland China is in its infancy. This is particularly the case for studies that seek students’ own perspectives. We administered a questionnaire about resilience, flourishing, wellbeing, self-concept, school satisfaction, mental health, and happiness at school to 2756 students in Years 5–9 in mainland China. As expected with a non-clinical population, most students reported positively across the various scales. However, dividing the sample into subgroups enabled the creation of stratified visual profiles that showed significant differences between students with different backgrounds, such as gender, age, and mental health. This study illustrates the importance of subgroup analyses to identify potential areas of concern for different types of students, which in turn may inform differentiated school-based intervention programs to support students to flourish.
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ItemGirls’ diminishing wellbeing across the adolescent years(Routledge, 2018)The chapters in this book investigate promoting wellbeing and positive mental health from a range of perspectives. One such perspective is the influence of gender on positive mental health, and the potential for gender differences to inform, and be impacted by, the design and implementation of mental health promotion initiatives. Accordingly, this chapter reports results from three questionnaires about wellbeing and positive mental health which we administered to 1,930 students aged 10 to 15 in eight South Australian schools. Males were more likely than females to report that they were flourishing, had a positive outlook and had a positive emotional state. In contrast, females were more likely to report that they were languishing and had moderate, rather than flourishing, mental health. Furthermore, as the females in the study grew older, they reported less positive mental health. The study suggests that females in the upper-middle school years warrant special attention to adequately address their social and emotional needs. The invaluable information from this study can be used to inform future initiatives to promote students’ wellbeing and positive mental health.