The purpose of this research is to reflect on the role of the context environment of the contextualized situations of teaching school mathematics, which make significant contributions to the initial training of the mathematics teacher at the Universidad Popular del Cesar-Valledupar-Colombia, where the informants were the twelve students enrolled in the subjects of Elective III, Mathematics Didactics, History and Epistemology of Mathematics and Degree Work II, of the VI, VII, VIII and IX semesters respectively, of the Bachelor's (...) Degree in Mathematics program; assigned to the Faculty of Education, of the Universidad Popular del Cesar. The study was situated in the qualitative paradigm, under the epistemological approach of sociocultural constructivism, with the recapitulations of the foundations and orientations of the phenomenological-transcendental methodology. It is concluded that it is feasible to change the mathematics master class for a space where students can interact in the teaching-learning process, with the necessary knowledge to understand the messages of the context of the habitat of the subject who learns; and for this reason, the relationships of the trio: Teacher-School Mathematical Knowledge-Students and these with the context can always be placed in the context of mathematics education. (shrink)

Structured interviews were carried out with 176 secondary school teachers to elicit their views/opinions about their initial professional training and their later practical experience, with particular reference to classroom behaviour management. The results showed that the vast majority of teachers believe classroom management skills to be of major importance to them professionally. Nearly three‐quarters of them were dissatisfied with the preparation in this area of professional skills provided by their initial training courses. Many thought that their (...) colleagues spent too much time on matters of order and control and 38% thought that they, themselves, did also. Generally, they showed an interest in attending training courses in classroom behaviour management. Many felt that such training could reduce stress among teachers and might help to reduce troublesome behaviour among their pupils. Nearly all of them thought that it would be of benefit to their younger colleagues who were just beginning their careers. (shrink)

Summary Structured interviews were carried out with 176 secondary school teachers to elicit their views/opinions about their initial professional training and their later practical experience, with particular reference to classroom behaviour management. The results showed that the vast majority of teachers believe classroom management skills to be of major importance to them professionally. Nearly three?quarters of them were dissatisfied with the preparation in this area of professional skills provided by their initial training courses. Many thought that (...) their colleagues spent too much time on matters of order and control and 38% thought that they, themselves, did also. Generally, they showed an interest in attending training courses in classroom behaviour management. Many felt that such training could reduce stress among teachers and might help to reduce troublesome behaviour among their pupils. Nearly all of them thought that it would be of benefit to their younger colleagues who were just beginning their careers. (shrink)

Recent years have seen a concerted and systematic move towards a school-led system of initial teacher training in England. The role of universities, and particularly their part in engaging new teachers with educational theory, has been radically challenged. Only around half of new entrants to the profession now follow university-based training routes. These seismic changes to teacher education have been driven through with a minimum of formal consultation or public debate. In this urgent and compelling (...) pamphlet, Janet Orchard and Christopher Winch argue for a conception of teachers as professionals who require a deep understanding of the conceptual, empirical and normative dimensions of educational practice. They explain why university education departments are better placed than schools to help beginning teachers acquire that understanding. And they propose a significant expansion of initial teacher education, with full licensure contingent on completion of both a preliminary teaching qualification and a higher grade apprenticeship in the first two years of employment. Teachers need educational theory because they must understand what they are doing and why they are doing it, and must be able to think intelligently about how to do it better. At present, universities have the capacity and the expertise to meet this need. But they may not have it for much longer if the shift to school-based teacher education continues unabated. (shrink)

The preparation of teachers is a key process in the development of effective teachers, however, initial training always seems insufficient and outdated to produce the expected teaching profile and respond to the dynamic character of today's society. This article reports part of the research "teachers in the process of initial training" (2020-2021), developed in the context of a Faculty of Education Sciences, Chile. Based on a qualitative methodology and a case study research strategy, we worked with (...) 120 pedagogy students in the process of training, who offered their representations regarding the theory-practice relationship in the context of the Chilean educational system. In a complementary way, 5 focus groups were administered with the intention of enriching ideas and perspectives. The criteria to choose them were to be studying a pedagogy program, with experience of practices in schools and that they accepted to participate voluntarily, after signing consent. The results show that the theory-practice relationship can be understood in various ways: dependence, disagreement and integration which influence the way teaching is understood and its exercise. In terms of projections, the need arises to think of a training that in a bidirectional way manages to theorize the practice and experience the theory. (shrink)

La experiencia docente universitaria en los Grados en Maestro demuestra que existen obstáculos didácticos para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de las competencias asociadas a las funciones y prácticas docentes requeridas en la escuela. El objetivo es describir una propuesta didáctica diseñada ex profeso que permite superar estos obstáculos. Se demuestra que las metodologías activas que conceden mayor autonomía en el estudio y que fomentan la indagación son más propicias para el desarrollo de estos aprendizajes. El marco teórico se fundamenta en (...) tres teorías educativas: Teoría de las situaciones didácticas; Teoría del aprendizaje por descubrimiento y Teoría del liderazgo educativo. (shrink)

This article examines some of the similarities in the legitimation and structure of two national curricula in England: that for schools in the '80s; and that for initial teacher training in the '90s. The emphasis is on the latter, with reference to the former where relevant.

This article examines the implications of the change from competences to standards for initial teacher training. It analyses the implicit interpretation of quality and standards of practice in Teacher Training Agency (TTA) documentation and compares it to that of the Management Charter Initiative in their new management standards. The TTA approach is challenged as incomplete.

In connection with the European orientations, the teachers’ training in France follows deep reforms since 2005. The stake in which is a strengthening of the professional skills and knowledge which is leaning back against the research. On the base of longitudinal data collected with 3 generations of students, which are registered to the new Master›s degree «enseigner, éduquer, apprendre (to teach, to educate, to learn) « opened at the university of Burgundy in 2010, this research ponders over the way (...) the students (preparing themselves to become teachers) perceive the quality of their professionalization. In spite of the feeling not to be prepared enough for the exercise of their job, the speech of the students reveals an appropriation of the institutional logics of professionalization. In the current context of creation of the ESPE, this paradoxical speech invites to query the capacity of the institution to make legible its training’s processes in front of public, which remain determined by a vocational ideal. (shrink)

Se presentan los resultados obtenidos en la tesis de maestría Sistema de talleres de trabajo educativo para la capacitación del profesor guía de Medicina en Nuevitas con el objetivo de demostrar el impacto a partir de su implementación en la brigada estudiantil. Se exponen las definiciones elaboradas y las contextualizaciones. Se concluye que el sistema contribuyó al adecuado desempeño del profesor guía y al desarrollo del modo de actuación de los estudiantes. La rapidez y la calidad que implicó en la (...) praxis educativa constituyó el resultado más importante en el contexto de la carrera de Medicina en la Filial. Results achieved through the master's thesis "Educational work workshops system for the Medicine degree guiding teacher training" in Nuevitas are presented, aimed at demonstrating its impact starting from its implementation on a class. Elaborate definitions and contexts are exposed. The conclusionreached through it was that the system contributed to the adequate guiding teacher's performance and to the development of students' behavior. The speed and quality it involved in educational praxis constituted the most important result in the context of the Medicine degree in La Filial town. (shrink)

This book is designed to challenge dominant educational discourses on the underachievement of Black children and to engender new understandings in initial teacher education (ITE) about Black children's education and achievement. Based in empirical case study work and theoretical insights drawn from Bourdieu, hooks, Freire, and Giroux, Maylor calls for Black children's underachievement to be (re)theorised and (re)conceptualised within teacher education, and for students and teachers to become more "race"- and "difference"-minded in their practice.

