Knowledge construction and personal relationship : insights about a UK university mentoring and coaching service

This article examines interview data from twelve mentors/coaches and eight of their clients, in order to explore a mentoring and coaching service among UK university staff. Both mentors/coaches and clients were administrative or academic employees of the Institute of Education or affiliated colleges at London University, UK. Their roles related to the administration for, or leadership of, teaching programmes as well as educational research and consultancy projects pursued by the Institute. The mentors/coaches in this Service aimed to construct or co-construct knowledge with their clients rather than to transmit advice to them. In this article, the author explores the learning of mentors/coaches and clients, conceptualizing their ‘co-construction’ of knowledge as either collaborative construction or as participation. The link is examined between the construction of knowledge and personal relationship, considering the personal relationship both of mentor/coach with clients, and among mentors/coaches themselves. Additionally, the author draws on the divide alluded to by Fielding (1996) between functional and personal. She concludes by considering implications from the findings about mentoring and coaching. Emphasised is their potential to play a subversive role within the established functional systems of an institution, if mentoring and coaching prioritise personal relationship

Assessment for learning? Thinking outside the (black) box

This article draws on a survey of 83 teachers, to explore the concepts of ‘assessment for learning’, ‘assessment’ and ‘learning’. ‘Assessment for learning’ is categorized as meaning: monitoring pupils’ performance against targets or objectives; using assessment to inform next steps in teaching and learning; teachers giving feedback for improvement; (teachers) learning about children’s learning; children taking some control of their own learning and assessment; and turning assessment into a learning event. Conceptions of assessment include assessment-as-measurement and assessment-as-inquiry. These conceptions are related to two conceptions of learning: learningas- attaining-objectives and learning-as-the-construction-of-knowledge. The conceptions of assessment-as-measurement and learning-as-attaining-objectives are dominant in English educational policy today. The article suggests that these conceptions need to be challenged and expanded, since conceptions held by those who have power in education determine what sort of assessment and learning happen in the classroom, and therefore the quality of the student’s learning processes and products

The validity of collaborative assessment for learning

This article explores the features relating to the validity of assessment for learning, in particular the features of a collaborative assessment for learning, because of the learning benefits associated with collaborative learning. The article indicates what some of the learning benefits of highly valid collaborative assessment for learning might be, assuming that a valid assessment for learning actually promotes learning. It explores the idea that, for an assessment for learning to be valid, its learning outcomes must be socially appropriate for learners of the twenty-first century. The article illustrates some of these conceptual points, using descriptions of three collaborative assessments for learning currently being practised. Two of the illustrations are taken from the UK and one from the Eastern Caribbean

Why won’t they speak English? An investigation into how young learners perceive and negotiate anxiety and autonomy in the EFL classroom

This report draws on the framework of Self Determination Theory to investigate primary-school children’s anxiety and autonomy/agency during lessons for speaking English. An intervention was carried out by introducing pairwork into the classes of 281 children in three government primary schools in Alexandria, Egypt. Their teachers were introduced to Self Determination Theory and supported to use pairwork for English speaking lessons. The aim was to help implement Self Determination Theory, potentially leading to improved English-speaking learning; and wellbeing. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through sentence starters [n=281 children], questionnaires [n=243 children], drawings [n= 107], and in-depth semi-structured interviews with selected pupils [18 children]. The research sought out students’ suggestions on how to create enhanced opportunities for young learners to learn spoken English, with special focus on reducing anxiety and increasing autonomy/agency. Findings indicated that children’s levels of anxiety when speaking English in class were substantial, especially girls’; and autonomy/agency was felt higher by boys. However, our own classroom observations and individual interviews reported limited levels of autonomy/agency in the classroom. We found a negative correlation between anxiety experienced; and a sense of agency/autonomy. Children who were most anxious felt reduced agency/autonomy, which made learning to speak English more difficult. However, children felt least anxious and most autonomous when doing pairwork (if it was well managed) in contrast to traditional learning methods. This report closes with some recommendations for teachers on how to practise speaking skills using pairwork, as well as suggestions for future research

The social and emotional aspects of learning to speak English as an L2 in the Egyptian primary classroom

Drawing on the framework of Self Determination Theory (SDT), this study investigates the social and emotional aspects of children’s experiences of anxiety and agency/autonomy during speaking pairwork activities in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) primary classroom. Nine English language teachers were introduced to the framework of SDT and trained in using it to plan and implement speaking pairwork activities in their classrooms. Using pairwork and focusing on speaking were quite innovative practices in these classrooms where more traditional teacher- centered and grammar–translation approaches to teaching and learning prevailed, which meant that there was limited focus on collaborative learning and development of spoken language skills. Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection tools with a sample of primary-school children (n=281), this study investigated the interplay between anxiety and autonomy during pairwork speaking activities. Findings indicated that there was a negative correlation between anxiety experienced and a sense of agency/autonomy: children who were most anxious felt reduced agency/autonomy, which made learning to speak English more difficult. However, children felt least anxious and most autonomous when doing pairwork. The study identified factors that could maximize support for children’s sense of agency/autonomy and alleviate their feelings of anxiety in the English-speaking classroom. The study concluded by providing some recommendations for teachers and curriculum development

