We propose a pedagogical 'model for polyphonic STE(A)M education'. With this model teachers worked a yearlong in a Professional Learning Community. The model made schools think about their choices ...for STE(A)M and it gave them a 'language' to explain their choices. Why should schools do STE(A)M? What is STE(A)M? How and for Whom schools bring STE(A)M into their curriculum? During the course of the PLC, it became gradually clear that single subject matters still play a crucial role in STE(A)M and precisely from this insight the polyphonic model arose. Different viewpoints and inquiry methodologies from single subjects are needed to discover the connections between and across the disciplines. We illustrate this interdisciplinary STE(A)M education model in a few examples where physics plays its role between arts and engineering. It was recognized in our PLC that STE(A)M learning within and across disciplines makes lessons more relevant to learners, as they see how things are related and this also seems to foster creativity and problem solving. This confirms what was found in educational research. By reflecting on their practices, schools rediscovered that, apart from aiming at children with talent for STE(A)M, it is still their duty to give children also 'STEM for all' and 'STEM to explore' experiences.
A central theme of the discussion about education in Europe is linked to improving the quality and relevance of skills and competences that educational system beneficiaries form during their ...training. To perform a proper and coherent analysis on the introduction of informations about ferrofluids in the national curriculum a sociological study was conducted in several schools in the city Bârlad, Romania. Through an interactive exhibition stand, pupils were able to maneuver a ferrofluid with a magnet. The stand was arranged such as to allow easy access for handling the ferrofluid and for reading the informations displayed on its walls.
This article applies a current example of curriculum reform to investigate mechanisms driving the push for international comparative assessment of social and emotional skills in contemporary ...education. Using a combination of bibliometric and content analysis the article identifies key sources in the recent Norwegian curriculum reform. The article considers how understanding and measurability of social and emotional skills is negotiated in policy documents and the cited knowledge base. Nine international sources are identified in the policy documents underlying the reform. Arguments from these sources are compared with arguments in policy documents to demonstrate overlap and potential misalignment. The final curriculum is found to be in non-alignment with the knowledge base that supports of a broad understanding of social and emotional skills and the measurement of such skills in schools. Drawing on critical realism the authors argue that Norwegian policymakers have rejected the global push for comparative assessment. They have drawn a red line to prevent social and emotional skills from becoming part of students' subject competence and to protect students from standardized assessment of such skills in schools. This position represents a strong case against measurability that may influence ongoing debates on quantification and comparisons in education.
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Abstract
A high prevalence of diseases and parasites is one of the major constraints in the small-ruminant industry in the Southeast because of its warm and humid climate, and poor management ...practices. Drug resistance developing in pathogens, and the lack of access of producers to and affordability for veterinarians practicing in small ruminants warranted us to look for integrated preventive approaches. To promote integrated approaches for preventing diseases and parasites in small ruminants, a team of scientists and professionals from five institutions (Tuskegee University, Fort Valley State University, USDA-ARS Booneville, University of Arkansas, and the University of Maryland Eastern-Shore) worked together with an objective to develop curricula (training handbook) and train the trainers (educators) and small-ruminant producers in the Southeast. The Training Handbook consisted of nine chapters authored by project collaborators and invited experts. Relevant aspects of keeping small ruminants healthy and preventing possible diseases and parasites, including basic facilities and health care, suitable sites, grazing systems and management, biosecurity, selection and breeding, nutrition, and economics have been presented and discussed in the Handbook. After the handbook was developed, a 3-day train-the-trainers training was conducted at Tuskegee University. County agents, specialists, and technical-service providers working at various land-grant universities and other institutions working with small-ruminant producers or their educators were invited to participate in the training. Additionally, selected lead producers raising small ruminants from Alabama and graduate students working on small-ruminant research and outreach were invited to the training. Twelve professionals from four different states (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina) six farmers, and four graduate students attended the training. Training included indoor sessions with presentations, discussions, and question-answer sessions. Outdoor sessions included demonstrations, hands-on activities, and tours of the small-ruminant production sites and facilities. Evaluations by participants were conducted before adjournment on the same day or at the beginning on the next day. Most participants expressed that presented topics, hands-on activities, demonstration, and tours were extremely useful (71-85%) or very useful (13-23%). They stated that they were extremely likely (73-89%) or very likely (11-23%) to apply what was learned from the training. Similarly, most participants reported that the ultimate condition of small-ruminant health would be improved if the learned knowledge and skills are applied on the farms (producers) or on education endeavors (professionals) with most improvements (64-83%) or reasonable improvements (15-21%). Evaluations by participants showed that the training handbook and the overall training could be very useful to improve health of small ruminants significantly.
