The philosophy of piano performance teaching, rooted in hermeneutic theory, represents a significant evolution from traditional pedagogical methods. This approach emphasizes a shift from mere knowledge transmission to a deeper, interpretative understanding of music, prioritizing the dialogic interaction between teacher and student. Such an educational framework underscores the ontological essence of music, advocating for respect for its historical and contemporary realities and elevating the interpretative role of the student within the learning process. In this context, piano performance teaching (...) transcends conventional skill-based instruction, evolving towards a model that is student-centered and rich in connotative depth. This pedagogical philosophy not only respects but also highlights students' subjectivity, recognizing their central role in interpreting and understanding musical texts. The emphasis on the ontological aspects of music encourages respect for both the past interpretations and potential future directions of musical expression. Moreover, by integrating hermeneutic principles into piano performance teaching, this approach fosters a spiritual and philosophical exploration of music, aligning with broader themes of religious art education. It encourages students to engage with music as performers and as thoughtful interpreters who consider the deeper meanings and spiritual dimensions of musical works. This philosophical shift enhances the educational experience, promoting a holistic understanding of music that connects technical proficiency with existential and spiritual inquiry. In essence, the hermeneutic-based philosophy of piano performance teaching redefines the pedagogical landscape, offering a more nuanced and spiritually enriching framework that aligns with the principles of religious art education. This approach not only challenges traditional methods but also opens new avenues for the exploration of music as a profound medium of human expression and spiritual reflection. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to provide one prominent perspective from the research literature on a conception of feedback in educational psychology as proposed by John Hattie and colleagues, and to then adapt these concepts to develop a framework that can be applied in music performance teaching at a variety of levels. The article confronts what we see as a lack of understanding about the importance of this topic in music education and provides suggestions that will help music (...) teachers refocus how they use feedback within their teaching. Throughout the article, we draw heavily on the work of John Hattie and his colleagues whose explanations on all facets of feedback, but especially those forms of feedback that are focused on ensuring students understand “where to next”—have had a huge impact on school education through various publications. (shrink)

In China, the improvement of the learner performance is critical a challenge for the teaching staff and the management in intercultural communication class. Indeed, the administration of the Chinese schools is failed to provide effective learning to the students with innovative methods. The objective of this study was to identify the role of college students' learning performance, teaching skills, and teaching innovation in intercultural communication class. This study is based on the quantitative data collected on a five-point (...) Likert scale from the target respondents who were the students of different colleges and 700 questionnaires distributed for it. The study concludes that there is a significant relationship among abstract conceptualization, active participation, and reflective observation in students' learning performance. Furthermore, this study highlights that the mediating role of teaching innovation is critical for students' learning performance. This study contributes to the literature with a significant theoretical framework. Finally, this study provides significant theoretical implications and practical implications which are key game-changers for improving the performance of the students in the intercultural communication class. (shrink)

In this paper, I offer a skillful performance approach to teaching philosophy based on the ideas of late phenomenologist Hubert L. Dreyfus. For this, I reconstruct the main contributions of Dreyfus’s phenomenological approach to skillful action as a reaction against the cognitivist view of perception and cognition, and I apply these ideas to the issue of teaching philosophy. I conclude that the Dreyfusian approach to teaching philosophy is based on two main ideas: first, that teaching is (...) a skillful action in which the teacher engages with students in a feedback loop relation so that the teacher aims to achieve what I call the maximal teaching grip; second, that this maximal teaching grip is accompanied by a particular experiential state that Hubert L. Dreyfus and Sean D. Kelly named “aliveness,” and that can be traced back to the Heideggerian idea of Augenblick. (shrink)

Choral music teachers simultaneously work toward two potentially competing goals: the quality of the musical performance and the quality of the education they provide for students. Is either goal preeminent, or can both exist in an ever-shifting balance? This paper highlights how this conundrum has existed since the emergence of North American choral music education nearly a century ago. The problem is explored as a paradox, with examples drawn from the author's personal experience. A proposed resolution supports the validity of (...) both goals, with the suggestion that teachers need to increase awareness of how their goals affect decisions concerning policy, pedagogy, and musical practice. (shrink)