Training for sustainable development is an educational challenge of prime importance. Physical activity and sports in natural environments provide training committed to sustainability and environmental education. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of an undergraduate training program in Physical Activities and Sports in Natural Environments concerned with sustainable development. A total of 113 students from the Autonomous University of Madrid who are studying a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and a (...) Master’s Degree in Teacher Training for Secondary Education and High School were involved. Specifically, we aimed to assess the impact of this training program on three dimensions related to Environmental Education. Its effect was also examined bearing in mind students’ sex, age and educational profile. Mixed-methods were used: for the quantitative approach, data were collected with the Environmental Attitude in Physical Activities in Natural Environments validated scale; for the qualitative approach individual reflective diaries completed by students that attended the program were analyzed. The results show positive effects on the students regarding the three dimensions of Environmental Education, for both the sportive and educational training profiles. The quantitative results do not present significant differences concerning the gender variable, although the qualitative information shows that female students perceived a greater environmental sensitivity during their practices. Regarding the age variable, significant differences are found in the youngest students with an educational profile. To conclude, the study ratifies that the program carried out generated improvements in terms of knowledge, behaviors and attitudes toward the environment and sustainable development. Future research should use larger samples and consider other variables related to education for sustainability. (shrink)

Summary Criticism of the traditional institution?based system of teacher training for primary schools is reviewed and recent responses to GATE requirements summarised. It is argued that such criticisms, and any radical reforms involving the transfer of training responsibility to the schools, should take account of client opinion of its likely effects. Clients here are taken to refer to students in training and school teachers including headteachers. For this study an open?ended questionnaire on the advantages and disadvantages (...) of traditional institution?based and radical school?based systems was administered to all students at the end of a PGCE course, and to a part?opportunity and part?random sample of teachers and headteachers in local schools. Their responses are tabulated and discussed. The vast majority of these clients foresaw considerable problems with a radically reformed system and, balancing the gains and losses that such a reform might bring, they demonstrated a clear preference for the existing system. (shrink)

O presente artigo partiu do questionamento: como os alunos do Curso de Pedagogia de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior (IES) de Curitiba são instigados para trabalhar na prática educacional a partir da perspectiva da diversidade cultural e de forma integrada entre as disciplinas História, Geografia e Ensino Religioso? Para tanto, utilizou-se a metodologia bibliográfica e documental. Analisou-se 712 planos de aula, elaborados pelos alunos das turmas de 2006 a 2010 na disciplina Metodologia de História, Geografia e Ensino Religioso, ofertada no (...) 3º ano do Curso de Pedagogia em uma IES de Curitiba. Os resultados apontam que o Curso atende o que preconiza a legislação educacional brasileira, formando docentes capazes de considerar a diversidade cultural na prática escolar. Esse é o primeiro passo para a construção do reconhecimento das diferentes culturas presentes no espaço escolar, potencialmente rico para se desenvolver relações democráticas, de respeito pelas diferenças, de ética e de garantia de direitos sociais e humanos. Palavras-Chave: Diversidade Cultural. Formação de Professores. Interdisciplinaridade.This article came from the question, as the students of the education of a Higher Education Institution-HEI of Curitiba, are instigated to work in educational practice from the perspective of cultural diversity, and interdisciplinary way between the three subject areas: History, Geography and Religious Education? To answer this question, the 712 lesson plans developed by students in the classes from 2006 to 2010 in the subject "Methodology of History, Geography and Religious Education, offered in the 3rd year of the Course of Pedagogy in a HEI of Curitiba, were analyzed. The results show that the course realize what the Brazilian Educational Documents appoint, trainee teachers to able consider the Brazilian cultural diversity in educational practice. This is the first step in building recognition of the different cultures present in school, potentially rich in order to develop democratic relations, respect for differences, ethics and ensuring social and human rights. Keywords : Cultural Diversity. Teacher education. Interdisciplinary. (shrink)

After a sustained period of relative calm, initial teacher education and training (ITET) in Wales has seen much change in recent times since devolution and all the indications are that this change agenda is likely to escalate in both the short and long term. In order to understand what has been happening in the ITET field in Wales, our paper sets out to achieve three things: first, it has contextualised the changing ITET, political, social and economic climate (...) within Wales. Second, it has presented ITET data for Wales from the onset of devolution to the present time. Thereafter, these data have been compared and contrasted. Third, we have attempted to project our findings forward, albeit in an era which is increasingly difficult to predict given both the financial climate and ?cuts? agenda. These latter aspects may result in the longer term, at best, to ITET in Wales becoming even further fragmented or reduced in numbers to, at worst, being decimated or changed forever from the more traditional scene which was apparent in both Wales and the rest of the UK since the Robbins Report aftermath in the late 1960s. (shrink)

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate whether oxygenated hemoglobin generated during a motor imagery task is associated with the motor learning level of the task.MethodsWe included 16 right-handed healthy participants who were trained to perform a ball rotation task. Hemodynamic brain activity was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy to monitor changes in oxy-Hb concentration during the BR MI task. The experimental protocol used a block design, and measurements were performed three times before and after the initial training of the BR (...) task as well as after the final training. The BR count during training was also measured. Furthermore, subjective vividness of MI was evaluated three times after NIRS measurement using the Visual Analog Scale.ResultsThe results showed that the number of BRs increased significantly with training. VAS scores also improved with training. Furthermore, oxy-Hb concentration and the region of interest showed a main effect. An interaction was confirmed, and it was ascertained that the change in oxy-Hb concentrations due to training was different for each ROI. The most significant predictor of subjective MI vividness was supplementary motor area oxy-Hb concentration.DiscussionHemodynamic brain activity during MI tasks may be correlated with task motor learning levels, since significant changes in oxy-Hb concentrations were observed following initial and final training in the SMA. In particular, hemodynamic brain activity in the SMA was suggested to reflect the MI vividness of participants. (shrink)

Emerging systems using artificial intelligence (AI) including the complexities of deep learning leading to decision-making outcomes pose challenge, risk alongside opportunities to revolutionize business sectors and thus, human life. Building AI that impact on critical decision-making must be entwined with ethical questioning from the initial conception of design. As academics educating future technologists, we must lead on embedding the importance of ethical thinking for equitable designed systems. Currently, it is unclear across UK Higher Education how widely ethics is taught (...) across programmes of study within computer science disciplines, their importance within the curriculum plus the confidence of academics for its delivery. This paper carries out a survey analysis to identify gaps, measures of engagement, expertise and knowledgebase of topics through both quantitative and qualitative questioning. The survey was distributed to 15 member universities of the Council for Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC) randomly selected across the UK for which 32 academics engaged in the study. Results show ethics was noted as being important although one-third reported it was not widely embedded across the curriculum. Just less than half of participants schedule the teaching of ethics regularly either across one or several modules. Interestingly, 91% of respondents stated that they have not received any instruction or training and that 62% felt that they require more training on the subject matter. This paper is inspired by wider research from European studies however, this study provides a specific novel focus on a broad range of UK universities, providing comparative analysis and unique findings from the UK perspective. The significance of these findings suggest academics perspectives vary with specific training needs. This demonstrates that this early-stage research requires further exploration of the wider computer science curriculum, sharing of good practice and collaborative working. (shrink)

It is known that every non-universal self-full degree in the structure of the degrees of computably enumerable equivalence relations (ceers) under computable reducibility has exactly one strong minimal cover. This leaves little room for embedding wide partial orders as initial segments using self-full degrees. We show that considerably more can be done by staying entirely inside the collection of non-self-full degrees. We show that the poset can be embedded as an initial segment of the (...) class='Hi'>degrees of ceers with infinitely many classes. A further refinement of the proof shows that one can also embed the free distributive lattice generated by the lower semilattice as an initial segment of the degrees of ceers with infinitely many classes. (shrink)

