Reclaiming scholarship as an integrating dimension of academic work for the impact of research on teaching and learning in higher education

This paper offers reflections on Ernest Boyer’s conceptions of scholarship which were first outlined twenty years earlier. It considers the ways in which such conceptions have become meaninglessness as part of a wider process of reductionism and how this relates to policy discussions on curriculum, competence and teaching. It argues for the central place of research in, and the central place of, Higher Education in the professional education of teachers. It proposes that in order to develop cultures of inquiry in Higher Education we need to do so in ways that integrate research, teaching and learning. The integration process is seen to be achieved through an understanding of the nature of wholes and through a process of seeing, and therefore thinking and acting, holistically. It is argued that this is part of a wider struggle over values which the academic community needs to advance by reclaiming the meaning of scholarship

Chartered teachers matter: envisioning their future as leaders of learning

This report traces the development of the Chartered Teacher Scheme (CTS) using an approach based on documentary analysis of reports published during the last 10 years. It places this significant and far-sighted policy initiative, which was an important pillar in A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century (2001), within a wider international context in which the “Scottish approach” has been recognised as being at the forefront of quality improvement in schools. Central to this has been the combination of internal and external evaluation based on the use of quality indicators to identify strengths and areas for improvement. It is argued that the section devoted to the Chartered Teacher in the recent Report of the Review of Teacher Employment in Scotland (McCormac, 2011) represents a sharp departure from this approach and is short-sighted in its conclusion. It does not present a full consideration of all the available evidence or a balanced evaluation involving a full analysis of both sides of the debate. Further, in presenting what is described as a “widely held view”, it is quite misleading in terms of what is presented as evidence. As such, Recommendation 19 to discontinue the CTS should be treated with great caution as a basis for sound policy making. The documentary analysis involved in producing this report highlights a complex and long running debate about the CTS around grade, rewards, duties and role and identifies an associated need to develop a more widely shared understanding about the meaning of leadership in particular. In looking to the future, it argued that existing agreements do provide the necessary basis for clarifying the role of the Chartered Teacher with all stakeholders and that a positive future can be envisioned by focussing discussion and debate on the meaning of the Chartered Teacher as a “Leader of Learning”

A didactical design perspective on teacher presence in an international online learning community

This paper is based on a study of the student learning experience in a particular module of an international Masters programme that included a large element of online learning. It builds on earlier work which highlighted the importance of design and development of social infrastructure for supporting the development of an online learning community by revisiting the data from the perspective of a didactical design framework. The overall aims of this study are to consider how, as teachers, we designed and developed teacher presence and how this was achieved in practice from the design of teaching-studying-learning processes through development to interaction in the online learning community

Introduction: Finding common ground beyond fragmentation

This chapter begins with an outline of the European context within which the twenty six research papers presented in this book emerged. A particularly important aspect of this context is Network 27 on Didactics, Learning and Teaching of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) which formed the core of the research community in which this work was developed over a five year period (2006-11). The next part of the chapter provides an overview of the six sections which make up the structure of the book as a whole. A discussion then follows of the clear continental divide with respect to didactics, learning and teaching in the European landscape which is based on the references used by the contributors to this book. This leads to a consideration of the historical origin of present-day didactics which can be traced back to a common heritage in the work of Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) in order to provide a platform in the search for common ground. In the section which then follows there is a discussion of the didactic triad as a tool for holding the complexity of teaching-studying-learning situations and this is considered in an expanded context in which classroom interaction in the school is placed within a wider societal context. Based on a review of the contributions to this book, the final parts of this chapter consider existing knowledge gaps between different national traditions and also identify themes that form the basis for building and extending common ground. The themes that have been identified through this process of synthesis relate to pedagogical content knowledge, learner knowledge, joint didactical action, curriculum research, the so called shift from teaching to learning, the philosophy of Bildung and its practical implications, links between theory and practice and the significant role of experimental schools. Finally these themes are proposed for consideration within the wider research, policy and practice community as the basis for future international co-operation that offer the potential to advance mutual understanding and common insights in this fiel

The therapeutic potential of allosteric ligands for free fatty acid sensitive GPCRs

G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the most historically successful therapeutic targets. Despite this success there are many important aspects of GPCR pharmacology and function that have yet to be exploited to their full therapeutic potential. One in particular that has been gaining attention in recent times is that of GPCR ligands that bind to allosteric sites on the receptor distinct from the orthosteric site of the endogenous ligand. As therapeutics, allosteric ligands possess many theoretical advantages over their orthosteric counterparts, including more complex modes of action, improved safety, more physiologically appropriate responses, better target selectivity, and reduced likelihood of desensitisation and tachyphylaxis. Despite these advantages, the development of allosteric ligands is often difficult from a medicinal chemistry standpoint due to the more complex challenge of identifying allosteric leads and their often flat or confusing SAR. The present review will consider the advantages and challenges associated with allosteric GPCR ligands, and examine how the particular properties of these ligands may be exploited to uncover the therapeutic potential for free fatty acid sensitive GPCRs

Powerful knowledge and epistemic quality in school mathematics

This article contributes to current debates on progressive, knowledge-based approaches to the curriculum by addressing the question of what it is that students are entitled to learn in school mathematics. From the outset it recognizes progressive arguments that teaching should be reconnected with the emancipatory ambitions of education. In doing so, it takes the notion of powerful knowledge as a starting point, based on what knowledge school students have the right to have access to. In turn, it considers this as a question of epistemic quality. This is elaborated as a concept by drawing on outcomes from a recent study arising from the Developing Mathematical Thinking in the Primary Classroom (DMTPC) project. This concept is founded on the analysis of a distinction between mathematical fallibilism, based on a heuristic view of mathematics as a human activity, and mathematical fundamentalism, which reflects an authoritarian view of the subject as being infallible, absolutist and irrefutable. The relation between powerful knowledge and epistemic quality is considered further by framing it within a sociological theory of knowledge. This helps to highlight a further distinction between knowing that and knowing how, which is used to illustrate examples of high and low epistemic quality in school mathematics. The first example of high epistemic quality is drawn from the DMTPC project. The second example is of low epistemic quality and comes from the highly promoted Core Knowledge Foundation that has recently been imported into English schools from the USA. Finally, the article considers the role of teachers as curriculum makers at the classroom level where curriculum and pedagogy effectively merge. In conclusion, the implications for both policy and practice are considered, in particular proposals are made in relation to the role and place of subject didactics in teaching and teacher education

Equitable access to quality education in elementary school mathematics

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Boredom, alienation and anxiety in the maths classroom? Here’s why

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