Caroline Daly, Polly Glegg, Beth Stiasny, Mark Hardman, Becky Taylor, Claire Pillinger and Haira Gandolfi
The paper provides analysis of the use of instructional coaching (IC) as a prevalent trend supporting new teachers in the English system and aims to inform ongoing policy…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper provides analysis of the use of instructional coaching (IC) as a prevalent trend supporting new teachers in the English system and aims to inform ongoing policy development and implementation. The qualitative study examines mentors' conceptualisations and enactment of the role of instructional coach and the readiness of mentors to assume mentors' key stakeholder roles in the professional education of early career teachers (ECTs).
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with 37 mentors explored mentors' understandings and experiences of becoming instructional coaches as part of a pilot support initiative to support ECTs in England. Two rounds of interviews were conducted to generate data related to the first six months of mentoring on the programmes. Thematic analysis identified seven semantic themes which describe manifest content found within the data and identify mentors' perceptions of their role and practice as instructional coaches. Three latent themes were developed from mentors' accounts which indicate challenges in becoming an instructional coach in this context.
Findings
Concern to apply IC “correctly” according to the programme models was a strong feature amongst both novice and experienced mentors. A key finding is the lack of explicit knowledge of professional learning pedagogies amongst mentors and insecure understanding of how new teachers learn. Assuming the role of instructional coach presented both benefits of having a “model” to follow and disadvantages in fostering limited and over-prescribed concepts and practices related to the learning of new teachers.
Research limitations/implications
The study investigated mentors during the first six months of a pilot programme and the paper reports on analysis of one type of data. The research results may lack generalisability, and a longitudinal study is necessary to further explore the validity of the findings.
Practical implications
Sustained, high-quality professional learning for mentors is crucial to mentors' role as instructional coaches to enable mentors to develop deep, critical understanding of how IC might support new teachers and how to exercise professional judgement in working with “models”. Judicious use of time and resource is needed to enable mentors to fulfil the potential of national mentoring programmes.
Originality/value
The study is timely in its examination of mentors that assume the role of instructional coach as one response to national policy development that makes support for ECTs mandatory. Such strategies have wide international relevance where the retention of new teachers is a policy priority.
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Despite the impact of food contamination scares which affected all food retailers, and high interest rates, Marks & Spencer have still performed well — at least in the UK, with…
Abstract
Despite the impact of food contamination scares which affected all food retailers, and high interest rates, Marks & Spencer have still performed well — at least in the UK, with pre‐tax profits up 5.4 per cent to £529 million, and turnover increased from £4.58bn to £5.12bn. But overseas results were patchy. Nonetheless M&S seems determined to expand in Europe, and is believed to have pinpointed Spain as a prime candidate. Also our commentator reports on the John Lewis Partnership and Asda.
Most librarians in libraries of several years standing must have been confronted with the difficulty of obtaining copies of certain books which have been allowed to go out of…
Abstract
Most librarians in libraries of several years standing must have been confronted with the difficulty of obtaining copies of certain books which have been allowed to go out of print by their publishers. The number of such books is rapidly increasing, and among them are works which have taken a recognised place in English literature, as well as many others which have obtained a permanent value by being enshrined in the catalogues of hundreds of public and other libraries. In course of time many of these books are worn out, and it becomes necessary to replace them with new copies. It is then the discovery is made that fresh copies cannot be obtained, and the librarian is filled with dismay on receiving a long list of books from his bookseller marked with the ominous sign “O/P.” Time after time this experience is repeated, till the librarian begins to wonder if any of his catalogue entries of certain authors will stand good. A temporary relief is sometimes obtained by advertising for second‐hand copies, but even these are becoming more difficult to procure, and in the case of novelists like G. P. R. James, James Grant, and Harrison Ainsworth, only three volume editions are reported. It is, therefore, quite evident that the time has arrived for some combined effort to be made by the librarians of the country, if their shelves are to be kept in agreement with their catalogues.