Blended learning has gained increasing popularity in colleges and universities with mixed results. Precision teaching can effectively promote learning performance. The relation between perceived precision teaching and the learning performance of college students in a blended learning environment is investigated in this paper. In the research survey is featuring a structural model, 256 college students who attended blended learning courses featuring precision teaching participated. The model results revealed that PPT is directly and positively related to self-efficacy and (...) learning motivation. Self-efficacy and learning motivation are directly and positively related to cognitive, teaching, and social presence. Additionally, cognitive, teaching, and social presence are directly and positively related to learning performance. Therefore, PPT is remotely and indirectly related to learning performance. These findings provide a new perspective for the theoretical study on blended learning performance and provide a realistic reference for precision teaching practice in the blended learning environment. (shrink)

This article analyzes the challenges of education in the rural Andean context of Peru, highlighting the crucial role of the leadership of principals and teachers. To achieve this, an inductive qualitative documentary research approach was used, based on inquiries supported by hermeneutical analysis. Despite limitations in training in educational management and action, successful school leaders are distinguished by their concern for teachers' job satisfaction, generating high performance expectations, and promoting school achievements to the public. community. Teaching performance is essential (...) in this context, not only for imparting knowledge, but also for acting as a bridge between the educational institution and the community. Pedagogical processes, framed in directive leadership, are fundamental for teacher professional development and the improvement of learning. In addition, the importance of the active and effective participation of teachers in creating an environment of trust and collaborative learning is highlighted. (shrink)

Teacher identity is defined in its relations, on the one hand, to curriculum and, on the other, to students: to be identified as a teacher is to be taken by the latter as a bearer of the former. In this essay I consider some variations on theorising teacher identity within these relational terms. Beginning with the educational task of cultivating student subjects within the often impersonal aims of curriculum, I reject a correspondingly personalised production of teacher identity that would humanise (...) education through the teacher's personality. Turning instead to the idea of a teaching role defined by institutional authority, I look at two perspectives from which the teacher's identity can be theorised as a matter of performing that role. Jane Gallop's performative definition of teaching highlights the teacher as a pre-existing role but is fundamentally concerned with the teacher's self-understanding, this fails, however the relational requirements of teaching. Ultimately, bringing performativity into the context of the transferential relation between teacher and student provided by Plato's Symposium , I argue that student desire produces teacher identity in response to the teacher's performed relation to truth. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Teaching the Trinity:Scripture and Performance of the Psychological Analogy in Aquinas's Summa TheologiaeZane E. ChuTeaching the Trinity, for St. Thomas Aquinas, takes its point of departure from Sacred Scripture. He makes this explicit at the outset of the Trinitarian treatise in the Summa theologiae, citing Christ's words at John 8:42, "from God I proceeded," and affirming, "divine Scripture in the things of divinity, uses words that pertain to (...) procession."1 The order of teaching then continues through speculative effort to give an account of the scriptural witness to the distinction of persons in God, in order to return to the same Scripture with a deeper grasp of its meaning.2Aquinas is a master of the sacred page, and his basic pedagogy for theology involves the "exercises of Sacred Scripture" of reading, disputing, and preaching.3 Recent scholarship draws attention to his reading of Scripture [End Page 1149] expressed in biblical commentaries as foundational for his teaching and as an interpretive context for his summative works.4 My purpose is to illustrate this basic pedagogy in the Trinitarian treatise of the Summa theologiae, taking the Lectura super Ioannem as an interpretive context for the analogies of word and love—the psychological analogy—for the Trinity. Most scholarly discussion of the psychological analogy elaborates on its theoretical aspects, with some attention to its scriptural foundation.5 I wish to show the priority of Scripture in Aquinas's employment of this analogy in three respects, namely, its foundation in exegesis, performative aspects, and orientation toward preaching.My investigation focuses on question 27 of the prima pars alongside pertinent sections of the Super Ioannem. I argue that citations from the Gospel of John (8:42, 15:26, and 14:16) in the sed contras of articles 1 and 3 function to ground the psychological analogy in scriptural exegesis and to prompt its performance. Turning to the corresponding commentary shows Aquinas leading the student to knowledge of Christ as divine Word and to love of him from the Holy Spirit that both leads to and follows upon such knowledge. This provokes an affective experience of loving Christ in knowing his divinity that is an actual performance of the psychological analogy. The magisterial responses then use this affective experience as a basis to facilitate a grasp of the analogy, the articulation of which is a further guided performance that reflects on this experience. Aquinas teaches the Trinity by exercising the student both affectively and intellectually in its scriptural foundation for a deeper grasp that prepares for preaching. I develop my argument in three [End Page 1150] main steps. First, I specify the place of Scripture in Aquinas's teaching and review the composition of the Trinitarian treatise. Then, I examine the first four articles of question 27 and corresponding sections of the Super Ioannem, in the order of the analogies of word and of love. Lastly, I consider Aquinas's treatment of the Holy Spirit's proper name of Love and subsequent preaching to illustrate Scripture as a point of arrival through performance of the psychological analogy.The Place of Scripture in Aquinas's TeachingFor Aquinas, Scripture is placed within his broader practice of sacra doctrina or holy teaching, attention to which assists in demonstrating how the Johannine citations ground the psychological analogy in Scripture and prompt its performance. Sacra doctrina has a primarily pastoral orientation, namely, to form Dominicans for preaching and hearing confessions.6 Though more speculative than practical, sacra doctrina as speculation or contemplation of the truth of Christian faith contained in Scripture is to be handed on to others.7 This requires training in the scriptural exercises of reading and disputing as preparation for preaching. These may be taken as "spiritual exercises" that engage not only thought, but also affectivity in service of personal transformation for the preacher's way of life.8 Aquinas's practice of sacra doctrina begins with reading Scripture as expressed in biblical commentaries, and develops in the Summa theologiae, which accesses Scripture through citations to offer a summative grasp of the truth contained therein. Here, I review the formal aspects of Aquinas's teaching from Scripture in these texts... (shrink)

