Sally B Barnes

Characteristics of adult speech which predict children's language development *

Samples of the speech addressed by adults to a socially representative sample of 2-year-olds in naturally occurring contexts of interaction were analysed with respect to syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and discourse features to determine which features were most strongly associated with gain by the children on a variety of measures of language development over the ensuing 9 months. Following a principal components analysis of the adult speech variables, the most highly loading variables on the first six components were correlated with childrens gain scores. Polar interrogatives, directives and extending utterances were all found to be associated with at least one measure of development. The results are if interpreted as evidence of reciprocal, rather than one-way facilitation.

Transforming teaching and learning: embedding ICT into everyday classroom practices

Drawing on socio-cultural theory, this paper describes how teams of teachers and researchers have developed ways of embedding information and communications technology (ICT) into everyday classroom practices to enhance learning. The focus is on teaching and learning across a range of subjects: English, history, geography, mathematics, modern foreign languages, music and science. The influence of young peoples out-of-school uses of ICT on in-school learning is discussed. The creative tension between idiosyncratic and institutional knowledge construction is emphasised and we argue that this is exacerbated by the use of ICT in the classroom.

Collaborative Research Methodology for Investigating Teaching and Learning: The Use of Interactive Whiteboard Technology

This paper discusses the results of a research project which aimed to capture, analyse and communicate the complex interactions between students, teachers and technology that occur in the classroom. Teachers and researchers used an innovative research design developed through the InterActive Education Project (Sutherland et al., 2003). Video case studies were carried out in four classrooms, focusing on the use of interactive whiteboard technology for teaching and learning. The case studies were analysed using StudioCode, an analytic tool which allows researchers to mark and code segments of video data into categories and themes. Teachers developed coding systems drawing on the learning aims and objectives of their particular lessons. The case studies illustrate that the introduction of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) into the classroom involves much more than the physical installation of the board and software. Teachers are the critical agents in mediating the software, the integration of the software into the subject aims of the lesson and appropriate use of the IWB to promote quality interactions and interactivity.

What does electronic conferencing afford distance education

Technology is potentially offering many opportunities to extend and expand distance learning in the higher education sector. Electronic conferencing, in particular, is seen as a technique which offers opportunities for course delivery and methods of interaction for distant learners. This paper examines the similarities and differences between face‐to‐face seminars and online discussions. Through the concept of affordance it is shown that both benefits and limitations for interaction exist for real and virtual meetings. It is argued that until we fully understand what it is about face‐to‐face interactions that enhances learning, we cannot know what features are required within an electronic conferencing system.

Those Who Can, Teach - The Pivotal Role of the Teacher in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Learning Environment

Abstract Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education is often perceived to be the critical element in the drive towards a knowledge‐based society. It is believed that ICT helps students confront their own preconceptions in a critical way and become thinkers with emerging theories about the world, and hence, develop a culture of thinking among them. As ICT empowers students, it cannot be assumed that the teachers role is superfluous and no external agency is required to facilitate the use of ICT. Although the teacher no longer monopolizes activities as the transmitter of the subject matter, he/she takes on a broadened role of mediating the learning of individual students. Based on a case study of the use of WinEcon in an A‐level Economics course in England, this paper provides a descriptive and interpretive account of the pivotal role of the teacher in the course. Relieved of the necessity of being the exclusive source of expertise and authority, the teacher in such an environment plays a broadened role in designing, organising and re‐adapting activities to help students apprehend the structure of the discourse, integrating parts, acting on the world and descriptions of the world, using feedback, and reflecting on their learning experiences

Transmission, transformation and ritual: an investigation of students’ and researchers’ digitally mediated communications and collaborative work

This article explores the use of multiple digital tools for mediating communications, drawing on two recent empirical studies in which students and researchers in UK higher education worked on collaborative activities: how different tools were used and the quality of the communications and their contributions to collaborative working and knowledge construction are outlined. We draw on Pea’s proposition that communications can be understood as transmissive, ritualised or transformative depending on their impact on other participants. Most of the students’ communications were either transmissive or ritualistic, although there were also generative conversations offering mutual support. Researchers’ conversations were more often transformative, using tools consistently, for specific purposes. Researchers matched the tool to the specific needs of the task, whereas the students chose tools based on friendship groups and lifestyles. Transformative communications were powerful in co‐configuring new knowledge and resources, and the importance of the ritual communications in maintaining the social order was also essential to communications in collaborative settings. We conclude that close attention to protocols, social norms and patterns of use in digitally mediated ‘conversations’ is required to develop collaborative partnerships and support transformation practices amongst higher education ‘workers’.

Social Science Doctoral Training Policies and Institutional Responses

The paper explores the history of recent doctoral training policies in UK social sciences, how universities have responded to these and some of the positive and negative unintended consequences of the policies, principally but not exclusively in the period 1992 to 2014, as the gradual move first to specification of disciplinespecific training requirements and department-specific accreditation, then to delegation of the selection of candidates for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) doctoral studentships to universities rather than a national competition and finally to institution-wide or inter-institutional arrangements for doctoral education began.