Dafna Merom and Robert Korycinski
The mid-1990s marked a paradigm shift in the way physical activity is promoted, and walking is now considered the most suitable type of physical activity for widespread promotion…
Abstract
The mid-1990s marked a paradigm shift in the way physical activity is promoted, and walking is now considered the most suitable type of physical activity for widespread promotion. Accurate measurement underpins public health practice, hence the aims of this chapter are to: (1) provide a typology for the measurement of walking; (2) review methods to assess walking; (3) present challenges in defining walking measures; (4) identify issues in selecting instruments for the evaluation of walking and (5) discuss current efforts to overcome measurement challenges and methodological limitations. The taxonomy of walking indicates that secondary purpose walking is a more complex set of behaviours than primary purpose walks. It has many purposes and no specific domain or intensity, may lack regularity, and therefore poses greater measurement challenges. Objective measurement methods, such as accelerometers, pedometers, smartphones and other electronic devices, have shown good approximation for walking energy expenditure, but are indirect methods of walking assessment. Global Positioning System technology, the ‘Smartmat’ and radio-frequency identification tags are potential objective methods that can distinguish walkers, but also require complex analysis, are costly, and still need their measurement properties corroborated. Subjective direct methods, such as questionnaires, diaries and direct observation, provide the richest information on walking, especially short-term diaries, such as trip records and time use records, and are particularly useful for assessing secondary purpose walking. A unifying measure for health research, surveillance and health promotion would strongly advance the understanding of the impact of walking on health.
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Sheen Instruments last week held a very successful two‐day agents sales conference in Portsmouth, which was attended by their distributors from all over the world. The conference…
Abstract
Sheen Instruments last week held a very successful two‐day agents sales conference in Portsmouth, which was attended by their distributors from all over the world. The conference also marked the official launch of the new Sheen Automatic Panel Sprayer to agents and specially invited U.K. customers.
Concept maps are popularly used within academic development spaces, especially to teach new concepts at beginner levels for undergraduate students. Their popularity is partly…
Abstract
Concept maps are popularly used within academic development spaces, especially to teach new concepts at beginner levels for undergraduate students. Their popularity is partly based on the fact that they employ visual tools such as charts, diagrams, pictures, tables, etc., to simplify concepts that students would otherwise consider dense. This paper reports on the findings of an extended orientation project conducted between February and June of 2022 with a small cohort of 15 first-year students registered in an entrepreneurship course at a vocational higher education institution in South Africa. The research question guiding this study is: How can concept maps inspire entrepreneurial thinking for first-year ECP students at a vocational institution in South Africa? Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), I analysed the two iterations of the students' concept maps together with selected data from the focus group interviews. Key findings reported include the students' fuzzy knowledge of what entrepreneurship as a discipline entails, the planned career trajectories for most of the participating students, as well as indecisiveness as to whether the students will be pursuing entrepreneurship after graduation. In the language of CHAT, the above findings are described as presenting tensions between the subject, tool and object. This layer of analysis calls for an urgent re-think of how the students are recruited and orientated into the programme and how the curriculum is delivered at the first-year level.
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In an age of educational reform which incentivises increased digitisation and standardisation, teachers are expected to embrace the rise of ‘new’ tools and pedagogies with limited…
Abstract
In an age of educational reform which incentivises increased digitisation and standardisation, teachers are expected to embrace the rise of ‘new’ tools and pedagogies with limited agency to inform, question or direct what ‘newness’ must be brought into their classrooms. Drawing on my research with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educators in South Africa and using an ‘excessive entitlement’ lens, I showcase how teachers' lack of agency can result in ‘defensive’ and ‘coercive’ practices in the classroom which are a far cry from the education transformation imagined according to either global and local imaginaries for teaching and learning. If we are interested in an educational revolution, I argue that a fundamental reorientation in education recognising teachers' agency in informing change is necessary. To do so requires theoretically driven intervention methodologies which view the competing demands placed on teachers as entry points to developing their agency and volition to find practices which work for them and their students in the classroom. To that end, I illustrate how Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) informed interventions like Change Laboratories could aid in this fundamental repositioning for teachers regarding transformational efforts and their far-reaching potential for educational revolution becoming conscious of and overcoming their feelings of excessive entitlement.
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Tribalism is at the forefront of public discussion across the political spectrum in America today. Zombie stories have also risen to unprecedented popularity. Amid present-day…
Abstract
Tribalism is at the forefront of public discussion across the political spectrum in America today. Zombie stories have also risen to unprecedented popularity. Amid present-day racial, political, and otherwise tribal tensions, the story I Am Legend has particular resonance. As the original inspiration behind the modern zombie trope, it was published as a novella in 1954 and has been remade as a film multiple times, in 1964, 1971, and 2007. Using grounded theory, I explore each film regarding what moral attitudes are portrayed concerning confrontation between rival milieus. My findings center on four themes: identification, compassion, ambivalence, and condemnation. Overall, in chronological order, the different renditions of the story exhibit decreasing compassion for the other and decreasing ambivalence about relations with the other. The most dramatic change is between the 1971 and 2007 remakes. Implications for what the changes in the morals presented in the story might reflect in terms of social changes in America are discussed.