It has become almost commonplace to recognise that teaching is an embodied practice. Most analyses of teaching as embodied practice focus on the embodied nature of the teacher as subject. Here, we use Butler's concept of performativity to analyse the reiterated acts that are intelligible as—performatively constitute—teaching, rather of the teacher as subject. We suggest that this simultaneously helps explain the persistence of teaching as a narrow repertoire of actions recognisable as ‘teaching’, and the policing (...) of conformity to teaching thus embodied. However, like performatively accomplished subjectivity, this repertoire is unstable and ambiguous, and thus open to change and disruption. Moreover, teacher subjectivities may lead them to mobilise these possibilities of disruption. (shrink)

A longstanding problem in the teacher workforce, internationally and in the UK, is the continuing and substantial numbers of qualified teachers who leave the profession within five years. This paper uses data collected from a survey to the last five years of teacher education graduates of UCL Institute of Education (IOE) in London, to explore what originally motivated them to teach, and the reasons why they have left or may consider leaving in the future. We discovered that despite claiming to (...) be aware of the challenges of workload before entering teaching, workload was the most frequently cited reason for having left, or for leaving in the future. The data spoke to the reality of teaching being worse than expected, and the nature (rather than the quantity) of the workload, linked to notions of performativity and accountability, being a crucial factor. This paper draws on a substantial new source of data and explores reasons for leaving in the context of reported initial motivation of individuals who have left teaching, individuals who are planning to leave and individuals who are planning to stay in teaching. (shrink)

Deep learning and artificial intelligence are jointly applied to concrete piano teaching for children to comprehensively promote modern piano teaching and improve the overall teaching quality. First, the teaching environment and the functions of the intelligent piano are expounded. Then, a piano note onset detection method is proposed based on the convolution neural network. The network can analyze the time-frequency of the input piano music signal by transforming the original time-domain waveform of the piano music signal (...) into the frequency distribution varying with time. Besides, it can detect the note onset at a stable state after 8 × 104 iterations. Moreover, an intelligent piano teaching method is designed to teach Jingle Bells for 40 preschool children aged 4–6 years. Finally, a questionnaire survey is performed to investigate the teaching situation, including the learning interest and learning effect of children and learning feedback from parents. The results show that 80% of children like smart music scores, 82% of children like intelligent piano lessons with games, and 84% of children can learn actively in the intelligent piano class. Besides, 85% of parents believe that their children are more interested in learning piano. In general, the intelligent piano teaching method effectively combines DL with AI to realize the overall optimization of piano performance. It is widely favored by preschool children and their parents and plays an important role in improving the interest of preschool children in piano learning. (shrink)