The objective of the study is to verify the reliability and validity of the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice, as well as to determine the teaching of Early childhood and Primary education students’ motivations and perceptions for the choice of this degree. The sample consisted of 262 student teachers aged between 18 and 27. According to degree, 54.2% of the participants were enrolled in Early Childhood Education and 45.8% in Primary Education. The instrument used in the study was the Factors Influencing (...) Teaching Choice, FIT-Choice Scale, adapted to Spanish by Gratacós and López-Jurado. Results evidenced the high reliability and validity of the scale that is similar to the original model, presenting 12 motivational factors and 6 perceptions. The main reasons that lead to choose teaching profession, despite gender differences, are: having influence in the educational children’s process, the intrinsic value of the qualification, the fact that this profession contributes socially, or working with children. Also, students consider that teaching is a demanding profession and they are satisfied with the degree choice. The most important factors influencing the choice of education degree are intrinsic motivations and perceptions as the vocation, in contrast to external reasons such as economic incentives or social recognition. (shrink)

When, after the agreeable fatigues of solicitation, Mrs Millamant set out a long bill of conditions subject to which she might by degrees dwindle into a wife, Mirabell offered in return the condition that he might not thereby be beyond measure enlarged into a husband. With age and experience in research come the twin dangers of dwindling into a philosopher of science while being enlarged into a dotard. The philosophy of science, I believe, should not be the preserve of (...) senile scientists and of teachers of philosophy who have themselves never so much as understood the contents of a textbook of theoretical physics, let alone done a bit of mathematical research or even enjoyed the confidence of a creating scientist. On the latter count I run no risk: Any reader will see that I am untrained (though not altogether unread) in classroom philosophy. Of no ignorance of mine do I boast, indeed I regret it, but neither do I find this one ignorance fatal here, for few indeed of the great philosophers to explicate whose works hodiernal professors of phil osophy destroy forests of pulp were themselves so broadly and specially trained as are their scholiasts. In attempt to palliate the former count I have chosen to collect works written over the past thirty years, some of them not published before, and I include only a few very recent essays. (shrink)

Bien que l’agenda international ait souligné la nécessité de diversifier le personnel enseignant, les recherches portant sur les étudiants en situation de handicap en formation initiale d’enseignant sont assez rares. Pourtant, la formation des enseignants est confrontée à un véritable dilemme: l’obligation de proposer des aménagements raisonnables tout en respectant un parcours de formation qui soit conforme aux standards de la profession (“dilemme de la compétence professionnelle”). Cet article propose une revue systématique concernant (1) les principales questions liées aux étudiants (...) en situation de handicap dans le cadre de la formation initiale et (2) les différentes formes que revêt le “dilemme de la compétence professionnelle” au sein du programme. Vingt études empiriques, publiées entre 1990 et 2018, ont été incluses. Sept domaines thématiques et trois formes de dilemme (institutionnel, personnel et culturel) sont ressortis des analyses. Les principales conclusions montrent que le parcours personnel des étudiants en situation de handicap dans le domaine de la formation initiale est difficile et complexe. Bien qu’elles révèlent le rôle crucial du “dilemme de la compétence professionnelle,” elles montrent aussi la nécessité de le redéfinir en tenant compte du rôle actif joué par les étudiants en situation de handicap dans l’adoption de stratégies d’adaptation, au-delà des aménagements raisonnables obtenus. La possibilité d’une pluralité de profils de compétences dépassant l’idée stricte d’un profil uniforme est également discutée. (shrink)

Oral communication skills are essential to life in society. Yet, in French-speaking Belgium, this skill is rarely taught or assessed, either in compulsory education or in initial teacher training, even though it is called upon during internships and training courses. Our research questions are: When and how is oral language taught and assessed in teacher training? Is there a link between trainers' beliefs and their practices? To answer these questions, a content analysis was used (...) to identify trainers' portraits and beliefs. (shrink)

A formação inicial na construção de identidade profissional em educação física1 Resumo: A presente pesquisa tem o objetivo de analisar como as experiências de formação inicial de formandos em Educação Física da Universidade Federal do Paraná, contribuem para a construção de identidade profissional. A produção de dados ocorreu por meio da realização de dois grupos focais distintos, um com formandos da modalidade de licenciatura e outro de bacharelado em EF. O programa de Análise de Conteúdo Atlas.TI 8 foi utilizado para (...) criar as unidades de análise do eixo previamente definido sobre formação inicial. Identificou-se, que os formandos ao experimentarem práticas de estágio e trabalho, de pesquisa nos programas e projetos de iniciação científica, além de refletirem, construírem, planejarem, criarem, elaborarem seus métodos e metodologias de ensino e aprendizagem, constroem identidade profissional mestiças não articuladas integralmente aos processos de pesquisa e criação de métodos e metodologias. Palavras-chave: Identidade profissional. Formação inicial. Pesquisa. Método. Initial training in the construction of professional identity of physical education: This research aims to analyze how the initial training experiences in Physical Education of students at Universidade Federal do Paraná contribute to the construction of professional identity. Data were produced through focus groups; one with students of the licentiate degree and the other with students of the bachelor’s degree in Physical Education. The Content Analysis Program Atlas.TI 8 was used to create a unit of analysis from a previously-defined axis on initial training. It was identified, through their experiences on the practical training placement and work, and through research programs and projects, as well as reflecting, constituting, planning, creating, and elaborating their teaching and learning methods and methodologies, build mixed professional identities that are not fully articulated with the processes of research and creation of methods and methodologies. Keywords: Professional identity. Initial training. Research. Method. La formación inicial en la construcción de identidad profesional en educación física Resumen: La presente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar como las experiencias de formación inicial de graduados en Educación Física de Universidade Federal do Paraná, contribuyen en la construcción de identidades profesionales. La producción de datos ocurrió por medio de la realización de dos grupos distintos, un con graduados en la modalidad de grado y el otro en licenciatura en Educación Física. El programa de Análisis de Contenido Atlas.TI 8 fue utilizado para crear las unidades de análisis de eje previamente definido sobre la formación inicial. Se identificó que los graduados al comenzar las prácticas y el trabajo, de investigación en los programas y proyectos de iniciación científica, además de reflexionar, construir, planear, crear, elaborar sus métodos y metodologías de enseñanza, construyen identidades profesionales mestizas no articuladas integralmente a los procesos de investigación y creación de métodos y metodologías. Palabras clave: Identidade profesional. Formación inicial. Investigación. Método. 1 Pesquisa financiada com bolsa de pós-doutorado pela Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Capes. Data de registro: 12/06/2019 Data de aceite: 23/04/2020. (shrink)

When trying to help teachers cope with the critical situations they face in classrooms, public policies are mainly concerned with improving initial teacher training. I claim in this article that the role of lifelong learning should no longer be undermined and that the design of teachers' training should be supported by a thorough examination of the cognitive processes involved. A faulty view of cognition may explain both our emphasis on initial training and most of (...) the difficulties faced in designing teachers' training. Searching existing alternative metaphors of cognition and investigating new ones constitutes a way of coping with these problems: first to design new forms of training, second to understand the processes involved in innovative training methods that have already been implemented. My focus in this article is precisely the ‘metaphor of cognition’ that underlies innovative teacher training methods. This metaphor is based on Peirce's pragmaticism, and it describes teachers' training as a process of taking and changing habits. This article mainly investigates the links between Peirce's later semiotics, Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception and Varela's theory of enaction, in order to propose a threefold definition of ‘habit’ and define the notion of ‘educational gesture’, which constitutes a translation of the concept of habit in the field of education and training. (shrink)

