As a doctoral student, learning to write academically has been a challenging process. My doctoral supervisor shared a piece of wisdom, but it was not until I began writing on a daily basis that I understood what she meant. “Writing is thinking,” she often said. As a novice writer, a blank page was a daunting and, often, an overwhelming sight. Through practice, I have learned that getting my ideas out on paper as soon as possible (without worrying about style, grammar, or clarity) is an invaluable strategy for me as it kick-starts the writing process. Once I see my ideas on the page, I begin to make more sense of them and begin the revision process. I have come across two helpful books related to academic writing: 1) Style: Lessons in clarity and grace (Williams, M. & Colomb, G., 2010) and 2) The clockwork muse: A practical guide to writing theses, dissertations, and books (Zerubavel, 2001). Both booka emphasize and articulate my supervisor’s advice that writing is thinking. Zerubavel notes: “One of the most common misconceptions inexperienced writers have of writing is that it is simply a mechanical process of reproducing already-formed ideas on paper. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In reality, writing is virtually inseparable from the process if developing our ideas.” (p. 48). Pooja
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Classroom Teachers and Critical Literacy
I am fascinated with classroom teachers’ pedagogy. In particular, how elementary school teachers teach critical literacy to young children. How teachers plan, what materials they choose and the discussions they facilitate in the classroom were some of the areas I asked classroom teachers in relation to their efforts to build critically literate students. My research team spent half of the school year observing classroom teachers` daily practices with a special focus on critical literacy. We also interviewed the teachers to gain an understanding of their thinking about their practice. One interesting finding is the close connection between content (often driven by narrative texts) and pedagogy. That is, teachers (in the early primary grades) focused heavily on narrative texts to relay information about critical social issues and designed learning opportunities (discussions, extensions) based on the texts. This process resulted in children sharing their own stories and understandings of the critical social issues (i.e. identity and exclusion, inequitable distribution of resources, class). Understanding teachers` classroom practices is connected to phase two of our study on literacy teacher educators. I want to know how the two sets of pedagogical practices connect: how does the pedagogy of literacy teacher educators who have a critical stance transfer to classroom teachers’ practices?
By: Yiola Cleovoulou
Attention AERA Division K New Faculty!
The deadline for Applications for the Division K New Faculty Preconference has been extended to January 31, 2014!
The pre conference starts on Wednesday, April 2 at 4:00. We meet again on Thursday, April 3 from 9:00 – 12:00.
This Division K New Faculty Seminar is an exciting opportunity to dialogue, socialize, and share with other new faculty and the facilitators and is designed to:
• Provide support for new teaching and teacher education faculty,
• Engage Division members with each other and with the Division’s activities,
• Examine various methodological approaches to research,
• Create professional networks that will last a lifetime, and
• Make important scholarly connections that create a community of new scholars.
The preconference organizers are established scholars who will discuss ways to thrive in your career. Our division is committed to supporting new faculty! There is a maximum of 25 participants.
To apply for the pre-conference submit a two-page letter of application that includes a description of: (a) applicant’s background; (b) the applicant’s current position and years of service; (c) research interested and methodological approaches to research; and (d) one or two problems of issues in transitioning from being a graduate student to the role of faculty member.
Send your application and questions to Clare Kosnik at ckosnik@oise.utoronto.ca
The Pre-conference Facilitators are:
Renée T. Clift, University of Arizona
Tom Dana, University of Florida
Valerie Kinloch, The Ohio State University
Clare Kosnik, University of Toronto/Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
Rich Milner, University of Pittsburgh
Anita, Math Teaching, and the System
I had coffee today with Anita, one of the year 10 teachers in our longitudinal study. She was in my School & Society course (foundations course) in initial teacher education and I have observed and interviewed her each year since. She is a very strong teacher in every way, but has just moved to a new school and is facing some challenges. She said about 40% of her grade 4/5 class have very low SES backgrounds and the government is reducing special education support, ostensibly to promote inclusion but actually to save money. One thing she talked about relates to how difficult it is to teach math skills and concepts without concerted system direction and teacher training (as noted in my previous posting about the PISA results). She said it will probably take most of the year to teach her class how to do a 3-part math lesson (direct instruction/group work/whole-class discussion), whereas if the whole school was doing it and all the teachers had been trained in it she could have used this approach immediately. We also talked about how the principal needs to provide leadership in getting all the teachers pulling together around such pedagogy, but principals aren’t being trained in this role or receiving a consistent message that it’s a major part of their job. Anita, then, has to fine-tune and prioritize her teaching activities largely on her own (there are effectively 2 PD days a year), hoping to survive and thrive as a teacher and be there for her students. Clive
More Commentary on PISA
We thought you might find these excerpts from two scholarly papers on PISA interesting. Clare
Professor Gemma Moss and colleagues, London Institute of Education
Some features of [high PISA performing] education systems are not suitable for borrowing; for instance, pupils in Korea and Japan also spend substantially more time being privately tutored outside of school hours. This would not be acceptable to parents in the UK. Education systems are deeply linked to local political as well as educational cultures. No one would want to import an authoritarian one-party system of government from China, yet that may be a key ingredient in how their education system runs. [Further] it is not clear whether or how performance in PISA relates to the economy. China’s economic growth has not been driven by uniform access to high quality education; rather high quality education in Shanghai has followed economic growth. Britain remains amongst the top-performing economies, out-performing our PISA rankings in education.
