Conceptualising the research–practice–professional development nexus: mobilising schools as ‘research-engaged’ professional learning communities

This paper argues the need for coherent, holistic frameworks offering insightful understandings as well as viable, connected and synergistic solutions to schools in addressing pressing problems arising from the acknowledged gaps between research, practice and professional development. There is a need to conceptualise a comprehensive conceptual framework that rationalises, constructs and connects salient professional development concepts and practices fit for purpose in twenty-first-century schools. Specifically, three themes conceptualise existing problems faced by schools and their possible solutions: first, bridging the research–policy–practice gap by mobilising knowledge more effectively through knowledge producers and consumers working collaboratively; second, valuing and integrating both tacit knowledge and academic coded knowledge; and third, raising the professionalism and reflectivity of teachers and leaders. However, a new organisational and human infrastructure is needed to enable these solutions to be realised in school practice. Arguably, three responses are critical to this challenge of knowledge mobilisation; all are achievable through the powerful unifying concept of the ‘research-engaged school’. The three responses are: research engagement on the part of all teachers and leaders; creating schools and school networks as professional learning communities; and adopting a workable methodology (namely, research–design–development) for teachers and leaders to put research into practice and tailor innovations to specific school contexts

A mindful product acceptance model

We posit, develop and test a new mindful product acceptance model that includes the independent variable constructs of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, mindful judgement constructs (taste and environmental concerns), trust and perceived safety. Concerns about the environment are addressed in the bottled water context because of its ubiquitous use and increasing sales. This increasing bottled water use raises the question about why people drink bottled water versus tap water and provides a venue for testing how mindfulness influences the decision process. This study contributes to the literature by providing a new application of technology acceptance model (TAM) that includes the ‘mindful’ judgement construct as well as the context of applying TAM to a non-traditional technology. This research found that increasing mindfulness of environmental concerns in our community limits bottled water consumption. The statistically significant findings of this research suggest that companies can benefit from examining their manufacturing and recycling processes

Climbing the Great Wall: Linking Teacher Beliefs and Learning Styles in Cross-Cultural Teaching - Observations from cross-cultural teaching in Mainland China

Scholars have suggested separate relationships between culture and learning styles, and between culture and teaching beliefs. In this essay I suggest that interrelated relationships between culture, learning styles and teacher beliefs may exist. Drawing on personal observations from cross-cultural teaching experiences in Mainland China, the essay illustrates how culture, learning styles and teacher beliefs inform each other and how they might be combined into an inclusive framework. Such a framework could aid in identifying and overcoming challenges from cross-cultural teaching and cross-cultural learning. The observations shed further light onto the on-going debate of how Chinese learn. The essay concludes with directions for future research for further development of the framework and our understanding of cross-cultural differences in the classroom

Creating virtual communities of practice for learning technology in higher education: Issues, challenges and experiences

The need for a Web portal to support the rapidly growing field of learning technology has been well established through a number of national surveys and scoping studies over recent years. The overarching vision has been the provision of a virtual environment to assist in informing and developing professional practice in the use of learning technologies. This paper outlines the issues and challenges in creating such a portal through the experiences of developing the RESULTs Network. In the paper, design and participation issues are considered within the wider context of online and networked approaches to supporting practice and professional development. User participation methodologies and technical developments for RESULTs are described in relation to a review of existing representations of practice and a comprehensive survey amongst the learning technology users’ community. An outline of key achievements and experiences is presented, followed by some conclusions regarding the cultural and political issues in creating a viable and sustainable facility and suggestions for possible future direction in national provision

Paving the way for research in recruitment and selection:Recent developments, challenges and future opportunities

Considered as one of the cornerstones of work and organizational psychology, it is not surprising that the selection and recruitment literature is vast. In this review, we synthesize and integrate the findings from around 40 meta-analyses and literature reviews from the last decade to identify the most recent meta-trends and future research directions in the selection and recruitment research and practice. We organize our key findings around three superordinate areas: a) recent developments in selection research, covering findings on validities of selection methods, expanding the criterion space, and applicant reactions and impression management; b) recent developments in recruitment research, paying attention to the evidence around recruitment methods and applicant attraction; and c) new technology in recruitment and selection. In our call for future research, we delineate a number of substantive issues and the need for more sophisticated theoretical developments in the field as well as methodological challenges that future efforts should address. We concur with the vast literature in that selection and recruitment research is a vibrant field, which we expect will address a number of ongoing political, cultural, technological, societal, and employment regulations-related issues to keep creating impact and providing meaningful findings for recruitment and selection practices in organizations

Nonseparability of Shared Intentionality

According to recent studies in developmental psychology and neuroscience, symbolic language is essentially intersubjective. Empathetically relating to others renders possible the acquisition of linguistic constructs. Intersubjectivity develops in early ontogenetic life when interactions between mother and infant mutually shape their relatedness. Empirical findings suggest that the shared attention and intention involved in those interactions is sustained as it becomes internalized and embodied. Symbolic language is derivative and emerges from shared intentionality. In this paper, we present a formalization of shared intentionality based upon a quantum approach. From a phenomenological viewpoint, we investigate the nonseparable, dynamic and sustainable nature of social cognition and evaluate the appropriateness of quantum interaction for modelling intersubjectivity

Narratives of self and identity in women's prisons: stigma and the struggle for self-definition in penal regimes

A concern with questions of selfhood and identity has been central to penal practices in women's prisons, and to the sociology of women's imprisonment. Studies of women's prisons have remained preoccupied with women prisoners’ social identities, and their apparent tendency to adapt to imprisonment through relationships. This article explores the narratives of women in two English prisons to demonstrate the importance of the self as a site of meaning for prisoners and the central place of identity in micro-level power negotiations in prisons

Provoking knowledges and weaving conversations in teacher education

The common-sense binary between “theory” and “practice” in teacher education fuels unnecessary either/or arguments and adversarial models of teacher education. This chapter will build a theoretical argument to reconcile these essential domains of teachers’ knowledge. It will highlight how the mutual provocation they offer each other is an asset to harness in teacher education programs. The argument is developed through three theoretical layers. Firstly, de Certeau’s (1984) work dignifies the generative improvizations and tactical creativity inherent in everyday practice, thus how practice will inevitably and profitably exceed any theory thereof. Secondly, Bernstein’s (2000) sociology of education explains processes and relations between knowledges in pedagogic discourse through the concepts of recontextualization, rules of recognition/realization, and vertical/horizontal knowledge structures. Thirdly, Bhaskar’s (2002) meta-theoretical premise of “emergence” explains how theory and practice interact to realize certain conditions and actualities in the complex, open system of schools. A theoretical frame synthesizing these concepts will then be used to articulate the logic and design underpinning the University of Glasgow’s partnership model for teacher education placements in both primary and secondary school settings. This model stages three distinctive conversations amongst pre-service teacher, university tutor, and mentor teacher: discussion following observation of a peer’s practice; embedded seminars; and joint assessment of the placement. The design behind these encounters will be analysed to demonstrate how theory and practice are catalytic, bringing different kinds of players and their knowledges together to provoke generative professional insight

Public consciousness, political conscience and memory in Latin American nueva canción

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