This paper traces the dramatic proliferation of leadership roles in English primary and secondar schools, due mainly to central government education policy of the past two decades. This has transformed schools from relatively simple to highly complex organizations and has impacted on the working conditions of, and demands on, teachers, together with many aspects of schooling. These changes are illustrated with typical examples of schools' leadership structures and their functioning. Interview data provide teachers' views on, and reactions to, the changes (...) in school leadership. The paper also reviews the ways in which teacher education institutions have responded in terms of providing initial and in-service education and training to equip the profession for this new and developing challenge. It examines the reception of such programmes by teachers and the reported impact on schools' management and the role of leadership within it. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to present a mechanism set up by and for future primary school teachers in their final year of initial training so as to determine whether an assessment grid would benefit from being presented in a holistic or in a targeted manner, presenting only those assessment items relating to the support provided to pupils aged 5 to 8. The article sets out the different stages of this mechanism and then proceeds to highlight the (...) results obtained from the experiment. (shrink)

While virtual simulations are a familiar professional training tool, they have only recently been implemented in teacher education programs. These simulations are used to complement traditional student teacher placement. In this paper, the author critically examines one teacher training simulation, TeachLivE, specifically in terms of its implicit conceptions of what it means to teach and to learn. The analysis utilizes Aristotle’s explanation of the Greek concepts energeia and dunamis, as well as Heidegger’s interpretation of Aristotle’s (...) Metaphysics. The author argues that TeachLivE’s structure implies an ontology of teaching and learning that precludes the cultivation of a teacherly disposition, and that, were this ontology to be corrected, teacher training simulations would be rendered superfluous. (shrink)

Students from four different institutions were interviewed at the end of their secondary postgraduate certificate in education year to obtain their views about various aspects of their training including their perceptions of the support given to them during school placements. Their responses are analysed in the context of changing requirements for courses of initial teacher training and of an increase in the variety of training routes available. These students received support of variable quality from both (...) higher education tutors and school teachers. At best both teachers and tutors were valued for the complementary roles which they were able to play. While there appears to be scope for some interchangeability of role, other aspects would not be easily assumed by the other partner. Students valued school‐based work enormously but provided little evidence of support for wholly school‐based courses. Implications of these findings are discussed for future initial teacher training provision including issues of quality control. (shrink)

