Nan Bahr

Reconceptualizing the possible narratives of adolescence

This paper explores various epistemological paradigms available to understand, interpret, and semiotically depict young people. These paradigms all draw upon a metadiscourse of developmental age and stage (e.g. Hall 1914) and then work from particular epistemological views of the world to cast young people in different lights. Using strategic essentialism (Spivak 1996), this paper offers four descriptions of existing paradigms, including biomedical (Erikson 1980), psychological (e.g. Piaget 1973), critical (e.g. Giroux & MacLaren 1982), and postmodern (e.g. Kenway & Bullen 2001). While some of these paradigms have been more distinct in particular cultural, historical, and political contexts, they have overlapped, informing each other as they continue to inform our understandings of young people. Each paradigm carries unique consequences for the role of the learner, the teacher, and the curriculum. This paper explores contemporary manifestations of these paradigms. From this investigation, a potential new space for conceptualising young people is offered. This new space, underpinned by understandings of subjectivity (Grosz 1994), assumes sense of self to be both pivotal in generative learning and closely linked to the context and its dynamics. We aver that such a view of young people and educational settings is necessary at this time of focused attention to the middle years of schooling. In so doing, we explore the potential of classroom life and pre-service teacher education constructed within this new discourse of young people.

Self-regulated learning and executive function: exploring the relationships in a sample of adolescent males

This study investigated relationships between SRL and EF in a sample of 254 school-aged adolescent males. Two hypotheses were tested: that self-reported measures of SRL and EF are closely related and that as different aspects of EF mature during adolescence, the corresponding components of SRL should also improve, leading to an age-related increase in the correlation between EF and SRL. Two self-report instruments were used: the strategies for self-regulated learning survey (SSRLS) and the behavioural rating instrument of executive function (BRIEF). Strong correlations between the measures of EF and SRL were found, especially in areas associated with metacognitive processes. Correlations between EF and SRL were found, with weaker correlations between behavioural regulation and SRL were found to be weaker for the younger participants in the sample while the relationship between EF and SRL appears to grow stronger during the initial years of high school even though self-reported levels of EF along with motivation for SRL and important components of SRL such as goal setting and planning were found to decrease with age. Decreasing levels of motivation for learning during adolescence are speculated to moderate the deployment of SRL and EF in a school context.

Middle years teacher education: New programs and research directions

Teacher education programs focussing on the development of specialist teachers for ‘the middle years’ have proliferated in Australian universities in recent years. This paper provides some insights into middle years’ teacher education programs at the University of Queensland, Edith Cowan and Flinders Universities with regard to their: philosophical underpinnings; specific educational context; scope and nature of the program. In addition, some of the research directions and efficacy strategies utilised in conjunction with the programs will be shared, along with some early findings from a longitudinal study in one of the programs. We propose that the pattern of programmatic growth heralds a new time for teacher education, and we speculate about the production of new kinds of teacher identities as graduates take their place in the profession.

Reflecting on the work of preparing teachers

As we enter 2009, it is fitting to reflect upon our closing comments in 2008, when we made a call for researchers to critically engage with the broader discourses and sociopolitical climate that shapes teacher education.

Technological Barriers to Learning: Designing Hybrid Pedagogy To Minimise Cognitive Load and Maximise Understanding

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provide great promise for the future of education. In the Asia-Pacific region, many nations have started working towards the comprehensive development of infrastructure to enable the development of strong networked educational systems. In Queensland there have been significant initiatives in the past decade to support the integration of technology in classrooms and to set the conditions for the enhancement of teaching and learning with technology. One of the great challenges is to develop our classrooms to make the most of these technologies for the benefit of student learning. Recent research and theory into cognitive load, suggests that complex information environments may well impose a barrier on student learning. Further, it suggests that teachers have the capacity to mitigate against cognitive load through the way they prepare and support students engaging with complex information environments. This chapter compares student learning at different levels of cognitive load to show that learning is enhanced when integrating pedagogies are employed to mitigate against high-load information environments. This suggests that a mature policy framework for ICTs in education needs to consider carefully the development of professional capacities to effectively design and integrate technologies for learning.

University Strategic Directions, International Education and WIL: From Policy to Practice

In this chapter we set the scene with respect to work integrated learning (WIL) and international students by looking at the global context and then focussing on the Australian setting. We consider some of the challenges and opportunities afforded by WIL for international education framed by the three pillars of the National Strategy for International Education 2025 (Australian Government, National strategy for international education 2025. Retrieved from https://nsie.education.gov.au/sites/nsie/files/docs/national_strategy_for_international_education_2025.pdf, 2016a) 10-year plan for developing international education in Australia. A glimpse into the way three Australian universities align with the three pillars provides some insight into the strategic direction of these institutions. We then turn to the case of one organisational unit in a university, in this instance in an initial teacher education context, to consider how that unit enacts broader WIL policy. Particular attention is given to recommended strategies that can be adopted to increase WIL participation and improve the general WIL experience for international students.

Making learning design explicit and shareable

The five papers in this issue of the Journal of Learning Design attempt to tidy up the messiness of learning design. They enact the objective suggested by Conole and Wills (2013) that learning design should make the design process itself “more explicit and shareable” (as cited in Rankin, Haggis, Luzeckyj and Gare, this issue , p. 15). Removing the messiness is an important first step to sharing practice in clear unambiguous ways.

Leadership Enabling Effective Pedagogic Change in Higher Education

This chapter will consider pedagogic change in Higher Education from the perspective of an Assistant Dean (Teaching and Learning) and one member of their leadership team with particular focus on reflective writing in their courses. The discussion will focus on leadership for the development of teaching capability for reflective writing development and implications for quality assurance of teaching and learning across faculties of a leading comprehensive University. The authors will present and contrast the experiences and challenges of developing teaching approaches for reflective writing across the discipline of teacher education. The chapter will argue a position for the establishment of a framework of distributed leadership that supports effective pedagogical change management generally and with specific reference to reflective writing.

Smart but Stuck: How resilience frees imprisoned intelligence from learning disabilities (2nd ed.)

Taylor and Francis Ltd CIJD_A_327035. gm 10.1080/10349120802268685 International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 34-912X (print)/1465-346X (onlin ) Book Review 2 08 & Francis 55 30 00020 8 N nB hr n.bahr@uq.edu.au Smart but Stuck: How resilience frees imprisoned intelligence from learning disabilities (2nd ed.), edited by M. Orenstein, 2007, New York, Haworth Press, 259 pp. + index and resources, US

Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking in Higher Education

34.95 (paperback), ISBN 9-78-07890-2946-1