Critical thinking (CT) is frequently mentioned as a key competence in sustainability curricula. In this context our era is often diagnosed as being 'post-truth', indicating an epistemic concern. ...However, emerging 'post-sustainable' views in education indicate that environmental crises are posing increasingly existential concerns, which might partly explain why simple consciousness-raising sometimes faces denial or fails to promote sustainable action. To overcome this challenge, we undertake a philosophical critique of modern (individual, rational, autonomous) subjectivity assumed in CT and much of curricular thinking. We follow the 'ontological turn' where criticality means self-reflective questioning of one's own being-in-the-world. One acute question concerns energy, especially fossil fuels, which constitute much of the autonomous experience of modern, critical subjectivity, while simultaneously endangering the future horizon of that same subjectivity. Climate strikes at schools and the yellow vest movements indicate, in their own ways, how ecologically problematic fossil fuels are bending modern rationality into unpredicted directions. Metaphoric Archimedes and his 'circles in the sand' demonstrate the vulnerability of critical thought facing post-sustainability. This vulnerability should be addressed in curriculum theory, since it is interdependent persons-rather than independent subjects-who are open to sustainable transformation and action.
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Essential skills for respiratory therapists extend beyond the traditional scope of therapy. Respiratory therapists are expected to communicate effectively, deliver bedside education, and practice ...within interprofessional teams. Respiratory therapy entry-to-practice program accreditation standards require evaluation of student competence in communication and interprofessional practice. This study aimed to determine if entry into practice programs include curriculum and competency evaluation for oral communication, patient education, telehealth, and interprofessional activities.
The primary objective was to identify the curriculum and method of competency evaluation. The secondary objective was to compare degree programs. Directors of accredited respiratory therapy programs were invited to complete an anonymous survey with regard to degree program type, oral communication, patient education, learning strategies, telehealth, and interprofessional activities. Degree programs were classified as associate's of science 2 year, associate's of science < 2 year, or bachelor's of science.
Of 370 invited programs, respondents in 136 programs (37%) completed the survey. Oral communication competence was evaluated by 82%. Patient education curriculum and competency evaluation were reported by 86% and 73%, respectively. Telehealth was rarely included or evaluated. Interprofessional activities were included by 74%, of whom 67% evaluated competency. Bachelor's of science programs were more likely to include a specific patient education course (
= .004), evaluate oral communication competency with unpaid preceptors (
= .036), and evaluate interprofessional competence through formal interprofessional programs (
= .005). Associate's degree 2-year programs used laboratory proficiency for patient education competency evaluation more often than other programs (
= .01). associate's of science < 2-year programs were more likely to include simulation experiences that involved motivational interviewing (
= .01).
Differences exist among program types for curriculum and competency evaluation. Telehealth was rarely included or evaluated at any degree level. Programs should evaluate the need for enhanced patient education and telehealth instruction.
In some parts of Africa, especially South Africa, discussions of decolonization in general, and of the knowledge curriculum in particular, have in the last few years been on the front burner. In this ...article, I examine two issues that are germane to these discussions. The first relates to what decolonizing the knowledge curriculum means or is involved with and the second relates to its significance and the motivations for it. At the end of my examination of these issues, I will have presented some picture of a general outline of a decolonized knowledge system in Africa, as well as broached a couple of the issues relating to the importance of a decolonized knowledge system.