continent. 2.1 (2012): 6–21. The French philosopher and novelist Tristan Garcia was born in Toulouse in 1981. This makes him rather young to have written such an imaginative work of systematic philosophy as Forme et objet , 1 the latest entry in the MétaphysiqueS series at Presses universitaires de France. But this reference to Garcia’s youthfulness is not a form of condescension: by publishing a complete system of philosophy in the grand style, he has already done what none of us (...) in the older generation of speculative realists has done so far. His book is sophisticated, erudite, rigorous, imaginatively rich, and abundant in worldly wisdom– despite the author’s conclusion that wisdom does not exist. The quality and scope of Forme et objet took few observers by surprise, since Garcia has been treated as an emerging philosopher to watch across half a decade of Parisian oral tradition. But Garcia was not just the subject of rumor, being already well known to the French public as a writer of fiction. His debut novel, La meilleure part des hommes , 2 was awarded the 2008 Prix de Flore 3 and has already appeared in English as Hate: A Romance . 4 His follow-up novel, Mémoires de la jungle , 5 made clever use of a chimpanzee narrator. Nor was Garcia only published as a novelist before last November: his philosophical study L’Image 6 had already appeared when the author was just twenty-six, a year before he was crowned by the muses at the historic Café de Flore. And then in 2011, just months before the appearance of Forme et objet , Garcia published a widely distributed work entitled Nous, animaux et humains , 7 with its focus on Jeremy Bentham’s ideas about animals. Given this prolific and versatile track record, an optimistic scenario might envisage the young Garcia as one of those combined literary/philosophical talents who appear intermittently in France across the centuries: Jean-Paul Sartre is merely the most famous recent case. While more time is needed to see how Garcia will channel his impressive mental energies, Forme et objet displays such breadth of insight that its author has a good chance to emerge as one of the leading philosophers of his generation. If we accept Aristotle’s dictum that the peak mental age is fifty-one, then to read Garcia’s massive book is to gain some idea of what European philosophy might look like in the futuristic-sounding 2030’s. The present article is confined to Forme et objet . At 486 pages, the work is obviously daunting in size. Indeed, it is even longer than it sounds, given that many of its early sections are printed in a smaller typeface to designate them as supplemental commentary to the main flow of the argument. But while the length of the book reportedly led to delays in French publication, and will probably slow the inevitable appearance of an English translation, the length of the book should not deter interested readers– much of it results from Garcia’s teacherly writing style. Whereas Quentin Meillassoux’s prose displays an arctic economy of means, Garcia’s style is reminiscent of the repeated lessons of oral classroom proceedings. Rarely is the reader given fewer than three or four chances to master an idea before the author moves on to the next. In practice, the style feels welcoming rather than long-winded. Otherwise, the structure of Forme et objet is surprisingly simple. There is a useful Introduction of less than twenty pages. Then comes Book I: Formally , running to approximately 135 pages. Here Garcia outlines the most basic features of a thing “no matter what it is,” or n’importe quoi , an everyday phrase that Garcia shapes into a technical term. This part of the book feels at times like a more amiable version of Hegel’s Science of Logic , a parallel emphasized further by the threefold articulation of its theme: 1. Thing; 2. Thing and World; 3. Being and Understanding. This is followed by the much longer Book II: Objectively , totaling more than 300 pages. It contains sixteen essay-like meditations on specific kinds of objects—including time, animals, humans, history, gender, and death. Here each chapter rolls smoothly into the next, making this second part of the book feel more like a different work of Hegel: The Phenomenology of Spirit . But these are merely analogies. Garcia is no Hegelian, even if the book contains a few dialectical flourishes that seem to reflect his early enthusiasm for the Frankfurt School. Forme et objet ends with a six-page Coda, followed by the usual page of acknowledgments. In what follows, I will briefly summarize each of these four parts of the book before ending with some more general remarks. Before doing so, it will be useful to situate Garcia biographically (as much as I am able) and philosophically. Though Toulouse is his native city, his formative years were spent largely in Algeria, where his family has deep roots. During our sole private conversation, Garcia mentioned that his parents are professors of literature. 8 As a student of philosopher Garcia flourished so early that many of his current ideas date to his teenaged years: “There are sentences in Forme et objet that I wrote when I was seventeen,” he said in response to a question on that cold night on the Canal St.-Martin. I recalled that remark when reading his brilliant account, late in the book, of the central role of adolescence in contemporary culture. While many prodigies blow through their formal academic training without serious obstruction, Garcia’s student memories are rich in tales of isolation and struggle, though equally rich in gratitude for a half-dozen or so exceptional teachers who provided the intellectual space he needed: Meillassoux and Alain Badiou are simply two of the most prominent figures on that list. Though there are many points of agreement between Garcia’s philosophical position and my own, he not only reached his position years before reading my work, 9 he arrived along a rather different path: not through phenomenology, but via the Frankfurt School, which may be one of the reasons for his profound fascination with aesthetics. Garcia’s cultural background is as broad as one could wish: he is no less informed about punk rock and European football leagues than about the spiritualist roots of Bergson’s philosophy. Curious about everything and contemptuous towards nothing, Garcia can be expected to write insightfully on dozens of topics in the years to come. Given that his philosophy is so personally tantalizing in its agreements and disagreements with my own, and given the great internal richness of Forme et objet itself, the present review is no better than a first effort at coming to terms with the challenges posed by this minstrel from the rising generation. This is especially intriguing for older Generation X’ers like me, since confrontation with the younger generation is one of the many themes treated insightfully in Garcia’s book. 1. Introduction Garcia begins in defense of a so-called “flat ontology,” in which all things are equally things. While Roy Bhaskar 10 used this term pejoratively to refer to anti-realist philosophies that flatten everything onto an epistemic plane of human access, Manuel DeLanda 11 (an admirer of Bhaskar) reversed it into the positive principle that all realities are equally realities. Similar notions can be found in the “absistence” of Alexius Meinong, 12 the “irreduction” of Bruno Latour, 13 and my own critique 14 of the undermining/overmining pair. Also noteworthy is Levi Bryant’s use of the term “flat ontology” throughout The Democracy of Objects 15 and his earlier essay “The Ontic Principle.” 16 But for Garcia, flatness is only one face of the cosmos, and one that he ultimately declares to be rather impoverished. Even so, he always remains an advocate of a flat ontology. Insofar as everything is equally something, no matter what it is ( n’importe qui ), everything is equally a thing, equally solitary in its relation with world. This is why his book abounds in those long lists of random, ontologically equivalent entities that Ian Bogost has playfully termed “Latour Litanies.” 17 The first litany in Garcia’s book runs as follows: “We live in this world of things, where a cutting of acacia, a gene, a computer-generated image, a transplantable hand, a musical sample, a trademarked name, or a sexual service are comparable things.” (7) Yet Garcia is frankly dualistic; his flat ontology only lasts until page 159 and the end of Book I (entitled “Formally”), which deals entirely with things that are equally things. Thereafter Garcia turns his attention from things to objects, which are not flat in the least, but engage in hierarchical relations with one another. In agreement with both DeLanda and the speculative realists, Garcia proclaims that his book “proposes to put to the test a thought about things rather than a thought about our thought about things .” (8) Just as ducklings are “imprinted” (9) after hatching and treat the first creature they see as their mother, philosophers are imprinted by the idea with which they begin. Hence, philosophies that begin with human access will never truly find their way back to things. This makes Garcia rather suspicious of twentieth century philosophy, since “the twentieth century—to which in some way this work proposes to bid adieu—has been a period of theorizing modes of access to things rather than things...” (9) Among other possible benefits of the philosophy of things that Garcia proposes, it is fully able to account for thought as a special variant of things, while the reverse is not possible.(10) In Book I of Forme et objet , Garcia’s “things” are so flat, so de-determined, that he is forced to renounce some of the most basic features ascribed to things by most realists. As he tells us in his foreboding third footnote: “We will maintain that the solitude [of things] is less than unity, less than identity, and that it does not imply acceptance (any more than refusal) of the principle of non-contradiction.” (11) In a contemporary world cluttered with too many things, Garcia’s flat and formal plane provides us with some breathing room: “The formal plan of thought enables or re-enables us to cut short all accumulation—whether of knowing, experience, or action—by a simplicity, an impoverished surface...” (13) As Garcia says elsewhere in responding to a Deleuzian critic of the book, his starting point in flat ontology is designed to obstruct the claims of both analytic philosophy and Hegelianism: “Hence, this work seeks to protect each thing—real, imaginary, inconsistent, contradictory—both against Ockham’s Razor and against the Aufhebung or dialectical process.” 18 Yet contrary to the equalizing spirit of many flat ontologies, “we will add to our formal ontology of the equal, an objective ontology of the unequal.” (13) But initially, Garcia joins all flat ontologists in holding that everything is irreducible: “this irreducibility, which we will term the ‘chance’ of each thing... also marks the refusal of a positive thought that reduces things exclusively to natural things, or social things, or historical things, etc.” (15) This irreducible “chance” of a thing emerges as an important technical term in the book, always paired with its inverted brother, the “price to pay” ( prix à payer ). On pages 17-19, we find the only diagrams in the book. What they illustrate is that Garcia wishes to avoid two equally dangerous extremes. The first is the philosophy of substance, featuring the thing-in-itself as a mighty river fed by attributes as if by subordinate tributary streams. This model can be found in many of the classic thinkers of West and East alike. In it, “there is obviously a hierarchization between that which is dragged towards something other than itself, and this other which serves it as an ontological support while supporting its proper being.” (16) For Garcia, the second extreme worth avoiding is the philosophy of events: “One thus conceives trajectories of being, identified as events, facts, powers, intensities, or intentionality. These vectors of being come first, bearing and supporting being, displacing it, but without ever finding a stopping point, a buffer, an objective consistency.” (17) The first model gives us a thing too wrapped up in itself, too compact . This word “compact” (the French and the English are the same) is another technical term for Garcia. But if the “compact” model of things leads us to something more than things, the philosophy of events gives us less than things, by dissolving them into a play of vectors. Garcia’s alternative lies midway between these two extremes: Being enters the thing, being comes out of it. And a thing is nothing other than the difference between the enters and the being that comes out. Thus, the circuit of being is never halted. In the thing, there is never the thing-in-itself. And the thing is never in-itself, but outside of itself. Nonetheless, being is not eventally “pollinated” by vectors: it possesses an objecting halting-point... (19) This single idea is the key to Garcia’s book: the thing is neither a self-contained durable lump nor some sort of evental flux. Instead, the thing is the difference between its various components and its relations with its environment. Or stated differently: “the price to pay for this disposition is a circulation of being that systematically distinguishes two senses of things: that which is in the thing , and that in which the thing is , or that which encompasses it and that which it encompasses,” (19) translating comprendre here as “encompass.” 19 In a beautiful description of a piece of black slate, Garcia sums up the various minerals, qualities, and shapes that compose [ comprend ] it, and calls them “that which is in the thing,” (20) noting that this tells us nothing about “that in which [the slate] is”—namely, all the various situations in which the black slate can be found. Instead, the slate is the difference between these two: the most characteristic principle of Garcia’s philosophy. 2. Formally Book One of Forme et objet , “Formally,” is concerned with the formal equality of all things in a flat world. “Two questions mark the boundaries of reflection: of what is everything composed [ composé ], and: what do all things compose?” (27) Looking downward, we wish to know what everything is made of; looking upward, we want to know the ultimate result of the combination of all things. Here we must turn our attention to the thing n’importe quoi— no matter what it is. (30) Anything with finite qualities is obviously too specific to be relevant to global ontological questions. To an equal degree, something possessing all qualities (think of Whitehead’s God) 20 would not be n’importe quoi either, since it would still be too definite, even if incredibly vast. The same holds for contradictions, since these all differ from each other. The square circle, the non-white black white, and the non-city city are all too distinct to count as the thing no matter what it is. The n’importe quoi must be devoid of all specific qualities, including contradictory ones. In one of the more intriguing points in his book, so reminiscent of Meinong, Garcia proclaims that “the ‘no matter what it is’ is neither a reality nor an abstract construction, nor both of these at once; the ‘no matter what it is’ is simply the plane of equality of that which is real, that which is possible, that which is inexistent, that which is past, that which is impossible, that which is true, that which is false, that which is bad.”(39-40) Since everything has two faces, it would be a grievous mistake to focus on just one of them at the expense of the other, as physicalism or materialism do when reducing the world to minuscule physical underpinnings. For scientistic materialism, “it is either atoms, particles, or fields of force... which are the things.” (47-48) Moreover, “these more-than-things are accompanied by less-than-things: for example, ideas or facts of consciousness are determined by the state of matter and are not autonomous things, but manifestations reduced to secondary effects of material processes...” (48) On this point, Garcia’s position is in complete accord with my own critique of undermining and overmining. 21 Where we disagree is that Garcia is more deeply suspicious of the notion of substance, which I view as salvageable with a few needed changes, while Garcia sees this operation as hopeless: “A substance, in the history of philosophy, is the more-than-thing par excellence.” (51) Another agreement between our positions is visible when Garcia claims (correctly, in my opinion) “that it is vain to distinguish between things which are material and those which are not.” (52) Yet we also find an even more important disagreement, since for Garcia withdrawal cannot be the quality of a thing. Instead, the absence of a thing is simultaneous with it, embodied in all that is not it– the absence of the sculpture of a woman is to be found in the mold that appears at the same time as it, and thus withdrawal must be viewed as an “event” rather than as something pertaining to an object. For Garcia, nothing withdraws beyond access. Since we must distinguish between “that which is something” and “that which something is,” and since the former is identified with “no matter what it is is” and the latter with “ not no matter what it is,” we can say that “everything is thus a milieu, a fragile link between ‘no matter what it is’ and ‘ not no matter what it is.’” (62) And here we find Garcia’s critique of the thing-in-itself: “A thing is never defined en bloc . We can affirm that a thing is this or that, but that does not suffice. It is still necessary to state precisely that which is this thing .” (62) Stated differently, “something is not in itself : for that which is in the thing is not the thing, and that in which the thing is is not the thing.” (62) And here Garcia and I, facing the same evidence, draw opposite conclusions. For me, the fact that nothing can be identified with either its components or its concrete location means that the thing must be something in-itself distinct from both of these. Yet for Garcia, to be in-itself would mean to be identified with just one of these two extreme terms, and hence the thing can only be the difference between them. Garcia is equally suspicious of the classical tendency to view “unity” as a property of the thing, since in his eyes unity is too relational a property to belong to things. (65) While specific things are situated determinately with respect to other things, we are still speaking here about the thing no matter what it is, and this can be viewed only in terms of solitude, which all things share: a human being, a hand, or a chair or all equally things insofar as they are on their own , not insofar as they are one . (64) A thing is alone, and relates only to the one thing that is not another thing: world. In a striking parallel to my own argument for a partial revival of occasionalism, Garcia tells us that “the things communicate only by their solitude: it is because everything is equally on its own in the world that things can be together, enmeshed in one another.” (67) Alone in their solitude, things all relate to world, which serves as a mediator allowing them to become mixed up in one another. As we have seen, one reason that nothing can be in itself is because everything is in something else. For Garcia, “to be in something and to be something are equivalent.” (69) Stated more broadly, “being is thus the difference between the two aspects of each thing: that which is it, and that which it is.” (70) And even more vividly: “a thing is almost like a sack: there is that which one puts in the sack and that which remains outside the sack.” (70) But not quite like a sack, “since a thing is not a thin skin or film. Instead, a thing is comparable to a sack that is immaterial and without thickness: it is nothing other than the difference between that which is this thing and that which thing is, between content and container.” (71) Nothing can be in-itself because everything is two selves at once. For example, we cannot say that our self is defined by our consciousness: “Everything has a self because nothing is in itself. The self is not the quality of that which is related to itself (which is conscious, for example) or which thinks itself related to itself. Nonetheless, for an entity called ‘conscious’ to be related to itself, it is necessary that this very relation should be another thing than the self to which it is related.” (71) Consciousness cannot be the self, precisely because it is other than that of which it is conscious. Nothing is able to grasp itself. The self is “the function by which being and composition [ compréhension ] are mutually excluded...” (72) The self is “the point of shadow of everything that projects some light...” (72) The in-itself faces two opposite dangers: “For something to be in-itself is to be a self. Something which is a self flies out through one of its two sides... Stated differently, being in-itself is simply the possibility of a double failure.” (73) The in-itself can be termed compact : “There remains to us a means of thinking that which does not fully enter into the world, though without exiting from it. This means is what we call the compact.” (76) In a sense, the compact is the opposite of the world. For in the case of the world, everything enters it and it enters nothing; as for the compact, it enters the world (since it is something, after all) while nothing enters it. (77) The compact marks the presence of the impossible in the world. (78) It is not impossible, but possible only on the condition that it fails. (78) The time has come to speak of where a thing is located. “The sole condition of a thing is that of being in another thing than itself, and thus in another thing than something.” (78) A condition is “that which determines something, that which forms something, that in which something is.” (78) As for humans, “the condition of someone is his situation; my social condition is that which socially determines me, my place and my function...” (79) More generally, “to be conditioned is to find oneself reduced to that in which one is.” (79) Everything is conditioned, but nothing is reducible to this condition. To determine the condition of something is to determine in what it is. A thing is located in that which contradicts it, just as a statue exists in its mold, which is precisely that which it is not. Since the thing is finite and definite, its condition or form must be infinite and indefinite. That in which all things are is the world, which Garcia also terms “the whole.” (81) “To try to be in-itself is to attempt to remain outside the world. And indeed, to try to be in-itself is only a path of entry into the world.” (83) For Garcia, “the world is not the pre-existent container of the things it contains, a priori , nor the construction by the mind of a fictional ensemble of all things, a posteriori .” (85) Instead, the world is simultaneous with all things; the two always go together. The world cannot be a determinate world, such as the physical universe or mathematical space, since these are already too specific and limited. “Every determinate world, which is in fact a universe , is a ‘big thing’ [ grosse chose ]: it is a set, however vast, of composite things which itself embodies a thing.” (85) Every determinate world is really just a “big thing.” Stated differently, “it is nothing other than a balanced milieu between the things that compose it and the thing that it composes.” (85) We generally picture the world as a physical univer. (shrink)

