Nicole Green

Reconceptualising higher education pedagogy in online learning

The purpose of this collaborative inquiry project was to examine teacher education practices in two early childhood degree programmes in a school of education at a regional university in Australia. All students are enrolled in these online courses as distance learners. The reconceptualised online pedagogy immersed students, peers and their lecturers in ‘teaching through assessment’ (Edwards, 2010) in a collaborative online environment that mirrors the complexity that students are experiencing in their workplaces. This article describes the pedagogical and conceptual underpinnings we used to reconceptualise our degree programmes. It also outlines our evolving conceptualisations of learning as knowledge creation (Hong & Sullivan, 2009) in the context of our teaching and learning in online courses.

Everyday Life in Distance Education: One Family's Home Schooling Experience.

This article offers a narrative portrait of one family enrolled in a school of distance education in Queensland, Australia. Most of the families own or manage sheep and/or beef grazing properties, and their children receive their education by correspondence papers and daily UHF radio lessons. The students complete their school work at home with a home tutor, who is most often the mother, with support and assistance provided by the school of distance education’s teaching and support staff. As part of a larger inquiry focused on what home schooling is like as a component of living and working on sheep or cattle properties, and as but one part of the families’ everyday lives, the portrait includes biographical information about Louise Michaelson as home tutor, narrative sketches of her children Thomas and Timothy, and descriptive discussions of daily routines both within and outside of the schoolrooms used for the distance education programs.

Space considerations: materials in the learning environment in three majority world preschool settings

This paper draws on the comparative and qualitative data from a triple case study carried out in three semi‐rural early childhood education centres in Canada, India, and South Africa. The primary objective of this four year study was to provide in‐depth understanding of the ways in which policy, practice, and culture intersect in semi‐rural contexts. This article focuses on the organisation and use of materials in the preschool space as a means to examine the interplay between indigenous cultural norms as these relate to working with children and trends towards uniformity or globalisation of early childhood practice.

Collaborative Self-Study of Online Teaching in Early Childhood Teacher Education

Six academics at a regional university in Australia engaged in collaborative research examining their teaching and learning practices, their current understandings and beliefs about teacher education pedagogy and, specifically, the online teaching and learning environments. This collegial self-study project was guided by the goal of achieving professional learning through participation and active reflection on pedagogical practices, as well as exploring linkages and continuities between the courses within two nested degree programmes in which the researchers teach. The article focuses on how the faculty implemented the self-study research project and shows how the negotiated transition supported each researcher to engage deeply with socioconstructionist theories within the pedagogy of an online environment.

The Value of Concept Mapping in Developing Professional Growth in a Geography Methods Course

Abstract This paper reports on an exploratory case study of six preservice teachers who studied a 10-week unit of secondary geography in their 4th (and final) year of education studies. The focus of the study was to track participants’ conceptions of effective geography teaching, over a period of time; that is, to provide an example of conceptual change. Participants constructed concept maps at the beginning and at the conclusion of their geography curriculum methods course. The purpose of this article is to present concept mapping as a research tool for inquiring into the conceptual understandings and growth of early career teachers.

Concept mapping with beginning Geography teachers: A study of conceptual change.

This paper reports on an investigation of six preservice teachers who studied a ten-week unit of secondary Geography in their 4 th (and final) year of education studies. The focus of the study was to look at participants’ conceptions of effective Geography teaching, over a period of time, that is, a study of conceptual change. Participants constructed concept maps at the beginning and at the conclusion of their Geography methods course. The purpose of this article is to present concept mapping as a research tool for inquiring into the conceptual understandings of early career Geography teachers.