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In the context of English youth and community work, this research project investigates digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice, and proposes a model formulated through ...the identification of expansive drivers to guide both professional conduct and curriculum-based practice. The lives of English young people today are shaped by technologies which make interaction in a variety of digital spaces and places possible, yet there are divided views within the youth work community of practice about the place of digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of informal learning in a discipline traditionally focused on association, relationships and critical dialogue. Supported by the conceptual framework of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Developmental Work Research (DWR) techniques have been used to gather data from four English youth and community work practitioners through a workshop-based approach framed by CHAT pre-suppositions and the first three stages of Engestrom’s expansive learning cycle. The data analysis uses the four areas where contradictions can manifest within CHAT activity systems to examine how the use of digital tools, spaces and places aligns with youth work values and principles, and to examine how they can mediate informal learning opportunities with young people. The contribution to knowledge comprises the identification of four ‘spaces’ which are named as safety, production, information and communication, and which form the basis of a model to scaffold the professional use of digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice. Expansive drivers, defined as the forces for learning, development and change, are identified within each of the spaces within the model and examined using continuum-based representations portraying professional practice and curriculum-based priorities. Metaphors of digital space and place emerging from within the DWR process are also appraised as a means to situate the work. The model is underpinned firstly by the premise that a youth worker’s choice of digital tool, space or place needs to be based on the needs and input of young people. Secondly, that using digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice is most effective as an extension to existing face-to-face youth work where relationships between young people and youth workers have already been formed.
University Technical College (UTC) schools are academies for 14-19 year olds. They are distinguished by close links to industrial and university partners to encourage vocational learning, ...particularly in STEM subjects. Currently 50 are open in England, with more in development. Their expansion is a key strategic objective in the government’s 2016 Educational Excellence Everywhere strategy document. This research analyses data collected through students’ perceptions of their experience of the UTC curriculum model in two detailed case studies. The research questions examine how the approach to the delivery of the curriculum enhances learner motivation. Three main factors are identified as supportive to encouraging learner motivation in the UTC schools studied: a strong focus on developing links with business partners to facilitate career progression goals for learners; an intensive, unique curriculum delivery style; rigorous target-setting in a supportive learning environment. This is a curriculum model which supports independent learning, collaborative learning with peers and vertical -group learning on challenging, employer -led projects.
‘English’ as a high school subject discipline is a deeply contested space. Since its inception in the early twentieth century, the discipline of English has taken on many forms and purposes. From the ...preservation of grammatical standards to the induction into high culture and creativity, it seems fair to say that few subjects suffer such an identity crisis over their purpose and function as English does. Added to this, the growing intensity in the politicisation of educational practices has led to significant reforms in English curriculum and assessment with a new GCSE course introduced recently. This thesis describes and analyses debates in English teaching before using data gathered from my own school to explore and evaluate how English is being created and what is happening to its participants. To aid my analysis of what English is and its purposes, I have chosen to use the ‘Four Discourses’ theory offered by Jacques Lacan (1901-1981). Far from merely an exotic range of ideas, Lacan’s theory is used here because it offers interesting explorations of subjectivity, language, and insights into the unconscious. Basically, Lacan looks at four ways to see human interactions in a social world: Master (governance over others), University (institutions and how they deliver the Master’s messages), Hysteric (protesting and objecting to the Master), and Analyst (revolutionary ways of rebelling against the Master). The use of Lacan’s theory is not seen as a panacea to educational complexities, but as offering alternative perspectives and as having the capacity to generate new understanding. It would be tedious to merely write diatribic invective and polemic about the surreptitious forces of the master signifiers. Instead, the research looks at the effects upon and within classroom English to create new understanding. Drawing on Lacan, I argue that the ‘subject’ of English and how it makes its participants ‘subjects’ can be seen in interesting ways. I use the Lacanian theory of ‘Four Discourses’ and classroom data to interrogate the difficulties and opportunities presented in navigating the new English curriculum.
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