Prospective preschool teachers often incorporate picturebooks into their teaching practices in kindergartens as part of their training. However, they often rely heavily on asking children numerous questions while reading picturebooks, such as identifying the protagonists of the story, detailing the sequence of events, and exploring the who, what, when, where, and why. This approach may result in a superficial interrogation of the text, overlooking (i) the nuanced messages conveyed through illustrations or the synergy of text and imagery, and (ii) (...) the potential opportunities that could arise if children were encouraged to pose their own inquiries through philosophical exploration, delving deeper into the themes presented in picturebooks. This research was conducted in 2023 with 36 prospective preschool teachers from the University of Crete, Greece. The research comprises two phases. In the initial phase, the student teachers established a philosophical community of inquiry and acquired several philosophical inquiry skills. Following each inquiry session, student teachers engaged in self-reflection and assessed their contributions, identifying aspects of their experience that are applicable to using picturebooks with kindergarten children. They then developed lesson plans centred around the philosophical exploration of these picturebooks. In the subsequent phase, student teachers received supervision as they implemented their lesson plans in a kindergarten and subsequently reflected on their teaching experiences. The findings illustrate both the advantages and challenges encountered by prospective preschool teachers when approaching literature from a philosophical perspective. Additionally, the student teachers reflected on the interconnectedness of literature and philosophy, as well as the potential benefits for both educators and children through this integrated approach. A correction to this article was published on 22 January 2025. (shrink)

The fascination with brain research is widespread, and school teachers are no exception. This growing interest, usually noticed by the increased supply of short-term training or books on how to turn the brain more efficient, leads us to think about their basic training and outreach resources available. Little is known about what the official Initial Teacher Training offers concerning the brain literature and if it meets scientific standards. Also, what are the science communication materials that (...) teachers can access to learn about the developing brain remain undiscussed. First, we examined the ITT courses taught in Portuguese Higher Education, both in public and private institutions, to identify the syllabus with updated neuroscientific knowledge. Second, we searched for the neuroscience-related books published in the last 6 years through the National Library of Portugal database. Thirty ITT courses and 35 outreach publications were reviewed through a rapid review methodology. Our results showed an absence of curricular units indicating in their programs that brain research, and its relationship with learning, would be taught in a representative and updated way. In contrast, the number of brain-related books for educators increased in Portugal, corroborating the demand for this field of study by these professionals. Based on the literature that shows how misunderstandings about the brain have increased in school contexts, our discussion recognizes that science outreach could be a way to increase the scientific literacy of school teachers with the research community working more in this direction, but, since a previous problem seems to be unsolved, there is an urgent need for specialized attention to the development of training curricula for future kindergarten and elementary school teachers. (shrink)