Despite the growing interest in collaborative teaching in higher education, there is a paucity of research on its use and effectiveness in phi­losophy curricula. The research that does exist focuses almost exclusively on interdisciplinary collaboration or student and faculty attitudes regarding the practice. This paper aims to address these gaps by describing a semester long, multi-section study designed to assess the impact of team teaching on student classroom performance and related variables in an Introduction to Philosophy course. The (...) results of the study show that students overwhelm­ingly prefer team teaching to individual instruction and think that it positively impacts their learning and classroom experience. However, the results also show that there is no statistically significant relationship between delivery method and students’ classroom performance. The paper concludes with a discussion of some limitations with the research design and the potential benefits and challenges of implementing team teaching within introductory philosophy courses. (shrink)

For decades, remedial education in math and English language coursework has been viewed as essential for social equity in US higher education, ensuring access to college for millions of students wh...

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Clearing Some Definitional Ground: Standards as Epistemic Objects What Counts as a Standard?: Orthodoxies and other Stories Travelling with Actor‐Network Theory: ‘It's Practice All theWay Down’6 The Project in Question: Data and Method Assemblage7 Teaching and Standards of Teaching: Performative Tales from the Field Assembling the Accomplished Teacher: Whose Assemblage Counts? The Critical Contribution of Actor‐Network Theory: Performative Politics Notes References.

The objective was to propose an educational management model from the constructivist perspective to improve teacher performance in primary and secondary education institutions. The research was basic, quantitative approach, non-experimental design, cross-sectional and descriptive-propositional in scope. The sample consisted of 92 teachers from an educational institution in Lambayeque, Peru. The results obtained in the surveys place teacher performance at a low level in all its dimensions: preparation for student learning (60.90%); teaching for student learning (70.70%); participation in the management (...) of the school articulated to the community (66.30%); and development of teacher professionalism and identity (64.10%). Similarly, the information obtained regarding the management of the educational institution allows it to be classified as deficient in the four dimensions: organizational, (59.80%); administrative, (57.60%); pedagogical-didactic (60.90%) and community (62.00%). It was concluded that proposing an educational management model from the constructivist perspective will contribute to improving teacher performance in primary and secondary education institutions, which was validated by the criteria of five experts. (shrink)

The times are progressing and the demand for opera performance talents is gradually increasing. In the new media environment as well as the technological environment, the teaching of opera performance in colleges and universities has ushered in the challenges of the new era, and the teaching staff of colleges and universities need to continuously improve their abilities. This paper explores the use of intelligent devices to explore the professional curriculum and teaching research in the new media environment.

Literary education exposes students to unpredictable critical moments in their encounters with a text. Drawing on Dewey’s transactional realism and actor-network theory, this theoretical and conceptual study explores the performativity of things and materials as they shape reading and teaching bodies. This transactional performativity extends beyond the physical positioning of the body to the power relations enacted in text situations. The conceptual rationale is illustrated by a story about a reading chair in a detention home for detained young men—an (...) environment where power issues come to a head. The story illustrates a theoretical discussion of what might be characterized as performing ‘the critical’ in reading and how potentialities for students’ experiences are created in text situations by the different components involved. The purpose of the article is to explore the potentialities of performing critical aspects of reading to challenge, to transform, and to encourage resistance. (shrink)

