David J. Flinders

How Block Scheduling Reform Effects Classroom Practice

Block scheduling has become an increasingly popular reform movement for schools, school districts, and principals to enact. Much of the decision making as to whether to implement some type of block scheduling has occurred without understanding the implications this type of reform has on teachers and their classroom practices. This paper reports on a study conducted in a high school with three contiguous schedule types. Teachers, parents and students perceptions were ascertained to determine the impact of scheduling change on teachers and their classroom practices. Likert scale surveys, interviews, classrooms observations, and text data were used to compile a picture of how and why teachers adjusted to the change in schedule. Four areas of change from the surveys and supported with other qualitative data are reported: 1) methods of instruction, 2) opportunities for reflection, 3) student-teacher rapport, and 4) levels of anxiety. These results are then discussed and compared to the broader view of beneficial changes for block scheduling and the stability of context.

Educational Criticism as a form of Qualitative Inquiry

This essay describes some of the primary features of educational criticism, an arts-based approach to qualitative inquiry. We first examine the aims of this approach, focusing on its potential to heighten our perceptions of the classroom. We next discuss four dimensions of educational criticism: descriptive (intended to vividly render the qualities that constitute an educational performance or product); interpretative (represented in the conceptual frameworks that allow critics to account for the attributes and patterns of interaction they have observed); normative (involving a process of articulating those values that inform conceptions of goodness within a given domain); and thematic (concerned with the utility of extracting some type of general understanding, image, principle, or lesson that transcends the particular of an individual case). Finally, we address questions of rigor as they apply to educational criticism and other forms of qualitative research. Specifically, we identify three criteria (consensual validation, structural corroboration, and referential adequacy) appropriate for assessing the credibility of such work. In suggesting criticism as one potential model for educational inquiry, we hope to encourage those researchers who seek to create compelling and richly textured accounts of current classroom practice. In this article we focus on the forms and functions of educational criti