Schools closed during the pandemic: revelations about the well-being of ‘lower-attaining’ primary-school children

This article is unique because it fills a significant gap among Covid-19 related educational research in three ways. First, it analyses data from face-to-face interviews with 23 children, whilst most Covid-19 related research has been based on online data collection methods. Second, it involves ‘lower-attaining’ children who were already part of an ongoing five-year research project set in England, UK. Third, it captures a ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture of the children’s experiences during schooling-as-normal and after the two periods of school closures, in relation to their well-being. Within the context of Seligman’s PERMA theory, we found that the absence-of-schooling-as-normal had adversely affected their well-being, but in so doing, the children’s perspective on schooling had altered, as they had missed being part of something bigger than themselves, in a setting which offered socialisation, structure and purpose

National Curriculum and Assessment in England and the continuing narrowed experiences of lower-attainers in primary schools

A considerable body of global educational literature has examined how schooling policy based on measuring and managing performance has narrowed children’s access both to curriculum breadth and to diversity in pedagogy. This article approaches these curriculum dilemmas within the global concern for children’s wellbeing and social justice. In particular, it focuses on the experiences of children designated by this system as lower-attaining, which is a much under-researched aspect of these concerns. Based on an innovative five-year life-history study of 23 seven to 12 year-old lower-attaining school-children in the English system, this article examines how these children themselves depicted their schooling experiences. We conclude, drawing on term-by-term experiences narrated by these children, that the current curriculum and assessment arrangements narrowed their opportunities for participation in engaged learning, especially in comparison to higher-attaining children; which undermined their wellbeing and brought social justice into question. The children highlighted the negative impact of curriculum emphases on mathematics and English rather than on non-core and outside-school curriculum areas for lower-attaining in particular; and the emphasis on attainment rather than participation in learning. They had few opportunities to have their specific preferences validated, leading in some cases to these lower-attainers being excluded from participation in school-learning

Students' views on what aids their learning of school science in Lagos state, Nigeria

In Nigeria, school science education is believed to be impeded by multiple issues, in part resulting from limitations on funding, but there is a dearth of research that attends to the views of learners themselves. The aim of this study was to explore the views of secondary students in Lagos, Nigeria about the school science teaching they received. A multiple case study research design was employed and semi-structured individual (n = 26) and group (n = 4) interviews were undertaken with 14–17-year-old students from four non-fee-paying, mixed-sex public secondary schools. Sampling was purposive, so that the four schools were fairly typical of secondary schools in Lagos, while the interviewed students were preparing to study science at university and follow science career pathways and included both students who were engaged in terms of their participation in class and those who appeared withdrawn. Analysis was undertaken within a theoretical framework derived partly from Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of teaching and learning and partly from Watkins’ theories of learning. Students articulated how certain teaching methods, such as learning with and from others in group work, using familiar examples as applications of knowledge and undertaking practical work, were felt to aid their learning of science. These views align with the sorts of approaches to teaching and learning advocated by both Vygotsky and Watkins. It was concluded that there exists quite a gap between what the students said were effective ways of their being taught science and what were often their experiences. Some of the differences are to do with funding shortages but others are to do with pedagogy and terminal assessment

Teachers' classroom feedback: still trying to get it right

This article examines feedback traditionally given by teachers in schools. Such feedback tends to focus on children's acquisition and retrieval of externally prescribed knowledge which is then assessed against mandated tests. It suggests that, from a sociocultural learning perspective, feedback directed towards such objectives may limit children's social development. In this article, I draw on observation and interview data gathered from a group of 27 9- to 10-year olds in a UK primary school. These data illustrate the children's perceived need to conform to, rather than negotiate, the teacher's feedback comments. They highlight the children's sense that the teacher's feedback relates to school learning but not to their own interests. The article also includes alternative examples of feedback which draw on children's own inquiries and which relate to the social contexts within which, and for whom, they act. It concludes by suggesting that instead of looking for the right answer to the question of what makes teachers' feedback effective in our current classrooms, a more productive question might be how a negotiation can be opened up among teachers and learners themselves, about how teachers' feedback could support children's learning most appropriately

Assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom

This paper suggests that multigrade classrooms lend themselves particularly well to promoting assessment that enhances learning, rather than assessment aimed solely at selecting pupils for promotion to the next grade. Some strategies to encourage assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom are explored. These include facilitating individual responsibility for learning, drawing on other children as an assessment resource and using assessment tasks that have learning potential. For such strategies to be used, teachers need training, guidance and exemplification relating to the formative purposes of assessment and criterion- and pupil-referenced assessment