With the post-pandemic situation, digitalization has revolutionized physical teaching into online teaching and has become a common practice. The engagement of students has been essential for their good academic performance which can be ensured by the active participation of the students and this is a real challenge for the teachers. However, sometimes in online and physical teaching, teachers are also involved in rationalized knowledge hiding, which leads to the disengagement of the students, and this ultimately affects their (...) academic performance. Therefore, the present study aims at measuring the students’ disengagement in the teaching classes, both physical and online. The population of the present study is the students from the universities of China belonging to different fields of study. The sample size for this study is 246. The data are obtained through the Questionnaire surveys. The existing study has assessed the role of teachers’ rationalized knowledge hiding behaviors in the disengagement of students and their lesser grades. It has been found that rationalized knowledge hiding in online teaching does not affect students’ performance; however, it makes students disengage from their studies in physical classes. Interestingly, the rationalized knowledge hiding in physical teaching has negatively affected the performance of the students. Furthermore, the mediating role of the students’ disengagement has been found significant in this study. Organizations, especially universities, can ensure maximum knowledge sharing by motivating the instructors through positive reinforcements. This study will be useful for the curriculum coordinators of different departments in ensuring the maximum outcome of the teaching classes, workshops, and seminars conducted either physically or online to avoid the rationalized knowledge hiding of the teachers. (shrink)

Performative methods have been part of history of science research and education for at least three decades. Understood broadly, they cover every methodology in which a historian or philosopher of science engages in embodied interaction with sources, tools and materials that do not traditionally belong to historical research, with the aim of answering a historical research question. The question no longer appears to be whether performative methods have a place within history and philosophy of science research, but what (...) their place is, could, or should be; when and how they can and cannot be used. Because although performative methods are seen as an enrichment of the field by many, their growing popularity also raises questions: what new insights and challenges has the increased use of performative methods in the history of science brought us? How has it changed the field? Should performative research methods become a mandatory part of the training of new generations of historians of science? In this special issue, historians and philosophers of science for whom performative methods play an important role in their work reflect on these questions from their own research and teaching practices. (shrink)

Women working in academic environments that are male dominated are subjected to high levels of occupational stress due to the so called stereotype threat (ST) (Steele, 1997). Stereotype threat is a social-psychological threat that arises when one is in the situation of doing something for which a negative stereotype about his/her group applies. For women's university teaching staff stereotype threat is a source of anxiety that affects their performance, career commitment and overall job satisfaction. Additionally ST accounts, partly, for (...) the horizontal and vertical gender segregation that is found in many fields. In order to overcome these problems we have proposed a preventive intervention program based on Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy principles. (shrink)

Introducción: La asignatura Metodología de la Investigación Cualitativa en Salud se imparte a los estudiantes de tercer año de la Licenciatura en Enfermería en la modalidad de clase teórico-práctica como forma organizativa de la docencia. Ello recalca la importancia del trabajo independiente. Las insuficiencias con relación a éste inciden directamente en la asimilación y apropiación de los conocimientos de la asignatura. Objetivo: Elaborar una estrategia didáctica que contribuya al desarrollo del trabajo independiente correspondiente a la asignatura Metodología de la Investigación (...) Cualitativa en Salud.Material y métodos: Se realizó una investigación de desarrollo, encaminada a perfeccionar el proceso docente educativo en la Facultad de Enfermería, de la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Camagüey, durante el curso escolar 2011-2012. Para el diagnóstico inicial se procedió al análisis de documentos: los planes de estudio y el programa de la asignatura. También se aplicaron encuestas a un grupo de estudiantes y al colectivo de profesores que imparten la asignatura. Una vez elaborada la estrategia se evaluó por criterio de expertos. Resultados y discusión: La estrategia pone a disposición de la comunidad académica un software educativo que relaciona los contenidos de la asignatura, lo que permitirá al estudiantado realizar las tareas docentes que se orientan en clases así como asimilar, consolidar y sistematizar los conocimientos con mayor facilidad. Introduction: The subject Methodology of Qualitative Research in Health is taught to the students of the third year of the Bachelor in nursing in the form of theoretical and practical lesson as organizational way of teaching. This underscores the importance of self-employment. The shortcomings in relation to this affect directly the assimilation and appropriation of knowledge in the subject. Objective: To develop a teaching strategy that contributes to the development of self-employ ment for the subject Methodology of Qualitative Research in Health. Material aids and methods: A development research was made which aims at improving the educational teaching process in the Faculty of nursing from the University of Medical Sciences in Camagüey, during the 2011-2012 course. For an initial diagnosis the analyses of documents was made: the curriculum and the program of the course. Surveys were also applied to a group of students and the staff of teachers of the subject. Once the strategy was made it was evaluated through criteria of experts. Results and discussion: Strategy makes available to the academic community educational software that relates to the contents of the course, allowing students to perform teaching tasks which are assigned in lessons as well as assimilate, consolidate and systematize the knowledge easiest. (shrink)