Using properties of${\cal K}$-pairs of sets, we show that every nonzero enumeration degreeabounds a nontrivial initial segment of enumeration degrees whose nonzero elements have all the same jump asa. Some consequences of this fact are derived, that hold in the local structure of the enumeration degrees, including: There is an initial segment of enumeration degrees, whose nonzero elements are all high; there is a nonsplitting high enumeration degree; every noncappable enumeration degree is high; every nonzero (...) low enumeration degree can be capped by degrees of any possible local jump ; every enumeration degree that bounds a nonzero element of strictly smaller jump, is bounding; every low enumeration degree below a non low enumeration degreeacan be capped belowa. (shrink)

Previous governments and other commentators have emphasized the relationship between a teacher's knowledge of the subject material being taught and the quality of learning outcomes. This has been reflected in the entry requirements to Initial Teacher Training of public examination performance in the core subjects. However, disquiet has been expressed as to the efficacy of such qualifications as indicators of knowledge and skills at the entry point. Recent changes to ITT regulations require students' actual knowledge of (...) the content of the three core subjects to be audited. This paper reports and reflects on the effects that re-examining their knowledge and skills in mathematics has had on the confidence of primary trainee teachers. It presents some key questions that must be addressed if the current audit regulations are indeed to benefit our future teachers and to enhance the learning of our pupils. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Rita Gross as Teacher, Mentor, FriendKathleen M. ErndlI have been asked to speak about the work of Rita Gross from the point of view of someone who was once her student. Not only was I her student, I was one of her very first students. She was my first teacher of religious studies during my first semester of college in the first semester of her first full-time (...) academic position. The year was 1971; the place was New College, a small, alternative liberal arts college in Sarasota, Florida. As the eldest child in the second generation of a working-class immigrant family, I was the first person in my family to pursue higher education. While none of my grandparents had completed high school, both of my parents were high school graduates and my father had risen to a professional level as an engineer through on-the-job training and his own diligence, so my attending college was perhaps the next logical step in achieving the "American dream." However, my choice of college was a bit unusual.New College, as might be expected by its name (though I later discovered was named after a college at Oxford), was new and relatively unknown, lacking a football team and an engineering school, which my parents, with their limited knowledge of higher education, considered essential. But by this time I was somewhat of an educational radical, having been influenced by Angela Davis and Paolo Freire.1 A local newspaper article of the time described New College students as "rich, radical, and hedonistic" (I can only attest to ever having been one of the above). The Underground Guide to the College of Your Choice2 described New College as a place where students taught the classes and where "chicks suffer from underwear famine." While this was somewhat of an overstatement, it was the kind of place where students initiated courses, were largely free from required courses, conducted unusual independent research, came to class barefoot, and sat on the floor. In any case, as the first in my working-class immigrant family to attend college and as an idealist who had chafed against a system that I felt, to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau, allowed schooling to interfere with education, I was excited to be in any college and especially in one with a reputation for experimental modes of learning.When I went to meet my assigned faculty advisor to figure out my schedule and negotiate a "contract" of study, I was told that I had been reassigned to a new faculty member who was "young and full of energy." This, of course, was Rita Gross. Asian religious and cultural traditions place a strong significance on the first meeting with [End Page 57] one's teacher. To be honest, I do not remember much about our first meeting, but I can say in retrospect that it was life changing. After meeting with her, I decided to take her course, Indian Religions I, as well as courses in philosophy, literature, and constitutional law. On my first day of college, my initial plan had been to major in philosophy, with a focus on legal philosophy, with the eventual goal of law school and practicing constitutional, civil rights, or public interest law. But my experience in that Indian Religions I course changed that plan forever. I subsequently took Indian Religions II, then Indian Religious III, and by that time I was hooked. I took several other courses with Rita, including East Asian Religions and a tutorial on Primal Religions. In January of my second year, at Rita's encouragement, I went to Sri Lanka on a study program, doing a project under Rita's direction on lay Buddhist practices. By the time I returned to New College for my third and final year, Rita had already left for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, but that was not the end of our association. We have stayed in contact for almost forty years now, meeting at the AAR, visiting each other's homes, and talking about each other's work and lives. I have hosted lectures or workshops by Rita at all three institutions where I have taught. I... (shrink)

Microgames are rapidly gaining increased attention and are highly being considered because of the technology-based media that enhances students’ learning interests and educational activities. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new construct through confirmatory factor analysis, to comprehensively understand the factors influencing the use of microgames in mathematics class. Participants of the study were the secondary school teachers in West Java, Indonesia, which had a 1-year training in microgames development. We applied a quantitative approach to collect the data (...) via online questionnaires through google form. Structural Equation Modelling with AMOS software was used to analyze the proposed model. Empirical results confirmed the perceived easy to use and subjective norm influence relationship with teachers’ microgame usage behaviors and intentions. In this condition, SN was found to have the initial significant influence on behavioral intention, as attitude, BI, and facilitating conditions also correlated with the actual use of microgames. Furthermore, the largest influential factor was BI, with the results subsequently showing that TPACK had no significant influence on the actual use of microgames. This report is expected to help bridge the gap across several previous studies, as well as contribute to the explanation and prediction of the factors influencing the teachers’ mathematical utilization of the study’s program. Besides this, it also helps to increase the use of microgames in teaching and learning activities. (shrink)