(Excerpt from a brief for UK politicians)
Professor Paul Morris, London Institute of Education (formerly Dean of Education, Hong Kong University, and President, Hong Kong Institute of Education)
[In Hong Kong] reforms have been both developed and implemented over long time periods [and] the direction of reform has been developed through fairly nonpartisan discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including school principals, local and overseas academics, and draws upon a range of sources of evidence…. [Further] in Hong Kong the good Math’s results in PISA 2012 have been attributed by their Government to teachers using ‘project work and exploratory activities’ and the good science results to the promotion of ‘scientific literacy and generic skills (e.g. critical thinking and problem-solving skills)’. Not exactly an endorsement of [UK Education Secretary] Gove’s direction of travel!
(Excerpt from: PISA 2012: What can we learn from East Asia?)
Feedback on blog about PISA results
Our blog post on the PISA scores generated a lot of feedback. Here are some of the comments we have received:
- We can add the lack of time for collaborative planning in schools and the lack of professional development opportunities that are job-embedded are factors that must be considered.
- Is it just my idea or is PISA becoming a ruler for our educational systems? Even telling the way we need to teach? PISA results make even Finnish feel nervous because they dropped some points 🙂
- I have not read anything by anyone else that remotely comes close to what Clive has said. I will share this with my teacher candidates.
- The gap between the rich and poor in my country is great. This affects education in all ways.
- When people use words like “failure”, “crisis’, and “floundering” they are being silly.
- Clive’s piece has motivated me to write an op-ed for our newspaper.
- The news about PISA scores have been a new in Peru too… beyond our low position in the ranking compared with the other countries, one salient topic is the huge inequality gaps.
PISA Results December 2013
The recently released PISA results have many Asian countries scoring substantially higher than the US, UK, and Canada on math, reading, and science. Some people are saying this shows that the latter countries need to place more emphasis on “the basics” (such as times tables, formulas, spelling, etc.) rather than problem solving and relevance. My response is threefold:
· Part of the disparity in scores is due to typical features of Asian schooling that I don’t think are desirable: high-stakes national exams, cram schools, and enormous pressure on students to learn the basics at any cost. I rarely meet people from Asia who are glad they experienced this kind of schooling.
· Part of it is because we’ve asked teachers to teach for meaning and relevance without showing them how. In math, for example, we give them an 36 hour math methods course in teacher education and send them out to reverse a lifetime of experience and cultural initiation.
· Clearly, teachers need to do BOTH – teach the basics AND meaning, relevance, etc. And I believe this is entirely possible. But we need to figure out how to do it and systematically teach and model it in pre-service and in-service (in the context of the various subjects), rather than just making general pronouncements about constructivism, discovery learning, and teaching for understanding.
Clive Beck
Frustration with Fitness
As many of my friends know, I love fitness. I did an aerobics class that left me talking to myself. The instructor is extremely fit and loves fitness but …. The class was so chaotic that I felt like I had been on the spin cycle of a washing machine – running this and that way, twirling every which way. What is so frustrating is that the instructor has been given so much feedback on her class — stop all of dashing about because no one can follow you. But she has not heeded any of the advice. This experience with the aerobics class is so much like teaching. Even if you know your subject well, you have to set up the class so that the students can follow your direction and then actually apply what they are learning. Being attentive to learners to ensure that they thrive should be uppermost in the teacher’s approach. Whether it is a fitness class or a grade one reading class or a high school physics class or a literacy methods course in teacher education, students should not leave the session frustrated. Aerobics is hard. Learning is hard. Teachers need to focus on the students whatever the context. And my aerobics instructor should be mindful of the participants. We got up early on a weekend to do a workout (and in Toronto it was mighty cold this morning) so we were all keen to do a workout. What more could a teacher want? This might be something for policy-makers to consider. Engaging the learner should be the first priority! Teacher knowledge of content is important but there is so much more to teaching. Clare
Research Team Celebration
Our research team had a holiday celebration last night. Our
team for the study of literacy/English teacher educators works so well. Building a research team is much more than organizing meetings; a research team has to be more like a community of practice where the personal and the professional overlap. Our team meetings include: updates on personal issues (e.g., health of an ill parent), an agenda of work to be done in the given time, space to talk about professional issues (e.g., should I submit a proposal for a specific conference), and snack. Each meeting is punctuated with laughter (as we battle with NVivo) but we always accomplish “something.” I doubt that anyone ever leaves a meeting thinking that we did not get anything done or that their time was wasted. It takes time for a team to develop a rhythm and to develop a set of group norms. No one told me about how to develop a research team when I was a new professor. Discussing how to build a research team should be part induction programs for new faculty. Clare
Chris Hayes on Education
As the PISA results are released there is the usual flurry of commentary and criticism of teachers. Chris Hayes’ show, All In (on MSNBC) had an excellent panel discussion on education. Although most journalists do not seem to “get” education, the panel was excellent because all members are deeply connected to schooling. They understand the importance of teacher morale, impact of poverty on children, the effect of inequity in school funding, and limitations of test scores. Here is the link for the segment:
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/are-american-schools-really-failing-79675459718
Clare
Literacy Teaching and Teacher Education 