The course Science, Technology, and Society is taken by about 500 engineering students each year at Bilkent University, Ankara. Aiming to complement the highly technical engineering programs, it deals with the ethical, social, cultural, political, economic, legal, environment and sustainability, health and safety, reliability dimensions of science, technology, and engineering in a multidisciplinary fashion. The teaching philosophy and experiences of the instructor are reviewed. Community research projects have been an important feature of the course. Analysis of teaching style (...) based on a multi-dimensional model is given. Results of outcome measurements performed for ABET assessment are provided. Challenges and solutions related to teaching a large class are discussed. (shrink)

This article analyses ‘performance government’ as an emergent form of rule in advanced liberal democracies. It discloses how teachers and school leaders in Australia are being governed by the practices of performance government which centre on the recently established Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and are given direction by two major strategies implicit within the exercise of this form of power: activation and regulation. Through an ‘analytics of government’ of these practices, the article unravels the new (...) configurations of corporatized expert and academic knowledge—and their attendant methods of application—by which the self-governing capacities of teachers and school leaders are being activated and regulated in ways that seek to optimize the performance of these professionals. The article concludes by outlining some of the dangers of performance government for the professional freedom of educators and school leaders. (shrink)

Human and automated tutors attempt to choose pedagogical activities that will maximize student learning, informed by their estimates of the student's current knowledge. There has been substantial research on tracking and modeling student learning, but significantly less attention on how to plan teaching actions and how the assumed student model impacts the resulting plans. We frame the problem of optimally selecting teaching actions using a decision-theoretic approach and show how to formulate teaching as a partially observable Markov (...) decision process planning problem. This framework makes it possible to explore how different assumptions about student learning and behavior should affect the selection of teaching actions. We consider how to apply this framework to concept learning problems, and we present approximate methods for finding optimal teaching actions, given the large state and action spaces that arise in teaching. Through simulations and behavioral experiments, we explore the consequences of choosing teacher actions under different assumed student models. In two concept-learning tasks, we show that this technique can accelerate learning relative to baseline performance. (shrink)

This research aimed to know the intercultural competency teaching model of Jesus using a parable technique based on Luke 10:25-37 to improve intercultural competence. The authors used a method of diacognitive analysis with three lenses that include dialogue, cognition and position. The results of the study have shown that the application of the parable technique can improve the competence of intercultural students towards people with different cultures, as well as increase the understanding and awareness that love is the basis (...) of intercultural competence, compassion as an internal outcome and must act as an intercultural agent. The teacher's pyramid model of intercultural competence moves from love, attitude, knowledge, skill, internal outcome, external outcome and becomes an intercultural agent.CONTRIBUTION: Research on Luke 10:25-37 has shown that the parable technique can improve students' intercultural competence based on love and compassion. Teachers can apply parable techniques to attract, encourage, and stimulate the student's active involvement to think critically and perform interpretations to discover the real truth in the context of cultural differences. (shrink)

This paper considers how the United States does (and can better) ensure that members of the military accept moral responsibility for actions they perform in hostile and non-hostile situations. While the military education system offers soldiers a step-by-step approach to making ethical decisions, it is argued that this teaching is overly simplified as it fails to give enough guidance on how to choose an action that will best serve the nation. In addition to being able to recognize moral dilemmas, (...) the paper contends that understanding the basic principles behind Aristotle’s views on virtue ethics, Kant’s ideology concerning respect for persons, or Mill’s theory of utilitarianism could improve how soldiers go about making ethical decisions. (shrink)