The study examines the need to train future teachers using modern information and communication technologies in the context of adaptation to the aspects of postmodern society. It was found that contemporary postmodern education is impossible without application of information and communication technologies, the use of which gradually leads to changes in the content, the methods and technologies of training future teachers. The analysis of scientific literature, which confirms recognition of ICT as a key technology of the 21st century and (...) the urgency of the problem of development and application of educational technologies capable of modernizing and reforming traditional forms of education in order to meet the level of education of future teachers to the present-day requirements. The current trends of ICT in the training of future teachers in postmodern times are considered, modern practices of ICT use which are the most popular in the educational process of future teachers are singled out. The content of the following compulsory components, according to the authors, of professional training of future teachers, is generalized and concretized: didactic, legal, social and methodological. Discussion issues and perspective directions of future scientific research related to complex ethical contradictions due to uncertainty or lack of necessary knowledge, unexpected effects and insufficient transparency of functioning of information and communication technologies are outlined. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Response to Randall Allsup, “Music Teacher Quality and Expertise”Bennett ReimerI am delighted to have this opportunity to reflect on Randall Allsup’s excellent, incisive, and wise paper. The issues he raises reach to the core of who we have been, where we are now, and how we must adapt ourselves to new challenges that deeply question both our ideals and our practices.Allsup’s opening questions relate directly to the most (...) pressing matters our profession is now facing—questions philosophical in essence. What kind of music teachers do our students deserve? What is the purpose of public education? And how do we get beyond our continuing and understandable desire for better-trained music teachers to ask the more pertinent question of what constitutes effective music teaching and learning in what the musical world is swiftly becoming. He has the courage to address this level of complexity seriously, and to make significant progress toward clarification. That deserves my respect and, I am quite sure, the respect of all of us.Allsup approaches his central premise on the significant changes needed in our professional identity by reminding us that we have “a long and distinguished [End Page 108] commitment to teaching and teachers.” That commitment, however, is based on the established assumption that music education is founded on excellence of performance as its ultimate goal and its greatest value. To achieve this musical end, he points out, requires mastery, attained through prolonged, careful apprenticeship. This “long running pedagogy of mastery and excellence appears closed to, or at least hostile to, innovation and popular input.”In addition, he argues, this belief system embroils all of us, teachers and their students, in the dichotomy of, on the one hand, replication of existing excellence as our goal, and, on the other, the need for emancipation from what was and what is, toward what might be; the need, that is, for transformation. The past, he recognizes, cannot simply be ignored: it is too precious for that. The future, however, also cannot be excluded. Within this antinomy we must find our way, honoring the past while not allowing it to constrict our future.At this point in his exposition Allsup approaches the proposition he is harboring, a proposition I want to explore for its potential in both clarity and complication. The basis of his key proposal is our need for teachers who are able “to think openly and less certainly about the design and implementation of musical instruction. Our pluralistic society,” he continues, “makes it imperative that we multiply the methods employed in the pursuit and construction of knowledge.”To accomplish this, Allsup presents a foundational dichotomy. There are “open forms of music” relating to “new and evolving ways of aesthetic participation that break with our traditional processes and our established codes and standards.” Contrasting with open forms are “closed forms,” representing the authoritative, the certain, and the canonic. “Closed forms,” he says, “represent culturally-structured and norm-driven literacies, where valuations of goodness pre-exist any aesthetic encounters.” Closed forms, he argues, are based on culturally agreed-upon modes of participation that are rigid in nature, such as in the prescribed and proscribed sequence of musical events proceeding inexorably in the order of composer-conductor-performer-audience.Such past (and present) rigidities, he points out, have become increasingly irrelevant. In every dimension of our lives significant and fast-occurring changes have become dominant, even expected, leaving us, as citizens and as educators, in confusion and uncertainty, and therefore in distress. We encounter aesthetic forms that are open-sourced and de-authored, unconnected to shared standards of practice. Technologies of music making and taking, he points out, have overthrown tradition to a startling degree, erasing distinctions among expert and amateur, between master and apprentice, between process and product, specialist and generalist, the classical and the vernacular.All this, and much more, is argued cogently and, I think, persuasively. It leads us to a central conception influencing how we must act as professionals. Our [End Page 109] obligation is to not only incorporate openness of musical engagements into our present culture of musical “closedness,” but to recognize the advent of openness as being a... (shrink)

This article discusses the historical relationship between educational studies and British teacher education. Following a brief introduction it provides an overview of initial teacher training (ITT) developments since 1952, the launch date of the BJES, before tracing the rise of educational studies and its so-called 'foundation disciplines'. The fourth section discusses a range of criticisms levelled against the teaching of educational studies within ITT programmes. Examples of discontent voiced by student teachers, higher education personnel and the (...) New Right are considered in the light of changing attitudes and policies towards British ITT. It is argued that the attack upon the theoretical aspects of educational studies has been more sustained - and has had more impact - in England than in other parts of the UK. The article draws conclusions in respect of education as an academic subject, the current state of the foundation disciplines, the place of educational studies within teacher education programmes and comparative dimensions. (shrink)

Building a university outreach programme is a complex task that requires coordination of funding, regulations, research aims, practical activities and recruitment strategies. This article describes the building of an outreach programme based on the Philosophy with Children practice and the associated changes in the programme’s research focus, practical activities and organisation over the first five years. Where did the initial inspiration come from, what form did it take eventually, and what have we learned? The article outlines our strategies and (...) activities and I argue that two shifts in focus made the programme stronger in terms of impact and research. First, instead of sending university students into classrooms, we turned to teacher training programmes. Second, conversations with teachers indicated that the most interesting research questions were not about cognitive gains but about learning environments, teacher roles, facilitation techniques and other topics from educational studies. The article also assesses the strategies and research from the first six years of the programme and how they have demonstrated both challenges and opportunities in Philosophy with Children. (shrink)

A reciprocal relation has been identified between teacher emotion and teacher professional identity. However, the underlying mechanism explaining this complex interaction remains underexamined. Moreover, limited attention has been paid to the emotional dimension of student-teachers' development of professional identity during university coursework. To bridge this gap, the present study explores how student-teachers' emotions reciprocally interact with their professional identities, drawing data from questionnaires, reflections, and interviews with students taking courses related to language teaching in a teacher-training (...) university. Both quantitative and qualitative data delineated the intertwined trajectories of student-teachers' emotional experiences and the development of professional identity in the learning process of becoming teachers. Mainly triggered by course-related factors, student-teachers experienced a wide array of emotions, of which the polarity and intensity were determined and mediated by their goals and actions deriving from their professional identities. Those aroused emotions, in turn, signaled the developmental process of professional identity and promoted or hindered their emerging identities. This paper concludes with some implications for initial teacher education programs. (shrink)

French student teachers are provided with initial training which sometimes offers them an analysis of the situations they may be confronted with when teaching in their classrooms. This research work focuses on a specific device : Training Groups Analysing Professional Practices. It consists in presenting the analysis group organizers’ opinion (collected from semi-structured interviews) as well as that of the student teachers (collected via self-administered questionnaires) during three school years. It also highlights the idea that the analysis (...) of professional practices sessions contribute to vocational training: these sessions aim at grasping the complexity of the act of teaching and they allow the student teachers to receive coaching in their first year of teaching. (shrink)

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the expansion of private foundations and philanthropic initiatives in the United States converged with a comprehensive, nationwide agenda of progressive education and post-war social reconstruction that situated childhood at its core. From 1924 to 1928, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial was the main foundation behind the aggressive, systematic funding of the child development movement in North America. A pioneering institution, the Institute of Child Welfare Research, established in 1924 at Columbia's Teachers (...) College, was the first Rockefeller-funded programme of its kind at an American university. The Institute was influential in helping set up a nationwide network of child welfare institutes at other universities. Twelve years later, it would also be the first of those institutes to close. Nonetheless, the Institute's context, emergence, and development have been overlooked or misrepresented by previous scholarship, which calls for a new, critical historical analysis. By drawing on a number of archival sources and unpublished materials, this paper offers a critical reconstruction of the Institute's internal, often unstable history, emphasizing its origins, members, and administrative changes. I argue that the demise of the Institute should be understood in the context of both the revision of philanthropic policies in the late 1920s and the Institute's singular emphasis on teaching and training over research. The resulting narrative allows for a deeper, more informed understanding of both the Institute's origins and its eventual folding. (shrink)

The philosophy for children curriculum was specially written by Matthew Lipman and colleagues for the teaching of philosophy by non-philosophically educated teachers from foundation phase to further education colleges. In this article I argue that such a curriculum is neither a necessary, not a sufficient condition for the teaching of philosophical thinking. The philosophical knowledge and pedagogical tact of the teacher remains salient, in that the open-ended and unpredictable nature of philosophical enquiry demands of teachers to think in the (...) moment and draw on their own knowledge and experience of academic philosophy. Providing specialist training or induction in the P4C curriculum cannot and should not replace undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in academic philosophy at universities. However, although for academic philosophers the use of the P4C curriculum could be beneficial, I will argue that its use poses the risk of wanting to form children into the ideal ‘abnormal’ child, the thinking child—the adult philosopher’s child positioned as such by the Lipman novels. The notion of narrativity is central in my argument. With the help of two picturebooks—The Three Pigs by David Weisner and Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne—I illustrate my claim that philosophy as ‘side-shadowing’ or meta-thinking can only be generated in the space ‘in between’ text, child and educator, thereby foregrounding a ‘pedagogy of exposure’ rather than ‘teacher proof’ texts. (shrink)