In the current climate of high-stakes testing and performance-based accountability measures, there is a pressing need to reconsider the nature of teaching and what capacities one must develop to be a good teacher. Educational policy experts around the world have pointed out that policies focused disproportionately on student test outcomes can promote teaching practices that are reified and mechanical, and which lead to students developing mere memorisation skills, rather than critical thinking and conceptual understanding. Philosophers of dialogue and (...) dialogic teaching offer a different view of teaching, one that counters mechanical, transmissive or ‘monologic’ teaching. In this paper, I seek to extend the notion of dialogic teaching as a method of supporting social and moral learning processes. Specifically, my focus is on answering the question: What capacities must a teacher have to engage students dialogically? Drawing on Paulo Freire and other contemporary philosophers, I examine dialogic interaction as involving a way of ‘being with learners’ and put forth three teacher capacities necessary for dialogic teaching: self-critique, narrativity and building community. I then examine further what is concretely entailed in the practice of dialogic teaching using research in educational psychology. I aim to highlight how dialogic teaching, unlike monologic teaching, involves the teacher's active ability to support learners’ identification and exploration of their own blind spots—that is, the limits of knowledge and ability—and those of others. Following this, I consider implications of my discussion for international policy on teacher assessment. I close the paper with considerations for future research on teacher capacity and teacher evaluation. This paper contributes to our understanding of teacher capacity and the nature and aims of good teaching. (shrink)

Background: Observance of the patients’ bill of rights is one of the main features of moral codes in hospitals. In this regard, nurses bear great responsibility because they spend a long time with patients. Therefore, the continuous evaluation of the nurses’ performance and assessing their knowledge about the patients’ bill of rights are a need. Objectives: We aimed to determine the nurses’ awareness of the patients’ rights and measure their performance in this regard. Research design and participants: This cross-sectional study (...) was carried out in 2013. To measure the nurses’ knowledge and performance, 250 nurses and 300 patients were surveyed. The participants were selected randomly from five teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Two questionnaires, one for nurses (17 questions) and the other for patients (11 questions), were applied. The data were analyzed in SPSS software using descriptive and inferential statistics. Ethical consideration: The research protocol was submitted and approved by the research and ethics committees of the participating hospitals. Additionally, the consent of all of the participants was obtained before the study. Findings: The mean score of the nurses’ knowledge regarding the patients’ rights was acceptable (69.85 ± 11.7 of 85). Furthermore, the mean score of nurses’ performance in observing the patients’ rights was relatively acceptable (11.2 ± 4.6 of 22). More experienced and educated nurses had higher knowledge regarding the patients’ rights, and patients with higher education level or experience of being hospitalized were less satisfied with the nurses’ performance. Conclusion: Nurses’ knowledge of the patients’ bill of rights was acceptable; however, observance of the patients’ rights was not. It seems that notification of the patients’ bill of rights has increased the nurses’ awareness of the patients’ rights, although improvement of the nurses’ performance needs more extensive measures. (shrink)

How does one teach dissent in a classroom which is a disciplinary space? As a pedagogue whose work is to instil philosophical and critical thinking in students, in this article I reflect on the modalities of teaching dissent versus teaching about dissent. While it is very possible that teaching about dissent may create a model for students to emulate, teaching dissent must involve a proactive learning process within the classroom that may depend on the ethical and (...) compassionate stand of the teacher. I draw from Indian philosophical traditions of argumentation and the tradition of debate and teaching to posit a methodology of two forms of dissent called Vimati, intellectual dissent and Upeksha, performative dissent. One notes that conceptualisations such as doubt, questioning, evidence, and advocacy are some of the epistemic ideas from Indian philosophical systems that can be adapted to contemporary pedagogy. Additionally, a form of performative dissent that involves ‘turning away’ from norms becomes a form of performative dissent. Such dissent is described through texts as practices in the lived worlds of people in the stories of epics and folk traditions. Finally, I conclude with similar concepts gleaned from contemporary thinkers in India to emphasise the ethical values of compassion and love that make teaching dissent possible. (shrink)

Abstract‘Representing Race and Gender’ was the first course in the undergraduate curriculum of the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney to foreground race. This paper provides a critical reflection of our embodied and affective experiences teaching this course as women of different racial and cultural backgrounds (Korean American and Anglo Australian). We draw on feminist pedagogies to illuminate the strategic ways we have performed our own intersectional identities in lecture and tutorial spaces. In particular (...) we focus on the different ways we have approached and taught material on whiteness and white privilege and how students of various backgrounds have responded to the same material when it is taught by a white or non-white lecturer. Through this discussion, we think through how ‘Representing Race and Gender’ functions as a space where pedagogical decisions and approaches are inextricably linked to our goal of developing students’ capacities for engaging with racial difference and racism in critically conscious ways that extend beyond the classroom. (shrink)

Performance Generating Systems (PGS) are rule- and task-based approaches to improvisation on stage in theatre, dance, and music. These systems require performers to draw on predefined source materials (texts, scores, memories) while working on complex tasks within limiting rules. An interdisciplinary research team at a large Western Canadian university hypothesized that learning to sustain this praxis over the duration of a performance places high demands on executive functions; demands that may improve the performers’ executive abilities. These performers need to continuously (...) shift attention while remaining responsive to embodied and environmental stimuli in the present, they are required to inhibit automated responses and impulses using the rules of the system, and they strive towards addressing multitasking challenges with fluidity and flexibility. This study set out to test the mentioned hypothesis deductively and identify mediating processes inductively, using mixed empirical methods. In a small sample experiment with a control group (28 participants; 15 in intervention group, 13 in control group), standardized quantitative tests of executive functions (D-KEFS) were administered before and after an eight-week intervention. Participant-reported qualitative observations from the praxis were also collected throughout the intervention for grounded analysis. Within the limitations of small sample data, we found both statistically significant and trending effects on inhibition, problem-solving initiation, fluidity, and cognitive flexibility. Examining the mediating process, we found that participants experienced significant challenges sustaining the practice halfway through the intervention. The participant-reported solutions to these challenges, which emerged as the strongest behavioural patterns when coding the qualitative data to saturation, were strategies of problem-solving and of re-directing attention. These strategies support and advance our understanding of the effects measured in the standardized tests. In terms of application, our results identify characteristics of PGS that could potentially maintain and strengthen executive functions over and above less demanding performing arts interventions. The results also deliver new insight into how PGS works, which may contribute to the development and teaching of this artistic practice. (shrink)

Language is the original technological prosthesis mediating all transfer of human cognition. The relationships between language, communication and cognition have long been the subject of scientific, philosophic and linguistic inquiry. However, it is through contemporary advancements in neuroscience that we now have unprecedented access to the inner workings of the human brain. Particularly, consumer grade neural scanning technologies like the Muse headset allow non-scientists to view, manipulate and draw conclusions from data generated by their own neural processes. Hence, artists Minka (...) Stoyanova and Lisa Park SoYoung have created an artistic experimental system that utilizes these technologies to address the possibility of communication beyond the confines of linguistic signification. Performing Hypo-Linguistics uses Muse brain sensors to create an abstract audio-visual communication system and feedback loop. Through the visualization and sonification of their respective brain data, these artists perform communication that is both outside of conscious control and beyond sign-based systems of linguistic representation. In this article, we discuss the philosophic and scientific groundwork that supports the creation of this system; our processes of sonification and visualization of the Muse-generated brain data (including the modes by which we actively avoided signification and expected technological aesthetics of data representation); and the outcomes of the performances or the realized interaction between the performers. As deep-learning algorithms become increasingly able to teach computers to mimic human language, it becomes ever more apparent that language is not, in fact, the purview of the human, but only one technological mode invented to facilitate the transfer of information. As with all systems of communication, noise is introduced in this process of transfer. This artistic research seeks to highlight that reality while considering the potentials for alternative forms of technologically mediated communication beyond linguistic signification and below the level of consciousness. (shrink)

This paper examines whether having school students repeat a year improves their performance, focusing on learning English as a foreign language. It takes students’ English examination results from five years from a Chinese‐medium school, together with data on their learning styles and learning strategies. Drawing on local cultural and pedagogic factors, the study finds that repeating a year, far from improving scores, homogenizes the results of males and females, and, while finding a small but statistically insignificant rise in the scores (...) of females, is detrimental to the performance of males. Repeating a year either makes no difference or a negative difference to results. It is suggested that repeating a year reproduces, sharpens and potentiates gender differences in learning and performing in English as a foreign language, and that repeating a year is the medium and outcome of gender inequality. Implications are drawn for practice. (shrink)